DS9: Little Green Men

Ever wonder what really happened at Roswell in 1947? Well, according to DS9 it was a whole lot of Ferengi hijinks--which, by the way, is pretty much my favorite kind of hijinks. Here's some of what makes Little Green Men great:

-Nog, being a Ferengi, is selling most of his childhood bits and bobs to raise capital for his journey into his new life as a Starfleet cadet. Everyone's chipping in, Rom's all choked up and even Worf is interested in a little trinket:

Yep. That's Nog's old tooth sharpener. Priceless.

-Jake and Nog have a moment and it's pretty much the best thing ever. It's a perfect balance of funny and sweet.

-I love Rom's continuing evolution throughout the series but season four is where he really takes off and finds his own way. In this one, he totally calls Quark on the dangerous cargo he's smuggled aboard and negotiates a hefty cut of the profits. Nice job, Rom!

-As the Ferengis make their way to Earth, everything goes wrong (surprise!) and they crash into what is basically a 1950's B movie. 

Wait... is that Ed Wood? 

-There's a joke about the "Bell Riots" which happened in a previous episode (one I planned to write about but haven't yet) 

-Quark, in an effort to prove that he's a hostile alien spy who's been watching Earth for ages, cites everything he knows about Earth culture: "Root beer. Baseball. Darts!" 

-When they crash, their universal translators go offline which means no one can understand each other. This leads to lots of screwball antics. 

Silly Hew-mons

-Smoking. Lots and lots of smoking. And jokes about smoking. And jokes about pollution. And jokes about the A-bomb. Basically lots of commentary on all the stupid crap humans tend to get up to. 

Basically Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe wrote the hell out of this episode. It's PACKED with really, truly great jokes and references to past episodes of Trek and human history. Additionally, it's perfectly acted and directed. Little Green Men is one of the very best funny episodes of Star Trek and harkens back to the humorous episodes of TOS like The Trouble With Tribbles. It's pretty much perfect.