The Enterprise is pursuing a Ferengi ship that has stolen a Federation owned MacGuffin device. The Ferengi ship abruptly fires on Enterprise, then turns to face them... and then, suddenly, the power begins to drain. The Enterprise crew worry at first that the Ferengi are more technologically-advanced than they had believed. With power steadily failing, Picard prepares a surrender... only to find, when he contacts the Ferengi, that they believe he is demanding their surrender.
Turning their attention to the planet below, the crew soon discover that it is this planet that is the source of the power drain. Now they will need to cooperate with the untrustworthy Ferengi in order to free both ships from technology left by an ancient empire that was destroyed more than 100,000 years ago...
CHARACTERS
Picard: Abhors the idea of senseless, destructive violence. Faced with the prospect of the Ferengi actually laying claim to technology that can sap away a ship's power, he is willing to surrender - too willing, given that this makes three times in four episodes that Picard has offered or prepared to offer a surrender. He is not above a bit of deception, however, and waits to let the Ferengi know that Enterprise is not actually draining their power.
Riker: Studied Sun-Tzu's The Art of War at the Academy, and applies its lessons to good effect, both with the Ferengi and with the guardian of the titular outpost. Comes up with almost all the ideas in this episode - using the brief gap between acting and being stopped to try to escape, the facedown with the guardian - and leads the Away Team. Given that this is not the first time in four episodes that Riker has saved the day while Picard has sat around on his captain's chair, viewers could be forgiven for considering Riker the lead, and Picard comedy relief. Now if only Riker actually had a bit more characterization...
The Enterprise Crew: Geordi reveals a sarcastic streak in this episode... repeatedly, to the point where it becomes a bit tiresome. Data's divide between machine and human is exploited for comedy value with the Chinese finger puzzles (which, given the screen-time devoted to them, I was frankly surprised played no role in the climax. I figured Data would end up confounding the Ferengi with them). Worf is a Klingon, and he wants to fight, because he's a Klingon. In fairness, that's more than Worf has gotten in any preceding episode. Wesley is... MIA, meaning no "Brats in Space" entry this time. Finally, Tasha gets a strong entrance when she faces down the Ferengi with a phaser, and a great facial reaction to the Ferengi's disgust that she wears clothing.
Villain of the Week: This episode introduces the Ferengi, and makes the massive miscalculation of trying to make them in some way sinister. With their diminutive size and Dumbo-like ears, you'd have thought they were comedy creations from the start... but nope, this episode actually wants us to take them seriously (well, at least until the last five minutes). Thankfully, they were retooled for later appearances. They are decidedly ineffective as villains.
THOUGHTS
Ugh.
Perhaps a little better than Code of Honor. But that's hardly an accolade. This episode is painfully slow, for starters, and the entire Enterprise crew appear to have been given complimentary lobotomies prior to the episode's start. Why else does it take more than a quarter of the episode for anyone to suggest the obvious: that it just might be a good idea to see if the power failure has something to do with the planet below?
Oh, and is Counsellor Troi the most useless Trek character ever? "I sense an alien mind," she says in Encounter at Farpoint. "I sense drunkenness," she says in The Naked Now. "Tasha is very attractive," she helpfully informs the blind in Code of Honor. And here? "I sense nothing," followed by whining about the cold later on. I'm sure she improves as a character when the show improves... in what? Two, three more seasons? Right now, I'd rank her down there with Enterprise's Mayweather as an utterly useless character.
It all culminates in a confrontation between the regulars and the Ferengi for the favors of the Bridge Keeper from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, on an alien world that's possibly less convincingly realized than many of the alien worlds from TOS. But not before Geordi makes a dozen snarky asides, with no superior officer ever even hinting at reprimanding him for them, not before Data wastes minutes of screen time playing with Chinese finger puzzles, and not before the Ferengi leer at Tasha, saying that clothing females "invites others to unclothe them." Well, all right, that last was amusing - particularly when Tasha rather violently invites them to try it.
It all ends with a philosophical discussion between The Bridge Keeper and Riker, while the Ferengi - for no readily apparent reason - hop around like monkeys, complete with ape noises, in the background.
You know, I take it back. This was just as bad as Code of Honor. Maybe worse. The seriously flawed, but generally entertaining Enterprise was the franchise killer, while this show came to be revered in many quarters as "superior to the original?" From what I've re-experienced thus far, if the network had pulled the plug on this after 13 episodes, I'd have fully understood.
Rating: 2/10.
Previous Episode: Code of Honor
Next Episode: Where No One Has Gone Before
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