“The Magnificent Ferengi”
Written by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
Directed by Chip Chalmers
Season 6, Episode 10
Production number 40510-534
Original air date: December 17, 1997
Stardate: unknown
Station log: Quark proudly announces that he has obtained syrup of squill. Odo thinks that means the drought is over on Balancar—but it turns out that there was never a drought, it was a story to allow the stockpiling of squill to drive the price up. But Quark heard that a prominent person on Balancar ordered a pair of Ferengi rain slippers, which he wouldn’t need if there was a drought. So Quark ordered several cases at a cheaper price, threatening to expose the scheme to the entire quadrant if they didn’t. (Of course, he just exposed it to the entire bar…)
Everyone’s thrilled with this story, right up until Dax, Bashir, and O’Brien walk in, having just returned from a dangerous mission on the Defiant. Quark is cranky because Starfleet just stole his audience.
Then he gets a call from Zek: Ishka has been taken prisoner by the Dominion while en route to Vulcan to get her ears raised. The grand nagus wants Quark to rescue her, and he’ll reward him with 50 bars of latinum. Quark recruits Rom to help for half the latinum, minus Quark’s 20% finder’s fee, of course. (Quark also explains to Rom about Zek and Ishka’s affair, and her unofficial role as his chief economic advisor, which Rom has a bit of trouble dealing with.)
They need a team to help rescue her. Said team will be told that the nagus is giving them 20 bars, and it will be split “evenly” among them, leaving the remaining 30 to be split between Quark and Rom.
However, Quark insists that the team only be Ferengi, that they can be just as tough as Klingons or Breen or Nausicaans. Rom is dubious, but goes along. Their first recruit is Nog, who actually has military training as a Starfleet officer. Next is Leck, a mercenary who isn’t interested in latinum, but loves a challenge, and is in it for the chance to go up against the Dominion. Then they recruit Gaila, who is destitute after the events of “Business as Usual,” and in prison for vagrancy. Gaila initially threatens vengeance on Quark for ruining him, but changes his tune once Quark pays his fine to free him and gives him a chance to earn some latinum.
Nog starts their training, but it doesn’t go particularly smoothly, made worse when they discover that Quark doesn’t have a ship that will get them to where they’re holding Ishka. They’re then interrupted by Brunt. He’s been fired from the FCA, and he wants to sign up (he figures rescuing Ishka will put him back in Zek’s good graces). Nobody wants him on the team, but he does have a ship, so they reluctantly let him join.
Unfortunately, Nog’s practice runs of rescuing Ishka go spectacularly badly. Quark and Rom can’t hit the broad side of a barn, Gaila throws up his hands, screams like a little girl, and runs away, Brunt surrenders, and Leck shoots Ishka (figuring they couldn’t rescue her, so he put her out of her misery). Quark and Rom realize they need a Plan B: they need to do what Ferengi do best, which is negotiate.
There is to be a prisoner exchange. Sisko and Kira agree to hand over Keevan to Quark to offer the Dominion in return for Ishka. Quark still takes the whole team, as he doesn’t trust the Dominion, and the exchange is happening on Empok Nor—Quark’s choice, as they know the layout, since it has the same design as DS9 (and Nog has been there before).
They set up base camp in the infirmary, arriving before the Dominion does. Keevan reveals that he’s not all that thrilled to be returned home, as he failed to follow the directive that all Vorta commit suicide when captured. To that end, Keevan escapes while being guarded by Gaila (who fell asleep), but they get him back just as the Dominion shows up. A Vorta named Yelgrun has arrived with a platoon of Jem’Hadar—and also Ishka.
Keevan tries to convince them to escape before they’re all killed, but Quark refuses to give in. He, Nog, and Rom go to the Promenade to negotiate while the others keep an eye on Keevan in the infirmary.
Quark’s terms are simple: all but two of the Jem’Hadar leave the station and their ship departs at warp nine. This will leave Yelgrun stranded for a few days, but it’s enough to guarantee the Ferengi’s safety after the exchange. Yelgrun points out that he can just have his Jem’Hadar storm the infirmary, but then Keevan will be killed without revealing what Dominion secrets he might have told the Federation.
Yelgrun agrees to the terms. The Ferengi are all celebratory until Rom accidentally reveals that the reward is 50 bars, not 20. An argument ensues, culminating in Gaila firing his rifle—but he shoots Keevan instead of Quark, killing the Vorta.
Luckily, they’re in the infirmary, which still has some working medical equipment. Nog attempts to revive Keevan with neural stimulators, which fails—but an impulse causes Keevan’s arm to flail. This gives Nog the idea of making it look like Keevan’s alive by copious use of neural stimulators up and down his body.
The prisoner exchange happens outside the airlock where Brunt’s ship is docked. Nog manages to Weekend-at-Bernie’s Keevan down the corridor, which works fine until Keevan walks into a bulkhead. But once Ishka is safe, Leck and Rom kill the two Jem’Hadar while Brunt and Gaila take Yelgrun prisoner. Quark figures they can turn Yelgrun over to Starfleet. (“They gave us a Vorta, we’ll give them a Vorta.”) Unfortunately, the neural stimulator signal is jammed, so even as the Ferengi and the Vorta depart the station, Keevan is still walking into the bulkhead over and over again….
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Rom disables the induction matrix on the impulse engines of Brunt’s ship so that Keevan can’t activate the ship and escape. Quark and the others still chase after Keevan when he does escape because sometimes Rom gets things wrong…
The Sisko is of Bajor: Quark and Rom spend a lot of time crawling through the station ductwork, and at one point they accidentally wind up in Sisko’s office. The look on Sisko’s face when they show up is priceless.
Don’t ask my opinion next time: Kira speaks to Starfleet on Quark’s behalf to convince them to turn Keevan over, in gratitude for Quark rescuing her in “Sacrifice of Angels.”
There is no honor in being pummeled: Quark convinces Nog to join the rescue operation by giving him the title of strategic operations officer—“Just like Commander Worf?” Nog asks eagerly.
Preservation of matter and energy is for wimps: Odo takes great glee in pointing out to Quark that no one wants to hear stories of economic triumph, especially during a war when there are real heroes. Quark’s reply that such stories are considered heroic on Ferenginar, which prompts Odo to remind Quark that they’re not on Ferenginar.
Rules of Acquisition: Ishka gives financial advice to Yelgrun even while she’s his prisoner. Yelgrun actually finds it useful, though it doesn’t alter his plan to kill Ishka unless Quark and Rom come through.
Tough little ship: The Defiant has undertaken a scouting mission behind enemy lines, the first such to succeed since the Dominion’s retreat in “Sacrifice of Angels.”
Victory is life: It’s never made entirely clear why the Dominion targeted Ishka…
What happens on the holosuite stays on the holosuite: Nog apparently borrowed Dax’s cave program that she practices with the bat’leth on for the battle drill (cf. “Blood Oath,” “The Way of the Warrior,” etc.).
Keep your ears open: “Family. You understand.”
“Not really. I was cloned.”
“No parents—that explains a lot.”
“No parents, no sweetheart, no investment portfolio—”
“—and no patience.”
Quark explaining things to Yelgrun, Yelgrun not really getting it, Rom and Ishka commenting on that lack of understanding, and Yelgrun shutting everyone up.
Welcome aboard: Back for their second and final appearances are Christopher Shea as Keevan (following “Rocks and Shoals”), Josh Pais as Gaila (following “Business as Usual”), and Hamilton Camp as Leck (following his brief cameo in “Ferengi Love Songs”). Shea will play three more roles, as a fish-like alien in Voyager’s “Think Tank,” as a Suliban in Enterprise’s “Detained,” and as an Andorian in Enterprise’s “Cease Fire.” Camp will be seen again on Voyager’s “Extreme Risk” as Vrelk.
Recurring regulars Cecily Adams (Ishka), Jeffrey Combs (Brunt), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Max Grodénchik (Rom), and Chase Masterson (Leeta) are all here, as well.
But the big guest is the great musician Iggy Pop as Yelgrun.
Trivial matters: Ira Steven Behr, a longtime fan of Iggy Pop, had wanted him to play Grady in “Past Tense, Part II,” but the schedules couldn’t be worked out. This is for the best, as Pop’s role here was far more entertaining. It also marked the first time Behr was on set for shooting, as he wasn’t going to miss one of his musical heroes appearing on the show he ran.
The original intent had been for Zek to be the one kidnapped, but Wallace Shawn was unavailable.
The episode is at least partly inspired by the Western The Magnificent Seven (itself a remake of the Akira Kurosawa classic Seven Samurai). And counting Ishka, there are seven Ferengi…
Quark’s story involving syrup of squill and Ishka’s waxing rhapsodic on hypicate root futures are both riffs on the W.C. Fields film It’s a Gift.
Yelgrun’s comment that he thought the Breen were annoying is a minor bit of foreshadowing of the Breen’s eventual joining the Dominion next season.
This is the last appearance of both Gaila and Leck on screen, but both are seen in tie-in fiction. Both Gaila and Leck (and Brunt and Ishka for that matter) are part of the Ferenginar portion of Worlds of DS9 Volume 3 by your humble rewatcher, and Gaila also appears in my Demons of Air and Darkness and David A. McIntee’s “Reservoir Ferengi” in Seven Deadly Sins.
Yelgrun is seen in three games: The Star Trek Customizable Card Game, Star Trek Online, and Star Trek Conquest. (The CCG lists him as a musician, which is at odds with the Vorta having no sense of aesthetics, but is a reference to his being played by Iggy Pop.)
This is the second appearance of Empok Nor, following the station’s eponymous episode. It will be seen again in “Covenant.”
Walk with the Prophets: “I hate Ferengi.” What a fun episode. It doesn’t make any kind of sense on the face of it, but you don’t care because you’re laughing so hard. Sure, it’s absurd for the Dominion to capture the secret paramour of the Ferengi Grand Nagus. Politically speaking, I can almost see the kidnapping of Zek, as originally intended, but even that doesn’t have any obvious benefit for the Dominion except for a prisoner exchange—except, of course, the entire notion of a prisoner exchange comes from Quark, not Yelgrun. So why did they do it?
For that matter, Quark’s motivation for only using Ferengi for his rescue operation is pretty thin, and shows a level of pride that flies in the face of common sense that we don’t often see from Quark. Maybe the events of “The House of Quark” gave him a taste of how cool it is to be the hero of a story told in a bar, but while the fact that he’s being upstaged by Starfleet is an understandable motivator for the rescue in general, it makes no sense for him to limit the team to Ferengi.
But the above complaints require thought, and this is an episode that encourages you to turn your brain off for an hour and enjoy the ride, because the ride is spectacular. Armin Shimerman and Max Grodénchik’s double act is honed to a razor’s edge at this point, and every interaction is comedy gold, from crawling around the ductwork in the beginning to the negotiations with Yelgrun.
And their support is even better. As expected, Jeffrey Combs is magnificently oily as Brunt and Aron Eisenberg is hilariously earnest as Nog. Christopher Shea doesn’t quite engender the same levels of contempt that he did in “Rocks and Shoals,” but he’s still a spectacular douchecanoe, to the point where you don’t feel even a little sorry for him being shot and having his corpse desecrated (and points to him for giving us the awesome physical comedy of lurching down the corridor and constantly crashing into the bulkhead). Josh Pais as usual does an excellent turn as Gaila, still the same person generally, but completely broken by the aftermath of “Business as Usual” (his girly scream during the holosuite simulation was epic).
But the true find here is the great character actor Hamilton Camp, who gives us the best Ferengi ever in Leck. Camp beautifully plays Leck’s psychotic lunacy, adding a touch of true insanity to a situation that’s already pretty nuts. Leck is delightful (and his presence led to me writing the Mission Impossible-esque sequence where Leck breaks into a secure archive on Ferenginar, which was just so much fun to write!).
Mention must also be made of an impressively deadpan turn by Iggy Pop—one of the world’s most kinetic performers—as Yelgrun, and a script that plays to every single actor’s comic strengths.
Ultimately, this succeeds as a comic action piece because the action is really good, and all the comedy is genuinely funny. Even the parts that should be wince inducing (like the animation of Keevan’s corpse) induce belly laughs. Just a delightful romp.
Warp factor rating: 7
Keith R.A. DeCandido reminds everyone that his Sleepy Hollow novel Children of the Revolution will be out this month, just in time for season 2 of the FOX TV show on which it’s based to debut. You can preorder the novel from the SleepyReads web site, and Keith has this along with several other of his books (including a bunch of his Trek works) for sale as well.
I loved watching this episode, it was great and humorous
If you can “turn your brain off for an hour and enjoy the ride”, then this one is pretty funny the first time around. Kind of predictable, but funny. After that it’s just OK, because you can’t turn your brain off every time. At least I can’t. Maybe I should try drinking and watching this one? I do agree that the actors involved all do a great job with their parts, and Gaila’s scream is indeed epic.
I wonder if Nog’s trick with Keevan’s corpse is a bit of a callback to McCoy’s RC Spock in “Spock’s Brain”.
RC Spock! Great name for a band.
Mostly fun, but I’m not a fan of seeing death trivialized in fiction, so I didn’t find Keevan’s fate amusing. Maybe in a different context it would’ve been okay, a different franchise, but it doesn’t feel right for Star Trek.
Interesting how Ferengi are often played by voice actors from animated shows. Hamilton Camp was Fenton Crackshell/GizmoDuck in the final season or two of DuckTales. Barry Gordon, Nava in “The Nagus,” was Donatello in the original ’80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, as well as the Nestle’s Quik rabbit in commercials. Jason Marsden, Grimp in “Bar Association,” has done countless animation voices including Snapper Carr in Justice League (and is the only actor I know of to have played versions of Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, and Dick Grayson). And Wallace Shawn has done his share of voice work, most famously as Rex in Toy Story.
This episodes does for the Ferengi what Soldiers of the Empire did for the Klingons. It manages to piggyback on the Klingon concept of honor, while still playing to the Ferengi’s own strengths. Definitely one of the wackiest and funniest hours DS9 has done.
And Ira was able to secure Chip Chalmers to direct this piece. An excellent choice, having been an AD on TNG, and having directed Ira’s first TNG solo script, Captain’s Holiday. He knows how to do execute visual comedy within Trek’s framework better than most directors.
Even the idea that Vulcans have ear treatment clinics sounds ridiculous in the best of ways (at least that’s what I got from ‘raising your ears’).
Indeed, a lot of Ferengi actors do voiceover work. Hamilton Camp voiced some of my favorite characters on Full Throttle, an adventure game from the 1990’s. Great use of Iggy Pop too.
The rewatch is catching up to me; I only rewatched this one recently
I’m not sure I would rate this as high as a 7 – maybe a 5 or a 6. There were parts that were funny, but overall it just… didn’t amuse me as much as it seems to others.
(Except for Keevan at the end. That had me snickering horribly.)
I also feel kind of bad that I didn’t notice Iggy Pop. Especially since my dog is named after him.
I can’t think of a better fate for Keevan than banging his head against the wall for the rest of his “life.” Some hilarious physical comedy by Christopher Shea.
This one should be a 10. Because Iggy. No other reason is required.
I forgot to mention that Armin Shimerman and Jeffrey Combs have done significant amounts of voice work themselves.
I had somehow forgotten about Gaila’s cowardly scream & run until I read the synopsis. Then I laughed at the memory.
Now I need to go and re-watch this episode. It’s the epitome of how DS9 made the Ferengi a meaningful and endearing part of Star Trek.
I was really hoping Weyoun could be in this episode somehow, simply so Jeffrey Combs could act with himself (although the amount of makeup work would probably have been horendous!).
Anyway, I will admit that I got a chuckle out of the scene where they are running through the halls and knock over the bin…it seemed like the kind of thing that could have been a mistake that they left in because it was funny (kind of like that scene in It’s a Wonderful Life where Uncle Billy knocks over the trash can off screen).
But…I am actually a bit with CLB here in that…yeah, it IS funny and a funny image, but at the same time, I couldn’t totally get past the fact that they shot a prisoner they were supposed to be transporting safely (not to mention killing/taking prisoner the contingent that came in good faith to negotiate, unless Keevan was right and they were just going to kill them all)…and even if they hadn’t killed him, it was kind of chilling to realize they were just delivering him back to torture and death. It is maybe a little easier to take because they’re the big bad villains, there aren’t any parents/sweethearts who were anxiously awaiting their return in this exchange, and the knowledge that he could theoretically be cloned agian, but…the value of life shouldn’t really be determined by that anyway. It’s a hard part of my brain to turn off (and I don’t really want to, anyway).
As for Keevan, in both of his episodes, I’m struck by how very Elvish he appears. His character always reminds me of a cross between that and my image of an ancient Roman citizen.
@12: Brunt and Weyoun are both in “The Dogs of War” in season 7, since the producers found the idea as irresistible as you do, though I don’t think they had a scene together.
The dark humor surrounding the fates of different Vorta does seem to be a running joke throughout the series. Surely there must be a compilation video somewhere….
One of my top ten DS9 eps. Comedy gold. Makes no sense, but is funny.
After Keevan’s actions in Rocks and Shoals, I can’t be sorry that he died.
Score it a ten from me.
I tend to find the episodes that riff on classic films or other such things to be a little tiresome. And there are elements of that here for me. But I mostly agree. It’s a surprisingly funny episode – one that made me groan in anticipation but which mostly sold me on its absurdities.
After a watch and a rewatch, though, I can’t say that I’ll ever need to see it again. Though the comment above about watching in a state other than sober is probably a good one.
And I agree with the discomfort about the way that the genuinely awful stuff here is played entirely for laughs. Doesn’t ruin it for me, but does feel a little icky.
@12
I really didn’t like the way Keevan was treated myself. It’s a good job the Vorta are coloured white rather than black, or I don’t know what everyone would have said about the humour involved in what people do to him.
But it was still funny.
It’s not too surprising that Ferengi actors would be skilled at voice work. I imagine those prostheses make it a lot more difficult to act with your face, so you get pretty good at acting with your voice.
Especially amusing to me is that Armin Shimerman voiced the Ayn Randian founder of the underwater city Rapture in the first Bioshock game—effectively a Ferengi in all but name.
@18: Good point. There’s a long history of actors with great voices being used for prosthetic roles. The Planet of the Apes franchise used a ton — Roddy McDowall, Maurice Evans, Kim Hunter, people like Mark Lenard and Roscoe Lee Browne in the TV series. And then there are Trek actors like David Warner, John Schuck, Alan Oppenheimer, James Avery, etc. Michael Dorn himself didn’t use his voice very well when he started as Worf, but in the decades since he’s become quite an accomplished voiceover actor — his animation work is probably a larger part of his career than his on-camera work.
Yelgrun doesn’t just appear in Star Trek Online, he (or, at least, a clone) can become a member of your crew :).
I don’t know, the Weekend at Bernie’s bit of this episode is always just a little bit too much for me.
One of the very few episodes of DS9 I didn’t even remember a little bit even after reading the rewatch summary. I usually like the Ferengi episodes in DS9, but this is by far the weakest of the bunch for me.
Ferengi in small doses are fine but a whole ep about them sometimes goes to far.
I have to wonder though do the writers just make up Starfleet rules as they go? Because I’m sure Nog would have been off limits with this group. They are in short, mercenaries or rogue civilians not an official Ferengi military personal. This was not a sanctioned joint venture between Starfleet and Ferengar. Nog should never have been near this as it’s a huge conflict of intrest for him. He serves Starfleet and presumebly is now a Federation citizen.
I know Worf has done this a million times by now, but at least for some of those times he had permission and when he didn’t Picard at least put it on his permenant record.
Tunod D. Denrub (@7): But, does he *want* to be your dog?
do the writers just make up Starfleet rules as they go?
Sure do. Also in this episode we have them giving up a high value prisoner for no good reason to someone who is extremely untrustworthy.
@25 Wasn’t the Vorta held at a Federation Prison or something similar? Certainly he was interrogated long ago (he was captured how many episodes ago?) . What other value would he have aside from information? They clone Vorta, so he is beyond expendable. (Of course, they do run out sometimes… see “I wish you hadn’t done that.”)
@25: Quark’s mission was being done at the behest of the Grand Nagus himself. Giving up a single prisoner (and letting Nog participate in the mission) is a pretty small price for the Federation to pay to win some major good will with the Ferengi Alliance.
Actually, I was impressed that at several points during DS9, there was some awareness that Nog had some geopolitical value as an extended family member of the head of state of a loosely alligned power. In this case, they would certainly have let him go, as his grandmother is probably seen as a very pro-Federation influence on the Ferengi.
Also, due to the way that the Ferengi think, having the Grand Nagus in the debt of Starfleet would be seen as highly useful – how much intel would that be good for? Probably a lot. In addition, Keevan was useless. Why not see what value can be obtained?
Starfleet (in DS9 anyway) is a heck of a lot more pragmatic than in other ST shows.
@19
LeVar Burton is another Trek actor with tons of animation voiceover experience.
@29: Burton’s done a fair amount of voice work, notably Captain Planet, but I don’t know if I’d call it a ton. Now, Rene Auberjonois has been active in voice work since the ’70s, doing a bunch of Hanna-Barbera shows, various DC Animated Universe roles, etc.
Re voice work: Wil Wheaton has also done quite a bit, both animation and video games.
@31: At this point, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Trek actor who hasn’t done animation voice work. All the TOS cast but Walter Koenig did the animated Trek, and Nimoy, Takei, Nichols, and Barrett have done other animation work. Also Stewart, Frakes, Dorn, Sirtis, Spiner, Wheaton, Burton, Muldaur, Brooks, Auberjonois, Shimerman, Meaney, Mulgrew, Picardo, Phillips, Lien, Russ, Billingsley, Keating. Visitor, Beltran, Siddig, and Trinneer have done a little bit of animation work each, just barely. So has Scott Bakula, though most of his voice work has been as unseen characters in live-action productions (Chuck, Source Code).
I’d say the busiest ones in animation work have been Dorn, Auberjonois, Stewart (largely in feature films), Shimerman, Picardo, Wheaton, Phillips, and Billingsley, and Lien for a few years before she retired from acting.
KRAD, just wanted to say thanks for the rewatch. I devoured TNG over the past two weeks, and have started on DS9.
But I have an ulterior motive for finally posting. I have a message for MattHamilton, a regular poster here. Some time last year, you wrote that you found Nana Visitor’s acting a bit much. You claimed that even in small moments, she seems to overact. I know it was made a long time ago (I’ve only just started reading the DS9 rewatch posts, so apologies for my tardiness) but I’d like to respond to this comment.
THANK YOU!!! I have no doubt that my reaction to Kira’s character is a bit more extreme than yours, but I have railed for years that Visitor is an over-emoter whose character cannot experience an emotion without wallowing in it. Whenever Kira is happy, she’s got an ear-to-ear grin and whenever she is angry she’s snarling and barking like Picard during a mind-meld. She somehow even over-vamps as mirror-universe Kira. We get it, you are sexy and diabolical. I know it isn’t a character for subtlety, but for heaven’s sake, try underplaying it once or twice.
I found her slightly irritating at first, but as the show wore, the way Visitor portrayed Kira made her my least-favorite character next to Rom. While rewatching episodes at various times over the past decade, I’ve checked the internet for like-minded individuals. You are the FIRST person I’ve seen who has offered an opionion anywhere close to my own. Most people seem to love the character and think that Visitor does a fine job in her portrayal.
Anyway, perhaps you’ve softened on her and think that Visitor got better as the series went on. I hope not. To this day, I cannot understand the love the character gets and why nobody calls Visitor on her lousy acting. Sorry about the long post, but I’ve had a decade of vitriol stored and ready. :)
@33: I don’t agree that emoting strongly is bad acting, because I do it myself in real life. Some people are just more expressive, or more intensely emotional, than others.
@34: I agree that emoting strongly does not necessarily equal bad acting.
Now that I’ve said that, I’d like to restate that I believe Visitor overacted more times than not. I felt Visitor’s performance frequently veered into hoary melodramatics, and her overly-expressive emotional reveals sucked any nuance from the character. She was very one-note to me, and I feel like she was written to be something more than an emoticon-delivery machine.
I know Visitor was in Chicago on Broadway at one point, so maybe she has that classical stage-actor syndrome of overselling so the viewers in the cheap seats can see what she’s doing. Whatever the reason, watching her, arms raised, staring triumphantly at the sky (or roof) as Odo-dust cascaded onto her in a cathartic affirmation of the beauty of life….. well, it was enough to give me a toothache. I often had such reactions to Visitor’s acting. I guess your tolerance for these things exceeds my own.
But I’m glad to get a response from you. I feel like part of the gang already! :)
I loved the practice session on the holodeck…er…holosuite… where they each react differently to the situation. They need those hardened Ferengi mercenaries from TNG Rascals! :) On a different note, I always thought it would have been great to see Ferengi Maurader ship on DS9, especially for an episode like this (or of course when the Grand Negus was travelling instead of being in a shuttle).
Best Ferengi episode ever. I was laughing the whole hour. And I agree, its a great episode to turn off your brain for an hour and enjoy. Every beat is perfect, and always good to meet a Ferengi that goes against the grain, like Leck, even if they are a psychopath. Just a damn fun and funny hour.
This was Star Trek comedy; which is few & far between. To have been able to listen/watch as the script was created would have been an experience.
@3
great call comparing Keevan walking into the bulkhead over and over again with Spock’s Brain. Totally what I was thinking.
I enjoyed seeing Keevan walking over and over into the bulkhead and it was a creepy and memorable scene to end the show. twilight zone!
I must saw, I was a bit taken aback with killing Keevan like that. I don’t disapprove, mind you, I was just shocked as it seemed very un-Trek. I went into this episode with the lowest of expectations. Usually, the Ferengi episodes leave me wanting. I like Quark, I like Rom and the actors that play them, but when you put them in a Ferengicentric episode, it usually leaves me wanting. The whole one note, commerce driven culture thing can get a bit tiresome after a while.
This episode, however, was a thing of magic.
The comedy was nonstop and on the mark. The dialog sharp and quick and the characters just…funny. Two great episodes in a row, now. We must be due for a Miles must suffer one coming soon.
Iggy Pop dislocated a shoulder prior to filming (due to too enthusiastic crowd-diving) but he still took the role of Yelgrun anyway and persisted (that’s why he can be seen nursing his arm throughout). 6: Yeah, Hamilton Camp was Malcolm Corley but I liked him more as the Corley Motors souvenir salesman – you need to steal his box of bunnies to get across the Vultures minefield. 8: what did Dukat’s flock think when they found Keevan’s corpse walking over and over into a bulkhead? 38: the latest Star Trek comedy is The Orville, or comedy-drama, since The Orville does have a serious side. 40: two – Honour Among Thieves and Time’s Orphan.
Was Gaila’s scream paying homage to the Wilhelm Scream?
@SgtDawkins
I agree with you about Visitor, except I like her in Our Man Bashir and the Mirror Universe bits, where the shortcomings become an asset.
I do think she got a little better over time, and I must admit I feel much more forgiving since meeting her in person; she’s very sweet and funny lady.
Lockdown rewatch, excellent comedy episode, who doesn’t like Iggy? Anyway the only slight thing I wasn’t happy about was Gaila, on his previous appearance it was interesting to see him as a competent, slightly sinister and mostly none-comedy Ferengi, probably closer to the original idea of what the Ferengi were going to be to the TNG universe, here though he’s as big a Buffoon as the rest of them.. But I suppose we do get Leck to more or less fulfil that role. But that is a minor point of quibble as we get to see the loathsome Kevan get his just deserts and there are tons of Rom and Brunt which is never a bad thing, and did I mention who doesn’t like Iggy? Lovely stuff
I like Iggy Pop’s acting, but I didn’t care for him as a Vorta. My conception of Vorta (informed mostly, but not entirely, by Weyoun) is that they should have an effete, fussy quality—like if the Founders cloned Felix Ungar.
And Iggy Pop isn’t like that at all, so I couldn’t buy him as a Vorta.