Day 134: DS9, Who Mourns for Morn?

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S6EP12, “Who Mourns for Morn?”

 Summary: The entire station is devastated when Morn (Mark Allen Shepard), the alien who always hangs around Quark’s bar, is killed in a storm. Quark gets over his grief a bit quicker than the others, mostly because he discovers that Morn left everything he owned to Quark. But if Morn had a hidden fortune, it’s not anywhere on the station. Then Quark has a run in with Morn’s ex-wife, Larell (Bridget Ann White), who says that Morn has a thousand bricks of gold pressed latinum squirreled away somewhere for his retirement fund. As Quark tries to get his hands on the latinum, he runs into two other groups trying to get their hands on the money; a pair of shady alien brothers (Brad Greenquist and Cyril O’Reilly) who were business associates of Morn’s, and Hain (Gregory Itzin), who says that Morn was actually a prince. And Quark is as surprised by these revelations as we are.

Standalone Thoughts: Just reading my review of this episode probably won’t do much for you, as I’ve only mentioned Morn eight times over the course of this project. But when you’ve been watching the show, having an entire episode based around the fact that he exists is an unexpected treat. Sure, he’s mostly been used as a source of visual gags or offscreen humor, but he’s a very recognizable figure, and so (most of) the audience has come to appreciate him at this point. The fact that DS9 decided to devote an entire episode to a background character who never speaks is actually kind of heartwarming, because it means that someone thought he was important enough to give some attention to, like they had with all the other supporting characters on the show. I think the episode is a fun romp as it is; throw in that detail and it just becomes that much better.

Much like The Magnificent Ferengi, this is an episode you shouldn’t take seriously. It’s clearly riffing off of several different types of comedy—hunting for a treasure, innocent guy (or “innocent” in Quark’s case) caught up in wacky hijinks, and faking grief when you’re really being a devious weasel—and blends them all into something that moves quickly and is very charming. And really, there’s not much more to say on the matter. It’s a fun episode, so if you like comedy, you’ll probably have a good time. I know I did.

How it Relates to the Whole: This episode is clearly just meant to be fluffy fun, so there’s no long term connection to anything. Not to mention (SPOILER ALERT) that Morn turns out to be alive at the end, so even that hasn’t changed. (END SPOILERS) Which is fine by me; a little fluff never went amiss every now and then.

Other: *This episode is one of the small handful of DS9 episodes with short teasers, although this one manages to feel longer than it is while also not dragging. Nice trick if you can pull it off.

*There’s a small callback to “In the Cards”, as part of the plot revolves around a painting Morn bought at the auction featured in that episode. That fact isn’t mentioned in the episode, but it’s fun for the continuity geeks.

*I love how Odo is clearly relishing Quark’s frustration as an examination of Morn’s effects keeps containing a distinct lack of profit. The smirking sarcasm on display is handled just right, so it’s funny rather than overly smug. It makes the episode even more entertaining to me.

*One of the two alien brothers talks with an inflection that seems to be aping gangster movies, sometimes copying the breathy intonations of Marlon Brando’s Vito Corleone, and other times adopting the broad accent of Joe Pesci. I’m guessing that was supposed to be intentional, but I have to admit it came across as more of an affectation than a funny reference. Fortunately, he tones it down significantly in later scenes.

*I don’t have a lot of experience with guns, but even I can tell that Hain is displaying a complete lack of gun safety in this episode. I wasn’t paying enough attention to be able to check his trigger discipline, but the fact that he goes to scratch his face with the barrel of the gun twice over the course of the episode says it all, I think. Did all the 24^th century weapons instructors lose their minds along with the fashion designers?

*This episode gives us more of a background on gold-pressed latinum; apparently, gold is worthless in the 24^th century, but since latinum is a liquid, gold was an easy way of making currency out of it. I mention this less for the worldbuilding and more because it puts Quark’s quick acceptance of being paid in gold in “Little Green Men” into a new light. On the one hand, it seems odd, since Quark has been brought up to see gold as worthless. But on the other, he’d been given the sense that gold was worth something in this time, so perhaps he pushed past his natural instinct so he could focus on the profit. Something that we can all agree would be very appropriate for him.

Best Line/Exchange: My choice this time is probably a bit obvious, but I like it anyway;

Odo: You replaced Morn with a hologram? Why?

(O’Brien and Bashir walk in)

O’Brien: Evening.

Bashir: Hello, Morn.

Quark: That’s why. People love him. He’s like a mascot. Everyone who comes in here expects to see him, and if they don’t, it doesn’t feel like home to them.

I can’t help but feel like Quark’s line there was a meta commentary, either about DS9 fans who expected to see Morn whenever we had a scene in Quark’s bar, or about the DS9 crew, who felt odd if Morn wasn’t around. This exchange also sets the tone for the episode, since it’s clearly full of affection and humor. DS9 has the reputation for being the darkest Star Trek show, but that just makes lines (and episodes) like this all the sweeter when they do show up.