“THE SIEGE OF AR-558”
“There are dark episodes and then there are DARK episodes!”
I may be going against the grain here. Back when the show originally aired (or came onto VHS as was the case with me), I thought of “The Siege of AR-558” as an unqualified 10/10 and an emotional powerhouse. The years have changed my perspective somewhat and while I still think it’s a very powerful episode, it’s nevertheless beset with problems and, frankly...is not an episode I particularly like. Of course, the sledgehammer message of this episode is simply “war is hell”—and that’s not something that’s meant to be “liked”. Yet, the thing is, I already know that war is hell; I don’t need Star Trek to tell me that. What we have here is basically the result of Ira Behr and co’s proclivity to cannibalise old movies for story ideas and it was inevitable the Dominion war would, at some point, lead to an out and out war movie homage.
I will say that much of the execution is fantastic. The performances are strong for the most part, and Winrich Kolbe’s taut, visceral directing is superb (he himself was a war veteran and somehow it shows just how genuine and authentic so much of it feels). There’s a great score by Paul Baillargeon and some extremely tense drama—and consequences for at least one of our characters, too.
The problems, however, with attempting to translate old war movies to a 24th century setting are manifold. “The Siege of AR-558” not only succumbs to just about every war movie cliche in the book, but it also makes absolutely NO sense to me that war in the 24th century would be conducted in such a primitive, low-tech manner. This is trench warfare WW1 or WW2 style. I know the writers’ intention was to get away from fantastical space battles and exploding consoles to show the true cost of war at a human and psychological level, but very little about this particular conflict makes sense.
For a start, I’ve no idea why the Dominion didn’t simply nuke everyone from orbit. Furthermore, why are regular Starfleet officers dispatched to defend this rock? Starfleet wasn’t even intended to be a military organisation. I know the idea of MACO troops weren’t invented until ENTERPRISE, but they really needed some kind of designated combat force to serve on the frontlines rather than regular Joe Starfleet officers who simply aren’t trained for such combat. I simply can’t believe that such forces don’t exist in the 24th century. I mean, can you imagine a Starfleet officer going from milling around a ship like the Enterprise, frequenting Ten Forward and going to violin recitals only to end up on AR-558 slaughtering or being slaughtered by Jem’Hadar? And, if this communications relay truly is so important to Starfleet, then why aren’t there starships defending it from orbit? Moreover, why aren’t the officers equipped with body armour (these guys are literally just wearing t-shirts for crying out loud!) and protective force fields? Heck, Worf jury-rigged such a force field using a com badge in the holodeck episode “A Fistful of Datas”.
Behr and Beimler were basically so obsessed with recreating all standard the war movie cliches and making it seem like a legitimate depiction of trench warfare that they pretty much forget we’re meant to be in the 24th century. This kind of warfare is even dated by today’s standards. Realistically, Starfleet and the Dominion ought to be using drones at the very least, and possibly battle robots. Why waste so many lives unnecessarily when they can use technology? Heck, even in the 1960’s TOS was showing how wars in the future are likely to be fought with advanced technology (“A Taste of Armageddon”). The “Houdini mines” were a nice touch and a rare utilisation of futuristic technology, but it just wasn’t enough. Another thing—given the sheer number of those mines, I have a hard time believing as many Jem’Hadar would survive their detonation. And why the heck didn’t the Jem’Hadar use their personal cloaks when attacking? A stealth attack would have been far more effective than charging like a bunch of Klingons howling war cries?
There are so many things that just don’t ring true upon reflection, which probably explains why I wasn’t as moved by the episode this time around. The idea was to put all the show’s characters inexperienced in battle into the mix. That maybe makes sense dramatically, but less so in terms of logic. Quark’s presence requires a huge suspension of disbelief (frankly, I simply don’t accept that he wouldn’t have wrangled his way out of having to go into a frontline war zone), and it also made no sense that their landing party consisted not of Worf and O’Brien, but Ezri the neurotic counsellor who has precisely no reason to even be on the Defiant. You’d also kind of think that since she was there, she might have used her counselling skills to try to help these traumatised shells of human beings, but heck no. I almost wondered if the writers forgot that they weren’t writing Jadzia here, because she’s basically only there to help with the tech.
The most successful elements of the episode involve Nog and Quark. This is the episode where Nog goes from being a zealous, gung-ho wannabe-model Starfleet officer to almost losing life and limb. Well, he does, of course, lose a limb, and barely escapes with his life. It’s genuinely painful to watch, and it’s wonderful to finally see just how much Quark cares about his nephew in spite of the fact Nog is just a bit of a dick to him early in the story. As happens on rare occasion, Quark is used as not as comic relief, but as social commentator, questioning why the war is even necessary in the first place, stating that the Ferengi would have negotiated a deal with the Dominion. He makes an important point—this episode focuses on “war is hell” but I don’t think at any point we explore whether “war is necessary”. Personally, I believe there are times when war may be necessary—and many times when it isn’t. Certainly, this isn’t a petty war over disputed land, property or an overblown grudge, but I’m sad we didn’t get more sense that Starfleet was still trying to reach a peace and compromise. So, some of Quark’s speeches were thought-provoking and prescient, while others felt unnecessarily harsh. At one point he states that humans are fine as long as they have full bellies and creature comforts, but that without those things, they descend into brutal, barbarous savages. Gene Roddenberry would certainly have been spinning in his grave at that, and I found it an unfortunate indictment because these people weren’t displaying character flaws—they were displaying PTSD. They were broken, traumatised people, and this rendered Quark’s evaluation of human nature incredibly off the mark.
I do hope that this wasn’t the entire point of the episode: to override Roddenberry’s assertion that the human race is capable of evolving beyond savagery. That would be incredibly cynical. Whether you believe that idea or not, it’s nevertheless part of the fabric of Star Trek and what makes the franchise aspirational and inspiring. In many ways, “The Siege of AR-558” is the darkest, bleakest, most cynical episode of Star Trek ever made. It lacks the spark of hope that makes Star Trek what it is, in favour of simply recreating a standard war movie formula. Even the closing scene with Sisko in his office offers not a glimmer of hope, but a somber lamentation for the dead. He’s right, we should never forget those that sacrificed their lives. But, equally, we should never take our eyes off the reason they did so: peace, hope and freedom. There’s just none of that in this episode. Again, I know that war is hell—mercifully, not through first-hand experience, but through knowing history. That’s just not a message I need from Star Trek. Especially, I suppose, in these dark times.
The guest characters aren’t a huge amount more than walking war movie cliches. There’s nothing quite as bad as the wounded officer from “Nor the Battle to the Strong”, but Raymond Cruz is pretty close with a performance so uncomfortably over-the-top, particularly in the earlier scenes, that it almost borders on parody. The others are fine, if a little broadly drawn, and Bill Mumy is charming as the engineer Kellin, even if he’s not really given a whole lot to do or have any kind of real arc.
Anyway, I’ve said more than enough. I find it extremely hard to rate this one, because my feelings are so incredibly mixed. My rating is liable to change. Ultimately, for all the cliches and plot holes, it’s definitely a powerful episode due to the performances of Avery Brooks and most the rest of the cast and Kolbe’s excellent directing. It’s a tense and taut forty-five minutes which still packs quite an emotional punch. Production-wise it’s not the best: the sets look like the studio stage they are, and the low lighting renders it a visually murky episode. I still have a number of complaints at the unimaginative and astonishingly primitive way this ground war is fought, but the episode nevertheless sets out to do what it intended and it is, for all its flaws and my personal reservations, a strong one. Oh, and aside for the tonally jarring teaser with Rom “singing” “The Lady’s a Tramp”, Vic is used wonderfully here, and his singing adds a note of real poignance as the battle commences. It also sets up what would be one of the finest episodes of the season, “It’s Only a Paper Moon”.
Rating: 8
