‘INQUISITION’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This episode happens to be Michael Dorn’s second contribution as a director to the ‘DS9’ series. The first one was ‘In the Cards’ for Season 5. I enjoyed this episode as it was really tense featuring Bashir.
Bashir is about to go to a medical conference on a leisure planet somewhere. But the following day, DS9 gets visited by William Sadler as Luther Sloan, who is this agent from Starfleet Internal Affairs. 😐
Sloan suspects that one of the DS9 senior staff is a Dominion spy. He confines them to quarters and tells them to await interrogation. Incidentally, this entire episode is told from Bashir’s point of view.
When Bashir has his interview, Sloan seems to treat him rather cordially. He also asks him a few light questions which concern ‘In Purgatory’s Shadow’/’By Inferno’s Light’ and ‘Statistical Probabilities’. 😐
After his interview, Bashir returns to his quarters and has a plate of Klingon gagh instead of scones – his and Worf’s breakfasts got mixed up. 😀 He also receives a call from O’Brien who is pretty worried.
Apparently, O’Brien’s interview with Sloan lasted for hours and was entirely focused on Bashir. Bashir is curious about what’s going on before he is returned back to Sloan who’s become hostile. 😐
Sloan points out that the events involving Bashir’s past indicate disloyalty and dishonesty to the Federation. He suspects that when Bashir was imprisoned by the Dominion, he became their spy! 😮
Bashir refuses to hear Sloan’s theories about having suppressed memories of this. Sloan isn’t willing to take any chances as he has Bashir imprisoned in a holding cell which isn’t guarded by Odo at all. 😐
Odo is still confined to quarters like everyone else. Sisko does all he can to protect Bashir’s rights in the next interrogation he has with Sloan. Sisko points out holes in Sloan’s arguments towards Bashir.
But Sloan is clever pointing out the fact that Sisko refused Bashir’s suggestion of surrendering to the Dominion during ‘Statistical Probabilities’. Soon, Sisko starts to think Sloan’s theories are plausible. 😦
The next day, rather early, Bashir is about to be taken away to a starbase by Sloan and his crew. This is before Bashir is suddenly beamed out of DS9 to a Dominion ship, led by Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun.
Weyoun greets Bashir warmly, telling him he made a moral choice to help the Dominion to end the war quickly. Bashir is still in denial, but wonders why Weyoun and Sloan are convincing him he’s a spy.
Bashir begins to suspect that Sloan is a Dominion spy himself and a traitor to the Federation. This is before the Dominion ship gets attacked by Sisko and the Defiant and Bashir is rescued by DS9’s crew.
When he’s on the Defiant’s bridge however, the entire crew, including Sisko, uncharacteristically refuse to listen to what Bashir has to say. They refuse to believe that Bashr is innocent in all of this. 🙂
Desperate, Bashir grabs O’Brien who pulls his arm away. This is when Bashir begins to suspect that something is not right since O’Brien’s shoulder seems to have healed itself from a kayaking incident.
Bashir tricks O’Brien to reveal the cause of the injury. Saying that it was caused by playing springball, O’Brien goes along with it. When Bashir says the real cause for it, he soon knows none of this is real.
Thus the illusion is gone as Bashir has been in a holodeck simulation, created by Sloan and his group. Everything that happened with the interrogations and accusations on DS9 did not happen at all here.
Bashir learns from Sloan that his loyalty was being tested. Sloan is a member of Section 31, a secretive autonomous intelligence agency for Starfleet. Bashir questions the legality and ethics of it.
Sloan justifies Section 31’s actions and very soon attempts to recruit Bashir into the unit. Bashir refuses, threatening to expose them. Bashir’s soon knocked out before he’s returned back to DS9. 😐
On DS9, Bashir shares what he knows of Sloan and Section 31 to Sisko, Kira and Odo. Sisko predicts that Sloan will try to recruit Bashir again and orders him to accept to find out more about Section 31.
‘Inquisition’ is a very good introduction to Section 31 and how Bashir becomes involved with meeting Sloan for the first time. The story ends on an open-note as there’s more to look forward to.
‘Inquisition’ (DS9) rating – 9/10
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