Star Trek: The House of Quark

Episode: "The House of Quark"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 3, Episode 3

Original Air Date: October 10, 1994

via Memory Alpha

A drunk and cranky Klingon picks a fight with Quark in the bar.  During the scuffle, the instigator falls on his knife and dies.  Quark's less than truthful tale of his own heroics proves fantastic for both ego and business.  The widow, Grilka, turns up.  She kidnaps Quark, brings him to Qo'noS, then dupes him into marrying her!  How will our favorite bartender get himself out of this crazy tangle?

It's been a long run of heavy material for Deep Space Nine to this point.  Comic relief is overdue.  Grilka (Mary Kay Adams) is wonderful.  My wife said watching her, "I like Klingon women."  Gowron, an essential secondary character moving forward, makes his first DS9 appearance.  His reaction to Quark's bookkeeping explanation is priceless.  Rom gets some nice development, too, speaking of characters who are destined to become more important to the series.

Acting Notes

via Headhunter's Holosuite Wiki

Mary Kay Adams was born September 12, 1962 in Middletown, New Jersey.  She is a descendant of U.S. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.  She graduated from Emerson College with a BFA.

Her most prominent television role was India Von Halkein, a recurring character over several seasons of Guiding Light.  Other guest appearances include All My Children, As the World Turns and Babylon 5.  Films include The Muppets Take Manhattan, See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Satan's Little Helper.

Adams had gracious things to say about her DS9 experience:

The first time that I sat in the chair and they were applying the Klingon make-up, Armin came over to me, before we were even on camera, and he said 'This is going to be a very long day, and as the day goes on, you're going to feel more and more disorientated because of all the stuff they're going to put on you. It happens to everyone. It happens to me. If there's ever a moment where you feel really unsure, or if you don't know what's going on, take me aside and we'll work through it.' I was so touched by his kindness and his honesty. Being a guest star can be kind of hard. A lot of times you walk into the middle of a well-oiled machine, and they don't know you, and they don't really want to know you and are like 'Here. Catch up.' That moment meant the world to me.

and

Actors I am close to who have done these shows all agree that Star Trek is fabulous because it's the closest thing to playing classical theater..It's very archetypal, it's very Shakespearean in its scope. All the aliens are of heroic proportions. Plus you're given direction to be bigger, to be stronger, to fill the makeup. The makeup does a lot of the work for you, but you have to find the balance of matching it somehow.