For the Uniform (episode)

Sisko obsessively pursues Maquis leader Michael Eddington.

Summary
Sisko is in a Maquis colony on Marva IV to meet with an informant that claims to have information about the former Starfleet officer Michael Eddington, now the leader of the Maquis. The captain is met by none other than Eddington, who had already discovered the informant. Eddington transports away, and is pursued by Sisko aboard the USS Defiant (2370). Sisko enlists the help of Captain Sanders and his ship, the USS Malinche, in delaying Eddington until the Defiant can arrive. When it seems that Sisko has got his man, Eddington triggers a cascade virus, disabling all of the Defiant's computer systems, leaving it effectively dead in space. This virus was planted by Eddington before he left Starfleet, further highlighting the depth of his betrayal.

After being towed back to the station by the Malinche, Captain Sanders informs Sisko that Starfleet has ordered Sanders to take over the hunt for Eddington. Sisko is furious about this development, as he took Eddington's betrayal personally.

The crew of DS9 learn of a Maquis raid on two Bolian freighters carrying selenium and rhodium nitrite, two seemingly innocuous materials. However, the Maquis use the chemicals to create cobalt diselenide, a chemical hazardous to Cardassians, but harmless to most humanoids. The Maquis attack a Cardassian colony with these biogenic weapons, forcing the Cardassian population to evacuate and opening the planet to Human colonization.

Sisko decides to take a barely-functional Defiant (due to the damage from Eddington's virus) to hunt down Eddington, and prevent further attacks on Cardassian colonies.

The Defiant encounters a Maquis raider signature inside plasma fields. When they approach it, they receive a transmission from Eddington. After a bit of banter, Eddington offers Sisko a copy of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, calling it one of his favorite books. Finally, the crew realizes that the Maquis Raider signature is a fake, there isn't really a ship there.

Later, the Defiant happens upon the Malinche, which has been ambushed by the Maquis who disabled their engines. They were fooled by a trick similar to the Defiant: their sensors detected a Cardassian freighter in distress, when they lowered their shields to transport the crew, they found that the sensor readings had been faked. In their moment of vulnerability, the Maquis attacked.

Back on DS9, Odo reveals that Eddington probably uses a Breen settlement as a base to keep his unstable weapon components. Based on that intelligence and Sisko's knowledge of Eddington, Sisko deduces the next target: Quatal Prime.

However, they arrive too late, only to see two fleeing raiders and transport ships evacuating the planet. The Defiant manages to destroy one of the raiders, but the other, Eddington on board, disables a Cardassian transport. With the plunging vessel out of transporter range, Sisko is forced to let Eddington escape in order to save the Cardassians.

When Eddington sent Sisko Les Misérables, he compared Sisko to a character in the novel, Javert, "a policeman who relentlessly pursues a man named Valjean, guilty of a trivial offense". Sisko realizes that Eddington sees himself as Valjean, the hero of Les Misérables, and that Eddington's self-perceived heroism could be used against him. In Sisko's words: "I think it's time for me to become the villain."

Sisko then proceeds with the same strategy the Maquis had been using, he prepares to launch biogenic weapons at a Maquis settlement. Sisko broadcast a message telling his intention. After Sisko launches the weapons, Eddington realizes the captain isn't bluffing. Sisko announces that he plans to continue his campaign against all of the Maquis colonies in the DMZ. Eddington offers to turn over the Maquis' stocks of biogenic weapons. Sisko shouts that that isn't enough. This leads Eddington to turn himself in to prevent further attacks, thus fulfilling the self-sacrificial part of his hero fantasy.

In the aftermath, Cardassian and Human colonists are resettled on the poisoned colonies, exchanging their former homes. Back on DS9, Eddington is turned over to Odo, and Dax has Sisko confess that he hadn't cleared his plot to poison the Maquis colonies with Starfleet.

Memorable Quotes
"He worked under me for a year and a half. I saw him almost every day. Read his reports. Had him to dinner. I even took him to a baseball game in the holosuite once. And I never saw it! It's my job to be a good judge of character, and what did I do? Not only did I not see it, I put him up for a promotion."

"He played his hand well."

"He played me all right. And what is my excuse? Is he a Changeling? No. Is he a being with seven lifetimes of experience? No. Is he a wormhole alien? No. He's just a man, like me. And he beat me!"
 * - Sisko and Dax, discussing Eddington while Sisko punches the bag

"Sir, have you ever reminded Starfleet Command that they stationed Eddington here because they didn't trust me?"

"No."

"Please do."
 * - Odo and Sisko

"Can't you see what's happening to you? You're going against everything you claim to believe in. And for what? To satisfy a personal vendetta?"

"You betrayed your uniform!"

"And you're betraying yours, right now! The sad part is that you don't even realize it. I feel sorry for you, captain. This obsession with me, look what it's cost you!"

"MAJOR, SHUT THAT THING OFF! COMMANDER WORF, PREPARE TO LAUNCH TORPEDOES!"
 * - Eddington and Sisko, on Sisko's decision to use biological weapons on a Maquis colony

"Sometimes I like it when the bad guy wins."
 * - Dax, to Sisko

Story and script

 * This episode is a sequel to the fourth season episode, and the Michael Eddington/Maquis story arc would later be resolved in the episode.
 * This episode was written by Peter Allan Fields, who was a co-producer during season 1 and a producer during season 2 of Deep Space Nine. Fields also wrote a number of episodes over the course of the first two seasons, but when he wrote this particular episode, he was retired from the television business.
 * In a deleted or unfilmed scene, O'Brien and Bashir discuss Eddington and their opinion of him. The scene also mentions that Starfleet Accounting gets bills from Quark. O'Brien also tells Bashir a story Eddington told him about a Orion slave girl and a Talorian, a quadrupedal species. At the end of the scene, the pair realize they actually liked Eddington. As the scene was deleted, Alexander Siddig and Armin Shimerman do not appear in this episode. Cirroc Lofton also does not appear. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion - A Series Guide and Script Library)
 * This episode marks the first use (and mention) of the holo-communicator. The idea to use this device was Ronald D. Moore's. According to Moore, "That's something I had been pushing for because I just think it's so absurd that in the twenty-fourth century they have holodeck technology that allows them to recreate Ancient Rome, but everybody talks to each other on television monitors. It's just so lame. The viewscreens have been around for over thirty years. Can't we move to something a little more interesting? But it's like pulling teeth." Ira Steven Behr was completely behind Moore's idea; "Viewscreen scenes are always difficult to pull off. The longer they are, the more boring they are, and having a character talk to someone on a viewscreen is very distancing. And it did work in this episode. We never could have had Eddington on the viewscreen for all of his scenes. It would have been dramatic death." Despite this however, the holo-communicator was not seen as successful in this episode, something alluded to by Gary Hutzel, "It was a terrible idea from the get-go. The idea was to create this amazing 3-D image, but TV's a 2-D medium, so it's hard to show that it's 3-D. So you have to move the camera around so that audience can see that it's 3-D, but then it could look to them like the guy beamed in. So you have to find a way to deal with that. It created all these problems that the writers hadn't thought about, and it missed the whole point of why Gene Roddenberry wanted a viewscreen: so you could avoid unnecessary expense." The holo-communicator would be seen only once more, in Sisko's office on Deep Space 9 in the episode . (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
 * Ira Steven Behr specifically sought out Eric Pierpoint for the role of Captain Sanders with the intention of having him become a recurring character throughout the sixth season, possibly killing him off later in that season. However, Behr never got around to putting his idea into action, and Sanders was never seen again. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) Pierpoint, nevertheless, would return in other roles, including the recurring Section 31 operative Harris on Star Trek: Enterprise.
 * The scenes on the USS Defiant (2370) bridge showing the crew operating the ship manually and relaying communications through Nog were written as a homage to a similar scene in the 1958 movie . (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
 * This episode contains a subtle reference to the 1938 film  starring  and . The scene where Eddington forces Sisko to look at the Maquis refugees is very reminiscent of the scene in the film where Flynn's Robin Hood takes de Havilland's Maid Marian to feed the starving peasants. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
 * This episode also contains a brief nod to the 1947 movie  which is based on the 1939 short story of the same name. Dax remarks, "The secret life of Michael Eddington."  As is the case with Walter Mitty in the movie, Eddington sees himself as a dashing protagonist, the "hero of his own story" in the words of Sisko.

Trivia

 * Sisko's disregard for his own ethical belief system and his violation of Starfleet policy in this episode seems to predict his actions in the sixth season episode, where he will lie to the Romulans to ensure they enter the Dominion War on the side of the Federation. Interestingly, Peter Allan Fields wrote the story for that episode also.

Video and DVD releases

 * UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 5.7,.
 * As part of the DS9 Season 5 DVD collection.

Starring

 * Avery Brooks as Captain Sisko

Also starring

 * Rene Auberjonois as Odo
 * Michael Dorn as Lt. Commander Worf
 * Terry Farrell as Lt. Commander Dax
 * Cirroc Lofton as Jake Sisko
 * Colm Meaney as Chief O'Brien
 * Armin Shimerman as Quark
 * Alexander Siddig as Doctor Bashir
 * Nana Visitor as Major Kira

Guest stars

 * Kenneth Marshall as Michael Eddington
 * Eric Pierpoint as Sanders
 * Aron Eisenberg as Nog