This for me is one of those stand out pieces of screenwriting, where many of the contradictions of human society are confronted and laid bare. Many scifi fans won't like this episode because essentially nothing at all happens, and yet it is an episode which cuts to the heart of things. The central issue, what constitutes reality and truth? Is it what you experience and personally know to be true, or is it what someone else, with power will allow.
Then again who really does have the power? Maybe the man who you THINK has power, is actually himself only another cog in the great machine. Maybe, despite appearances, the power really rests with you, as long as you can hold on to your reason, but then again how long can you hold onto that truth when you are tired, hungry and in pain?
I AM - two words which no ancient Jew could be permitted, because I AM was the name of God, who alone had the right to define reality. In our time we hold no such qualms, but still there remains a question which must be confronted. What is the truth? What is reality? and who has the final right to define it.
It is a question at the heart of many a conflict, and confronted by many a disident to some totalitarian regime. In this case Sheridan finds himself, by simple capture, instantly translated from war hero, to inconvenient disident who must now be silenced or somehow forced to recant his truth. Much verbal jousting will follow, with a tightly written, and surprisingly witty dialogue, for such a dark subject as torture.
