Sad.
Quark and the Dabo Girls' Deleted Scene from Insurrection
- Thread starter cooleddie74
- Start date
Sad.
Chase Masterson was great in her role as Leeta, she seemed very nice when she was a guest at the Conventions.
I called Quark's bar 'Space Hooters' in my mind and I assume that they have the same role as the Hooter's girls, which is to acquire as much of the customers GPL as possible by upselling intoxicants/food at every opportunity when not working the Dabo table. As far as them being sex workers go? We mustn't impose our parochial views on aliens who don't even have the same (or any) genitalia (ferengi oh-mox, anyone?) or the same means of reproduction. Yuck if the DGs also cleaned the Holosuite...
Speaking of Quark's - I would have enjoyed a Morn episode with George Wendt playing the role in a holosuite accident that turned him human. "Making your way in space today takes everything you got..."
I think it was a terrible decision to cut it. I think it would have given us a little more connectivity in a shared universe for a franchise that could feel increasingly isolated sometimes. It would have given us threads that I personally cannot recall seeing until the debut of the MCU.By now I think it's safe to say that most DS9 fans as well as a lot of hardcore Trek fans in general know that Quark and two Dabo girls from the station were in a Deleted Scene from the very end of INS and that the scene was not only scripted but actually shot with Armin Shimerman in full makeup on the Ba'ku Village set. I'm curious as to what you guys think of the scene. Have you seen the still images from the shoot, though only two or perhaps three are even out in the public more than 25 years later? Was it a good idea to cut Quark and his Dabo girls from the film seeing as how they were just tossed in before the end credits roll to further tie the ninth movie to the rest of the franchise and the fact that by 1998 Worf was a cast member on DS9? Would you have left it in just for the fun of seeing Armin in a Trek film and as his most famous character?
And what WAS the deal with his "vacation beachwear"? He was already disturbing enough in "Let He Who Is Without Sin..." in a similar casual outfit and that's not even the worst thing about that particular episode.The Quark Deleted Scene has been one of my personal favorites when it comes to deleted footage from the movie franchise and largely because - while superfluous and fan service even PIC Season 3 would have likely left on the cutting room floor - the dialogue is kind of fun and it would have been entertaining to see Worf eyeroll over Quark showing up on the Ba'ku planet with absolutely no warning.
QUARK'S VOICE
Worf!
They turn to see a Ferengi (QUARK) approaching in a
bathing suit with a beach umbrella and two barely dressed
Dabo girls...
WORF
What are you doing here, Quark?
QUARK
The same thing everyone else in
the quadrant is going to be doing
here... as soon as I build the
greatest spa in the galaxy...
(sotto)
... these people don't have any
religious thing about casinos do
they...?
PICARD
There aren't going to be any spas
on this planet.
QUARK
Do I know you?
PICARD
(ignoring the
question)
This world is about to become a
Federation protectorate, which
will end any and all attempts at
exploitation by people like you.
QUARK
Explain to me how five thousand
time-share units... right there
along the lake... would be
'exploiting' anyone.
PICARD
Mister Worf, have this
uninvited... offlander and his
quests beamed to the Enterprise.
We'll deposit them at Deep Space
Nine.
WORF
Must you, sir?
Worf takes Quark away by the scruff of his beach shirt...
his disappointed babes follow ...trailing away --
QUARK
You'll hear from my Nagus.
I'm trying to recall why the scene was cut - was it a Rick Berman decision because the series and movies needed to "stay in their own lanes" and that "DS9/Voyager can't show the Sovereign class on screen" mentality?
I think that keeping this would have enhanced the film, but on a very miniscule note. However, I think the effect is best demonstrated in a thread where the poster talks about seeing First Contact in the theatres in he US back in 1996 for the first time. They mention the audience was cheering through the film, with particular excitement/disbelief at seeing the EMH cameo. I wager Quark would have had a similar effect. Who knows, maybe this feedback would have reached the studio and they would have allowed a little more sharing between productions, besides recycling sets and props, or they could have followed up in DS9, assuming it wasn't over or scripts for the final episodes weren't locked in by that point.
Compared to the Janeway cameo in Nemesis, I would say cut that and keep Quark. The Quark cameo would have been a fun little nod that gives us a little more connectivity in the vein of the character we all know and love, or hate, in some cases. Essentially the scene was written and made with Quark in mind. In contrast, I felt the Janeway cameo was just exposition that didn't showcase her character at all, but it was done to simply say she was in the movie. The dialogue and scene was written so blandly that it could have come from anyone.
Turns out there may be a reason for that - we would learn they originally wanted Seven for the part. Gives me the same vibe that Scotty and Chekov gave reading Spock and McCoy's lines that were written for Generations before Nimoy and McCoy said no.
All in all, keep it and go to Quarks. Quarks is fun. Go to Quarks. Don't walk, Run!
"If all your little advertisements aren't purged from our systems by the time I get back from the Gamma Quadrant, I will come to Quark's, and believe me, I will have fun."
I was just thinking about that interaction between Kira and Quark and realizing that one of the things that makes DS9 so great is that interaction between the Starfleet personnel and the civilians on the station which is something that other Star Trek shows can't have.
It was cut because it made no sense for Quark to be there. It made sense for the EMH and Janeway to have the cameos they did. Quark and his Dabo girls literally came out of nowhere, shoehorned in at the end of the movie, for no reason other than dumb comedy relief that had no place in the story.
Turns out the reason the Quark scene was cut was the director, Jonathan Frakes, felt the scene didn't fit the narrative. From a filmmaking perspective, makes sense and I can totally understand why he would cut it.
I have to counter your point that it was cut because it made no sense - it did make sense in the vein of what we know about the characters in a movie that was already utilizing DS9 characters for small parts. I think it makes more sense than the Janeway cameo in Nemesis. In terms of shoehorned characters, one could say the same about Worf - he was a DS9 character who was shoehorned into the movie, for no reason other than dumb comedy relief that had no place in the story (It is a gorch, sir) I will certainly second the opinion that the EMH cameo = perfection.
Quark was a scheming, conniving, opportunistic Ferengi who demonstrated quite a few times he is motivated by personal wealth. It is not a stretch of the imagination to assume he saw the Baku planet as his next big cash cow, like the shuttle/Roswell incident, the weapons merchant gig, etc. There has also been precedent in the franchise to utilize Quark in such a way that he serves as comedy relief bit, and this is exactly how he was utilized in "Trials & Tribulations" For all we know, Quark was there because he and Worf were hitching the same ride back to DS9. For me, it isn't that hard to suspend my disbelief for how and why Quark was there.
The Quark scene was keeping with his character and you can tell it wasn't written with any other character in mind, and that's why I would have enjoyed it and wished they kept it. Was the cameo game-changing or relevant to the plot? Absolutely not, but that doesn't mean it doesn't make sense.
In contrast, the Janeway scene made no sense. You have two characters who had no history or interaction on-screen prior to the cameo, but the scene carries on as if they have had a close relationship for quite some time. Not just that, but the casual nature of their discussion was not in keeping with what we have seen and know about the characters. It also leaves more questions than providing answers or connections that enhance the plot. While her promotion can be easily explained, Why is Janeway promoted over Picard and why is she giving him orders, effectively serving as his boss? Why is Captain Picard and Admiral Janeway's relationship so personal when Captain Picard has never shown such informality with an Admiral before?
It's one thing if we were given a scene or scenes with Picard and Janeway establishing their professional relationship. It's another to have her pop on-screen and go "Hey, it's me. Admiral Janeway. Here's your orders. Silly Jean-Luc, you are going without the Federation fleet. Gosh, you sure get the tough ones, don't you? Haha Jean-Luc, you are so funny. Janeway out."
I obviously embellished that excerpt quite a bit, but it more or less summarizes the tone and dialogue of the scene, and I have a harder time making sense of this cameo than the Quark one. It also just isn't a very satisfying cameo for the Janeway character. Maybe if they flushed out her scene a bit to give her more, but then you are developing a character not essential to the story at the expense of moving your plot forward, and that doesn't make sense, either.
YMMV, of course, and I completely get why you look at the Quark scene unfavorably. However, if you ask me, while there are more effective ways to utilize characters between franchises to increase the positive reception of your film with the audience, in of itself, the Quark scene would have been fine. I kind of wish they had re-purposed it as the lead into a DS9 episode. That could have been a great way to create synergy between the film and series with something they were going to leave on the cutting room floor, anyways.
I understand your points, but the problem had nothing to do with Quark’s character traits. It had to do with the idea that he just appeared out of nowhere at the end of the movie despite the fact that there’s no way he would have known about the events on the Ba’ku planet in time to get from Deep Space Nine to the planet, much less have time to come up with some get-rich-quick scheme. It makes zero sense for him to be there, and was a case of trying to shoehorn in a character from another series without fully integrating the reason for him being there into the story.
The Enterprise-E’s EMH wasn’t a problem, because he wasn’t the same character as Voyager’s EMH, and was an example of a cameo that works in the context of the story. For Admiral Janeway, it’s a little different. Based on the character’s lines, it’s pretty clear that if they couldn’t get Mulgrew for the cameo, they would have just used a generic admiral. Janeway says nothing about Voyager or her time in the Delta Quadrant, so it just boiled down to the audience seeing her again for some kind of closure to the character, however minimal that was. Not so for Quark. DS9 was still on the air while Insurrection was shown in the theaters.
I never got the impression that Picard and Janeway knew each other that well, just that they had met at least once in the past. He didn’t call her by first name either when I’m sure we’ve seen him do that in the past with Random Admiral of the Week.
The worst bit of that scene was the implication that the Enterprise-E had done nothing noteworthy outside of the events of FC and INS. Only saving grace was the “pesky Nexus” line from the script didn’t make the final film.
The worst bit of that scene was the implication that the Enterprise-E had done nothing noteworthy outside of the events of FC and INS. Only saving grace was the “pesky Nexus” line from the script didn’t make the final film.
I personally didn't take it that way. Janeway simply name-checked two of the bigger events she was aware of in the recent past.
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