Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places

"Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" is the third episode of the fifth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, originally airing on October 14, 1996 in broadcast syndication.

Quark wishes to pursue Grilka romantically, but is ignorant of Klingon mating rituals, so he asks Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) for help.

Worf, eager to prove himself capable of courting a Klingon woman, joins Dax in coaching Quark to win Grilka's affections.

In a subplot, Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) is faced with the increasingly uncomfortable situation of Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) carrying his baby and living with him and his wife, Keiko (Rosalind Chao) (see "Body Parts").

[1] "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" drew inspiration from the 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac,[1] in which a brilliant Frenchman, resigned to the fact that the woman he adores will never be able to look past his distractingly large nose, helps another man win the lady's heart by dictating beautiful language from nearby.

[1] "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" was directed by Andrew Robinson, who plays the Cardassian Elim Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

[3][4] Challenged with inventing an original way for Quark to survive the fight without directly paralleling prior material, writers devised a "holographic puppeteer" system.

[5] Dan Curry, who originally designed the bat'leth and helped developed Klingon fighting techniques, was instrumental in choreographing the combat scene between Quark and Thopok.

Despite his character's apparent ineptitude at hand-to-hand combat, Shimerman practiced extensively with a bat'leth to make Worf's influence over Quark seem convincing.

He notes that the main plot involving Grilka was "wafer thin" but nonetheless effective in creating humor and introducing the relationship between Dax and Worf.

In addition, Handlen disliked the subplot concerning Miles O'Brien and Major Kira, suggesting that the romantic tension between the two was forced and inconsistent with their personalities.

[10] For the website TrekNation, Michelle Erica Green wrote that she strongly disliked the episode and considered some of its sexual implications "repulsive".

[12] Science fiction writer Keith DeCandido reviewed "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" for Tor.com, lauding Ronald D. Moore's sense of humor on display in the episode, as well as the performances by Nana Visitor and Colm Meaney.

[13] The first home media release of "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" was part of a two-episode VHS cassette alongside "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" in the United Kingdom on October 1, 1999.