Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

The Siege of AR-558

Season 7

Episode 8

Plot Summary: AR-588 is a Dominion Communications outpost recently captured by the Federation. It is of strategic importance and the Dominion is desperately trying to get it back. So far the troops stationed there have been able to defend it, but already their nimber has decrease by over 2/3. While Sisko is making a supply run to AR-558 with the Defiant The Dominion attacks again. Worf takes the Defiant out of the system to avoid the Jem'Hadar ships, while Sisko, Bashir, Ezri, Quark (Don't ask.), and Nog stay planet side to help defend the communications outpost. The Dominion lands troops a ways a way and the defenders of AR-558 are left to wonder when they'll attack.

Eventually a reconnaissance team including two new characters and Nog is sent out to locate the Jem'Hadar base. They find it but one of the new characters is killed and Nog is wounded so badly he loses his left leg. Quark instantly blames Sisko about not caring enough for Nog's well-being. Sisko snappily retaliates that he cares for every single one of the officers under his command. Quark, however, doesn't understand the seriousness of the situation their in.

Meanwhile Ezri and AR-558's prime engineer become friends and uncover a bunch of hidden Dominion mines. Now they are able to use the mines to their advantage. Sisko has them placed in the area leading to the communications outpost.

The wait continues and Bashir cheers everybody up a tad by playing his CD of "Vic Fontaine's Greatest Hit's: Volume II." Finally the Jem'Hadar make their move, and although the mines help, the battle is still long and bloody. Luckily all the main characters survive. (Phew!) Worf then brings the Defiant back with reinforcements to guard AR-558 by land and space. Back on DS9 thinks of all the heroes that died in that battle and many others like it all across the war zone.

Sub-Plot: None

My Opinion: This was a strange episode. At first I had mixed emotions. It seemed good, but nothing stood out to me. But then, the more I thought about it the more I realized how great it was.

"Siege" is slightly reminiscent of Jake's "Nor The Battle To The Strong," with it's ‘on the front lines of battle' story. However it is superior to that episode in almost every conceivable way. Rather than focusing on one characters impressions, this episode focused on the over-all impressions on a whole group: Including some characters we're familiar with, and some new. (Needless to say, most of the new ones died:) But our group was not without loss, for from the look of it, Bashir was heavily wounded and Nog lost his left leg. Yikes.

The overall feel of the episode was quite disconcerting, as it was meant to be. The message of the story was just a week late for Veteran's day last Wednesday. In essence, the moral was not to dismiss casualties as names and statistics, for they are people, heroes, who should live on in memory.

Yet, the main driving force of the episode, was not the profound moral, but the many great moments showing direct combat's effect on individuals. "Nor The Battle To The Strong" attempted to do this, and did an alright job of it, but "The Siege of AR-558" does it much better. The guest characters are a lot more realistic, and some of the things they have to say are quite moving. And a few of them I grew to like, especially the Irish engineer who Ezri befriended. A good example of the war effecting a main character is Quark's story. Even though he was on the mission because of pure contrivances, his slowly learning what duty meant to Nog made for a one of the best parts of the show.

There were also some cleverly ominous scenes as well. When Ezri and that Irish engineer forced the mines out of subspace, the sight of them everywhere sent a shiver down my spine! Another scene tat really clicked was the scan of the front lines listening to Vic's singing. Now I hate Vic, but I gotta admit: This was the best use of him yet! (It helped that he wasn't actually there!)

The ending fight itself went on for a generous amount of time, and was probably the longest scene of non-space combat ever on Star Trek. I think it slightly beat the Klingon assault in "The Way of The Warrior" in terms of length.

Wrap-Up: "The Siege of AR-558" was a fine episode with a good, solid, though not necessarily new, story; many great character scenes; and best of all an overall feeling that really captures the essence of war. I give it three and a half stars.

Review by -William Phillips

Note: Notice that this episode's production number is #558. ;)

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