Bar Association

DVD, DS9 S4 (Bar Association)

The old Quark returns after seemingly becoming softened by the Federation (cloying and bubbly and if you get enough of it you begin to like it!), but to be fair he was in a very bad mood due to having no customers thanks to the Bajoran Time of Cleansing - then again, last episode he was complaining about his customers so he can't have it both ways. It was an important episode in the scheme of things, a turning point for Rom, but I don't think it's one of the better Ferengi-centred stories. It's not that there aren't moments of comedy (Quark's Ferengi employees grovelling to Brunt or the Nausicaan heavies throwing darts into each other), but it's certainly a more serious Ferengi episode than usual, especially seeing Quark with his broken eye socket.

Rom is often funny just by dint of who he is and the way he speaks, but it's not laughs he gets this time, it's respect, in himself and for himself, so much in fact, that he leaves Quark's employ to strike out on his own. But only as far as the station's diagnostic and repair team, night shift. It's still a big move for a guy that only had ambitions to take over the bar when Quark died. And he doesn't want him dead, not any more anyway. Back in Season 1, before we knew Rom he came across as another typical nasty Ferengi, harsh, cruel and totally out for himself, willing to try and kill Quark by pushing him out of an airlock (the threat Quark suggests is the action Brunt will take against them), but since then he's been allowed to grow into a sweeter more varied person who cares about his family - one reason to leave the bar is so Rom can get on better with Quark. I suspect it was Nog's belief in himself and controversial decision to join Starfleet that inspired Rom to stop putting up with Quark's exploitation and began his first step towards the atypical Ferengi he would become. With such extraordinarily different choices made by he and Nog it makes me wonder what Mrs. Rom was like.

It doesn't stop Quark from being devious as usual, but this time he's concerned not only with profit, but how far the FCA will go to stop Rom's illegal union, working with Brunt at the same time as appearing to hear Rom's demands. His solution to the problem, using holographic versions of himself is a fun image, but does that mean he has holo-emitters in the bar itself, not just the Holosuites? Brunt's second appearance doesn't have the weight of the first one in which Jeffrey Combs was given the space to excel himself. This time Brunt is a threat, especially packing two mean-looking Nausicaans, but he doesn't have the range of 'Family Business.' Not that it mattered as he'd have many more chances to prove what an invaluable recurring character he was. The other important comeback was for Dabo girl Leeta, made clear that she and Bashir are still together after half a season of no mention. She'd only been in it a couple of times, but with Rom leaving the bar it was a prudent move to remind us of another semi-regular that would be there to interact with Quark. As it turned out Rom still had plenty of interaction with Quark and Leeta didn't show up again until next season, but it was good to have her back.

Another change that was less easy to see in good or bad light was Worf's move to the Defiant as his place of residence. It may have seemed as if the Klingon was symbolically moving away from DS9 as if he wasn't going to be around for long, but that turned out not to be the case and actually it made perfect sense for him to want the environs of a starship around him. You just wonder what would happen if he overslept, had duties on DS9 and realised the Defiant had been taken off to the Gamma Quadrant for a mission! Not that that was likely as Worf was beginning to be the main commander of the Defiant - he'd found his place. After many happy years on the Enterprise it was good that he had another ship to suit him, and it does suit him. Formidable, manoeuvrable, powerful and fast, he and the ship had a lot in common.

His love of fighting is turned into another scene with Jadzia, carrying on from 'Sons of Mogh' they continue to debate the comparative merits of the mek'leth to the bat'leth. Dennis Madalone is the man to bring back the Dopterian race, one of several (along with Lissepians and Kobheerians which also get mentioned) which were commonly seen or talked about in the first couple of seasons. If you look in the background it's often possible to see these kinds of aliens wandering the Promenade - this time I thought I saw a Paradan (one of the aliens from 'Whispers'), and another in a recent episode. The Pakleds are noted as is the rare appearance (for 'DS9') of a Vulcan, whose ethics Bashir guesses won't allow her to cross the picket line and enter Quark's. He and O'Brien have some friendly scenes together, happily they seem to have patched up any differences they had in 'Hippocratic Oath' and are best of friends again, watching the people pass or enter Quark's, joking about a cyst on the back of O'Brien's neck, and taking part in another epic Holosuite adventure, this time a Celtic battle of some kind. Look out for O'Brien as he crosses the camera towards the stairs wearing his bulky period garb - the shadow of a boom mike flits across!

It would be churlish of me to wish the bar staff were as well rounded as the recurring characters of the series, it was groundbreaking enough that they had recurring characters that were built up so much, but even so it would have been nice to get to know them so they were more than background or extras - Broik even gets a rare mention of his name. There shouldn't be any complaints when they were willing to push the envelope as much as to allow Rom, not one of the main cast, to carry the episode. Quark shoves him up against a wall just as he did to Quark last season when Nog's wellbeing was at stake. This time it's Rom's wellbeing as well as Quark's. It often strikes me that the corridors of the station are so dark they resemble back alleys and I'm always expecting someone to jump out of one. It should be reassuring that Odo keeps watch on most of them, but he can't scour every centimetre of the station all the time as Worf came to realise.

The brawl between Worf and O'Brien, in which Bashir ended up getting shoved across a table is one of the more comical scenes of the episode and it has nothing to do with Ferengi. It would have been nice to see it happen, but the imagination fills in the gap very nicely. Although it was based on a scene from 'Fort Apache' it certainly is reminiscent of the 'TOS' classic 'The Trouble With Tribbles' in which Chekov, Scotty and others are lined up for a telling off by Kirk after a similar bar fight. The other connection is that both Bashir and O'Brien, who were getting an earful from Sisko, would later appear in the line-up being shouted at by Kirk! Sisko knows how to handle his men and certainly knows how to handle the Ferengi, Quark in particular. He originally got him to stay by using blackmail and now the Captain hangs the backdated rent and power supply costs above him as incentive to sort out the union quickly, something I'm sure he's used before and probably would again.

Although Quark may have lost out to Rom and the union, as well as being pushed around by the bully Brunt, at least something good comes out of the ordeal: Rom becomes his own man leaving Quark to concentrate on his business. Though he probably didn't see it at first, having Rom as part of the official station personnel could be lucrative… His encounters with Brunt weren't over for the season, but that wasn't until the end. Another good episode, and another one about two brothers, although it was more of a functional episode that was also enjoyable, but not much more, it shows the pieces that would be key to the last three seasons were slowly being moved into place and the dynamo winding up throughout the season that would power the following one at full speed.

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