While delivering supplies to a captured Dominion communications array, several crew members from the Defiant are left behind. Together, they and a group of ragged soldiers must defend a desolate planet from brutal mines and waves of Jem'Hadar, while also battling exhaustion and failing morale.
Although Deep Space Nine had done its share of darker episodes, this one -- according to show runner Ira Steven Behr -- faced some internal pushback. With a setting inspired loosely by the Battle of Guadalcanal in World War II, there was a lot of concern that this episode was too far off-brand for the Star Trek universe.
Ultimately, the concept was embraced -- and was realized in authentic detail by director Winrich Kolbe, who brought his real-life experience fighting in the Vietnam War to the production. The episode captures moments of horror (when all the Houdini mines are made to appear in the camp), tension (when distant flashes of exploding mines portend the approach of the enemy), and loss of both life (the deaths in this story really make an impact) and innocence (tracked by Nog and Quark's character arcs). The setting is perfectly anonymous -- a great remix of the ever-present Star Trek planet set into something truly dirty and desolate, and always shrouded in darkness.
In some ways, this episode is covering the same themes as season five's "Nor the Battle to the Strong." But where that episode focused on Jake Sisko's loss of innocence in the face of war, this episode puts multiple characters on the front lines: Ezri Dax, Nog, Bashir (once more), and Quark. Pointedly, the characters with the most battle experience (and/or who would be great to have in this situation) are left out -- Worf, Kira, O'Brien, and Odo. Joining the reduced selection of main characters are a spectrum of guest roles carefully cultivated from the war movie tool box, played by a group of recognizable character actors.
Bill Mumy, most famous for his childhood role in Lost in Space, plays shell-shocked engineer Kellin. Deep Space Nine show runner Ira Steven Behr was friends with Mumy and had wanted to cast him many times throughout the series run. Mumy was a regular on Babylon 5 at the same time, but it wasn't really scheduling that was an obstacle, but rather that he wasn't interested in another job requiring intensive alien makeup. When this human role came along, Behr sent the script, and got a quick "yes."
Patrick Kilpatrick played a lot of "tough guy" roles in the 80s and 90s, and does so here as Reese, a soldier Nog naively admires for his necklace of Jem'Hadar ketracel-white tubes. Reese is given a subtle and interesting story arc, made visual with the knife he carries around and then leaves behind when he finally leaves the planet. You get the sense that Reese will never again see battle after this moment; you can even imagine that he resigns from Starfleet.
Raymond Cruz, another great working actor you've absolutely "seen somewhere before," plays the frayed-to-snapping Vargas. Through him, you get your first hint of how dire this situation is. Quark gives a fantastic monologue about the true nature of humans when you take away their creature comforts; he's looking at Reese when he delivers it, but it feels like Vargas is the embodiment of it, his humanity stripped beyond recovery. Cruz gets a great monologue of his own, explaining the significance of a bandage to Bashir, in another of the episodes most haunting moments.
Annette Helde is primarily a stage actor, and as it happens, I've seen her perform in person many times. Shortly before she played this role of Larkin, she was in residence for several years at the Denver Center Theater Company. It's a great choice to put a woman in this role that would be male in any given war movie, yet not to force the character to be hyper-masculine. Helde imbues Larkin with enough pathos, even in limited screen time, for her death to have weight when it comes.
Despite the great one-off guests stars, though, it's really an episode for the recurring characters to shine. Ezri must deal with past life confusion as she goes into battle for the first time, despite vast battle experience as Dax. (She's also the character to note the moral restructuring that happens when the Dominion's own mines are turned against them.) Bashir is the first to really understand how dire the situation on this planet is for the soldiers who have been stuck there, but is largely powerless to do anything about it but play a melancholy tune from Vic Fontaine ("I'll Be Seeing You," a song that was actually popular during World War II).
But the episode is most significant for the Ferengi characters. For Nog, the story is not just a loss of his leg, but a loss of his innocence; early in the episode, his biggest concern is being embarrassed by his uncle while on duty. Quark's role is to be a voice of hard truth. He seems to know all along what a horrible situation they're getting into, and he doesn't back down from confronting Sisko about it. In the end, he's forced to pick up a weapon himself.
Another significant role in the episode is filled by Paul Baillargeon, the composer. By edict of executive producer Rick Berman, the music in this era of Star Trek was so often anonymous and almost interchangeable. But this episode is a rare example of a prominent melody being established and repeated through the score. And the final battle montage is outstanding, the sound effects dropped way into the background to give center stage to the music. Melancholy music with ominous overtones goes perfectly with visuals as grisly as Star Trek (or 90s television) could get at the time.
Other observations:
- For a light moment in a dark episode, the teaser opens on Rom auditioning for Vic Fontaine with his take on "The Lady Is a Tramp" ("Scamp," in his version). Recently, in the DS9 retrospective documentary, we saw that Max Grodénchik is a decent singer. So, just as when Rom played baseball, this is another case of the actor dumbing it down for comedic effect.
- The casualty list is presented just as it was in a previous episode, so we know what it is even before it's explained in dialogue.
The final season of Deep Space Nine has had a lot of very solid episodes, but for me, "The Siege of AR-558" is the first true stand-out. I give it an A-.
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