4.8 — “Little Green Men”
Plot: Quark volunteers to transport Nog and his father, Rom, to Earth, so that Nog can begin his enrollment in Starfleet Academy. Soon a technobabble accident sends them back to the year 1947, to make first contact with surprised Earthlings in Roswell, New Mexico, at a military base setting similar to TOS 1.19, “Tomorrow is Yesterday.”
Thoughts: I would like “Little Green Men” better if it didn’t flout the artificiality of its premise. Both DS9 and VOY at this point are in danger of falling into self-parody. This happens when episodes are made up of nothing but a mosaic of recycled elements from earlier shows, with no more than a halfhearted attempt at manufacturing connective tissue. “Tomorrow is Yesterday” managed to be pointed and funny without suggesting that one officer and her fiance can take on the whole U.S. military with impunity, celebrating with a kiss afterwards instead of preparing for prosecution. The episode also makes a big joke about Rom being a secret warp engineer, and hits other sappy notes. But at other times it seems like a worthwhile exercise in satire and comedy.
Armin Shimmerman loved the opportunity to utter Spock-like lines, commenting on the barbarism of humanity. I like best all the new details we are fed about Ferengi culture, from Nog’s transition into adulthood by selling his boyhood treasures, to naming the shuttle Quark’s Treasure, to references to the Divine Treasury and its Blessed Auctioneers.
Humans don’t come off well here! “Still a bunch of violent savages.” I love the scene where they try to communicate by imitating Quark’s motions.
Which reveal the location of the universal translators: they are brain implants. Makes sense.
3.5 out of 5 ships hidden in Hangar 18.
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