Day 22: DS9, The Siege

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S2EP3, “The Siege”

 Summary: Sisko, on the grounds of removing all Federation equipment out of the station, is defying Starfleet’s orders to evacuate DS9. Instead, he’ll be staying, along with the other personnel, to hold the station long enough for someone to deliver evidence (let’s just say the Cardassians are involved and leave it at that) to the Bajoran ministers that will hopefully end the coup currently being instigated by The Circle. While Kira and Dax head to a nearby moon to find and repair a ship used by the Bajoran resistance, the others hide in the air ducts (why is it always air ducts?) of the station, shutting down various key systems and making trouble for the occupying Bajoran force. The stakes are high, but for the audience, the adrenaline rush is even higher.

Standalone Thoughts: The entire episode is basically all about action. There’s firefights, aerial dogfights, guerrilla warfare, and a little bit of stealth. It’s a nice payoff to two episodes worth of buildup, and even if the second episode is my favorite of the three, this one closes things out in a mostly satisfying manner.

I say “mostly” because the ending feels a little rushed. We just spent forty-plus minutes watching everybody fighting to achieve an important goal, and then we end with Kira, O’Brien, and Sisko talking about the aftereffects, instead of seeing for ourselves or at least getting a Captain’s Log from Sisko. And the discussion isn’t even along the lines of “There won’t be any inquiries into our actions; Starfleet completely understood that it took longer than expected to clear all Federation people and equipment off the station”—it just seems to want us to assume that everything turned out the way we want it to. Since some of the loose threads involved corrupt politicians, though, and we don’t find out what happened to them, we’re denied a full catharsis. Maybe this will be rectified as the season goes on, but it does cast a slightly sour note on the proceedings.

That aside, there’s a lot that works here. It’s exciting and tense, the characters are all competent, we get some sweet moments and amusing banter scattered throughout to lower your stress levels, and everything is well-shot. I would say I’m pretty content with how this arc turned out, and while I’m guessing we’ll get a few “slice of life” episodes now that it’s over, I feel like the show’s finally on an upward trajectory. Here’s hoping I’m right.

How it Relates to the Whole: Unfortunately, thanks to the abrupt ending mentioned above, we still can’t be sure of the long range consequences of this arc, though it will hopefully be revealed over the course of the season. Besides that, there’s not much that hasn’t already been introduced previously.

Other: *When Sisko announces his plan to defend the station, he offers his fellow officers the chance to leave, making it fairly clear that it won’t be held against them if they do. None of them go. While it’s a nice gesture of solidarity (and a familiar trope), I feel like it would have been more realistic if one or two of them had left. But as I said, it’s a classic trope, so I guess I’ll let it be.

*On the other hand, the way they handle Quark is on par with what you’d expect from Ferengi, but also unusual when compared to the usual tropes. Having Rom completely aware that Quark would throw him under the bus despite Quark’s assurances otherwise, followed by him turning the tables, is refreshing and proves that Rom isn’t as dumb as he seems. Character development and playing with formulas; both things I can get behind.

*Nog reveals in a conversation with Jake that he’s still going to Keiko’s school, making his absence in “In the Hands of the Prophets” all the more noticeable. As I said in that review, it was probably because Aron Eisenberg was busy, but it wreaks havoc on continuity nevertheless.

*I’ll admit, while most of the outfits the crew wears while sneaking around the station aren’t great (it’s a lot of two slightly different shades of the same color overlapping), they’re also not terrible, either. The rant against 24^th Century fashion will need to wait for another day.

Best Line/Exchange: This is admittedly somewhat self-indulgent on my part, but that’s as good a reason as any;

(A Bajoran Security team has entered a cargo bay, looking for the rebels.)

Bashir (offscreen): I wouldn’t get too close to that, it’s Thorium Isotope.

(Bashir kicks in a duct and points a phaser at the Bajorans. Others pop out of the various ducts and barrels doing the same thing.)

Bashir: Prolonged exposure could have very nasty consequences.

I love this for two reasons. One, it’s Bashir being competent, snarky, and authoritative, which is incredibly attractive to me. But two, O’Brien had been suggesting a few minutes earlier that they send someone else to do the operation, someone with “a little more experience”. Bashir just proved him wrong in the best possible way, and that’s extremely satisfying, for him and for us.