10 Most Chilling Star Trek Moments
8. Delete That Entire Log Entry
There is no list or discussion around chilling moments of Star Trek that would be complete without including In The Pale Moonlight. While there are myriad examples from this episode alone, it is the closing speech from Sisko that is the true kicker. One needs only to have a basic understanding of what Starfleet stands for to understand why this scene hits so hard.
Sisko is a Starfleet captain. He is a member of the Federation. Generally, both of these descriptions are proof enough for a person's good nature, yet here he is, hero of the show, openly admitting to lying, cheating, covering the crimes of others, and most damningly, being an accessory to murder.
Pushing it even further, the episode chooses to break all conventions and have Avery Brooks address the camera directly, as though speaking through the fourth wall and to the audience itself. Sisko admits that he can live with the burden of these sins, despite the personal cost. He pauses a beat, then instructs the computer to delete the entire recording, thus leaving him, and Garak, as the only two men who truly understood how far their actions had gone.
It was one of the most shocking, bleak endings to an episode - reverberating through the franchise over twenty years later.