DS9: Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges

"I'll spare you the Ends Justify the Means speech if you spare me the We Must Do the Right Thing speech."
-Sloane

(I did a longer version of this, and then Blogger kindly lost it. Sorry.)

Section 31 is an organization that exists in Starfleet without any oversight. They recruited Bashir last year, sort of, and now they're back to actually send him on a mission. With the war apparently winding down (this is the last standalone episode before the 10-part arc that wraps up the series), Section 31 is interested in making sure that the Romulans, the only other power that will be a threat to the Federation after the war, have a Federation mole in their upper echelons. Bashir is "recruited" to help make this happen, as is Starfleet's Admiral Ross, Sisko's immediate superior and basically his stand-in for this episode, since the tirade Bashir launches against Ross could just have easily been launched against Sisko for what he did back in "In the Pale Moonlight."

Bashir is duped into thinking that Koval, the guy in charge of Romulan Intelligence, is Section 31's target. Ross gets him to think that Sloane has a Romulan accomplice, causing Bashir to get Cretak (DS9's Romulan attache) to try to steal some files from Romulan Intelligence so they can see if anyone's suspected of being a Starfleet agent. Unfortunately, she gets caught and kicked out of the Senate. Bashir realizes that Ross had a role in everything, and confronts him. Off the record, Ross admits that the plan was to discredit Cretak, who will do whatever is in Romulus's best interest, including side with the Dominion, and promote Koval, who is actually a Federation mole. Ross says that he doesn't like the deal, but he likes sending young men and women to their deaths even less. Bashir responds by saying that Ross has betrayed the very principles those men and women have died to protect - see what I mean when I say this could have been a Bashir/Sisko confrontation instead of a Bashir/Ross one? Bashir's always been the wide-eyed idealist, and Sisko's been pretty Machiavellian; they really should have gotten one good confrontation in this season, and this is the best candidate.

Sloane appears again and says that it's his job to protect idealists like Bashir from the big bad Universe that doesn't share his opinion of right and wrong. Clearly this concept - the dichotomy between the "we must do the right thing" or "we must deserve to survive" crowd and the "the ends justify the means" or "throw that thing out the airlock" crowed - fascinated the episode's author, Ronald D. Moore; after all, he later spent four years on the same subject.

Near the end of the episode, Bashir gets hauled before a trial that turns out to be for Cretak. This could - and should - have been the episode's framing device; we would learn how events got to this point along with the Romulans being duped by Koval and Sloane. Other than the fact that Sisko should have had Ross's role, this is my only real suggestion for improvement with this episode.

9 out of 10.