Body Parts

DVD, DS9 S4 (Body Parts)

It was all Rom's fault, if he hadn't got Quark to put his body on the Ferengi Futures Exchange he wouldn't have had to cancel the contract and lose everything, while realising what he really had: good friends. It may have been beneficial for Quark to go through this ordeal because it takes him to rock bottom so that he knows what his base is. He thought it was his devotion to Ferengi tradition and the Rules of Acquisition, but once he's become an outcast Ferengi with Brunt taking everything he had, his patrons and friends on the station rally round to get the bar going again in one of the warmest happy endings to an episode ever, and one I'd completely forgotten! Now Quark knows that it is the people around him (he's a people person he says in one episode), and doing business that are the two things that matter more to him than his peers. Even though he'd like to think of himself as a great Ferengi businessman he does have a heart and though he's always fought his unconventional upbringing and the fact that his family are about as un-Ferengi as can be, he is one of them, as much as he'd like it to be otherwise.

Jeffrey Combs excels himself on his third appearance as Brunt, and fifth Trek episode in total - filming of this episode ran back to back with 'To The Death' and his expert portrayal of Vorta Weyoun, but without the screen credit no one could guess they were played by the same man. Everything about them is different: their walk, talk, body shape, face, attitude, voice, everything. It's a tribute to Combs that he could accomplish such a variety of nuances to separate the two aliens, helped ably by the makeup. For the first time Brunt becomes a personal enemy of Quark - previously it was just business, but Brunt's become so disgusted by Quark's entire family that his bullying nature compels him to hurt Quark.

It makes me question whether Brunt set up the whole thing in the first place, maybe bribing Dr. Orpax to lie about Quark's condition, and the Doctor later regretting his actions. A Ferengi doctor must be a thing to behold: how could they be trusted since they would put their own welfare above their patients? Since Brunt has the money to spare it's all worth it to him, though the business does give the lie to 'TNG' episode 'Suspicions' and the Federation's gullible acceptance of 'Ferengi Death Rituals' which don't permit the body to be messed with in autopsy since it's going to be 'buried.' There's certainly no burial as they claimed back then, unless they were referring to being buried within another Ferengi's collection of vacuum desiccated remains! We actually heard about this custom back in Season 2, but why didn't the Nagus sell his supposedly deceased form in Season 1? Surely it would have sold for a huge amount - he wasn't dead, that's why.

A season without the Grand Nagus and his snorting, choking laugh is a season incomplete, and in the same way that we got Shakaar as head of the Bajorans instead of Kai Winn, we did at least get Gint, the first Grand Nagus, instead of Zek. Except it wasn't really him, it was Rom as Gint in Quark's dream (getting in some early practice for the future, whether he knew it or not). I wonder why Avery Brooks chose not to give the dream sequence a different visual style from the rest of the episode. It could have been a Holosuite program as there's no surreal mistiness or weird camera angles, and it's almost as if he deliberately chose not to have any dream-like devices to stop it being a cliche, but I feel it was necessary to demonstrate that this wasn't another scene in the episode, even if Quark really had gone to the Divine Treasury. Not that I'm criticising Avery's direction, although it did seem a bit held back, not drawing attention to itself, much like the way he plays Sisko, though in that case the Captain's inner power sometimes erupts to the detriment of his enemies.

I can't help but love the Ferengi episodes, even if they are over the top. I'm so used to their style of comedy that I don't even see it that way, and it's so refreshing - Garrett Wang's complaint that they weren't allowed to emote in 'Voyager' seems to have been completely disregarded in 'DS9' and Quark's one of the absolute best characters for that, his eyes as wide as Gowron's in several scenes. I like the way Bashir comes along and just tosses his message from Dr. Orpax in there, that Quark doesn't have Dorek syndrome whatever that means, and yet it's the lifting of Quark's death sentence! Another fun Bashir scene is when he's sitting opposite Miles, telling him that his baby's going to have to come to term inside Kira's womb: an Englishman and an Irishman in a room watched over by an American (sounds like the set up for a joke), as Sisko stands there doing his duty as a Captain and standing by his man in a crisis. O'Brien's face is more expressive than Quark's, which is hard to beat in this episode, but he does a massive Spock eyebrow and his whole face seems able to rise and fall like waves on a sandy beach.

Season 4 has been one for huge changes in 'DS9' and the wider Trek universe. The biggie was the Klingons returning to enmity with the Federation, then the Cardassians became friends and the Dominion didn't prove quite as much the immediate threat they seemed at the end of Season 3. On a more personal level, Worf joined DS9, tried to kill his brother and then wiped his mind, Kira became almost friends with Dukat ending up being the guardian of the child he never knew he had and bringing her to the station. So many things happened this season and in these final two episodes the trend didn't change - now Quark isn't considered a Ferengi and the O'Brien baby is inside Kira. They weren't afraid to make radical changes, far more than any other Trek series which is another reason why 'DS9' is the greatest and most satisfying I've ever seen.

It's been good to have Keiko and Molly back on the station, her scenes with Kira were especially realistic, the sense of loss so evident in her demeanour. Kira's brought into a whirlwind of new experiences, though she doesn't realise yet what she's let herself in for - she might not be so upbeat about the situation if she did! The moment Miles and Keiko try and force each other into being the one to ask Kira to stay with them is quite funny as they're so worried about imposing on her, yet feel responsible for her now and possessive. I think Kira will regret allowing little Molly permission to play in her room at any time, as immediately she's said that the girl's onto her bed in a flash. Auntie Nerys needs her peace and quiet.

All this and Garak too? It must be a dream. Even Morn gets a better role this time, Garak getting quite uptight with the lumbering barfly, literally throwing his new trousers into Morn's arms in irritation. Morn's also along later carrying a chair for Captain Sisko and immediately swipes his usual spot, though how he's going to be able to swivel on a chair, I don't know. At least with the bar empty you can see the yellow and red glowing mural at its best. When Quark goes to ask Garak to kill him the Cardassian takes on all the snakelike tendencies of his people, moving slowly towards Quark, his eyes hypnotically fixed on him, only blinking once like a lizard. He should set up a little kiosk in his shop just for assassin hire (or gardening), though as soon as Quark asked him to make it a surprise (in a hilarious sequence where he counts off his problems with each form of death that's been suggested - the best one was probably that nerve gas smelt bad!), I thought 'he's going to regret that' because until death comes he's going to be terrified at every moment.

The episode is a real coming together of the recurring cast and I think Season 4 was the beginning of this trend where multiple characters who weren't the headliners would be a major part of stories. Just look at the cast list of this one - it features the O'Brien family, Rom, Garak and Brunt, something that would become a lot more common in Season 5 and onwards. I wonder if the Gint makeup Max Grodenchik wore was actually Zek's modified for him or a new mould? Although the foreground is the foremost thing on our minds, the background is populated by some interesting aliens: the tall green man carrying furniture into Quark's that Sisko stops (when Quark has a knee-jerk reaction and asks for a storage fee proving his instincts are still and always will be Ferengi), is the same alien that the adolescent Jem'Hadar fought as a hologram in Season 3 (also directed by Brooks). The long-faced alien can also be seen coming in the doorway at one point and a mouse-faced Yridian is seen leaving the bar on another occasion. We hear of Cousin Gaila again (the one with the moon), and another relative to add to the list is Uncle Gorad, who Quark presumably still owes money to since he gave back Brunt's latinum.

I felt the dream could be interpreted as a bit of a jab at the Ten Commandments as Gint says rules don't matter, even if they're written on stone, they're just suggestions, but the Ferengi themselves are an entire race that is against those rules, proving they are there for the good, since Ferengi are purely selfish, lustful and greedy to the detriment of all others - we're not supposed to take their culture as a genuine alternative to the Federation, but a warning to our time because the Ferengi are 20th/21st Century humans, that's what's always been said. Plus this was coming from Quark's psyche and as Gint said he was just looking for a reason to break the rules.

On the Runabout front we get the USS Volga joining the cast, so there are apparently four Runabouts on the station now. Where do they keep the extra one, attached to a docking pylon or is there room in one of the launch bays for an extra ship? Once again Kira's taking a Runabout into the Gamma Quadrant for nothing more important than a botanical survey! Does she have a death wish or something? And Bashir hasn't learned from his previous experience as he goes along for the ride too, though this time he didn't discover an alien race that needed him to cure them. I'd forgotten how great the ending for this episode was, it really goes out on a happy note, perhaps in preparation for the more devastating finale to come, but I'd still like to know how Garak had planned to dispatch Quark, 'The Synthehol King' from this universe. I guess we'll never know.

****