The only thing better than Marvel money is Michael Dorn money, and that's what it would take to get Armin Shimerman back in the "Star Trek" fold as the Ferengi bartender Quark. For whatever reason, "Deep Space Nine" characters like Quark haven't enjoyed as much of a resurgence in the Paramount+ streaming era of "Star Trek," even as familiar faces and voices from "The Next Generation" and "Voyager" have returned to reprise their roles on "Picard" and "Prodigy." You've seen Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine; you've heard Kate Mulgrew voice Captain Janeway again, but it's as if the 'Star Trek" reunion committee just decided to skip over "Deep Space Nine" and head straight to "Voyager."

All that is about to change, as the animated series "Star Trek: Lower Decks" — which returned this week with its season 3 premiere — is headed to Deep Space Nine this season. Meanwhile, the upcoming "Picard" season 3 has assembled a whole heap of "Next Generation" cast members, including Michael Dorn as Worf, which has some inquiring minds wanting to know whether we might not see Quark in live-action or animated form again at some point in the future. Shimerman addressed the potential return of Quark head-on in a recent convention appearance at Fanboy Expo (via TrekMovie.com), where he said:

"I would happily do it. I would not do a series regular again. I would not undergo that makeup for another seven years. I can't live that long. But for a guest star or to do what they're going to do on 'Picard' with some of the characters coming back … Yeah, I would do that. But! They'd have to pay me like they paid Michael Dorn."

Other DS9 Characters

Michael Dorn is one of the first actors of the modern "Star Trek" era to enjoy a second act as his Klingon character, Worf, who joined "Deep Space Nine" with its fourth season in 1995, the year after "The Next Generation" concluded its run. Shimerman and Dorn co-starred together on "Deep Space Nine" for the next four years, and Shimerman said at the convention that Dorn remains one of his closest friends and that they see each other "on a regular basis." So his comment about wanting to be paid as much as Dorn appears to be more of an offhand joke — laced with a bit of truth, maybe, from an actor who knows his value playing a profit-minded Ferengi.

In 2018, someone wanted so badly to see Shimerman in full Quark regalia again that they paid a generous sum to fly him and his original "Deep Space Nine" makeup artist, Karen Weserfield, out to Birmingham, England, to appear at another "Trek" convention. So Quark has already reappeared at least once in a real-life capacity, and it remains to be seen whether that will translate into a canonical, live-action "Trek" appearance for Quark or other "Deep Space Nine" characters.

René Auberjonois, who played Quark's Changeling nemesis, Odo, sadly died in late 2019, but there are other surviving "DS9" characters that it might be good to see again, such as Nana Visitor's Kira, Alexander Siddig's Dr. Bashir, or even Avery Brooks' Captain Sisko, who ended the series with a promise to return in "maybe a year, maybe yesterday." Until then, a simple HD remaster for "Deep Space Nine" would be nice, and in the meantime, we'll be watching the skies — and "Lower Decks," of course — for signs of animated Klingon and Ferengi life.

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