Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Ferengi Love Songs

"Wait a minute! What's the Nagus doing in my closet?"

You know, Quark, that is a very valid question. I don't think you're going to really like the answer, though.

Alright, full disclosure. I am not a Ferengi fan. Half the time, I'm unsure of whether or not I'm even a Quark fan. This episode title felt like a large, neon warning sign. Still, I tried my best to go into this with an open mind. And I was surprised to find that the episode was... okay.

It was actually even funny in parts. I kept smiling whenever someone would pop up in Quark's closet, which is basically equal to a laugh when you're watching TV by yourself. The plot was just incredibly predictable and tedious. It's nothing that hasn't been seen before a million times in a million different places. I don't even really have a lot to say about it other than it really could have been worse and I'm thankful that it wasn't.

I'm not quite sure how we made the jump from a standard sitcom romance plot to 'You just doomed the entire economy!' although I suppose that it didn't really matter. The resolution all happened off-screen and it didn't really raise the stakes all that much. If anything, I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get to explore Zek's memory issues in more depth or more seriously. There's some potentially really interesting stories and drama there. Even if that means another Ferengi-centric episode.

I'm also not sure how I feel about Ishka and how her ideas of gender equality were treated. Like "Family Business" they seemed to be brushed aside in favor of a plot resolution that maintained the status quo and didn't interrogate Ferengi culture too deeply. Ultimately, did anything in this episode really matter beyond Quark getting his business license back? Like I said, the episode was fine, but there's nothing here that makes me want to rewatch it or makes me glad that I spent the hour seeing it in the first place.

As much as I enjoy Rom and Leeta and think that they're cute, their subplot here really felt wrong to me. Dax's "compliment" felt very offensive. Can you imagine going up to someone and saying "You're the least (insert minority of your choice here) I know," and then claiming that that was a good thing? I also didn't like that Rom was the only one making sacrifices and changing who he was to make the relationship work. He has very reasonable trauma from his first marriage that was really brushed aside. I don't think that donating all of his latinum in order to prove his loyalty and love was the right way to resolve that. At all.

Random Thoughts

I am surprised that Leeta went to Kira and not Dax to vent about Rom.

Cecily Adams plays Ishka in this episode and in all future episodes. She replaced Andrea Martin, who did not want to go through the prosthetics again. Which is very, very reasonable.

There was also a very minor C-plot about Klingons not flinging their subordinates off of balconies.

~~~~
An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.

No comments:

Post a Comment

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.