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r/startrek: The Next Generation
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Upcoming Episodes
| Date | Episode | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 11-21 | LD 5x06 | "Of Gods and Angles" |
| 11-28 | LD 5x07 | "Fully Dilated" |
| 12-05 | LD 5x08 | "Upper Decks" |
| 12-12 | LD 5x09 | "Fissue Quest" |
| 12-19 | LD 5x10 | "The New Next Generation" |
In Production
Strange New Worlds (2025)
Section 31 (2025-01-24)
Starfleet Academy (TBA)
In Development
Untitled comedy series
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I always took that explanation as the thinnest of lie meant to give an air of legitimacy. Given the methods used to control Bashir, they seemed to clearly be working not just to hide their operational details, but their existence from the legitimate chain of command.
I think a lot of people did, but the episode doesn't really make the case that it's a lie - in fact, Sloan is protected at the highest levels of Starfleet Command, which supports the idea that Sloan was being completely truthful when he was trying to recruit Bashir. It's a legitimate reading of the episode, at any rate.
Is he protected, or was he using Starfleet personnel for his own ends? I don't recall that it ever explicitly shows them officially working together. With Inter Arnim Selim Legis, the Admiral is working with Sloan, not for him or commanding him. A relationship of convenience, not an official one. Similar to when they're looking for the cure for Odo, it's not specific people working directly for Section 31, just people who are either working with them out of convenience... or being manipulated similar to Bashir and the Admiral whose name I can't remember from the aforementioned episode.
That doesn't speak to an official relationship, just the manipulative one of a parasitic organism pretending to be a mutualistic one.
When the top brass of Starfleet are covering your ass, you're an official agent, whether you're "on the books" or not.
I mean, if you want to turn a grey issue into something completely black and white, sure.
If you want to assume that because you got some dirt on your shoes, you should just throw them out. Even if you just had to step out of the way of a runaway car.
We literally know nothing about the relationship between Section 31 and Starfleet from that exchange other than that one is letting the other get away with shit. That absolutely speaks to a level of corruption and probably desperation (based on everything else going on in the quadrant at the time), but it doesn't speak to a level of involvement of one with the other.
It's the same as Paradise Lost... does one admiral and their staff attempting a literal coup. Does that mean Starfleet as a whole is condoning that coup? Should we just throw the whole thing out because of that incident?
Sure, if you think any measure of corruption means that it's not worth supporting something anymore.
All I'm doing is accurately describing the way the organization was depicted on DS9.