647. AcquisitionFORMULA: The Siege + Rascals + The Magnificent Ferengi
WHY WE LIKE IT: Not a bad little Die Hard.
WHY WE DON'T: Stupid, stupid Ferengi.
REVIEW: The Ferengi make their first chronological appearance in this story, and granted, the name of their species is never spoken. But unless Enterprise was terrible at keeping records and wiped its security tapes every couple days like a convenience store, I'm not sure that's enough to keep The Last Outpost's continuity intact. More than that, if the Ferengi were that close to Near Space, how could no human ever encounter one for the next 200 years? I guess this crew took Archer's threat to heart in a major way, leading to the Alliance actively avoiding humanity. Still a little far-fetched.
Otherwise, it's not a bad Ferengi episode. With the crew knocked out by a gas, Trip gets to do some running around in his underwear à la Die Hard, but he soon gets the help of Jonathan "punching bag" Archer and T'Pol. We've seen the Die Hard set-up before, but a small team of clever officers makes for a refreshing change of pace. The Ferengi can only understand the world in their own terms, and Archer preys on that, acting the part of a bullish captain who only cares about his gold. The plan to lead the Ferengi on a wild good chase looking for the "vault" is fun, clever and elaborate (not sure how it was coordinated though).
Of course, the Ferengi were always going to be defeated. I don't say that because it's episodic television, but because the Ferengi are so divided and stupid. There is no Ferengi moment in Trek as idiotic as when they try to communicate with Archer's dog. (Well, maybe there are, but it's a contender.) Jeffrey Combs plays yet another character (have people stopped submitting resumés or what?), a Rom-type to Ethan "Neelix" Phillips' Quarkish Ulis. That kid who plays Balok also gets a turn. It takes about 11 minutes before someone gets a universal translator out, so we hear a lot of Ferengi. Always interesting and you understand everything anyway. I especially like the early bit where they measure a human's ears. There also seem to be far fewer Rules of Acquisition in this time period (only 173, down from 285), which means somebody got rich on selling new editions.
Though Archer's plan is mostly ruse, there's still some fun action in the episode. The Ferengi whip was never so dynamically realized, for example. Trip bites a Ferengi's ear, showing he's not above fighting dirty. And T'Pol uses the the Vulcan nerve pinch for the first time.
LESSON: T'Pol was undoubtedly the model for Vulcan Love Slave.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: A fun action romp, so long as you don't look at Star Trek continuity too closely.
Comments
Not to start a fight, but a few bits of dialogue in "The Last Outpost" do allow for this episode without continuity conflicts.
Picard asks Data if there is any "hard information on them in any file." Data replies that there is nothing except "hearsay and third-hand reports, most of which conflict."
The Ferengi encounter in this episode could certainly be considered one of those third-hand
reports, especially since Archer failed to learn the name of the
species. If Ferengi activity remains relatively sparse near Earth space for the next 200 years, it may be a while before someone makes the connection.
Also, Data cites that modern scholars compare them to Yankee Traders. This information had to have come from somewhere.
Lastly, there's that matter of "a weather balloon" found in 1947 :-)