Sunday, May 10, 2009

Deep Space Nine: Quark



























This Quark costume is first seen in the Deep Space Nine season 5 episode 'The Ascent' where Quark and Odo have crashed on a Type L planet and struggle with the planet, and each other, for survival. This episode showcases Quark at his best, and even Armin Shimmerman says this is one of his best episodes. Both men survive and this costume is used through to season 7, including the final episode.

This costume is used in 10 episodes and originally starts out with a blue jumpsuit, but later employs a maroon one, which I own. The fabrics and detail in this Ferengi costume are superb.



The internal tags show this to be the hero costume worn by Armin Shimmerman. There were at least two hero and one distressed version fabricated for the show. There are very subtle 'tells' between the two hero versions, and I can verify mine was worn in the season 6 episode 'Statistical Probabilities'.  The 'distressed' version was sold on Ebay before I knew about it, and New Ferenginar would love for it to come home. (Update: 10/05/13 it did!)

As a footnote, I wore this costume to the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention in 2009. While walking around the vendor's area, I spotted Rene Auberjonois and said 'Hi'. He then told me to turn around, and guess who was behind me? Yep, Armin Shimmerman. He and Rene were due onstage and headed for the stage door, but Armin took a moment to talk and take a couple of photos with me. As he left, other people tried to stop him for pics and autographs, but he declined as he clearly needed to go. Armin did not have to stop for me, but he did and that makes him every bit the awesome guy you think he is. Armin, you have a fan for life!