Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Dogs of War Rewatch
December 22, 2016 3:50 AM - Season 7, Episode 24 - Subscribe
(Series Finale - Part 8 of 9) It's nearly the tail end of the war. The Dominion sniffs out rebel bases, yet Damar continues to hound them; Sisko meets a new breed of Defiant; Zek arrives to fetch a new Nagus; and the Bashir/Ezri relationship still gets criticism from Woof Worf.
Rackground rinformation rom Remory Ralpha:
- Prior to beginning The Final Chapter, the writers had discussed the possibility of having Quark become Grand Nagus, but as Ira Steven Behr explains, "That was wrong. Quark had to be in that bar at the end of the show. I felt that the audience needed that continuity even more than whoever was going to run the station. Quark is the center of the station – and I needed that center. So we wouldn't make Quark Nagus. And I didn't feel that we could leave Zek in the office, because we'd put him through all kinds of changes in the past few years."
- No one was happier than actor Armin Shimerman that Quark didn't become Nagus, but instead, stayed exactly where he was seven years previously; "Quark is the station. He is as much a part of the station as the carpets, the pylons, and the transporters. Everybody goes through Quark's. Everybody deals with Quark."
- Quark's speech about Ferengi values and how "the line has to be drawn here. This far and no further" was a deliberate imitation of Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: First Contact. Ronald D. Moore, who co-wrote both the film and this episode, remarked, "I take great glee at mocking my own work."
- Quark's line "This establishment will be the last outpost of what made Ferenginar great" is a reference to TNG: "The Last Outpost", the first episode to feature the Ferengi (one of which was played by Armin Shimerman).
- The Sarah Prophet's warning that Sisko will "Know nothing but sorrow", which was issued in "Penumbra", finally pays off in this episode – Kasidy is pregnant, and Sisko is going to have to leave his new child behind without ever having seen him/her.
- In a deleted scene, Garak, Damar and Kira get drunk in Tain's basement.
- This episode was directed by Avery Brooks; Patrick Stewart likewise directed the penultimate episode of his series, Star Trek: The Next Generation; "Preemptive Strike".
"The glamour of being a revolutionary."
- Garak, while hiding as a fugitive in a basement, after Kira tosses him a cloth to do some cleaning
"Interesting, isn't it? The Federation claims to abhor Section 31's tactics, but when they need their dirty work done they look the other way. It's a tidy little arrangement, wouldn't you say?'"
- Odo, commenting upon the Federation's refusal to cure the Founders
"You should hear the stories. "Damar's alive, my cousin saw him on Kelvas Prime.' 'He faked his own death.' 'He's plotting a new offensive from his secret mountain hideaway.' "
"You never told me you had a secret mountain hideaway."
"I was going to surprise you."
-Mila, Garak, and Damar
"Citizens of Cardassia, hear me! The Dominion told you that the rebellion has been crushed. What you have seen here today proves that that is yet another lie. Our fight for freedom continues! But it will take place here in the streets. I call on Cardassians everywhere to rise up, rise up and join me! I need you to be my army! If we stand together, nothing can oppose us. Freedom is ours for the taking!"
- Damar
Rackground rinformation rom Remory Ralpha:
- Prior to beginning The Final Chapter, the writers had discussed the possibility of having Quark become Grand Nagus, but as Ira Steven Behr explains, "That was wrong. Quark had to be in that bar at the end of the show. I felt that the audience needed that continuity even more than whoever was going to run the station. Quark is the center of the station – and I needed that center. So we wouldn't make Quark Nagus. And I didn't feel that we could leave Zek in the office, because we'd put him through all kinds of changes in the past few years."
- No one was happier than actor Armin Shimerman that Quark didn't become Nagus, but instead, stayed exactly where he was seven years previously; "Quark is the station. He is as much a part of the station as the carpets, the pylons, and the transporters. Everybody goes through Quark's. Everybody deals with Quark."
- Quark's speech about Ferengi values and how "the line has to be drawn here. This far and no further" was a deliberate imitation of Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: First Contact. Ronald D. Moore, who co-wrote both the film and this episode, remarked, "I take great glee at mocking my own work."
- Quark's line "This establishment will be the last outpost of what made Ferenginar great" is a reference to TNG: "The Last Outpost", the first episode to feature the Ferengi (one of which was played by Armin Shimerman).
- The Sarah Prophet's warning that Sisko will "Know nothing but sorrow", which was issued in "Penumbra", finally pays off in this episode – Kasidy is pregnant, and Sisko is going to have to leave his new child behind without ever having seen him/her.
- In a deleted scene, Garak, Damar and Kira get drunk in Tain's basement.
- This episode was directed by Avery Brooks; Patrick Stewart likewise directed the penultimate episode of his series, Star Trek: The Next Generation; "Preemptive Strike".
"The glamour of being a revolutionary."
- Garak, while hiding as a fugitive in a basement, after Kira tosses him a cloth to do some cleaning
"Interesting, isn't it? The Federation claims to abhor Section 31's tactics, but when they need their dirty work done they look the other way. It's a tidy little arrangement, wouldn't you say?'"
- Odo, commenting upon the Federation's refusal to cure the Founders
"You should hear the stories. "Damar's alive, my cousin saw him on Kelvas Prime.' 'He faked his own death.' 'He's plotting a new offensive from his secret mountain hideaway.' "
"You never told me you had a secret mountain hideaway."
"I was going to surprise you."
-Mila, Garak, and Damar
"Citizens of Cardassia, hear me! The Dominion told you that the rebellion has been crushed. What you have seen here today proves that that is yet another lie. Our fight for freedom continues! But it will take place here in the streets. I call on Cardassians everywhere to rise up, rise up and join me! I need you to be my army! If we stand together, nothing can oppose us. Freedom is ours for the taking!"
- Damar
The standout of this episode for me is the Mila basement scenes. Who would've expected Kira, Damar, and Garak to end up as buddies?
This is the one where, on rewatch, the Dominion war room starts to get a little old. Luckily, Jeffrey Combs is there to retain attention.
Another, even more minor, quibble: when Bashir and Ezri start talking about their social awkwardness, and Bashir says "I know! What is that?"—it's a line that feels so contemporary that it almost disrupts suspension of disbelief. One wonders if it was an ad-lib. Trek was generally pretty good about trying not to be contemporary with its dialogue, with a few 1960s exceptions in TOS and of course ignoring all of J. J. Trek (where it doesn't matter anyway, as our suspension of disbelief was never even there to be disrupted).
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 7:04 AM on December 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
This is the one where, on rewatch, the Dominion war room starts to get a little old. Luckily, Jeffrey Combs is there to retain attention.
Another, even more minor, quibble: when Bashir and Ezri start talking about their social awkwardness, and Bashir says "I know! What is that?"—it's a line that feels so contemporary that it almost disrupts suspension of disbelief. One wonders if it was an ad-lib. Trek was generally pretty good about trying not to be contemporary with its dialogue, with a few 1960s exceptions in TOS and of course ignoring all of J. J. Trek (where it doesn't matter anyway, as our suspension of disbelief was never even there to be disrupted).
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 7:04 AM on December 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
Maybe Bashir stumbled across that stand-up comedian program with Joe Piscopo from TNG: "Ketracel white--what's up with that? The Jem'Hadar are all six feet tall and that's all they eat? Get outta here!"
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:26 AM on December 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:26 AM on December 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
I was watching this over the weekend, and was struck at how much Quark's right-wing rant is not actually comedy anymore. The tirade is eerily prescient, right down to taxes, cuts to social programs, and sexual harassment. Things that sounded so outlandishly and obviously backward coming from a Ferengi, nearly 25 years ago — to the point where they were *clearly* intended as comedy — are now heard nightly on the news. Who’d have thought that a sci-fi satirical take on human society would be today’s political reality? We’re supposed to move forward as a society, not backward. Sigh.
posted by culfinglin at 2:51 PM on January 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by culfinglin at 2:51 PM on January 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
I think your youtube link is borked - it's some kind of ad
posted by vibratory manner of working at 3:48 PM on January 18, 2018
posted by vibratory manner of working at 3:48 PM on January 18, 2018
Sorry about that; apparently if you try to get a link to a YouTube video while the ad is playing, you get the link to the ad instead. Maddening.
Try this.
posted by culfinglin at 1:23 PM on January 19, 2018
Try this.
posted by culfinglin at 1:23 PM on January 19, 2018
> And I didn't feel that we could leave Zek in the office, because we'd put him through all kinds of changes in the past few years."
I certainly would not have given it a second thought if we did not see or mention Zek again at this point in the show. I have a hard time imagining many people feeling otherwise.
Memory Alpha notes that both Armin Shimerman and Max Grodénchik thought the apparent shift in Ferengi society was out of nowhere and making Rom the Nagus was kind of ridiculous. I'm inclined to agree: it undercuts the great development the show has done with him finding his own place outside of Ferengi society, and his growing strengths as an engineer.
I did, however, like that M'Pella got lines in this episode finally! Her and Quark becoming increasingly attached to each other has been a great slow-burn background detail which I first noticed back in Who Mourns for Morn?, where she comforts Quark and seems to really care about him. I think the show probably means us to just see their relationship as part of Quark harassing his female employees? But I like to think there's more there.
Looking at Memory Beta, it doesn't look like any of the novels ever did anything with that, which seems like a shame. Quark has always been a romantic, but he tends to only get serious about unavailable women. It'd be real growth for him to shift how he thinks about M'Pella and make their relationship more than a sleazy exploitative one.
Her actress was in a lesbian-themed parody of Run Lola Run that I watched recently, called "And Then Came Lola", which is a relatively fun romp.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 2:38 AM on August 28, 2023
I certainly would not have given it a second thought if we did not see or mention Zek again at this point in the show. I have a hard time imagining many people feeling otherwise.
Memory Alpha notes that both Armin Shimerman and Max Grodénchik thought the apparent shift in Ferengi society was out of nowhere and making Rom the Nagus was kind of ridiculous. I'm inclined to agree: it undercuts the great development the show has done with him finding his own place outside of Ferengi society, and his growing strengths as an engineer.
I did, however, like that M'Pella got lines in this episode finally! Her and Quark becoming increasingly attached to each other has been a great slow-burn background detail which I first noticed back in Who Mourns for Morn?, where she comforts Quark and seems to really care about him. I think the show probably means us to just see their relationship as part of Quark harassing his female employees? But I like to think there's more there.
Looking at Memory Beta, it doesn't look like any of the novels ever did anything with that, which seems like a shame. Quark has always been a romantic, but he tends to only get serious about unavailable women. It'd be real growth for him to shift how he thinks about M'Pella and make their relationship more than a sleazy exploitative one.
Her actress was in a lesbian-themed parody of Run Lola Run that I watched recently, called "And Then Came Lola", which is a relatively fun romp.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 2:38 AM on August 28, 2023
Not even a single fic on AO3 for Quark/M'Pella; I may be alone in this ship
posted by vibratory manner of working at 2:39 AM on August 28, 2023
posted by vibratory manner of working at 2:39 AM on August 28, 2023
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"I don't get it. He's interested, she's interested... what's the problem?"
"He is an overgrown child and she is very... confused."
"It could still work."
Also, Jeffrey Combs double-dipping; I remember seeing something somewhere in which Combs talks about how he wished they could have arranged it somehow for Brunt and Weyoun to walk past each other, then do a double-take.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:37 PM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]