Capt. Jonathan: Stardate: [This Stardate has been found a traitor, and is therefore no longer available.] On a bit of a TREK legal trip lately, we decided to see how DS9 handled justice, after having witnessed the great TNG episode “The Measure of a Man.” “Inquisition” is, needless to say, a different approach to justice. No defense counsel. No judge. Just Sloan.

Sloan, a Section 31 operative (read: those guys who probably descended from the people who run Gitmo), worries that Julian Bashir is a Dominion spy after he spends five weeks in one of their prison camps, and successfully escapes. Did he have help? Well. Apparently no. He just, really, like, escaped. It takes an episode for Starfleet – via Sloan – to buy into that, though. Bashir is (it turns out) beamed into a holo-program where he lives the Kafka-esque nightmare of being deemed guilty by the Entire Freakin’ World only to see if he can hold his own.

Capt. Tracy: So this episode’s title gives you the heads up that the legal system won’t be represented in the most generous of lights, and sure enough, the journey of Jules “Waltz with” Bashir reminded me of some of the greatest hits of egregious miscarriages of justice, both fictional and non.

The Internal Affairs officer, aka Heywood from Shawshank Redemption, puts Jules in an impossible situation.

He is either a) a Dominion spy or b) a Dominion spy who doesn’t realize that he’s a Dominion spy because they brainwashed him. That’s some catch, that Catch-22. It’s such a powerful, and airtight, bit of psyops that even Shakespearean Sisko can’t articulate a way out of it. Being imprisoned for a crime that you didn’t commit and can’t defend yourself for also calls to mind Kafka–although Jules knows what he’s being accused of, and knows who’s doing the accusing . . . or does he?

Capt. Jonathan: But you know, Sloan is also kind of the Ultimate Internet Troll. I mean, he basically scrutinizes every Bashir-centered episode DS9 has the way, well, your typical message board would.

But of course Sloan exists in the TREKiverse, which means he can actually wreak havoc on these characters’ lives.

Capt. Tracy: As is revealed later in the episode, the entire inquisition has all taken place on the holodeck. This little twist is a remarkable literalization of the procedures by which false confessions are produced. You isolate a suspect, and then create a reality from which that suspect cannot escape (except through confessing).

This technique is usually used on the vulnerable and marginalized (see the Paradise Lost trilogy and West of Memphis, documentaries that expose the quasi-legal tactics used by the kangaroo court that convicted the West Memphis 3), and Jules, though he is relatively privileged, fits into this category. His genetic engineering, and lying about same, marks him as different and a target. It’s like anti-Gattaca on DS9.

Capt. Jonathan: It’s almost as if TOS and TNG were presenting a World War II version of warfare. Or at least textbook World War II. In textbooks, more often then not it seems, World War II is presented as relatively black-and-white. There were the Nazis, they were clearly bad, and there were the Allies, and they were clearly good. Is it actually as simple as that?

But that’s the version we get. By DS9, we’re clearly in ‘Nam. Or, if not ‘Nam, the Gulf War. Something where the wins and losses are a little less clear. Something where desperation starts to trump optimism. Something a bit more tragically modern. And to acknowledge that a symptom of modern warfare is the Sloans of the world (including the fact that the Sloans of the world date quite far back, as they do in this episode) is, to say the least, alarming.

Capt. Tracy: “Inquisition” concludes with a reveal that is prescient in its representation of black sites and extraordinary rendition. As Captain Jonathan confirmed, DS9 is the only Star Trek iteration that chronicles a Federation in a protracted war, and this episode reveals the ethical compromises that, ahem, some institutions are willing to make in such circumstances. Good thing Ronald D. Moore didn’t make any more series like that!

Heywood reveals to Jules that he is in fact an agent of a shadowy Federation intelligence military/judicial force that can capture, interrogate, and execute citizens on its own recognizance. Holy. Shit.

And now, a little Q&A:

Capt. Jonathan: Q: What do you and your partner enjoy doing for fun?

A: I like to convince her that she’s a fucking spy, and then watch her squirm? And then transport her to Russia, where the Russians will try to convince her that she’s a spy, too. And then realize that this whole thing has gone way too far really fast and that I have no idea how to get her back. And then cry.

Capt. Tracy: Q: How do you psychologically manipulate your partner into admitting that it’s his/her turn to do the dishes?

A: I’m not saying, but it involves Sisko, Miles O’Brien, and a kayak.