‘BUSINESS AS USUAL’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Sometimes a Ferengi episode in the ‘DS9’ series can often distract from the main story arc. This is the case with ‘Business as Usual’. Whilst not terrible by any means, I wanted more Dominion plots. 😐
In the episode, Quark happens to be deeply in debt. His cousin, Josh Pais as Gaila, arrives aboard the station, offering Quark a way out of his predicament. This involves a certain amount of arms dealing.
Gaila has been mentioned by name a few times, including when he attempted to kill Quark during the events of ‘Little Green Men’. It was intriguing to see Gaila make an actual appearance in this tale.
Quark can’t conduct actual arms dealing aboard DS9 since Odo will confiscate any actual weapons brought to the station. He must use his holosuites to simulate any weapons for potential customers.
The merchandise is being supplied by Steven Berkoff as the suavely sinister Hagath. Steven Berkoff would later guest star in the ‘Doctor Who’ episode called ‘The Power of Three’, starring Matt Smith. 🙂
The transfers of cargo containing weapons are to occur off the station. Quark agrees to the deal and is looking forward to receiving the profits that will pay off his debts. At first, it goes very well for him.
But Quark gets caught by Odo who suspects him of conducting these business transactions. The Bajoran government however prevents Odo from arresting Quark in conducting these operations. 😐
This is because Hagath helped the Bajoran resistance during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. Quark is given a stern warning by Sisko just when he thinks that he’s about to get let off lightly here.
It scars his friendships with Starfleet people like Jadzia Dax, who’s disgusted that Quark has sunk so low to carry out these business transactions involving weapons. It was painful to watch those scenes.
But Quark can’t back out of his business arrangements with Hagath as his brother Gaila warns him not to cross him. This gets demonstrated when a business associate of Hagath gets killed in the tale.
Very soon, the latest client of Hagath happens to be Lawrence Tierney as the Regent of Palamar. He wants to make a huge purchase in order to kill two million followers of his opponent General Nassuc. 😮
Quark is horrified by the idea of being responsible for so much death whilst Gaila and Hagath take the matter lightly. Quark even has a nightmare of seeing his fellow DS9 crewmembers getting killed.
He manages to pay off his debts, but Quark must find a way to escape with his life and avoid being part of a genocide program. Soon, he invites General Nassuc to the station under false pretences. 😀
In doing so, he arranges Nassuc and the Regent to encounter each other in a cargo bay. A fire-fight ensues between the two leaders whilst Quark is out of the way and Gaila and Hagath are chased off.
The genocide plan is averted and the Regent is killed by Nassuc’s forces. Quark ends up in debt again when Sisko makes him pay for the damage caused by the fire fight. Ah well, it’s not very bad, is it? 😀
I also like how Quark’s friendship with Jadzia gets renewed by the end of the episode, although Jadzia was rather cheeky to Quark about taking his Tongo set from him which he gave her as a gift. 🙂
In many ways, I like how this episode depicts Quark’s dilemma in how to overcome greed of profit with the preservation of life. Many argue this story is underrated because of that. I guess that is fair.
In another subplot, O’Brien has trouble caring for his new son Kirayoshi whilst Keiko’s away. Yoshi cries incessantly unless O’Brien holds him. He has to carry Yoshik around all day, even when at work.
He even has to have him around when playing darts with Bashir in Quark’s. I’m surprised O’Brien didn’t ask Major Kira to babysit little Yoshi when he was working since she’s sort-of mothered him. 🙂
Thankfully, the baby soon settles down when Worf holds him. This allows O’Brien to get some much-needed rest. The O’Brien baby subplot is not all that necessary, but it was nice and distracting to see.
Overall, ‘Business as Usual’ isn’t what I would call a great ‘DS9’ episode in the series, but it’s decent enough. Sometime these Ferengi episodes can be hit and miss. This story was definitely a ‘miss’ one.
By the way, this episode was directed by Siddig El Fadil, better known as Alexander Siddig who plays Dr. Bashir in ‘DS9’. I don’t know why he wasn’t credited as Alexander Siddig instead with being the director.
‘Business as Usual’ (DS9) rating – 6/10
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