Quark‘s younger brother Rom is a rare engineering officer in Star Trek Fleet Command. He’s a station attack officer. The first real one we’ve seen in the game since Khan and the Augments.
The character of Rom developed enormously over the course of Deep Space Nine. He went from being an unnamed Dabo Pit Boss in the DS9 pilot, Emissary, to Quark‘s bumbling comic relief brother, to protecting the Alpha Quadrant from Dominion attack by mining the entrance to the wormhole.
I’m not sure how any of this is related to attacking stations, since Rom’s only activities on Deep Space Nine are in defending a station (well,) and helping to run a bar (badly.)
Captain’s Maneuver
Decline Their Generosity – When attacking a station, Rom delays opponent ship and defense platform Weapon Fire for 1 round.
Thus far, unless I’m mistaken, this is the only officer in the game whose captain’s maneuver in the game has no synergy at all. So pairing him with other Ferengi won’t delay fire any more than one round.
But one round is a pretty big deal. And pairing him with an officer like Harrison or Honorguard Worf will help you maximize damage for that one round. Base attacks tend to be shorter battles, so HG Worf will give you more critical-hit bang for your buck than Khan. But if you don’t have Harrison, you could still throw Khan in there.
Those are the two that I use as my vanilla base-breaking crew with Rom, but you’ll want to customize based on the ships that your target has docked.
As I see it, Rom will be nice at quickly breaking bases. Most of these bases that he’ll get through in one are ones that you could have broken with your Khan crew in two or three. However, it will be… intriguing to try your Rom crew on a Whale base. One that in most battles you wouldn’t last a round against. It may take you a while, but this could work as an axe to help you chop down a base that otherwise you’d have no chance at cracking.
There’s something odd about having Rom as a powerful captain in this game. And yet, since I really, really like him as a character, I’m okay with this.
Rom Officer Ability
Impress With Your Opulence – When attacking a station, Rom increases the number of shots of the ship’s weapons by (50%, 70%, 90%, 120%, 150%.)
Pretty simple one here. The more you level him up, the more shots each of your ship’s weapons will take each round against stations. Not really a lot of mixing and matching here, as his captain’s maneuver is top-of-the-line right now. But in longer base fights, I could imagine having Rom as a support officer, outside the captain’s chair.
About Max Grodénchik
Michael “Max” Grodénchik was born in New York City on November 12th, 1952.
After working for several years in New York theater, he made his film debut in the 1981 flop Chu Chu and the Philly Flash. He played Frankie. I think I’ve heard of a lot of movies, but this one, I’d never heard of in my life. And the cast of this movie is amazing. Carol Burnett, Alan Arkin, Danny Glover, Jack Warden, Danny Aeillo, just to name a few. Cost $7 million to make, and got back $221k, and is now available to watch for free on YouTube.
His next movie came the next year, in another movie I’ve never heard of, Out. Coincidentally, it also had Danny Glover in it. So there’s that.
After a few more years doing theater, Grodénchik started to get some television work. He had a guest spot on Thirtysomething, and another on Night Court. You can watch his Night Court episode, The Cop and the Lady for free (with ads) on Amazon. He played a man who wanted to kill Dan Fielding. (Even Kirk didn’t want to kill Dan Fielding.)
In 1991 he had bit parts in Barton Fink and The Rocketeer. And he also had a part in Luck of the Draw: The Gambler Returns. It was the fourth in a series of five TV movies starring Kenny Rogers, Reba McIntyre, and a who was who of TV Western characters and the original actors from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. “The Rifleman” Chuch Connors showed up. David Carradine as Kung Fu‘s Kwai-Chang Caine shows up. Gene Barry as Bat Masterson, Hugh O’Brian as Wyatt Earp, Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick, and Brian Keith as The Westerner.
It was a fan-service stunt casting extravaganza. Every time one of the old western stars turned up, their old theme tune was played. And then Patrick Macnee from The Avengers turns up. It wasn’t a Western, but hey, they were on a roll.
And aren’t you happy to live in a universe where we can all sit down and watch this online? I know, you were crushed to have missed it the first time.
Okay, time to end the tangent. Back to Max.
In 1992, Grodénchik played Ernie in the Whoopi Goldberg movie Sister Act. If you knew that the man who would later play Rom was the murder victim at the beginning of this movie, then I take my hat off to you.
I wish I could find a better video of this, but for reference, here it is.
As Rom
Much like Quark actor Armin Shimerman, Grodénchik made his Trek debut on the Next Generation, playing other Ferengi characters. He was Sovak in the season three episode, Captain’s Holiday.
He made his second and final TNG appearance as Par Lenor in the season five episode, The Perfect Mate.
He was a finalist for the role of Quark, which eventually went to Armin Shimerman. So instead, he got the role of Quark’s brother. He made his first of 33 Deep Space Nine appearances in the Emissary, where he’s only got one line. From there, the character developed immensely. He always stayed as a sort of comic relief, but still had a part in some of the more poignant scenes in the series. Despite being an alien, Rom grounded the show. His concerns were relatable. In the Ferengi culture, his primary concern was usually his family.
I could’ve picked any number of scenes to show how well Shimerman and Grodénchik worked together. But this one works for me.
The interplay with Aron Eisenberg as Rom’s son Nog was also great to watch. As bad as the Next Generation got fatherhood, DS9 got it right.
Grodénchik was actually a pretty good baseball player in his day, having played in high school. So when it came time for the DS9 episode, Take Me Out to the Holosuite, he decided to play Rom as being left-handed. Grodénchik is right-handed. The awkwardness is amplified by Rom wearing his glove on the wrong hand.
Here’s Grodénchik in a scene cut from Star Trek Insurrection, where he played a mischievous Trill. After watching it, you’ll see why it was cut, but it’s still enjoyable.
About as far away from Rom as you can get, Grodénchik played the lead in the 1995 horror-comedy bomb Rumplestiltskin. It’s a film that to me, is most interesting for having been created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. The two of them did better with a comedy-horror cartoon in the late 60s… Scooby-Doo.
Lastly, and there’s no way you’d have expected this – while living in Glendale, California, Grodénchik fell in love with an Austrian woman. The two were later married, and after having their daughter, they moved to the small Austrian town of Nußbach in the county Kirchdorf an der Krems.