The Delta Flyers - The Magnificent Ferengi

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

The Delta Flyers is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, Terry Farrell, and Armin Shimerman. In each podcast release, they will recap and discuss an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.This week’s episode, The Magnificent Ferengi, is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Armin Shimerman.The Magnificent Ferengi: After their moogie is kidnapped by the Dominion, Rom and Quark assemble a ragtag team of Ferengi to set out on a rescue mission with the promise of a substantial reward from Grand Nagus Zek.We would like to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers, Megan Elise and 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, David Wei Liu, Nicki T, Roxane Ray, Tim Neumark, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Jenny Cordina, Ryan Mahieu, Francesca Garibaldi, Jonathan Capps, Chris Dellman, Sean T, Cindy Woodford, Tamara Evans, Shawn Robbins, & Francis Our Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Sarah A Gubbins, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Elaine Ferguson, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Cindy Ring, Lee Lisle, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Andrew Duncan, Randy Hawke, Penny Liu, Matt Norris, David Smith, Heath K., Andrew Cano, Robby Hill, Kevin Harlow, Chris Garis, Jeff Allen, Londyn Henning & Risa EinsidlerAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Jake Barrett, Ann Harding, Samantha Weddle, Paul Johnston, Warren Stine, Carl Murphy, Jocelyn Pina, AJ Provance, Brian King, Maxine Soloway, E & John, Brianna Kloss, Dat Cao, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Alexander Ray, Sarah Thompson, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Sara Junius, Renee Wiley, Maria Rosell, Dominique Weidle, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Matt Edmonds, Miki T, Heather Selig, Steph Davies, Stephanie Aves, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, Annie Davey, Jason Eberl, Jeremy Gaskin, Sarah Dunnevant, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Eddie Dawson, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, PJ Pick, Preston M, Rebecca Leary, SnazzyO, Karen Galleski, Jan Hanford, Katelynn Burmark, Cade Solsbery, Timothy McMichens, Cassandra Girard, Andrea Wilson, Slacktwaddle, Mo, Leslie Ford, Jay Furness, Jim Poesl, Gabystar, Daniel Chu, Scott Bowling, Michael Jones, Ed Jarot, James Vanhaerent, Nick Cook-West, Kilian Trapp, Kit Marie Rackley, Gordon Watson, Andy Bruce, Andrew Golden, Damien O’Donnell, Michael Bourguignon, Corey Evans, Patricia Welsch, Shannon Gregg Lucky, Ken Guthrie, Michelle Fox, Jeff Schmedinghoff, & Kalena Rivera Thank 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 ElevenReader and use my code PODCAST for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io* Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com* Check out Quince and use my code quince.com/TDF for a great deal: https://www.quince.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Delta Flyers, journey through the wormhole with Cork, Dax, and their good friends, Tom and Harry. Join us as we make our way through episodes of Star Trek Deep Space 9. Your hosts for today are my fellow Trek actors, Armin Schimmerman,

Garrett Wong, and myself, Robert Duncan McNeil, a.k.a. Don Pardo. That's almost like a game show. A guy. Yeah, it was sort of the game show. Don Pardtok. Wasn't he the main guy? Yes, he was.

He did a lot of them, yeah. Wow. For you youngsters, Google Don Pardo. Or we could say the other name, Robbie, would be Cosmo Ginevese as well. Very animated in his delivery of lines. Yes, he always sounds like a voiceover. He did. Every time.

Well, as an intro, perhaps, I will show this. Everyone is watching. I have an incredibly prolific signs script of, of all the actors from the magnificent Ferengi. You have a lot of signatures there. A lot of signatures. And if I may, and I've been nostalgic about this, some of them have passed away.

So to their memories, I dedicate today's blog. Yay. Yay. Yes. Yes, some wonderful actors in this episode. And I know good friends of yours and fellow Ferengi. And fellow Ferengi. And people from other parts of my life as well.

Yeah. Did you do that often? in terms of did you take the script and have everyone's son? No, because I never did that. I knew this one was going to be special for me. Mm-hmm. And so I went around during the course of the shoot and got them all to sign it. We were having such a good time.

I don't remember laughing as much on any other episode compared to this one. This one, I was constant. The moment I was off camera, I would stifle my laughter, and then I would burst out laughing when they yelled cut. These guys were very funny. It was just wonderful. It was just wonderful. wonderful and we had a lovely time and we got to meet Iggy Pop as well.

Oh my gosh. You guys are so lucky. Robbie, they have the best guest stars. I don't know. Well, Ira, that's Ira. Ira is Sarah. Okay. Was he a fan?

Yes, he was a fan. I mean, some of the guest stars were just people that Ira wanted to meet. And so he would just hire them and put them on the set and then he would come down late at night to meet them. Oh my God. All of Iggy pop scenes probably was shot at two. in the morning. Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh. Now is that because he had a concert? I read something about he had dislocated his shoulder at a show the night before filming one of the scenes. It's possible.

I can't agree or disagree, but I do remember that he was a little perturbed and that Cessly Adams told me that night that she had spent most of the hours calming him down, just calming it. And, you know, because he was a little nervous about being on show or acting and all this makeup as well. So she was babysitting him and we're very grateful to Cecily for that. And he's such like a tough punk rock or rock star. And to be nervous about, you know, this episode is really interesting. He does a very good job.

He is a icon in the punk rock, you know, music, Rocket Roll Hall of Fame. The Stoge is amazing, amazing musician. and cultural icon, really. And the little that I interacted with him, he seemed very nice, very nice. Okay. I met him once, and he was very quiet, you know, not an introverts, maybe? Almost, almost, which it doesn't, you know, match his onstage persona of this, you know, crazy wild rebel. Yeah.

Yeah. And if you watch the scene between Cecily and he, you can see the way she relates to him, Sort of, you can see where she's been calming him down. I can see it in her performance. The scene where they're talking about investment strategy? Yeah, yeah. Oh, so good. So good.

You can see that Cessley's using what she's already established with him off camera, on camera. It's, it's quite palpable to me. Before we get into this episode, we should, we should do a couple of birthdays. We've got three birthdays to talk about this this week. First off, we have Jay Furness on August 26th. Happy birthday, Jay. Jay, happy birthday. Happy birthday, Jay.

Have a great day. We also have AJ on August 28th. Our good friend, AJ, happy birthday, AJ. AJ, happy birthday, AJ. Happy birthday, AJ. And last, but certainly not least, on September 3rd, happy, happy, happy birthday to Jenny Cordina. Happy birthday, Jenny, September the 3rd, that's a good day. Happy birthday, Jenny.

Our first September birthday on the podcast this year. Yeah, 9-3. I like that. Okay, let's start off with our synopsis of this episode, our poetry synopsis, starting with Robbie and his limerick. Yes, I've got a little limerick here. I have to admit, before we go any further, I love this episode, Armin.

I just want to say that out of the gate so that I'm not, you know, burying the lead here. I loved it. It's one of my favorite episodes of the show so far. A lot of people love this episode. I'm very fond of it. there are things I quibble about, but it's a memorable, memorable, memorable episode. It's one of the reasons I got everybody to sign that script.

Yeah, yeah. All right, here's my, here's my poem, my Limerick, for the magnificent Ferengi. The Ferengi did business with flair, though courage was notably rare. But with friends by Corkside and Keevan modified, the Dominion had better beware. Lovely.

Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Here we go with my haiku for the magnificent Ferengi. Here we go. Mugie's been captured. All Ferengi rescue team. Weekend at Bernies.

Nice. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. All right. Etymology time with Arm and Shimmerman. Etymology. Okay. Two words.

Magnificent Ferengi. the first one, magnificent, is from the Latin, which ironically is exactly the same word, magnificent. And also from the French, which is exactly the same word, magnificent. Wow. Here are the three definitions I found, characterized by greatness of achievement or, and this is my favorite of the three, or by conduct befitting lofty stature.

I love that one. or proud, arrogantly ambitious. So those are my three definitions for magnificent. Perengi I've done before, but it bears repeating, I think. So I will give you my definition of Ferengi, etymology of Ferengi. Ferengi comes from the historical Persian, Ferengai, meaning foreigner or European. The word originated from the word Frank, referring to the Western European Crusaders who went into the Middle East.

Over time, the word spread across Asia and India to describe outsiders, traders. So that fits the Ferengi perfectly. That's right. Yes, it does. Also, the first word, though, magnificent. Magnificent. Yeah, I don't think we've ever had a time where you've told us this is the exact same word in... Never changed.

Never changed. Latin or French, so... The accent changed. So she's a magnificent song. Yeah, maybe it's strange. Yes. according to the dictionary, was exactly the same whether it's Latin, French, or English. Interesting.

If I'm in France or some lost colony that speaks only Latin, I'm just going to say that word over and over again. They'll know me. Good. Good. Good. I don't know. Okay. All right. We've got a Patreon submitted poetry winner. And this is a rhyming couplet submitted by Jenny B. It's actually two rhyming couplets, I guess. Here we go.

This is the story of the King of Squill, who so bravely showed an iron will. and overcame chaos to keep all calm in the heroic rescue of his dear mom. I love that. Excellent. Nice. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent.

I'm not sure I was the king of Squill, but, you know, I'm certainly a purveyor of Squill. Yes, you are. How about the Duke of Squill? We got to give you some title. Squire, Squire. How about that? Squire of the CEO of Squill. The CEO of Squill.

Okay. We have another Patreon submitted poetry. This is the Honorable Mention. And this is an ode submitted by Tim McMitchins. An ode. Here we go. Ishka's taken. The negus in fear.

Quark gathers a team he holds most dear. Brunt and Nog and cousin strange. A bumbling crew set to arrange. To Vorda hands the ransoms ode. Down a dominion trap they strode. Schemes collide and bargains fail, yet greed and wit begin to prevail. A hollasweet lie, a desperate ruse turns captors plans to Ferengi's use. Mother freed the heroes stand tall, profit found in loving after all.

That's very nice. It is. It's very nice. Nice ode, Tim. Thank you. Wow. I'm impressed. Okay. This episode was written by Iris Stephen Bear and Hans Beimler and directed by somebody

new here, Chip Chalmers. Anyone, any insight on Chip Chalmers? He was a delight to work with. And as I said, we were all having too much fun shooting that episode. And he made that happen. He made sure that there was just the ability to just laugh all the time. He didn't push us that hard. He was very happy.

with the antics that we were doing. And he was a lovely man. I remember him very fondly. I think he was an AD on NextGen. Oh. Okay. And you've never run cross paths with him, Robbie, and you're directing. No, I never have, although I know the name, and maybe it's through the DGA.

Okay. Wait a minute. Uh-oh. Wait a minute. I did look him up, and I think he's from the south. Oh. Like from Florida, and he may have retired in Atlanta. I may have crossed paths with him when I was living in Atlanta.

Oh, my goodness. A function. I think I may have now that I think about it. Yeah. There you go. Guest stars, Jeffrey Combs as Brunt, Max Grudenshynchik is Rahm, Aaron Eisenberg is Nog, Cessaly Adams as Ishka, Josh Pace as Gala, Christopher Shea as Keenan, Hamilton Camp as Leck, Chase Masterson as Lita, and of course, Iggy Bob.

as Yogran. Biggie Pop. My goodness, wow. So let me talk a little bit about Hamilton Camp. Sure. Yeah. As Leck. As Leck.

Hamilton had appeared on the show before, but prior to that, Hamilton and I and Mark Alimo all were in Italy years before shooting Star Trek doing a film called Arena. And Hamilton and I became very close friends in Italy. and of course I became friends with Mark Alimaux as well. But we had a grand time and Hamilton had to wear a ton of makeup because it was a science fiction picture. In fact, the characters we played in Arena were sort of warm-ups for the characters we played on Star Trek. They're very close in similarity. Hamilton was a joy always, like Aaron, always a bundle of fun when he were around him.

But his career, he had had a wonderful, theater career in New York. And he would yell us with lots of Broadway stories. Wow. Nice. But he's passed on now. We've lost Cecily. We've lost Aaron. Chrisay passed away at very young age, I think around 52. And Hamilton. And Hamilton passed away. And the reason I'm looking over my shoulders, I actually have a card from Hamilton's funeral that sits on my shelf over there. Oh, wow. Is Iggy Pop still alive? Yes, yes, yes. He is. Okay. All right.

All right. A little bit of trivia here. Although the episode title and the use of counting fingers to count up the number of team members are obvious references. Yes, to the classic 1960 John Sturgis film, The Magnificent Seven. The writers say that any similarities between the film and the episode are coincidental. We never really thought about the Magnificent Seven at all when we were writing. It has nothing to do with the film in terms of plot or structure, nothing, end quote. So just that one moment with the hands is the only real connection.

to that. I would disagree with Ira on that. I would too. Lex character is a knife thrower and there is a similar character like that in the Magnificent Seven. And there probably other things as well. I would disagree in terms of the execution of the episode, whether or not they intended to imitate the Magnificent Seven. They certainly gave a cue to everyone who was making this, including the director, Chip Chalmers. Exactly. To film stage and film and tone this episode in the style of a Western in many moments. So I think, yeah, there's definitely a nod. It's not a copy at all.

It's its own thing. But there's definitely a nod in a great way. I think it's great. Yeah, there's one, I remember one moment where we all stride together. That's out of the movie. There's a moment where we look straight into my eyes and Max's eyes. And that's straight out in the movie. Chip knew what he was doing.

Chip knew what he was doing. Yes, he did. All right. To further both of your points, this other, the second bit of trivia is, despite the writer's claim that the episode had nothing to do with the Seven Samurai or the Magnificentiful seven, both Armin, Schumerman, and Max Gredenchik studied the films prior to shooting their scenes. From the Magnificentzsche saw Rom as a wimpy, Steve McQueen, with Schimerman seeing Quark in the Yule Brenner role.

Validity to this, Armin? Yeah, Yule and I are both bald. Tchae. Nice. I always thought you reminded me of Yule Brenner. Yeah. Okay. Another bit of trivia. Iggy Pop's role as Yelgren was the realization of a personal goal of Iris Stephen Bear, who was a fan of the musician. Bear had tried to cast Iggy Pop as Grady in past tense, Part 2, but Iggy's tour dates conflicted. Is that the Bell Riots episode, right? So he's one of the, okay, that's who he was going to be. Interesting. That would have been interesting.

It would have been. Bear was a little annoyed with himself for casting Iggy as a Vorda. Quote, his physicality is certainly part of who he is. And unfortunately, we cast him as a Vorda, one of the most immobile of characters. That is very interesting. Huh, true, though. Final bit of trivia. Christopher Shea returns to the role of Keevan, who he had first played in Rocks and Shoals.

In that episode, he surrendered himself to the Federation, and he has been kept as a prisoner since. Yeah, I loved a lot of these callbacks to other episodes and other Ferengi characters kind of coming together. I thought that was a great way of bringing. What your show does so well is taking stories and expanding on them and including them and continuing to sort of grow and loop in those stories. I thought it was great. There's one in particular that I will remind you when we get to that scene that as I was watching the show, I went, Oh, that's nice. I'm glad they did that, which is a call back to something.

Not only that was in a previous episode, but something we talked about a lot. Oh, interesting. All right. Tell us when we get there. Yeah. All right. Well, we start off in Quarks, and Quark makes a very big entrance into his bar, his restaurant here. He is a hero.

He's got some people marching behind him with cases of what we'll learn is Squill. this very rare, very highly popular flavoring syrup, I guess. Syrup. I believe it's syrup because it goes on oat cakes or something like oat cakes. Yeah. Yeah. He's finally found some. It's been, you know, hard to get or impossible to get for years now for a while.

He tells this big story of how he did it. I loved your story where you talk about, well, you see, I once did business with the nephew of the cousin, of a step sister, of a friend, of the secretary to the consortium's chief accountant. And then you check yourself, wait, nephew. Yes, that's right. It was great.

I love your story. But everyone is just, you know, enrapped with this story. One person isn't. One person isn't. But yeah, who's that? You'll come to that in a moment. Okay.

Oh, okay. Yeah, you tell the big story. There's applause. Cork is clearly a hero to everybody in the bar right now. And that's when Dax smiles and Julie. I know if he's a hero. But he's certainly the center of attention. And that's what he wants.

He wants to be the center of attention. Yes, you even finish this story after your applause and don't you start another story? About to start a new one. Reminds me of another story, yes. Another economic episode of mine, 11 or 12 years ago shortly before I came in the station, and then suddenly Dax O'Brien and Bashir walk in. And I had not known that Quark arrived at the station 11 or 12 years before. Oh, yeah, that's true.

So that was a piece of information. Then I went, oh, I don't know if I clocked it when I was. shooting the episode but I did clock it watching the episode this week. That's interesting. New things you learn from watching your show. About your character. Exactly. About your character.

Well, they walk in, they take all the attention. They've been on this secret mission that now they can talk about and everybody's now focused on them as the heroes. I think Lita even offers to buy them around or something. So yeah, so they've stolen the attention. Quark's very unhappy about this. Thinks they're self-satisfied Starfleet that stole his. audience on purpose, Starfleaders, when he gets a message.

Who whispers in your ear? Broick. Broick. David. David Levinson, my standing, who is in all the scenes practically in Quark's bar. Shout out to David, who was God sent. And I don't understand why they just didn't give David the line. I mean, what's the point? Give him, yes. Yeah, but he just learns a line later on. He gets one.

He gets along in a future episode. Great God. But he had been around now for six years. He was quite capable of saying a line. It made no sense for him to whisper in Quarks here. I remember it was such a policy of Star Trek that we just don't upgrade. We don't give single lines to people. If we can get away around it with a whisper or be on someone's back so that the loop group can loop it in.

And I remember learning that when I shadowed. And when I went on to direct other. shows, it was so ingrained in me that I would often say that as we're prepping. I'd say to the producers, well, we can just have somebody with their back and we'll loop it in later. And I realized years later, like, why am I doing that? Why am I still playing by the Star Trek rule when it's so much better to have the actor have someone say a line, you know? Right. And as far as saving money, which of course, that's what they're doing. But as far as saving money, it's de minimis. I mean, the background people, I'm not giving anything away.

this was union rules, but they made like $100 a day. Right. So if they got to say a line, they might, it might be bumped up at that time, maybe to 350 or something like that. It's de minimis. We would spend that on raisins on craft service. Exactly. It's de minimis.

They could have given David the line. And he would have loved it. And he did love it later on when he did get a line. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Well, court gets a message that the Grand Nagas wants to speak. to him right away.

Very excited about that. He even, of course, thinks he's got to give him some squill as a gift. Not just one jar, maybe a dozen, because he loves squill. So always thinking, always negotiating. Exactly. And let us not forget that Odo reminds Quark that he's not a hero. So that's the one person who didn't particularly favor Quark's story. Not that he didn't believe him, he did.

But, you know, you're nothing. compared to what the Starfleet people are doing. Yeah, he says there's nothing heroic about earning a profit. You did it for profit. So why are you a hero? But in Ferengi culture, that is heroic. Mm-hmm. All right.

So we move on. We're inside a conduit. Quark pops up. I love the pop-ups. It happens a number of times in this episode. It is a classic comedy technique. And tonally, it tells us what kind of episode we're going to be watching. There's going to be fun.

It's going to be light. It's going to have at least some of it. of that. It's, it also has a lot more, but, but it's got the comedy for sure. And he pops up because Rom is working in a conduit deep in the bowels of the station. And I do like where he says, oh, I've been looking for you all over the station. And Rom says, well, you found me. Now you go and hide and I'll search for you. It made me laugh out loud. It was a very funny line. And Max did it very, very well. Yes. Nailed it. Nailed it. Oh, Rom. So funny. Well, Quark does break the news very gently that Moogie has been captured by the dominion, which again, I'm going to

comment on the tone. We start with comedy and the pop up and the jokes and then Armine you beautifully moving into something that's got weight to it. And you don't throw this news out there. You give it like this is a drama in a beautiful way. And the scene ends emotionally grounded, even though the dialogue has been comic. And I thought that was really well done. That's, I may not always achieve it, but that was always my agenda to walk a very thin path between comedy and drama. Well, you did it in this one scene, a very short scene, but the tone shifted beautifully and authentically I thought it was great. After the credits, we come back, there's Rom and Quarks trying to find their way out of the

bowels. Which didn't make any sense to me. I know it's there for comic effect, and it works. It works as a comic effect. But I thought, we know these tunnels really well. Yeah. Obviously, Rom got in there. and the quark found him,

it can't be that difficult to find your way out. And why are we crawled? This scene could have taken place on the promenade. It could have taken place anywhere. It didn't have to be in the conduit tubes. And also, Ron being an engineer now, essentially he knows every square inch of those. Quark's leading the way.

Oh, are you? Okay. Yeah, quarks leading. I'm sure that if Rom had said to quark, we get out here, he would have gone. Yeah, yeah. It's just for comic effect, for us to be crawling around.

I put in my notes like rats. Yes. Oh, interesting. I mean, it's funny to me. I remember reading a screenwriting book once about the chapter was entitled Pope in the Pool. And it talks about scenes where there's a lot of exposition to place them as a screenwriter

to write it into a place where you don't expect, where there's something about the setting and the circumstance. So if the Pope is getting, getting the daily news from his assistant. Yeah. Have him lounging or, you know, doing laps or sitting on a, you know, floating in the pool. And everybody's going to be like, oh, there's a swimming pool at the Vatican? I didn't know that.

It just, you set them in someplace unexpected. And it makes the scene kind of, it gives it some layers of interest. I thought this was a Pope in the pool kind of moment. Okay. You're just, it's a lot of exposition, but it's done in a clever way. and it gives Cisco his residual scene because this is the only. Well, no, he's in some, he's in another scene, I guess. No, no, I think this is the only one.

If there's another one I've forgotten, I believe this is the only one. It's with him and Kira when he says thanks, Quarks is. Oh, yes, yes, exactly. He has to go to, yes, yes, yes. But it's a nice pop out. It's a Pope in the pool moment. I think it's great. Because I have the script, we haven't gotten there yet.

When Quark and Rom pop out to Cisco, let me add something. Okay. Well, the first thing is we see the, the door open, and I thought Chip Chalmers, amazing work, and I want to say Chip Chalmers did a great job in this episode. I wish we had had him on Voyager. I think he did a great job of filming this, of accentuating the comedy in nice ways and staying out of the way of the drama in great ways. And he was really good job. Even this door opening to see Quark, you know, pop up as the door opens is like a curtain parting.

Okay, here we go. Here's our, the curtains opening, and we're about to start our show. And they start crawling. They discussed the rescue mission. Quark says the negus has offered them a reward. 50 bars of latinum. We're in a conduit junction at one point. Chip Chalmers, again, does a beautiful wonder with a pop-in that hands off to Ram's lines.

But we learn in this wonder that Quark will split this 50 bars of latinum, 30 for him and 20 for Rom. Finders fee. Because, yeah, he's got a finder's fee. Quark's got to get his finder's fee, of course. You go up a ladder at one point. Ram and Cork at this point question how Mugie was captured with the Ferengi travel restrictions. We discover that she had special permission from the Nagus to visit Vulcan because she was going to have her ears raised. I love that.

Very funny. She needed an ear lift. Yes, an ear job. Cork reveals the shocking truth to Rom that Mugie and the Nagas have been secret lovers all along for a long time. and she's been secretly his financial advisor for over a year now. Rahm is stunned. And there's a bit at the end of this scene where he goes, no. Quirk says they're lovers.

No. It's been going on for over a year. No. She is his secret financial advisor and helps him run the entire Ferengue Alliance. No. Would you stop saying that? It's beautiful. The comedy comes in three, so you have the three nose right there.

But this is my question. Didn't he already know that from me? the prior episode. That's where I'm confused. I thought, wait a minute. Rom already knows that Moogie is in a relationship, or at least Cork would have told him that when that episode happened. Right? Armit?

I don't know. Yes. Yes. Thank you. But, you know, even Shakespeare made mistakes about that. Yeah. I think it's worth a bit. It's a funny bit. I didn't catch the continuity error. I didn't pull you out. No, it did not pull me out at all. All right. Okay. Did not. This is where they pop into the captain's

quarters. Cisco says, may I help you, gentlemen? And then they head out. So, because I have the script, I have notes from the writers about what the actors should do. After Quark and Rom disappear from Cisco's quarters, this is what the script says. Rahm and Quark inch back into the conduit and close the screen panel behind them. Cisco smiles to himself and returns to his work. Now, that's very simple.

but I noticed in the performance of it, Avery does not smile to himself, but it's actually just a tiny bit. He's not nonplussed, but he's not. Was he suspicious? No, it would have been nicer, I think. Nicer's the wrong word, but it would have been truer to the script anyway

if he had enjoyed that pleasantry between the three of us, but he didn't, it just goes back to work. It's not that he is disgruntled. It's not that at all. He plays a very good moment, but he doesn't play the moment that the writers asked for in the script. Yeah, interesting.

Interesting. I thought it was a very cute moment. I think it would have been a nice. It is a cute moment of the interruption of Cisco's duties. Absolutely. But it would have been, it would have showed a little bit of warmth towards quark from Cisco. Yeah.

Yeah, it would have been nice. You know, my first thought was, boy, it's very easy for someone to try to do harm to Cisco to quite to get to him very easily. That's all I can think of like, look how easy it is to get into his office. Crawl through some of the tubes. Well, we find him finally popping out into the corridor. Rom suggests a commando team. The bravest fighters, Breen, Nossacken, even Clingons.

Cork says no, just Ferengi. And Cork says they're going to need incentive, maybe some latinum. And they will split the 20 bars. And Rom's like, wait, I thought you said 50. He goes, they don't need to know that it's 50 bars. So always, Quark's business sense is always working for him. Why do you think he wants just Ferengi? I think off that first scene, he's like, Ferengi's got no respect.

You know, we'll show them. We'll prove to them that we can be heroes just like those Starfleaders that interrupted my story. So in a sense, Quark is trying to brush up not his reputation, but the Ferengi reputation. 100% The overall reputation of all Ferengis everywhere. Yes. Our next scene is on the promenade. You know what I loved about this?

The writers set it up here because this is obviously where we're so used to seeing Jake and Nog hang out in that upper level. And here we are. We have basically Rom and we have Cork trying to enlist Nog as the first member of this All Ferengi Rescue team. And Nog is not really, well, let's face it. He doesn't want to do it in the very beginning. No, he says no.

No, immediately. He says, no, not me. Not me. I'm not going to do this. He's got responsibility. He's a Starfleet officer now. He doesn't have time for this. The previous scene ends with Quark saying, now the only question is, who's our first recruit? Yeah. And cut hard to knock saying, not me. Yeah. And so that transition. The comedy is written beautifully. I think the writers are really on point on this script. It's great. Super, super. And whether I or not, that too, is an allusion to the magnificent seven. Really?

They're recruiting. Oh, yeah, that's right. And I believe there is at least one person of the seven and this says, no, I'm not going to do this. Yeah, there you go. Another parallel. Well, it is Quark who is able to convince Nog to join by saying, we're going to make you strategic operations officer, which then a gleam in Nog's eye comes up. You mean like Commander Wharf? Exactly like Commander Wharf.

And that is what ultimately brings them into the team. and that's the first time we see the numbers using the fingers of the third person, three-man team coming up with Nog throwing up the third, which is a nice little nod. I was a little nervous about Aaron leaning on that rail for some reason. I don't know why. The way he was just leaning back. I was like, he's going to fall over. He spent a lot of time up there. He knows how solid it is.

I was just nervous. I didn't like it. Oh, my goodness. All right. Well, we go to Quark's neck. Quark is dialing a sub-to-based number on his monitor here. He calls Leck. Yes.

And Leck is sharpening a knife, which I found very creepy. I know. And it's not in the script. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. I have the script here. I looked in the script. Was that his idea or was that Ira's idea?

It's a great idea. It's a great idea. Oh, my gosh. Or Chip Tomers. The director. Yes, exactly. Well, it set the tone immediately. you knew exactly that 100%

LEC was someone who means business for sure. Yeah. But this is a secret call, even in the beginning. I mean, you're in your quarters. You're not in any public space. And he, you know, you even say, I followed all your instructions to the letter because obviously, Leck is, you must follow,

do this, this, this, this, this, in order to just call me on this subspace channel. It's hard to get an assassin, even in Ferengenar. So Cork is offering latinum and Lek literally says, I don't care about Latinum. to which Rama is like, you're right, his priorities are different. He's one of the few forangi that doesn't care about Latinum. But he does care about a challenge.

And once Quark tells him, it's the Dominion that are holding Mookie. He's all in. Do you remember, Armand and Garrett, when we would shoot these scenes, we never had the other actor there. His playback was always shot separately. And so I thought you did a great job of reacting to his performance. I don't know if you had seen it or if he was there off camera for you. but you guys...

I don't remember either, but sometimes you guys must know this. Sometimes they did have the video of what the other person had done on a previous day, which we would see. It wasn't just a blank screen. And so it's possible that I saw what Hamilton had done, or it's just possible that I was imagining what he might do. Yeah, I thought it was a very good match. And it's not always a good match, but you guys did a great job.

Yeah, I think maybe once in seven years, did I remember, seeing someone bring out. Oh, here's the footage of you. Typically, 99 times out of 100, that shot of the, you know, of lack was not even filmed yet. So when we're filming it, we're just using, you guys had Judy Brown,

we had Cosmo Genevese, so he would, Cosmo would say the line and we'd just work off of it. And that's very difficult, though, Robbie. Don't you agree? I mean, as an actor, not having any context whatsoever. I will give you another possibility,

because I don't remember. It is possible that Hamilton and I rehearsed this in my house. Correct from one of your sessions, right? So yes, I can't, I don't remember, but I can't imagine I didn't ask for a full compliment of actors to my house for this particular episode. Exactly. And that's probably why the scene works so well.

Yeah. That's a great answer. I think that makes a lot of sense because it was, it was particularly in sync in a way that's not always easy to do. Exactly. So good job. Good on you for having those rehearsals. Hey, Gary, you know what I did?

morning? What? I used an app called 11 reader to listen to a script while I drove to work, a script that I'm prepping to direct. So you uploaded a PDF to the app and you were able to hear it while you're driving. That's a game changer, Robbie. Yeah, it's incredible. You can upload your own content like PDFs, docs, you know, fan fiction, whatever you want, or you can listen to bestselling audiobooks with super realistic voices. It was incredible. I had Bert Reynolds read my script how would you compare this to other reading apps that are out there? Oh, I've tried them. I've tried the other apps and you can pay 15 bucks a month. You get one credit, one book, or you could use 11 reader where they've got over 200,000 premium titles. They've got all the best sellers.

You know they've got a free plan that packs incredible value and an ultra subscription for only $11 a month. So you start with a free 10 hours of your own content. Or you can upgrade to Ultra for 11 bucks a month and unlock unlimited uploads plus 20 hours of premium audiobooks every month. That's amazing. 11 bucks, it sounds like you're getting more and you're paying less than the others. Yes, and you get Bert Reynolds to read to you. Hey, who's going to argue with that?

Check out 11 reader. Use promo code podcast. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T and get your first two months for only $1. We go to a starbase somewhere, one that looks like the trouble with tribles star base to me. But it's a holding cell. They go to visit Gayla in prison. Gail is blaming Quark for everything in his life going downhill since he went into business with him. It's all Quark's fault.

He says, when I get out of here, if I ever get out of here, I will do away with you. For vagrancy? For vagrancy? He's blaming you for everything. I know, but he says if I ever get out of here, for vacancy? Yeah, he'll get out. How long can they keep him for vacancy? Is that a life sentence, Armand?

Is it a ringy? Well, clearly it's not because cork, cork pays is fine and gets him out. So it's just a ticket. It's like, he got a ticket, court paid it, now he's free. And he tells Gaila that you can pay me back by earning some latinum and Gaila's in. He wants an opportunity for profit. Things have not gone his way lately. So I like the walkout in this scene, very heroic kind of heroes walkout.

Right out of the movie, whether Ira believes it or not. Right. Yes, exactly. Chip knew what he was doing. Oh, Chip did a great job. I can't say that enough. He was great. We go to Quarks where Nog is beginning some training.

He's giving them all pads. He says you can see a schematic of the Dominion and Termment Center here. Now you may examine your schematic. It's very formal, Noc. He's the boss of this training. And Nog insists on being called sir, which nobody wants to call him sir. I like Ram's little joke. We're a team, sir.

this quark quark says we're a team nog we're a team sir very funny but leck was about to start something though hey leck got up it looks like they were about like they were about to altercation was going to happen it reaffirms again from the movie of these these six pharynge

all have different points of view and you can see it in the way they sit in the stools you can see it in the way they relate to to nog I think I think this has to be Chip Chip made sure that each of those

those characters were distinct they weren't just a group of Ferengi they were individuals yes yeah agreed agreed I thought he did a great job well Nog wants to quit he says he's going to quit Quirk stops him again you ground this Armin in a beautiful way

you're like this is not a game the jokes are over the jokes about sir whatever I'm telling you Nag this is serious great job Armin Again, moment to moment, scene by scene, really good work. We discover they need a ship. They don't have a ship. That's when Brunt arrives.

He says he's here to sign up, but Quark wants none of it. He doesn't want any ex liquidators in this group. In fact, nobody does. Nobody on the team wants Brunt. So he says, fine, I'll leave. I'll take my ship with me. And as he walks out, a knife hits the wall beside him, which is not easy to do this effect. I'm not sure how they did it, but it was great.

That was practical. It looked practical to me. And it may have been a practical knife. I don't know. I don't know how they did this one. There's a number of ways you could have done it, but it was very well done. Can you do it this way, Robbie?

The knife has already placed stuck into the... And then go, yeah, and then someone pulls it out with fishing wire backwards. So then you reverse the film. Well, you could have had it stuck in there and he could have walked up and gone, whoa. And then you get a clean plate without it there. And they just give a little blur. Oh. You could have done that.

that. Okay. It was it was it was it was very well done it looked good to me the visual effects whatever practical effects visual effects combo yeah well done. Stop spruns in his tracks when it hits the wall uh and it makes lick a a person to conjure with it makes him capable of being on this team and in fact perhaps being as he's as he's made out to be the most lethal person on the team and he's he's quite capable he's not a fumbling ferengi He's quite good at his job. Well, also, Leck gives the audience a feeling of, okay, this can happen. There's somebody here who's literally capable of taking somebody out.

That's right. And without second guessing it or hesitating, right? Because Cork, anyone else, there's a little bit of hesitation. Am I going to kill this person? I don't want to kill anybody. Kind of the thing. Yeah. Okay.

Well, Lex reminds Bronte says, did you say ship? And now they are six. Yes. We learn at the end of the scene. Who says it? Rom. Rom. Ram says, now we are six.

We cut inside some caves, the classic planet hell, Star Trek caves. Mugi walks in with three Gem Hadar, you know, holding her, guarding her. And I wrote down all the frangier lying in weight. They're all armed. They're ready. They're overwhelming force to these Gem Hadar. And each of them do stupid shit. One of the slime.

It's hilarious timing. They're running to wall. they throw their guns in the air and run off screaming. They just... It's a mess. It's a comic masterpiece. It was so funny. Is that in the script, though?

All those moments, those beats, kind of keystone cop-ish kind of thing happening. Each of the things that the Ferengi fumble with is written down by Hira for Chip to film. It's timed beautifully. It's executed beautifully. It's written and conceived beautifully. It was very funny. Yes, with the ending part, having one of the Ferengi shoot ischka by mistake, right?

Is it Lack or shoots? Yeah. Leck shoots. No, not by mistake. We're not going to rescue her, so we're not going to, you know, we put her out of her misery. Oh, she did it on purpose. He said, I saw we weren't going to rescue her, so I put her out of her misery. I forgot about that.

Sorry. And then Gail was like, who invited him along? It's just like, it's the three stooges or the six stooges. Yeah. Very funny comedy with some real stakes. and Quark is rightfully frustrated and emotional at the end of the scene. Yeah. Tells everybody, get out of here.

You heard me go. So again, these turns, these, each scene is filled with satisfying comedy and an authentic turn to something with stakes and real, you know, emotion. And I, again, want to just applaud you, Arm, and you did a great job. Great scene. Thank you. We go to Quarks. Quark is very defeated in the scene, says he'll never, you know, we'll never even get near her, much less rescuer with these stooges that I've got.

And he starts kind of remembering how he was just feeling on top of the world with all the squill, trying to remind himself that he has been a hero, that he can be a hero. And that's when Rahm says, wait a minute, we're doing it wrong. We're negotiators. What you did with the squill was what we are, not trying to fight everybody. They realize they've got to make a trade. But what do we have to trade? I think that scene ends on Cork's

close up on Cork's face contemplating and coming up with the idea. Yes. What do we have to trade? We cut to the captain's office. This is Cira's residual scene. This is her only scene. Fork thanks the captain and Cira for convincing Starfleet to allow him to have Kiva. We don't know that yet. Again, the writers are very clever. They're like... So good at the reveal. Oh, my God.

Yes. Withholding what the solution is. You've found some solution. I love that. And he wants to thank the captain. And the captain says, no, this was all Kira. And this is exactly what I was referring to before. This is a throwback to I saved her life when the Dominion had her as a prisoner. That's right.

And she finally, X amount of episodes later, is finally getting around to thanking Quark for what he did for her, which I liked a great deal. Yeah. It's a great tie-in and callback. I would like to say this is my favorite scene of the entire. Yes, because you see the shift in how Kira speaks to Kork in this scene. This is the nicest, the most, the least. There's nothing going on of any type of animosity or judgment or anything. She's worried about them.

She says, be careful. She's actually concerned about you. Her voice and her tone of voices lighter. She's, she's kind to you and thankful and grateful. And it just warned my heart to finally see. cork not be abused by the people around him and it and major care of being the one that was the stalwart the one that just kept you know giving attitude to cork for season one two three four five and then finally do you see this and just it just it just warmed my heart to see it so thank you caro yeah i agree with you i totally

agree with you um this didn't make any sense to me why would starfleet give up a valuable prisoner to a civilian oh even even he Even to rescue his mother, that sort of didn't really clock with me. I think, okay, can I say something better? Sure, sure. I felt like they had already squeezed out every bit of information they could get from Keevan or whatever they could get for him without torturing him, basically. And they thought, okay, well, we're going to hold him until the end of the conflict?

And if there's an exchange of prisoners at the end of the war, he gets to go back. But I just felt that he was no longer valuable to them at all. So that's a good answer. That's a good answer. Okay, great. Well, we go on to Brunt's ship. We see them all crowding into this tiny ship. Lovely shot, Chip. Chip did a great job of getting us crowded into that little space. And it is a little space. Yeah, it's a little space. He calls it a closet. It is a closet. Is that what he says? He says, yeah, it's a closet. This is a ship. It's a closet. Very funny. They crowd inside. They discuss the plan. They're going to meet at this deserted station. That quark picked. He picked this meeting spot so that they'll know the layout because it's a ship. It's a lot like DS9. Quark arrives with a prisoner, and we realize here, finally, that it's

Keevan. That's the prisoner. They're going to exchange. But Keevan says, if you try this, you're going to sign your death warrant and basically says, now if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap. And he heads off where in that tiny ship, I don't know, where he's going to take a nap. but he exits and there's a great group turn to the camera almost like back to the front side all the Ferengi turn

they've signed their death warrant yeah and again that's chip yeah that's doing it all in this scene I when he said I'm going to take a nap all I could think was Robbie because Robbie loves his naps and he loves my nap

but other than that I was I thought it was interesting that Lex said this isn't a ship it's a closet and I know the writers put that in there for the comedic relief but I kept thinking, let's be perfectly honest here. That is a traditional Ferengi ship. He would know the dimensions of a Ferengi ship.

It's not like that's a special ship. We've seen that type of ship before in many times. Maybe it's a shuttle. Maybe it's a Ferengi shuttle. And they thought he had, Brunt had a big ship, a full size Ferengi ship. And all he's got is a little shuttle. Yeah. I just think what we've been exposed to, it's been that same thimble looking forengue ship

since season one. And it's those R2D2 panel. that they use. We've seen it over and over again in multiple episodes. I love the Ferengi Ships. They look great. Talk about it in a minute and we see it in space. I did want to say one more thing.

Yes. When Quark brings Kiven in and says, everyone, this is Keevan. We're going to trade him for Ishka. Rom's response is, hi, I'm Rom. And this is Nog, and that's Brunt. And Rom, he doesn't care. That part of the left, right? That part is right out of an AA meeting.

Yeah. That was great. Oh, my goodness. Very, very funny. We cut out to space where we see the ship take off, and I just want to, or actually we see it arriving at this crooked DS-9's, basically a redo of the DS-9 model, just turn sideways to look like M-Pok-Nor. Yes.

But we see the purple engines on this Ferengi ship. Oh, they're engines. Yeah, their warp cord. Yeah. Or their their nacelles, excuse me. Yes. Purple. You like that, right?

I did like it. It's a pretty. Yeah. Very pretty ships. Inside the promenade of Empoknor, we see Nog come in first to clear the halls. Very professional. I liked their sort of moves,

their tactical moves. Slot team moves here. Yeah. You see Nog is taking this very seriously with his Starfleet training. But they all enter. The Nog wants to head straight to base camp, he says. Quark corrects him. You mean the infirmary?

and nobody wants to go. They don't seem very motivated until Cork offers some slips of latinum and boom, off they run. They run. It's like saying to a Starfleet mission, ladies and gentlemen, this is a suicide mission and everybody runs to do it. Yes. Yes, exactly. Starfleet's motivated by duty and honor and Ferengis are motivated by slips of latinum. Right.

Yes. You know what would have been super cool is if they included the skeleton of one of the Cardassians or a couple of the Cardassians that we saw in the prior episode of this. Oh, yeah. It would be nice. Yeah. They didn't take the bodies with them when they laughed. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. That would have been neat to see that Easter egg. Well, we cut inside the infirmary on Empoknor. Nog explains everybody. The infirmary is the best strategic spot. And also says it's also close to the ship. I know. I'm going to, I was going to bring.

Okay. How is that even? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. How is that even possible? Sorry. Yeah.

I wish he hadn't said that part yet. I wish you had just said, this is the best strategic spot and not that it's close to our docking station. Yeah, because it's nowhere close to that. But again, no. We do learn that Gaila has an upset stomach because Rom says, well, some of the medical equipment is still functioning. Galas says anything for an upset stomach? When Nog suggests setting up the defense perimeter, quark's response is, well, how much is this going to cost me? He's going to have to pay everybody to do the set up the perimeter.

But Nog's response is, oh, don't worry, no charge. And to which Quark says, oh, Starfleet is really corrupt. You have a lot. I like that exchange. Yes. What else happens? There's a lot of great detail in here. You know, Rahm's setting up a transport jamming signal so they can't beam the prisoners away.

Which is very smart, actually. Very smart. We learned that Vorda are supposed to commit suicide when they're captured, and he failed to follow that. so he's going to be in big trouble. That's the first time we hear that, I think. Yes. Right?

We don't know of this fact until this episode. Leck wants to know what the most vulnerable part of Fajemadar's body is. He is a horrible sadistic man. He is. I think, I don't know what I'm thinking, but I think Chris at that moment actually smiles. He actually is some little smile there. It's just, it's a nanosecond, but I think he, he, he, he, He smiles about to tell him what that is.

That's funny. Yeah. But Leck is going to go guard him. And as they leave, Rom is very proud of his son, the soldier, to which Quark says they've ruined him. Just great dialogue, great, you know, economy of dialogue for comic effect and also for story. It's really well written this episode. And I wonder, you have to see, you have to remember that I'm taking it from my point of view,

which is the Ferengi point of view. you. I wonder if the writers didn't get out some of their frustrations with all this Starfleet jargon that they usually have to pump into an episode in order to make it Starfleet. If there's punching holes in that requirement from them by having me say, it's, you know, it's not Star Base. It's not a base. It's not a base camp. It's an infirmary. I'm wondering how they felt about that. I don't know pro or con, but I certainly thought I'm taking the Mickey out of Starfleet. Yes. Yes. I'm sure they enjoyed not having to come up with so much of that jargon and so much of, yeah. We have a bit of a time cut.

We're still in the infirmary. We hear this blood-curdling scream. Everyone wakes up and they realize it's Gaila who's supposed to be guarding Keevan. They run over to the storeroom door. And guess what? Keevon's gone. And Gaila fell asleep. he was sleeping and

Rom's like how could you sleep? He said well I couldn't help it I was so tired I couldn't get any sleep on the ship and now they realized that that is probably where Kivan is heading to the ship and if he gets away everything is over they're done they're done for Armin can I ask you a question sure is that how

Ferengi always sleep with covers over their head all of you were curled up on the floor with the covers over your head there is I loved it I love it that's got to be that's got to be that's got to be ship because it's close to what says in the script, but it's not.

Oh. Okay, here it is. This is what the script says. We pan across the sleeping team of Ferengi. They're huddled together like a bunch of sleeping hedgehogs. So there's nothing about sheets being over Ferengi's heads. It's simply fulfilling the writer's desire for it to look like a group of hedgehogs. Well, you did.

You were all in a circle, clustered together with your covers over your heads. And the scream, everybody pops up. It was great. And I think ship realized the comedic value of everybody throwing the sheets aside. So I think that's him being very creative. After they realize that it is Keevan who is gone and possibly headed towards a ship, more probably going to the ship, everyone starts running. The running starts to happen.

And the running is all over the place. Very Benny Hill-esque or Keystone Cops-esque. They're knocking things over. They're running this way. way. There's at one point, when they cut over to the right, do you see that shot where I think it's, someone is left behind and runs at the lap after everyone else? I don't know who that was, but I thought that was quite hilarious. Very funny. Yes, they do finally make it back to the ship. And guess what? Keevan does not know how to operate this ship very well. He's still sitting there. Court catches him going someplace. Apparently not. Keevan says, can't even get those impulse engines online. So they're, they've stopped the, uh, The escape from happening. Rom took them offline, disengaged the engine, so

just in case. Yeah, just smart. And I give myself credit here in the sense that I am panting out of breath. And understand that the running and that scene are probably separated by God knows how much time. Yes.

And I'm smart enough to pant through that scene in order to make the continuity work. Yeah, at the level of the running, because it was a lot of running. And that, I said at the top of our show that there was a lot of laughter. Watching those guys run while I was off camera was hilarious, hilarious. And we did a lot of takes, a lot of takes of the running that don't make it into the final episode. It was hilarious to watch them run because they all came up with different ways to run.

Bits. Oh, my gosh. you were giddy I thought it was fun I was giddy with laughter and of course you can't laugh while they're shooting but the moment that the camera was off well you not only had them running

to try to stop him from leaving but now there's an alarm and you know Nog and the others finally arrive you're all together got Keevan and then all of a sudden the alarm goes off uh oh the gem hodar here the dominions here

you have to do a reverse chase back to where you were so when you were filming you probably ran one way and then you turned around and ran the other way exactly exactly and and again the statement that infirmary is very close to the ship well it doesn't look like it's close to the ship but it was worth it it was worth the comedy in the running it was very funny

I don't know if chip did this intentionally but the or maybe said dressing just for just didn't have continuity down but on the way back that that big barrel that gets knocked down by one of the fringy is sitting straight up. So it's sort of like, wait a minute, someone reset this and they forgot that this should have been down.

I think Robbie's right that we were shooting both sequences at the same time. And so we weren't worried about canoeing. Otherwise, we're going to have to slap Judy Brown's wrist. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. They run back to the infirmary. Nog shuts the door.

They go to hide in the infirmary. They're all, you know, clustered in a corner. And the alarm has gone on. and they don't know who's out there. Nag volunteers to go look. So we see him quietly, carefully make his way with a weapon over to a door, pulls the door open,

peaks out, and there's a ton of Jim Hidar. On the upper balcony. On the upper balcony. Yes, a ton of them. And they all draw their weapons. Someone says, firing line, take aim.

And Nag plays that very well. He plays the seriousness of the moment very well. He got that's arguably the tightest close up that he's had this entire series when he pries open the door right there. It's just it's on his eyes practically. That's it. Yeah. Really good. Good directing because again, Chip is telling the story that he's being very secret that no one can see him. And so that tight size feels like a very private moment that they might not see.

I thought it was smartly lens and framed. It was great. Yes, agreed. We go back to the surgery bay and the infirmary. They're all hiding trying to figure out a plan. Things don't look good. Quark stands up. He says he's going out there.

And then he tells Rom and Nag to come to at the end of the scene. Because Yelgren is calling from off camera. He's saying, Ferengi, show yourself. Nobody wants to go out there. Quarks finally says, I'm coming. You two are coming with me. Rob says, I'm afraid he was going to say that. Yeah.

They head into the promenade, which is this is that magnificent seven cowboy moment. The great Western standoff at the top of the scene as they step out into the promenade standing off to each other. And then they make their way down there in a very cowboy sort of way. Cork makes some demands. He says, no, Gem Hadar, if we make this trade, I want them all off the ship. And the helmsman has to go back to Dominion territory. And after some back and forth, Yelgren finally agrees. But once they have a deal, Nog's not done.

And he says, I want proof that Moogie is not a changeling. And he goes over with the knife, cuts her hand. She's very upset about that. So she pulls on his lobe, hits him on top of the head. It's very funny. It is funny. And I have a problem with it. Okay.

I love Cessly. We've close friends long before they started doing the show. But I don't think Cessley, Cessley saw this was a comic episode. Yeah. And never once showed the peril that she was in in this episode. I never once thought that she wasn't going to just walk off the station at the end of the episode. And I wish that she had, yes, it's all scripted. Yes, she had to do it that way.

But there is no place anywhere in the episode where she seems a little bit afraid of what would happen if they don't rescue her. Well, you mentioned something earlier that Iggy Pop was nervous. And I wonder if consciously or unconsciously her feeling like she had to keep her. things light for him so he wouldn't be nervous if that sort of affected her choices and more than the necessarily is a wonderfully comic actor and sometimes comic actors when they realize that they're doing a comic episode or a comic scene they play into it because that's their natural affinity yes they're more comfortable they're more comfortable in that area and i i wish chip had said to her at this moment let's see the trepidation of whether or not uh this is going to work i mean when she

gets cut, I understand her reaction, absolutely. But pulling him by the ears, I don't think that's in the script, actually. I think she could have done it a little bit more instinctive, more, and just done that as opposed to saying, this is a comic pic. Watch me do this comic bit. Interesting. And when she hits him, I'm not even sure. I think she misses him by a mile.

I looked at that shot in women. Is she anywhere close to his face when she hits him? You mean on top of the head? that hit? Yeah. Yeah. I thought she was it's this.

But look at that. It's this. Yeah. It's this as opposed to this. Right. A quick right hit. Yeah. Can you see in the script what was the direction was?

I'm just curious what it was written as. Okay. Cuts her on the palm. Ow, says Ishka. Quark, rum, and nod. Look at the blood. It's real blood. Oh, there it is.

I'm so sorry. Really? Iska reaches out with her good hand and grabs gnaug's ear then bangs him over the head with her fist singular fist okay so she added a double bang bang which yeah which is more comic right and the pulling of the ear which uh i just criticized there it is in black and there's actually in black and yellow but um black and yellow i like um quarks summing it up trying to explain it to uh family the yellow grin family you understand and then yelgrin's response

Not really. I was cloned. Perfect. That's one of the best lines in the episode. Yes. And Eddie Pop does it 2 in the morning extremely well. He does. He does. He does it very well.

Yeah. All right. We go back to the infirmary, back to surgery, and they're celebrating. They're so happy and excited that it looks like this is going to work out. They're longing for Ferengenar. They start talking about that. Everybody's in a great mood. They love each other.

It's a love fest right now. until ROM spills that is 50 bars of latinum that they're going to split and everybody says, wait a minute, what? And they realized that Quark was trying to, you know, con that. Pull a fast one. They start bickering.

And that's when Gaila ends up shooting Keevan with one of the weapons. Yeah. Which then results in Keeven's best line. I hate Ferengi. Yes. And he falls over. He falls forward. now this is this is typical of ira's writing and not just ira but of the writing staff yes

is that we think the episode's going in a certain direction we've seen this in lots of our episodes it's going and then all of a sudden at the beginning of the fifth act or the end of the fourth act all of a sudden that the door that they're hoping to get through is closed completely and they have to take another direction it is in my way of thinking excellent writing excellent writing because the audience is anticipating something and then then all of a sudden, all the possibilities disappear. Right. All the possibilities disappear because they need Keevan alive if they're going to make this trade.

So we cut to a little later. Keevan is dead. He's got some blinkies on him, but he's dead. Cork reminds them of the Battle of Precksnack, trying to inspire them. And they get inspired. They decide to try and get Mugi anyway. And they're getting, amping themselves up for profit. Let's do this for profit.

Quark even agrees to split all 50 bars. He's, he's all in. Nog comes in, says, you know, I really tried to revive him, but he's dead. And that's when he goes to pull a neural stimulator off of Keevan when Keevan's arm flies across and slaps. I think Quark is it says he thinks he's alive. Gala. Yeah. Or Gala.

Sorry. Gala thinks he's alive. Nog says, no, he's not alive. It was just a neural stimulator causing a reflex and pulse in his cerebellum. Right. Rom's impressed. And he says, oh, you studied medicine at the Academy. Or Knox says, no, no, medicine isn't that different than engineering.

It's all about keeping things running, fixing broken parts. When quirk and everyone stops, wait a minute, are you thinking what I'm thinking? Find me some neural stimulators, says Nag. So they've got a solution here. Yeah. They're going to try and stall a little bit, get some neural stimulators all over this guy's body, so they can move them around like a Frankenstein. And we go into the promenade quirk says,

you know, Ram's got a scan to ensure the Gemitar are gone. So I need a few minutes. Yelgren is very impatient, but he finally agrees. You got five minutes. Quark says, you know, one more thing.

I want to trade right outside of my ship. It's like, whatever. Fine. He doesn't care at this point. So they bought five minutes. They go back inside, test the simulators. He pops up, keep him pops up,

like a Frankenstein monster. Back in the corridor, one of my favorite moments, Yelgren and Mugi are discussing diversified investments and skin cream. Love this dialogue. It's wonderful. Yeah, Ishka's, she is a very good financial advisor.

I would hire her. Yes. I would put my money in Ishka investments, whatever Ishka investments, whatever portfolio she would recommend. That is the scene where I am positive. There was conversation like this, backstage where

Cessaly was keeping Iggy Pop comfortable for two hours while he waited for the shot. I'm quite sure. The tone of voice just smacks that to me. I'm like totally wrong. But when I listen to that scene,

I went, that's the voice that she probably used when she was calming him down. Her calling voice. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. Well,

they're discussing discussing diversified investments and skin cream when Quark arrives with Keven. they bring him out and he looks weird. They decide to release the prisoners together on three, one, two, three. Kevin starts walking like Frankenstein. Nogs around the corner with his tricorder, his panel, you know, pushing the buttons. Keevan walks.

I think Yelgren even says, what have they done to you? Yes, exactly. You've got to give it up for Christopher Shea, though. Come on, that physicality of the way he walked, Rob, Bo. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Yeah, he walks, passes Cecily there in the hallway, almost runs into her, bumps into the wall. Quark ducks for a second, and suddenly the Ferengi heroes pop out.

They take out the two Gem Hadar. They surprise them. They take Yelgren as a new prisoner. Yes. Rom and Quark are heroes. And I think at the end of the scene, Rom says, so, brother, how does it feel? feel to be a hero. Quark says, you tell me.

Rom says, it feels good? Quirk says, yep, you bet it does. And they head into the airlock with Keevan still bumping into the wall. Oh, my gosh. And that last exchange was my rock of Gibraltar. That's how I approached the whole episode. So when you've been complimenting me, I'm bringing dramatic gravitas to this. to the episode. That's what I based it on. I based it on the fact Quark wants to be a hero.

Armin wants Quark to be a hero. And I am going to do what I can to get these other people to be as heroic as they can be so that we can prove to me and the viewers that the Ferengi are not always bumbling idiots. Well, mission accomplished. This is accomplished. Armand, mission accomplished. one final bit of trivia this is the only episode in which Rom kills someone the Gemadar the only one

is it Rom that kills one of the Gemadar really that's what I'm sure that's what the trivia I should have gone back I wanted to do that and I didn't I wanted to see who killed the Jamadar so that's what I'm asking are you sure I'll go back and take another look but I'm not sure

does your script say that Rom shoots one of the Gemma don't know no it just says the Ferengi take out the two Gemma Dar okay well the Ferengi are heroes and there we have it. One of my favorite episodes. You love this episode. Okay. I did. So this is also a fan favorite as well, at least in my table anyway.

Yes. So very proud of this episode. Very funny. Very, very funny. But as I said, we got a chance to say the Ferengi, if they put their minds to it, can become heroic. And I think that's the theme. We're going to talk about themes later. But that's the theme of this episode. What's it feel like to be a hero? And that's juxtaposed with Odo saying to Quark at the top of the show, you're not a hero. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, I was going to ask you, what is your theme slash lesson slash moral you just told us? So how about Robbie? What is your theme or moral or lesson of this episode? I wrote down, everyone can be a hero if you truly believe in yourself. That's the lesson I got. Okay.

Mine is not really hero oriented. I kind of... What? Yeah, I kind of veered off to the... It's more about the very, very beginning where it was, you know, not relayed to the rest of the fringy that it was 50 bars of latinum. So I said, honesty is the best policy. Because if that had, if that was a policy, Keevan never would have been shot in the first

place. That's all. Just towards that one moment. That's it. Interesting. Yeah. That's what I came up with. Well, our Patreon poll winner for this,

The theme and moral of this episode is submitted by Lauren, and that is play to your strengths. I like that. I do like that. Yeah. Negotiation as opposed to being commando destruction team. Yes. The honorable mention for theme slash moral slash lesson of this episode, as submitted by Jenny would be, your responsibilities don't want you to die.

Rom's words to live by. Is that one of his lines? Your responsibilities don't want you to die. was that written? I don't know if that's explicitly written, but... Oh, okay. We've come to the end of our podcast. Thank you again to Armin for joining us and co-hosts.

Thanks for watching this. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, great work. And just a quick reminder to our listeners that there will be no new episode next week. Oh. Yeah, we will be back the following week reviewing Waltz with Terry. So a little bit of a break and then we'll come back the week afterwards. And thank you for everyone for tuning in for the...

those of you who are listening that are Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material and a little more Armin. And for everyone else, we'll see you next, no, not next week, but two weeks from now. Bye now. Bye. Bye, everybody.