4.25 — “Body Parts”
Plot: Quark returns from Ferenginar with the news that he is going to die from Dorek Syndrome. Which is bad. But can he afford the cost of survival? Meanwhile, Keiko and Kira undergo a profound exchange of burdens during a runabout accident.
Thoughts: I. Love. Everything about the Ferengi plot in this episode. I just want to quote its many great lines.
“Made a pilgrimage to the Great Marketplace.”
“You’re going to wish you died years ago!”
“It took me all my life, but I’m going to die a winner.”
“Not without paying a storage fee!”
Somehow all this comedy makes room for serious character development and profundity. Quark has a dark night of the soul exploring his feelings of alienation and failure. I laughed as he rattled off all the shameful outcasts in his family, according to Ferengi tradition: Rom, Nog, Moogie–which brings us tantalizingly close to big realizations for Quark that his expectations are unreasonable and he should embrace his chosen family and their imperfections. But all the empty cultural ideals ingrained his head mean that he can’t quite get there. It’s a study in family dynamics and lack of self-acceptance.
Quark hiring Garak to assassinate him by surprise is a tribute of course to Clouseau and Cato in the Pink Panther movies. Great acting abounds, with the best episode yet for Quark, Rom, and Blount. The sharp writing helps (good job with the teleplay, Hans Beimler!).
I haven’t even mentioned the subplot, which takes a page from Voyager’s soap opera tendencies, but turns the volume all the way to eleven. Kira’s “Your son’s living here now” with a gesture to her abdomen is a cut-to-commercial for the ages. O’Brien: “So what you’re telling me is . . . Major Kira’s going to have my baby!” The irony behind the scenes is that Nana Visitor is really pregnant, but the baby is Alexander Siddig’s.
Take that Voyager! That’s how you do soap opera.
Keiko and Miles are asking a lot of Kira to move into their apartment. This should be a good source of drama going forward.
5 out of 5 discs of Quark’s vacuum-desiccated remains.
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