Little Green Men

DVD, DS9 S4 (Little Green Men)

There comes a time in every young Ferengi's life when he has to go out into the big wide world and make a profit. In Nog's case he's embarking on a course of making a profit in skills and experiences that only Starfleet can offer, but, we discover, far from losing his Ferengi-ness in a Federation blanket of rules and regs, you can see his tenacity and resourcefulness are going to help him fit right in. Eventually… Here we learn that a young Ferengi auctions off all his possessions in order to get the capital needed to go off on his adventures, and while Nog doesn't technically need money where he's going, he follows his people's traditions with relish. It's an opportunity to see all the characters before it becomes a purely Ferengi episode (a rare one not to feature any of the extended family of Zek, Moogie, Brunt, etc, the empty space made up for with time travel) and provides some little comedic moments to get things going in that direction - Worf being forced to attend the auction under Sisko's orders (he's heavily duty-focused, much like Tuvok on 'Voyager' and both of these characters tend to be forced by their captain's into social events!), eventually finding a worthy purchase in Nog's tooth-sharpeners.

There's also a scene featuring Dax cheekily buying a 'pleasure' holoprogram for Bashir as a little tease. Dax and Bashir keep appearing together: in 'Indiscretion' they were sitting in the bar together, counselling Sisko on his troubles with Kasidy, then in 'Starship Down' Bashir saved her life and they spent the whole story in a cupboard. If you know the rest of the series you'd think they'd be some follow up to the scene in 'The Way of The Warrior' in which she met Worf, by now, but the overt way their friendship has been displayed so far is actually beginning to make me wonder if they wanted to do something with her and Bashir. It was most likely down to O'Brien being featured less as Meaney was off doing a film, Dax probably the second most likely candidate for Bashir to hang around with.

We haven't seen Quark as top dog for a while since Rom hadn't appeared until this point in the season, so now we get back to his familiar bullying nature, telling his brother what to do. For the first time we get an idea of the depth that would be revealed in Rom, spouting technobabble as he saves their lives when cousin Gaila's booby-trapped shuttle is about to get them all killed. Quark still calls him an idiot at the end, but in that scene there's scary intelligence in Rom's thoughtful leer - as Odo leads his brother away he enjoys the thought of taking over the bar, if only for a few weeks. He's demonstrated a malicious comprehension before - he tried to kill Quark back in 'The Nagus,' but his low position still forces him to set low standards and have low goals, taking over the bar continuing to be his highest ambition. While Quark doesn't have the genius-level technical knowledge, he does have much stronger business acumen. He points out that running the bar is nothing compared with ruling the galaxy by changing the timeline, a fate we're spared thanks to the twentieth century military's suspicions and Odo's actions.

Having the Ferengi accidentally travel in time, and especially having them do it on Earth, was a genius idea in itself, but add that to the myth surrounding the Roswell incident of a supposedly crashed UFO in 1947 to tell the real story is positively Rom-like! I wouldn't say the episode is on a par with the first two episodes of the season, but the mix of great ideas displayed here certainly makes it one of the more enjoyable episodes this season and is another example of the writers beginning to try out more outlandish ideas. It's true to Ferengi nature that they would take advantage of the time travel and attempt to profit by it, whereas Starfleet operatives would do everything possible not to alter the timeline in the slightest. Well, maybe just a little, as Captain Sisko did in the last conventional (i.e., excluding 'Visionary' and 'The Visitor' which were hopping around rather than a direct visit to another era) time travel story of the series, 'Past Tense,' a fun link being shown in Nog's discovery that Gabriel Bell looks just like Sisko - it was of course him. How they got the photo I don't know, but it's one of those headaches about time travel.

In the teaser it appeared they'd omitted a scene between Nog and Jake, a criminal offence not to give some payoff to one of the great friendships of the series, especially in view of the fact that Nog may never come back. Yes, he did come back, we all know that, but at the time it seemed like the end of an era, and it was - Jake and Nog have grown up (Jake at least a foot!), and thankfully there is a scene after the credits where the two visit their old spot on the promenade where they spent many happy hours watching the DS9 world go by. It takes you back to those early episodes and we're sad with them as they walk away from it, but there's also the excitement of new adventures awaiting, and they couldn't have sat on the promenade forever. As Sisko said in 'The Visitor,' if you don't stick your head up and see life, you can miss it, and that's just what Nog isn't going to do. Jake on the other hand remains a little directionless, only his writing talent a guide for his future and that's not so easy to portray on screen.

Getting to the core of the story is very quickly achieved. I like that they created a story around Nog going to the Academy instead of just saying goodbye and leaving it to our imagination, they took advantage of the positions of the playing pieces on the board and used them to create a very good story. Nog does get his sendoff via the auction and in the scene where Bashir and O'Brien come to wish him well. They'd never have guessed what a cadet he'd make!

The harsh lighting of 1947 leaves nothing to the imagination in the Ferengi makeup, but it holds up well and they look real, as always, though the station's dimmer light is kinder. There's always a bit of slapstick in Ferengi comedies, the obvious moment being Quark twiddling his nose when he realises the humans are mimicking them as they pat their heads in an effort to kickstart the Universal Translators, but my funniest moment is Nog thumping Captain Wainwright twice in an effort to get away, then when guns are drawn he pitifully pleads it was a mistake and he tripped! Priceless. There's also a lot we discover about the Ferengi themselves - for the first time we hear their language, cleverly showing scenes from both their point of view in which the humans talk weirdly thanks to their large Ferengi ears hearing differently, to the human's hearing them as gobbledygook. Still no sign of a Ferengi Language Institute, sadly! We also hear of their version of heaven (the Divine Treasury), and hell (the Vault of Eternal Destitution) and that they keep their UT's actually inside their earlobes, rather than on combadges as I believe most races do, though it's a thorny area to explain.

There were a few nitpicks I had on the episode that I hadn't noticed before. Seen on DVD, Quark clearly leaves orange marks from his makeup when he batters on the door, and when Odo changes shape from the dog he was disguised as, how does he know there's no one watching through the two-way mirror, as he must have known it could be seen through when he'd been on the other side? I suspect he could either hear or see through, or maybe he just didn't care and took a chance. Another suspicious moment is in Quark's readiness to accept gold in payment. In the 24th Century it's known to be practically worthless, used as a container for valuable Latinum, but then you realise Quark isn't planning on returning to his time, he wants to take advantage of Earth, and since gold is valuable there, he would want it. Then again, I have a feeling that the reason gold lost its value was because it could be replicated, so Quark could be instantly wealthy, unless the replicator was damaged. One thing I noticed for the first time thanks to DVD, but wasn't a nitpick, was when the Ferengi shuttle lifts off - the front 'claws' actually create a dented rivulet as the ship lifts off and scrapes up the side. Attention to detail once again.

The lack of swearing was noticeable, something I was pleased about, as sometimes the writers take the opportunity of another time to be a bit slacker in the verbal department, or maybe that was only later episodes as TV values became eroded? It was nice to hear Nurse Garland's far-seeing vision of a time when humans would venture out into space, basically describing 'Star Trek.' She was played by Megan Gallagher who'd played another girlfriend on the series in 'Invasive Procedures,' though the most high-profile guest was Charles Napier as General Denning. You couldn't get a wider range than he played between the cigar-chomping, chin-jutting General, to Adam the space hippy in 'The Way To Eden' way back in 'TOS,' almost a thirty year gap between them! It's brilliant that they were still bringing back actors from that era, and they would do so in the very next episode.

There are so many connections and links and references, from Orion to Gaila and another Ferengi shuttle, to the Grand Nagus and Gabriel Bell, more rules of acquisition, (Nog wears the all-orange outfit used for his action figure at one point), even Morn, where the future as seen in 'The Visitor' comes partially true as he's left in charge of the bar. In fact, Morn's had greater exposure and more development than Rom so far this season! Rom's secret genius, only lacking in confidence, mention of springball (as opposed to racquetball - the two sports are easily mixed up), the game Kira used to play with Bareil. Even the 'tall ship' line from John Masefield's poem, previously referenced in 'Star Trek VI' by Kirk, is misused by Quark, something he'd later do with Picard's 'the line must be drawn here' speech from 'First Contact.' Something from this episode that would be used again was Nog's tactic of telling Wainwright exactly what he expected to hear in order to play for time. Jake was the one who pulled the same stunt on Weyoun in 'In The Cards,' against Nog's concern.

If there hadn't been enough kemacite I wonder what they would have done. It's clear they couldn't hang around on Earth as they'd have been dissected, so perhaps they would have gone off to join the Ferengi Alliance which would likely have been plying its interstellar trade at that time and Quark may well have made Grand Nagus thanks to his futuristic technology if Odo hadn't been around to stop him. He might have abandoned the Constable on Earth, but even then Odo could have blasted into space aboard one of the rockets and then gone off as a space-borne entity as seen in 'Chimera.' He might have gone to the Omarion Nebula to get into the Gamma Quadrant and reached his people to prevent them from sending out the one hundred infants. I don't think we ever knew when or how long the changelings took to send out these infants, but I imagine they didn't start four hundred years before the 24th Century.

One thing that stood out to me was the similarity between Quark and JJ Abrams and his team - not a favourable one either! Both had the same reaction to Odo's statement about preserving the original timeline: 'Who cares about that, the one we're creating will be better!' Thankfully, Odo was there to stop Quark, but where was he when we really needed him?

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