Star Trek

Vic reaches out

A holographic character popular in one of Quark's holosuites on Deep Space 9, created by Julian Bashir's friend Felix. Vic Fontaine was a "lounge singer" who, in the simulation, ran a nightclub in the Earth city of Las Vegas, circa 1962. He was modelled after 20th-century entertainers such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and had a repertoire of swing-era songs that he performed with his band, such as "Come Fly With Me," "All the Way" and "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You." The Fontaine hologram was programmed to be highly perceptive of the intricacies of interpersonal relationships, and in that capacity proved to be a valuable mentor to many residents of DS9. He helped Odo express his feelings toward Kira, which launched their romantic relationship. He helped Nog regain his sense of purpose after an emotionally debilitating injury in the Dominion war. As a gift to Vic, Nog talked his uncle Quark into letting his program run around the clock, 26 hours a day. Felix programmed Fontaine as a heuristic, fully interactive hologram, making him self-aware as a collection of photons and forcefields. In fact, his program was so sophisticated that Vic had the ability to turn himself on and off at will, and even appear in another holosuite if he so desired.

In 2375, a problem arose for Fontaine in the form of a mobster character named Frankie Eyes, who bought out the hotel Fontaine performed in and threatened to blackball him out of Vegas. Frankie Eyes was a "jack-in-the-box" that Felix included in the holosuite program to shake things up and keep it interesting. Since the program wouldn't allow the deletion of the character, and since resetting the program would wipe out all of Vic's memories on DS9, users were forced to play along and help Vic defeat his foe in a way that was period-specific. To keep their friend's matrix from being permanently eliminated, the DS9 crew got involved in an elaborate scheme to frame Frankie Eyes, and succeeded in restoring normalcy to Vic's environment.

Late that same year, after the end of the Dominion war, Vic hosted a victory party in his bar that also served as a farewell for Chief O'Brien, Odo and Worf. During that party he sang an emotional rendition of "The Way You Look Tonight."