By BRYAN SCHWARTZMAN

Max’s Ferengi Bar Mitzvah: Lighting the candles are brother Barry and sister Caryn.

No, we’re not referring to the hit movie "Men in Black," in which creatures from the four corners of the galaxy congregated in Flushing Meadows. Nor are we referring to the exploits of Queens’ First Daughter Ellen Shulman Baker, who has called her mother Claire from orbit on more than one occasion.

Just a few doors away from Claire’s office at Borough Hall, Senior Administrator Barry Grodenchik is communicating with an extra terrestrial – his older brother Max.

For the past seven years, Max has been stationed on a space station in the furthest reaches of charted space. This May he will wrap up his tour on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."

Deep Space Nine premiered in January, 1993 as the second spin-off of Gene Roddenberry’s original sci-fi classic. Since then Max has appeared in six episodes a year as a Ferengi named Rom. While Rom exhibits ‘the nice guy persona; the Ferengi species is infamous for being manipulative and greedy. The sacred Ferengi text is not comprised of commandments or parables, but "Laws of Acquisition."

The Ferengi take capitalism to the extreme — a perfect example would be Rom’s profit minded older brother Quark, the proprietor of the space station’s bar. But like any other species, no two Ferengi are alike, and even Quark has his charming moments. Rom on the other hand is a character you can always root for.

"The writers have really worked to evolve the character. He started out as a bumbling fool under his brother’s thumb, but then he really started to stand up for himself," Max said.

"He first forms a bar workers union, then fights to get his son an education and into Star Fleet, and ultimatly leaves the bar and becomes and engineer," Max added.

The Tale of Two Brothers

Brothers Max and Barry Grodendrik (top) may not look alike, but the resemblance becomes apparent when Max puts on his Ferengi make-up (bottom).

Barry says his relationship with his on-screen brother is very different from his relationship with his real life brother.

"My brother is a terrific guy who worked in acting a long time before he received any recognition," said Barry about his Star Fleet brother.

The two were born in the Bronx and grew up in Queens before taking two very different but equally difficult roads toward success. They grew up on Parsons Boulevard in the Pomonok apartment complex. Gary Ackerman and Board of Education member Terri Thomson lived right across the street.

"We’re not really that different," said Barry. "Our father taught us to do what made us happy, and we both did."

Barry said their father Nathan encouraged and pushed them to excel in school, possibly because he never finished his own education.

Max got his introduction to acting at John Bowne High School’s annual Sing competition. "I started out as a writer, but then I didn’t like the way people were acting my scripts," said Max, who currently resides in Glendale, California. "I said I can do that, and in my senior year at Sing I made my acting debut."

In college, Max started out at the University of Buffalo as a music major, but later decided it was too difficult. "I switched to a Theater major because it was the easy way out; I got four credits for acting in a play, which is what I wanted to do anyway."

Barry thought his brother might end up in medical school, but people seemed to like Max’s performances so he kept acting.

Barry was interested in news and history when he was younger, but was never sure he would wind up in politics.

"My brother always had a sense of world and political events, I certainly didn’t have that, growing up" Max said. For a while, Barry seemed to be headed in a journalistic direction.

He attended Binghamton University, where he edited the student newspaper, and spent some time after college writing for a horse racing magazine.

But analyzing horse racing turned out not to be his calling. In 1986, Barry was galvanized by politics when he worked for Mark Green’s senatorial campaign. After Green’s loss to D’Amato, he spent a year traveling Europe and Israel before dedicating himself to politics.

He worked for Assembly member Nettie Mayersohn and Governor Cuomo before getting a call from the Borough President. For the past eight years he has been in charge of all the scheduling and correspondence in Borough Hall.

While he may run for an elected office someday, Barry says for now he’s happy being behind the scenes. He lives just off the Long Island Expressway in Fresh Meadows with his wife and son.

Max had never been a fan of Star Trek, and in 1990 when he auditioned for an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" he had just one question.

"I had no idea what a Ferengi was," Max said.

His roommate and his brother gave him an over-the-top description of a profit seeking, greedy species. He got the job.

In fact he played a Ferengi so well he was called back for numerous episodes until the show went off the air in 1994. When it was announced a new Star Trek series was in production, Max was called in to read for the part of Quark, a principal character.

A steady job on a sure hit like Star Trek is what many actors dream about, but it was not to be. Instead he was cast as Rom, an important reoccurring character but not one who appeared every week.

At first it took three hours to apply the makeup for each episode, but now they have it down to about two, said Max. "It’s not that bad. I read through my lines. They use surgical adhesive and on my face, and about 20 minutes later, it gets comfortable," he said.

But the most difficult part of the shoot is hearing the other actors; Max’s huge Ferengi ears completely cover his human ones.

The Magic of Star Trek

Blanche Grodenchik knew her son had gotten work, but she had no idea the impact the show was making. While working as a librarian at Queens College, she was approached by a group of students who recognized her name, and wanted to know if she was related to Rom.

"Related," she exclaimed. "He’s my son."

Deep Space Nine is supposed to be a United Federation of Planets space station light years away from earth, a tense world where species from different worlds interact on a daily basis. The show mirrors the complexities of international diplomacy and inter-personal relations.

"That’s the point of the show; we see ourselves reflected from a distance," he said.

Star Trek’s continued success is based in part on its ability to use science fiction both as a medium for entertainment and a vehicle to explore present day issues.

Yet what about fans of Captain Kirk and First Officer Spock–would they appreciate the new shows?

"I think people are biased towards [the show that] show got them interested. I first started watching the Next Generation and I think I know more Next Generation shows than my own," said Max.

When the two hour series finale airs in May, Max will say goodbye to the character he has played for seven years.

"Harrison Ford’s next project will come to him and he will chose, but all actors are anxious about what their next project will be. The situations are not so different," he said.

With only a few episodes left in production, Max will put on the makeup only a few more times.... unless of course they decide to make a movie.