Summary
- "The House of Quark" intertwines Ferengi comedy with Klingon lore, making Quark the head of a Klingon household as a puppet.
- "The House of Quark" is the only DS9 episode to feature Chancellor Gowron without Worf, and also the last episode to visit Qo'noS in seven years.
- Reasons why DS9 avoided showing Qo'noS include Worf's issues with Klingons during the Second Klingon War.
I recently rewatched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3, episode 3, "The House of Quark" and was surprised to discover it contains a big Klingon milestone. Ronald D. Moore's surprisingly effective mash-up of Ferengi comedy and Klingon lore sees Quark (Armin Shimerman) inadvertently become the head of a Klingon household after an unwise boast gets out of hand. To drum up business in his flagging bar, Quark claims to have slain a Klingon warrior called Kozak (John Lendale Bennett), which scuppers the plans of the dead man's widow Grilka (Mary Kay Adams) to take control of his house.
Quark is then taken by Grilka to Qo'noS, where she marries him against his will so that he can sit at the head of the family as her puppet. "The House of Quark" was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's only Klingon story until Michael Dorn joined the cast of DS9 as Lt. Commander Worf in season 4. Incidentally, "The House of Quark" is also notable for being the only Star Trek episode to feature Chancellor Gowron (Robert O'Reilly) that doesn't also have Worf in it. However, DS9 season 3, episode 4 has a much more surprising Klingon milestone than either of these.
DS9’s “The House of Quark” Has A Surprising Klingon Milestone
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3, episode 4, "The House of Quark" is the last episode of any Star Trek show to feature Qo'noS for seven years. I found this surprising given how involved the Klingons later become in DS9's Dominion War. In fact, Rick Berman and the studio insisted that DS9 season 4 introduced Worf and focused more heavily on the Klingons, so I find it odd that the last visit to Qo'noS took place a year earlier. And yet, the next time that Qo'noS is depicted on screen is in the pilot of Star Trek: Enterprise, "Broken Bow" in 2001.
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise acts as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, detailing the voyages of the original crew of the Starship Enterprise in the 22nd century, a hundred years before Captain Kirk commanded the ship. Enterprise was the sixth series in the Star Trek franchise overall, and the final series before a twelve-year hiatus until the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017. The series stars Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer, with an ensemble cast that includes John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park, and Connor Trinneer.
To be fair to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it took almost 24 years for the USS Enterprise to visit the Klingon homeworld in the first place. In 1990, Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Sins of the Father" was the first on-screen depiction of the Klingon homeworld. In a deleted scene from "Sins of the Father", Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) explained that for years a Starfleet officer on Qo'noS would be a death sentence, perhaps explaining why DS9 largely steered clear of the Klingon homeworld.
Released a year later, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country saw Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley) stand trial on Qo'noS.
Why Star Trek: DS9 Never Had More Scenes On Qo’noS
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 4 saw the Klingon Empire break their alliance with the Federation, making them enemies once more. This would mean that Starfleet officers weren't welcome on Qo'noS for the duration of the Second Klingon War. Worf's problems with the Klingons meant that even he wouldn't be welcome on Qo'noS. Even after the alliance was restored, there was no need to visit Qo'noS as the threat from the Dominion required a regular Klingon presence in and around DS9 and the Bajoran Wormhole.
I still find it weird that Quark is the only Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character to be seen visiting Qo'noS in the show's seven seasons. Especially as Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) leads a covert mission to a Klingon base on Ty’Gokor, instead of right into the heart of Gowron's council. Ronald D. Moore had planned for Worf and Gowron's final battle in "Tacking into the Wind" to take place on Qo'noS, but the scene was cut, presumably to improve pacing. So Quark's Klingon caper remains the only Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode set on Qo'noS.
