Summary[]
Grand Nagus Zek, the head of all Ferengi, appears on the station to hold a conference on developing business relations with the Gamma Quadrant. During the meeting with Ferengi delegates the old leader announces his retirement and totally unexpectedly declares that he has chosen Quark as his successor. This causes a great deal of unease among the assembled high-ranking Ferengi. Zek dies the next day as it seems.
Soon someone attempts to assassinate the new Nagus Quark with a locator bomb. While Odo is investigating the case, the two assassins, Quark's brother Rom and Zek's son Krax, plan to finish their business and to blow Quark out of an airlock. But Odo and Zek, who feigned his death, thwart the plan. Zek, now knowing that Krax is no worthy successor, decides to exploit the business opportunities in the Gamma Quadrant himself.
Meanwhile, Sisko is trying to cope with the friendship between his son Jake and Rom's son Nog. His problem is seemingly solved when Rom orders Nog not to attend school; however, Jake and Nog begin spending even more time together. Jake will only tell Sisko that what they are doing is "private." In the end, Sisko finds he has nothing to worry about when he finds Jake teaching Nog how to read.
Errors and Explanations[]
The Nitpickers Guide for Deep Space Nine Trekkers[]
Plot Oversights[]
- Miles Having enough time to act as a substitute teacher. He may have temporarily delegated more responsibility to his subordinates.
- Zek’s son Krak being nominated as Quark’s successor, as opposed to Quark’s brother Rom. Quark doesn’t think Rom has what it takes to lead the Ferengi. In any case, by selecting a non relative, Quark is doing exactly what Zek did!
Nit Central[]
- Mark Bowman on Monday, May 17, 1999 - 8:47 pm: Why aren't the airlocks kept locked when there is no ship docked at them? Especially with the crime that takes place on DS9. Probably a default setting.
- ScottN on Wednesday, May 26, 1999 - 12:13 pm: When Miles is teaching class, the blackscreen behind him is showing a picture of the Catspaw aliens (Sylvia/Korob) from the Star Trek Starfleet Medical Reference Manual. Why? Probably a default image.
- Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Sunday, September 10, 2000 - 1:34 am: In A Man Alone Keiko O'Brien gave Rom a very good reason for why Nog should be in school. So why didn't Rom tell the Grand Nagus the reason in this episode? He may have been too embarrassed, especially as it would force him to reveal he had been accepting advice from a female.
- Rom wanted to kill Quark in this episode. He must have had a considerable change of heart between this episode and the fourth season. IIRC he said in Bar Association that he doesn't want Quark to die, & in Body Parts he is upset when he thinks that Quark is dying. Working with O'Brien has changed his viewpoint.
- Why does Odo follow Maihar'du so closely and as a humanoid? Why not turn into something small and unobtrusive? What, and risked getting squashed?
- Well, the school system of the 24th century is certainly lazy. All this time has passed and no one has bothered to see if Nog gets his information by reading or listening? CdnTim 1620 EST 3 Feb 2021 - It may have been a frame of reference problem: it's probably literally inconceivable to a 24th Century Federation citizen that a teenager wouldn't be able to read.
- In a later episode, Odo will charge Quark with fraud for selling the fake desiccated remains of a Ferengi, but in this episode, no charges of fraud are made despite selling the fake remains of Grand Nagus Zek. Maybe Zek insisted on the charges being dropped.
- John A. Lang on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 9:25 pm: How did the Nagus' ship approach DS9 without being noticed? Before this, NO ship could approach without "Standard Docking Procedures" How did this one slip by? You'd think that Sisko would be honored to meet the Grand Nagus of all Ferengar....yet Sisko is never told about his arrival. Dan Gunther on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 10:26 pm: It's entirely possible that the Nagus wanted to keep a low profile. Perhaps he and his entourage were aboard a regular, everyday Ferengi ship as passengers.
- dotter31 on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 7:05 am: Why are Rom and Krax not in jail at the end of this episode? They committed at least four crimes:
1) attempted murder of Quark w/the locator bomb
2) attempted murder of Quark w/the airlock
3&4) two instances of conspiracy to commit murder
Even if they got away with the locator bomb incident, Odo witnessed them trying to kill Quark in the airlock. Why didn't he arrest Rom and Krax? ccabe on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 10:41 am: They could claim it was somekinda religous practice. The Bajorans would probably believe that. Or Zek (when he is revealed to be alive) could put some political pressure on Odo and/or Starfleet. dotter31 on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 9:32 pm: Why would Starfleet or the Bajorans accept this incident but not accept "Klingon murder rituals" on the station? (Sons of Mogh) uno-man on Friday, June 23, 2006 - 12:58 pm: really good question, I forgot about that...maybe it had something to do with the fact that Worf was a starfleet officer and Sisko wasn't going to put up with someone under his command killing someone.-- just a guess. - If those remains weren't Zek, who was it? Or for that matter, was it Ferengi remains at all? dotter31 on Friday, June 23, 2006 - 8:07 pm: It's certainly possible that the disks weren't Ferengi remains at all. I also think it is possible that Zek could have secretly appropriated someone's remains to use (perhaps his own personal collection that he accumulated over the years).
- Mister Hobbs on Friday, February 06, 2009 - 8:09 pm: Strange that the Nagus always travels about in a tiny little shuttlepod attended only by a single servant. I would have thought he would travel in a Ferengi capital ship, perhaps the D'kora class, and with several escorts as well. The Nagus is the head of state of a vast merchantile empire, after all. It's sort of as though the President of the United States were not to travel in Air Force One, with several fighter escorts, but to hop in a single-engine Cessna and pilot himself around. I suppose extravagant reasons can be found for this, like "he wants to travel unobtrusively," but that hardly seems Zek' style. It also seems highly unlikely that he could pull off such an act. After all, once he's on DS9, every intelligence service in the Quadrant will find out he's there. So his leaving in the tiny shuttlepod he came in won't go unnoticed. Geoff Capp (Gcapp) on Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 2:22 am: Hobbs is entirely correct. The Grand Nagus should be travelling in a large ship, together with his advisers, assistants and staff, with luxurious quarters. On the other hand, having him travel in a tiny pod allows them to have the pod dock in a runabout pad. They don't have to do a special effect of the Ferengi marauder ship docking with the space station or hovering nearby. ScottN on Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 11:31 am: No, I can see the Nagus travelling the way he does because it's *CHEAPER*! More profit if he travels in a tiny pod.
- Once Zek shows up on DS9, wouldn't the Federation send an official ambassador to greet him? He's the head of state of a huge merchantile empire, yet I don't recall this ever occurring....Cyber (Cybermortis) on Saturday, February 07, 2009 - 7:45 am: As the senior Starfleet officer in the area that would be Sisko's job. StarFleet officers have been shown to act as ambassadors for the Federation countless times. Of course one question that could be raised is that if the station is located in the Bajor system, and owned by Bajor, shouldn't the Bajorians have an ambassador on the station to greet representatives on their behalf? Emissary or not I can't imagine that he has the legal right to act for Bajor - who are (for most of the series) not part of the Federation.Brian FitzGerald (Brifitz1980) on Saturday, February 07, 2009 - 10:01 pm: Perhaps Kira has the right to act on behalf of Bajor, she is the ranking representative of the Bajorian government.
- Jayma S on Thursday, May 06, 2010 - 1:32 am: Why hasn't Keiko noticed that Nog can't read? Nog was clearly intending to do his homework before Rom forbade him from doing it. How would he have done the ethics essay for Chief O'Brien if he couldn't read? Brian FitzGerald (Brifitz1980) on Thursday, May 06, 2010 - 6:34 am: Perhaps he could have dictated an essay to the computer, that could turn it into a document.
- Possibly asked before, but how does the computer locate individuals on the station? Sisko asked it to locate Jake, which it duly did although he wasn't wearing a comm-badge. Yet in the Passenger, only 2 episodes earlier, when Jadzia asked the computer to locate Bashir, it located him in the Infirmary by him comm-badge, although he had actually left the station. Andrew Gilbertson (Zarm_rkeeg) on Thursday, May 06, 2010 - 8:06 am: Perhaps children of officers have some sort of biosigns lock, or other tracking device, possibly even implanted (how that for privacy rights in the 24th century?) so that parents can locate them? Aboard a ship, that might be a necessity, in case of disaster, attack, or wandering into dangerous 'Authorized Personnel Only' areas. Brian FitzGerald (Brifitz1980) on Thursday, May 06, 2010 - 12:27 pm:<< You'd think that even civilians would have some sort of communicator. The show was in the 90s where that might seems strange, but today when even kids have cell phones & PDAs it makes sense that kids in the future would have more advanced versions of those things.
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