The Delta Flyers - The Nagus

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

The Delta Flyers is a weekly podcast 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 is The NagusThe Nagus: The leader of the Ferengi, Grand Nagus Zek and his son Krax arrive at DS9. Quark and his brother, Rom are in awe and quickly arrange for everything Zek needs. Zek praises Quark's business instinct, but Quark fears for the worst; thinking Zek wants to take over his bar for free, and won't take no for an answer.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAdditionally we could not make this podcast available without our Executive Producers:Stephanie Baker, Jason M Okun, Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Janet K Harlow, Brian Barrow, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mike Gu, Tara Polen, Vikki Williams, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Lisa Robinson, Alex Mednis, James H. Morrow, Roxane Ray, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Feroza Mehta, Jonathan Brooks, Gemma Laidler, Matt Norris, & Izzy JafferOur Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Luz R., Chris Knapp, Dannielle Kaminski, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas,  Matthew Gravens, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Mary Jac Greer, E & John, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Tom Paynter, Jenna Appleton, Lee Lisle, Sarah Thompson, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Mark G Hamilton, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Mary Burch, Sandra Stengel, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Holly Schmitt, Christopher Arzeberger, Tae Phoenix, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Danie Crofoot, Ian Ramsey, Steven Lugo, Rob Traverse, Penny Liu, Mars DeVore, Stephanie Lee, & David SmithAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Meredith Hudes-Lowder, Trip Lives, Samantha Weddle, Chloe E, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Fillmon, Chad Awkerman, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Maxine Soloway, Barbara Beck, Dat Cao, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Cindy Ring, Alicia Kulp, Kelly Brown, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Samantha Hunter, Jamason Isenburg, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Dominique Weidle, Justin Weir, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Matt Edmonds, Ryan Benoit, John Richardson, Heather Selig, Rachel Shapiro, Clark Ochikubo, David J Manske, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Tim Neumark, Will Forg, Ryan Tomei-Siguroarson, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Carmen Puente-Garza, James Lyszczek, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Greg Kenzo Wickstrom, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, Dean Chew, Linda Daireaux, Jennifer Vaughn, Walkerius Logos, PJ Pick, Preston Meyer, Lisa Hill, Stacy Davis, Ryan Mahieu, Andrew Cook-Feltz, Karen Galleski, Pamela Miller, Rik Moran, Jan Hanford, Constance, Loretta ReyesThank you for your support!“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, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our 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

Greetings, everyone. Welcome to the Delta Flyers Journey Through the Wormhole with Quark, Dax, and their good friends, Tom and Harry, of course. Join us as we journey through episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Your hosts along this journey are Terry Farrell, our enchanting science officer, Armand Shimmerman, our beloved entrepreneur. or Garrett Wong or Forever Ensign and myself, your favorite helmsman, Robert Duncan McNeil. Today we have Armin with us. Good to see you again.

Thank you. Thank you. Of course you're here for the Nagas episode. Of course I am. Of course I'm. You have to be here for this negus episode. Armand, I'm just going to start right off the bat. Is this the beginning of the rehearsals at your house was for this one?

Or later on did it start happening? No, sir. Earlier on. Early on. That's what I thought. It wasn't just that I was working with Ferengi. I also worked with René, I worked with Odo, before these episodes. It's my theatrical background.

You know, we don't get enough rehearsals on the day of the shoot. So I just, and the prosthetics made things difficult. So I just wanted to be ahead of the curve. All right. Good for you. Garrett, I don't know if you know this, but I rehearsed this podcast on my own. Really? I actually, yes, I spend all weekend rehearsing this podcast.

so I could be prepared. So you get all your lines correct the first time out. So while you're rehearsing, do you also play me and Armin and Terry as well? So you talk to yourself? That's wonderful. I have to. But it's, yes. I don't care how you play me, but I'd love to see how you play Terry.

Yes, I'd like to see that. Okay. That'll be a bonus feature. We will release. We've got to talk about some birthdays, all right? We've got a few birthdays around this episode. But here we've got Lee Lyle on February 13th. Happy birthday, Lee.

Happy birthday, Lee. Lee Lyle. It's so easy. It just comes trippingly off my tongue. And also, we must say happy birthday to Paul Johnston, February 13th as well. Happy birthday, Paul. Happy birthday, Paul. And another birthday on February 13th, Rich Gross.

Also on February 13th, happy birthday. Happy birthday. We have one more birthday. Holly Smith, happy birthday to you, February, 16th. Holly, we love you. Happy birthday, Holly. Happy birthday, Holly. Okay, let's talk about this episode, The Nagus. We can start with our poetry synopsies. I will start with my limer just to kick it off. Here we go. My poetry synopsis for the The Neegas.

The Grand Nagas arrives from afar and makes Quark the new Nagas, bizarre. Jake's behavior needs a troubleshooter, though he's just Nog's school tutor. In the end, quarks back to running the bar. Oh, wow. That's a nice one. No, thank you. Really tight. Really tight.

All right, here's my haiku for the Nagas. The Nagas has landed. Nagus Cork must watch his back. Rom has a backbone. Oh, good. It's very good. It's very, actually, I think it's the first time we see Ram's backbone. That he has some resolve in him, right?

It's like, my goodness. I want to hear the definition. What did you choose to define? I thought this word was made up, but I decided to look it up anyway. And I was enormously surprised. What? There is a word that is negus. It comes from the old Scottish dialect. And ironically, it means a miserly person. Interesting. I had no idea that's what the word meant. None of whoever until yesterday when I looked in my Oxford English dictionary and went, oh my God, there is. It's a very small citation, but there it is. A Scottish, an old Scottish word, Nagas.

Now that you say, Scott, it sounds kind of like a... Well, is it pronounced differently in Scoblin? Does it rhyme with Haggis? So is it the Nagas? Nagas. Maybe. Maybe. I'm going to get in the weeds here very quickly.

Penalciations have changed radically over the course of... Because the first citation was in the 1500s that I found in the OED. The middle age is. Yeah, it's a lot ago. not even that it's no it's before it's after the middle age but but it could have been there during the middle ages but but pronunciation of words have changed radically it's what makes the teaching of shakespeare so interesting because the words the sound of the words has changed over the course of 500 years yeah yeah my simply person did it have a pronunciation in the oed

for that or if it did i couldn't read it actually i don't remember there being a pronunciation key for it but um but that's one of my failures i don't know how to read a pronunciation pronunciation key. Yeah. Nagas. It's amazing that it's a real word, and I'm curious if the writers actually found it as a real word and then used it, or if they just made up a word that happened, like you said, coincidentally to be.

Yeah. I was thought it was a rift on Magus, which means a miraculous conjurer or someone of that sort. So I always thought it was that. That's why yesterday it was a total surprise when I looked it up and went, oh, my God, it doesn't actually mean what it could mean, a miserly person. Armand, Magus means magical conjurer? Yeah, amagus is somebody who is a, it doesn't have to be per se magical, but originally it had that connotation.

It was a magical conjurer. Like Merlin would be amygus. Okay. Interesting. So then you could say a negus megas is a miserly magical. You could conjure. Negus, megas, that's right. Yeah.

Okay. But please don't write that in a script where I have to say it. Yes. No tongue twisters, please, especially with fringy teeth. We don't want it to go there. Precisely. Yes. All right.

So we've got teleplay by Iris Stephen Bear. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Is this the first script I've seen his name on or do I just not remember? I have a bad memory. I think he's been on others before. But not teleplay, maybe. Maybe not teleplay.

Yeah. Yeah, I feel like this may be the first script. Yeah. And what I find fascinating is the story came from David Livingston. Oh, my God. I flip when I saw that. I said, what? I know.

He sold this story to the, oh. And he directed it. And he directed it. Yes, exactly. And I do want to say, this is the first time he's directed your show. This is the first one that I recall. Could be, yes. I would have to go back and check my notes, but it could be.

But yeah, very unusual for David, Livingston, who was a producer, he was a line produced. Supervising, a supervising producer and then turned supervising producer and then turned director. And I believe has directed more Star Trek episodes than anyone else. Although I think Franks may be breaking that record. But certainly for years, David had directed more Star Trek episodes than anybody else. So he's DGA, WGA and PGA. Is that right?

Probably. Well, we were on the strike line told me he was also SAG, S-A-G after it. He sag as well. Gosh. He did a little of everything. Well, I have to just give my opinion about this. Yes. As I watched it, it's my favorite direction so far on your series.

Interesting. Including the pilot, I thought David did a phenomenal, detailed job with transitions, with shot making. It just didn't feel like meat and potatoes. He had a point of view and was doing some really interesting things. And I'll bring up some of them. But I think David did a phenomenal job with this. and possibly because he was also invested in the story as a story creator. Yeah, exactly.

And he had seen probably more episodes than any director before him or perhaps after him. Because I'm sure as a line producer, he got a chance to look at certainly the episodes and maybe even some of the editing. Who knows? My overall takeaway from this episode is a couple of things. Number one, the amazing job that Bob Blackman did on all the wardrobe for all the different Ferengi, for all the different, just overall, just the first, you know, season alone already, I've seen some amazing, amazing wardrobe creations by Bob Blackman. And this episode definitely has them. And secondly, all the scenes with the Ferengi, because of your rehearsal, I can see the benefits of the rehearsal.

Absolutely. You guys are so tight. your timing is is impeccable everyone's working off of each other and this episode flowed is so well for me i really really enjoyed watching this thank you my overall yeah one of the obvious examples i was watching it and i brought a grin to my face everybody says humon yeah humon yes and that's something and that's something that i'm sure i brought to the rehearsal and said okay we all have to say it this way right yeah even erin as not even erin when he talks to jay yeah he calls him a humon Armin, it is a bit of a derogatory way of saying it in a way.

Oh, absolutely. I definitely feel like this is the frangy way. Treat the farangy badly. The farangy are going to treat the humans just as. You're going to mispronounce their name entirely. They're just humons. Yes, I love it. Okay.

For our guest stars, we had a big group of guest stars. We had Max Gredencheck as Rom, Lou Wagner, as Cracks. As Cracks. Barry Gordon. Yes, and Barry Gordon. Barry Gordon, it's important to know. Barry Gordon, I think at that time, I'm not sure, but I think at that time was the president of Screen Actors Guild.

This is before the merger, so it was just Screen Actors Guild. And Barry was indeed the president. Producers don't like necessarily to bring the Presidents of Screen Actors Guild onto a set because they're always fearful that they're going to enforce rules that normally are tripped over. But Barry was there. And he did no such thing, correct? he didn't nitpick he didn't do any of that he didn't do any of that he was a team player never said anything derogatory or you know never had a problem with anything there you go um and barry gordon

uh is a child actor that uh grew up to be both the president of the union and um ironically uh stuck his foot into politics for a moment uh there was a district in glendale that he ran for but unfortunately lost that and uh he lost it to adam shift oh wow that's amazing huh that's amazing well if you're going to lose lose to somebody who goes on to be a superstar i'm not sure barry feels the same way but yes i agree with you barry could have been that superstar yeah oh it's so close enlighten me barry played who robbie he played never never never never never never yeah never never never Okay.

We also have. Lee Aramberg as Grawl. Our friend Lee, Lee, we went to college with me, yes. Yeah. Wonderful, wonderful actor who came back and did a couple of episodes. Yes. Yeah, we love Lee. We love Lee.

Grawl or brawl. What was his character? Grawl. Grawl. Aaron Eisenberg is Nog, of course. And we had Tiny Ron as Mayher do. Mayherdoo. Mayher do.

Mayher do. Is that his name or is that his title, his position? No, that's... I think that's his name on the show. No. Okay. Mayhard do. Mayhard do.

Yeah, I think somewhere in the episode, they talk about putting Zek to sleep, and it's whatever his species, it's something that they do like Vulcans or whatever. So I think... I think Mayhardu is his name as opposed to his species. Okay. Well, Tiny Ron's makeup, I have to say, was super cool. I loved that alien makeup. Really cool detail in the face, felt different than, you know, it's hard to, it's hard to

invent new aliens and new makeups, and I think they did a great job there. He was an enormous team player, always was in all the episodes that he appeared in. As everyone knows now, that we were rehearsing at my home before we got on the set. And Tiny used to come to our rehearsals, even though he's a mute.

He doesn't ever say anything. Yeah. Well, that's a team player. And that's a team player. Yeah. I don't know if you know this, Armin, but Tiny Ron showed up on our show as a member of the Hurogen speech.

It's hunting a hunter species, which is sort of very nomadic and they're very tall. And he was the first original Hurogen on our show. And his wardrobe was literally this huge armor thing that was so hot. It was basically wearing a wetsuit, you know, like a five millimeter wet suit. And we walked outside of stage eight and nine. And he goes, look at this. And he put his hand down and all this sweat just came out from the sleeve. He just squeezed it out.

I was like, oh, gosh. It was a full body prosthetic, basically. The costume was made of the same kind of rubber and layers. Completely covered. The face was all, there wasn't one piece of his skin showing. So completely covered like you were pretty much. And then everything with that wardrobe was so hot. Last guest star is Wally Sean, Walsh, Sean as Zach.

I got a question. Did Wally come to your house for rehearsals? He did. He did? Wally came to, I think all of them, all the times that he had. appeared. I think he came to all of them. He may have missed one, but he didn't make most of them. So I have to ask you this, Armin, did Wallace enjoy playing this role? Was he in, did you find that he had, he relished having this role?

Just give us a little bit, you know. Sure, I'll give you an anecdote very quickly to answer this question. So about the third time that Wally and Zek appeared on Deep Space 9, Renee and I went up to Wally in the makeup trailer and said, Wally, we're so glad you're here. We wish you were here more often. Why don't you show up more often? And he said, and I won't do his voice, but you can picture, or you can picture in your mind

of the sound of his voice. He said, it takes me six months to forget how much I hate the makeup. Very well said. But he always did a brilliant job. I loved working with Wally all the years that we worked together, and he was terrific. And he does something in this episode where. I wish he had done something else. He did do it in rehearsals, but David didn't let him do it.

Oh, we get to that scene. You talk about that. Oh, I'll talk about it. Okay. I will say, I love his laugh that he comes up with throughout this. And that's iconographic, Zach. Even that laugh shows up in this episode. And it is iconographic for Zek for all the times that he's appeared.

Yeah, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. All right, there's our cast. Let's get into the story. This episode aired originally on March 26th. 22nd, 1993. That was the air date, a March episode. We're in the airlock.

The airlock opens up and this Ferengi looks around to make sure the coast is clear. And then this caped figure is escorted out with a cane. And the cane or the staff has a gold Ferengi head or Scepter, as it's called later at the top. Yes, the scepter. Yeah, it's got a Ferengi head that kind of goes right by the lens. And again, David Livingston. Cool shot. It's the details.

It's very well thought out. You know, it's not just coverage. He's not just swing the camera around and letting actors walk through the shot. He finished that shot on that, that, the Scepter, you know, sculpture that Ferengi had on the Scepter. It was very cool. And let's not forget Meherdou is also there. And Mayherdoo, he's being escorted by this very tall, the Cape figure,

is being escorted by a very tall. Yeah, because the shot shows the first Ferengi, which is. Looking around. Right, looking around. Then he motions over and you see the head pop out of Mayhard Duh. Is that how you say? Mayhardu's head pops around and he waves him in and that's when he escorts Negus. Well, we don't know it's Nagus yet, but he's hooded, you know, at that.

Yeah. But very, very, David, from the start is doing specific shot. He's telling the story as a director in a way that I honestly haven't seen done this well on your show yet. David knocks it out of the park. Yeah. So we go to Cisco's quarter. Jake's room, I guess, his part of the quarters. He's running around, grabbing pads, collecting pads, and trying to get dressed.

And Cisco comes in and says that maybe they can go to Bejure for this big gratitude festival. He wants to take Jake to the Gratitude Festival. The biggest Bajoran Festival of the year. And a side trip to the fire caverns, which is something that Jake has wanted to do. So this is something that Jake has already showed interest in. And he says, we can do a side trip to the fire caverns. but after finding out that that trip will take three days, Jake asked to stay on the station.

He already has plans with Nog to check out this Andorian freighter that's coming in for maintenance. It's carrying the shipment of anti-grab tractors. They want to see if they can get a glimpse of this. And the look on Ben Sisko's face is just crestfallen. He's like, oh, my son is picking a maintenance trip for an endorian freighter over me and the fire caverns. But again, it's just, it's amazing.

how much family-oriented like father-son scenes that we've already seen in the first quarter of season one, basically. Absolutely. This is a show about family. This is a show about family. For sure, for sure. Yeah. Again, I love Surak, his energy, his, his, there's a buoyancy to his performance.

There's a lightness to his performance. It's often lacking, I would say, in all Star Trek shows. But it's also lacking in that. that age, too, though, Robbie, you know? I mean, for his young, young age to be that masterful is impressive. I love, it's minor, but I just love the way he said, computer orange juice. It was such a throwaway line, masterfully done by what I consider to be a 14-year-old boy. Yeah, incredible.

Yes. Yeah, he's really incredible. And he's getting better and better. You can see him getting more confident and more relaxed and more relaxed. and more relaxed, yeah. I can't wait to see more. And I'm sure Avery had a lot to do with that of making him feel comfortable. Yeah.

We go to Quarks next and Quark is telling a customer that there's no need for her to thank him, sends her back to gamble some more, encourages her to go gamble. And then scolds Rom for returning her lost purse and tells Rom he needs to go review the rules of acquisition. The first rule of acquisition. The first rule. The first rule. When they give you their money, you keep it.

You don't return it. Never give it back. Never give it back. Yeah. But as punishment, he orders Ron to polish every railing in the entire bar. And this is very funny because now you see him, it's a little bit of a passage of time in another section or nook of corks. Nog is setting up this, I guess he's kind of playing around with a tower of objects, you know, can I. Yeah, he's stuck in a tower on top of that.

I just want to go back to, you're right. Quark says, go polish every. rail in the place. And he also says, get out of my sight before I toss you out of the nearest airlock. Yes. And that's important. That tracks. Yes. We need to know. Yes. It does. It does. It does. I had missed that. That is absolutely true. Yes. Yeah. But you've actually said that on prior episodes, too. I have. But this episode makes a major difference. Yes, it does. It does. So he scolds ROM and ROM goes to polish rails and not get thrown out of an airlock. And then Nog stacking this it's like glasses he's building a tower with glasses and pads but also his pads from school too

the same pads that uh jake that's right that's right that's sort of same color same size so jake is really valuing these pads and right nog is building a freaking tower yes diversion yes uh but it's it's great because ron finds him surprise startles him the entire tower collapses and then he tells gnaug, you know, what is this what you learn from that stupid federation school? You need to polish every single railing so he passes the buck to his son, which I thought was so funny and kind of rude at the same time. It is, and it is indicative of something that's very important to Ferengi culture that is always there, but it's never said, which is this great sense of hierarchy. There's hierarchy certainly in the military, and we see that. But in

Ferengi culture, there's an obeisance that is exponentially larger than anything we see in the human society, this great sense of pecking order. Who's on top? Who's more important? Yeah, that's interesting. I didn't connect that to the plot of this episode, so specifically, but it's actually very well-done, it's well-structured that we're seeing this hierarchy with Quark and Rom and Nog, and then we're going to see it when the Grand Nagas comes. comes in. So it's repeat. It's kind of setting up the same ideas. I think that's great. We have a quick shot on the promenade. Another cool David Livingston shot. I think he's on the second level actually, starts up there. And then you kind of, it pans down a little bit. And we

see the same three characters from the very beginning, the tall alien and the hooded alien and the one Ferengi walking slowly towards corks. Any comment on that camera angle or that shot or that scene? Oh, it was great. There were a couple of shots up high that I thought, again, David was just, he was telling the story with the camera and the shot selection in a way. He wasn't just covering. You know, we hear that term a lot. Oh, we got to get coverage when we're making shows. Coverage is not storytelling.

It's just covering your ass. It's just grabbing, it's collecting shots. Storytelling is when you use that camera very intentionally and David does that very well. Yes, he does. You know, as frustrating as David could be sometimes with a dozen or more takes. and you're just like, what are you looking? Just a dozen? Yes, a couple dozen.

As frustrating, and the hours were longer with David, let's be honest, they were always longer, but his shows turned out well. And it's not just the camera. Very few directors ever use that second level for anything. It's there. There's actually a third level as well because it was just too difficult to light,

to shoot, to get actors up there. Usually they just ignored that second and third level. David, knowing the set, probably said, we never see this part of the set. It's built. Let's use it. Yeah. Yeah.

And I think, you know, David in years since has said to me, like, I think he said, we interviewed him on this podcast a year or two ago. And he said, you know, as a director, his attitude was get in trouble a little bit. Which is ironic because it was his job to lecture the directors who were trying to get into trouble. That was his job to lecture. he had to have both he had to wear both hats yeah but he would do things knowing how difficult they were knowing it might take more time but he would he would intentionally push the boundaries in ways that other directors don't want to take the time like you said they don't want to take the time to go up

to the balcony they don't want to take the time to do a more challenging shot and david would do that now when you're talking about the third level you're talking about within corks though that's right you're not talking about in the promenade the promenade the promenade only had the main level and The upper love, the mezzanine. That's right. And we're going to see an iconic shot in this show that we've seen perhaps in other shows as well of Deep Space Nine of the two boys sitting by the rails. Oh, yes. That became an iconic shot for our show as well.

Yeah, I love that shot. Yeah, and when we get there, I'd love to talk about that because that's the first time I've ever seen that. I wonder if that was David or if you even know. But we'll talk about it when we get there. We move into Corks, and Cork is telling a joke to mourn. Is Morn played by Mark Allen Shepard? Is that correct? Yes.

All right. And Morn doesn't get it in the beginning. And then, of course, he does catch on and he giggles and laughs. I guess that's the most that we ever hear out of morning, right? It is the most we have. That little laughter. He has no other line. And he is, he is an homage to Norm from Cheers, correct?

Absolutely. There's no question about that. Okay. I'd like your line had to think about that one, didn't you? It was at that moment when you said, oh, you had to think about that one, did you? I was looking at your eyes, and I realized the reason why they stand out, they come out so much, is that they ring this dark kind of circle around your eyes to sort of highlight. Yes. And not all Ferengi have that, though.

No. So I was thinking, why does one Ferengi have that and another not have that? I'm curious. Well, that's an interesting question, a political thing that happened there. Oh. on the first day that i worked on deep space nine karen westerfield was assigned to do my makeup she did it exactly as michael westmore told her to do and then at the end of the process she saw how my blue eyes and thought oh if i put purple around his blue eyes the blue eyes will will stand out more

which she did yeah but this had not been part of michael westmore's design i don't know how many or weeks it was i think probably only days michael went to dailies and suddenly realized there's a purple ring around the ferengi's eyes and he came down like a ton of bricks on karen for doing something he had not designed now as it turned out karen was absolutely right for the very reason that you just said oh and and because they'd already gotten it on film it was several days of film I would imagine that they just couldn't change it. And so, yes, Quark has purple around his eyes. And you'll notice, Ram has a veil behind his head and Quark doesn't.

And that, too, was part of the makeup designs. That was distinctly designed by Michael Westmore. The difference. The veil is because they didn't want to finish the back of that person. It's not that they didn't want to because I was there when it happened. The budget to do that. No, no, no. The costume design department and the makeup department hadn't conferred about how far the makeup

came down and how high the costume came up. And so on TNG, when I was made up as a Ferengi, when all the process was done, we realized there was a three-inch gap of the back of my neck showing. And Michael went out and got a piece of material, which he stapled to the rubber prosthesis. And that's how the veils got invented. Wow. That's crazy. That's amazing, those little details. I mean, I feel like the audience will love that.

I've never heard any of that. That's really fascinating. Because of the ring, you actually, your eyes are more expressive than any other character on the show because they're defined with the ring and they pop like that. Yes, and I have to thank Karen. Yeah, Karen's brilliance. And Karen, it was a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, makeup artist. And now, years later, she leads the makeup union.

in in in Hollywood she when they negotiate contracts she is the person they are talking to wow wow very good for her cool well so um after the joke the grand negus uh enters cracks right cracks calls out yeah cracks calls out yes yeah so he's looking for quark you found him i'm cracks and this is my father grand negus zek and that's when the cloak is finally pulled pulled back by the toll, by, what's his name, Mahardu? May Hardu pulls the hood back. I love that. It's really an unveiling of the Grand Nagas.

And it's the unveiling of the Zek character who will come back many, many episodes. It is the revealing of one of the major recurring characters on our show. It's a great makeup, though. The makeup is phenomenal. It's got the gray hair coming out of the year. And just explain to me, because I'm sure. the fans listening know this better than me but the size of ears is that with age or is that well so you're too young to realize but when you get older as a human your ears get bigger too

yes and your nose too right and you nose and ears and so the phrengey lived for a very long time that's right okay that we live for centuries so there's lots of time for the ears and the nose to get bigger yeah i see that was one of my questions how long do frangies live because in this episode later we do learn that Nagas says he hasn't had a vacation in 85 years. So we assume he's a really old dude, right? Exactly. Hundreds of years. Wow.

But younger than Quark thinks he is. Right. So the Nagas arrives and Quark kisses the scepter. And then the Nagas wants to sample some of the holo suites, ask Quark for some recommendations. Quark says, here's the list of my favorite five suites. And he says he wants to try them all. Programs, not suites, programs. Or programs, yes, five programs.

Did anyone catch this when Cracks talks to Quark that Grand Negas wants to try out one of the holo suites? He said holo. I did. I did. So I was like, is that kind of homage to Hulman? It was a mistake. Okay. Because it's not a holo.

It's a hollow suite. Yeah. Yes. But the Negas has his laugh. I think this is the first time we hear that laugh. No, it's not the first. No, he does it in a scene before that. That's right.

We don't see his face, but we do hear the laugh. We hear the laugh, and this is the first time we see him do. Isn't that it? Yeah, that's it. The creepy laugh, yes. It's so funny. We go to the schoolroom next, and now there's a ton of kids in the schoolroom. Last time I remember seeing the schoolroom, there were like four kids, including Nog and Jake.

And now there must be 30 kids. David has a way with budgets. he does, doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah, he must have something on everybody because he gets what he wants. O'Brien is late due to a maintenance issue that he had to handle. He is the substitute teacher. Yeah, he tries to settle the kids down. Nog and Jake are still talking. He calls out their names. Nog. Jake actually stops, but Nog is still talking. So he calls Nog out and he asked to see Nog's completed homework essay. And Nog says he doesn't have. it because his pad, it was not eaten by dogs or some type of alien animal, but it was stolen. So O'Brien says, oh, do you have any idea who could have stole this? And he said, it was some Vulcans nearby. And then he asked Jake. Yeah, well, Nog says, Jake can vouch for me. You see Jake, like, wait, what, don't bring me into this. But Jake reluctantly does basically vouch for him.

He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, I was there. They took it. So, So, Jake's getting dragged into the dead-in kids side of things. The ethicless Vulcans that stole that pad. And ironically, it was an essay on ethics, was what it was. Because they have no ethics? No. I'm just going to put this out there. I don't want any discussion about it.

But I will venture to say that the pharynge are the most ethical people, species on the show. I will explain that more later. Okay. Okay. We'll just leave that there. We'll leave that there for you. Even though in the last episode, they pushed the cheat button. But, yes, I...

See, that's your ethics, not their ethics. Exactly. The next shot is awesome because we hear Grand Nagas's laugh because we see Tiny Ron standing guard in front of the Hall of Suite on the upper floor of Corks holding Zex Cain and we can hear Zek laughing inside the Hollow Suite, which is awesome. Camera pans down.

Another David Livingston awesome shot. Pans from that second level down to Cork, who is concerned about Grand Nagas's welfare because he's been in there for such a long time. He doesn't want him to die from pleasure, basically. Yeah, I don't think that's the reason Quark is upset. But yes, go ahead. Okay.

He walks over to Rom and tells him that he suspects that the Grand Nagas is here to buy the bar. Nagas comes out and wants to rest. Quark offers Rom's quarters, his brother's quarters to Nagas. I love that. Hierarchy, hierarchy. Yeah, the hierarchy is in play here. I also like that Nagas comes out and needs a drink

because he's dehydrated for all of the pleasure. His son gives him the little glass and he brushes that away and grabs the whole, you know, carafe and drinks from that, which is awesome. He's so parched from all his, uh, his, uh, nooky. Uh, and then Nagus wants an invite to dinner as well. That's the other thing that comes out of this scene. And again, great shot. Really, really good shot by David Livingston.

Yeah. Uh, we go to the turbo lift next and Miles is working up on ops. working on fixing the turbo lift that's like stuck halfway between floors. Again, David Livingston gets the camera down in the in the bowels of that thing. So we see for the first time that I can recall, the top of ops. I never saw that before. Yeah. It was beautiful.

The set was gorgeous. He's showing off what the carpenters and the set designers have built that no one has showed off. He wants, he knows the set. He knows the place very well. And he wants people to see what he sees. when he steps onto the set. Yeah. Again, first time, first director that is showing me the set this way.

And I thought it was beautiful. But, yeah, Miles is fixing the turbo lift. And then Cisco arrives and says, you know, the airlock's jammed again. They've got to get on that. And then Miles kind of climbs out. They start to talk. Cisco asks how school's going. And Miles basically gives him some advice.

He says, keep Jake away from Nag because he's trouble. Yeah. And Cisco replies, well, I don't want to make it me versus Nog, you know, because I'll lose. But first he says he trusts his son. He goes, I trust my son. Yeah. And that final dialogue back and forth is my favorite part of the scene because he says, he says, it would become me versus Nog and I'm not going to force Jake to choose between us.

O'Brien says, because I'd probably lose. O'Brien says, I doubt that, sir. And Cisco ends with the best line. Probably in this whole episode. I love this. That's because your daughter's three. Wait until she's 14. And I'm living through that now.

So I was like, yes, I know this. So I love that. Wait until she's 14 and then wait until she's 34 and then. But again, family. It's all the changes. It's all about family. It is. It is entirely.

It's true. We go to Quarks quarters. It's dinner and the first shot is this bowl of grubs. Yeah. Real grubs. These are real worms with the chopsticks or something. And then it cuts up to Tiny Ron tasting one of them. tasting one of them, I'm sure not a real grub at this point. They did a little switcheroo.

So he's the royal taste tester, just in case it's poison. He's like, hmm, choose it up and then nods to the Grand Nagas. And then Nagas eats away. And he loves them. And the Nagas seems very impressed with what he's heard about quark at this point. As he should be. The chopsticks, whose choice was that? And to me, I was then almost inferring that maybe Frankies are supposedly an allegory or a um parallel to asians i don't know you know i don't know so yeah i've often thought that uh garrett i think there's we can get into this later but yeah uh i've often thought there's a possibility uh that it could be evasions uh but but i have other theories a larger theory about okay uh who the ferengi reflect but i i've always said after the show was over

If I had it to do over again, I would have studied Chinese culture a little bit more for a better understanding of the Ferengi culture. Yeah. I mean, it's a very specific choice to ask the actors to use chopsticks to eat their meal, right? So it's definitely. I wonder if, though, a lot of times, a lot of times the props guys would just pick something that look cool. So it's an arbitrary choice then?

It could have literally been an arbitrary choice that we are imposing our. We are imposing our own will onto it, yeah. Because often, especially with food stuff, they just mixed together. There was always a strong Asian influence on Star Trek food, always, whether it was Japanese culture, Chinese food. Yeah. The exotic nature of Star Trek food, in my opinion, had a very strong Asian influence. Yeah.

But I don't, yeah, I don't know. Maybe it was a choice or maybe it was literally. Also, there's a problem. There's just a financial. problem, which is if you get a fork or a spoon, it has to look futuristic. Chopsticks don't. That's true. Yeah, it could have been just that.

It could have been. If I were betting on this, I would literally say it was random. It was just like, like Armin said, doesn't have to look futuristic. It looks kind of cool. We're mashing things up. But the other interesting thing is, and Armand, you're going to, you'll probably agree with me on this. In when you talk about, when you talk about pharynge's, you talk about this is a species or a race that is a group of individuals or beings that are concerned about profit above all, right? And there is that parallel with Chinese.

And that's why I thought the chopsticks were there too. Now you're getting into what I wanted to leave for later. I always think that the Ferengi reflect the minority culture. And there are stereotypes not only about Chinese, but a lot of cultures. It's the other that is the avaricious culture. We are the good people. They are the not so good people. I think that's what the Ferengian, in a sense, reflect.

I can't tell you how many times I've been around the world where various cultures have said to me, are these the Chinese, are these the Jews, are these the Irish, are these somebody else? and I smile and think we're all those, you know, it's all, it's the other culture. It's the minority culture. I love that analogy, the other. That's very well put because you kind of put that, yeah, the good guys and the bad guys. We're the good people.

They're the ones here. They're the other. Yes. 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 trip after trip. You've been doing your impersonation of me. Yes.

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offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. What I took away from this scene, Armand, was when I was watching the other people eat, Rom, and Negus's son, they were eating pracks. They were eating beetles. Now, when Rom eats the beetle, it crunches apart in his mouth like it is a dead beetle, like a real. Can you, that was a prop, yes? I saw that scene and I'm desperately trying to remember whether it was that episode or another episode. where the director offered each of us at the table was a similar episode. We were all eating beetles.

And he said, I need a shot with one of you actually crunching the beetle. It may have been this one, but it may have been another one as well. The legs came off so realistic. And all of us said, no, I don't want to do that. They asked me first. I said, nope, I'm not going to do that. Not eating a beetle. I'm not eating a beetle.

And it sounds like probably raised his hand. Max raised his hand. Max, I'll do it. And it sounds like something David Livingston would ask, too. Yeah. Like that's exactly what David Livingston goes, I need a real beetle. But I could see David, I could see David goes, you don't have to swallow it. You don't have to swallow it.

Just bite into it. You can hear his like manicness, right? Right. Just bite into it. It's fine. Max, can you do it? Great. I love you.

And I can promise you, whether it was this one or another episode, whatever that take was, whatever that day was, it was only one take of that. Yes, I would think so. It was one take of that. Sure. Yeah. But is that the Ferengi diet? though is just grubs and beetles is there you guys don't eat anything other than i imagine we eat other things as well but this is a delicacy ah yeah this is special yeah it's for the negas it's

only for him okay well so the the negus is there uh he's very impressed with what he's heard about quark but then he hears that nog is going to a federation school and he does not like that with the humons and so and a female teacher again yes yes yes yes rom forbids any more school. Then the Nagas says that he needs Quarks Bar for some kind of conference, some kind of gathering for the Ferengis to discuss the Gamma Quadron. I need Quarks Bar, which puts the fear of God into. Yeah, Cork is like, I told you. That's what I knew this was it. The very last shot of this, though, I found interesting because the last line, Zek is saying for Ferengi business interests in the future is already here. Yeah. And its name is the Gamma Quadrant. It's a real kind of buttony line.

And so David was pushing in on Wally Sean. Oh, yes, that's right. But then it cut back to Quark, not pushing it. Yeah. And I think David intended for that shot to push in on Wally Sean. And that would be the out. But when they did the edit, everybody thought, no, we got to go back to Quark. He's the series regular.

He's the series regular. But the shot wasn't moving. So it was almost like, it's the end of the scene, the end of the scene. No, it's not. It was. Yeah. They should have stayed with just Wally. They should have said with Zach.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Good catch. We go to ops next. Kira informs Cisco that all these Ferengi are arriving. And Cisco's not very concerned at this point. But he does call Odo to keep an eye on him. This is another overhead shot in the promenade where we see, I think it was maybe cracks

or someone walking through the promenade. Power walking, actually. Power walking. You see the whole promenade, but then it pans right up. to a nice close-up of Odo when he says, I'm already on it. Great job, David. It's a good shot. Yeah.

It's a great shot. Good job. Good job. Storytelling. It was good. We go to Quarks. Quarks nervously preparing the room for this gathering. And Cracks is looking at the seating arrangements.

He does not like where people are sitting here. Yeah. Rivals are being sat next to each other, which is not. Yes. Rivals are being sat next to each other. Grawl, we meet here. He's getting very impatient. impatient that the Negas is not here yet.

The Negas finally arrives, calls the meeting to order. Quark kicks Nog out, by the way. No, well, he wants to leave, too. Quark wants to leave. He figures it's a corporate meeting there. That's right. He kicks him out and he's going to, he's going to, we're all going to get out of here. Yeah.

But then the Nagus tells Quark to stay. That's right. Your reaction is great, Norman. You're like, me. Oh, my God. I'm going to be in on the inner workings. I'm going to know how the sausage is made. Oh, my goodness, yes.

But also there's a sense of I don't want to be there because of the hierarchy. This is not a place for me. I want to be involved in a lot of things, but this is not a place for me. These are all the big bosses. These are all the big bosses of the Ferengi hierarchy of business, right? That's right. That's right. Yeah, so Quark sits at the bar away from everybody else, and that's where the scene ends.

Then we go to the promenade. This is where Nog is sitting over the balcony edge. Yeah, with his leg's dangling over the side, yeah. I think we have seen that in another episode. I believe I've seen it, you know, as we. been doing these these shows together i believe i saw it in an earlier episode but but certainly this is enormously a conographic shot uh we will see the two boys together in this position uh often or often enough yeah it is their place everybody has an office i have a bar uh their place is hanging out

in the promenade their place is hanging right there in the corner of this of the second level got it yeah yeah i don't know i can't remember seeing it before but I know that it landed for me. Whatever David did differently in this episode, he had their legs swinging. Yeah. Which is, I think, a storytelling of these are young boys. Yeah, yeah.

Jake finds him, Nog tells Jake that he's done with school. And basically, they start to bicker very quickly. I feel like this is their first argument ever, you know, in a way. Nog calls Jake a stupid humon. And then Nog storms off. And Jake has the last word, though. Because I'm stupid. You're the one not going to school. See if I care. So again, teenage angst. I'm not stupid. You're stupid. You're stupid. Yeah, they're very young boys. Very young boys.

Go back to Corks. Nagas is talking about business is great in the Alpha Quadrant, but their reputation is what's holding them back. Right. Their reputation that they can't be trusted. And he says the Gamma Quadron is a blank slate. Nobody knows about this reputation there. Didn't he say it's like the good old days all over again, boy? Yeah. Yeah. And he lets everyone know that he's chosen a successor. Deep Space Nine touched upon a lot of subjects that other shows hadn't touched upon, at least up until that moment.

And here is one of them. We're talking about business ventures, which is certainly part of every commercial culture. And this is the first time. Even if it's by Ferengi, these are serious. cheating of course that that's comic yeah but but the idea of how to progress your business in it in an adverse situation how do you do that and here's an opportunity let's take advantage of the opportunity this is this is i think businesses this is why if i may i've been told over the course of many years that that some business MBA programs will include

the rules of acquisition in their in their business forums because there's actually some credence to some of these rules and how they approach business in general. That's awesome. I love that. Let me ask you, I know we keep digressing into tangents here, but the rules of acquisition,

was this something that got created like... I believe it starts in this episode. Wow. So the idea of it starts in this episode. Yeah, I think so. And then is there a book? Yes, it's a published book. Yes, yes, it's a published book.

Yeah. Okay. There are, I remember, I believe, I have this number right. I think there are 225s rules of acquisition. That's what we say. There are 200, maybe 250, but it's somewhere in there. But there is only about 115 published rules because iron company never got around to writing all the rules of acquisitions. So they wrote it. So the writers came up with these rules of acquisition. Fascinating. I got to get the copy of this book. I will give it to you the next time I see you. I can't wait. The Grand Nagas announces that he's

chosen his successor. He announces to everyone that the new Grand Negus is Quark. But as he's about to say that, his son is getting up to stand up, which is awesome. Cracks is like, it's me. And then he's like, huh? Yeah. Yes. He talks about this new leader, has vision, imagination. Yeah. And we'll oversee all the Ferengue Ventures in the Gamma Quadrant. It's Quark. And they are stunned. Grawl calls him a lobeless amateur cracks thinks his dad lost his mind uh nava says he's not going to stand for it the bosses leave they they knock the chairs down they just take off they're like and i love at the end you're playing with your earlobe at the end i love that you did a couple of things like that yeah

where i know this prosthetic has no sensitivity no feeling so right so that sort of you know the nervous ticks like that you have it's not so much a nervous tick it was it was a choice yes uh it is our rogynous zone as well so it there's a little bit of masturbatory yeah i was just about to say you're pleased you're pleasuring yourself for in a way exactly yeah exactly wow bravi so many levels that it works on look ear nookie it's a thing all right we go to cisco's quarters next uh jake is just playing with his oatmeal He's just dumb, you know, stirring the cold oatmeal. Cisco asks what's wrong. And Jake says that Nog is not going to school and doesn't want to be friends anymore.

And Cisco says, well, you know, human values and Ferengi values are very, very different. And he invites Jake to play baseball after school. But Jake says, no, he's got something he's got to do. And he seems like he's got like a light bulb moment. I got to do this, but we know what it is. And neither does Cisco. But he's, I feel like Cisco is playing this whole thing so well. He is, but he's, but he's not trusting Nog.

He really feels like there's some type of nefarious thing happening, right? I mean, he's not. But he's, he's being patient enough to let this play out and not jump in too quickly. Yes, yes, correct. Certainly at this point, the, the offstage relationship between Avery and Sirach had matured. And I think at this point, Avery feels very fatherly towards Sirak. And so he's, I think, very involved, both as the character and as the real pseudo-father to Sirac. Wow.

Well, we go to the promenade. Cork is very excited to be the new Nagas. Gralth kind of joins him on this little walk-and-talk, says that they're going to be. new best friends and that Grawl will protect him from all of these others that are very jealous and could be danger to

Quark. And you can see Quark start to panic. He never thought about like you're a target, I guess, when you're this powerful. Grawl is sort of blackmailing him in the scene. Bottom line. He's letting him know that there's danger

from other people, but you never know where it could come from. So you better you better treat me right so he's blackmailing him there well he threatens him really right it's no more than blackmail yeah it's like i'll protect you yeah yeah yeah okay it can be very dangerous yeah so yeah we go to rams quarters hork is terrified in here um and he he wants zek's advice zek says that this threat is not going to be the last and then suddenly Zach freezes. He freezes and

Tiny Ron checks him and it looks like he's dead. At first I thought he can't be dead. Like that's not with the hands sort of stuck out. I was like a dead beetle. Yes. He turned into a dead beetle.

Yeah, he just froze mid-sentence. Yeah, but he did give a couple of words of advice out. Yes, he did. Surround yourself with people that are loyal, not too loyal, never trust anyone who places your prosperity above their own. And then, and remember, when in doubt, be ruthless. He's like, yeah, I can do that. And that's when he kind of turns into the beetle.

Armin, I loved the button of the scene. The last line, Quark has it, where you look around and you say, I didn't do anything. I thought the timing, like you took the pause, the timing and the line reading was perfect. Thank you. It was great. It was great. We go to Quark's bar again. There's a portrait of Zek there.

Clearly, this looks like the memorial service. A memorial or something. But there's a stack of these green, like, petri dishes. Cipatri dishes, yes, with the covers on them. Yeah, and it's like his ashes or gelatin or whatever. Ashes, ashes. His ashes are being sold as collectibles. Part of the Ferengi culture.

of many things in this episode are beginning to tell us about the Ferengi culture this is one of them is it ashes because he says crack says you see when a Ferengi of my father's stature dies

the body is automatically vacuum desiccated and sold as a prize collectible so it's I thought of it as ashes but you're right it could be something else desiccated is like dried out

like a desiccated fruit right so he's basically chopped up and chopped up and yeah lots of matter bio matter yeah it's really gross Let's not talk about desiccation anymore.

But listen, in the Catholic Church, there are relics of, you know, saints. You know, exactly. So it's not that far off. No, it's not. Okay. So these things are being sold. Odo arrives and wants an autopsy done to make sure that no crime was committed. Right.

But that's what he can't do it because, yeah, that whole line, vacuum desiccated. He can't do it because it's been cremated, basically, a version of that, right? Right. Cracks is very defensive, though. Cracks says there's nothing suspicious about my father's death. It was caused by a massive infection of the tympanic membrane, a chronic condition. Which is very funny, actually, because to me, I should look it up to be sure. But to panic means ear. Yes. I think it's tough. Yeah. And so I thought that was clever, very clever. Yeah. A massive infection, ear infection. Odo cannot do his investigation here. When Rom comes up to Cork in this scene, and he says like, well, now that you're negus, what about your bar?

I could take over, right? And then that's when Cork has that huge hysterical laugh about you, run my bar. And that's when Odo comes in and says, not exactly overcome by grief, are we? Like, that's how, that's the middle of that scene. But still a really funny moment of you laughing. It's very funny. Yeah, you literally do a spit take with the drink and then the laugh. Oh, God.

But Rom is really getting, you know, the short end of the stick here. Now that I'm reviewing this, we're doing this together. I'm realizing he had a lot of, you know, a lot of reason to make the choices he made. Yeah, yeah, he does. He's treated very badly by his brother. And this is the episode where the, you know, the straw that broke the camel's back is this episode for Rom. Yeah. The way I look at it.

We go to the promenade, Nag and Jake are in silence. Their feet are dangling up there. They both really want to be friends. They kind of reluctantly and in their youthful way, say to each other, they want to be friends and they don't want their fathers to stop them. And then Jake has an idea and they run off together. Right. So a sweet little scene seems like they're going to, they're going to work this out,

but you don't know if like Jake's going to be getting in trouble. Like if that's the way. they're going to work it out or you know it's a little mysterious but it's a lovely moment it's a lovely moment that leads to a very lovely uh resolution yes agreed we go to we go to quarks again and quark is really feeling cocky at this point as the new negus he's pretty confident it's pretty full of himself well once you have a cape on yeah you're gonna feel like superhero i'm a superhero you're telling odo to kiss you know it's tradition yeah kiss my king Miss my cane.

Oda walks off, does not want to kiss it. And then Quark sees some change fall on the floor. One coin rolls into his view. Yeah. And he's like, should I get that? He puts his foot over it, right, to cover it so no one else can see it. And then he looks around and then drops down to go pick it up. And that exact moment that that weapon flies over his head.

Yeah. Yes. Somebody's trying to kill him. We come back and they're examining the crime scene. There's Cisco, Miles Odo there. Miles explains that this was a Ferengi device, explosive device that locks onto a particular person's body odor, their pheromones. A Ferengi locator bomb. That's what they call it.

Now, do Ferengis have a particularly strong B.O or is it just? I don't think we ever came across that again. Again? Or is it a signature? I don't know. I think it was just a way to, you know. Yeah. I don't think. I stigmatize the Ferengi, but I don't know.

Exactly. Well, here's the thing. If Ferengis were extremely stinky, I don't think anyone would come to your bar. You know what I'm saying? So I really feel like the pheromones. Like, I can't, I cannot, if I'm standing next to Robbie, I can't smell his pheromones. Okay. Those are pheromones are very powerful.

Right. And as you know from a previous scene, the Ferengi, like, to brush their teeth. So there's that. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. So they're, yeah, they've got good breath. Yeah, it just seemed odd that it locks onto a person's body odor. Yeah. I don't know. The way it was worded to me, I was like, it felt like it was implying that they have, you know, they need a deodorant or something. Bashir arrives. Finally. My favorite character, my favorite dude, finally. Team Bashir for Robbie. He arrives.

He says he's been treating quark and that they should come, you know, talk to him. And they head on their way. Cisco, as they're walking out, Cisco sees Jake and Nog running and sort of laughing together. Yeah. And sort of has a moment, I guess it's concern. It was hard to tell. I think it's concern. I think it's concern.

I mean, remember, O'Brien says to him, if I were you, I would separate them. Exactly. Separate them. Yeah. But like you said earlier, Robbie, he's still letting it play out, right? He's not exactly. Yeah, he's just going to see, I'm along for the ride. Let's see where this takes us.

Let's see. He's trusting his son enough to let him play this out, whatever's going to happen. You know, he could have easily called him and said, hey, Jake, come here. Yeah. But he didn't. But he didn't. He was patient. Go to the infirmary, Odo and Cisco, or questioning quark about who might want him dead.

Odo's first line, when are you going to get it through your, twisted little brain that we're trying to save your life i love that beginning opening line right there sets the tone and quark doesn't want to talk about it because because the ferengi our family and this is family business and and the outsiders do not yeah we're not going to air our dirty laundry exactly right garret so he doesn't want to talk about anything outside of his family this is family business you guys have no right to be intruding into this and i will deal with it or quark will with it in time. Yeah.

Yeah. And he kind of says, everybody's got a reason to kill me, but they were all at the funerals. So I can't help you with your investigation. You kind of try to shut them down. But we do learn that Zek's servant was not. Was not there.

Was not at the memorial service, exactly, which is very out of character for that type of species. Servant, right? He's a Hyperion. Is it Hyperion? Yeah, Hyperion servants. like that are renowned for their devotion to their employers is what godo says so for my hard to not to have shown up at xx funeral was very odd indeed and that that is the last line of that

scene so now we know something is a foot something is something is a foot yes that man's servant tiny ron is very suspicious he is suspect number one it's a mcuffuffin yes we go to cisco's quarters Cisco wants to know why Jake was out so late with Nog, Jake says he can't tell him. And Cisco respects this, again, very patient. But he says, I want you home on time tonight. Fine. You don't have to tell me for dinner. But I want you home for dinner. Yes. Understood. Understood. So he's he is, you know, creating an expectation here and getting agreement from Jake. Like, let's get back on track here with the rules. I like the pause that Sirrock took when when Cisco said, understood, and there's a, there's a, there's definitely is a pregnant pause and Jake

reluctantly. And just the way he played it, it was just like understood. I mean, it was kind of defeated in a way, right? Kind of low key. But again, a good choice on Serox part. Great. We go to Quarks again. Quark is holding court at this point. He's handing out permissions for business and getting a split for himself. So he's, he's playing hardball, but he's, he's starting to, you know, basically give out territories and and agreements with everybody on who's got what. This is your scene with Barry, right? Barry is talking about getting a... Barry's there in front of me.

Now, I hope you all caught that that's a pastiche from the Godfather. Oh, yes, yes. Oh, God dang it. I should have known that. It's definitely a pastiche of the Godfather. I mean, they gave me a cat. It's not a cat, but... Oh, what was that thing?

That puppet? Yeah. We don't know. We never saw the game. Animatronics? No, no, no, no. a puppet. There was a guy underneath the desk manipulating the puppet as I stroked it. All right. But the blinds are drawn. The look of it is from the godfather. I'm doing this

as well. To me, you know what that thing looked like? It looked like a tree branch. Like a tree branch or like a yam or something, some type of vegetable. Yeah, or some mischievous carrot. Do you have a pet yam? I have a pet sweet potato. That's nice. That's nice. So, yeah, I mean, he says you come to me and you, when you didn't do this for me, you didn't, it's right out of the Godfather. It is. You're right. This is the Godfather scene. Okay.

Okay. So after he finishes these permissions, Quark heads to the bar. He leaves and Rahman cracks are left there. And they're very worried because quark seems to be, you know, handling this really well. And he's going to be popular. But he's also giving away the best opportunities, which is, which means they're thinking, they will be left with nothing. So that is what they're thinking.

Well, I don't know if they both will be left with it. Certainly, Cracks will be left with nothing. I think Rom really only wants the bar. Right. But you already laughed in his face, though. Exactly. Exactly. So he's not going to get what he wants.

Cracks not going to get what he wants. No. They have a grudge against the new Nagas. Yeah. Yes. And Ron explicitly says at the end of the scene that he needs a new plan to kill his brother. Which, again, we're shocking. that he had this resolve.

I'm like, what? I know. It's very godfathery at this point. Oh, yeah. He's Fredo. Okay. Cisco's quarters. Cisco's got a baseball glove.

He's kind of tossing a ball, waiting for Jake for dinner. Dax enters, and they talk about Jake here. And Cisco asks for advice. Dax says, go find him and bring him back to dinner. Cisco asked the computer to locate Jake, and the computer says he's in Cargo Bay 14. so Cisco heads over to Cargo Bay 14 he goes in he hears some voices kind of walks a little deeper

and there he sees Nog and Jake sitting on some barrels at a distance they don't see him but he sees them and there basically Jake is tutoring Nog teaching him how to read teaching him how to read and that's why Jake wouldn't tell

because he didn't want to embarrass Nog Yeah. So Cisco puts all this together. He's very touched, clearly. It's a very sweet scene. And he doesn't interrupt. That's cool shot. He's in the shadows and you just see his face back out. He's like, I'm done. Okay. My son is an upstanding young man. I'm happy. Yeah. Right. And it is also, I mean, not only is Jake doing the right thing, which is very important. Jake is in franguing language as a mensch. This is also the beginning of the arc, the incredible, wonderful, amazing arc for Nog. that Nag is beginning to move away from rangy culture into Starfleet culture, which will eventually do wonders for him. There is no character on our show that had as big an arc as Nag does. That's awesome.

That's beautiful. Well, we go to corks quarters next. Rom is preparing cork to head to the Gamma Quadrant to meet all these new business opportunities, I guess, go there. and um rome asked cork one last time if if he would share some of the bar profits and cork's response as well this is the way it was meant to be i was just supposed to have more than you hierarchy hierarchy yeah and so rom here's that and says okay let's go and i love this last exchange i do want to call out david livingstone's shopmaking here as quirk leaves we see rom with a mirror behind him And we see Quark in that mirror.

And that's all, there's no shot back to Quark. It's all played in the mirror. You see Rom in the foreground and Quark, Quark's reflection right over his shoulder, beautifully shot, really elegant and cinematic. Nice job again, David. Yeah, and he probably asked for that mirror. My guess is that the set didn't have a mirror.

Usually we try to avoid. I don't think we ever had a mirror. Yeah. You know, this was David. The Livingston's a special designer. Put a mirror over there so that when Fork walks away, I can keep in that one shot. Catch his reaction there. That's great.

David gets, you know, two thumbs up, 10 stars for his direction. And it's really well done. Yeah. We go to the promenade. Quarks on his way to the Gamma Quadrant. He thinks about maybe taking a Dobo girl with him. Cracks says, no, you don't need it. And so they continue on.

Cracks and wrong. Before you do, another wonderful shot from David. he set it up so that we're talking about a double girl and there's just enough space so that we see the double girl in the distance that's she is part even as we're talking about a double girl one double girl is in the shot so we can actually see what they're talking about and and obviously he kept us apart so that you could see her in the background another i think wonderful shot by david living Yeah, he did a phenomenal job. Also, while this is happening, Odo kind of tracks my hard-do.

My hard-do's walking around on his own going into this airlock. This airlock opens my hard-do comes through, then it shuts. You see Odo walk up to the same airlock, but then he turns into the goo to get into. Which I don't understand that shot. I don't understand that special effect. Why is he doing that? Because he could just open the door. We don't see him try to open it.

We don't, and it's an airlock. There shouldn't be any way for him to be able to sneak up to get through. I don't care how much ooz he is. There's no way to get through an airlock. It's like they spent $15,000, $20,000 on a special effect that I think is just worthless, is useless. Maybe David wanted one and there for God one. You think this was David's one little phone call in this entire episode? I don't know.

I don't know. Maybe. But it doesn't make logical. Yeah. Push the button. Myer do just opened the door. and shut it. Why do you have to turn into ooze? Don't show off, Odo. Just open the door like everybody else would.

We do go to this airlock corridor where Quark walks in and then they shut the door behind him and now he's trapped in this airlock. He's like, wait a minute, there's no ship here. He looks around and then he realizes they've trapped him inside this airlock. Rom says that Quark was going to toss him out of an airlock. And Quark says, no, I wasn't serious about that. I was just kidding. I was just kidding. Yeah. just as they're about to press the button. But before, are they about to press the button? There is that same, please, that we heard in move along, little doggies, and move on

the same gesture, the same gesture. Yes, the same gesture. Please, is that like begging? Is that like, uh, was that the intention there? Praying and begging. Praying and begging at the same time. That's great. It's pegging if you're praying and begging.

Okay, pegging. That was peggy. I think pegging is something else, but not for this podcast. Anyway, okay. go to the airlock corridor where Odo's arriving with the Grand Nagas. He didn't die. All of those, those, you know, ashes and things were counterfeit. Those people need their money back.

Yeah. Because he didn't die. So those. Good luck on that. Exactly. The Grand Nagas says he didn't die, that it was just a test for his son and his son to fail. He was ready, right, to take over. And he failed miserably.

Because what he should have done is just let Quark run the show up. front and he could have hung around the bar and gathered all the information about the camera quadrant, but instead he failed, so they're going to go home. And I think that's actually good business advice. Yeah. I think that's actually good business advice. Let's somebody else take the blows while you sit in the back and run the show. I think that's excellent business advice.

Agreed. Well, I will see when I get your copy of the rules of acquisition, Norman, I will see if that advice is in there. I don't think it is, actually. We can add it. There's a new rule of acquisition. Exactly. As Zek is admonishing his son, Cracks, I just love when he says, go back to the ship.

We'll be leaving here shortly. And Crack says, yes, father. And after Cracks leaves Zek's final line is, it's like talking to a Klingon. Now, that's the line. That's the take that David and the administration chose. There is a much, much better take, one that put me on the law. floor i was laughing so hard oh it was a brilliant take and it it's so totally not star trek that they couldn't use it but when i saw it uh when i saw wally do it i was beside myself and laughter it's the same

line yeah but instead of sort of looking over to the side he looks straight into the camera broke the fourth wall and said it's like talking to a cling on and and i just love that you're that. It's like he forget about the show. I'm just talking to the audience. It's like talking to a Klingon. And they and David said we can't use that. We can't use that. He basically

Ferris Bueller did right there right into the camera. Oh my God. That's actually really funny though. It was hilarious. It would have been amazing if they had had the guts to use something like that. Right? Oh my God. Wow.

Okay. So we go to Quarks. We go back to Quarks, Quark's giving the Grand Nagas back as Scepter. The Nagus is very happy with how Quirk is done. And he even says, maybe I'll be able to come back one day and buy your place. Yeah. So that's a, that's a compliment, I guess, you know. Yeah. The Nagus thinks it's a good business. Quark, Quirk tells Rom that he wants to promote him. Well, before he said that, he starts with saying, he's like, you know, so, Rob, you were going to toss me out on airlock, huh? So you think, as the audience that this is the time where he's going to, he's going to disown his brother, right? Rom's back peddling.

He's like, forgive me, brother. And Cork says, forgive you? My brother, I didn't think you had the lobes. And you actually are impressed with the fact that he had some gumption. He had the, you know, the will to try to, you know, outdo you, which is amazing. Yeah. So you promote him. How did you feel about this plot, Armin?

I'll be honest, I didn't buy it. I know that the Ferengi, and it's not the performance, it's the plot choice. It's a script problem to me. I feel like there's, even though the Ferengi have hierarchy, I get all of that. But when someone has, you know, made an attempt on your life, it's got to give you pause. And I, anyway, I struggled with this. It does. It's, you know, it's supposed to be a comic moment. And we hopefully played it for its comic moment.

Absolutely. But you're right. It doesn't really make sense. It doesn't fit into Ferengi culture that they do hold grudges. Yes, it doesn't play. It just didn't ring true to me. I felt like there was an opportunity to really go deeper into their brotherhood. Exactly.

And they will in episodes to come. Oh, good. And I think this is, you know, the writers like the actors are feeling their way. They're trying to, they still are influenced by the Ferengi from TNG. There's still the, there's a number of things. even in this episode where I go, well, that doesn't track. It doesn't track. Well, I get to that in a moment.

But so, yes, this is, I think, one of those where it's meant for comedy. It's not meant for rationality. Yes, it felt like it, again, felt a little like a situation comedy. Like, what, look at all that crazy stuff we went through, you know, punchline. Right. And so none of that counted. The same thing would move along home. You go through an episode, all of this happens.

And then at the end, you find out it doesn't count. It wasn't serious at all. I think the writers are going to do much better than that in the future. I'm sure. I have no doubt. But you're absolutely right. Our very last scene in this episode is on the promenade. Jake and Nog are making plans to meet again, I guess, for this, you know, reading lessons.

And Cisco calls a C's Jake and he calls him over. And he gives him a hug, kisses him on the head and says, you know you're a great boy go play with your friend i i almost teared up there yeah that was the authenticity of that and the fathering that that cisco the way he fathered and the way he showed respect and love it was beautiful it was beautiful yeah speaking about tearing up i i almost teared up in the when he found him teaching him to read that was the point that i got emotional for sure but i also feel like that kiss on the head was not scripted. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that was Avery's choice to do that. And it was a great choice. Really good choice. Beautiful. Yeah, really

beautiful. Especially for, you know, a man, a father to kiss, to be that tender. You know, he's not punching him on the arm and going, man up or something. It's not that kind of thing. He's being tender. Yeah. And it really shows a three-dimensional character. There you go. The Nagas. the end. If I had to take all the stories and say, what did they have in common? The lesson I took from all the stories is you can't always assume that you know what's really happening. Like Cisco thought maybe there was trouble, but in the end, he realized it was something

beautiful and he didn't need to be worried. You know, Quark thought, assumed that the negus was dead. And he didn't really know what was going on. He didn't know what ROM was planning. He didn't know a lot. So, you know, verify before you assume that you know what's happening. The whole story. The whole story. Yeah, that's my lesson here.

Armine, what is your lesson? I wrote down, navigating the waters of family politics can make for a stormy voyage. Oh, interesting. That fits all the stories as well. It's about family all through this episode. There's a larger family of the Ferengi together and the smaller family of the Cisco's together. And then there's, you know, the growing family of Jake and Nogg. It can get bumpy, but, you know, if you get through it, you'll eventually come to a nice place.

I'm, you know, just going to further what your lesson was and never assume. Because if you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. That's what Assume does. Okay. So no assumptions. I agree with you on that, Robbie. Great. Awesome. Okay, everybody. Well, thank you so much for joining us for this episode, the Nagas. Next week, we will be discussing and reviewing the episode Vortex. And for all our Patreon patrons, you know, thank you so much. Stick with us. Your support means a lot to us. And we've got a lot of bonus material that we want to share with you. We have questions, we do our ratings, we talk about scenes that we think should have been in the

episode. So if you're not a Patreon patron and you want to be a part of all of that and hear what we think and hear what the Patreon patrons are voting on and discussing and what they think, get involved, join Patreon at patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers, become a part of this community. It's an awesome community and a lot of, a lot of fun. family, we might say. It is like a family. It is a Delta Flyers family. And on that note, I'm going to leave everyone with Zex laugh. I'm going to be B.

Bhopal, Bhopal, B, Bhopal, B, Bess, b Bhopal,

B, Bhop, B, D. I'm going to be able to be.