Revisiting Deep Space Nine...

Having wandered through the whole of Star Trek The Next Generation on Netflix I’ve now wandered on to Deep Space Nine … and what a strange thing it is.  I’ve tried to categorise it as a format (because who is happy unless they can put something into a box?) and I think the nearest to anything else that I can place it is it seems to be a cross between a Western and Minder. 

It really seems an excuse to explore the various races encountered in TNG.  Primarily the Ferengi (the ones with the big ears), the Bajorans (the ones with the crinkly nose) and the Cardassians (the ones that look like lizards).

The breakout character in the series is Quark the Ferengi bar owner.  Throughout TNG Captain Pickard is often bleating that the Federation has eliminated want and greed – particularly when reviving cryogenically frozen people from the past.  However, DS9 reveals this to seemingly be total baloney as the space station’s inhabitants and the Ferengi in particular are obsessed with bars of “gold pressed latinum” and dodgy dealing.  The hyper capitalist Ferengi who are supposed to be a satire on 20^th century humans live to rip people off – indeed it’s part of their religion which has some 285 rules of acquisition” which someone called Jonah Goldberg compared with the 613 Commandments of Judeism.  He also complained that their ears being big was somehow the same as Nazi caricatures of big nose Jews.  Well, Spock has big ears and… but I suppose Spock is not a negative depiction.  The again neither is Quark really.   He’s a man/Ferengi trapped in a system.  Then again perhaps there’s a glimmer of truth here somewhere… I mean, if you’re going to create a religion for your characters it is probably going to end up as a portmanteau of existing religions or you’d have to invent it from first principles… or perhaps Mr Goldberg is seeing what he wants to see… or maybe everything that is a satire on capitalism gets called anti-Semitic… but it could just as easily be a satire of the protestant work ethic…?  Anyway…

...Quark (Armin Shimerman) ’s bar, which is somewhere between the Winchester Club, Rick's Café Américain and Café Rene allows for a lot of interesting comedy plots and double dealings.  A lot of stolen artifacts drive the plots …which is a bit of a plot hole as I thought the replicators could replicate anything… but maybe even with replication there’s a way to discover if it’s the real Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies…. Sorry, wrong show…  but the same rules of farce are often employed. 

Particularly memorable so far is the comedy classic episode “The Nagus” in which Quark is promoted temporarily to the position of Nagus (or Chief Ferengi) and finds himself quickly out of his depth as he's no Tony Soprano. In many ways the Ferengi seem to mirror the Mafia with their close family associations, relatives prepared to bump each other off in internecine conflicts and obsession with dubious money making schemes.  Well, closer to that than…

There are nice subplots too.  The relationship between Commander Sisko and his son Jake and Jake’s relationship with Nog who is the son of Quark’s much put upon underling/brother Rom is really well done and sets up interesting power dynamics that really drive the plots forward.  Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton have a nice chemistry together as father and son and the dichotomy between the Commander’s principles and practice are often subtly laid bare.   Aron Eisenberg who played Nog  (Jake’s Ferengi friend) is good with Loften too … sadly it seems Aron died aged 50 of heart failure in 2019…

The inhabitants of DS9 are further fleshed out with Odo (the shapeshifting loner), Julian Bashir (the enthusiastic doctor), Jadzia Dax (the one with the parasite inside), Kira Nerys (the Bajoran liason) and Chief O’Brien (the transporter chief from TNG who has been promoted and is sometimes seen with his wife Keiko when the production team can afford her)… but it’s Ferengi Quark and his hilarious shenanigans that steal the show.