#047 - Lookin’ for orbs in all the wrong places
I realize the actual Quark-centric episodes we got out of Deep Space Nine weren’t really a good selling point for this notion, but I’d have loved to see an actual show built out around Quark’s bar. Armin Shimerman is amaaaaazing, the character has a ton of promise, and a series about an ostensibly ruthless, morally-conflicted businessman-slash-criminal trying to keep his head above water and his eyes on the prize in a nasty corner of space would just kill me, especially if you give his supporting cast some more depth and oomph that we usually got from e.g. Rom and Leeta.
On the flip side fo that, someone’s made a billion jokes about Quark’s-as-Cheers already, right? At least the crowd shouting “Morn!” and Rom saying “how’s the world treatin’ yeah, Mister Mornerson?” Right? Part of me wants to go one at length here but I’m pretty sure I’m late to this party.
In any case, Picard’s opera selection here is a joke, obviously, since from personal experience I can vouch that the only music you put on a game is (a) Holst’s “The Planets”, (b) the pre-Jackson Lord of the Rings work of Ralph Bakshi, or (c) Rammstein
tk
Noting that "I said Grand NAGUS" was intended as an Uma Thurman reference in Pulp Fiction. This doesn't matter at all, it's just a fact about that line as it lived in my head and still does to this day. Please imagine that specific inflection.
Comments noted that Morn was, in fact, intentionally named as a riff of Norm, which in retrospect seemed pretty obvious.
I continue to like the idea of a Quark-flavored underbelly show in my mind; in practice I am more skeptical of whether someone could make it both work and be Trek-spirited enough to not feel like a weird mistake. Maybe if you orient it well enough around your Quark stand-in being, not a good guy per se, but at least the least bad guy in the vicinity, some undeniable heart-of-latinum moral core under all the wheeling and dealing.
But this could just as well be a Mass Effect show set on the Citadel and centering around one or another bar down in the sketchy parts of the station. Without Armin/Quark specifically, it feels like Star Trek doesn't even need to be part of the picture. Just gimme some Space Columbo maybe.