The code is more complicated than that. DS9 did a world-class bottle episode with Harris Yulin (good but not great) + Nana Visitor (again, no Patrick Stewart) + 0 stakes.

The problem is BSG always seemed to cast torture as a window into the characters instead of a dehumanizing, obscuring tactic. Kind of like 24 except they're going for information about the characters instead of "where's the bomb". In either case, it tells us nothing. Also, Baltar's torture in A Measure of Salvation…

The reason nobody took Nikita seriously like they took 24 is really just a question of timing. Separate 24 from its specific context, treat it like it's new today, and it's just a ridiculously silly action show. But then again, 9/11-type plots had been a staple of fiction before 9/11 (Debt of Honor, by Tom Clancy, has…

Thrace: This is one of the rare times when TNG tackled a subject visceral enough to do a decent show-not-tell. Usually they're debating about something abstract and ineffable like the meaning of sentience, time travel, basic ethical standards, etc, that really are tough enough to portray at all, let alone do it…

Man, did BSG ever suck at torture. The only exception I can think of is when they shoot up Baltar with torture juice in mid-season 3.

Is there really another adult way to handle the subject material?

Except in the last bit of one of those late episodes (Author, Author) the repurposed EMHs, with nothing like the depth of experience or time logged on that the Doctor has, are still sentient enough to be stirred by his novel.

I finished season 4 more than a year ago and just haven't been able to drag myself through season 5. Encourage me.

I enjoy 24, but I keep it compartmentalized far, far away from my sense of reality. It's definitely my "when entertainment trumps morality".

The big problem with it is they never really question what is sentient. A hologram, after all, isn't the machine. The Doctor is because of that mobile emitter, but they considered him sentient before that. Really, it's the ship's main computer that's becoming sentient. Which controls everything about it. So…

I think Voyager states explicitly that holograms x time = sentience, and then makes it their big civil rights struggle for the series. Pretty dumb.

Not denying that it's a super fucking close call. In terms of head games, I'd say B5 might have done it better. It's just that the way it ends up, with Picard admitting to Troi that he had actually broken, is way, way more powerful than the B5 version. Sheridan gets rescued and gets back to work, with only one shot-up…

The point isn't "it works" in the sense that you can always get correct information from it (also known as the 24 theory of torture). The point is "it works" in the sense that it will destroy the victim's will.

Nope. We could, however, argue about whether or not this is better than its Babylon 5 analogue, Intersections in Real Time. I say yes.

He sneezed glitter.

AD did earn 3 seasons.

See, now that's a weird criticism of Voyager. If anything, they knew how to do a 45 second-1 minute teaser, and TNG always meanders for 3 or 4 minutes before getting to the punch. Too bad Voyager could never deliver and TNG usually did.

I like Beef It's plan. Someone implement this immediately.

This gimmick makes me not want to live on this planet anymore

Counting Crows are just so bland, I can't really imagine giving a fuck about them one way or another.