Who Mourns For Morn?

 ***** (5 stars out of 5)

It's Star Trek: Leverage as Quark becomes embroiled in the dangerous antics of the crooks who pulled off the Lissepian Mother's Day Heist.

There's Larell, the cat burglar, who plays men of all races like cheap Etanian fiddles. There's Krit and Nahsk, the muscles that resemble Brussels (Sprouts). There's Hain, the Con Man, who must have been hiding out on planet Klaestron impersonating the son of the planetary hero (back in the episode "Dax"). And last, but never least, there's Morn, the suave Lurian getaway driver. You know? The lumpy potato-looking guy who's never NOT at the bar in Quark's?

Actually, Morn has been away lately- since the reports of his death when his ship was lost in an ion storm. And with (Characteristic? Uncharacteristic?) generosity, he's left all his otherworldly goods to his bartender.

Our Ferengi Anti-Hero must sift through a sea of lies (and sift through a mud bath with the comely naked Larell) to find the truth. And, much more importantly, find the money. Was Morn a lucky lottery winner? Crown Prince of Luria? Just a chunky guy with a cargo hold full of rotting beets?

And whose neck is on what chopping block when the all the gold-pressed latnium dust settles?

"Who Mourns For Morn?" probably deserved the make-up Emmy that Mr. Westmore was nominated for. Virtually every character is a non-human and by this point it never even crosses my mind how much effort that really takes. Thank you, Michael Westmore and company, for putting the weird flesh on a strange little galaxy.

More Tribbles, More Troubles

*** (3 stars out of 5)

"More Tribbles, More Troubles" does what it says on the tin. Writer David Gerrold returns (and appears as a toon cameo) alongside his fuzzy creations.

Enterprise is trying to protect a quintotriticale grain shipment to Sherman's Planet when they must intervene to save a civilian from a Klingon battleship.

It's a space battle! It's not very animated, but it's more special effects than could be managed by models back when, and technically speaking, the first time we see the ship of...

...Koloth! Radiant, like all his crew, in his daring lavender vest. He's attacking Cyrano Jones, known in the Empire as an ecological saboteur. Stanley Adams reprises Jones' wheedling voice to good effect.

Cyrano has shortened his parole on Station K-7 by finishing the tribble clean-up with an assistant: the genetically engineered predator called the glommer. Jones has had 'safe' tribbles made: they don't reproduce, they just get fat. Also, they're pink.

As a side business, Jones stopped selling Spican flame gems and now sells Spican flame gems (rhymes with frickin' instead of lichen).

My favourite image is the glommer unable to get its mouth around a fat tribble. I guess I can relate: I've made my own attempts to bite off more than I can chew, usually pie!

A derivative sequel to a fun episode is still a fun episode. Maybe it would've been more fun, or maybe no fun at all- if Gerrold had used his original (but not Saturday kid fare) notion in which the glommers breed rapidly as well, but feed on the crew.

I liked the tribbles when they were fat, but I had to scratch my head at the less amusing revelation that they were colonies packed together. That just returns us to the tribble avalanche gag, and the "fob them off on the Klingons" ending we've already seen. But at least McCoy got them out of Kirk's chair.

As Scotty put it: "It's best if all your tribbles are little ones."