10 Best Star Trek Cold Opens
3. Computer, What Date Is It? (In The Pale Moonlight)
There really is no getting around the fact that In The Pale Moonlight really is as good as it's hyped up to be. For an episode that does so much for Star Trek as a whole, though particularly for Deep Space Nine, anyone would be forgiven for thinking its impact would lessen over the years. The opening scene is proof enough to show that this isn't so.
Ben Sisko is talking to the camera. Wait, no, he's talking to the computer, trying to begin his captain's log. He can't remember the date. He asks, then discovers that something only happened two weeks previously. We are shown flashes of him posting casualty lists in the War Room, while the crew discusses the frequency of Dominion incursions via Romulan space.
There it is - the light goes off over Sisko's head. For the first time in Star Trek's history, a Starfleet officer openly admits to warmongering, and using underhanded methods to bring a foreign power into a war that will cost millions of lives.
The rest of the episode doesn't let up, with the final scene being one of the strongest in the show's entire run, but that opening is a true masterpiece.