Star Trek Reviews

Return to season list

Star Trek DS9 - Season 5 - Episode 03

Star Trek DS9 - 5x03 - Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places

Originally Aired: 1996-10-14

Synopsis:
Quark must fight for honor -- Klingon style. [DVD]

My Rating - 10

Fan Rating Average - 6.21

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 42 7 9 4 3 16 8 19 31 28 60

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
None

Factoids
- This episode is a candidate for my "Best Episode of DS9 Award."

Remarkable Scenes
- Julian eavesdropping on the "battling O'Briens".
- Worf: "I prefer traditional opera performed in the traditional manner." Dax: "You know, for a Klingon who was raised by humans, wears a Starfleet uniform, and drinks prune juice, you're pretty attached to tradition. But that's okay. I like a man riddled with contradictions."
- Worf in love at first sight when he sees a Klingon woman board the station.
- Worf's reaction to seeing Grilka embrace Quark.
- Bashir and O'Brien discussing O'Brien and Kira growing ever so close. ;)
- Worf attempting to court Grilka.
- Quark talking to Dax about Grilka right in front of Worf.
- Worf: "It is customary among her people that the man bring a leg of lingh'ta on the first courtship dinner. Make sure it's fresh, as if you have just killed it. Then use the leg to sweep aside everything else on the table and declare in a loud voice, 'I have brought you this! From this day, I wish to provide food for you and your house! All I ask is to share your company and do honor to your name!'"
- O'Brien starting to feel as though he's cheating on Keiko.
- Worf listening to Klingon opera very loud on the Defiant's bridge.
- Quark describing his successful dinner with Grilka.
- Quark and Dax reenacting the formation of the Klingon Empire.
- Odo and Kira discussing O'Brien.
- Quark telling Grilka that she's worth more than all the latinum in the quadrant.
- Keiko inadvertently forcing O'Brien and Kira into another uncomfortable situation.
- Jadzia's "idea."
- Quark's puppet battle. Awesome.
- Quark's "Right of Proclamation."
- Jadzia courting Worf.
- O'Brien and Kira finally discussing their "problem." :)
- Quark, Grilka, Worf, and Jadzia all in the infirmary. Gotta love Bashir's reaction.
- Worf laughing. Now that's something you don't see every day.
- Morn Appearances; 1. Worf attacks him.

My Review
A great sequel to DS9: The House of Quark, Worf has fallen in love with Quark's ex-wife. The title of this episode, albeit long, is of course hilarious. This episode is loads and bounds more successful than the first. The various love related character threads floating around in this episode are wonderfully done. Quark pursues Grilka, Worf pursues her too, Dax pursues Worf, and O'Brien and Kira pursue each other, though they don't entirely know it for a while. ;) I don't normally grant ratings of ten to humor episodes, but this one so incredibly profound that exceptions must be made sometimes. While I probably would never grant a humor centric episode such as this the "best episode of [insert Trek show here] award", I still would place this episode on the list of must see episodes for anyone sampling the series. Though, I'd say that about any episode I've rated at ten, now would I. :)

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Dio on 2009-02-04 at 8:36pm:
    I totally agree with you on this one, very well written and acted and overall extremely enjoyable. I had to laugh when O'Brien almost fell onto Kira in their final scene!
  • From Tallifer on 2011-04-11 at 10:52pm:
    Best episode of Deep Space 9?!?

    It is funny and passes the time well, but ti is hardly a masterpiece of science fiction or space opera.

    It is a parody of the classic tale of Cyrano de Bergerac, except that Worf-Cyrano is consoled for his loss of Grilka-Roxane by Jadzia Dax. Quark as romantic hero is too much of a stretch (although there have been other such episodes, such as the tedious one about the Cardassian scientist).
  • From Mike Furlong on 2016-04-10 at 4:51pm:
    Fun Fact: The actor who plays Garak, Andrew Robinson, was the director of this episode.
  • From Axel on 2018-07-04 at 10:56am:
    TUMEK: "Have you ever pursued a Klingon woman?"

    WORF: "No"

    You mean, aside from K'ehleyr who birthed your child and with whom you went through the mating rituals in TNG? Technically she was half Human and didn't exactly embrace Klingon ways. But it seems odd that Worf doesn't even think it's worth mentioning, especially since Alexander makes several appearances on DS9.

    Anyway, I think this episode gets at one of the best things about DS9. Instead of a ship always going out and exploring, sometimes different species from around the galaxy make their way to DS9 and interact with each other. In this case it's done humorously, with inter-species relationships. And it works.
  • From JB on 2020-08-28 at 8:26am:
    I love this episode. Worf as an incredulous Cyrano de Bergerac makes for great fun in perhaps the most humorous Trek outing ever produced.

    The main story threads with the different characters and their personalities all click together very nicely, but the real cherries on top of this episode are the little extra scenes where the other characters (Keiko, Odo, and Bashir in particular) get involved and give their own humorous takes on the madness they are observing.

    10/10, one of my personal favorite hours of Trek.

Prove to me that you are a real person and not a spam robot by typing in the text of this image:

Return to season list