This is a decent - though talky - episode that crashes and burns at the very end.
Plot Synopsis:
Memory Alpha has the synopsis here.
The Skinny:
Up until the last few minutes, I actually find this episode relatively engrossing, as my mind immediately draws parallels to Israel's predicament. For decades now, Israel has been fighting (and losing, unfortunately) a full-scale propaganda war -- a war in which the Palestinians and their media allies have been publicizing casualty statistics without context and even inventing "massacres" from whole cloth. Given this real-world analog, it seems eminently plausible to me that the Klingon Empire would attempt to set Worf up in order to shame the Federation in the court of public opinion.
But then I am thrown completely out of the story when Sisko says this:
You made a military decision to protect your ship and crew, but you're a Starfleet officer, Worf. We don't put civilians at risk or even potentially at risk to save ourselves.
STOP. RIGHT. THERE. If memory serves me, the Defiant wasn't alone. It was the sole military escort for a humanitarian convoy. To put it simply, Worf was essentially defending the Red Cross. It would've been grossly irresponsible to hesitate for fear of shooting civilians; if the ship de-cloaking in front of Worf were in fact the attacking Bird of Prey and the Defiant had been damaged or destroyed by a Klingon volley, the aforementioned humanitarian convoy would've been left completely defenseless. Worf wasn't simply protecting his ship and crew; he was protecting that convoy and, indirectly, the Cardassians in the Pentath system who needed those medical supplies. He was absolutely right to act quickly; Sisko should not have raked him over the coals.
The problem with Sisko's blanket declaration regarding the protection of civilians is this: a single battle rarely occurs in isolation. It may sound noble in the abstract for soldiers to immolate themselves for the sake of protecting the civilian population, but in the real world, battles are smaller engagements in larger wars in which the futures of entire societies - civilians included - have been threatened. Should we do everything in our power to minimize civilian casualties? Of course. But if a military, as a matter of policy, decides to avoid even the potential of civilian bloodshed, it will lose -- and the society that military is charged to defend will likely be subjugated. That is a hard, terrible fact of war that pie-in-the-sky pronouncements will never change.
Writing: 7.5
This script is definitely a "navel-gazer," but it doesn't bore me. Hence the solid score.
Acting: 7.5
The acting isn't bad either. Avery Brooks chews the scenery quite a bit while presenting the evidence that ultimately exonerates Worf, but that's the only moment that really grates.
Message: 5.0
Rules of Engagement acknowledges that our enemies are not above using deception to score sympathy points, and that fact keeps this episode out of the failing range. However, on the matter of "collateral damage," the writers set a standard for right conduct that is foolishly high. Thus, when all is said and done, the message gets a D.
Well said regarding Sisko's liberal chest-thumping...everything I've seen from this episode led me to believe that I would have acted very much as Worf did...right down to feeling horribly guilty when I was forced to destroy a ship before I got its' ID. What is he to do? The convoy included thousands of innocent people, very needed medical supplies, and fifty shipmates on the Defiant...that's a lot of lives to defend!
ReplyDeleteI would also agree that the script was not...boring...though I do think it was a little on the slow side. But even with a proper message, the episode's potential value would have been capped below the B range for me because of the plot construction.