Interrogation

Story: Intersections in Real Time

Written By: J. Michael Straczynski

Season: 4

Sheridan has been captured by Earth and Clark.  He is in a cell, and he is being interrogated, with hopes of breaking him, having him sign a confession, and read it aloud in public so no one can say that a video is a fake or that they forged the signature.  He is being tortured, deprived of food, and asked the same questions over and over again...but Sheridan doesn’t break.  

It is an excellent piece of drama, taking place entirely in one room, as Sheridan faces off quietly but defiantly to the interrogator.  Nothing much happens so there isn’t a whole lot to write about, but this is an excellent episode that shows the best of what this series can do.  The interrogations reminded me in some ways of the episode of TNG “Chain of Command, Part II” in which Picard faces off with a Cardassian interrogator.  This was a little more to the point, and focused primarily on that kind of relationship.  I’d not argue which episode did it better, this had a lot of backstory feeding into it and it was much more claustrophobic, but it also doesn’t have the “THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS” moment.  Not that I want to take anything away from this excellent piece of TV drama. 

NEXT TIME: Sheridan Rescue Mission