Friday, June 5, 2009

Earth 1947, Little Green Men & a Shapeshifter

Three Ferengi, called Martians first by the humans, and Odo the Founder and Shapeshifter stumble on 1947 Earth due to an accident in the Star Trek DS9 episode 4x08 Little Green Men. Which has not one, but two Weather Balloon jokes!

Ferengi are like the Orange Strivedrivers of Spiral Dynamics, from the wiki: They and their culture are characterized by a mercantile obsession with profit and trade and their constant efforts to swindle people into bad deals. They are also known for their business acumen and for exploiting females. Like most of their culture, their religion is also based on the principles of capitalism: they offer prayers and monetary offerings to a "Blessed Exchequer" in hopes of entering the "Divine Treasury" upon death, and fear an afterlife spent in the "Vault of Eternal Destitution".

Full episode summary here: They awaken in a laboratory. A human male in the next room exhales cigarette smoke, and calmly summons a General Denning on a telephone. "Tell him one of the Martians is awake," he says. The calendar reads July, 1947.

the humans mimic Quark's movements
"I'd always heard primitive hew-mons lacked intelligence,
but I never thought they were this stupid.
"
Quark

As Rom and Nog awaken, they argue with Quark about what happened, and whether they died in the crash and this is the afterlife. In the next room, several humans have gathered to observe the behavior of the Martians. They activate the speaker and hear a bizarre, otherworldly language being spoken by the aliens. Quark is annoyed he cannot understand what the humans are saying, and surmises their universal translators are malfunctioning. Rom thinks it may be due to nuclear fission radiation in the atmosphere.
When Nog agrees, pointing out that twentieth-century humans actually made weapons that utilized nuclear fission and detonated them on the planet's surface, Quark is horrified. He becomes progressively more disgusted when he notes that the humans all seem to have a habit of inhaling the smoke of a burning tobacco plant, a behavior he finds almost as vile as imbibing root beer. He insists they get off the planet as soon as possible to get away from these "savages."

"If they'll buy poison, they'll buy anything!" Quark

First Ferengi contact!

Nog tries to fool Wainwright into thinking the Ferengi are going to invade Earth, which doesn't work...
Nog: "The first landing parties will arrive here."
Wainwright: "Where?" (on the map)
Nog: "Here, right by this blue blob."
Wainwright: "You mean your people are going to invade... Cleveland?"

But guess who came along for the ride, Founder and Shapeshifter Odo transforms from a sirius Dog(star) of the German Shepherd kind:

Looks kinda lizzy
When Rom hears that there will be a nuclear test in the desert, he comes up with an idea. They fly the ship directly into the blast and jettison the remaining kemocite, which reacts with the bomb to throw them ahead in time to where they started. Back on the base, General Denning thoughtfully chews his cigar and muses on the "crashed weather balloon" they found in nearby Roswell, New Mexico.

1 comment:

The Secret Sun said...

Interesting- Lost in Space did the whole 1947 thing as well...back in 1967.