Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 80: Little Green Men [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Of all the aliens in the Star Trek universe, the Ferengi are by far the most controversial. Originally designed to be a replacement for far more threatening enemies that Federation (stupidly) made peace with, the little, troll-like aliens with excessively large lobes quickly devolved into comic foils -- weirdly racist foils who coveted latinum and kept their women naked and premasticating. Did I mention that the original Ferengi also hopped about like gerbils on speed?

Then came Quark -- conniving, little Quark with the dysfunctional family and a heart of pure latinum. The poor dear's lobes never quite manage to pull off any money-making schemes, but just about every con man in the galaxy wants him dead, anyway. This includes the cousin who sold him the ship...

The plot of "Little Green Men" is downright inspired: Quark and his goofy brother Rom attempt to pull off a smuggling venture, using nephew Nog's entrance into Star Fleet Academy as a cover. Everybody piles into the ship, which has been sabotaged. Of course. Something goes terribly wrong and they crash land outside of 20th century Roswell,NM, where they're captured by the military. We know the military personnel are up to no good as they all smoke like chimneys and say "swell" a lot. Our intrepid antiheroes spend the rest of the episode alternately trying to take over Earth and escape its nefarious clutches. Loads of ear-sex silliness and jumping about like gerbils on speed. Kudos to Armin Shimmerman for producing the best Ferengi Shriek of the entire series.

I love "Little Green Men." It's well-written and packed with Star Trek trivia. (I also suspect it was a dry run for DS9's penultimate time trip "Far Beyond the Stars.")

Be warned: this is a Quark episode. If you hate the Ferengi, don't buy it. However, if you're a conspiracy nut and hep to all the references, you'll want to watch it again and again.

Armin Shimerman's, Aron Eisenberg's, and Max Grodenchik's talents are showcased in this Ferengi episode; my favorite of all the Ferengi shows. The three Ferengis (Quark, Nog, and Rom) are thrown back in time to 1947 Earth as a result of a sabotaged shuttle. Rom and Nog think of ways to get home while Quark thinks of ways to take over Earth. The problem is they are held prisoners of the military who think they are invading martians. Quark continually tries to manipulative the military and convince Rom and Nog that their taking over Earth is in the Ferengis best interest. However, Quark doesn't realize that there was a stowaway on board his shuttle and this stowaway is determined to get back to DS9 and their own time.

This show gives a hilarious twist to the Roswell, New Mexico, UFO story. If you're a fan of the Ferengi, as I am, this is a must see episode!

I absolutely loved this episode. Normally I find Quark detestable-and generally I feel the same way about all ferengi-but this episode was perfect. It was actually believable. Can't you just see Quark going back in time and causing the Roswell incident? I love how Odo shows up and gets them all out of the mess they are in. I didn't expect Odo to be there at all. It was a surprising episode that was funny and well done. A nice change from all the 'Dominion Wars' and constant political struggles.

I tend to be skeptical of the use of time travel as a plot device in Star Trek episodes. It was excellent in "City on the Edge of Forever" but the more it is used the more it becomes diluted. Furthermore, it becomes even less logically valid the more it is used, for if it were that easy there would not be a stable timeline.

In this case, Quark has received a ship that his cousin Gaija has owed him for a decade and when Rom checks it out, Quark decides to use it to fly Nog to Earth. The ship has been sabotaged and enters a time warp that takes them back to Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, the date and time of the mysterious incident. After some initial confusion with their universal translators, the three Ferengi are able to communicate with their military captors. Quark senses an opportunity to make an enormous profit and tries to bargain with the American General. However, he underestimates the depth of human paranoia and the three Ferengi are treated as enemy aliens and subject to the threat of torture. Fortunately, they are rescued by unexpected aides.

In this case the storyline and the connection to the Roswell incident are excellent and the source of some amusement. However, the silly simplemindedness of the military people as they deal with the "Martians" was difficult to take seriously. While this was a time of great paranoia, the idea that President Harry Truman would let the military handle the first contact with an alien species with superior technology is beyond absurd.

If you find the Ferengi funny, especially Quark, then you'll love this episode. Quark, who knows humans as an intelligent and formidable species in his time, is amazed to meet the humans of the 1940s. He's amazed at their niavety and apparent stupidity (compared to humans of the 22nd Century), and, in classic Ferengi style, he immediately tries to take advantage of them for a profit. This episode attempts no moral theme or philisphical statement about anything or anyone; it's not dramatic. It's for pure fun and entertainment, and I thought it was great!

AWESOME EPISODE ! Quark, Rom, and Nog get tossed back into time ( United States ) ! If you love Ferengi episodes then here is another one that is sure to rub your lobes ! 5 STARS !!

OO Agent

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine gives it's weakest performance in a long time after five relatively insightful episodes from the fourth season of the show.

"Little Green Men" begins with Nog leaving to the starfleet academy. Amazingly enough, Quark's cousin Gayla just happens to give Quark a ship for the purpose of Nog's transport...

Quark, Rom and Nog start the joyrney towards Earth. The trip leads to a weird accident in Earth's orbit that leads to a crash that -as a consequence of a freak technobabble phenomenon- carries the ship into the past. More specifically to the town of Roswell, where the U.S. military finds it.

Ring a bell?

The story of "Little Green Men" comes from Toni Marberry and Jack Trevino and the teleplay from the main writer's od DS9: Ire Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe.

Behr and Wolfe's dialogue combined to James L. Conway's directing are the only things that save this episode from being the absolute worst trek has to offer. It comes near, though. One of the first rules of modern sci-fi is: forget Roswell; nothing good will ever come from it.

This applys to comical sci-fi more accurately than to any other kind.

"Little Green Men" is probably meant to be a comical episode, but it's more like a torture for star trek viewers in it's unintellectually boring way of telling it's "humorous" story. An idiotic premise, horrible additional characters and lousy story structure quarantee an episode that really should be non-canon.