Day 132: DS9, The Magnificent Ferengi

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S6EP10, “The Magnificent Ferengi”

 Summary: Quark gets bad news from the Grand Nagus; the Dominion have captured Ishka. Since she’s the Nagus’ lover and financial advisor, the Nagus is offering fifty bars of latinum to get her back. Knowing he can’t take on the Dominion alone, Quark assembles a team of six Ferengi; himself, Rom, and Nog, obviously; his cousin Gaila, who’s fallen on hard times since “Business as Usual”; a Ferengi named Leck (Hamilton Camp), who’s the Ferengi equivalent of an assassin; and, with great reluctance, Brunt, who’s been fired from his job in the FCA and is looking for a way to get back into the Nagus’ good graces. Although the original plan is to storm a Dominion internment camp to get Ishka back, the group eventually hits on a much more appropriate option—trade Ishka for Keevan, the Vorta captured during “Rocks and Shoals”. Of course, that’s no guarantee that things will go smoothly…

Standalone Thoughts: Unlike some episodes, the inspiration for this story—the 1960 movie The Magnificent Seven—is blatantly obvious from the moment you read the title. And if you’re familiar with the story, you can map some of the characters and plot beats onto this episode, though it’s obviously not a one-to-one correlation. Even if you didn’t know The Magnificent Seven existed, though, I think you’d find this episode entertaining, unless you’re one of those people who hates every single Ferengi episode.

The episode walks the perfect balance of having the actors play the material straight, while also making it clear that everyone is aware of how ridiculous the situation is. As a result, even though the situation is serious, it’s hard to take it too seriously, if you see what I’m getting at. You can just sit back and enjoy the absurdity, without worrying that something’s going to go seriously wrong. Sure, this isn’t the norm for Deep Space Nine, but as I’ve said before, it’s good to have some comedy to balance out the darkness, and this is a fine example of the form.

I’d say the best part of the episode, on the whole, are the bits that feature Quark, Nog, or Rom, because all three of them show what they can do at their best while still being Ferengi. Rom’s engineering skills don’t really come into play, but he’s caring and still comes up with good ideas (he’s the one who suggests they swap from commando mission to exchange of hostages). Quark’s ability to weasel his way out of bad situations comes in handy, both in getting Ferengi to help out and when dealing with the Dominion. And Nog really shows how far he’s come, by putting his Starfleet training to good use and being the one to get them out of the last bad situation thrown their way (which I wouldn’t dream of spoiling). The rest of the supporting actors are fine if somewhat undeveloped (a problem the original movie had, actually), but it’s those three that really make this episode fun.

There are only two weaknesses in the episode. First, the scene where Quark has to explain the situation to Rom is a shameless exposition dump, no matter how much they try to literally keep the characters moving so we won’t get bored. Secondly, there’s a scene that primarily revolves around the six Ferengi running down various corridors chasing after Keevan, which I’m pretty sure was just put there to pad out the episode, because it ultimately adds nothing to the plot and only does a little character building. But in both cases, they’re over relatively quickly, and the rest of the material more than makes up for it. So in conclusion, this is hardly an essential episode of Deep Space Nine…but I think it’s one of the most fun.

How it Relates to the Whole: There is no followup to this, either in the Ferengi episodes or in the main plot. However, the episode draws from a surprising number of previous episodes. They bring back Keevan from “Rocks and Shoals”, use the abandoned station from “Empok Nor” as a neutral spot to make the trade, acknowledge Quark’s actions in “Sacrifice of Angels”, and use the events of “Business as Usual” to bring Gaila into the group. And that’s in addition to building off of the events of prior Ferengi episodes. It’s a lot of callbacks for an episode that’s supposed to be silly, but I think that may be part of why it’s so enjoyable. It just proves the whole thing was well-crafted.

Other: *Nothing of particular note today, it seems. Better luck tomorrow.

Best Line/Exchange: We’ve got another exchange that was locked in immediately, on the grounds that it’s become part of my family’s vernacular;

(Quark and Rom have been going through the Jefferies tubes, trying to get out into the main hall. They open a hatch and find themselves in Sisko’s office instead)

Sisko: May I help you, gentlemen?

Rom (to Quark): I was following you.

Quark (to Sisko) We must have taken a wrong turn.

Sisko: It looks that way.

(Rom and Quark back out and close the hatch. Sisko turns away with a “What just happened?” look on his face)

It’s a small moment, but it’s hilarious to watch and perfectly delivered/acted. In an episode filled with silliness, that’s probably the most memorable part to me. Strange, I know, but you never know what’s going to resonate with you.

After the Fact Update: Astoundingly, the episode apparently wasn’t based on The Magnificent Seven in the minds of the writers. However, Armin Shimerman and Max Grodénchik assumed that was the case, watched the movie on their own time, and had that influence the way they played their characters. So I wasn’t entirely wrong.