Star Trek: Watergate

[selenak]

The other day I was reminded that one of the unwritten season 7 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes would have been a follow up to season 6’s In the Pale Moonlight, the episode which often (and imo justly) ends up on people’s not just best of DS9, but best of Star Trek lists. Now, according to what I’ve heard, the idea was that Jake, in his capacity as budding journalist, would to his horror uncover what his father (and Garak, and various other people) did to get the Romulans as allies. In the end, TPTB decided not to do the episode because it would have damaged the Ben & Jake relationship, perhaps on a fundamental level, and it being the final season, there would not have been time to rebuild it.

On the one hand, I’m in much sympathy with this argument. The Siskos – both Ben & Jake, and Ben & Joseph – were that rarity in the Star Trek verse (and in US fiction in general), a loving, functional father & son relationship as opposed to the usual daddy issues ridden dysfunctionality. I would not have wanted to destroy this, especially with no time for rebuilding.

On the other hand: it could have been a great story. And it would have been pay-off for Jake’s decision to become a writer and reporter that also tied directly into the main storyline. Also, Sisko’s „I can live with it“ conclusion to In the pale moonlight was depending on no one other than Garak knowing exactly what he’d done. (Quark et all knew some, but not why.) Would he have been able to live with it if the person he loved most in the 'verse would have found out?



Also, I’m curious what the legal follow-up would have been, had the story gone public (as opposed to Jake deciding to hold it back). Say the Romulans don’t withdraw from the war, because the war is too far gone at this point, and the rest of the war plays out pretty much as it did in the actual season in terms of what happens to the Dominion, but Sisko doesn’t conveniently end up with the Prophets. Sisko is guilty of sanctioning/instigating murder and then covering it up. Does he get a pardon because of the reasons he had? Does he end up in that New Zealand penal colony with Bashir’s dad, formerly Tom Paris‘ abode? Do the Romulans demand his extradition, and if so, does the Federation go along with it? DS9 did a pretty mediocre episode where Worf was accused of murder by the Klingons, and of course there’s the ST: VI precedent with Kirk and McCoy, so there is some legal precedent for the idea of extradition. However, in both these cases, the audience knew that our heroes were innocent. Sisko would have been guilty.

Time for some polls, methinks:

Poll #20384 Star Trek: Watergate

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

View Respondents

Should DS9 have done a "Jake finds out" episode?

View Answers

No, it would have destroyed the Jake & Ben relationship
3 (25.0%)

Yes, it would have been a worthy follow up to "In the pale moonlight"
9 (75.0%)

If Jake had found out, he would have...

View Answers

kept it a secret, because of his father and the ongoing Dominion War
2 (15.4%)

published, but only after the Dominion War was over
7 (53.8%)

published during the war, because murder is murder
4 (30.8%)

If the story goes public, Ben Sisko....

View Answers

gets a pardon because of circumstances
9 (69.2%)

gets a prison sentence and is drummed out of Starfleet
2 (15.4%)

gets extradicted to the Romulans
2 (15.4%)

Comments

[lilacsigil]

My "yes, they should have done it" is 100% contingent on them following up on the Jake and Ben relationship afterwards. It would also be interesting to me if Jake did investigate and try to break the story (which I think he would, after trying his best to find exculpatory facts) and Starfleet censored it for the duration of the war.

[selenak]

Oh, I think Starfleet would censor it during the war, or at least try to, though it's arguably harder to do so in in this kind of universe since Jake could, depending how badly he wants to publish, simply use non-Federation alleys. Kai Winn, even this happens before her final crisis, would be only too delighted to go public with the news that the Emissary has lowered himself thusly. Nog would be against publication and Quark in the end knows he's dependent on Sisko's good will so would be against it, too, but Jake knows other Ferengi (who, again, aren't subject to Starfleet authority).

Jake would definitely try find exculpatory facts and try to understand his father's reasoning, but even if, say, Admiral Ross confirms that he told Sisko they need the Romulan alliance "by all means possible" and all the captains in the fleet confirm the war would have been lost without it, it doesn't change the fact that Garak murdered that Romulan and his staff and in a way that was very much premeditated, with the forgeries prepared etc., and that Sisko was at best in a Henry II moral position (i.e. no, he didn't say "kill that Romulan", but as Garak points out later, if you hire him knowing he's an assassin as well as a spy....), so: aiding and abetting murder it is. And the law doesn't state murder is okay if you get direly needed allies in a war through it. If you want to pile on the angst, you could have Jake meet the dead Roman's wife and children for good measure.

[4thofeleven]

I can imagine the Romulans demanding extradition, but actually just wanting to use it as leverage to get extra concessions in the post-war carve-up of Cardassian territory, and being quite disappointed if the Federation actually agrees to extradite...

[selenak]

Ha, I could see that, and a Praetor frustratedly going "don't these Federation types recognize an opening gambit? What do we need Sisko for, we want territory!"

Mind you, given that Sisko did have authorisation for all the individual steps he took in "In the pale moonlight" (hiring Garak, authorizing the forgery, making Bashir release the biogel etc.), an cunning lawyer could easily make this very embarassing indeed for Starfleet, and I'm not sure whether that would make them extradite Sisko even more speedily or on the contrary pardon him and asking him to disappear...

[redfiona99]

Is there a "yes, if they'd done it well" option. I think it might have to have been several episodes rather than just one, because there's no space for Jake to forgive him in one episode, and I think I'd want him to.

[selenak]

True, it would have needed a mini arc to do it properly. Though they might not have done it. I mean, The Reckoning has Jake telling his father that he's absolutely fine with nearly having been sacrificed because the Pagh Wraiths are truly, truly evil, instead of letting him be at the very least shaken about the idea that his father would have gambled his, Jake's life on his belief in the Prophets (hence my Abraham's Son story). The show was really invested in keeping that relationship harmonious at all costs, and I get it why, I do, but - Jake finding out something of this magnitude shouldn't have resulted in him coming around to Dad Meant Well And It Did Save The Quadrant within 40 minutes. (Or twenty, if he'd found out late in the ep.)