DS9: “Ferengi Love Songs” and “Soldiers of the Empire”

Date: August 4, 2020

Season 5, Episodes 20 and 21

Musical Accompaniment: Figured out I’m on my “5 star” iTunes playlist

Interstellar News: Today I learned that my Aunt Lucy passed away. I don’t know if she ever watched Star Trek but I dedicate this post to her nonetheless.

Favorite Quote from “Ferengi Love Songs”:

Quark: Of course not. He was willing to throw our entire economy into chaos just so he could grab power.

Ishka: Sounds like a true Ferengi to me.

Quark: A Ferengi, maybe, but not a Nagus. A Nagus has to be better than that. His personal greed has to reflect the public’s greed.

Quark and his mother debating the finer qualities of being a Nagus.

So what had happened in “Ferengi Love Songs” was…: Rom and Leeta decide to get married, he’s even sporting a Bajoran earring. After talking with O’Brien and Dax, Rom thinks he’s compromising too much and demands Leeta signs a Ferengi contract. She refuses and they call off the wedding, though both are clearly miserable. Rom eventually decides to donate his entire life savings to a Bajoran charity so he and Leeta can live off their love, oh and Leeta’s salary from Quark’s.

Quark’s is closed due to a vole infestation and it’s just one of many things that have caused him to be depressed, so he goes to Ferenginar to be comforted by his mother only to find the Grand Nagus hiding in his bedroom closet because they have been having a secret romantic relationship. They explain how they met and Quark sees this as an opportunity to be reinstated, but the Zek refuses. Brunt comes to visit and tells Quark he’ll give him his license back if he breaks up Ishka and Zek, which Quark does. Zek makes Quark his aide but Quark sees that Zek has Ferengi Alzheimer’s and Ishka was helping him all along, oh and this is Brunt’s play to grab power no matter the cost to Ferenginar. Quark helps Zek, gets Zek and Ishka back together, and gets to keep his reinstatement.

“Maybe, but lust can be a lot more fun”: So Rom and Leeta are adorable and please excuse me while I go get sick over in the corner. I loved every bit of their scenes, though. Rom’s ridiculous earring, Rom sobbing at the panel he’s trying to fix, and Kira trying to talk some sense into Leeta were all absolutely adorable. It’s nice to see things going well for Rom, though I wonder what Nog thinks about having a Bajoran stepmother. The bit between Odo and Worf, however, was delightful and it was only a matter of time before Odo and the Klingons clashed.

The real meat of the story is everyone coming out of Quark’s closet. I found it quite funny that after finding Zek and Maihar’du in his closet, Quark was not the least bit phased to find Brunt transporting in and out of it. I realized that Brunt is a touch on the dramatic side, but so is Quark so maybe it’s just a Ferengi trait. The interesting piece for me is that Quark helped his mother because it was for the good of Ferenginar, not because he loved his mother and wanted her to be happy. While he may have developed a conscience with all the “hu-man interaction”, he certainly has not figured out how to value females. Both stories showed how sometimes couples have to make compromises to make things work, but if you love each other it’s totally worth it. 6.5 jellied gree worms for this episode.

Favorite Quote from “Soldiers of the Empire”:

Martok: Major, we’ve rescued 35 survivors of a disabled Klingon battle cruiser. Request permission to beam them directly to your Infirmary.

Kira: Permission granted, General. You’re also cleared to dock at bay four.

Martok: We’ll need an engineering team to repair our battle damage. And one other thing. Arrange to have 15 barrels of bloodwine waiting for us in the airlock so we can celebrate the first victory of the Rotarran over the Jem’Hadar!

FIFTEEN barrels?!?! That’s a lot of wine.

So what had happened in “Soldiers of the Empire” was…: Martok is given command of the Rotarran in order to find the missing B’Moth ship and asks Worf to come along as his first officer. Dax tags along as their Science Officer but O’Brien and Bashir stay on DS9 to split Worf’s other station duties. The crew of the Rotarran have low morale and while Worf worries about Martok’s state of mind and decisions, Dax is seeing the powder keg that is about to blow. When they receive a distress call from the B’Moth, Martok thinks it’s a trap and refuses to cross the border so Worf challenges him for command of the ship. Martok kicks Worf’s ass and it reminds him that he’s a bad ass, so he leads the Rotarran to victory over the Jem’Hadar and brings back 35 survivors. Martok asks Worf to join his house and Worf is now a true Klingon again.

“The House of Martok would be honoured to welcome the Son of Mogh into our family as a warrior and a brother.”: So I put on the captions while I watch Netflix and other streaming services and there was one moment where it reported “Klingons laughing lustily” and I laughed a lot at that caption. This was a wonderful Klingon episode where it makes sense for Dax to be there not just because of her connection to Worf but because of her affinity for Klingon culture and politics. I loved that she spent the time in the trenches with the crew and could hold her own, she didn’t need Worf to be there for her. There were other funny bits like when Nog was trying to not be between the two Klingons or when O’Brien and Bashir were bitching about all the extra work they had to do to fill in for Worf. This was another great look into how Klingons run their ship and how they interact with each other, but it was also great to watch Martok get his mojo back. Worf and Dax are also adorable together in their own way, though she has far too much fun poking at Worf. 7 vats of bloodwine!

TA Out!