Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S6 Ep. 18-Inquisition

• Directed by Michael Dorn
• Written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle
• Based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
• April 6, 1998
• Syndication

Series Cast

• Captain Benjamin Sisko-Avery Brooks
• Jake Sisko-Cirroc Lofton
• Constable Odo-Rene Auberjonois
• Lt. Cmdr. Worf-Michael Dorn
• Lt. Cmdr. Jadzia Dax-Terry Farrell
• Chief Miles O’Brien-Colm Meaney
• Quark-Armin Shimerman
• Doctor Julian Bashir-Alexander Siddig
• Major Kira Nerys-Nana Visitor

Guest Cast

• Luther Sloan-William Sadler
• Weyoun-Jeffrey Combs
• Chandler-Samantha Mudd
• Kagan-Benjamin Brown

Before leaving for a medical conference, Dr. Bashir is accused of being a spy for the Dominion by a member of Starfleet Internal Affairs.

Inquisition is the 18^th episode of the 6^th Season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and was the first episode in all of Star Trek to introduce the clandestine Starfleet intelligence agency known as Section 31. It’s a story built around paranoia, manipulation, and false accusations where nothing is quite as it seems shortly after the start. It hints at terrible people doing terrible things so the rest of the public can live in peace and blissful ignorance.

There are little bits here and there that if you know the finale then you know what they mean. If you’re a first time viewer those casual things mean almost nothing. A well written and well directed episode, the truth is never obvious. Bashir’s (Alexander Siddig) exhaustion. Equipment not working. O’Brien’s (Colm Meaney) injury. All mean something or will mean something but what is not in your face. It was rare for those small character bits to be more than efforts to make the cast more rounded.

Section 31 was the dark version of Starfleet. They wanted peace, but unlike Starfleet were not constricted by high ideals or morality. At best they could be described as amoral. DS9 often put the characters into morally gray situations to test how they would or could adhere to the ideals. How does one maintain integrity when the organization they are a part of has a hidden dark side?

Julian spends much of his time suspicious of what’s going on but believing it is a reality. There’s a sense of something being off in this whole episode. Character reactions are not quite what you would expect but not so far out of the realm of possibility that things standout. Sisko’s (Avery Brooks) is possibly the most questionable but can be explained away as him being a Starfleet officer and needing to entertain the idea because of his position.

Inquisition is a bit of a bottle episode relying on existing sets and minimal guest cast. The story is largely carried by William Sadler as the mysterious Luther Sloan and Alexander Siddig as Doctor Julian Bashir. Sadler’s character moved between sinister and personable. He was both good AND bad cop. You could almost like the guy. Even at the end when you learn this was all a holodeck program designed as a test to recruit Bashir as a Section 31 agent he is not irredeemably evil!

Star Trek could excel at creating bad guys that didn’t view themselves as bad. All the best villains don’t think they are evil but think they are doing the right thing. Some can even be dark reflections of the hero. Sloan is ultimately not evil. Maybe misguided but not evil. He views what he does for Section 31 as the right thing to do. That’s what makes him a compelling character and in part Inquisition a compelling episode.

Bashir and Sloan both want the same thing-the safety of Federation citizens and the security of the Federation. Both have wildly different ways to go about it though. This examines both ways and certainly comes down on the side of one. At under an hour worth of total story it’s difficult to go into depth in a single episode but writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle along with the cast did an admirable job at least introducing the concepts.

One thing that jumped out at me was there were not many special effects shots in this. Other than the expected external shots occasionally of DS9 but not much else. The show focused on the acting and the story. Star Trek is not about cool visuals but meaty narratives.

What really sells this episode is the ending. It’s not unique among Star Trek. Rather than having defeated Section 31 or exposed it and Starfleet giving the characters a pat on the back in some fashion or acknowledge that it’s being taken care of, Sisko‘s statement when digging into Sloan and Section 31 of Starfleet saying that they’ll get back to them means that at least the right people in Starfleet know the organization exists even if the rest of Starfleet doesn’t. Worse they’re okay with it. 

Inquisition is an episode that showed Star Trek could get dark and complex without losing what made it Star Trek. It focused on the character of Bashir and how he stood up for his ideals. A complex episode in a complex series.