Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Rom
Rom didn't have the lobes for business, but his heart was worth its weight in gold-pressed latinum.
Rom only appeared in 35 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's 173 episodes. And yet, over the seven years, he enjoyed some of the best, most thorough, character development of almost anyone in the franchise. In the beginning, Rom was conniving, often mean-spirited, and forever after the bar. He even embezzled from charity!! In short, he was an exemplary Ferengi. By the end, he was a new kind of Nagus, and an all-round loveable guy.
At first depicted as having all the smarts of a self-sealing stem bolt, Rom revealed himself to be an engineering genius, joining Chief O'Brien's team, and eventually the day shift! What he lacked in dexterity on the baseball field, he'd already made up for in the brilliant idea for self-replicating mines. In that, he became a key player in the Dominion War. His bravery during the Occupation of the Station was then only outdone at the last second.
Rom was also a single father to son Nog, and a good one, though initially constrained by the tenets of Ferengi society ("little lady, little lady…"). He went on to become a loving husband to Leeta, too. Both he and Leeta returned to screens most recently in Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Rom's ultimate likeability would have been impossible without that of Max Grodénchik. Speaking in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, the actor had nothing but praise for the imagination of the writers, which always kept him guessing. "I should just leave it to the Blessed Exchequer!" Grodénchik concluded.
For this list, however, the seventh Rule of Acquisition applies — "Keep your ears open". To the Divine Treasury, and beyond!
10. Pair Of Quarks
Before Rom, Max Grodénchik had already played two separate Ferengi characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation — Sovak in Captain's Holiday, and Par Lenor in The Perfect Mate. It was during filming of the latter, Grodénchik told StarTrek.com in 2014, that he got wind from make-up artist Michael Westmore that a new Star Trek show with a Ferengi series regular was in development.
Grodénchik went on to audition, not for the brother, but for Quark. At the callback, the actor thought he had completely ruined his chances and went to sit to sulk outside. He was joined by Armin Shimerman, equally unconfident, who had the following observation:
Here's the good news: it's between only you and me for the role.
You might wonder, like Grodénchik, how anyone could be so sure. Shimerman's reply was simple, but savvy — "Well, we were the only two short people there".
Though he didn't get to play Quark, Grodénchik, magnanimous, noted in The Fifty Year Mission: The Next 25 Years that his disappointment was tempered by "knowing that Armin landed the role". "Thrilled" to be offered Rom, Grodénchik also had "no idea that it would turn into such a recurring role".