![]() As it turns out, Morn left everything to Quark, who is only too happy to cash in. He’s a scoundrel, and the story is a classic scoundrel story with a simple core premise that gets continually twisted with each new plot development. The episode is about the lingering presence of the departed Morn, and there’s something clever about it starting off with a holographic ghost of him.Īny episode about Quark is ultimately about his unscrupulous greedy nature. And visually having Morn in the bar helps establish a connection to his character, a glorified background extra. It establishes the importance of Morn to Quark – not as an actual person or friend, but as a source of income and a vital piece of his brand. It’s a very funny scene (that turns darkly amusing), but also some clever plotting that helps set up the story. □ There’s something strange, on the Promenade / Who you gonna call? Mornbusters! □ Dax and Sisko enter to deliver the news that Morn’s ship was destroyed in an ion storm, and Jadzia jumps at the sight of what is suddenly a very ghoulish display (Sisko immediately tells Quark to shut the hologram off). In a bit of meta dialogue, Quark explains that the sight of Morn is so integral to the atmosphere of his bar that sales actually drop when Morn is away on vacation, as he is at the start of this episode. For example, at the beginning of the episode Odo comes into Quark’s to needle Morn about a shipment of very ripe beets he’s neglected in one of the cargo bays, only to discover that Quark has replaced the lunk with a hologram. The episode is rife with all sorts of clever script and visual gags, and every single one of them lands perfectly. It demonstrates the irreverent charm that Deep Space Nine cultivated (I love that the episode title is a play on a classic Original Series episode’s) and remains consistently fun throughout.Ĭleverly, the episode is able to be about Morn without him largely in it because it takes place in the wake of his supposed death. Star Trek‘s attempts at joviality aren’t always successful (especially when they’re stretched out to episode-length), but this is a legitimately funny and successful hour of tightly-plotted situational comedy. Its concept could only work on this show, and it relies on a large body of work and plot threads that the show has built up during its run. It’s not the best Deep Space Nine episode, but I would say it’s a perfect Deep Space Nine episode. It really ends up being a Quark episode, and one that utilizes his personality and foibles to highly entertaining (and minimally problematic) ends. “Do you mind? I’m pretending to give a shit about whats-his-name.”Ĭentering an entire episode around Morn without betraying that sole gimmick presents a monumental creative challenge that “Who Mourns For Morn?” rises to with perfection. With these kinds of gags, a little goes a long way, and trying to inflate that to episode length is a risky prospect. It sounds dumb as hell for a show as weighty and intellectual as Star Trek, but it always works, somehow. ![]() There’s something delightfully sitcom-y about this approach Morn’s voice becomes as elusive and gimmicky as Wilson’s face from Home Improvement. The conceit that he never speaks on camera is constantly contradicted by other characters mentioning how much he talks, as well as several other wacky references and details (in this episode we learn that he sparred weekly with Worf). A constant presence in Quark’s Bar, the character’s name was an anagram of the barfly Norm from Cheers, so he’s pretty much been a joke from the start. The most visible of these running joke characters is of course, Morn. Vilix’pran were often used for background flavor or comedic effect in passing. Frequent references to the transparent-headed Captain Boday, Quark’s moon-owning cousin Gala, and the exotic biology of winged, hatching Lt. But the show also used the same over-arching approach to running jokes and gags for memorable effect. The dramatic and serious narratives are the ones fans tend to remember the most – the Dominion War, Sisko’s Emissary journey, the rise of Damar, etc. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 6, Episode 12)ĭeep Space Nine pushed Star Trek’s storytelling envelope with its more serialized style and emphasis on long-running plot lines.
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