Star Trek: Little Green Men

Episode: "Little Green Men"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episode 8

Original Air Date: November 15, 1995

via Memory Alpha

Nog is off to Starfleet Academy and through the "generosity" of a grateful cousin, Quark has a ship to get him there.  En route, the ship malfunctions and Quark, Rom and Nog crash in Roswell, New Mexico.  Even more complicating: it's the year 1947.

"Little Green Men" is Trek's homage to the sci-fi B-movies of the 1950s and '60s.  Predictably, the human perspective is deep curiosity combined with Cold War paranoia.  You've got the military officers who are prepared to kill for the sake of national security and the merciful scientists eager to learn more.  

Of course, the real fun - and the only reason such a story is worth doing for 1990s Trek - is experiencing these well-known tropes from the perspective of the aliens, and Ferengi we know well at that.  Quark sees the naïve earthlings as easy marks for capitalist exploitation.  Unfortunately, fear for their lives becomes paramount and the need to escape takes precedent.  On the bright side, an old friend turns up to help.

"Little Green Men" gets all sorts of confetti from the critics, frequently making best-ever lists not just for DS9 but for all of Star Trek.  My time travel pet peeves prevent me from jumping on that bandwagon.  But there's no denying it's a fun romp.  It's a great development story for Rom, in particular.

Acting Notes

via The Mentalist Wiki

The original casting description for Nurse Garland, one of our heroes' allies among the humans, included a call for a "Megan Gallagher type."  Gallagher's agent saw it and told the producers she might be available.  The episode was Gallagher's second of three Trek appearances.

Megan Gallagher was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, February 6, 1960.  She graduated from Julliard before hitting Broadway.  She debuted the role of LCDR JoAnne Galloway in Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men.  She won both a Theatre World Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance.  On television, she has had principal roles on The Slap Maxwell Story, The Larry Sanders Show and Millenium as well as recurring roles on Hill Street Blues and China Beach.  Films include Van Wilder, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Get a Job.