Gowran doesn’t come out of House of Quark smelling of roses. “I didn’t want to believe the things he said about you yesterday,” he confesses. Indeed, at the episode’s climax, Gowran explicitly confirms that he wanted to believe D’Ghor was innocent, rather than objectively considering the facts.
The High Council turn their backs so that they don’t have to watch the embarrassing and demeaning spectacle of D’Ghor being dragged from their presence.) Here, it is used in a decidedly more cynical manner. There, the decision of the High Council to turn their backs on a dishonoured Klingon is used to give the story a decidedly operatic vibe – larger than life, epic, dramatic, Shakespearean. (One of the nicer, smaller moments of the episode comes during the “back-turning” sequence that is recycled from Sins of the Father. As Quark points out, “And risk destroying the very thing he wanted most, your lands and property?” It’s hard to imagine a sustainable economy built around the image that Klingon culture presents of itself to outsiders. However, it’s also something that makes no real sense if you think about it. “If he wanted to challenge my House, he should’ve made a declaration, met our forces in battle.” That is the stereotypical Klingon way. “There is no honour in what he has done,” Grilka observes.
For all his posturing and threatening, he doesn’t vanquish his adversaries with a bat’leth, but with a ledger. How does it advance without scientists? How does its economy work without trades people? The villainous D’Ghor is presented as a stereotypical blowhard Klingon, but it’s all a facade. Gowran’s attempts to best his own Angry Birds high score was not going well…įor one thing, as Deep Space Nine has been suggesting as far back as Dramatis Personae, there’s the lingering question of how a culture of warriors can function as an organised society. It’s a gigantic “screw this!” to the romance of a warrior culture.
Far from presenting the Empire as an exotic and alien culture with its own values and social mores, it’s portrayed as society that is fundamentally and irreparably broken. Moore isn’t doing anything here that he didn’t already suggest as early as Sins of the Father, but House of Quark throws Klingon hypocrisy into even sharper contrast. House of Quark really lays into Klingon culture – easily one of the most developed alien cultures in the history of the franchise. The Abandoned has undertones that explore Los Angeles’ increasingly high-profile gang culture. Past Tense was written as a social commentary on proposed Los Angeles social policy. Equilibrium is condemnation of Trill culture in a way that seems like a scathing critique of the myth of American classless culture. That’s something that the franchise would do a lot during this half-season. Here, it’s a rather harsh take on Klingon values. There’s a stinging and bitter anger underpinning House of Quark, a show seething at hypocrisy and self-delusion. In contrast, House of Quark is a decidedly irreverent look at the world of Star Trek, a decidedly cynical perspective on one of the franchise’s sacred cows – a downright subversive exploration of something that the franchise takes for granted.
#House of quark series
There are a few mentions here and there, a late-season two-parter, two scattered episodes looking at aspects of the Dominion, and a series finalé, but they don’t drive the third season as much as one might expect, or as much as they drive the fifth through seventh seasons. As much as the Dominion were introduced as “a big deal” and clearly intended to change the show’s status quo, the third season does very little with them. House of Quark is a delightful episode that probably does a better job of setting the tone for the third season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine than The Search. The September and October, we’re taking a look at the jam-packed 1994 to 1995 season of Star Trek, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.
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