Hawkeye Pierce, Milo Minderbinder, and Nog.

In a series celebrated for its long-form serialized storytelling, Deep Space Nine’s young Ferengi Nog enjoyed one of Star Trek’s most satisfying character arcs, going from illiterate juvenile delinquent to Starfleet officer on the fast track to command. But as much as the character transcended the venal, self-serving qualities which typically characterized the Ferengi, he never lost his natural business acumen. Two episodes in particular, “In the Cards” and “Treachery, Faith, and the Great River,” put Nog in the role of the wheeler-dealer, exploiting his bemused “customers” with ease and managing an absurdly intricate system of trades.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Justin Oser of Earl Grey to look at two of the major influences on these DS9 episodes: the 1970s US television series MASH and American author Joseph Heller’s satirical novel Catch-22. Together, they consider how the classic Star Trek ethos reconfigures the more pessimistic structures of its source material, the boundaries of comedy and drama in the grim context of war, and why we can’t help loving a rogue, even—perhaps especially—when they’re in uniform.

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) MASH (00:02:20) Comedy and Drama (00:12:16) Deep Space Korea (00:15:06) Whose War Is It Anyway? (00:32:58) Catch-22 (00:38:12) Exchange and Mart (00:51:54) From A to B (00:59:40) Final Thoughts (01:15:35) Host Duncan Barrett Guest Justin Oser Production Justin Oser (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Amy Nelson (Associate Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)