Quark’s employees, led by his brother Rom and Dabo girl Leeta, form a union and go on strike. Meanwhile, Worf moves off the station and onto the Defiant.
Plot Summary: An ear infection sends Rom to the infirmary, where he tells Ba...
Quark’s employees, led by his brother Rom and Dabo girl Leeta, form a union and go on strike. Meanwhile, Worf moves off the station and onto the Defiant.
Plot Summary: An ear infection sends Rom to the infirmary, where he tells Bashir that he couldn’t take a day off to get it treated because Quark does not give his employees sick leave. Bashir half-jokingly suggests that Rom form a collective bargaining association to demand better treatment. After Quark announces that all employees will have their pay docked due to a decline in profits caused by a Bajoran religious holiday, Rom summons the waiters and Dabo girls to propose the formation of a union, which is strictly against Ferengi law. Though the waiters are fearful of punishment by the Ferengi Commerce Authority, Rom draws up a list of demands including paid sick leave and shorter hours. Quark laughs at them and the union goes on strike, leaving the bar deserted. Sisko refuses to break up the strike, but after Worf, O’Brien, and Bashir are involved in a brawl, he tells Quark that Starfleet will collect back rent on the bar if Quark doesn’t settle things. Quark offers Rom a bribe to end the strike, but Rom refuses, and Ferengi Liquidator Brunt arrives to threaten the union members. When they refuse to budge, Brunt has Nausicaan enforcers beat up Quark to set an example. Terrified that he may be killed for embarrassing the Ferengi, Quark agrees to meet the workers’ demands in secret if Rom pretends that he has disbanded the union. Rom agrees, but once the bar resumes normal business, he quits and goes to work on the station as a technician. Meanwhile, Worf complains first to Dax, O’Brien and Odo about the tumult, breakdowns and crime on the station. He receives permission from Sisko to live on the Defiant, where he feels more comfortable.
Analysis: Ferengi episodes work perhaps once a season, though even at that frequency, their enjoyment is the sort experienced by people who like hearing the same jokes over and over because they already know the punchline – they are, at best, a kind of retro, conservative humor, in this case enhanced because there are built-in excuses to stereotype women, mock men with small, er, lobes, and brag about capitalism and the men who are successful within the system – always men when Ferengi are in charge unless they’re outmaneuvered by a canny Moogie. Sure, it’s fun to see Brunt again, and sure, it’s amusing to hear Rom giving the “workers of the world unite” speech, but this all feels like a very thin B storyline in need of a proper drama…and instead it’s the main focus of the episode, while the B storyline involves Worf, whom the writers seem determined to construct as the straight-man outsider to all the wit and bonding on the station, literally exiling himself by choosing to live on the Starfleet ship he often gets to command instead of among Humans, Bajorans, Ferengi, Cardassians, and all the other races that must find ways to get along with and appreciate one another on DS9. Though I really miss the days when Kira, not Worf, would have been in charge of Defiant missions to the Gamma Quadrant (we’ll let this one slide only because it’s a Bajoran religious festival), I feel sorry for Worf, though I can’t decide whether I’d prefer that he become a team player or take the Defiant and go on a long, long mission away from the station. Neither alienation nor union problems are taken seriously enough for any points to be memorable, notwithstanding a few seconds of dialogue about O’Brian’s descent not only from Irish kings but from Pennsylvania coal miners.
The writers seem to be suffering from comparisons with The Next Generation, though whether they’re responding to fan complaints or just trying to work things out in their heads, I couldn’t guess. There are lots of jokes at the expense of Picard’s Enterpr
