`A couple of months ago, I would have said this will be our last season of `DS9,’ ” says Armin Shimerman, a k a Quark. “I’ve been saying the sixth season is the last for a long time.
“I’m now aware, however, that it’s very likely that we’ll have a seventh season. Most of us have agreed to it, though there are one or two very important actors who still haven’t.
“If they don’t, then perhaps this will be the last season. But I think they’ll come around.”
Might one reluctant actor be Avery Brooks?
“Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies,” Shimerman says, smiling conspiratorially as he sits in his trailer on the Paramount lot, where “Deep Space 9” films. His face and ears are raw from the recent removal of his Quark prosthetics and makeup.
Could the other actor be Colm Meaney?
“One of them is Colm,” he acknowledges. “Next question.”
OK, then. What’s in store for Quark this season, which kicks off this week with “A Time to Stand”?
“Our first half-dozen or so shows are devoted to the Cardassian-Federation-war arc, so there’s no Quark-specific episode to speak of,” Shimerman says. “He does have more to do in the latter part of the cycle than the earlier parts.
“Like all of the characters, he’ll become important toward the denouement. I believe there’s an episode planned for Quark based on `The Magnificent Seven,’ with Quark and all of his Ferengi friends, but that’s all I really know about it.
“(Producer) Ira Steven Behr had a spur-of-the-moment epiphany last season, got all excited and talked to me about it. He recently told me it’s still on the boards.”
Shimerman’s relatively light “DS9” workload frees him to work on other projects, and he’s wasted no time taking advantage of that opportunity.
Flip on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and there’s Shimerman as the school principal. Or turn to “The Practice,” and there’s the actor portraying a judge.
During his recent “DS9” hiatus, Shimerman also squeezed in two low-budget films, one of which teams him with “DS9” pals Rene Auberjonois and Jeffrey Combs. He even managed to guest-star as a fairy in a “Stargate SG-1” episode and to work on two novels.
“The first novel is called `The 34th Rule,’ ” he says, noting that the title refers to the Ferengi Rule of Acquisition, which declares “War is good for business.”
“I co-wrote it with David George, and it came about after David, Eric Stillwell and I tried to pitch the idea to the writing staff at `DS9.’
“The second novel is `The Merchant Prince,’ which I’ve been doing with Michael Scott, a writer from Ireland. It’s about a real character from Elizabethan times, Dr. John De, whom we’ve placed in the 21st Century.”
Pocket Books will release “The 34th Rule” next summer, around the time Baen Books publishes “The Merchant Prince.”
“It’s been fun to try my hand at creating characters in a different medium, to do it without acting,” Shimerman says. “It’s made me appreciate a lot more the challenges faced by TV and movie writers, especially the writers on `DS9.’ “
`TREK’ & SCI-FI SPECS
The fantasy film “Warriors of Virtue” arrives on video this week via MGM Home Entertainment. It’s available for $20. . . . In Diane Carey’s latest “Trek” novel, “Ship of the Line,” Capt. Picard teams with his former Cardassian torturer and Montgomery Scott to stop a renegade Starfleet captain from using the Enterprise-E to attack Cardassia Prime. The hardcover novel is available from Pocket Books for $22. . . . Fans of Japanese anime should love the CD-ROM “Gundum 0079: The War for Earth,” in which a player can assume the role of a civilian trapped in the midst of a brutal civil war. Available from Bandai Digital Entertainment for $30.
Places to Trek to Oct. 10-12:
– Farpoint at the Marriott Inn in Hunt Valley, Md., featuring Jonathan Frakes and Mira Furlan. (Call 410-785-7000.)
