Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Friday, May 6, 2016

Quark Explains Assets and Acquisitions to Klingons

Is it any wonder that the Klingon Empire and Fereginar were never at war?

GIFS from http://startrekgifs.tumblr.com/post/143855430888/suurak-klingons-arent-suited-for-wall-street

                                                                "House of Quark"
                                                                         S:3 E:3






Friday, April 17, 2015

Rom Appreciation Post

Rom, older brother of the scheming and profit hungry Quark, is a somewhat simple and unassuming Ferengi. He's not your typical Ferengi, for he puts kindness and consideration above profit.

He proves himself more than just a go-for for his demanding brother. We learn he has a talent for fixing all things mechanical, disproving Odo's assertion that he couldn't fix a bend in a straw. He is made an engineer on the station, working closely with the Chief Engineer Miles O'Brien. He even catches the heart of a Bajoran Dabo Girl named Leeta and they marry.

One turning point for Rom is forming a union when his shitty boss Quark refuses to give him time off for a serious ear infection caused by too much oomax (the Ferengi version of masturbation). He gathers grievances from all of Quark's employee's including Leeta, and challenges not only Quark, but the Ferengi Commerce Authority (FCA). And it helps to have an ally like Benjamin Sisko to give them the freedom to go on strike.

At the end, he is made Grand Negas when Zek retires, ushering in new equality era for Fereginar.









Wednesday, July 23, 2014

DS9 Returning Adversaries PT 5: Gul Dukat, Kai Winn, and the Pah-Wraiths

One of the most awesome villains in all of Trek is the former overseer of the ore mines on Terok Nor from Cardassia Prime called Gul Dukat.

Dukat saw himself as the long suffering do-gooder who went out of his way to make the Bajoran slave laborers more appreciative of him. But what thanks did he get?

Always striving to be liked by one of his nemesis on the former Terok Nor (now Deep Space 9) named Kira Nerys, he more often than not missed his mark and just ended up pissing her off.

In a classic moment, Dukat boards DS9 with the good intentions of helping the crew stop an auto destruct sequence--but only in exchange for a permanent presence back on the station. Kira is having none of it. In "Civil Defense," he attempts to leave and return in time to shut off the lasers that are tearing through the station in order to give Kira enough time to change her mind.

There's just one hitch---his attempt to leave activates another part of the auto destruct. He's prevented from leaving and told by the automated voice recording that he's bound to stay on the station and die like a man rather than take off in an act of cowardliness.



After having regained a powerful position in the newly formed Cardassian government, he brokers a peace treaty with the Dominion in exchange for their protection and influence in the Alpha Quadrant.

He eventually goes insane after the death of his daughter and ends up on a spiritual quest to find a way to absolve himself of his resentment and self-pity by teaming up with a wormhole entity---the arch enemies of the prophets called the Pah-Wraiths. His primary goal is to destroy those ungrateful Bajorans once and for all!

Later, Dukat goes to a plastic surgeon to be made into a Bajoran. He then visits the egotistical and power hungry spiritual leader of Bajor, Kai Winn.

Winn, like Dukat, craves admiration and respect and will even sabotage her own people's best interest to get it. We learn early on that one way she does this is to use her influence on a devotee to get her to assassinate a rival for the position of Kai. This attempt fails but she is later nonetheless made Kai with the help of another power hungry politician named Jaro who himself is hellbent on taking over the government. Winn betrays him when the truth about their alliance is about to become public knowledge.


Winn and Dukat end up joining forces through the influence of the Pah-Wraiths. At first, Winn assumes Dukat, disguised as a Bajoran farmer, is sent by the prophets to usher in a new era for Bajor.

That's true, but not in the way she thinks. She freaks out when her aid reveals Dukat's true identity but Dukat uses his gift of persuasion to convince her the prophets have done nothing for her or for Bajor. The Pah-Wraiths will giver her the power she desires in exchange for her allegiance.

She takes the bait but meets her fate when the two ill-fated megalomaniacs conjure up the evil spirits in the fire caves. Winn's greatest adversary, Bajor's Emissary Ben Sisko, shows up to stop the fiery ghosts from burning Bajor to a crisp. Winn is eaten by the fire and Dukat, possessed by the Pahs, is consumed by fire after he and Sisko exchange fisticuffs and go sailing off the edge of a cliff.



The Pah-Wraiths are contained in their fiery prison in the caves.


Tuesday, July 22, 2014

DS9 Returning Adversaries PT 4: The Founders and the Jem'Hadar

We are first introduced to the Jem'Hadar in the episode of the same title in season #2.  We learn they are the puppet warriors for the Founders, the tyrannical race of beings who dominate the Gamma Quadrant.

The Founders, who we later learn in season #3, are Changelings and Constable Odo's long lost relatives. They use and breed this specialized army for the purposes of intimidation, killing, and expanding the Founders stranglehold on the hapless inhabitants of the quadrant.

The Jem'Hadar are not only bred with the characteristics of loyalty to the Founders, but are kept in line with a special drug called Ketracel White. It contains addictive properties and also acts as food.


The warriors are taught that victory is life, even if it means their death. They remind me a lot of the Klingons, with a warrior mentality and a sacred call to battle in the name of honor. The Federation was at their mercy only as far as the Founders were willing to take the war.

One in a while a band of Jem'Hadar would go rogue, as they did in "Hippocratic Oath." Their  leader demanded of a captured Dr Bashir to help them discover a way to rid them of their dependence on the White. That was not successful.

The Jem'Hadar are the creation of The Founders, Changelings who exist primarily in "the great link," as one liquefied unit. They can become individual units ("solids") and did so many times during their occupation of the Gamma Quadrant.

We meet them in "The Search," and their matriarch, when solid, explained to Odo that they became conquerors after thousands of years of being tormented and hunted by solids who feared them. They decided to strike back and become the biggest threat to the solids in the Gamma Quadrant.


Their leader eventually surrenders to the Federation after they are outmaneuvered and the great link is suffering from a deadly contagion invented by Section 31. The virus made it impossible for the Changelings to change shape once they were infected. Those that remained in the great link were unable to participate in the war and their leader could not join the link due to being stuck in solid form. Upon surrender, she was cured by Odo who had within him the vaccine. He then carried it to the great link.

DS9 Returning Adversaries PT 3: Kira the Mirror and the Alternate Universe

Anyone who has read my blog knows I don't like the mirror universe episodes, primarily because they are overacted and the players are more like caricatures of the DS9 crew rather than just their evil twin(s). 

The primary annoyance is evil Kira, known in the other universe as "The Intendant" of the space station. She is a narcissist who uses violence and threats of violence against "the resistance,"  (members include O'Brien, Bashir, and Dax) commoners forced to mine Cardassian ore in labor facilities on the station. 

She also uses sex as a means to gain favor and parade her feminine wiles.  She's the ultimate manipulator with no conscience. What she lacks in remorse she makes up for in charm, laid on thick and heavy in silver body-tight threads.



DS9 Returning Adversaries PT 2: Sloan, Eddington, and Gowron

These guys aren't villains in the classic sense, but they are men driven by their own ambitions and agendas. One sees himself as the savior of the Federation, one the savior of colonists wronged by the Federation, and one striving for his own glory above that of the Empire.

Luther Sloan is a member of a secretive organization, one so secret that even the Federation can't, or won't, acknowledge. It's Section 31 and it's soldier pays DS9 a visit, seeking out traitors. In "Inquisition," he grills Dr. Bashir about his time spent in captivity by the Founders and whether or not his loyalties have turned.


But his ulterior motive was to get Bashir working for Section 31 as a spy. One of the reasons, we learn in "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges," was to develop a bio weapon to use against a Romulan candidate for the Senate. He seals his own fate in "Extreme Measures" by committing suicide when Bashir turns the tables and entraps him to reveal a cure for a plague Section 31 created to destroy the Changelings.

Michael Eddington was a security officer stationed on DS9 after it was revealed the Founders were like Odo---changelings. Eddington and Odo learned to trust each other in the beginning, but later we find Eddington was secretly working for the Maquis. In "For the Cause," intercepted replicators enroute to the Dominion are then stolen by him and Maquis sympathizers.

Sisko hunts down Eddington after a long game of cat and mouse. In "For the Uniform," Eddington, after having attacked several Cardassian colonies in an act of war, finally surrenders to Sisko and the Federation after Sisko tells him he's about to launch bio weapons torpedoes on Maquis colonists.



In "A Blaze of Glory," Eddington meets his fate when he and Sisko are forced to stop cloaked missiles enroute to Cardassia being launched by the Maquis. They end up at an outpost where Eddington dies heroically, battling an attacking troop of Jem'Hadar.

In "The Way of the Warrior," Gowron is head of the Klingon High Council and he orders crews to invade Cardassian colonies and take them over in an act of war. Before Cardassia became allies with the Dominion under the dictatorship of Gul Dukat, Gowron is suspicious that members of Starfleet headquarters and the Cardassian civilian leadership have been infiltrated and taken over by Changelings.

He gets pissed when Worf refuses to join him on his quest to invade Cardassia and strips Worf of his title and a place in the Empire. He tells Worf he will have nothing to show for turning his back on him (Gowron, not the Empire) and Worf tells him "except my honor."


Later, the Empire reluctantly rejoins the Federation when Cardassia becomes a friend to, and under the protection of, the Dominion. But that doesn't stop this Klingon egomaniac from trying to gain complete control, not just for self indulgence, but out of spite and jealousy of his rival Martok. His fate is sealed when Worf calls him on his unwise and reckless decisions that had cost Kronos several thousand men and ships in unwinnable invasions. In "Tacking to the Wind," they engage in a duel with Worf coming out the victor and Martok taking the mantle of Leader of the High Council.