Which Moore-penned “Star Trek” episode most reveals his love for “The Conscience of the King”? I would say it is “In The Pale Moonlight” from “Deep Area 9.” (Moore did uncredited rewrites for the late Peter Allan Fields.) The episodes forces Captain Ben Sisko (Avery Books), who’ve we known as one of the best “Trek” captain, to face a dilemma outstripping even Kirk’s.
“In The Pale Moonlight” is about knee-deep within the Dominion Conflict, and the Federation is shedding. So Sisko, conspiring with the previous spy and present tailor Garak (Andrew Robinson), works to convey the Romulans into the battle underneath false pretenses. Some bribery, forgery, and ultimately just a few murders later, it really works, however Sisko is left to surprise if his conscience was too excessive a worth to save lots of the world.
The episode makes use of a framing gadget the place Sisko is recording an information log in regards to the episode’s occasions. Dramatically, it capabilities as a Shakespearean soliloquy (a personality monologuing and asking inquiries to themself, and by extension the viewers). Take this “Macbeth” passage the place our lead tempers compulsion to homicide King Duncan and declare his throne:
“Is that this a dagger which I see earlier than me, the deal with towards my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I’ve thee not, and but I see thee nonetheless. Artwork thou not, deadly imaginative and prescient, wise to feeling as to sight? Or artwork thou however a dagger of the thoughts, a false creation, continuing from the heat-oppressed mind?”
Brooks, a stage actor at the start, feels at residence in these moments, particularly the ending. In a very theatrical second, Sisko stares straight forward and decides “I can stay with it” — as a result of he’ll must. Kirk was wrestling with easy methods to act, whereas Sisko needed to settle for what he’d already finished.
I do not know if Peter Allan Fields shared Moore’s love for “The Conscience of the King,” however one in all his earlier episodes suggests he would possibly’ve. Season 1’s “Duet” focuses on Main Kira Nerys (Nana Customer). Kira is a Bajoran, a individuals who endured a brutal occupation by the neighboring Cardassians, and Kira was lively in insurgent cells throughout this occupation.
“Duet” encompasses a Cardassian named Maritza (Harris Yulin) arriving on Deep Area 9. Kira suspects that he’s really the battle prison Gul Darhe’el, who ran the Gallitep focus camp in the course of the Cardassian occupation and oversaw numerous atrocities. Each “Duet” and “The Conscience of the King” are mysteries the place the lead should confront a horrible a part of their previous and are available head to head with, presumably, the person accountable. Whereas Kirk is not sure of easy methods to act or what to consider, Kira needs Maritza to be the monster she thinks he’s; the Cardassians should be punished and he’ll do in addition to the subsequent.
It is episodes like these, the place the characters wrestle with sophisticated issues and the actors enjoying them may give it their all, which present why “Star Trek” attracts writers of Ron Moore’s caliber.