[DS9] Jammer's Review: "The Siege of AR-558"
Jamahl Epsicokhan
Siege of AR-558." If you haven't seen the show yet, beware.
Nutshell: A gritty, engrossing, simple, and powerful tale of combat.
Plot description: Sisko's crew is diverted to the front lines, where,
alongside war-torn Starfleet officers, they must make a stand against a
Jem'Hadar assault.
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -- "The Siege of AR-558"
Airdate: 11/16/1998 (USA)
Written by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
Rating out of 4: ****
"Children."
"Not for long."
-- Reese and Sisko on front-line troop replacements
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Through the war that's been raging between the Federation and the Dominion
for a year-plus now, the one thing we rarely get a taste of is the pure
intensity of how impending death and daily violence actually *feels*. Sure,
Our Heroes have had their dose of life-threatening confrontations, whether
it was all-out space battles in "Sacrifice of Angels" or the man-to-man
combat of "Rocks and Shoals," but they've never been neck-deep in death for
a prolonged period the way the front lines of the war are likely to be.
"The Siege of AR-558"--essentially a DS9 war movie--is *exactly* about
being neck-deep in the ugliness and impending doom of the front lines.
The plot brings the Defiant on a supply delivery run to an outpost with a
Dominion communications array that has been seized by the Federation.
(Long-term plot patrol asks: Will we ever hear of this array again, or will
its relevance vanish like many other "important" victories attained in
episodes dealing with the war?) Stationed on the outpost are Starfleet
officers who have been trapped on this front line for five months. They
were supposed to be rotated out after three, but Starfleet has been spread
too thin in the area to get around to it.
In the meantime, these soldiers have been repelling wave after wave of
Jem'Hadar assault to reclaim the array. Two-thirds of the Starfleet
battalion has been killed. Then a portion of Sisko's crew finds itself
trapped--unable to beam up when a Jem'Hadar ship enters the game and the
Defiant is forced to break orbit to locate reinforcements.
The plot is a perfect exercise in simplicity. There's Us, and there's Them.
Us is the war-torn Starfleet battalion, of which Sisko takes command. Them
is a large squadron of Jem'Hadar soldiers who have beamed down to the
planet surface and intend to retake AR-558. The confrontation is
inevitable. Lots of people at AR-558 *will* die. Sisko's order: To hold off
the enemy--period.
One thing I really like about "The Siege of AR-558" is that it utilizes the
strengths of DS9's current themes. This is the sort of Trek story that
could *only* be told on DS9. I honestly couldn't imagine it on any of the
other Trek series; it would be utterly foreign. The tone is unlike any
typical installment. Like "In the Pale Moonlight," it reveals the dark side
of human reaction--how extreme situations can bring out the part of a moral
person that he or she would never have hoped existed.
What's even more frightening is that this dark side *must* surface, because
it's required for survival. It truly is Us or Them--kill as efficiently as
possible, or be killed.
I was quite interested in the guest characters, who have been stuck on this
rock for months with no end to their hell in sight. Behr and Beimler's
story presents us a group who have been worn down by attack after attack.
The emotional and psychological scars are more than a little evident. These
soldiers have become hardened, short-tempered, even nasty. They're all
business.
The presentation of these characters works exceptionally well; from step
one we can see that this isn't, as Quark so aptly puts it to Nog, "the
Starfleet you know." The emotional instability of Vargas (Raymond Cruz)
paints a compellingly bleak picture. He's full of bitterness and resentment
for being essentially abandoned by Starfleet--left to die on this planet.
And the moment with Bashir when Vargas tells his story of the bandage and
his slain comrade ("I couldn't stand the guy") shows him in a state of
mental unease that borders on a nervous breakdown.
There's also Reese (Patrick Kilpatrick), who seems to be handling the
stress better, though he's certainly become combat-hardened. The notion of
his wearing Jem'Hadar ketricel white vials around his neck as a way of
"keeping score" of his kills provides a nice touch. The implications are
unsettling given the Federation moral scheme, but it's a plausibly gritty
idea.
The leader of the battalion prior to Sisko taking command is Larkin
(Annette Helde), who also shows an edge of impatience. Probably the only of
the guest characters who feels like a conventional Starfleet officer rather
than a hardened soldier is the engineer, Kellin (Bill Mumy). Kellin and Dax
form a good chemistry in working to solve a strategic technical problem;
they come to reveal the other side of the situation--the side that can
still think about life rather than impending death. Their discussion on
Ezri's search for identity continues to build on the character's central
struggle, and works surprisingly well in context. (I'm beginning, however,
to wonder if making Ezri a counselor was such a good idea; I couldn't help
but wonder why she was even on this mission.)
The plot of course documents the battles, injuries, deaths, and the final
assault. But the way it all unfolds is engrossing. There's an interesting
polemical theme centering around, of all people, Quark, who ends up stuck
on the front lines along with the battalion. The circumstances surrounding
Quark's presence on this mission strain credulity, but I don't really care;
the use of Quark turns out to be one of the story's assets. What Quark has
to say is interesting--as he follows his Starfleet nephew around offering
his unsolicited point of view.
And contrary to what it initially seems, this is more than a matter of
Quark simply being cowardly or petty. The story strongly suggests that
Quark is opposed to this war raging on and on ("The Ferengi would've
hammered out an agreement"), and objects to the soldier mentality that he
sees all around him. I was particularly interested in his view on human
vulnerability, where he tells Nog how a human subjected to long-term
violence and deprived of food, sleep, and comfort can become as nasty and
violent "as the most bloodthirsty Klingon." It seems Quark believes Ferengi
*wouldn't* turn vicious even under such extreme circumstances. Whether
that's the truth is debatable, but the point is still interesting, and I
like it as a statement that questions the moral basis of the war. Is the
human resistance to the Dominion worth all the death it leaves in its wake?
The human answer may be obvious, but Quark's Ferengi view brings forth an
interesting way to reanalyze it.
I also thought the use of Nog was particularly adept. Nog has that youthful
naivete, and here it's manifested through a sense of respectable courage
and duty. He doesn't want to hear his uncle's interpretation of things,
which only further irritates Quark. He's a Starfleet officer, and he
intends to carry out his orders even if it means dying in the process. At
the same time, he has a youthful desire to please and earn the respect of
Sisko and the other soldiers--a notion that rings true.
In the middle of everything is Captain Sisko, who serves as a bona fide
leader for his soldiers. He fights alongside them, he cares about every one
of them, he considers the mission's problems and attempts to help solve
them ... and, of course, he orders his officers into situations that could
get them killed. Because that's also part of it.
Quark's objection to Sisko sending Nog on a scouting mission with Larkin
and Reese also seemed like an understandable "civilian" objection; the fact
Sisko could so "casually" send Nog--Jake's best friend, no less--to his own
death is something that I could see might be hard to understand.
Interestingly, when Nog is shot by the Jem'Hadar on this hike and Bashir
must amputate his leg (!), Nog was more bothered by the fact he "failed"
Sisko than that he was almost killed. Sisko's subsequent scenes with Nog
work well, striking some poignant notes.
A great deal of the success of "AR-558" deserves to go to Winrich Kolbe,
whose direction is nothing short of virtuoso. The episode is a triumph of
mood and atmosphere, which is as crucial to the story as any other element.
This was a deeply textured episode that drew me in and captured me on a
visceral level. A big part of the experience is in *feeling* the events
unfold as they happen on the screen.
The little details make a huge difference, whether it's Reese's knife,
which Nog subtly observes as not being "standard Starfleet issue," to the
anticipation and building adrenaline conveyed through the simple gesture of
Kellin nervously flipping his phaser sight up and down--which conveys human
realism through its simplicity.
Other powerful details: A recording of Vic Fontaine singing "I'll Be Seeing
You" plays from the infirmary as the soldiers wait for the rapidly
approaching assault. Bashir reloads his phaser, and Vargas notices that he
has obviously "done that before." The mine trap Sisko's unit had set for
the Jem'Hadar alerts us of the imminent approach, as a series of bombs
explode just over the rocks. The Jem'Hadar screams gradually become audible
as they charge in for the kill. All of it borders on the surreal, with
consequences that are all too real.
When the attack finally arrives, lots of people die, but for once, the
deaths feel more like people than statistics. We can see elements of
sacrifice, heroism, futility, and desperation. And the simple fact that
there are so many Jem'Hadar ensures the chances are exactly zero that we'll
kill all of Them before they can kill plenty of Us.
With the subtle but striking visual and spoken nuances, I could understand
and feel how this group faced an intense situation. The message voiced by
Sisko in the show's closing scene is that those who die are more than just
names--a fact that shouldn't be forgotten. That may be a fairly obvious
statement, but an episode like "The Siege of AR-558" helps get us in better
touch with the feelings behind the words, rather than leaving us in the
position to take the words at face value.
--
Next week: Kira confronts a Bajoran cult affiliated with her worst enemy.
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Copyright (c) 1998 by Jamahl Epsicokhan, all rights reserved. Unauthorized
reproduction or distribution of this article is prohibited.
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Jamahl Epsicokhan - jam...@epsico.com
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