"I Didn't Think You Had the Lobes!" (DS9 1-11 "The Nagus")

A face only Quark's mother could love

March 21, 1993

(Synopsis on Memory Alpha)

The problem with "The Nagus" isn't anything to do with the episode itself.  Indeed, despite a few moments that aren't as compelling as they should be, mostly relating to Jake and Nog, the episode is actually put together pretty well.  As you know, I prefer the A-plot and B-plot of any given episode to compliment one another, and they do so here.  The fallout of Grand Nagus Zek's visit to the station rolls downhill and impacts Jake and Nog's friendship in the B-plot.

All well and good.

For that matter, the appearance of the Grand Nagus here makes perfect sense.  Using the lure of the wormhole and his own faked death to test his son while letting a complete nobody, Quark, wear the purple and carry the shiny stick as stalking horse is a decent plan.  Subsequent appearances of Zek make progressively less sense, but this one works.

The episode is thematically coherent as well, with it boiling down to the examination of a number of relationships, father to son, brother to brother, friend to friend.  We see that the way the Siskos treat people is a strength while the way the Ferengi characters treat each other is a weakness, and thus we are informed by the comparison of one plot to the other.  That's structurally sound writing, and I approve.

Quark gets a lesson in Ferengi power politics.

Nor are the performances really a problem in "The Nagus".  Wallace Shawn. Mr. Inconceivable himself, does a great job with the manipulative Grand Nagus Zek.  The supporting Ferengi show a decent amount of difference between one another, with one scheming, another threatening, and the last almost honest.  Quark finally pushing Rom too far and nearly paying for it with his life is a well done scene, albeit one that is unfortunate to appear right after "Move Along Home" because we get back to back episodes of Quark abjectly groveling, which doesn't do his character many favors.  Admittedly, Cirric Lofton isn't a particularly good actor yet, but for a child actor in the '90s he isn't disgraceful and he gets better over the years.  Aron Eisenberg, who plays Nog, is just a short adult.  He was actually 24 years old at the time of this filming, as opposed to Lofton who was 14 in early 1993.  Eisenberg will get better too, once the writers start to give Nog angles besides "sullen" and "mischievous".

No, the problem with "The Nagus" is what comes afterwards.  "Ferengi Episodes" are an epithet among DS9 fandom, though, as with all things, it is possible to find people who enjoy them.  Some of the most painful episodes of Deep Space Nine will be "comedy" episodes focusing on how wacky those silly Ferengi are.  The trouble is, while there is some of that here in "The Nagus" it is counter-balanced by a deadly serious assassination plot and the implication that due to the Federation's disdain for money and economics, the Ferengi more or less dominate and abuse much of the Alpha Quadrant's economy.

Utopia has its price when dealing with those who don't share your Utopian ideals

Alas, the darker implications of this story are left unexamined except by inference here in "The Nagus", and are dropped entirely in subsequent Ferengi Episodes.  We'll get into that pain more in subsequent seasons, but know that the seed for it was planted here, and nurtured by writers who took the wrong lesson from an otherwise pretty good episode.

MIA: Ferengi military power

There are, of course, a few other nitpicks we can make about "The Nagus".  Like "Dax", this episode re-writes what we know about a race introduced on The Next Generation.  Gone are the raiders and slavers equipped with fleets of ships powerful enough to challenge a Galaxy class starship.  Instead of visiting aboard a Ferengi Marauder class vessel, Grand Nagus Zek shows up in a small transport with a single servant.  Rather than a mysterious race of unknown capabilities that we saw in the first season of TNG, we get a race so well known for corrupt business practices that they want to go through the wormhole into the Gamma Quadrant mostly to outrun their own reputation!

Taken in isolation, "The Nagus" is a pretty good episode.  Had I seen this one in 1993, I might have been less turned off of DS9 as I was after "Move Along Home", but I was on spring break at the time and only saw this one later in re-runs.  Of course, I also wouldn't have realized that this was but a taste of worse things to come, but that will be for much later.

Over on Babylon 5 we find that there really isn't an equivalent counterpart to the Ferengi episode.  Rather than having a designated comic relief character, on B5 there's a tendency to make fun of everyone at some point or another.  Delenn, for instance, has her moments of glory.  She can be inspiring, intimidating, and loving.  But she also has appearances where the show makes fun of her misunderstandings of human culture, or the episode where Ivanova has to teach her hair care.  Pretty much all the characters on B5 get moments like that where they're the comic relief while someone else carries the heavy part of any given episode.  It's more challenging writing than just "this guy is the one we laugh at" but the payoff is that it gives your characters more depth.

So that's "The Nagus".  Deep Space Nine would go into re-runs until mid-April, but we'll be back here in a couple of days with "Vortex".  I'll see you then.