Basically the Ferengi swoop in steal some machinery from a Fed Base and are pursued by the Enterprise until they reach this weird planet (that’s not the weird bit) which snares them both like a spider web, draining their power.
At first each side thinks the other is responsible, this is the first meeting of Ferengi & Humans and it hasn’t got off to a very good start they eventually realise that something on the planet has trapped them and both crews get down there to investigate finding an ancient security system of a long extinct star empire. (read: superior being) Riker makes his case to the superior being and he lets them all go. Yay
It’s a good episode but it takes forever to get going, you could virtually just cut out the first two acts and have them all down on the planet and you’d have a much better show, there are also lots of dumb questions which arise like…
Why has nobody ever seen a Ferengi yet they know of their existence?
I mean usually it’s the other way around right? In Encounter at Farpoint, Zorn makes some threat to go shop his operation to the Ferengi, why didn’t someone there ask if he could set up a meeting, surely first contact with the Ferengi is a higher priority than Farpoint station??
Why do the Ferengi need to steal?
Given that here they are presented as a blatant manifestation of corporate greed, why would they need to steal something. Even people who say that big corporations rob you blind at least admit they do it to your face.
Laser Whips???
Didn’t these guys watch Indiana Jones, long range weapon beats short range everytime (except in Star Wars!) I notice after this ep they were never seen again.
Cheeky Monkey’s
Also never seen again, the Director of the episode, what was the reaction I wonder when they watched the dailies featuring dudes with massive ears jumping around like those monkeys in Thailand who steal your wallet? (or in this case your T9 energy converter!) Just goes to show there’s a really fine line between alien and camp.
France???
I’m sorry – there’s still a French flag?? Picard gets into a big slanging match over whose flag is better, France or Americas, it’s just dumb, this is called padding people.
Chinese Finger Traps!
A lot of countries represented today – I liked this better, although other reviewers are right it is a weak joke that Data gets caught in the stupid thing, the device is a neat mirror of the shows plot, the two ships get caught in a trap and Riker gets them out by offering no resistance! Very nice and unusually subtle.
Weird Moment #1
I’ll be tallying these up as the series progresses but this really was too much, the ship’s life support is failing, it’s getting hotter and the air may eventually run out, Dr Kevorkian, err Crusher, discussed euthanizing her son (that’s Wesley) to spare him the pain of dying WTF!!!???? Did I hear this right?? We’re four episodes in and she already wants to kill the poor boy, perhaps she logged onto alt.trek.net or something and they got to her – who knows! Whatever your feelings towards Wesley this is just a really appalling moment.
OVERALL
Good idea, some really good moments between Riker & Portal and some shockingly bad moments from everyone else. In four episodes we’ve had two plagues, two life support failures and two god-like beings not a good look…
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