Can’t remember which episode it was but it was the episode wherein Will Riker’s “double” from the transporter malfunction steals the Defiant.
At the beginning of the episode it has “Will” with his trademark beard. Then after his true identity is revealed, he tears away his fake beard from the sides of his face leaving only a goatee. Because ya’ know, everybody knows the evil twin simply must have a goatee!
This is hilarious because the fake beard wasn’t at all necessary. He could have easily shown up at the station with a goatee and nobody would have suspected a damn thing.
Anyway, there are lots of other instances that DS9 has made me smile but this one sticks in my head the most at the moment.
So, am I alone in my appreciation for DS9 humor? What are your favorite moments?
Very early one - I think the first or second episode, THE Sisko has an exchange with Odo where the shapeshifter explains he doesn’t have relationships with women because he doesn’t like… compromise:
Odo: I’ll never understand the humanoid need to… ‘couple.’
Quark: You’ve never… coupled?
Odo: Choose not to. Too many compromises. You want to watch the karo-net tournament; she wants to listen to music, so you compromise - you listen to music. You like Earth Jazz; she prefers Klingon Opera so you compromise - you listen to Klingon Opera. So here you were ready to have a nice night watching the karo-net match and you wind up spending an agonizing evening listening to Klingon Opera.
Where this is funny to me is that several whole seasons later, this was basically the plot of Let He Who Is Without Sin, a fairly awful episode but which has Dax complaining that Worf is a control freak… while he gives in and goes along with every. single. little. damn. thing. she wants to do.
http://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/d505.asp
Odo in general is great, and he plays so well off Quark. The pair were insanely hilarious, and it’s blatantly evident that there’s definitely some respect, but neither would ever admit it.
Quark: The usual, Odo?
Odo: Nothing.
Quark: The usual.
There are some fantastic little side jokes in the otherwise action/politics-centric Season 4 opener, “The Way of the Warrior”…
-Garak and Dukat sniping at each other at every opportunity
-Sisko’s and Dax’s bet on how Dukat would react to being rescued by the Defiant
-Everything Gowron does in this episode is (semi-intentional) comedy gold (“Worf? WOOOORRRRRRRRRRRFFFFFFFFFF”)
-Sisko pointing out that Dukat switched sides the moment things looked dicey for the Cardassian military dictatorship
-The conversation between Quark and Garak about root beer is simultaneously hilarious and one of the more trenchant bits of self-examination “Trek” ever did:
-Odo snarking at Quark about his missing disruptor pistol:
Yeah, when DS9 tried for humorous episodes (i.e. Ferengi episodes) they were usually terrible, but the humor throughout the “serious” episodes was fantastic.
Agree accept for one caveat: When Quark was forced to marry that Klingon woman in order to save her house. He’s having an intimate conversation with said lady:
“Quark, I appreciate what you’re doing for me, I really do. Which is why I’m not going to shatter every bone in your body when you take your hand off my thigh”
Quark of course removes his hand off her thigh as they both give each other a knowing chuckle.
Not a single moment, but a characterization. The barfly Morn was quite obviously a tribute to Norm Peterson from “Cheers,” from always being seen hanging about the bar to being described as garrulous. And the name is an obvious anagram of “Norm.”
The notable exception being, of course, the brilliant “Trials and Tribble-ations,” perhaps the only episode of “Star Trek” to approach the original “Trouble With Tribbles” as a work of intentional comedy.
Ha! I’ve never made that connection before. That’s awesome. I’ve always liked how he’s supposed to be a chatter box yet we never get to hear him speak.
I loved Quark, and Rom, and even came around on Nog. But a little Ferengi goes a long way, doubly so for the Nagus, and Moogie. The only episode focusing on the Ferengi that I really enjoyed was Little Green Men.
I don’t know if this counts as humor, but it made me laugh. When the Federation was kicked off of Terak Nor and Gul Dukat and his entourage come striding into the Commander’s office, the first thing they see is Sisko’s baseball sitting on the desk. I don’t remember who said the lines, but somebody asked what the hell that was, and the answer was, “He’ll be back.”
There were also plenty of great funny scenes between Bashir and Garak:
Bashir: Was anything you ever told me true?
Garak: My dear Doctor, everything was true.
Bashir: Even the lies?
Garak: Especially the lies.
I also enjoyed the physical comedy of when Quark and Rom tried to carry a very heavy but invisible cloaking device through the halls without being noticed. Great miming.
I may be Pitted for this, but I would love for him to have had the last line in the series - as the camera pulls back from the station, show him outlined in a viewport, raising his hand and simply saying, “Goodbye.” Break the fourth wall and let him be heard just that once.
As for the OP, it was established in the original episode that Thomas Riker appeared in that he had a different style of beard. And IIRC, it was only the sideburns that were faked.
