UPN/Warner Bros./WB flagship classic of the max. Airing in syndication (and in NY, it aired on WWOR), and coming a few episodes before the finale, the episode revolves around Luther Sloan (couldn't have chosen a more Allied Nordicist Yankee "Friends"-watching "Seinfeld"-hating name, and believe me Sloan comes off borderline like that, but he really isn't a bad guy, much like Samuel Gerard in "The Fugitive" - he's a somewhat blunt pragmatist, but he's never mean, and he speaks nothing but the truth, for the most part about the Romulans).
This show did a great job showing the conflict between the Federation and other races. Some could be called Allies (like the Cardassians), but it's more in the arrogant Allied Powers sense of the world (Denmark, the US, Russia, were Nordicists, not the Reich, and were Allied). So yes they're allies, but arrogant ones. It's not contradictary. Anyways, as for the 1987 - 2001 era shows it flip flops. Sometmies they're allies, sometimes they're not. But they're more advanced than the major 3. But the motivations of the Cardassians were believable. And they got a proper 3-dimenisonal portrayal. Most were arrogant, but they were believable. This episode manages to do some of that for the Romulans, redeeming itself after neglecting such a good villain and nemesis. The episode starts with Bashir waking up in the middle of the night to get some water or use the bathroom (forgot which one). Out of the blue comes from Sloan (played by the brillian William Sadler, a man with a voice not unlike the creepy rated R bumper HBO guy from 1994 - 2006, although Sadler's a nice guy) who tells Bashir that he's been chosen for a new assignment.
The assignment is to go to Romulus along with Sloan on USS Bellerophon (for the filming it was brilliant they used recycled footage from "Voyager"). Upon there, Bashir meets Cretak, a Romulan Senate member who is somewhat appreciative of the union. We see some great dialogue between her, Bashir, Ross and Sloan, and Sloan even recites poetry. But it's dirty business after that, as Sloan briefs him on Koval (but there's a dangerous twist). Koval is sort of a victim of a nasty setup (I won't give it away). Koval is said to have a very deadly disease, and Sloan almost tries to implant it in him. Koval is said to be a bad guy, and wants nothing to do with the Federation alliance. Interestingly, the show agrees with me on Cardassians being more advanced. Sloan lays out what he expects will happen when the Dominion are defeated (and by the time this episode aired that became more possible, as the anti-Dominion coup was to happen on Cardassian). Cardassian has to rebuild, he says, so do the Klingons, and the Romulans are the only ones left in the power vacuum to cause, and he says the alliance is a ruse. An interesting thing happens as Bashir tries to convince Cretak to help him. Bashir then is kidnapped by the Tal Shiar. What will happen next? See it for yourself. A great episode plus the beautiful shots of Romulus (I think Garak is arrogant and racist; he hates Romulans and says Cardassia is more beautiful, but then again he uses people, and he's never portrayed as an ally of the Federation either).
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