The Siege of AR-558
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 16 November 1998
- ON
- First-run syndication
- STARDATE
- None given
- DIRECTED BY
- Winrich Kolbe
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 558
WRITTEN BYWritten by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
The Defiant delivers supplies to Starfleet troops holding a vital relay on the front line, and the crew discover what months of fighting have done to the soldiers there.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
The Defiant brings supplies to the Starfleet troops holding a captured Dominion communications array on the planet AR-558. Of the 150 soldiers deployed months earlier, only 43 are left, exhausted and embittered, and the ground is sown with “Houdini” mines that phase in and out of subspace. With the unit's senior officers dead, Sisko takes command. Nog volunteers for a scouting party that is ambushed: Larkin is killed and Nog is badly wounded, losing a leg. Ezri helps the engineer Kellin find a way to make the mines visible, so they can be repositioned against the attackers. When the Jem'Hadar come in force, the fighting is savage and many die. Quark, guarding the wounded, shoots a Jem'Hadar soldier to protect his nephew. Starfleet holds the position until the USS Veracruz arrives with reinforcements, but the cost is terrible.
- 01The name AR-558 comes from the episode's production number.
- 02Loosely based on the Battle of Guadalcanal. Several of the soldiers' names are borrowed from Don Siegel's 1962 film Hell Is for Heroes.
- 03Bill Mumy, of Lost in Space and Babylon 5, plays Kellin.