The Delta Flyers - Family Business

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

The Delta Flyers is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, Terry Farrell & Armin Shimerman. In each podcast release, they will recap and discuss an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.This week’s episode, Family Business, is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, Armin ShimermanFamily Business: Quark is summoned to his home planet when his mother violates a Ferengi law prohibiting women from earning a profit.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeill.Additionally, we could not make this podcast available without our Executive Producers:Stephanie Baker, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Chris Knapp, Janet K Harlow, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, Mike Gu, Tara Polen, Carrie Roberts, Tom Paynter, Sandra Stengel, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Alex Mednis, Holly Schmitt, Nicole Toma, Roxane Ray, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Tim Neumark, Randy Hawke, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Jonathan Brooks, Matt Norris, Izzy Jaffer, Francesca Garibaldi, Thomas Irvin, Jonathan Capps, Chris Garis, Sean T, & Cindy WoodfordOur Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Michelle Z, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Elaine Ferguson, Captain Jeremiah Brown, E & John, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Lee Lisle, Sarah Thompson, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Mark G Hamilton, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Mary Burch, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Tae Phoenix, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Rob Traverse, Penny Liu, Stephanie Lee, David Smith, Stacy Davis, Heath K., Andrew Cano, Kevin Harlow, Megan Doyle, Keir Newton, Mariette Karr, Jeff Allen, & Tamara EvansAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Jake Barrett, Ann Harding, Trip Lives, Samantha Weddle, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Carl Murphy, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Fillmon, Chad Awkerman, AJ Provance, Claire Deans, Maxine Soloway, Heidi McLellan, Brianna Kloss, Dat Cao, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Alexander Ray, Vikki Williams, Cindy Ring, Kelly Brown, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Shanyn Behn, Renee Wiley, Maria Rosell, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Dominique Weidle, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Matt Edmonds, Miki T, Heather Selig, Rachel Shapiro, Stephanie Aves, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Annie Davey, Jeremy Gaskin, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Carmen Puente-Garza, Eddie Dawson, Klee Wiggins, Greg Kenzo Wickstrom, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, Dean Chew, Robert Allen Stiffler, PJ Pick, Preston M, Rebecca Leary, Ryan Mahieu, Karen Galleski, Nicole Brettell, Jan Hanford, Katelynn Burmark, Timothy McMichens, Helen Brownrigg, Lindsay Bundy, Dawn Colleen Smith, Cassandra Girard, Robby Hill, Andrea Wilson, Willow Whitcomb, Mo, Leslie Ford, Jim Poesl, Daniel Chu, Scott Bowling, Ed Jarot, James Vanhaerent, Nick Cook-West, Shawn Battershall, & Natalie SwainThank you for your support!This Podcast is recorded under a SAG-AFTRA agreement.“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, or distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail] Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Delta Flyers journey through the wormhole with Quark Dex and their good friends, Tom and Harry. Join us as we make our way through episodes of Star Trek Deep Space 9. Your host for today are my fellow track actors, Armand Shimmerman, Robert Duncan McNeil, and myself, Garrett Wong, for the complete. exciting version of this podcast, all of you must check out patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers and sign up to become a patron today. And in the words of George D.K., oh, my. And then the words of Jonathan Frakes, do it. Is that his thing? Do it. Is that his catchphrase?

He does say it to us personally. So, you know, I didn't say it was, it was number one. It was just, It wasn't just Riker. It was just Franks saying, do it. Did Franks originate that before Nike? I don't know, maybe. He would trademarked that a while back if he did, if he did. Okay. Hi, Armin.

Hi. How are you guys? Great. I like your sweatshirt. Thank you. Yes, isn't that a wonderful sweatshirt? Who gave this to me, guys? It's pretty.

The merch department. I think that's who gave it to you. It looks beautiful. I'm very, it's very, it's very, it's very, handsome and I'm proud to wear it. And it's very comfortable, too. It is very comfortable. Super comfy.

We never, never, ever scrimp on the types of material, the types of t-shirts or the types of sweatshirts that we get. We always get the best quality we can possibly get that. You guys would not make very good Ferengi. No. No, we would not. We would not. Very funny.

Well, great to see you, Armin. Thank you. Anything exciting happening. happening these days? I'm starting rehearsal for a new play. Oh, no. It's called Outside Mullingar. It's by John Patrick Shanley.

And we've just had our second rehearsal. And it's out in an Irish accent, and I have to work on that. Oh, I like it. And so, and it's, it's, kitties in it as well, so I get to work with my wife. That happens, but doesn't happen enough. And so this will be, and before, of course, I was directing her. Now we're working as peers. I love that.

When will this go up? It will be in June at a theater called The Matrix Theater. It's put on by a company called The Sixth Act. And it's just a four-character play. And it's a very sweet play about love in Ireland. Oh, I, I am a fan of John Patrick Shanley. So June what? Do you have, I don't have the exact dates, but it's sometime in June.

I tell you what, I will email you that and maybe you can put it up somewhere. I would like to, I would like to come check this one out for sure. I would too. Yeah, I would like. Maybe Robbie and I will both come. Don't tell us when. I don't know about you guys, I don't want to know. You don't want to know where in the audience?

No, no. Okay. All right, that's good to know. Oh, man. You know, since my early day. early days. I don't want to know who's in the audience. I'm the opposite.

I want to know exactly who's there. No. I oftentimes will be listening. You know, you hear people laugh and you go, huh, is that Garrett in the audience? Hey, that sounds like Robbie's a fall. Yes. Oh, my goodness. Well, okay, we will be ninja about it, but we will show up.

And just so people know, yes, actors can hear everything that the audience is doing. You think you're in the dark and invisible. you're not you think you're opening up that cough drop wrapper and we can't hear that we can hear it yeah we can hear it we can pinpoint who everybody is especially if you're in the first three rows yes that's right so i did a production of richard the third when i was in high school and my father came to see it and sat in like the second or third row yeah and at one point at the end near the end of uh richard the third i was a spear carry at that point and we had these hooded robes with spears So the hood came out and my face was supposed to be in darkness.

So I would often sit there and look out into the audience. And I saw my father that night completely passed out asleep in the third row. And I'm sitting there going, great, great, dad. Thanks for coming. He's just like, yeah, yeah, yes. So yes, we see you. We see you. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the internment of the Japanese Americans during World War II,

I did a play called 121A. This is a play by a playwright named Wakako Yamauchi, who was actually in one of the camps. And George DeKay was in a camp, too. So at the performance that George DeKay was at to watch this play, my uncle and aunt were there, too. And just like Robbie's dad, he was out cold within the first minute of the... And he was asleep the whole time. And he snored. And I was like, oh, my God, why are you doing that?

George DeKay is here, too. tonight and you're snoring. I was so upset. You see, because you're upset, not only because your relatives, because your dad and mom are, but because George decay was there. So that's also through you. Yeah. Yeah. So you were distracted. Drew me with George, but more so that my uncle was out, out cold. And then I had to, yeah, I totally had to focus and say, you know what, block it out. Because if I keep thinking about that, I am not in the moment acting at all. And I was playing the lead. I was the son, the oldest son in the family. So. So, yeah, that was a...

So that's why I don't want to know who's in the audience. I don't have to say to myself, block that out. I just want to block it out. All right. All right. We understand. We'll see you after. We'll see you afterwards.

After is good. We'll see afterwards. Let's say happy birthday to Matt Norris. Happy birthday, Matt Norris, April 29th. Matt, happy birthday. Happy birthday, Matt. We also want to welcome our newest prophet, and that is Cindy Woodford. Welcome, Cindy.

Welcome to the prophets. You are going to have a blast. Welcome, Cindy. Welcome, Cindy. Smart move to join the prophets. Yes. Our move. Welcome Cindy Woodford to the profit level.

I'd like to hear that's Limerick as soon as you can give it to me. Here we go. Straight from Ireland. Yes. Here is my poetry synopsis. for family business. Ferengi females can't profit financially. Mugi could force quark into bankruptcy.

Jake tried to set up his dad, and it doesn't turn out too bad, but the lessons here are all about family. Nice. Thank you. Absolutely. Absolutely. I especially like the pronunciation of bankruptcy. Bankruptcy.

Financially, bankruptcy. I had to kind of emphasis that. You did emphasis it. You guided us to where you wanted us to be with bankruptcy. I love it. Okay. Here is my haiku for family business. Mugies in trouble.

Quark heads home to deal with mom. Cisco goes on date. Nice. I wanted to get, I wanted to get Penny. You got it all in there. Yeah. Actually, for a complex episode, you got a lot into it. a haiku. Oh, well, thanks.

I appreciate that. And I thought it was important to, you know, at least acknowledge Penny Gerald Johnson's because she becomes a recurring character. So it's, right? There are two recurring characters on this show. Cassidy Yates.

That's her first appearance and it's the first appearance of Ishka as well. That's right, right, correct. Does she do, now we don't know, but now I know she comes back. Is it kind of not common, but she comes back more than once.

Like this is... If I may be cryptic, yes and no. Oh. Oh. Well, can we... Yes, you can ask me what... Sure. Absolutely.

But I will talk about more about it later, but I will say yes. Yes, the character does come back. No, the actress does not come back. Correct. Oh. Yeah. I think... I think she had such a difficult time with the makeup.

I'll talk more about that anon. Yeah. We'll get over there. When that happens. Okay. We'll get over there. Robbie, I think it's time that somebody should give us an etymology lesson. Well, don't look to me.

Oh, I'm not the smart one. Oh, Armin's the smart one. Yes. Could you please? There, absolutely. These notes are all from the Oxford English dictionary. So I have two definitions. The title of the show is family business.

so family and business the definition of family is from the latin familia uh the group this is of the first definition the group of persons consisting of the parents their children whether actually living together or not applies to this episode in a wider sense the unity formed by those who are nearly connected by blood or affinity that's the first definition of family the second definition of family is a race, a people, or group of peoples assumed to be descended from a common stock, which of course the pharynge are. Okay, so that's the two definitions. There are many definitions in the OED about family, but those were the two I thought weren't the most pertinent. Now, to business. Business is, the word business, is from the old English, and forgive me my

pronunciation, but it's busyness, and interesting to me, in many languages, words are either feminine or masculine. It's interesting to me, especially in relationship to this episode, that that old English word is a feminine, a word. Whoa, interesting. And what is the word in the old English for busigness visit b i g nis and perhaps it's feminine because of the definition uh it stems from the word busy uh so diligent labor exertion pains pains to take pains to do one endeavors one's endeavor uh obscure is mischievous or impertinent activity or officiousness So perhaps it's because of that secondary meaning of being officious and mischievous. Perhaps that's the root for why it's a feminine word in old English.

Interesting. Very interesting. It is interesting. I feel like that's like an argument that Cork's mom would have made. Business is feminine in its origin. It's a feminine word. When I saw that, I went, oh, I have to bring that up. I would have guessed that business was a French route.

I would not have guessed old English. Yeah. No, you know, a lot of English language comes from the Latin, familiar for instance. And because the English court was taken over by the French court for many centuries, for at least hundreds of years, that centuries is a name. Yeah, so that influenced our language. And our language is an amalgam of old English, of French,

of words taken in from Germany as well. So it's an interesting hodgepodge, English language, which I think is what makes it one of the more difficult languages to learn. Yeah. Well, thank you for that etymology. You're welcome. Yeah, for sure. Yes.

So this episode is written. by Ira Stephen Bear along with Robert Hewitt Wolf. Let me point out that's wolf and bear. There's two animals of the forest. Oh, that's funny. I didn't think of that. By a wolf and a bear.

Or an injury, accident injury law firm, Wolf and Bear. Perhaps. It could be that as well. We have the director of René Obijunois. I guess this is his very first

directorial debut, right? He started directing in this episode. This is it. Okay. This is it. I would love for Robbie to really comment on the director side of each scene if possible, just because this is his first one. I want your opinion

on that. Okay. I will try. I'll say just generally, I was very impressed. It was very solid. For a freshman effort, right? Absolutely. Very solid. I agree with you. Yeah, some very elegant ways of shooting the scenes. It wasn't

you know revolutionary right really in any way but but it was very solid it was just very yeah it felt like someone who had done it before and if i may we've all talked about how the ferengi would get together at my house to rehearse my my memory is a little faulty but there's a little voice in the back of my head saying i think Renee invited us to the set during the weekend to actually rehearse with him or if that's not if that memory is not correct

he went to the set with the DP and they figured out the shots on the weekend I bet that's true for sure I love that because often I know for myself when I

directed the first episode or two I asked if I could be let in on the weekends I don't think I came in with Marvin because he was tired and it just works a lot but I did come in by myself to do a lot of work, and I know Roxanne did the same. I feel like Bob Picardo in our show did the same.

So that wouldn't surprise me in all that he came in on the weekend. Yeah. But I also think, I just can't prove it because I just don't remember for sure, but I think we all went in so that the DP and the director were there and the cast was there.

But certainly, we would have worked the actors in this. Andrew Martin wouldn't have not have been there. But the rest of us, including probably Jeff, certainly Max and I, Max and I. I love that. I love Jeff in this episode. I'm just always impressed with him, his work as an actor. And this, Jeff will tell you, this was due to Renee. Renee and Jeff had worked together in the theater.

They were friends. It's no coincidence that Renee insisted that Jeff play. Brunt. Jeff had already played a character on Deep Space Nine, and one of the great things about Star Trek is you can bring an actor back for a different role because of the makeup. Can we talk about guest stars very quickly? Sure. We have Penny Johnson as Cassidy Yates. I think Penny Johnson goes by Penny Johnson Gerald these days, though. That has a little extra to her name. Penny also appeared as Deborah in the Star Trek Next Generation 7th season episode Homeward. And in 2017, Penny Johnson Gerald became one of the main cast members of the Orville on the Fox Network, which Robbie has directed a couple of, a few of those. And also, her very, very first credit was 1983, an episode of American Playhouse. Oh, yeah.

Well, Penny was a theater actress. She trained at Juilliard. and American Playhouse, I don't know what the show was, but they often had a lot of that kind of East Coast, New York-based theater actors doing work on American Playhouse. Got it. Okay. Well, that makes sense.

And that was in 83. A year later, she guest starred on T.J. Hooker with none of them than William Shatner. Very different. She went from American Playhouse. Eyebrow to Fast Food TV. Fast food TV. Okay. I've had the pleasure of meeting her and having dinner with her and her husband

at various cons. And what wonderful, wonderful person to interact with. Very, very happy to have made her acquaintance and her husband as well, who's a massive Star Trek fan, by the way. Of course, we have Max Gredenczek as Rom, Jeffrey Combs, the versatile tile. Jeffrey Combs is Brunt, Andrea Martin as Ishka. And everyone knows Andrew Martin from SCTV. One thing I did not know about Andrew Martin is that she's Armenian. I didn't know that. Oh, really?

Mom and dad are Armenian. Yeah, and also we have Mel Green as secretary. Mel Green, it's funny. The one credit that Mel Green started with was a credit called Puck her up and Bark Like a Dog in 1989. wow it's some it was work it was work of indie feature yeah all right well there you go that's and you know i'm i'm i was looking at that scene that we had together and i'm thinking he's wearing my head he's got my head on really yes who has your head funny you mean that so they just put a yeah mil green i'm looking at that's that's that's a quark head he's got oh wow i mean i mean i can't be

sure, but it sure looked like a quark head to me. I mean, the heads are slightly different. And I want to talk about that a little later, but, yeah, I thought, oh, he's wearing a quark head. Huh. So we got two quark heads talking to each other. I wonder if, like, Mike Westmore told me at one point when I did a life cast on Voyager that my face was so average that they used it for a lot of the guest stars that they didn't have time to do a life. He goes, your face became like our neutral.

We used your life cat for all kinds of. And I wonder if yours became the Ferengi sort of standard. No, actually. Really? I don't think so. I actually think, again, I'm making this up. I apologize. But I actually think it was Rahm's head that became the standard.

That's why I found it sort of home. He's wearing one of my heads. and you'll notice if i mean it's really easy to notice rom's head always has a veil in the back and mine doesn't and uh it's not the only reason that makes it quark's head but but i noticed so usually the ferengi do have veils in the back of their head and yeah and i've told that story

about how that happened on tng many years yeah rom doesn't have a full head he always has a veil yeah wow that saves some time in makeup though doesn't it because it doesn't have the back yeah it does and you know one of the things i used to say to max was you you have a ventilation system when it gets hot in there you have air coming in from the back i did not have that no let us begin by starting off this episode with cisco's quarters there we go a very nice tracking shot of him chopping the that was really quite lovely let's talk about directing so Renee's first directing yes I was impressed from the jump from the first

frame nice that you know this opening shot is a classic sort of let let the story develop shot as opposed to bam here we are in a big wide shot here's all the information this is you know Roxanne Dawson and we were both learning to direct we talked about this technique and the ways of using it which is To withhold information, you see only a tight shot of some information. Wait, what's going on? It naturally, instinctually, for the audience, makes them lean in a little, makes them pay attention. And for Renee to have done that on his opening shot of his very first episode, right out of the gate,

I'm like, oh, he's learned some lessons, he's listened and observed, and he knows what he's trying to do, and it was very well done. So great, great opening shot. Yeah, yeah. And we got to hear Avery Brooks hum sing. Mr. Brooks has an incredible singing voice. So dinner is being made by Commander Sisko. And guess what?

He's making chicken papricosh, which is a Hungarian dish. And we know, according to his son, Jake, that his dad's in a good mood because only then will he make. He only makes papricosh. Yes. In a good mood. Yes. Well, you know, Jake's also in a good moon because he knows that Cassidy Yates, the freighter captain

that we have not seen as of yet. We've heard about Cassidy Yates. We have not seen her. But she's back on the station, and Jake is really, really pushing for her dad to meet and have a first date with Cassidy. So we haven't lost the thread that we got in the last episode about Cassidy Yates

and continue it on to the next episode. It's so nice to have a thread that continues, which we never really did on Voyager, but it's because you were always off to someplace new. That's right. Yeah, that's right. And I love that Jake is saying, you know, I'll invite her over to dinner. Like, he's trying to plan the details of it.

And Ben's like, you know what, let me do this my way. Just relax. I'll handle this, which I totally get. Like, you know, if it's going to be real, if Cisco and this woman, if there is something there, it needs to come more. organically. I feel like, you know, matchmaking dates are rarely successful. When someone else is trying to make it happen.

Yes. You know. Yeah, for sure. Now we jump over to Quarks, where the very, very funny beginning scene, we learn that Nog is off studying for Starfleet exams and Cork responds with, he's a disgrace to his family and a Ferengi everywhere for trying to be a Starfleet cadet. Very funny stuff. But the basis of this scene is really to introduce a character called Brunt.

Brunt, Jeffrey Combs is the one who appears. And this is actually the very, very first appearance of the Ferengi Commerce Authority. FCA. FCA. Yeah. No FCA before this. And now we have FCA. Yeah.

So he puts, what does he put a notice up on the door, which basically means. In Ferengi. Yeah, in Ferengi. In Ferengi. I don't think we've ever seen. forangi writing before maybe we have maybe we have well maybe on the on the what I call the Rosetta Stone in the middle of the of the promenade but it's the first time we've ever really looked at the Ferengi writing right so somebody came up with that

and if we can go back about you know he's about Nog going into Starfleet it he's breaking Ferengi law which will come later on become an important part of this of this episode about law and breaking the law um so i thought oh that's nice that's nice they introduce it early but in a different way tangentially so how did that thing stick on the wall you know double side it's the 23rd set or 24th century so it's like magnetic or something or velcro scratch tape scotch tape he's sort of unrolled it and it just stuck i was like don't you need to like hook it or tape it or something but it just magically I liked it.

So, Robbie, that would have been Mike Okuda's department to create that proclamation that stuck on the wall. Is that his? Probably the graphics. Yeah, Mike and Denise would have designed what was printed on it. Yeah. Often in all these departments, there's a collaboration, you know. It's not always just one department. So the art department might have gotten involved.

Props would have gotten involved. Right. And, and, yeah. But in terms of coming up with- design. Yeah, Ferengi lettering. Oh, yeah, I bet it was. Okuda's going to be Okuda's.

I bet it was. Okay. Do you like the Ferengi alphabet and letters, Armine? I'm not a student of the Ferengi alphabet. I like the icon that's at the very top above the lettering. I actually like that a great deal. That icon I'm really much I'm a fan of. And the shape, you know, that, that.

banner. It had sort of a circle and then sort of a banner below it. But you see that shape replicated in the architecture of the set design. When we go to Ferengi, you see a lot of circles, circular archways and doors and things like that. So I thought that's interesting. Yes, it is. So this notification that's put on the door by Jeffrey Combs' character, Brunt, is called a writ of accountability. And this gets both Rahm and Cork up in arms. They're just like, okay, shut down this entire establishment. Everybody get out now. On a day when it's enormously busy.

It was the busiest I've ever seen, I have to say. Of course. And Nog has left you in the dust. And now they're, and by the way, when he comes in to shut it down, everybody seems to cooperate very quickly. Oh, they do. Rom's an authoritarian figure, so, you know, when he yells, They all move as quickly as they can.

Yeah, they were very responsive. And Renee was the director as well. Right, yeah. They didn't want to mess around with Renee either. Yeah. Okay. All right. So after opening titles, now we come back into Quarks, everyone's gone.

And Brunt is now looking at all the different, you know, financial information, basically. And, and. Yes. Go ahead. No, go ahead. I was going to say he's looking on these little handheld. computers, pads, but they're Ferengi pads. Yes, they're Ferengi pads.

Have we seen those before? I imagine we have. Okay. Because those are also in a similar shape to that. It's got a circle on top. Yeah, the lines. The lines are very similar, right? There's a theme going on.

Yes. Absolutely. I like that. I like that tie-in, the design tie. Yes. So two things. One, this was the first time Max and I, and this is something I got Max to do.

This is the first time we imitated Laurel and Hardy. It's this. Oh. Oh. Which I had remembered from a Laurel and Hardy movie where they were just sitting someplace and they've got their hands on their jaws like this. And I said, Max, let's just do Laurel and Hardy. And what's that? And I said, just put your hand on your cheek like this as we're listening to Brunt. And we will do this several times during the course of the seven years.

I love it. That's so funny. Thank you. And this was the episode where you think you had that idea and you first started it. Oh, that's great. I love that. Running sort of physicality. And the other thing, and it happens a lot in this episode, I'm not sure if it's in this script, but in many scripts, the script, the stage direction would say, and Quark takes a pad out of his pocket.

And I would shake my head. our costumes had no pockets no pockets whatsoever and oftentimes I would say where do I put the prop I've got no pockets and so that's why we're always reaching in everybody did that in this episode

because we have no pockets yes and I wondered I was like is that to suggest the Ferengi all have an in like a jacket like a business suit would have a pocket inside it seemed like that's kind of what

you were implying but I did I bet, I was guessing that there was no real pocket there. There are no pockets. I don't think any of the costumes have pockets. I don't think any of the characters. Had you pockets in any of your costumes? No, not unless it was specifically built for a script reason, but usually not. Yeah.

I would scream at the script when I would open, I'd go, we don't have any pockets. So, yes, we would just, you know, hide it somewhere. And sometimes it's a little obvious as though it's really just pulling it out because it's there. Anyway, so those are the two things about that particular shot. That's cool. I love that. All right.

So back to this scene. They talk about, you know, the fact that, well, cork brings up. Oh, wait a minute. You didn't include the tuliberry wine profit numbers. And Rob's like, but, yeah, Rom's like, but you told me. And this is when you kick him.

I'm on the table. And what I love is when you send him out of the room, Max continue. Max actually hobbles. Like he's in pain from being kicked. So he keeps playing the moment, even as he's leaving, even as he's leaving frame, it's still very, very funny to me to watch that. Yeah. So anyway, the bottom line is at the end of this scene, we find out that he is violated.

Ferengi trade bylaw, subsection 1,027 paragraph. three and quark's like well not really familiar with that and brunt's like well in case you need to copy the bylaws he pulls one out which he sells to quark which i think is absolutely hilarious he's actually making him pay for that uh he makes him pay first he's like we cork goes you haven't told me what i'm charged with and he goes right you're right i haven't pause pause oh here you go he's like you've been charged with whatever the bylaws yes yes violated and he's like i don't even know what that is well i've got to right it it seems funny enough doesn't it but the truth of the matter is nowadays that is what happens yes we go to an ATM and if it's not one of our our own to get our

own money out of a bank we have to pay a fee yeah uh it's somebody you know wants to do something well you can have to pay a fee it we have become more this way than when we actually shot that episode yeah oh wow the extra fees the fees for banking for your luggage on a plane. That's right. All of a sudden, we've got to pay for luggage. We didn't do when I was a young man. The luggage just went up.

So the U.S. You want to seat up forward? Going to have to pay a little extra for that. Not just first class, but just to be up forward a little. In coach. No, you're absolutely right. We have become that, you know, it's laughable, but it is still what's happening. We've become the United States of Ferengi is what you're saying.

Oh, that's, that's, boy. Oh, boy. All right. So the criminal charge that Brunt is talking about is He's be cork is being held accountable for the criminal activities of Ishka daughter of Adred, a wife of Kildar The mother of Rom and Cork has been Breaking the law

Breaking the law, earning profit, making money earning profit, yes Not good, not good Not good at all Do you know that there was a part of this scene was deleted? No. Yes. Yeah, that's right.

There's a little, a little bit, yes, Robbie saw that. There's a little deleted scene. Court claims that business has been bad due to the threat of the dominion and the marquee. And Rob also inadvertently reveals to Brunt that Nog is to attend Starfleet Academy and Brunt is horrified by this news as well. So that was the...

Yeah. Maybe for time. Maybe for time that was eliminated. I'm sorry that that was eliminated because one of the themes in this in this episode is about feminism about women's rights and and and have they been trampled on um and i i wish that some of that have been included yeah yeah yeah it's a big chunk uh talking about do you want to read it rob and uh robbie sure we can read it okay yeah it's a part of the scene so ah you want to be quirk i'll be cork okay okay and then you can read it um robbie sure we can read it okay yeah it's a part of the scene so ah you want to be quark okay okay okay and then you can be Rom and Brunt then I guess. Sure. Okay. Cork says, I knew it. This is about Nog, isn't it? Just then, Rom returns carrying a pad. Nog? Nog? Nog hasn't done anything wrong. You see what I'm up against? I know that as the eldest male, I'm responsible for the actions taken

by members of my family, but what am I supposed to do? I told Rom not to let the boy apply to Starfleet Academy, but he wouldn't lift a finger to stop him. He wouldn't lift a finger to stop him. Then Brunt says, your nephew is going to start Fleet Academy. Cork does a double take. He realizes he may have just gotten himself into even more trouble. Did I say that? Brunt says, you're clearly incapable of controlling your family. So, yeah, there was a little back and forth there

and some more information that's not just about the mom broke rules. And maybe that's why they lifted this. Maybe they wanted really to focus in on it's just about mom. Yeah. Rather than the family is out of control. But it also emphasizes that rules are important to the Ferengi, that there are laws set down and Quark being a very good law-abiding Ferengi. He obeys the laws. We get that later in the episode. And I think they were sort of suggesting even here in the stuff that was deleted

that that's true. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. You're right. All right. We go to the security office next. And Quirk comes in to tell Odo to watch his bar while he's gone to his home world because what does he call Rom? He says, make sure that thieving brother of mine doesn't touch anything. So clearly, you know, re-establishing Quirk's feelings about Rom here.

Which we're going to learn a lot about their relationship in this episode. That part I really did like. And of course, Odo knows all about the FCA because he monitors everything that comes in and out of the station. Yes. Yeah, and Quirk does fill him in on some of the details about his mother has committed these crimes of profit, and he says something like he's going to ring her

neck to get her to confess. And Odo's like, you know, this is your mother you're talking about. Quark's response is, don't remind me. And it may just be me, and I may be totally off base here. And Renee, forgive me for saying this. but I'm watching that scene and I'm watching Renee's face he isn't as

open to listening to Quark I sort of see him as the director watching this scene you caught it like that yeah that's funny that's funny but that makes perfect sense though I can see how he can and it exactly and in the next scene

I'm skipping ahead but when they're standing in front of the locked door I really see it yes i did too actually i did too although i like some stuff in that scene there were some funny there's a lot of funny i would say uh theater informed staging and blocking and moments in this episode yeah i think you can see rene's experience with theater and comic timing and all of that there's a lot of good support that he gave as the director uh we go to ops next here's one thing i didn't like about this so hira and cisco are getting off

the lift and heading into ops and kira's first line is chief o'brien wants to know when you can stop by and inspect the new runabout which sounds like the beginning of a conversation but yet they clearly came up on a lift together so if they're coming up on the lift it feels like the line should have a feeling that it's mid conversation oh okay but it came off as beginning yeah yes all right i would have this is not forgive me rene but i will say because the line is a start of a conversation i would have had cisco come up and kira approach him and say hey chief o'brien wants to know when you could stop by because then it would be the beginning of a conversation does that make sense yeah just a little detail but i was like wait why is she talking like that when they've been riding this lift together

for the last 30 seconds anyway yeah that was a little a little uh that's a tiny nitpick though A nitpick, that's the word I was looking for. Yeah. Tiny nitpick. Yeah. Yeah, but Kira does discuss how many new runabouts they need because they keep destroying them. And Cisco says he wants to name this one Rubicon. And I think Kira comments on, I hope we don't run out of rivers.

We're blowing up rivers to name them after because we're blowing up runabouts left and right. And then Dax pops in, asks if, and Cisco's climbing up this ladder or the stairs. up towards his uh there are three there are two or three steps from one level to another yeah one of other things about deep space nine that is different from the other shows uh that was purposely different was we didn't uh the designers of of our ops didn't want to have ramps they wanted to have different levels so that they could put the camera on different levels um and and as i remember there were two perhaps three steps from one level to another in ops which ren takes advantage of in this scene. He does. And did you notice that as the camera panned Cisco and Cisco took the first

step, all of a sudden, Dax popped down, but she didn't just stand there. She leaned down toward him to be able to not be cut off in the frame. So it also helped her kind of gossipy, you know, tone of the scene. Hey, have you met the captain yet? But her physicality to fit in the frame that Renee had there, I think even helped the story in a good way. So it was a nice, nice bit of blocking and staging. And as a director, let me ask you,

because she's, by doing that, she's not towering over Cisco, but she is measurably taller or higher up. Are you allowed to do that? Would you, would you diminish your, I'm not saying it's bad.

I'm not saying that, but I'm wondering if there's a, there's a, tenant in directing that we have to make the number one on the call sheet always oh interesting i think because they're on different levels that it's not a measure of their prestige as characters but it's more of uh using the levels to you know um have cisco sort of be confronted in a you know he's literally stopped as he's uh you know ascending up to his office He's literally, she jumps in front of him. So I feel like the levels and all of that made sense to me in that moment.

But there's no dictum. There's no tenant that when you're directing that one character has to necessarily always look more imposing than another. No, I think that's very rare. And usually if that's happened in my experience on shows where it's usually because the actor has some insecurity about it. Yeah, so Dax stops Ben from heading up. to his office and asked if he'd met Yates yet and says that Jake introduced her or introduced them. And Dax does mention to Sisko here that if she were still Curzon, she would have tried to steal her already. So clearly this Jake's suggestion is a big hit and Dax approved.

Yeah. As we learn as the episode goes on, everyone knows about Cassidy Yates. Everybody on the station does. Yes, exactly. Okay, now we're in the corridor. And this is, Quark is on his way to leave D-S-9 to head back to Frenganar and guess who chases after Quark? It's Rom. Rom wants to go. Quark says no. He says, you need to stay here and watch the bar. And that's when Rom says the bar is closed. I don't need to be here to watch it. I'm going with you. And the whole reason why Quark doesn't want him there is because he feels that he's going to be annoying and he will always side with Mugi will always side with the mother but he finally is insisted enough that Cork agrees you'll also notice that all the characters getting onto the shuttle are all Ferengi

I asked myself at one point watching this episode how often does a shuttle leave from this station to go to Ferengenart that can't happen very often so I'm wondering I'm just making this up as I go along I'm wondering if this is the ship that Brunt showed up on and is therefore because it's going back he's charging people to go back to the homeland so because it's all Ferengi getting onto the shuttle yeah that must have been a big makeup day for to put that many Ferengi into hands I thought about that big makeup day I agree with you did you notice by the way the background Ferengi that almost bumped into you guys when you suddenly stopped and he was right behind you

Yeah, but I did think about how many Ferengi were in this scene And then I thought, oh my gosh, we're about to go to Ferengenar There's going to be a million Ferengi and it wasn't because we were sort of contained Yeah Generally, yeah Well, we do go to Ferengenar we see a wide shot And before we go, this is the first mention of the word Mugi Yes, yes, they never see Mogi

Which for the ROM character will become iconographic I've gone to conventions and people have asked Max to say Moogie it is it becomes a

a buy word for the for the Max character for the wrong character for the rest of the run of the show hmm Moogie wow I started in my notes

calling her moogie. I don't know why. I kept it to Iscar, so. I kept referring to her movies. I guess I'm on I'm on Team Rom with us, I guess.

I like moving out too. Yeah, so we go to Ischka's house. We go to Ferengenar. First, we see a wide shot. And it's the first image of Ferengenar. Is it the first time? Yes, it's the first time. I believe we've seen Ferengenar.

That is correct. A beautiful graphic of rain and lightning. especially like the lightning. Yeah. And I thought, oh, that's nice. Thank you. Thank you, Dan Curry did a beautiful job of this big mat painting, this, you know. And I saw the influences of his time in Thailand and the Peace Corps in this.

I saw a lot of that. Yeah. Yeah. But I love Ferengenar. I thought it was beautiful, even in the rain. As you come in through one of those round archways, they had rain going on set, which we rarely did on Star Trek. we rarely did weather you know snow or rain or anything outside yeah so i like that they all arrive brunt rom and cork uh quark says immediately uh he needs to uh sign this waiver and deposit

your admission fee to come to my house well if i remember correctly the reason why he says it immediately it it's a tradition yes it's a true it i certainly played it as a tradition i don't know it comes across or not but that this is my house and and these this is this is this sort of prayer entering into my house, including you having to pay to come in. So that's the way I played it. And, you know, I hope that worked. Yeah, you said, the line was, please place your imprint on the legal waivers and deposit your admission fee in the box by the door. Remember, my house is my house. So it did sound like a bit of a prayer or a reciting. Incantation. Yes, an incantation. Incantation. Invitation.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Can we talk about the doors? Yes, please. They're rounded, just like you said, that theme that's going on. And my first thought was, this is a Hobbit House. The hobbits have the same kind of door. Oh, yeah. And, yes, and evidently, after doing a little bit research,

the authors forward to Iris Stephen Bear and Robert Hear, Wolf's book, Legends of the Ferengi, is filled with Lord of the Rings references, and they appear to be avid token fans. So this may have been an intentional homage to Lord of the Rings by how it's curved, yeah, rounded door. Interesting, very interesting. Yeah, I never, I didn't think of the, of the Lord of the Rings kind of vibes.

But you caught the whole theme of it. Now that you say it, yeah. You see it though? Yeah, and they're obvious. And you had to duck. You had to get underneath everything. because they were pretty low archways. And I was thinking when all of you had to duck under it

that you've got a prosthetic that's six inches above your head. Like, you may think you're getting low enough, but you've got to go even more. I promise you that happened on occasion. I bet it did. Luckily, they're foam rubber and we didn't get hurt. But, Armin, did this ever happen where any Frangie character was trying to duck under something,

where the way they knocked off. the entire prosthetic off of the head? No, no. That's never happened. Okay. Oh, good. Presetics are sealed with medical glue, so it sticks, and it's a great procedure for taking off the medical glue.

No, nothing ever got knocked off. I can imagine, I don't remember specifically, but I can imagine bumping into things because I didn't take into consideration. I had another two inches of head height above my, you know, where I thought it should be. Right. Right. Well, you walk into the house. house, this is Moogie's house. Rom

immediately comments that Moogie's acquired a lot more stuff. And as he's really starting to go off on this, Quark, gives him a look like this is, you know, more evidence that Moogie has been profiting and buying,

purchasing things. So, Rom does see a latinum tooth sharpener from when he was a baby that he remembers fondly. But Quark is not happy about that topic because he says he just got to chew on wooden chew sticks. So it sounds like Quark did not feel like the favorite child here.

Probably not. Probably not being the eldest. He thought perhaps he should be. And he probably wasn't pampered the way Rom was pampered. Ron was pampered. Talking about this toothpicks and electric toothbrushes, I just sort of shook my head and went I fought against that for years

It's just ludicrous Forgive me If this race is going to be taken seriously And granted they have comedic roots I understand that I just thought do we really need this Give me back the stuff that was cut that you guys read And take out the toothbrush

The two sharpener thing? Yeah, and it will play in other episodes as well. But I'm just thinking, I think now I'm going to mention something I said before we went on here. I just thought a lot of times we were on different planets, the actors playing the Ferengi. And this is the script, this has nothing to do with the actors. But I thought they're caught between trying to approach a serious topic and then having to add farcical elements. And I believe in farce, but this was just, forgive me for using this word. I look at the dictionary a lot, obviously.

It was just too jejun. It was just too much. Just too much. And I would have loved not to have had that. And let's deal with the fact that Hishka is earning money in a society that doesn't allow women to earn money. Let's deal with that. Yeah, I feel like the topic could have been much more insightful into the issue,

the issue of female subjugation, female power, you know gender dynamics i think there could have been a really smart conversation about that in this episode and i didn't feel like there was and this is a pastiche in the in the in the vein of the original star trek series where we have a civilization that doesn't make sense to the humans on the enterprise and but they're looking at it through the prism of science fiction and looking at it through the prism and that's really what i wanted to see this episode and we did a lot of that i'm not saying we didn't do that we did do a lot of that but sometimes i think they went off on the tangent that from my tastes and that's just me

apologies to a baron wolf but uh uh which i went we don't really need that and and it makes it a little too ludicrous it may be funny people may have laughed at it and that's a good thing but I think there's some serious topics here that need to be addressed and we don't need to go on these tangents. Yeah. I agree with you also about your point of the actors seem to be in different worlds. And I think that's a result of the story that the writers were trying to tell

was not clear to me. And I can imagine as an actor, you're trying to figure out like, what is my objective here? What do I believe in? What would I fight for? What am I trying to say? What's my point of view? It felt a little mushy to me generally.

It was a little bit of a family investigation into family dynamics and investigation into an alien civilization's culture that we don't understand. It was an investigation of all kind. Too many things. Misogyny. It was not focused at all. They didn't, yeah. bit off more than they can chew right it just seemed like they were going two feet in two boats or

whatever yeah it would waver between you know women's rights and family um it was very little of the B plot um so we're focused primarily on the on the frangy story um and and more on that yeah we'll talk more on it later well um before you run on i'll just just throw this in now it's just the show originated from Iris Stephen Bear's desire to do a more serious Franke episode than had ever been seen in Star Trek up to this point. And both cast and crew felt that Bear succeeded in this aim. Even Armin was quoted as saying a very heartfelt, he calls it a very heartfelt psychological study. And director of Renee Olbergen-ois pointed out, it's much more serious than the usual Ferengue story, even though there was a lot of comedic stuff in it. It's about a very painful thing,

a son who has totally lost any sort of relationship with a parent. Bear himself was also extremely pleased with how the episode turned out, calling it the long day's journey into night of Ferengi stories. Finally, co-writer Robert Hewitt Wolf says, there's a lot more to it than just the yucks. Underneath it all, it's a story about family. I agree with that. I would have liked less yucks.

Yeah, I would have liked less yucks and less controversial gender politics. For some reason, if you're going to open a can of worms that's as important as women's liberation and women's rights, if you're going to open that can of worms, take it seriously and really investigate it. But they sort of opened it and didn't really investigate that because, as you just read, their focus was on the family story.

So tell a different story, then, not that one. Right. And I agree with the fact that it was about family. And that's what struck me the most. And that's, if you watch the episode, that's what I'm playing. I'm playing that. And what causes the rift in the family is the fact that mom is breaking the law and doing stuff that will get not only her in trouble, but me, her son, in trouble. So I agree with you, Robbie. Let us just focus on that. And I, well, when we get to it, I'll talk about it. Let's keep going. But when we get to it, I'll give you my next thought. Hey, Garrett, have you been traveling this summer? Oh my gosh, so much already. I don't always travel, but this summer's been insane.

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offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See MintMobile for details. Anyway, so Ishka finally does enter and we see Andrea Martin in full makeup. I just want to read this very quickly. Isika's headpiece for this episode was based on that worn by Wallace Sean, Zek, and was designed to look almost caricature-like with drooping lobes and large dowels. For the scene when her knees are seen, makeup supervisor Michael Westmore, even designed drooping kneecaps. So very specific makeup.

Yes. And if I may now talk about Ishka's makeup. So two things. First, her lobes are too big. For a female? For a female. One of the things about females, one of the reasons this prejudice grew up in Ferengenar is that the male lobes are bigger than the female lobes.

Now, I would venture to say, because it's based on the Zek makeup, she's got male lobes. This is, I've got to get into the weeds here. But it's wrong, it's wrong. And two, it was too cartoonish. We are already cartoonish looking. Yeah. To make it even more so just took, for me, it was hard for me to get past what Andrew Martin was doing

because I'm looking at makeup that just was, I was repulsed by it. Wow. Yeah, and the jowls to me, I thought it was a mistake. I thought it had peeled off. It didn't look like it was connected to her body. It looked like a piece of makeup that had peeled away. Exactly.

Yeah. It didn't. It looked shoddy. And the knees look shoddy. The shoulders look shoddy. Yeah. I went, really, if you're going to do this, do it right. Or just avoid it and don't write it in that she's, you know.

And we'll get to the makeup in Andrea Martin a little bit later. But just the makeup, I went, this is not helping the story. It's not helping us tell us. serious story with that kind of maker yeah well she comes in and she's wearing clothes and brunt is horrified he puts his hand up he won't look at her he's so embarrassed for her that she's wearing clothes she shouldn't be wearing clothes we all know that we've heard that the frangy their their custom is that the women don't wear clothes only the men and it is true you work with your females arm them and force them

to wear clothing, TNG, first episode of the Fring. Is that the voice you used? Is that the voice you did for it? Oh, wow. Wow. Well, I was going to wait until later when she will take the clothes off. But I'm going to say it now.

Yeah. She could be wearing clothes in this scene. We could learn in this episode early on that the Ferengue are flexible, they're evolving as a culture, they've changed that rule of women wearing clothes. Women can wear clothes now they just can't make profit why not do that why keep this creepy um incestuous kind of vibe going of mother take your clothes off anyway you could easily in one line brunt could say or quark could say

oh yeah the customs if the laws have changed and see how evolved we are and we would have not have had to deal with that at all you will get your dream oh oh well there you go, Robbie? I just wish they had done it before this episode started filming. Anyway. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, Brun can't look at her. Quark says he begs her, please, just sign this confession, take off those clothes, and she refuses.

That's basically the end of the scene. But Brun also freaks out when Ishka says anything to him. He's like, whoa, whoa, did she just talk to me? Is she addressing me? It's so funny. Oh my gosh. Very funny. And at the end of the scene, we see Ishka is very nice to Rom.

You know, Ram, this is your home. Stay as long as you like. But with Quark, she's not warm and fuzzy. No. She says, or leave whenever you like. That was directed to Quark. Yeah. And she goes and Ram says very happily,

oh, same old Moogie. So he loves his mom and Quark clearly does not have a good relationship with mom. No. And that's the, you know, that's what we, that's what Ira was talking about in his quote, the Garrett Rick, the long day's journey in tonight. There is an antipathy here. And of course, it's because, as we'll find out later on, they're very much alike.

Mm-hmm. We are back on DS9, on the promenade. We're outside quarks. Miles and Bashir are there. They're trying to pick the lock. Yeah, how very Starfleet-like to pick a lock. Yes. Literally in front of the head of security.

In front of the constable, they're trying to... And the head of the station who arrives momentarily. Yes. They want their dartboard. Their lucky dartboard. They need it. There's other Ferengi on the station. Couldn't they have gone to Broick or somebody else and say, hey, we need the dartboard?

Actually, I saw Broick get onto the... shuttle. Break was in a shuttle as well. Okay, well, then I'd take that back then. But there are other Ferengi, yes.

And there are Dobble girls who may or may not, they probably don't have keys. And probably the other Ferengi don't have keys either. Really?

Okay. No, I think Quark would keep the keys to him. He wouldn't even give them to wrong. I like, I just, I like the explanation

that all the Frangy left on that shuttle. They all went back to Friggani don't have for the vacation. For a holiday. But, but yeah but the idea that they're breaking in

is so anti-starfleet I just I thought and and furthermore come on come on this is a station where people beam into places on a regular basis how does a lock keep people out of the bar yeah that's that's one thing Armand

the other thing is this everyone has a replicator you can replicate another dartboard you don't need to get that dartboard They say that, though, in the scene, and they're like, no, this is ours. They say it's their lucky dart board at some point. Yeah, Oda does say that, yes. I think actually it's Ciscoe who says it's the lucky dark part. I may be wrong, but I think that's what it is.

But even so, yes, they can replicate it, but they're breaking in. That's the essential point. Yes. Why are they breaking it? And didn't Quark go into Odo's office? We've already seen this scene, saying you're responsible that no one touch myself. stuff now granted the dartboard is not his but if you remember in episodes past they insisted on putting that dartboard on quark's wall which he didn't want to begin with right i just don't

why are they breaking in what is that about i don't know it's it's it's it's odd and um Cisco shows up you know agrees with Odo they're never going to get in and then uh he's starting to head out he says, I'm heading to cargo bay. And before he can finish, Miles interrupts and says, four. And Cisco stops and says, wait, why would you think that? And all of a sudden, Miles is uncomfortable. He says, well, I thought you were going to go see that freighter captain and cargo bay four. And Jake told everybody. And I love this last shot when it's the wide shot of the three of them, Bashir, O'Brien, and Odo very awkwardly. trying to stay out of the captain's love life.

Right. And Cisco says exactly how many people has Jake told about this woman? And they look at each other and go, everyone. And then they all turn simultaneously back to the lock. Focus on the lock. It's just very fun. This is an example of Renee's theatrical timing and comic timing. I think he had something to do with the sharpness of that moment.

way they play. Absolutely. But my question is, why is Odo there? Wouldn't it been easy? I mean, especially since he's the director of the episode. Yeah. He has very few lines. I don't think he has any lines. Maybe he does one or two. He's got a few, but not much. But it doesn't make, I went, why even put him in this? He's already had his residual shot. He's already appeared with Quark. He's got, he's going to get a residual for the episode. Right. He doesn't need to be in the other side. He doesn't need to, this should just be Bashir and, and, uh, and, and O'Brien. and trying to get their darkboard back. And having the head of security there sort of says it's okay for them to break in,

even though, as I said, there's a scene before where Quark tells Odo, don't let anybody into my bar. So he doesn't have to listen to Quark, absolutely. He doesn't have to do that. But it just sort of complicates the situation. Yes, it does. By the way, this episode, Cisco's goatee is considerably thinner

and less noticeable than the prior episode where it was actually bushy, yeah, it was just... I think that was makeup in the prior episode. I think it was added then, right? I think they added it. I agree. I don't think it was added. Okay.

Maybe they added something to it. That's possible, but... Okay. Here's another theory. Maybe they flip it. the air dates of episodes. Maybe this episode was filmed before.

Oh. And then they flipped them. So what we see in this episode is the actual first time it was filmed. Yeah. And the previous episode was filmed after when it was thicker. Because I had the same thought.

I'm like, it doesn't make sense that it was thick. Overnight it was thick. And then now it's thinner. That seems odd. Okay. And now I'm really getting into the weeds and telling stuff I probably shouldn't. Please do.

Okay. At some point, and this may be the point, Avery insisted that he had a person who was familiar with people of color's hair. And he insisted on, and I've forgotten the wonderful gentleman,

he was just a kindhearted person, who had to come in and just make sure that Avery's hair was in tune with what Avery's every wanted. Now, if your explanation that the beard, it was, that the episode was shot before, might be indicative of that. It might be that he didn't like that bushy look and he brought this person in. I'm trying to make sense of a memory that's faded a long time ago. Okay. I think that, and I will piggyback on what you talked about, about Avery insisting on, on someone who's familiar with

African-American hair, facial hair and head hair and all of that, insisted on someone with that kind of background and experience to do his hair. Because I've seen other African-American actors, men and women, struggle with hair departments that don't have the experience with black hair. That's a very specific and should be, you know, respected that that is different than Caucasian hair or Asian hair or you know that that African-American hair particularly some people's needs that experience and expertise and so I've seen a push to make sure that that people have that actors have the appropriate support in the hair makeup trailers for for their skin for

their hair and all of that because that's important and I think it's gotten better there's still a long way to go to have a experience people. If I may, I may on that subject, as I may have mentioned before, my makeup person, Karen Westerfield, became the executive, forgive me Karen, if I had the title wrong, the executive something of the union, of the hair and makeup union, and that was negotiated in their last contract. That's great. I think that's been something the last few years I've been aware of, and we've tried on shows that I work on, tried to make sure that we get the experience that people need for support, you know, that it's, that, that, that's important.

So, yeah, I'm glad that Avery was at the front of that, it sounds like. I never even thought about that to be able to ask, because like, literally Asian hair and black hair are completely different from Caucasian hair, completely. And Jose Normand and the rest of the hair department, they literally did everything possible to try to make my hair bend the knee. You know what I'm saying? like, we're going to force it to do this. They were using all these different things.

And I never thought about, yes, but I, but goodness gracious, if I had said, hey, can you bring in one Asian hair stylist that knows Asian hair really well? Yeah. Then they could have shaped it, you know, without going through all the rigmarole of trying umpteen different things of curling, you know, I had all kinds of steam stuff in my hair and just trying to do stuff to it. It was, it was insane. But Avery's was so smart.

bringing someone who has been doing that type of hair their entire career, right? Yeah. We're back at Ishka's house. We get to see some real grubs. Were those real? The real bugs in the bowl? I can't tell you for sure, but I would assume they were. They loved real.

Oh, that's disgusting. I think we've seen grubs before in. It's something that's, we, Ferengi eat grubs. But when Grand Nagas came over, you guys brought out all the food then, remember? This was just lingered on. they were sort of stirring them. So it was, this was the most grubby of grub shots I've seen so far. Not sure why you need to stir the grubs.

They're all the same, right? Yeah. So, okay. Yeah. Well, they stirred them, moved them around and they were moving. Yep. Quark tries to think of a solution. Rom thinks that, you know, she just has her own way of doing things, Ishka.

And Quark does talk about how she always embarrassed them when they were kids, that she wasn't as motherly to him as she should have been. And just as Quirk says, you know, it's time someone put her in her place. She walks in. And she says, oh, is that, is that, you have anyone in mind for the job? So she doesn't back down your mom. No, no, that's good. That's very good.

She goes, she sniffs the grubs. She goes, mm, dank and musty, as if that's the good thing to have with grubs. Well, she comes in for dinner to have some grubs. reveals that that she took his monthly stipend that he sends to her and she invested it

in a beetle farm Hyperion beetles Beal Beatles juice Beals or Beetlejuice can't remember Probably Beatles not Beetlejuice is a movie Yeah right Hyperion beetle farm This is in reference to the snuff

that Grand Nagas was inhaling right It was that beetle snuff that he This is the finest ever He was talking about that Beatles And Tiny Rom, the man behind the negus, is a Hyperion. Not Tiny Rhine, but the character. May Hardu is a Hyperion? Okay, all right.

So she's invested in this beetle farm, and Quark has discovered that she made three bars of latinum and profit. Lubkis. Not very much. Rom asked about that. And Rom goes, what are you talking about? That's nothing. That's not that much. but Quark still insists

it's going to destroy their family and he calls her selfish she says that she never he says she never cared about him or their father Ouch Keldar Yeah

So we're starting to see a bit of A bit of family Family dynamics That Rom is mommy's Mommy's boy And that Quark was a daddy's boy For sure We're starting to see that here

Okay we go to Ishka's bedroom next why do we have to go in the bedroom for this scene why couldn't it have been it should have been back in the kitchen or something why didn't need to be in the bedroom right this whole scene don't like it made me uncomfortable uh they go in the bedroom and rama immediately asks her to take off her clothes um so he can be a little more comfortable he just doesn't like looking at her in her clothes and she goes okay only for you, again, implications of forbidden things, you know.

For us, right. Yes, for us. Forbidden things is the implication there. Take off your clothes, Mom, come put your head on my lap, son, in the bedroom. It just did, it, it was too much for me to get beyond, I'll be honest. And it added a ton of work for the makeup department. Oh, my God. And I think now might be the time to start. start to mention this a ton of extra work for henry martin to sit through and endure because they had to put this stuff on it would have been it would have been so much easier on a number of departments including miss martin if they had not written this yeah which was not

necessary let me give both of you a little information here for the shot where her shoulders and the top of her chest were exposed. Westmore didn't have time to create a proper foam latex appliance. It looks it. So he rubberized Kleenex and wrinkled it, laying it across Andrea Martin's shoulders and on the upper portion of her chest.

So it was Kleenex that was then treated and to make it look like wrinkly skin. And that's what it was. Again, her makeup in all aspects of it just was below. par. Sorry, Michael. You know, I love you dearly, but that was just below par.

Well, according to Westmore, Martin was not amused by the makeup. We'll get to that momentarily. That is, I hinted at this earlier, and I would talk more about that. Right. As a friend of mine says, when skating across thin ice, skate quickly, let's get through the scene. So she takes off her clothes. Rom tries to convince her to confess, return the money, or it's going to destroy his brother.

It's going to destroy Quark. She calls Quark Unenlightened. Rom says, Quark's just following the rules, but Mugie says, no, he'll be fine. And then she goes to polish his teeth. She wants to polish his teeth. He does have very white teeth. Sharpen.

Sharpened. Sharpened. And we finish with Rom saying, oh, Mugi, you are the best. He's just spoilt. Spoiled, spoiled little boy. Okay, we're through that scene quickly, skating over thin ice, and now we're in a cargo bay.

I mean, can I just stop for a second? Do you think that this whole concept of Ferengi women being naked at home is just their idea of saying, boy, we could turn things on its edge, because it's usually people, you know, kids around parents that are nudist or naturalists or something, mom, dad, put some clothes on or someone's saying put clothes on

but to say take them off, maybe that was just the writer's way of saying, hey, we can flip everything upside down in this culture, in this society. I think to answer your question, it's again in the vein of the original series to take a problem, magnify it, put it on an alien world

so that we can look at it with a fresh eye and not have to worry about how it affects humans. I think that's what it was. I think that the subjugation of women is accentuated by the fact that they have to go around nude but

and as I've hinted at already that is going to change over time on Ferengenar. Good. The other thing I think about is like let's take let's flip it to a to an example we're more familiar with. There are cultures on earth in real life

IRL as the kids say there are cultures on earth where the opposite of take off the clothes is true where it's cover your entire body cover your body and with this kind of clothing or that kind of hooding or this kind of thing and so it's a repressive control it's about power it's about shame it's about subjugating women and you know if if the ferengi had a rule that the women all had to be hooded and completely covered would we have been more accepting of that story maybe maybe because we're familiar with it maybe we would have said oh yeah it's horrible would have been easier to judge whereas or more comfortable to accept in some way whereas this as you said arman take a problem

amplify it. Well, they did that. They took this this problem of subjugating women and male power, male dominance, control, and they amplified it in a way that made me very uncomfortable on so many levels. And maybe that, maybe they succeeded then. Maybe that is the point. And let us remember that she is fighting against this. That's the Ishtar character. She is, his character is fighting against us. and she has every right to do that. And she should do that. Absolutely. And so we should recognize what Baron Wolf have done,

which is that they're saying this is wrong. Subjugation of women is wrong. We're using this as the marker. And she's right to be doing this. And I just, well, warm that later. Okay. All right. All right.

Now we go to the cargo bay. Yeah. There's Penny. Oh, Cassidy Yates. Hello. Penny. Cassidy's overseeing heavy boxes being loaded on. Cisco arrives.

He suggests beaming them in. She says, nope, it's unstable biomatter. Can't do that. Besides, her transporters are two generations older. And they wouldn't be able to adjust. Because Cisco suggests, well, just adjust the settings of your transporter. And she's like, no, I've got a. older generation so

and then just as they're starting to kind of get to know each other a little there's a crash in the back she's got to go take care of business clearly she's like a hands-on doer which I think is very cool yeah and I get my takeaway

from this is that this is the introduction of Cassidy Yates the first time we see Cassidy Yates engaging in any type of interaction with any other character and Penny Gerald Johnson and really set the tone. I mean, I believe that she was a captain, right?

She had the moxies. She had the, you know, the gravitas to make me believe that. So good job by betting. And may I point out the juxtaposition? We've just seen a scene where a woman on Ferengenar is nude and is not expected to do anything, really, that Cisco asks Yates, can I help you with that? She said, I can take care of it myself.

and he accepts that. That would not happen on Frangin. Right. So we have that juxtaposition of two different women, two different females, dealing with two different cultures, and where one culture says, yes, we accept that,

and another culture says, no, that's unacceptable. Got it. Now, that was good. I like that a lot. Yeah, I did tell. And the male accepts it. Cisco who's in charge of the station, says, yes, right, you take care of it.

You can handle it yourself. yeah yeah they're both strong women right yeah both of them just in different cultures and yeah i think there could have been a lot more of that sort of echoing the themes and amplifying the themes by showing contrasts if we've gotten to meet cassidy a little earlier if we've gotten into that story a little deeper i think it could have it could have taken some relief off of the Ferengi side of things to tell the story from a different side of the coin, I think that would have been helpful. And speaking of helpful, one of the things that Renee does at the beginning of this scene,

which he did in the first scene as well, and has done a couple of times in this episode already, is this pan shot. Yes. We started out with one of Yates's crew members carrying something, and his carrying it takes us to Penny. And I like that when Renee did that with the camera. Yep. I did too. So Cassidy, here's a crash. She's got a run off, but she does turn back to Ben and she says, hey, you want to get some coffee tomorrow maybe? And he sort of smiles. And he agrees and they make a date, a plan to meet the next night. So you see that chemistry. We end on a, you know, a very brief encounter, but clearly there's some chemistry there. And again, indicative of the change of societies, it's the woman who sets up the date. It's not the man.

who says, shall we have coffee? It's the woman who sets up the date. And in our society, perhaps that happens now more often than it did in the 1990s. But in the 1990s, not that it was frowned upon, but it didn't happen as often as the other scene.

Great. Great. Now we're in Ishka's house. Well, Quark has discovered after doing his little research that Ishka has actually made much more than three bars of Ladd, platinum. Lots of different aliases. And Quark realizes that to pay everything back of all, I mean,

he's going to be, even if he sold everything that he owned, including his bar and every bit of asset that he has, he would not even come close to paying back what she has earned. And he is ruined. Ruined, I tell you. I thought your performance in this was great, Armin. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's what I mean by we were on. different worlds um yeah i saw this as a deep psychological problem of dysfunctional family and that's what i was going for i was trying to discover how does someone deal with that um the other actors i think were coming from a more comedic point of view and um and and sometimes uh i just thought they sacrificed

reality or comedy and so I was trying to bring some gravitas to this situation and I'm not always sure that the others were and now I'm going to go one step further and get into a little trouble here especially Andrea Martin

who is a comic actress but God bless her is so flummoxed by this enormous amount of makeup that she has to wear and looking at people like Max and I in makeup or Jeff in makeup so that this is all strange to her. I think, with all due respect to a wonderful actor,

I think she was a little lost in this episode. Yeah, she seemed, I agree with you. And I think, you know, her years and years on SCTV playing. these sort of absurd comedic characters over the top that kind of grounding things in a real emotional way is just not I'm not saying she's not capable of it but it's just not the track that her career has been on so I think having to come overcome the makeup having to overcome a story that was not focused on the page in the script I you know I I I I I'd I

I don't blame her for that, but I did feel like she was not connecting it to something really rooted on the planet. Right. And if I may, is patting myself on the back, I apologize. Because we didn't rehearse with her at my house.

Oh. I think the familial quality that most of the Ferengi episodes have is missing because she did. didn't learn to see us as family and friends but saw this as a job as she should have as most actors do when they step onto a strange set that you know that's the way that is i not you know there's no way that she could have done this i'm not blaming for having not done something

it just seen i watched her performance and think she seems to to not be relating to us more than a good actress would. Okay. The very chemistry that the rest of us usually have is somewhat missing here. Not her fault, not her fault at all, just missing.

Yeah, I agree. Well, there's also a deleted unfilmed scene which saw Cisco and Jake walking together on the promenade while they discuss Cisco's upcoming date with Cassidy. Robbie, can you play Jake? I would love to.

I'll be Cisco. All right. Scene 21. Interior Promenade. Sisko and Jake talk as they walk together down the promenade. Quarks is still closed. Jake says coffee? That's it? All you're going to have is coffee? Well, I was thinking of having an Ikoberry tart. You know what I mean. A cup of coffee doesn't give you a lot of time to get to know someone. We're not even sure we want to get to know each other. Morn approaches Cisco and Jake. He looks like he's about to ask a question, but

Sisko pats him on the shoulder. I haven't heard any news, but I'm sure when court gets back, you'll be the first to know. Morn nods, sadly. Sisko and Jake continue walking. So, what are you two going to talk about? I have no idea. Well, you should think about it. Rehears a few clever things to say.

Come up with a couple of good stories to catch her interest. Jake, this isn't exactly my first date. It's your first date in a long time. You're just going to have to have a little faith in the old man. I guess you'll do fine. So what are you going to wear? This. Cisco gestures to indicate he means his uniform.

Your uniform? Oh. As they round the bend to the promenade, we cut to Hishka's house. So there was a scene with Jake sort of trying to micromanage this and nervous about it. And that would have been a fun scene. It would have been. And not only that, not only a fun scene, but a family scene, a family scene that's comparable to what's happening in the A story. Right.

Family scenes. It's a shame. I would like to have seen that. And the complications of family of what one family member expects from another family member. Well, we go to Ishka's house next, and Quark is sitting there staring straight ahead when Rom brings a drink in. Quark is just in shock. Rom tries to cheer him up in the scene and reassures him

you know what you'll come up with a plan and Quark says he has I'm going to kill her and he gets up and leaves I was actually terrified at your line reading I was like oh he really is going to kill her and this is when Rom jumps up and there's a close up on Max's face

and he screams Mugie is this the thing that fans ask you to do? Yes that's the one that's the one well he screams Mugie in Ishka's bedroom, she's working on a pad, quark comes in, he catches her, you know, working on making profit clearly. And he says he wants to confess, and she does. This is a great scene. This is a big scene. She accuses him of being jealous of her and says, you're just like your father. Ouch. Those kind of, you know, whenever someone says you're just like your mother or you're

just like your father, that probably is the worst thing you could ever hear. Yeah. It's a major button. Nothing good follows that. No, no, no. But she says quark is just like your father. Yeah. But quark's convinced, like, she couldn't have done this herself.

A male for ing, you must have helped her. He wants names. Who is it? And she continues with, you know, I have bigger lobes than you'll ever have quark. she's like she's being kind of not kind of nasty very nasty as a mother here to him this is where i wish she had played it less comically and had been more ugly about it yeah yeah because this is a very broken parent-child relationship right now you know it's and and and it needs to hit rock bottom and sort of that that all is lost moment to come back

to matter and it doesn't it doesn't quite get there yeah yeah uh quirk says females don't belong in business and then she says why not and quirk says because it's the law which he's following the law that's absolutely true um and quark decides he's going to leave to tell the fca it's a horrible moment not only because of the relationship between mother and child but but also a financial moment it If Quark goes to the FCA, when we haven't mentioned this at all, what happens to Ishka, Ishka? She goes into servitude. She becomes a slave. That's the law.

And the secondary thing is that Quark would be responsible to pay back everything that, well, the profit that she has made, which he's already told us is beyond his means. He doesn't have that. You could sell everything and it wouldn't be enough. So his going is actually. thoughtless on quarks part because he's not going to ruin his mother's life he's going to ruin his own life yeah yeah but also how does he okay this is what i i don't understand if she pays back the profit that she made why do you have to sell everything that then also match that two two different things it's two different it's it's what she's accused of is only three bars that's payable that's easy

that's easy if they find out what also she's been up to which which is how that scene starts is his discovery that there's a lot more to this than the three bars that's beyond his means to pay back and that's what's going to ruin him and so it's two different things okay yeah well as he's heading out uh ram tries to stop him

basically this is a big brother fight here all the true family feelings come out in this scene cork literally says she's no mother to me she's not my mother I don't feel like she's my mother at all and Ram goes after dad

you know what dad was a failure she took care of us she's a good mom so you know this is a big brother fight that turns into stunt doubles crashing all over the place I assume that can't be you guys

but big fight I love the handheld that Renee did in this starting with the dialogue at the top going through the fight sequence yeah it was fitting but what I find really important for the character of Rom this is really the first time

that he has stood up to his older brother this is the first time that he's that he's saying no enough is enough i'm not taking anymore you're not going to do this and they get into a fistfight over it this has been waiting for three seasons to happen um and i'm i'm i'm really really glad it happened here again three different worlds three different or four different ferengue characters i wish max had taken this as seriously as i just explained it to you And it's not Max's fault. Max is playing ROM as he sees Rom.

And I love Max playing ROM, but here I wish he had gone off and played it a tiny bit more seriously. Okay. Okay. Ishika comes in, she breaks it up, she grabs them both by the ears. That hurts.

That hurts for sure. Tells Quark, go ahead, go to the FCA, and he does. Who is your stunt double? Who would have done? You know, I do, don't remember. I can picture his face. And it's terrible.

He's dangerous brother-in-law. Oh. Oh, really? And then who would have doubled wrong? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know who doubled wrong. But my son, double was there for all seven years, and he was terrific, and I apologize.

I can't remember his name. I should, and I don't. Well, we go to Brunt's office next. Cork comes up to this waiting room at Brunt's. office. 40 floors up, he said, the steepest 40 flights he's ever climbed. Why? Because he didn't want to pay for the elevator ride. I guess you have

to pay for elevator rides in Ferengenar. Then he looks at the wall. It's a Ferengi read out of the stock market, basically. He says, oh. When you're in a hotel, you have to pay for the Wi-Fi sometimes. Yes, that's right. You're so thrifty, though. You wouldn't pay for

the elevator. I know. Okay. Neither does Rom. Rom shows something the same way so it runs in the family but somebody does get out of the elevator the shot opens with work yes out of breath but what you don't see or you just barely see is somebody who's just come out of the elevator they're rich that's a rich person um refined dilythium is down 10 percent he notices on the board i love that the woman i don't know why but i don't love that i did too it was very real it was like oh he's out of the story for a minute and who says distracted. Quark says it. Quark does it. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, it's up. Watching his stock tickers, I thought it was very relatable and real. That's what happens. Yeah. Get distracted. Go off on a tangent for a minute. Okay. But he says he's here to see liquidator, uh, liquidator brunt. And the receptionist doesn't say anything. Just taps the money box. Quark's like, oh, yes, of course. Put some money in. So you got to pay a feet to climb the stair. I mean, to take the elevator. He had to pay for a seat, too.

Of course, it's all stand. He's not going to sit then. Yes. Robbie and Garrett, you probably know this. But you go to the theater in Broadway. Yes. You pay different monies for different seats. And indeed, if you just stand in the back,

you pay for that too. That's true. Wow. Yeah, there's a lot of Ferengi in our lives. We're not even aware. But in the scene, which I thought was very funny, Rom shows up eventually. He also needs to sit down.

Quark loans him the fee. And then Rom says, Ram privately to Quark says, Ishka will split, has said that she'll split the profits with you, 50-50. Well, Cork has just seen, it's an enormous amount of money.

So this changes everything. Cork tells the receptionist, tell Brunt, never mind. And leaves him a tip. Doesn't even have to pay for anything. Just leaves him a tip. yeah very and takes the elevator down they don't take the stairs that's the comedy that i loved that's just that's just realistic human behavior it's for rangy behavior but human behavior that you

know okay i just got all this money i can be generous i can be generous especially as he wasn't generous about the elevator uh that's the kind of comedy that i just i love thank you yeah i love those from bear. So we're back at Ishka's house and we realized that Rom has tricked both of them. He lied to both of them because court comes in and he's like, mother, I want to apologize for all the terrible things. I'm so sorry. And we realized that Rom set all this up. Yeah. Good for Rom. Rom. Rom is taking, you know, taking responsibility and doing active things. Good for Rom. Good for Rom. And he's got a big speech here. that is so exhausting for him to yell and scream and which he didn't need to do he didn't need to do that he didn't need to do that well at the end of it it says i'm going to go take a nap yeah which i took as

maybe the actor's cue was okay if i finish with i'm going to go take a nap i have to do something so exhausting that now i have to go take a nap and i didn't think he needed to do that i i love max's performances rom over the ages but in this case again i just it's such a very good speech let's not inject any comedy into it now that's just me the right the writers loved the episode the director loved the episode um it just me i just it's definitely the writers wanted a moment where we see rom has had enough he literally says figure this out settle it, settle it between the two of you, I'm not going to, you know, this is, I can't take this anymore. Right. And they do, by the way, they do. Quark and his mom both take a bit of

responsibility and they actually are honest with each other. And wouldn't the best stimulus for that conversation that they're about to have Quark and Ishka is that all of a sudden Rom is behaving unrom like? Yeah. Wouldn't it been wonderful if all, Who the hell is that guy? Okay, okay, okay, yeah, as opposed to being generic wrong. Yeah. What do you think, just to go off on a tangent for a minute, when you're an actor and you're in a scene with someone that is doing something you didn't expect

and that you maybe don't even quite understand, how can you, without telling that actor, without saying, hey, what have you tried it differently? Instead of saying that, what have you done ever that you can think of to try to kind of coax and kind of lure that actor onto a track that you, that makes sense to you? Have you ever?

If I'm wily enough, if there's time, I'll say, hey, let's run the lines. Let's just run the lines. And as we're running the lines, what does that mean to you? this is what you know this is what it means to me tell me tell me more about where you're coming from that's how i usually phrase it uh-huh uh-huh and as they explain it to me i may inject a word or two hoping to to to sort of stir them and stir them stir them

stir them in another direction um uh it's not stir it's steer it's steer them in another And so that's what I do. But I would never, ever, I don't care who it is. I would never say, that's wrong, you can't do it that way. I have had a couple of experiences where it's been done to me, and it's ugly. It's not pleasant. It's not pleasant. I don't want it.

I wouldn't want to do it to someone else. No, actors should never tell another actor what to do, how to do it, how to, what they should be playing emotionally, or how they should say a line. never ever ever yeah so mom and quark bond basically to make a long story short you know yeah mom says finally she says things that he's wanted to hear his whole life she loves him she's proud of him it's it's it's actually if we take the comedy out and we take the makeup out yeah yeah it's it's actually a very nice scene

quark says he loves her at the end of the scene which I I was very moved in spite of the makeup flaws in spite of the rest of this episode flaws after rom leaves and they finally do i felt like finally we're in the story yeah finally we're this is the story it's not about clothes or no clothes or profit or no profit or it's not really about that that's why i felt like the script was a little all over the play yeah and i will i will agree with you on some and disagree and so that's the story as i said at the very top of our show it's either about family or about subjugating women but don't make it both uh if it's about family if it's called family business then let's make it about family and save the the liberation of women on ferengenar

to another episode it we didn't know what it was really about and it was a little this and a little that and and it tasted like a little of this and a little of that yeah i agree and you know i was also moved by this scene, but more so the writing, because I do believe that Armand brought up a point if Andrea Martin was able to join at his house to rehearse with everyone else. I think they could have really done some knocking stuff out of the park if that had happened. And again, I will say this because it bears repeating, she is on a set where nothing looks right where all these people she's talking to

have these big ears and orange makeup and have jagged teeth this upsets an actor if they're not used to it it's really off-putting and you have to get over it and you have to think about your performance as well But as one actor has said to me, and I may have already said this before,

where do I look on your face, as they said to me? I said, just look here. Just look in my eyes. Forget about everything else. Just look right here. Because the teeth will distract you if you stare at the teeth. That's for sure. Overall, she had to deal with so many things that most guest stars would crumble under that type of pressure.

And she did. Now is the time. She did crumble. Oh, boy. I walked into the trailer. and watched for about 30 seconds, she was in tears, talking to Renee, saying, I cannot do another day. I'm going to quit now. Oh, wow.

And Renee, heroically, just walked her away from the ledge, and was able to finish the episode. But she did crumble. It was more than she could handle. I don't blame her. I don't blame her at all. and she wanted off and Renee did the franchise an enormous huge service

by walking her away from the ledge and it's why it's very obvious now it's why she never came back they would have loved to have had Andrew Martin again but she wasn't ever going to do this again was she somebody's

like did she know somebody in the production Listen, she was Andrew Martin. She already had a name. Yeah, of course, but I'm just wondering how the whole casting process. I don't remember her being a good friend of René's. Maybe she knew Berman. Maybe she knew Ira. I don't know.

Maybe they were big fans of hers. Why wouldn't you be? But this was more than she could handle. Especially if you're claustrophobic. Poor thing. I just feel horrible that she was sobbing like that. Yeah. I mean, I've been on sets as a director or producer with actors

when they've hit, you know, either a professional moment that just breaks them like that or a personal moment that's even outside of the work where they just feel like I can't do this work today because of this personal thing that's happening. But those kind of moments are, they are forks in the road. And kudos to Renee for helping to navigate that so well. Well, a great family scene. we go to the Repliment next, and there's Cisco with Cassidy. He offers to get her another Ractogeno, but she says, no, she promised her brother that

she would be in her quarters to, or be back to listen on a subspace transmission from him that he's a colonist on Cestus three, and it takes a long time to get these subspace transmissions, so she wants to listen to it live. She mentions that, you know, he heard himself recently. tore some ligaments in his knee. Cisco says, how'd that happen? She says, he was doing something called sliding into second. Cisco is like, what?

Wait, what? That sounds like baseball. Boy, did Avery get excited about baseball. And by Avery, I mean, Cisco, but yes, thrilled that someone else knows about baseball, this ancient game. Yeah. And turns out that they have teams on his colony and a league and all kinds. kinds of things and Cisco's

thrilled and they end up going together back to her quarters to listen to the baseball game on the subspace feed. It's cute. He's geeking out on base. They're both geeking out on baseball. I love them. Yeah. Which is so cool. And again, it's

the woman inviting the man to her apartment. Correct. Not the other way around. Yeah. They talk about her brother, Cassidy Yates' brother being on Cessus 3. That has already been mentioned that that Planet and Star Trek the original series in the episode Arena

Cessus 3 is first spoken of. Yeah. That's funny. Yeah. Jake sees them walk away, by the way. He's up in the balcony of the promenade. Boy, does he look like the cat that ate the canary. He's so content with

his mastermind planned, his plot. Yeah. Yes. And I think is it our final scene is back at Ishka's house? Yes, that's correct. Ishka signing the confession. Yes. And brunt telling Quirk that her confession will be a lesson to all females. And then Quark steps aside and says, well, you know, what would everybody say if they knew a female had earned that much latinum? Yeah. And then bribes him. And bribes him. Yes.

Gives him a bag of latinum. It's just, it's just so commonplace in Ferengenar. It's just, the bribe is just like breathing. It's normal. Yeah. Yeah. Quark says he's got to go back. he's got to open the bar ishka's very sad to see him go they nose kiss which is very cute um is that a common thing with ferengis i know but uh they had already done that rom and iska had done that earlier in the episode so i guess we we established that okay i see well you did they have a nice kiss which is a nice book in i didn't remember the rom moment but but now that i know that it's actually a nice book in that you did it both yeah he did it on the arrival you did it on the departure in coordination with that he this is the first time i think is it in this

scene or perhaps the prior scene he calls her moogie mm-hmm he calls her movie yeah yeah cork leaves first uh rom hangs out and has a little conversation with mom and we do find out that not all of the prophets were turned in so uh about a third of the prophets so the question i have is which prophets the prophets that have been hidden or the prophets that were the three bars of latinum that wasn't clear to me oh that's interesting yeah all that uh brunt knows about is the three bars of latinum profit that should be it right i i wasn't clear about that and i wondered what what are they really talking about because we didn't you know i know i know raman in the big speech we were talking about a moment ago said you know the fca if cork

find out about this hidden profits so can so can the fca which made perfect sense and um so is that what she's agreed to um and if so um then she's still in in uh what's the word she's still in trouble with the law yeah so it's not really clear well rom calls her moogie he's about to cry she says get out of here before you get me crying to corks waiting for you and the last line of the episode take care of your brother take care of your brother that's lovely lovely yeah and he does again i just forget about rom max took care of armin for seven years and he's armin is very grateful Oh, that's very sweet to hear. Very sweet of you to say about a brother, a show brother.

A show bro. A show bro. He was, he is, he was. I mean, he's not gone. He was my brother. And I don't, I often have thought about this. There's no way I could. If Andrea had a problem with that one day,

I could not have made it seven years without Max Thank you for sharing that with us He used to sing to me at the end of the day Oh gosh Now you're going to make me It would be a long day, a long week And he just starts singing to me And oh my God

It's great I love that What is the lesson theme slash moral of this episode Robbie McNeil My lesson is that no family is perfect and you can love each other more if you can just accept that

that if you really want to love each other more just accept that nobody's perfect everybody's going to screw up have flaws it's going to be things you don't like about each other just accept the imperfections yes

Perfect. Armine. Mine's along the same lines. Family is a unique gift that needs to be occasionally re-found and appreciated, even when they're driving you crazy. It's weird. I just, I didn't, I liked this episode. I know both of you have your critiques about it, but I didn't really ever get a lesson other than, you know, family comes first, I suppose.

I can always keep your family in mind in terms of their welfare. That's the only thing I could think of. But I was still entertained by this episode overall, though. I would say. Yeah. But no big lesson. No big lesson for me in this one. No.

So I'll just let you guys take the lead on that one. All right. But our Patreon poll winner for the theme slash moral of this episode, as submitted by Andrew Cano is, Necessary societal change can begin with a single act of defiance. Oh. This is a person who's seen the entire seven years.

Okay. Ah. Okay. Okay, then. Oh, good, okay. Well, thank you, everyone, for tuning in to our recap and discussion of family business. Please join us next time when we will be reviewing, recapping, and discussing the episode Shakar with Armin yet again.

So thank you, Armand, for joining us this one, and we'll see you next time, too. See you then. Yeah. Thanks, everybody. Bye-bye. And for all of our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material.