Top 20 Episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine #9: The Magnificent Ferengi

Throughout their history on Star Trek, the often conniving and bumbling Ferengi have usually been seen as the butt of many jokes. So it may surprise you to learn that they were originally envisioned as a serious threat to the federation on the level of the Klingons or Romulans. In their debut episode, TNG’s The Last Outpost, they were pitched as a dark reflection of capitalist society. Whereas the altruistic federation had long since renounced the idea of money, the Ferengi were the polar opposite, with their entire society revolving around the acquisition of profit, making them greedy and ruthless. On paper, one would think that this would be a perfect rival for the federation, but unfortunately, the Ferengi were portrayed in such an embarrassingly comical manner that the initial plan completely backfired, and the Ferengi became a joke. However, in today’s episode, Armin Shimmerman, who, in addition to portraying Quark, also portrayed one of the Ferengi from the last outpost, finally gets an opportunity to redeem the Ferengi people.

Our episode opens with Quark, gleefully recounting the tale of successful business negotiation, only to have his thunder stolen by some federation war heroes returning from a dangerous mission. With the wind taken out of his sales, Quark laments his people’s reputation as intergalactic jokes. Worse news soon arrives when Quark learns that his mother, who also happens to be the lover of Grand Nagus Zek, the ruler of the Ferengi alliance, has been kidnapped by the dominion. In the wake of this tragedy, Quark senses an opportunity. Instead of being upstaged by the federation yet again, Quark intends to put together a team of Ferengi to undertake the rescue mission. Quark’s first recruit is, of course, his dim-witted but tech savy brother Rom, followed soon by his nephew, Nog, who by this point in the series has become a combat veteran during the events of the Dominion war. Next, the team recruits Leck, an eliminator which is effectively a Ferengi assassin. Leck’s a bit of a psychopath but he’s a skilled fighter and when he hears they’re going against the Dominion, he leaps at the opportunity to test his skills. Next, Quark recruits cousin Gaila from way back in Business as Usual, who seems to have fallen on hard times since we last saw him. Gaila despises Quark for ruining his life, but his resources as a former arms dealer will prove invaluable to the team, so, in exchange for Quark bailing him out of jail and giving him a cut of the Grand Nagus’s rather sizeable reward, all is forgiven. The final member of the team is Quark’s nemesis, Brunt. Brunt is a Liquidator, which is basically the Ferengi version of an IRS auditor. As one would imagine, a profit based society such as the Ferengi probably hates paying their taxes even more than we humans do so the others aren’t exactly welcoming when Brunt invites himself onto the team, but when he lets slip that he has a ship they can use, he’s let in and the team is complete.

Brunt, by the way, is played by the incredible Jeffrey Combs, who also plays another character on the show, Weyoun, the conniving and sinister right-hand-man to the founders of the Dominion, and so amazing are both the makeup effects and the acting of Combs that if you put Brunt and Weyoun in the same scene, you’d never even guess they were the same person.

Anywho, the mission is underway. Accompanied by Kevan, a dominion agent who’d been captured by the federation in a previous episode, the Ferengi set off to save Quark’s mother. Given Kevon’s underhanded and dishonorable actions in the episode he initially appeared in, I cannot think of a more fitting punishment than the indignities he suffers at the hands of the Ferengi, but that’s a discussion for another time. As you can imagine, the mission goes south pretty much as soon as the Ferengi arrive at the rendezvous sight as Kevan is killed, the Jem’hadar swarm the station and of course, hilarity ensues.

This episode is an absolute blast and while some of that is thanks to the supporting cast, which includes a guest appearance by Iggy Pop, I give a lot of the credit to Armin Shimmerman. As I mentioned at the start of this countdown, Quark is my favorite character in the entirety of the franchise, and much of that can be attributed to Shimmerman’s natural humor and charisma. You really do feel for Quark in this episode. Few are more proud of being Ferengi than Quark is, and all he really wants is for people to see in his people what he sees. His speech to rally his team towards the end of the episode is one of Shimmerman’s best scenes in the series in my opinion. It’s a perfect blend of quick-witted humor and genuinely inspiring confidence in the abilities of his fellow Ferengi. Sure this is a comedy episode, and a great one at that, but it also finally gives the Ferengi their moment in the sun, their moment to finally emerge as the force to be reckoned with that they were meant to be.

Next time, we see what led Kevan to his dismal and undignified fate at the hands of the Ferengi.