The Siege (episode)

Sisko tries to prevent the Circle from taking the station; Kira and Dax take proof that the Cardassians are the real force that is arming the Circle to the Bajoran government. (Part 3 of 3)

Teaser
As the Bajoran assault vessels approach Deep Space 9, Sisko convenes with his crew in Ops and announces his intention to stay and defend the station. He will allow anyone who wishes to leave to evacuate along with the station's civilian population. The entire crew volunteers to stay with him and fight.

Act One
Various station residents react differently: Jake Sisko and Nog realize that they will be leaving on separate runabouts bound for two different colonies, but determine to stay friends. Keiko O'Brien urges her husband, Miles to leave with her and Molly, but to no avail.

Quark decides to sell seats on the evacuation vessels to desperate civilians, by bribing less desperate ones (starting with his brother, Rom) to stay behind and wait for the later vessels to depart. When a flood of passengers surround the docking bay, thanks to Quark's careless booking, Li Nalas steps forward to help Sisko calm them. Li manages to calm the crowd by making an appeal for Bajoran unity. As the last evacuation vessel departs, Quark rushes to the airlock, dragging a trunk filled with latinum and insisting that Rom is holding his seat for him. Bashir calmly informs him that Rom gave his seat away to a dabo girl, and has escaped the station and left Quark behind.

Act Two
Once the occupation force from the Bajoran Militia arrives, the station appears deserted, with no sign of a Federation presence, but General Krim is highly suspicious. His force sets up a base in Ops, and find that the security net is disabled and the Federation crew is unaccounted for, leading him to believe they are still aboard. In particular, he tells the crew to scan the air ducts for organic matter, knowing all about Odo and his shape-shifting abilities.

Nevertheless, when Minister Jaro hails the station, Krim's over-confident lieutenant, Colonel Day Kannu, proudly informs him that the station has been captured, intact and without casualties. Krim tells Jaro that their victory is not complete until the station's crew has been accounted for. Jaro orders Krim to capture Li Nalas alive, knowing that he will be an invaluable ally if they can win him over to their side, but dead, he would be a martyr. Just then, the station's sensor array is sabotaged. Krim's suspicions are confirmed, and the soldiers begin a sweep of the station.

Back on Bajor, Minister Jaro promises Winn that if the Circle's coup succeeds, he will make sure she is elected Kai.

Act Three
One of the runabouts drops Kira and Dax off on a Bajoran moon, where the Bajorans stored a number of small starfighters during the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor. They manage to get one of the craft working, but Dax is disoriented by the antiquated state of the technology, to which Kira tells her they are flying by the seat of their pants. Over the skies of Bajor, fighters intercept them and a dogfight ensues. Their ship is shot down over the planet and they crash.

Act Four
Krim's second-in-command, Day Kannu, corners Sisko, Li and O'Brien in one of Quark's holosuites. However, it is quickly revealed to be a trap, as Sisko and others are merely holograms. The door locks behind Day and his men, and Sisko's voice informs the soldiers of the Cardassians' involvement in the Circle. Day is beamed back to Ops so he may pass the information on to Krim, but Day chooses not to reveal the information. A scan for Federation communicators reveals they are somewhere in the conduits, and Odo informs Sisko that the soldiers intend to flood the conduits with anesthizine gas. Part of the crew distracts the bulk of the Bajoran forces, after which Li and Sisko capture Krim in an attempt to reason with him.

Act Five
Although Kira was injured in the crash, Dax gets her to Vedek Bareil's monastery. Bareil had sent out search parties for them and helps them disguise themselves as vedeks to allow them to travel to the Chamber of Ministers. Once there, Jaro attempts to dismiss Kira as a troublemaker. However, she confronts him about the Cardassian involvement, at which point Vedek Winn insists on examining the new evidence. Jaro announces that he will cooperate with any investigation.

Upon learning of the Cardassian involvement, Krim furiously berates Colonel Day for withholding vital information from him and informs his subordinate that he is returning to Bajor to meet with the Ministers where he believes he will asked to resign. Krim gives control of DS9 back to Sisko. However, Day refuses to surrender, and attempts to shoot Sisko; Li Nalas jumps in front of Sisko. He dies from his wounds, remarking that he's off the hook after all.

Sisko, O'Brien and Kira reflect on recent events after things return to normal. Kira is devastated as she believed that when Li returned things on Bajor would get better and wishes there were more heroes like him. Sisko reminds her that she's a hero herself, but Kira can't bring herself to appreciate the compliment and leaves the celebration. O'Brien questions the image that Bajorans have of Li Nalas, that everyone seems to remember him as larger than life and a military genius and yet the Li Nalas he fought with and he remembers was an ordinary man. Sisko interrupts O'Bren states that Li Nalas was the hero of the Bajoran resistance. He showed amazing acts of courage, he fought for his people and he died for his people. That's how the Bajorans will remember him and that's how Sisko will remember him... he deserves to be remembered that way. With that, the two officers then leave to reunite with their returning families.

Memorable Quotes
"Hey! Odo! You'll miss me. You know you will – say it!"

"I'll miss you, Quark."

(stunned) "You said it!"
 * - Quark and Odo

"Whoa! What's that, is that a spider or a dog?!"
 * - Jadzia Dax, upon spotting a palukoo

"Has there ever been one of your kind and one of my kind who were better friends?"

"Never."

"And if our fathers couldn't break us up, no stupid coupe day... c– coop day..."

"Coup d'état. It's French."

"Well, no stupid French thing will either."
 * - Nog and Jake

"I may have overbooked, slightly."
 * - Quark, after selling seats on the evacuation ships

"All right, let's see if we can get out of here without bouncing off any walls."
 * - Kira Nerys

"Problem?"

"No, everything's wonderful!" (bumps her head) "Ow!"

"The knees!"
 * - Kira Nerys and Jadzia Dax

"You Starfleet types are too dependent on gadgets and gizmos. You lose your natural instincts for survival."

"My natural instincts for survival told me not to climb aboard this thing! I'd say they were functioning pretty well."


 * - Kira Nerys and Jadzia Dax

"Can you see any openings where we can put down?"

"Six kilometers ahead at 2 o'clock."

"Uh, anything a little closer?"

"How much closer?"

"How about... right here?"
 * - Kira Nerys and Jadzia Dax, moments before emergency "landing"

"You're being a fool, Dax!"

"Don't talk to your elders that way."


 * - Kira and Jadzia

"What do you think?"

"What?"

"The nose."

"Oh, it's very flattering."

"I'm thinking of keeping it."
 * - Jadzia Dax, in disguise as a Bajoran Vedek, and Kira.

"Quark, leave it!"

"I can't leave it, it's all that I have. My personal mementos, my family album..."

"It's full of gold-pressed latinum and you know it."

"...Who told you?"

"Your mother did, the day you were born."

"NEVER-MAKE-FUN-OF-A-FERENGI'S-MOTHER! Rule of Acquisition #31"
 * - Julian Bashir and Quark

"I've done everything I can to help. I'd die for my people, but–"

"Sure you would – dying gets you off the hook. Question is, are you willing to live for your people – live the role they want you to play?  That's what they need from you right now."
 * - Li Nalas and Benjamin Sisko

"Off the hook, after all."
 * - Li Nalas, last words

"Use your eyes, not your pants, Lieutenant."
 * - Kira Nerys to Jadzia Dax

"Chief, Li Nalas was THE hero of the Bajoran Resistance. He performed extraordinary acts of courage for his people and died for their freedom.  That's how the history books on Bajor will be written, and that's how I'll remember him when anyone asks."
 * - Benjamin Sisko

Production

 * After receiving the script for the episode, Terry Farrell contacted Nana Visitor and commented "My God, did you see what we have to do next episode?". Farrell also commented "because we were shooting ten pages in two days and it was a ship called a 'rider' - smaller than a runabout - we knew we'd have a lot of added actions to perform, and to try to learn our lines over external sound and all the other confusion in a small set would be hard". (The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, p 216)

Reception

 * Producer Peter Allan Fields disagreed with the killing of the character Li Nalas, and he felt that it trivialized the events of the ; "It seemed to me that killing him would just send us back to square one. Why spend three episodes with this guy, and then let him die? You're back as if he'd never been around. We could have written the whole thing without him." Writer Ira Steven Behr counters this by saying there were two primary reasons for killing the character: 1) to complete his arc there had to be a moment of true sacrifice and heroism ("I just felt that this was a man who was living a lie, and at the end there needed to be a form of redemption, one that involved some self-sacrifice."), and 2) the producers didn't want to make Li a recurring character because they weren't sure if they would be able to afford to bring back actor Richard Beymer in the future. As a result of this, the character of Shakaar was introduced in the third season to perform a similar function as that performed by Li in the Circle Trilogy. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
 * Director Winrich Kolbe felt that the storyline of the show didn't warrant a third episode, and he felt it would have been better to condense the overall plot, and handle it as a two-parter; "It really appeared to me at times almost like, 'Well, we've got two-and-a-half hours here - let's make it three'." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)

Continuity

 * Dax speaks about her second host Tobin, and is mentioned as an excellent engineer.
 * Referenced Rules of Acquisition: #31 ("Never make fun of a Ferengi's mother")

Trivia

 * Richard Beymer (Li Nalas) and Frank Langella (Minister Jaro Essa) are the only actors, besides the regulars, to appear in all three episodes in the Bajoran trilogy (,, and "The Siege").
 * This episode concludes the first ever Star Trek episodic three-parter. The next was the Augment arc during Star Trek: Enterprise Season Four eleven years later. This was subsequently followed by two others: the Vulcan Reformation arc  and the Romulan arc.

Video and DVD releases

 * UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 12,.
 * As part of the DS9 Season 2 DVD collection.

Starring

 * Avery Brooks as Commander Benjamin Sisko

Also Starring

 * Rene Auberjonois as Constable Odo
 * Siddig El Fadil as Doctor Julian Bashir
 * Terry Farrell as Lieutenant Jadzia Dax
 * Cirroc Lofton as Jake Sisko
 * Colm Meaney as Chief Miles O'Brien
 * Armin Shimerman as Quark
 * Nana Visitor as Major Kira Nerys

Guest Stars

 * Rosalind Chao as Keiko O'Brien
 * Steven Weber as Day Kannu
 * Richard Beymer as Li Nalas
 * Stephen Macht as Krim
 * Max Grodénchik as Rom
 * Aron Eisenberg as Nog
 * Philip Anglim as Vedek Bareil
 * Frank Langella as Jaro Essa

Co-Stars

 * Katrina Carlson as a Bajoran officer
 * Hana Hatae as Molly O'Brien

Special Guest Star

 * Louise Fletcher as Winn Adami

Uncredited Co-Stars

 * Sam Alejan as a Starfleet medical officer
 * Brian Demonbreun as a Starfleet science officer
 * Charlie-Olisa Kaine as Ensign Kelly
 * Unknown actors as Chamber of Ministers