Weekend Trek “Looking For Par’Mach In All The Wrong Places”

Actor Andrew J Robinson, who plays Garek on the show, directed this episode.  As near as I can make it, it’s his first at least for this series.  However, Garek doesn’t really appear in this one, so make of that what you will.

Beyond that, this must have been a Valentine’s Day episode given all the love going around.

However, let’s get the B-plot out of the way first since it’s kinda silly:  Kira and O’Brien are finding themselves somewhat attracted to each other as she lives with the O’Briens while carrying their child.  Keiko doesn’t notice.  Odo does, and he seems rather cruel about the whole thing.  It’s resolved when Kira opts to take a trip to one of Bajor’s more beautiful spots and goes alone despite Keiko’s insistence that Miles go with her.  It’s an inconsequential plot in what is arguably an inconsequential episode all told, but I liked the main plot a hell of a lot more than anything going on with this one.

No, the main plot has Worf playing Cyrano for Quark when Quark’s ex-wife Grilka comes back to the station.  Oh sure, Dax helps too, but the Dax moment I may have liked best, when she wasn’t dropping blatant hints to Worf that she was smitten with him that he didn’t pick up on until the episode’s end when she had to stop being even remotely subtle, was when she said that Worf sure is deeply invested in Klingon culture despite being raised by humans and a member of Starfleet.  I’ve said that many times to Jimmy in our Next Generation chats, and to have a series more or less cop to it so directly was validating.

But Worf, see, he’s taken with Grilka himself, to the point where he tries acting in Quark’s like a more “standard” Klingon to get her attention.  He does, sort of, but one of her advisors takes him aside and, rather kindly all told, tells Worf he shouldn’t.  Worf is still without his honor, and Grilka can’t afford to be with a Klingon like that.  I mean, this guy was really the nicest Klingon I’ve ever seen.  He doesn’t shout.  He just explains the situation in a reasonable manner that even Worf can’t disagree with.

Quark, on the other hand, would like to get back with the wife while he’s doing her a favor and looking over her books.  That means asking Dax for help with Klingon mating rituals (Klingons, Quark asserts, have rituals for everything).  Dax offers some good beginner’s advice, but Worf’s nearby, and he offers some much better advice.  He even later offers Quark some bat’leth lessons.

Then Grilka’s other sidekick, this one played by Phil Morris, challenges Quark to a duel.  And no, the same trick Quark used the last time a Klingon challenged him like that won’t work.  Instead, Worf outfits Quark with a device that allows him to control Quark’s movements in the duel from a remote location.  That sure does seem like a Klingon version of the Cyrano story, though how Worf sees what’s going on well enough to keep Quark alive I don’t get.  I do get that Quark is smart enough that when the device is temporarily on the fritz that he can BS his way to a delay using Ferengi customs, and since he’d been honoring Klingon customs all along, that does earn him the right to use his own.

Grilka is tough, but fair.

So is Worf.  Phil Morris actually gets to live.  He’ll just need a new job.

By then, Worf has learned Dax is smitten with him, so Bashir has Worf, Dax, and Quark in the infirmary the next morning with a clear message of not wanting to know what happened.  I can’t say that I blame him.