#in the pale moonlight

[abearinthewoods]

[angelynebeautyqueen]

♡lina.dollyy On Instagram♡

[nerdicorntheshipper]

[n0ahsferatu]

haven’t watched the star treks in five million years but this is what happened in In The Pale Moonlight right

(credit to @/sweepswoop_ on twitter who drew the original Labru meme!)

[mariocki]

[klaipeda-witness]

I'm thinking of making this a whole series where I repaint ds9 scenes but replace what the characters are drinking with monster energy zero ultra? There's no actual joke or point I just think it's funny

[anyanoconeco]

[star-trekster]

Have you ever danced with the devil

In the pale moonlight?

[andromedaexile]

They both reached for the gun phaser!

Inspired by @peachviz

[cherrymotelstarlet]

☆Forever Angels☆

[angelynebeautyqueen]

[freshbaked-bread]

my father used to say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions

[vanillacoladoll]

♡Sweet Like Cinnamon♡

[too-many-eels]

Inktober Day 17: Journal

So… I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all… I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again - I would. Garak was right about one thing: a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant. So I will learn to live with it… Because I can live with it… I can live with it… Computer - erase that entire personal log.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Sisko and Garak’s dynamic is delicious in In the Pale Moonlight, and there are also interesting questions it raises as to Garak and Bashir’s dynamic (personally I headcanon that they’re somewhat estranged at this point, in part because the war and later Section 31 stuff has brought the mystery and intrigue that Garak once represented to Bashir a little too close to home, but it is at least another angle to get at their ideological differences).

But the other piece of this weird little triangle is Sisko and Bashir’s dynamic. Because Bashir is part of the chain of moral compromises that Sisko has to make to see Garak’s scheme through, as Sisko twists his arm to get the biomemetic gel. And Bashir is angry about it! But it’s not followed through on at all - the next time he appears it’s just when he and Jadzia are pleasantly surprised at how few casualties there have been this week.

It’s especially interesting to see that moment of tension between them given that this episode comes not all that long after Statistical Probabilities, another significant ideological break between Sisko and Bashir. And in that case, it’s Bashir arguing for surrender to the Dominion out of a pragmatic motive to prevent loss of life (even if it’s a pragmatism stemming from far-reaching speculation); and Sisko’s rejection is one based in ideals, the notion that it’s better to go down fighting in service of one’s values than to compromise them (something also reflected in his behaviour in Sacrifice of Angels, when he’s ready to go down with the Defiant in the face of a full-scale invasion).

Those ideals are what are challenged in In the Pale Moonlight, when honest fighting and diplomacy aren’t sufficient, and it is necessary to resort to deceit and do collateral damage in order to prevent further loss of life. How exactly that turnaround would affect his dynamic with Bashir - especially given that earlier in the show, Bashir was more of an idealist, and Sisko was the one who had more of an understanding of the costs required to uphold those ideals - is a really rich question. (Especially given what Bashir explicitly brings up - that the releasing the biomemetic gel has the potential to do even more collateral damage than Garak prompts Sisko to accept.)

There’s also another angle to this, which is the fact that the episode comes on the heels of “Inquisition”, i.e. Bashir’s first introduction to shadowy behind-the scenes workings of Starfleet/the Federation. Lots of people have pointed out the foreshadowing of Bashir’s “are we willing to sacrifice our principles in order to survive?” at the end of that episode, but there’s something else as well. Bashir, in response to the request for biomemetic gel, says he’s going to file a complaint with Starfleet Medical - but it’s implied through Sisko and Garak’s conversation that Starfleet would, if not officially sanction, then at least tacitly condone it as a necessary tactic to tip their odds in the conflict. And that kind of situation in which Bashir tries to register a moral protest and it falls on deaf ears with Starfleet plays out more explicitly later in Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges.

Anyway! In the Pale Moonlight is about as perfect an episode as you can get, but the dynamic with Sisko and Bashir is one thread I wish had been followed through on a bit more.

[departmentq]