Contrary to what one might expect from her on-screen character, Mary Kay Adams, who played Quark's wife Grilka, in The House of Quark and Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places, is a very sweet and warm woman, as eager and thrilled to talk about her work on the show as we were able to her about it."I've been quoted before," says Adams, "and I maintain this. I think working on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the most fun I have in Hollywood. I say this very honestly. I am particularly very fond of the Paramount lot, for it's history and set-up, and for the community feel. The first time I walked onto the set of ST:DS9, I kept saying 'Pinch me. Pinch me, I'm on Star Trek'. I was very excited, very happy. I really like the entire environment on the show."

Fans will recall the events of The House of Quark, which sees Quark forced to marry the fiery Klingon in order to preserve her house following the accidental death of her husband. During the events of the episode, Quark is able to set events straight regarding the death of Grilka's husband, and as a reward is let out of the marriage and Grilka is allowed to lead her own house - unusual for a Klingon female. In Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places, Grilka returns to the station to seek Quark's help as she is facing financial difficulties. Ironically, the two begin to court, and events culminate in the couple being locked in a passionate embrace.

"I call him a king among men," says Adams of Armin Shimerman. "Now Armin and I laugh because I became so superlative when I speak of him. I love him very much, as an actor and as a friend. Whenever I get a copy of an interview with me that's been published, I send it to him, and he'll send a note back saying 'Thank you for your wonderful comments about Saint Shimerman.' There is no limit to the words I can use to describe Armin."

'Saint Shimerman' quickly won Adams over with his almost legendary on-set hospitality. "The first time that I sat in the chair," Adams recalls, "and they were applying the Klingon make-up, Armin came over to me, before we were even on camera, and he said 'This is going to be a very long day, and as the day goes on, you're going to feel more and more disorientated because of all the stuff they're going to put on you. It happens to everyone. It happens to me. If there's ever a moment where you feel really unsure, or if you don't know what's going on, take me aside and we'll work through it.' I was so touched by his kindness and his honesty. Being a guest star can be kind of hard. A lot of times you walk into the middle of a well-oiled machine, and they don't know you, and they don't really want to know you and are like 'Here. Catch up.' That moment meant the world to me."

Adams was also struck by how much fun she and everyone else seemed to have on set. "Working on the scene in The House of Quark in which I tell Quark to get his hand off my thigh was great fun. The entire crew kept cracking up every time we did the take. I loved working with Joe Ruskin. I'm a huge fan of his and in the episode he's playing my servant, which was a kick. As I got more comfortable in my make-up, I had fun just walking around the set making the leather skirt of my uniform slap.

"At one point," remembers Adams, "we were taking a golf cart from one sound stage to another across the lot, and after a while I forgot I had all this stuff on my face and head. We were just riding around on this golf cart, and people were passing, and I was waving. They were all looking at me strangely, and I wondered what was the matter with them. Suddenly I realized 'Oh, I'm a Klingon. Of course.' Those are the fun moments. After a while it just comes naturally to me. I'm flirting with guys on the set, and not thinking twice about it. Then suddenly I realize that they don't really know what I look like under all the make-up."

Adams' love for Star Trek actually pre-dates her appearances on the show by a rather wide margin, starting when she was a child. "I grew up as a huge fan of the original series. The U.S.S. Enterprise was always really close to my heart. I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation and some ST:DS9. When I was a little kid I was very into all the alien races and the whole structure of the show."

Her enthusiasm for Star Trek springs from a love for her entire genre of science fiction, a love which she attributes to her father's influence. "I'm a fan of science fiction and I suppose one of the reasons that Star Trek was such a big deal with my brother, sister and I was that my dad was such a big science fiction fan. All through my childhood my dad was Mr. Science Fiction. I remember going to see 2001 when I was a little girl. I didn't understand it at the time, as I was too young, but I remember it well. My dad was a big Arthur C. Clarke fan. Every Christmas we'd buy his books, and Harlan Ellison's. I was at a convention last week, and somebody asked if I had read much of Arthur C. Clarke's work. I can't honestly say that I have, but I am a fan of the genre for sure."

For Adams, much of the thrill of science fiction comes from looking at peoples' speculations about the future and seeing how they line up with actual Human progress. "It kicks me in the head, because now, in 1997, the stuff we read about as kids is everyday technology. It knocks me out. Some men in Ohio were telling me about how they have developed a three-dimensional fax. They can fax a three-dimensional object. That's just amazing to me. It's a thrill. When I was a little girl, we didn't even have touch tone phones. Now, I'm connected to thousands of people on the internet. It's just great."

Adams had an extensive career in theatre and television prior to her appearance on Star Trek. "I grew up on the East Coast. I went to Emerson College. I graduated with a BFA and went to New York, immediately going into a Shakespearean repertory company. Within about a year of graduating college I landed my first big role on Guiding Light as a contract player named India von Halkhein. From there, while I was on that show, I did get a great deal of theatre in New York. I've done regional theatre as well. I stayed in New York until 1990, and then I come out here and did a pilot straight away. I've done a great deal of television. I did six months on As the World Turns as Neal Alcott."

This leads us to wonder what Adams has been up to lately. "I just finished a play this summer," says the actress. "Now it's back to the process of auditioning and seeing what's out there. I don't have anything on my plate right now, but I am very busy, wonderfully enough, going out every weekend and doing conventions. I find that the science fiction fans are so generous, and absolutely knowledgeable. On my last convention appearance, I nearly had to have an extra suitcase for all the stuff that people gave me! They'd says 'Here, I got this for you.' I was really moved by their generosity. It can be very intense, and also very enjoyable."