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Star Trek DS9 - Season 4 - Episode 08

Star Trek DS9 - 4x08 - Little Green Men

Originally Aired: 1995-11-13

Synopsis:
A mishap sends Quark, Rom, and Nog back in time to Earth of 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico, where military forces mistake them for alien invaders. [DVD]

My Rating - 9

Fan Rating Average - 6.77

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Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Nog formally enters Starfleet Academy in this episode.

Problems
None

Factoids
- If you're wondering why a photo of Sisko appears in Nog's historical data PADD, go back and watch DS9: Past Tense from season 3.
- This episode establishes (in the Star Trek timeline anyway) that the alleged Roswell alien crash landing was in fact a Ferengi pod with Quark, Rom, Nog, and a disguised Odo aboard. When they escaped, the military initiated a massive cover up, blaming the whole thing on a weather balloon.

Remarkable Scenes
- Worf's behavior at Nog's going away party. I especially like his interest in the tooth sharpener.
- Nog: "But think about it uncle. That means they went from being savages with a simple barter system to leaders of a vast inter stellar federation in only 5,000 years! It took us twice as long to establish the Ferengi Alliance and we had to buy warp technology from the-" Quark, interrupting: "5,000, 10,000, what's the difference? The speed of technological advancement isn't nearly as important as short term quarterly gains."
- Nog asking Rom why the Gabriel Bell photo from Earth looks like Sisko. A very nice reference to DS9: Past Tense. I like Quark's response: "All hew-mons look alike."
- The scene where Quark, Nog, and Rom are discussing the "Divine Treasury" and the "Vault of Eternal Destitution." Perfect heaven and hell for Ferengi. :)
- The universal translator failure and the resulting head banging.
- The general calling Quark a bad car salesman. :)
- Quark calling the general an Australian.
- Quark's "free advice" telling the general that his people should stop poisoning their bodies with tobacco and atom bombs.
- Quark: "My people have been watching your world for years. We know all about you. Baseball. Root beer. Darts. Atom bombs."
- Nog having Nurse Garland give him oomax.
- Odo's appearance.
- The interrogation.
- Morn Appearances; 1. In the first scene when Nog is selling his possessions. 2. Quark leaves the bar in his hand before his trip to Earth.
- Rules of Acquisition; 203. New customers are like razor-toothed greeworms. They can be succulent, but sometimes they bite back.

My Review
Quark's procured a ship of his own. Scary. Thankfully he loses it in this episode. We don't need Quark running around with a ship, now do we? ;) This episode is an instant classic and is probably the best humor episode so far, maybe one of the best humor episodes Star Trek has ever done. So many things about this episode were done just right. The reference to the Roswell alien weather balloon fiasco was great. The Ferengi are our crashed aliens! The universal translator failure and the resulting headbanging is a fantastic scene, but my favorite detail of this episode was incessant smoking and Quark's reaction to it. Indeed, Quark puts on the best performance in this episode. I love his constant disgust with 1940s Earth. Nurse Garland was pretty cool too, with her overly accurate dreamy "the future will be so amazing" type lines. Overall, a fantastic episode.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From RichD on 2006-06-07 at 9:32pm:
    Armin Shimerman is one of the most underappreciated actors in all of Star Trek. He was the first actor on DS9 to develop his character. By the middle of the 1st season, quark was fully realized. He is one of my favorite characters. He makes poignant observations when you least expect it that really do strike a chord. I loved his comment and reaction when he was told that humans would smoke tobacco for recreaton...."you mean they poison their bodies on purpose?" Then, he has to ruin it by being Quark, "if they buy poison, they'll buy anything." This episode was hilarious from beginning to end. I also like the univeral translator malfunction. Little subtle things like that make this episode a charmer. One last thing. By making Nog appreciate humans more than ever, it gives him an added incentive to become a starfleet officer. Nice touch.
  • From JRPoole on 2009-03-23 at 12:16pm:
    Does this episode estabish that the univeral translator is a device worn in the ear? I can't remember it ever being referred to this way, but it makes sense. It's still problematic, though: How would it broadcast in different languages?

    I know, I know...I need to just accept the UT as a plot device and let it be. But I do like episodes that at least acknowledge its existence, even if they do confuse the issue even more.

    This is a real winner all the way through. DS9 does humor episodes better than any other Trek series, probably because the Ferengi--usually the center of humor episodes--are all acted so well on DS9.
  • From MJ on 2011-01-14 at 12:26pm:
    I agree with the webmaster's review, and with RichD. This episode is pure genius: writing, acting, everything.

    The setting was remarkably well done, with the classic dual human response to visiting aliens: the suspicious general who sees them as a military threat, and the "egghead" professor who sees them as peaceful and wants to communicate. The detail of the people's uniforms, the lighting...all of it set the perfect mood for 1940's Earth.

    The interactions were, of course, hilarious and fitting. Armin Shimmerman's performance in this episode was superb. He's always great as Quark, but this was award worthy. But Rom, Nog, and the guest cast of Americans all did outstanding, too. They all made this work brilliantly and played their characters perfectly.

    I was a little curious as to what would be the fate of the professor and the nurse since they helped the aliens escape quite possibly ruining their happy future, but it's possible this was overlooked in the overall secrecy of the Roswell incident. Speaking of that, I couldn't help but think Star Trek seems to be paying homage here: the Roswell incident is one of the things that contributed to the popularity of science fiction and human imagination about aliens.

    The beginning, too, was great. Nog's selling of his childhood possessions, especially the Ferengi tooth sharpener to Worf, added to the overall comedy of the episode. In fact, we get quite a nice dose of Ferengi culture here including the Ferengi language which was interesting to hear. I really cracked up when Quark was asking Nurse Garland for oomox.

    Outstanding stuff!
  • From Jons on 2014-02-02 at 4:17pm:
    I really enjoyed that episode, but excuse-me, how is it NOT 100% filler??

    Nothing that happens here has any incidence on anything in the series. Nog gets to Earth, but you don't need to see that episode to know that...
  • From Rob UK on 2023-12-01 at 4:59pm:
    I love this episode but we definitely have a problem, Odo can't shape shift into making good human hair (it is mentioned several times throughout the show run), but here he can make himself into a very convincing hairy German Shepheard style dog

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