The Last Outpost

...But due to this last outpost of the tKon Empire. It was simply, a cool 50's type Science Fiction story stuck in the midst of Trek.

The Ferengi steal a "Worthless T-9 Energy Converter" and The Enterprise D gives chase. They pass a planet and it seems that the Ferengi have got the D in some kind of energy suppressor beam. "We push, they push back" as Geordi tells Riker. This is also a hint that Geordi will eventually be on charge of Engineering, any time we had a 1st season engineering conundrum, Geordi solved it. But here, it's a hint of things to come.

My favorite part of this episode was when they had finally turned their attention on the planet, Data pulls up a rotating stellar map in an ancient language. We can all ask, "If the tKon Empire is out of business, how did Starfleet ever find out about it?" - Well, we forget the United Federation of Planets, of which there are over 150 member worlds. So we can assume one of them had this information that Data pulls up before he gets stuck in an odd "functional Impasse" due to misuse of a Chinese finger-puzzle.

In fact we never saw that same Stellar map ever again, it was used in this episode and only here.

When it becomes plain that The Ferengi are not the cause of the power drain, Picard suggest both ships send away teams down to the Planet. I just loved this planet, it was an image of something truly "alien".

And this is our first view of The Ferengi, Armin Shimmerman who would become Quark is there, but we forget Tracy Walter, who was in an early 80's movie called "Repo Man" - And too bad Tracy only had about 2 lines. Now these original Ferengi, these must have been the "Ferengi Shock Troops" - In Deep Space 9, Quark refers to these original Ferengi as "Marauder Moe" - Adorned in animal skins with cool Phaser-Whips. We never saw the whips, or the uniforms, ever again. Maybe the Uniforms in "The Battle". I see one and only one continuity error- These Original Ferengi show interest in the Gold which encases the Comm badges. Ferengi have no use for worthless gold except for Gold Dust to make bars of latimum which is their main currency. "Gold Pressed Latinum".

But the problem was, these scrodsuckers were just too danged FUNNY for us to believe they were any kind of serious threat to the Federation! Hold that thought, the humor aspect was greatly enlarged, until delved into in Deep Space Nine, where we finally got to see their home planet, and their rules of acquisition, and their leader, Grand Nagus Zek.

And so these buffoons confront the Enterprise away team on this eerie planet, it is a comedy of caricatures.

But mostly I liked this guy named "Portal" who is the guardian of the planet. He swings a mean Axe on Riker! I thought his makeup not up to Westmore's par.

I guess it was just the idea of a forgotten planet, and a sleeping guardian with unmeasurable power that was the attraction for me. If not for Riker's composure, Portal would have obliterated both ships and that would have been the end of the show right there. But Riker's solution to facing Portal was similar to the Chinese finger puzzle, the less effort used, the quicker the release from the dilemma.

"The Last Outpost" marks the first appearance of the Ferengi in the Star Trek shows (though they were mentioned in an earlier one). The Ferengi steal Federation property and when the Enterprise gives chase, the Ferengi decide to fight and are FAR more aggressive than they'd be in future episodes. In this case, they begin fighting. However, the Enterprise soon is stuck in some sort of tractor beam...and so is the Ferengi ship. Who's behind this and how will they break free? And, is it even possible to work with the treacherous Ferengi to find a solution?

This was a very good episode. It was intelligently written and showed a different sort of Enterprise than you normally saw in the previous series. However, it also ushers in a LONG (and occasionally annoying) number of episodes where the Enterprise is amazingly passive and non- violent--as if the future human race has perfected itself. This represents the philosophy of the new series--one that seemed to be a bit too much at times (as I preferred Kirk's less philosophical way of dealing with aliens).

Extreme alien makeup - untypical for Star Trek shows. Usually, a yellow skin means android, pointy ears means a Vulcan alien ... Ferengis have giant ears and huge bumps for heads. Their spirit changes dramatically in later episodes. In this episode, they are characterised as warmongers, permanently armed with whips. In later episides in TNG, Deep Space Nine and Voyager (!), they become greedy monsters. Their confusing, inconsistent entrance in this episode might be intentional: If you, as a race, have something to hide, you mischaracterise yourself. As warmongers, if you think you can retain that image. Else you'll get blown to pieces. The Ferengi possibly misjudged the Federation's potential to annihilate the Ferengi. After all, unlike Romulans and Klingons, the Federation don't have cloaking devices with their space vessels.

Enterprise pursues a Ferengi ship.

There is half a decent episode in 'The Last Outpost', but it's problems are what will probably be remembered.

The plot is good, with a number of decent concepts and themes. I love the idea of reflecting of human capitalism and nationalism by introducing the Ferengi species and in theory what transpires on the planet. Unfortunately, how it's portrayed on screen doesn't always work.

The early scenes, before the appearance of the Ferengi, are the strongest. I enjoyed the discussions on the bridge comparing the Ferengi to the worst aspects of the Earth capitalism and the historical reflections on when Earth was organised into nation states. The tactical discussions are a bit exposition heavy but still enjoyable. Seeing Picard working to avoid conflict as others advise fighting is always enjoyable, likewise his negotiations with the Ferengi. It's not perfect, such as Geordie going into an OTT nerdgasm and Data having some rather silly moments, but generally, there is an excellent set up for what happens on the planet surface.

It's when the story moves to the planet that everything starts to go downhill. As other reviewers have stated the Ferengi are hideously annoying in their verbal and physical performances. Likewise the scenes on board the Enterprise as life support starts to fail are pretty uninspired, with many bland dialogues involving Picard and Dr Crusher. How it's all resolved is morally very sound, but not particularly cinematic.

I enjoyed most of the visuals. The sets used for the planet have an old fashioned feel to them reminiscent of the original series. I like Data's map projection sequence. The Ferengi make-up design is excellent. The less said about the laser-whips and TNG era hand-phasers the better.

Performances are a mixed bag for me. Patrick Stewart is great as always, Jonathan Frakes cuts a fine heroic shape and the remaining cast, aside from the Ferengi actors, are mostly solid. Gates McFadden for me struggles with some poorly written dialogue and LeVar Burton strays dangerously close to the line of annoyance.

Overall, for me this episode has slightly more good than bad in it, so I rate it as a 5.5/10, but I round upwards.

The Enterprise make their first contact with the Ferengi, a capitalist and many-eared alien species hostile to the Federation. When both ships are caught in an apparent stablemate above a supposedly dead planet, it turns out both ships must work together to free themselves.

If the Ferengi were intended to be TNG's resident baddies then this was not the way to go about it. The Ferengi - led by Shimerman as a pre-Quark character - look rather silly with their odd poses and unconvincing energy whips (which were never seen again). Gives the impression that nobody really knew how to portray them or even what they were. Not a bad episode but not a classic.