"We Didn’t Laugh": Star Trek’s Quark Actor Explains DS9 Cast’s Big Difference From TNG

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor Armin Shimerman, who played the Ferengi entrepreneur Quark, explained how different DS9‘s set was from Star Trek: The Next Generation’s. DS9 featured a sprawling ensemble cast led by Avery Brooks as Captain Benjamin Sisko, and it was markedly unlike TNG in a number of ways. This extends to the culture and behavior of DS9‘s set, as The Next Generation‘s cast was legendary for being rambunctious and filled with laughter, which carried over into Star Trek: Picard season 3. But laughter and frivolity weren’t the norm on DS9‘s set.