Star Trek’s Most Controversial Episode Turns 25, Writer Looks Back At Landmark Story
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's controversial episode "In the Pale Moonlight" is turning 25.
When Gene Roddenberry first came up with Star Trek: The Original Series, there’s no way he could’ve known that the project would be such a massive success and spawn so much other content. With a decades-old franchise, there have to be at least a few hated pieces of canon and today is the 25th anniversary of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, “In the Pale Moonlight.” Labeled as one of – if not the – most controversial episodes across all bits of Star Trek history, writer Ronald D. Moore says that the story may have never been molded had he not taken one sip too many during a night of boozing.
To refresh your memory, the Star Trek episode in question sees Avery Brooks’ Captain Benjamin Sisko coming to terms with his role in pulling the wool over the Romulans’ eyes to gain their trust and allyship in Starfleet’s war against the Changeling-fronted Dominion. “In the Pale Moonlight” challenges what audiences know about the stalwart Captain but what’s even more mind-blowing is how the episode was filmed.
Perhaps bravely going where no writer has gone before, Moore decided to have Captain Sisko break the fourth wall, staring directly into the camera and addressing the audience as he records his personal log and explains how things got to where they are.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans may also remember that during “In the Pale Moonlight,” Sisko is also wetting his whistle with some libations – paralleling what Moore was doing when he rewrote Michael Taylor’s original script. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the show’s episode, both Moore and Taylor sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to share their side of the unforgettable and argued-over one-of-a-kind episode.
Pulling a bit of real-life history into the world of Star Trek, Taylor says that his initial idea for the episode was to base it off the Zimmerman Telegram – a message that was one of the major catalysts that pulled the United States into the First World War. In his mind, Taylor pondered over the idea of “what if this message was faked to get us into the war?” adding that he formed “In the Pale Moonlight” around this idea with Sisko being the one to send the fake message.
The politics, conniving plans, and breath-holding mission in the episode would be unlike other shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation or even Star Trek: Picard have delivered for audiences with Captain Sisko’s deceitful plan creating an edge-of-your-seat effect. Should he be found out, the Romulans would have likely joined the Dominion which would have spelled the end of Starfleet whereas, with their help, victory was much more possible. Knowing that their crafting of “In the Pale Moonlight” would show a side of a Captain that had never been displayed before, Taylor and Moore took a major chance.
Whether you as a Star Trek fan align on the side of disdain or praise or Deep Space Nine‘s “In the Pale Moonlight,” there’s no arguing that breaking the fourth wall for such a high-stakes episode was a crafty way to tell the tale of Captain Sisko’s dance with morality.
