Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"Business as Usual"
Air date: 4/7/1997
Written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
Directed by Siddig El Fadil
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
"WORKS FOR ME." — Sisko just being his awesome self
Nutshell: Not bad. Not outstanding, but quite respectable.
"Business as Usual" is a very respectable Quark vehicle that uses Quark's values reasonably and intelligently to mold a story that has a seriousness that we usually don't get to see from stories crafted for the character. I welcomed that. As the resident Ferengi, Quark has been saddled with more "comedy" episodes than probably any other regular character in the Star Trek universe, and I think that's an unnecessary and even misguided approach. There's plenty of potential for milking relevant drama out of Ferengi greed and profit—in fact, I've found drama about these topics much more effective than comedy, because with comedy they're treated with such one-joke superficiality that the joke has long since become quite old.
In "Business as Usual," Quark loses his shirt when his last stock hopes fail. He's in trouble. He's in debt. And since he put the bar up as collateral, he stands to lose everything he owns—and drown in debt as his brokers foreclose. Quark may even be in danger of receiving broken legs if his brokers run out of patience.
Suddenly, Quark's infamous cousin Gaila shows up and offers him an opportunity: If Quark helps Gaila and Gaila's gun-running partner Hagath (Steven Berkoff) deal weapons through the station, then Quark will profit enough to pull himself out of debt, and then some—Gaila promises that Quark would make enough profit to own his own moon within a year.
To sidestep the legal technicalities, Quark and Gaila devise a rather clever holosuite program of weapon samples. Quark's line of logic is that since all he's dealing are "holograms," Odo and Sisko can't touch him since he isn't really breaking any laws.
Well, needless to say, that's not the point. Once Odo discovers what Quark is up to, he hauls him in for questioning. In a scene that sets the tone for the episode, Sisko and Kira realize that they can't press charges (the Bajorans owe Hagath a favor because he offered them weapons during the resistance)—but they aren't going to let Quark off easily. They both come down hard on him, and once Quark realizes what he's done in the face of the people of DS9, the message becomes clear. In perhaps the most perfect touch in the episode, Quark looks at Odo with a blank stare—and all Odo can do is stare back with an expression that says all without using a single word: "Now see what you've gotten yourself into, Quark?"
The rest of "Business as Usual" is a morality play of how Quark deals with the fact that he's trapped in a sinister situation while he suddenly finds that he's developed scruples. Before long, Quark realizes that he cannot simply distance himself from the fact that he's selling items that are helping people kill others—and in mass volume. "They're only used for defensive purposes!", Quark tries to rationalize on more than one occasion. He tries to draw pity from Dax, who is quite disgusted with the Ferengi's willingness to indirectly cause death for the sake of his own profit motives. It doesn't work—no one wants to talk to him, no one cares about his troubles, and no one visits his bar.
And yet the beauty of "Business as Usual" is that it puts Quark in a totally sympathetic position. Quark doesn't want to sell weapons, but he had no choice when he started—Gaila's option was the only way out of his predicament. But once Quark makes enough money to pay his creditors, he finds himself in a new bind. Hagath does not take betrayal or disappointment well, and there's a very uneasy sense that if Quark "crosses" Hagath by wanting out of the partnership, Hagath may suddenly cause a mysteriously fatal "accident" upon Quark. Such things have happened by Hagath's will before.
Steven Berkoff's rendition of the Hagath character is amusing to watch at times, and I think that he was perfectly cast in this comedic sort of villain personality. But, at the same time, Berkoff sometimes goes just a little too far over-the-top, to the point that his scenery-chewing becomes a little annoying. Berkoff's performance is very evidently stylized—he should've scaled it back just a bit. I couldn't help but constantly think of Hagath as an interstellar version of Beverly Hills Cop's Victor Maitland. (I was endlessly awaiting the line, "Goodbye, Mr. Quark.")
Still, it's very easy to see why Quark—or anyone, for that matter—could be intimidated by Hagath's always-conveyed "Don't cross me" evident behind that salesman's smile. It's when the stakes really start getting high that Quark truly realizes what he's gotten himself into and decides he has to do something to get himself out. The regent of a warring, non-Federation government (Lawrence Tierney) comes to Quark and Hagath, asking for a biological weapon that would help him achieve a death toll in the range of oh, about 28 million.
Quark's conscience knows where he needs to go, but his Ferengi greed tries to talk him into rationalizing that his peripheral involvement in this deal doesn't make him responsible.
But that's the point of "Business as Usual"—and the "episode moral" is nicely realized because it's obvious, yet not spoon-fed for the most part. (Although, Quark's dream sequence was a tad excessive and probably unnecessary) What the show understands—and Quark, as well—is that if you have involvement in something that kills 28 million people and you could've prevented it, then you helped kill 28 million people. Both Quark's conscience (something we all know he has) and the greed that tries to dissuade him from doing the right thing are within the parameters of his character. Armin Shimerman's performance is on-the-money, and some of his grim facial expressions (apparent through the prosthetics yet still subtle) show that the character is really thinking hard—particularly in one extremely serious scene where Gaila tries to convince him that 28 million "anonymous" deaths is a small price to pay considering the number of warring worlds in the quadrant bent on destroying each other. Gaila's argument strikes me as a realistic notion. No, I don't agree with it, but I can see how a weapons dealer would come to live by it being in the business for 40 years.
"Business as Usual" was written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, the team who also brought us the teleplay for "The Assignment" earlier this season. Both stories are effective in that they center around individuals who are trapped alone in difficult, high-pressure situations. Both also end with the protagonist using sleight of hand to escape, but I definitely like the cleverness written for Quark's solution here better than the standard ending supplied for O'Brien's problem. Quark's solution is a rather underhanded trick on his partners and prospective buyers. He invites the regent's enemies to the station as prospective buyers and then sets all of them up to meet unexpectedly in a cargo bay. The way Quark goes about this is fairly amusing. Of course, we all knew Quark would get out of his situation in a way that would preserve his image, dignity, life, and values—but since it was all inevitable, at least the ending was amusing in its chaos while also serious in the gravity of its implications. (Gaila and Hagath flee the station after the resulting mess and will likely not be heard from again; the regent is subsequently killed by his enemies.)
"Business as Usual" is nothing particularly audacious or original; it's mostly just decent and respectable. Woven into the plot is some standard but amiable fluff concerning Chief O'Brien's baby—lightweight, but at least an acknowledgement that the kid exists. As a Quark show it has unprecedented seriousness, which is a welcome change of pace. For the most part, everyone and everything comes off well. Not too shabby at all.
Previous episode: A Simple Investigation
Next episode: Ties of Blood and Water
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68 comments on this post
Sat, Jun 7, 2008, 8:04pm (UTC -6)
Wed, Jul 2, 2008, 2:03pm (UTC -6)
Fri, Sep 12, 2008, 4:52am (UTC -6)
Fri, Sep 19, 2008, 4:16am (UTC -6)
Mon, Jul 6, 2009, 1:53pm (UTC -6)
Fri, Feb 26, 2010, 11:55pm (UTC -6)
Mon, Mar 8, 2010, 7:55am (UTC -6)
Tue, Mar 30, 2010, 9:08pm (UTC -6)
Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 10:10am (UTC -6)
Sun, Oct 9, 2011, 11:57am (UTC -6)
Also ridiculous is the notion that the Federation suddenly cares about the financial cost (however that's calculated in a supposed post-currency economy) of repairing something (here the cargo bay) when the plot needs it. I don't recall it being mentioned when they had to reconstruct the pilon after the Iconian gate incident.
Tue, Jan 17, 2012, 3:48pm (UTC -6)
Sat, Mar 3, 2012, 5:48am (UTC -6)
Mon, Apr 2, 2012, 12:25pm (UTC -6)
@Chris, the extra in the background is wearing a Bajoran engineering uniform.
Sat, Jul 14, 2012, 9:35pm (UTC -6)
Also, as I have mentioned elswhere on these boards, considering that Star trek is the most successful television franchise in history, it really annoys me when they prattle on about how bad it is to make profit and how bad the Ferengi are in general for caring about it etc...
Gene Roddenberry was THE archtypical Ferengi history has proven...
Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 9:34am (UTC -6)
Note that the idea of using the holosuite to sell items by proxy pre-dates the advent of e-commerce. There were clearly precedents (the Sears catalog or Ron Popiel commercials) but the idea of selling merchandise without the merchandise present seemed prescient before 1999, when Amazon's Jeff Bezos was named Time's Person of the Year.
Sat, Jun 1, 2013, 8:39pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 5:56am (UTC -6)
Wed, Jul 31, 2013, 12:57am (UTC -6)
I'm pretty sure there was money on TOS, but it was in the form of credits, not cash or coins. DS9 was a little vaguer on the point, but you could argue that DS9 wasn't like most parts of the Federation.
Now, Jake's discussion with Nog in "In The Cards" sort of discusses how humans don't use money. That works for the son of a Starfleet captain who doesn't interact with the Maquis, the Cardassians, etc.
Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 6:28am (UTC -6)
I love Star Trek, but this is one of those issues that really makes me hate the underlying philosophy. Picard killing millions through inaction in I Borg is OK because it "feels nice" but Quark trying to make a buck where someone else will if he doesn't is somehow evil and wrong....Ridiculous.
Sat, Oct 26, 2013, 10:15am (UTC -6)
5/10
Sat, Dec 7, 2013, 2:53pm (UTC -6)
The only serious flaws, for me, are those that have become quite constant this season: the lack of consequence for misconduct of characters and the Federation/Starfleet looking not the Federation/Starfleet that exists in the standard Trek reality.
Not only is irritating to see, as someone recalled here, Dex playing with Quark just so fast as if he didn`t have helped killing thousands of people with the already sold weapons. It strikes me as dramatically stupid to the point of infuriating that is just that easy to Bajor (and the Federation next) to accept a guy smuggling illegal weapons in the DS9 just because he was the one who sold most of weapons for the Bajorian resistance during the occupation.
But let me put this right. Of course it is understandable that Bajor feel in debt with such smuggler and asks him not to be arrested after Odo finds out the illegal weapons dealing. It is credible. But really giving a free pass for the guy to keep negotiating the illegal weapons indefinitely in DS9? Common! So with they had kept with small business, not finding a 28million-death deal, would DS9 have become a well-known spot for illegal weapons?
This is ridiculous. And Federation accepting in easily and pacificly as with Bajor had just asked to paint the station wall with a different color, is preposterous.
Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 5:18pm (UTC -6)
Some prescient ideas in 1997 about "virtual/online" commerce as well...
Sun, Feb 16, 2014, 11:34pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Feb 27, 2014, 11:51pm (UTC -6)
I could not have said it better myself. It's not a bad idea to do a Ferengi comedy episode per se. The problem is the over-blown silliness that happens one too many times. "Look at me - I'm a bumbling Ferengi getting into crazy antics and acting like a clown! Aren't I zany?" Har har. Snooze. No thanks. Unfortunately, this seems to be the downhill portrayal they'll have the last few seasons.
Fortunately though, this episode is most definitely not one of them. The review hit the nail on the head with this, too. However I didn't find the character of Hagrath over the top. I always saw him as that's who he is and is that way for a reason. If that makes sense.
Jadzia being seemingly too forgiving, according to some above comments, didn't occur to me as something that stood out as an issue. Quark did quit that position and did potentially, by proxy, save 28 million lives and risked his own doing so.
As for selling the weapons in the first place, well, he wasn't. He was an intermediary between the customer and the assistant to the weapons salesman. Quark's conscience got the best of him as he realized he didn't even want to be a part of it whatsoever no matter the degree of involvement. Plus Quark is known to have been a very despicable person during the Occupation. Quark has taken strides to better himself since. It makes sense that Jadzia would be that much more willing to forgive, not only to show good faith, but also to show Quark that good things come from not doing bad things. Plus it almost seemed Jadzia's cold shoulder was more along the lines of pretense rather than actuality. She was "going" to hate him if he didn't quit. Yah she was pissed, rightly so, but I didn't see it as friendship over.
Admittedly the ending was a little TOO happy but it wasn't glaring. The B-plot was more pleasant filler albeit pleasant filler I rather enjoyed. Worf holding baby = my huge grin.
I'm a softy. (:
High end of 3 stars.
Wed, Jun 25, 2014, 10:44pm (UTC -6)
That's the real failure of the Ferengi in DS9. Basically every real world issue they faced was overly simplistic and unintelligently stated.
Thu, Aug 7, 2014, 8:34am (UTC -6)
As soon as he had a choice in the matter (i.e. his debts were paid off), Quark got out of the business. Let that sink in for a moment. A Ferengi turning down perfectly legal and easy profits, and putting himself at personal risk to do so? On moral grounds? Either Quark has never had the stomach to be the kind of ruthless profiteer his people celebrate, or the Occupation years left a really bad taste in his mouth. However indirectly, on Terok Nor he was an accessory to one world attempting to wipe out another, and he did not want to be in that position again. Because of that, I like him more than I did before I saw the episode.
Thu, Aug 14, 2014, 11:16am (UTC -6)
In Quark’s defense, the questioned changed. "I need a bio-whatever weapon to kill 20+ or so million people" is different that "I want 2000 of these". Quark was right, the latter is considered for defense of something. The 1st was just genocide.
I thought this episode was a pretty good one aside from the ending. So I can't go 3.5 or above.
3 stars for me.
Sun, Nov 9, 2014, 11:40pm (UTC -6)
I don't buy the "kill people by inaction" thing. You can only kill someone actively, not passively. If an event unfolds while you watch and that event would proceed the same way if you had been absent from the scene, you aren't responsible for that event.
Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 12:32am (UTC -6)
Well, Edmund Burke would disagree with you, but he was an asshole, so, yeah, I can go along with that.
Sun, May 3, 2015, 10:15pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 1:07am (UTC -6)
The same goes for Sisko, who just a bit ago used two quantum torpedoes to scatter trilithium resin into the atmosphere of Solosos 3 making the planet uninhabitable for fifty years (For the Uniform). Time wasn't even spared to tell us how many casualties that decision caused; neither was time given to let someone berate Sisko for this immoral decision to put lives at risk, and all this so that he could fulfill his personal vendetta he took on while violating Starfleet orders.
The same goes for Jadzia. Has everyone forgotten the innocent hired men and women she killed in Blood Oath (season 2)? How can she really go about killing in cold blood with her own two hands, and then turn around and give the cold shoulder to Quark for simply selling weapons?
Not to mention the deaths caused by simply serving the wishes of Starfleet. I don't see anyone thumbing their nose at O'Brien for the countless Cardassians he personally killed during the war (Tribunal, season 2). It would seem that when people die, the killers aren't responsible but the people they bought their weapons from are. What kind of insanity is this?
Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 6:47am (UTC -6)
An enlisted man killing someone in war is the same as selling weapons to a despot? Really?
By that logic a US WW2 soldier is more what, evil(?), than an arms dealer supplying the Nazis (and being aware of the monster Hitler is). Hell no on that, O'Brien gets a pass.
Likewise... if Hitler's armed guards were mercenaries you'd be morally terrible to kill them? Jadzia went after a man that murdered children in cold blood. One might debate if revenge killing is moral, but if it were this guy deserves it. You're closer to the mark here than the CHASM away you were in the O'Brien comment, but still pretty far off the mark.
The episode with Sisko and the trilithium resin doesn't mention deaths because there weren't any. Plenty of poisons have been shown to be fixable in Trek unless you reach a specific level and length of exposure. They evacuated and switched planets with the Cardassians. Period. The episode does not support your theory any more than it does mine and yours is horrible so why have that be your head canon unless you're disturbed? It's still a morally questionable decision, but nothing on the level of selling weapons to a genocidal maniac.
Now Kira... see now THAT would have been interesting to explore a bit. She may see him as evil and dealing with him as a necessary evil, but it would have been a cool B plot to have her face up to some of the darker people she had to deal with in the occupation.
Still though... in the vein of... does Hagath become as evil as the Regent by selling him weapons? Does Quark become as evil as Hagath by letting him use the holodeck? Were the scientists that made the atomic bomb guilty at Hiroshima? Does selling weapons to an evil man make you evil? Could a story about Kira have fit into that? Maybe it could.
Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 7:15am (UTC -6)
So I think perhaps the answer was that this would have been a rehash for Kira, and a less interesting one.
Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 5:46pm (UTC -6)
"As for selling the weapons in the first place, well, he wasn't. He was an intermediary between the customer and the assistant to the weapons salesman."
You both are falling for Quark's defense he tried to give to Odo. You seem to forget that Quark's position on a legitimate Federation station literally made sales possible for Haggath that weren't possible before due to regulations in other areas. It's quite possible none of the sales Quark made would have been made at all without his help dodging the authorities. That's what makes Quark culpable. It doesn't matter if he was an intermediary, he literally made more weapons sales possible which logically led to the deaths of more people possible.
Tue, Jan 12, 2016, 4:39pm (UTC -6)
Other commenters have referred to the hypocrisy here, as Star Trek characters (not just DS9 characters) have consistently needed force to save lives and maintain peace.
That said, even acknowledging the hypocrisy, Starfleet would never approve of a group under their jurisdiction selling truly powerful military weapons to outsiders without their approval. They would want to decide which outside group gets weapons and which doesn't.
An episode that was truly interested in an honest discussion of weapons-dealing would have had the group selling to people we have some sympathies for, one the Federation itself refused to arm. The characters could then take different sides even as Starfleet is asking Sisko to shut down Quark's group. You could have sensibly had Dax against Quark while Worf & Kira supported him (an inversion of the usual order).
Towards the end of the episode, the question of whether it is right to sell arms isn't really an issue any more. The dictator at the end isn't looking to win a conflict or prevent a conflict. He simply wants to kill people to make a point. Few people would see that as acceptable, but it's not the same thing as, say, selling weapons to the Bajoran resistance.
That said, I don't think this is a bad episode. You can overlook the failed moral "lesson" and still appreciate Quark's dilemma. The fact that Starfleet would oppose him is sensible, as is the fact that people who work outside the law (like Quark's associates), sometimes end up going way-outside the law. It was good to see the Dax/Quark relationship brought up, as it's been mostly ignored since Worf joined the show. The B plot isn't really funny, but isn't really awful.
Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 5:53am (UTC -6)
Sun, Jan 24, 2016, 8:10am (UTC -6)
The B-story is some fun fluff. "Perhaps he's become prematurely aware of life's existential isolation" indeed. 2.5 stars.
Mon, Jan 25, 2016, 2:32pm (UTC -6)
I agree with commenters above that the episode might have benefited more strongly from letting the question or whether or not weapons sales were actually immoral be a bit more ambiguous—that Hagath sold weapons to the Bajorans during the Occupation is a really nice touch, and one which the episode could have expanded on more—but I think that part of what makes this work is that selling weapons is, ultimately, not just morally but somewhat personally offensive to Quark’s code and values. Quark traffics in *pleasure*: he makes money by letting people eat and drink, have sex and other forms of recreation on the holosuite, and have the thrill of trying themselves to strike it rich at his casino games. He is very selfish, but does operate on a sort of Golden (Gold-Pressed-Latinum?) Rule, looking to benefit and be happy and acquire and get various pleasures and taking some sort of joy in making money by selling the same to others. When he was willing to bend his usual rules and sell weapons to Sakonna in “The Maquis,” he fairly quickly started explaining to her why she could take advantage of the opportunity to make peace. He is, as he and Gaila discuss, a people person, and he prefers dealing with people who want to eat and drink and be happy and get laid rather than people who get excited by the prospect of mass killing.
Quark feeling the chill from the others on the station, especially Dax, is pretty affecting. I agree that there is a level of hypocrisy to their extreme reaction to what he is doing when, after all, Hagath sold weapons to the Bajorans; the point, I think, is that they do not believe that Quark is selling weapons based on any kind of moral appraisal of how those weapons will be used, which for a time is pretty accurate. But anyway the real change is when he meets the Regent, by which time he is already in too deep to get out easily. The Regent really is just a psycho killer, without any of the rationalizations (some of which may even be accurate) that Quark can use about his business. Gaila gives the Harry Lime speech to Quark pretty effectively, when he talks about whether anyone would mind if one of those stars blinked out of existence. But that’s not Quark, who can’t himself let one of those lights blink out.
Part of what I like about the solution is that it plays on Quark’s limited abilities. Basically all the power Quark has is to negotiate and to use his people-person skills to manipulate people into going different places and to appraise how they will deal with that situation. It is actually a pretty morally dark thing for Quark to do, to put the Regent and his enemy in the room where they will probably kill each other, even if he protests that he did not expect that to happen. But it’s also about the only option open to him where he survives, and, importantly, the only option where the weapons don’t get sold. Let the crazy people kill each other and hope that the people who replace them in the chain of command are slightly less crazy. The episode’s decision to show Quark’s perspective on what happens, while Quark waits and watches security arrive, is pretty cool; Quark played a very dangerous game here, and did not even get the comfort of seeing it happen and play out. Unlike in “The House of Quark” (or “The Magnificent Ferengi”), there is not even the comic sense of satisfaction at heroism; Quark misses the action entirely, which makes Quark’s big risk play out without quite the heroic fanfare. It gives Quark’s pretty genuinely heroic action—he basically risked that he would be killed should the Gaila or Hagath or the Regent or the Regent’s enemy find out what he was doing ahead of time, let alone that he might go to jail if it went badly, for the sake of lives he did not know himself—a kind of humility, that Quark still basically has to hide and hope for the best. I think the somewhat unusual ending helps me deal with the fact that the episode still basically has Quark working for a psychopath helping other psychopaths kill people just until his own debts are wiped out; Quark ends with a self-sacrificial action, and one that earns him back a bit of what he lost socially in the meantime, but he does not get to play the traditional hero at the end by any means. It’s somehow just the right key for me.
I thought that Gaila was pretty effective, and Hagath was a weird, brazen joy. Laurence Tierny’s presence as the Regent was great as well. I have little to say about the subplot, but it was cute and I appreciate the chance to see a bit of everyday life for O’Brien and for Kirayoshi. I don’t think the episode quite achieves greatness, because the morality of weapons-selling is oversimplified and because, while I like the ending, in some senses Quark does get off too easy (his debt being wiped out before he has to parachute out). A solid 3 stars overall.
Tue, Mar 29, 2016, 12:03am (UTC -6)
I respectfully disagree with your suggestion that the dream sequence wasn't necessary to the story. I believe it was the most relevant scene in the show, notwithstanding the fact that it was somewhat melodramatic. Quark's whole position prior to that had been the anonymity of what he was doing, and although he was unequipped to perpetuate that cognitive dissonance in the face of 28 million casualties, his thinking had been quite in line with Gaila's. Just lights in the sky; just numbers on a page. The idea of the episode was that the anonymous deaths had to become real to Quark, and the dream sequence where he imagined those casualties as being people he cared about (even the Chief's baby) is the process by which he made the anonymous real to himself. It's hard to care about miscellaneous death or calamities we know nothing of; that's the story of our times. It's easy to care about people close to us - heck, even dictators can do that. The trick is to care about people we don't know just as much, and that requires an act of imagination. I don't think it was perfectly wrought, but that dream sequence IS that act of imagination, and without it Gaila would have been right about those irrelevant far off dots in the sky. Why risk your own life for others unless you can feel their worth as being personal to you? This is, perhaps, one of the central themes of the series, and although we take it for granted that Sisko is always heroic, it's nice to see the steps it takes to get to somewhere near being a Sisko or a Picard.
Tue, May 17, 2016, 4:39am (UTC -6)
As I'm sure you all have no doubt deduced by now, I like Quark. He's a great character who, sadly, is often used by writers who don't care for him and/or want to use him and his race as instruments for their anti-capitalist nonsense. I'm so glad this episode wasn't written by Wolfe and Behr but was instead given to writers who apparently don't have that ingrained bias against Quark.
GAILA: "Do you think if one of those twinkling little lights suddenly went out, anybody would notice? Suppose I offered you ten million bars of gold pressed latinum to help turn out one of those lights. Would you really tell me to keep my money?" Yes, he would. Because, deep down, Quark is a decent person. Sure, he might not live up to vaunted morals of the Federation but that doesn't mean there aren't crystal clear lines he absolutely will not cross. And that is what makes Quark an awesome character. This is a guy who, during the Occupations, offered Bajorans a chance to escape the grueling work of orc processing by working in his bar, who sold food to them at just-above cost prices (a truly humanitarian gesture for a Ferengi) and who has always stepped up to do the right thing - even without the Federation "showing him the light." Thank God we finally got an episode that treats him with the respect he deserves.
If there is a flaw to "Business as Usual" it's the reaction our Starfleet/Federation heroes have to Quark's actions. Having everyone from the Federation completely shun him was unnecessary to start with - the dream sequence would have worked just fine on it's own to show his moral hang-ups. But it really makes the other characters look like hypocrites as well. Having Dax and Sisko of all people come down on Quark like a ton of bricks is particularly galling. Dax as the moral center of the story? I guess I'll just ignore the fact that she once went off on a cold-blooded murderfest in "Blood Oath", without any repercussions I might add. Sisko coming down hard on Quark for selling weapons? I guess I'll just ignore the fact that he, not too long ago, deliberately poisoned a planet to satisfy a personal vendetta. "To be well armed is a deterrent to war; don't you know anything about the balance of power?" Quark pleads. To which Dax responds, "Quark, you don't really believe any of that, do you? " Well then, Jadzia, I look forward to you disarming all of the station's personal weapons lockers that are jammed packed with fully charged phasers (you know, the ones you people even keep in the cargo bays!), as well as getting rid of those 5,000 photon torpedoes and massive phaser banks you use to fight off any aggressive ships, not to mention scrapping that heavily armed gunboat (which was deliberately designed to be little more than a flying weapon) you folks like to keep moored at the station at all times! These people sure don't have a problem with being armed to the teeth in order to prevent war, do they? Like I said - hypocrites. With a little rewriting, this could have been easily solved.
8/10
Wed, Nov 2, 2016, 8:23am (UTC -6)
The acting by the guest stars was atrocious -- like an episode from Speed Racer.
In this episode security immediately knew when phasers were fired on the cargo bay, but in the last episode nobody knew when somebody was killed with a phaser.
As to the O'Brien story: Seriously? Do none of the writers have children? Have they never heard of slings? Or babysitters?
Tue, Nov 22, 2016, 3:00pm (UTC -6)
I don't think the Star Fleet people were hypocritical. Sure, you can make a case for arms dealers not being necessarily evil, but its pretty obvious these guys aren't the types to give them a good name from the beginning. I mean, Gaila tried to murder Quark in an earlier episode, and the point of them using Quarks holosuite is to get round the law - including for "speciality items".
Mon, Dec 5, 2016, 7:52am (UTC -6)
Selling weapons for war is much more morally ambiguous than selling a virus that will be used to kill 28 million men, women and children.
An arms dealer could at least rationalize that his conventional weapons will be used mainly in combat as opposed to against civilians. He might even convince himself that if he helps balance out the military power between the 2 sides, a peace agreement might come more quickly.
Also, weapons are used for legitimate defense about as often as for aggression and can also be used to fight genocidal tyrants, as in the case of the Bajorans.
Genocide, on the other hand, is unambiguously and horribly evil.
Quark was willing to lay down his own life to save the lives of 28 million strangers, so I don't think he got off that easy.
As for the cost of the cargo bay, I think that was just Sisko's way of getting a pound of flesh from Quark for selling arms on DS9 in the first place. It seemed reasonable to me.
Mon, Dec 5, 2016, 11:02pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Jan 31, 2017, 5:00pm (UTC -6)
Sat, May 13, 2017, 11:21pm (UTC -6)
Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 2:45pm (UTC -6)
Which made the poker scenes, particularly the betting, kind of silly. Why not bet the moon in every hand? The only concern seems to be running out of chips, but not running out of money.
Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 7:36pm (UTC -6)
The dude wanting to kill 28 million people -- this is again over the top to hammer home a point. What if it was just 300 people -- would Quark's scruples still pop up? Obviously killing 28 million is out of the question...
As for the B-plot of O'Brien's baby crying -- what was the point of this? That Worf should be babysitting? "Business As Usual" is one of those episodes with a completely unrelated B-plot that is mildly humorous -- didn't do anything for me.
I also guess it's clear that Dax is Quark's "best friend" on DS9. Where was Rom in this episode? Or is he too 1-dimensionally stupid to have anything to offer? One thing I found hilarious was seeing Morn passed out drunk during one scene...
2 stars for this episode -- maybe a slightly clever ending to get Quark out of his pickle, but also highly fortunate that he could pull it off. He had little to no margin for error. Anyhow, we've always known Quark's not "evil" deep down inside -- just that he's a Ferengi.
Sat, Dec 23, 2017, 7:36pm (UTC -6)
I didn’t much care for this episode—the idea of weapons sales, everyone giving Wiark the cold shoulder, the resolution with Quark having everyone turn on each other. Meh
Fri, Feb 9, 2018, 12:03am (UTC -6)
Another note, this is the second episode where Trek bemoans someone selling weapons 'to both sides'. The other is the Arsenal of Freedom from TNG.
This is something that has actually happened, with the US selling weapons to both sides in the Bosnian war - although not at the same time and not in the same amounts. This is supposed to have exacerbated the war, but it's hard to tell for sure.
Contrast with the US giving aid to both Israel and some of its enemies. The aid isn't always weapons, but the any aid does free up money for weapons. It's hard to tell if this has made the states more or less belligerent, again.
This is a complex political issue with no clear answer, and I'm discouraged that the writers didn't take it up in a show that's supposed to show off shades of grey.
Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 12:25pm (UTC -6)
3 stars.
Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 2:16pm (UTC -6)
Very lukewarm episode.
Really this should have ruined Quark as a character for the show for good and it wasn’t that great an episode anyway
Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 12:10am (UTC -6)
Quark has bad dreams due to a guilty conscience, but at the end, he and Yoshi are both sleeping like babies. Except one baby is a whole lot cuter.
Very average.
Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 7:29pm (UTC -6)
Wed, Jul 24, 2019, 2:48pm (UTC -6)
I enjoyed the episode, a genuine sense of threat and pressure to Quark this time out, more from the "complicit in genocide" angle than personal death. Good nonetheless.
Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 6:00pm (UTC -6)
Kira was happy with illegal gun smugglers when they were doing it for her but now that she does not need them anymore she thinks that what quark is doing is the most horrible thing and even threatens him with personal violence if he should break the smallest of station laws. It would be easy to drive the point home from every angle but here is what it comes down to. Star trek is hypocritical about the values they preach.
They tell us over and over that war is bad, chasing monetary profit is bad, and preach a host of other 'good' sounding platitudes. And are hypocritical about each and every one - with the exception that women are always, and i mean always, strong, funny and smart and are always, and i mean always, the sexual aggressor in pursuing a relationship. But that is a matter for a future discussion.
Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 10:43am (UTC -6)
Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 6:30pm (UTC -6)
As such things go, it's one of the better ones, even if it does once again reduce them to little more than caricatured capitalists. But as ever, it highlights just how odd Quark's position on DS9 is.
He runs a bar with a built in casino and a holosuite where people can play out sexual fantasies. His staff are mostly female and (as per one of the early episodes, where said staff were contractually obliged to service him) Quark uses his position of power to domineer over them. He's also heavily involved in smuggling drugs and other contraband, has acted as an intermediary for mercenaries (which led to Jadzia nearly dying when one such group used him to take over DS9), and done many other illegal things besides, all of which the crew of DS9 are aware of.
In short, he's dabbled with pretty much every illegal or immoral activity going in his quest for profits, and has only avoided reaping the consequences of this thanks to the largess of the DS9 writers, excepting when they want to have a comedy moment or throw him into a situation with Odo.
And now, we're meant to buy into the idea that selling weapons is a step too far? Above and beyond drugs, gambling, prostitution and sexual abuse of his staff?
Better yet, we're meant to accept that things - and his relationships with everyone else on DS9 - go back to normal, pretty much the minute he walks away from selling said weapons?
There's a lot of things which don't really stand up to inspection in DS9, not least thanks to the way that the majority of episodes had to have a zero-sum ending to make it easier to sell the series for syndication. And for me, for all that his character definitely evolved over the seven seasons, Quark's entire existence on DS9 was one of the shakiest elements of the show.
So yeah. Not a great episode...
Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 12:59am (UTC -6)
I haven't seen this one in at least 10 years, but I distinctly remember being impressed by the concept and execution of this episode.
A Ferengi developing a conscience is a pretty good concept (as far as Ferengi concepts go).
Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 5:59am (UTC -6)
As an episode it was generally fine, but I've never been that impressed with how one-dimensional Star Trek aliens tend to be, and the Ferengi generally were painted in a far more simplistic way than even the Klingons or Bajorans.
Then too, we already know that Quark has historically always had some form of conscience or empathy - after all, he did sell supplies to the rebellion at cost (or only slightly above it).
For me, it's more of a general question. Why do the other characters still interact with him, despite the fact that he's proven time and again that he'll (nearly) always put profit above friendships, relationships, family and even the safety of the entire space station?
And then there's an even wider question. At what point does an unethical action become unacceptable? Quark was quite happy selling guns until the potential death figures started to reach six figures. So is it ok to sell a gun which will only kill one person? How about ten? A thousand?
Admittedly, Star Trek has always taken a wild-west/space opera approach to killing, with the main characters routinely building up (disintegrated) body counts in situations which would give a US marine PTSD for decades.
Though equally, there's also the age old debate about how far your responsibility goes when it comes to selling weapons (or drugs, or sex or anything else which can cause death, negative impacts or infringe on the rights of the people involved).
I dunno. It's just an odd and jarring setup. And when compared to contemporary shows like Babylon 5, it's definitely an overly simplistic one.
Thu, Jul 2, 2020, 10:44am (UTC -6)
Sun, Nov 8, 2020, 8:51am (UTC -6)
Less murky and less interesting than TOS' "A Private Little War", and less morally forceful than TNG's "Arsenal of Freedom", DS9's take on the arm's trade plays out in slow and obvious ways. In typically literal DS9 fashion, the episode's A plot, in which weapons of death are coarsely traded, are "ironically counterpointed" against a B plot in which Federation officers try to delicately rock a baby to sleep.
Like most episodes in season 5, "Business as Usual" seems at odds with the events described in "By Inferno's Light". The Dominion have entered the Alpha Quadrant, the Cardassian Empire is rejuvenated, and yet it will be ten episodes of mundane standalones before the Federation gets its act together and mines the wormhole.
Sun, Nov 8, 2020, 9:39am (UTC -6)
Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 1:04pm (UTC -6)
Exploring Quark's conscience made for good character development but this episode didn't have much substance. Still, it's probably one of the best of DS9's Ferengi focused episodes. Overall an average episode - 4/10.
Mon, Oct 11, 2021, 1:59am (UTC -6)
I wasn't always convinced about Quarks character. Obviously Armin is fantastic, but there was a danger of him falling into the same trap that befell many of Voyagers characters. Meaning that they go through the same conflict over and over and always forget the lesson at the end by next episode.
To me, this episode avoids that trap gracefully. Yes, Quark has gone through a crisis of faith before, but while he hasn't turned into a saint, you can still see differences in how he's portrayed. He's a little more hesitant, he's more concerned about what his friends think, and he's a bit more quick to realize he can't go through with it.
It feels like the payoff in body parts wasn't ignored. Season 1 Quark wouldn't give a hoot about his friends, and he probably wouldn't worry nearly as much about the deaths. It feels like the answer to Gaila's question "would you really tell me to keep my money" DID change over the years. That's a resounding success for his character arc.
He didn't change as drastically as he could've, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Mon, Apr 4, 2022, 7:16pm (UTC -6)
Steven Berkoff nails it with a very large ham Haggath.
But this falls apart quick.
Kira demanding Odo not interfere with weapons transactions of arms traders is quite powerful and correct. I mean, wow, personally I was astonished with that scene.
That's very powerful and I fully believe The Sisko's outrage and what he would threaten, but I can't believe Kira would acquiesce so easily.
This story required being meaty but tried to play it off as a sitcom episode, with the crying baby Yoshi as a "funny" B plot. Sheesh, at the end, Sisko and Quark are practically joking about the firefight Quark orchestrated.
Sun, Sep 11, 2022, 3:02pm (UTC -6)
The B-story with the kid was cute at times but mostly boring to the point of being annoying; a bit like a pesky fly you swat away but keeps coming back.
I was gutted to see Quark not turn a profit though. That guy just can't catch a break...
Someone mentioned up there that, for someone supposedly oh-so anti-"greed" and anti-capitalism, Gene Roddenberry and the Star Trek franchise sure flipped a dollar or two. Well, what else is new! Show me one "socialist" who practices what he/she preaches and I'll show you a flying unicorn. Everyone from Fauxcahontas who charges a half a million dollars to "teach" a 20-credit hour college course, to Bernie who has, what by now, *three* mansions, to B.Lies.M. scammers who raid the donations from gullible morons to go on spending sprees... - they all rail against consumerism and wealth acquisition while enthusiastically availing themselves of everything the free-market economy has to offer, including free speech. It's okay, I don't begrudge them taking advantage of suckers (one is born every minute, right!) and feathering their nests; I'm just bemused and amused in equal measure that anyone still takes them seriously.
Three stars, yup.
Sun, Jan 1, 2023, 10:41am (UTC -6)
In the early seasons the Fenergi were more greedy and unscrupulous which made them fun. Rom in season 1 tried to kill his brother by blowing him out of an airlock...but by the end, he's working for Sisko and drinking Root Beer. If you look at characters like Homer Simpson or Bender from Futurama, they are appealing despite being flawed, because they don't have that internal filter...they just say/do what is on their mind which makes them compelling. Self-conscious characters on the flip side are no fun...and it was sad to see how Ira ruined the Ferengi.
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