Trivia / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 06 E 19 In The Pale Moonlight

• Expansion Pack Past: Vreenak gets an expanded role in the Star Trek Novel 'Verse, along with the first name "Merken". In Star Trek: The Lost Era he helped negotiate the Treaty of Algeron.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The original script was told from Jake Sisko's perspective, with Jake discovering that his father had done something immoral in hopes of turning the tide against the Dominion, creating a rift between them. This idea was ultimately scrapped because the writers felt the Jake/Ben relationship was too strong to realistically break.
  • When the writers decided to have the Dominion conquer a Federation planet, they wanted it to be an established world. They kicked around some ideas before narrowing it down to two choices. Betazed was what made it to screen, but the writers seriously considered Vulcan instead before deciding that would be too serious.
  • A scene had been written in which while Sisko is waiting for Vreenak to verify the rod's authenticity, Dax comes up to him to suggest that they manufacture evidence to show the Romulans, unaware that this is exactly what Sisko is doing. Sisko would then note in his log that he is somewhat comforted that Dax is (unknowingly) approving of his actions. This scene was ultimately removed from the final version of the episode.
• Word of God: Because it would be in character for Garak to simply lie about the initial plan failing, Ron Moore stated in 1998 that Garak really did reach out to his contacts and that they were killed as a result.
  Garak really did have these contacts, they really were killed, but I doubt he considered them to be "friends" and probably didn't consider them worth mentioning in the final scene.
  • However, it's unlikely that if Garak had really burned every contact he had that he wouldn't consider it worth mentioning, and he clearly still has contacts on Cardassia later. The writers' opinions may have changed after this interview, or it may have been only a few unimportant contacts that Garak risked.
• Working Title: The original Jake/Ben script was titled "Patriot".

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