As I've mentioned prior I am watching through all of DS9, I'm now into season 7; a season where I've seen every episode but watching this one again reminds me of why I love this series so much.
Though the whole series focuses on the impact of war in all of its forms, this episode and a handful of others stand out due to their representation of war. During the series we've seen great space battles, fleets attacking fleets, a single ship outnumbered, we've seen how it affects people and what it pushes them to do (In the Pale Moonlight) but this episode changes the war we see. Instead of watching ships attack others we are now on the front lines, seeing men fight the enemy on a nameless rock, being pushed to the edge and then asked for more. This episode makes us face the reality once we are pushed so far we become an animal willing to do whatever is needed to survive.
The episode starts with Sisko looking at the latest casualty list from Starfleet, he notes to Odo that when these lists first came in at the start of the war he would read each name to honour their sacrifice but now these names are blending together. We then cut to them on the Defiant heading to AR-558 to deliver supplies to the troops deployed there, once they beam down they are fried upon; but not by the enemy but by their own troops who suffering from shell shock saw movement and fired. We learn that in the past five months the troops have lost 107 men with no relief or support having come only more enemies but they are told to hold that nameless rock because it has a device that might help later in the war; a war that in previous episodes we are told we are likely to lose and 900 billion people die. As we see Sisko talk to the CO of the camp we hear a muffled explosion, a mine has gone off killing a man and we learn these mines can kill any time without warning and can't currently be disarmed. Could it be worse, yes the Defiant has to leave so Sisko is trapped there but before he can do much they come under attack; but this itself is a trick of the enemy to uncover troop deployments and then bang, another mine goes off.
It is from this point the episode gets interesting, Sisko sends out a recon team but only 2 of the 3 come back, one having been shot in the leg. Going to check on Nog (the injured one) he see's Nog's leg has to be removed. Nog looks up at sisko and asks "it's worth it, right?", Sisko replies "I hope to God it is." Though Ezri and the camp chief engineer Kellin can now deactivate the mines but Sisko orders them to be deployed in the camp entrance to kill any attackers, Ezri laments that we would call those weapons obscene but now we are willing to use them against our enemy in the name of survival. This shows how when our very survival is at risk morals and principles that we treasure no longer apply, that war is a force that can change even those with the strongest sense of duty.
Now they wait for the attack and when it comes we hear those mines detonate then we see the enemy charge towards the base. The men open fire at them, everyone does, the doctor who swore to do no harm fires alongside the soldiers pushed to the edge, even he has to give up his oath in the name of survival and when others get shot he continues to fire as he knows that repelling the enemy is more important and the best chance of saving them. We see Kellin shoot a Jem'Hadar about to kill Ezri just to get shot after doing it, she crawls over to his lifeless body to hold him one last time. We see Sisko kill and kill again to be knocked down from behind then it fades to black, the battle is over, we have won but at what cost; dozens are dead, many injured and a relay that may help in the long war. Before he leaves the base with the last veteran after reinforcements arrives, the veteran remarks "children" Sisko simply replies "not for long".
They could have ended the episode here and it would still have been heavily effective on showing the dark side of humanity that surfaces in war, the desperation to survive by using weapons we would usually see as brutal and obscene. But it goes on for one more sense, Sisko is back in hi office and is brought another casualty list with what he is told has 1730 names on it. Looking out of his office window at the stars he says "They're not just names, it's important we remember that. We have to remember..." then we go to the credits. And I think that was a powerful way to end the episode as we can see how seeing the front lines made him see once again why he needs to read those lists, as most of those people died on a nameless rock, a skirmish in a unknown system or fighting for a thing that may not save anyone. We see that if we don't honour them they are just names on a list and we must never forget they are more than that, they are the ones who made victory possible and saved many others who survived the battle.
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