28 Years Ago, Star Trek’s Future Was Changed Forever in 2 Weeks

Over the course of two weeks in April 1998, Star Trek was changed forever. During Star Trek’s 60 years, there have been definitive episodes and movies that had a massive impact on the franchise, but two episodes of Deep Space Nine, airing back to back and covering similar thematic grounds, sent Trek on a new trajectory.

“Inquistion,” the 18th episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s sixth season, helped inaugurate a dark and new direction with the introduction of Section 31, a branch of Starfleet equivalent to the American CIA.

The following week, “In the Pale Moonlight” aired. Much like "Inquisition," it was a twisty and uncompromising view of morality in times of war.

Star Trek Has Always Had a High View of Humanity, Thanks to Its Creator Gene Roddenberry

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Challenged Roddenberry's Vision of Humans

Since its inception in 1966, Star Trek has attempted to hold to creator Gene Roddenberry’s humanist views. Roddenberry reasoned that, by the 23rd and 24th centuries, humanity had solved many of its social ills, such as crime, poverty and racism. This optimistic view, which runs counter to a good portion of the science fiction genre, has made Star Trek a hit.

Roddenberry also had particular views on how Starfleet officers would behave. He envisioned Starfleet as a noble organization, a paragon of virtue and humility. While The Original Series featured plenty of rogue Starfleet and Federation personnel, Roddenberry stuck to his humanistic guns. In fact, Wesley Crusher, in a moment of naïveté, declared, “Starfleet doesn’t lie.”

Then Star Trek: Deep Space Nine arrived, and the franchise began exploring the darker parts of life in the 24th century. Not everyone on Deep Space Nine was Starfleet, leading to conflicts with the organization. The Maquis storyline, developed concurrently with The Next Generation, began questioning the Federation’s moral authority, showing they too made bad decisions.

Star Trek Went In New Directions Thanks to Deep Space Nine

"Inquisition" and "In the Pale Moonlight" Were Dark and Unforgiving

“Inquisition,” as noted earlier, was the first appearance of Section 31, whose existence showed a new side of Starfleet and the Federation. Section 31 quietly took care of threats to the Federation, threats that no one knew about. They carried out their work “off the books” by any means necessary and answered to no one but themselves.

If Section 31 had belonged to any other galactic power, Star Trek would have depicted it as evil, and something to be shunned. However, what gives "Inquisition" its power is that Section 31 is sanctioned by the Federation and Starfleet. While Starfleet’s official position is that Section 31 does not exist, it actually just looks the other way.

Fans left reeling over the revelation of Section 31’s existence barely had time to catch their breath before “In the Pale Moonlight” dropped a week later. The episode saw Captain Sisko join forces with the Cardassian tailor/former spy Garak to create a plan to draw the Romulans into the Dominion War, which was not going well for the Federation and the Klingons.

“In the Pale Moonlight” kept Star Trek fans on the edge of their seats as Sisko fought two battles: one, to keep his and Garak’s plan on course, and fool the Romulans. The other was an intense personal struggle, as he tried to reconcile his lofty Starfleet ideals with the concerns of life during wartime.

These Two Episodes Changed Star Trek Forever

Later Star Trek Shows Have Embraced This New Direction

These two episodes helped chart a new narrative course for Star Trek. While the franchise had taken a more sophisticated look at its ideals already during Deep Space Nine’s run, "Inquisition" and “In the Pale Moonlight” pushed these interrogations in a new and challenging direction, one that later Star Trek shows have seized upon.

After Deep Space Nine went off the air, Section 31 would go on to become a key part of the franchise’s lore. Several classic Original Series and The Next Generation episodes have been retconned, revealing Section 31 had a hand in those episodes' events. Section 31 might be Deep Space Nine’s biggest contribution to Trek lore.

“In the Pale Moonlight” would grow in stature as well, and is now considered one of the franchise’s finest hours, ranking alongside other classics such as “The Best of Both Worlds.” Not only is the writing superb, but the action is top-notch as well. Captain Sisko’s monologue from the end of the episode is one of the franchise’s most quoted speeches.

Later Star Trek shows, such as Discovery, Picard and even Lower Decks, have drawn on the innovations introduced in “Inquisition” and “In the Pale Moonlight.” Section 31 even rated their own movie. These two episodes showed a darker side of the franchise, one that has provided some of its most compelling stories.