Rating: I just caught the last 5 minutes of this episode... it is one of the best ever made in any of the Trek series. Sisko having to keep everything on his shoulders makes this one great. I think it earns it's 10/10 rating in the last monologue when he says "I can live with, I can live with it. I can live with it?" We also got the classic "IT'S A FAKKKKE" scene and some heavy involvement from my favorite character, Garek. What's not to love? To save time I'll post the wiki version of this episode for any of you that have lived under a rock and don't know it. Discuss.
This was a good episode, but it just didn't make the impact on me that it seemed to on everyone else. Part of the problem for me was that Sisko seemed totally and completely off-character. Okay, hit me with the flamethrower now. I've got on my million power sunblock.
The one issue I do kind of have with the episode is that I totally believe the end justifies the means. I wouldn't have had Sisko's moral dilema with killing the guy that made the data rod or the Senator. It comes down to a few lives versus billions... and the few lives were lives of what would be considered by most to be "bad guys."
To me it was Sisko unbound, one of the few times we really got to see how cold and Machiavellian he could be, instead of just hinting about it. Added onto the always superb Garak, that pretty much did it for me.
One thing I liked was the Romulan Senator actually detailing why the Federation is losing the war. We were seldom given real underlying reasons for the Federations poor performance. Romulan to Sisko: "The Dominion shipyards are operating at full capacity. Yours are still being rebuilt" "The Dominion is breeding legions of Jem'hadar warriors. You are experiencing a manpower shortage". "And finally, the Dominion is committed to fight this war to the finish. It's no secret that the Federation has been considering a peace offer" Or something along those lines.
One of my favorites, out of a long list of favorites. I think I like "The Visitor" more as a stand alone episode, but of all the war episodes, this one takes the prize. The Romulans joining the war was one of the BIG developments of the ongoing story arc. Really funny how DS9 could have such a turning point in the war without having to use millions of dollars in special effects...like some other shows.
FLAMEZ OMG!!!!! But seriously, I think that's why people love this so much. Sisko makes the hard choice--one that none of the Trek captains, save maybe Archer in season three, have ever done. Perhaps it's not entirely in character, but no one's a robot and no one plays by the rules all the time. He had to choose between the needs of the many versus the needs of the few. Can't say I wouldn't have made the same choice.
I found it odd that Starfleet Command signing off on Sisko's plan didn't seem to make much of a difference, either to me or to Sisko.
Starfleet signing off on Sisko faking the evidence to bring the Romulans into the war, NOT Sisko killing a Romulan senator and making it look like the Dominion did it. If the plan failed, they could probably blame Sisko as being one captain that let the war push him over the edge and felt he had to act alone to stop the war in any way possible. I could see Starfleet hanging him out to dry if Vreenik was able to bring that data rod back to Romulus. Sisko would have been the laughing stock, not Starfleet. At least, that's how Starfleet would have painted it.
But Sisko didn't kill the Romulan, Garak did. And if the various Admirals are as cunning and paranoid as they all seem, they surely must have realized that Sisko or someone near him might have had to kill Vreenak to make it work.
That what I said. There is no way Starfleet would have signed off on the plan if it involved the death of a Romulan senator. Starfleet only signed off on them faking the evidence of the Dominion invading Romulan space. I'm convinced that if Sisko's little "fake" had been brought back to Romulus, Starfleet would have no problem hanging Sisko out to dry on it. (ANd washed their hands of the whole situation.) Luckily, Garak had a suspicion the plan wouldn't work, and already knew the moment Vreenak landed on DS9, he wouldn't be making it back to Romulus.
Right but I think the admiralty were thinking exactly the same way Garak was, and only signed off on the plan because they knew it would either work outright, or through the death of Vreenak. You're probably right that they would have hung Sisko out to try if he was dumb enough to get caught with no one like Garak to help out, but I don't think they expected to have to do that whether or not the plan worked.
