Quark

READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF >> CLICK HERE <<

One of my favorite officers from Deep Space Nine, Quark has arrived in Star Trek Fleet Command. He’s an epic command officer in the Ferengi Conglomerate crew. He increases your protected cargo, and your mining speed.

With the addition of another dock, and the need to mine more and more things in the game, he’s useful in commanding another mining crew.

Captain’s Maneuver

Don’t Let Them Take Anything – Increase protected cargo by 90%.

Protected cargo is pretty straightforward. He gives you an increase in the base cargo of your ship. It starts at 90% and goes up with max synergy to120%.

The rub is that while Fess will give him a synergy boost of 15%, his officer ability until he’s fully promoted will cost you more than that, so until we get new Ferengi officers, you’ll be better off putting an officer like Ghrush, T’Pring or Borg T’Pring in that last slot if you’re looking to increase your protected cargo. Alternately, you could throw an officer like the Borg Tribble in there, or another material-specific officer to increase your mining speed.

It feels like a shame that the name for this maneuver wasn’t taken from one of the Rules of Acquisition, especially with the arc having that for a name. The first rule of acquisition, “Once you have their money, you never give it back.” would have worked perfectly here.

Officer Ability

Take Everything They Have – Increase mining speed by (80%, 100%, 120%, 140%, 160%)

Again, this one is cut-and-dried. You put him on your ship, you mine faster. He’s also great when combined with Arrock in speeding up your concentrated Latinum mining.

Like his captain’s maneuver, this one should have been labeled for a Rule of Acquisition. I’d suggest rule #9, “Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.”

Armin Shimerman

Quark Actor Armin Shimerman was born on November 5th, 1949 in Lakewood, New Jersey. His mother was an accountant, and his father was a house painter. After the family moved to Los Angeles, his mother enrolled him in a drama club, to help him meet people.

He went to college at UCLA, before joining the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.

He made his TV debut in 1979, playing Major Logan in the TV movie, Women at West Point. No, you’ve never heard of it, but, as you may have guessed, it’s about the first women to enroll at the US Military Academy at West Point. It is notable for having Paul Gleason playing, get this, Major James T. Kirk. If you don’t remember Gleason, he was the principal in The Breakfast Club, and the Deputy Chief in Die Hard. The one who says, “We’re gonna need some more FBI guys.”

Shimerman’s first film role came in the 1980 Woody Allen film Stardust Memories. As you might remember from my Data article, it was also Brent Spiner’s debut film. And Sharon Stone’s. So there’s that.

From there, Shimerman started on the TV guest star circuit. He showed up on Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Remington Steele, Alice, and The Facts of Life.

In 1986, he showed up of my favorite under-the-radar shows from the 80s was It’s Garry Shandling’s Show. He played a doctor looking after Garry’s mom, after Garry’s surprise party nearly killed her.

Shimerman in Trek

In 1987, Armin Shimerman technically made his Trek debut in the TNG season one episode, Haven, where he played the gift box sent by Wyatt Miller’s parents to Deanna Troi, to announce the culmination of their arranged marriage. This episode was filmed first, but…

The first episode of his to air was The Last Outpost. This was also the first episode to feature Ferengi, and to be kind, it wasn’t good. The actors playing Ferengi were directed to “jump around like crazed gerbils.“

One of the reasons that Shimerman came back to play Quark was to repair the damage done to the Ferengi in the Last Outpost.

Shimerman would make one more appearance on TNG, again playing a Ferengi. This time, it was playing DaiMon Bractor in Peak Performance. In this clip, he’s the one on the left.

When it came time to cast Deep Space Nine, Shimerman eventually won the role of Quark. They did consider several other actors for the role. Most notably of that group to me is Max Grodénchik, who instead was cast as Quark’s brother Rom. Others included Screen Actors Guild President Barry Gordon (who later played the Ferengi, Nava,) and Clyde Kusatsu (who had already played Vice Admiral Nakamura on TNG.)

Two others to have been considered for the role are two “That Guy” actors. I’ll give you the names, and you won’t know them. You’ll click on the links, see the pictures, and go, “Oh, That Guy!” One is Tim Blake Nelson. The other is Jon Polito.

Shimerman’s performance as Quark is one of the more dynamic in Trek. As with the Nog and Rom, there’s a lot of growth and development for Quark over the course of Deep Space Nine.

After Trek

Apart from his work on DS9, and his guest spots on TNG and Voyager as Quark, Shimerman has had an extremely busy career. Ironically, a surprising number of his post-Trek roles have been playing authority figures. For example, his most prominent post-DS9 role was as Principal Snyder on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ll admit that since this came out while I was in college, I’ve never seen it.

In addition to his doctor role on It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, he’s also played a doctor on Hooperman, Duet, Grand, The Agency, For the People, Crossing Jordan, South of Nowhere, Leverage, and Perception.

He was a judge on Ally McBeal, The Practice, The Guardian, Boston Public, The Young and the Restless, Bad Samaritans, and The Rookie.

And he played Judge Hooper on seven episodes of Boston Legal, yes, with Shatner, and where his adversary was … familiar.

Shimerman the Teacher and Author

In addition to his acting career, Shimerman has had a long career as a teacher at the University of Southern California, where he teaches Shakespeare to actors.

He’s also a published author, having co-written a book about Quark, The 34th Rule, and is currently working on a trilogy set in Elizabethan England.