Quark & Jake: An Unusual Friendship.

[Red Ranger]

People:

One of the things I liked about DSN was the unusual friendships and pairings on the show. The most obvious unusual relationship was that between Sisko and Nog -- who would've thought the young Ferengi thief would eventually see Sisko as his mentor and that he'd become one of the most gung-ho Starfleet officers?

While they didn't delve into it as much, it seemed to me that Quark and Jake Sisko struck up an unusual friendship, too. The one ep where this is quite apparent is in The Sound of Her Voice, the B plot, where Quark tries to use Odo's infatuation with Kira to his advantage.

I like how Quark kind of takes Jake into his "confidence," and explains to him that people who seem nefarious don't think of themselves in that manner. He's a businessman, nothing more. And of course, Jake, the inquisitive writer, wants to tag along and find out more about Quark's m.o.

The only other time there's a similar interaction, as I recall, is when Quark tries to convince Jake and Nog to write a holosuite program and he'll back them with latinum. Of course, Quark was doing that by saying, hey, you're friend is smart enough not to join Starfleet, why not you?

I wish we'd seen more instances of Quark and Jake just commiserating.

Red Ranger

 

[Jono]

It would have been nice to see more of Jake full stop, in my opinion.

 

[NathanielM]

People:

One of the things I liked about DSN was the unusual friendships and pairings on the show. The most obvious unusual relationship was that between Sisko and Nog -- who would've thought the young Ferengi thief would eventually see Sisko as his mentor and that he'd become one of the most gung-ho Starfleet officers?

While they didn't delve into it as much, it seemed to me that Quark and Jake Sisko struck up an unusual friendship, too. The one ep where this is quite apparent is in The Sound of Her Voice, the B plot, where Quark tries to use Odo's infatuation with Kira to his advantage.

I like how Quark kind of takes Jake into his "confidence," and explains to him that people who seem nefarious don't think of themselves in that manner. He's a businessman, nothing more. And of course, Jake, the inquisitive writer, wants to tag along and find out more about Quark's m.o.

The only other time there's a similar interaction, as I recall, is when Quark tries to convince Jake and Nog to write a holosuite program and he'll back them with latinum. Of course, Quark was doing that by saying, hey, you're friend is smart enough not to join Starfleet, why not you?

I wish we'd seen more instances of Quark and Jake just commiserating.

Red Ranger

That sounds kinda flaming GAY to me... Quark that is... But after all he is a Ferringi.

 

[Robotech Master]

I wish we had seen more of Jake in the later seasons. I think at that point they were juggling too many other characters and plot threads but it would have been nice to see more of his war reporting.

We got snips of it here and there but he basically became a supporting character. He did not have an integral role in any of the major storylines, beyond being Sisko's family.

Still, I did like his overall character development. He got more than most Voyager characters anyway. We saw him as a youngster in a strange place in season 1. We saw him grow into an adult in the next two seasons, embrace writing in season 4, get a couple eye openers about the harsh realities of war reporting in the later seasons.

He had a gradual, developing ARC. You can't really say the same about Harry Kim or Chakotay.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

That sounds kinda flaming GAY to me... Quark that is... But after all he is a Ferringi.

Says the guy with the Village People avatar.


I liked the Quark-Jake friendship too, and wish that they'd done more with it. The writers really struggled at times to find a role for Jake beyond "the Captain's son".

 

[Red Ranger]

The thing I liked most about Jake was that he didn't join Starfleet, as it looked like he might. The fact that he was a writer could've been such a good springboard for a lot of stories, as it would've been a way for the writers to spotlight the craft of writing.

It would've been interesting to see a plotline where Jake found himself opposing his father on a decision he makes regarding Quark, for example, taking Quark's side.

As for the gay thing, we really don't know much about Ferengi sexual mores other than the males treat their females like second-class citizens. I could see Quark as gay. Certanly, Garak seemed gay in his first appearance with Dr. Bashir!

But it sounds to me, NathanielM, you watched that skit, "Men on Film," from the old In Living Color show a bit too much!

Red Ranger