Wanderlust

1.5 – “The Last Outpost”

1.5 – “The Last Outpost”

100 Word Review: The Enterprise meets the Ferengi for the first time, by coincidence, inside the sphere of influence of a planet housing the automated overwhelming technical superiority of a dead empire. Before this technology destroys both ships, the two cultures must learn to cooperate long enough to hurl ponderous speeches back and forth and be tested by Monty Python’s Bridge of Death. This episode is a race to the bottom. Which element is worst? My vote is Riker’s smarminess, because we know he’ll be back next week. 

Other Thoughts Watching this episode now, one year after writing that, I enjoyed it a little more. When you know what’s coming, you tend to roll with it and notice all the pretty things happening on screen.

The new Enterprise is beautiful, isn’t it? The bridge doesn’t have the sense of busy drama from the Original Series (all those Yeomen with clipboards!)–it’s kind of a soothing, low-stimulation lounge space, but very attractive. The effects on the visual readouts are cool, and the spectacle of the large Ferengi head looming from the gigantic viewscreen over Picard is one of many striking images. At one point I noticed them doing an nifty camera move where they motion track the camera to Picard as he walks forward, while the bridge recedes in the background. 

The bit where Riker doesn’t flinch while the axe swings at his head is awesome. And some of the words spoken are very nice, if patronizing. The small things about the episode are good–it’s just the big things that suck.

The Ferengi. Look. Awful! They were supposed to be the new Klingons of TNG, fearsome villains, but they just come off as a big, unpleasant joke (I want a laser whip, though). The Keeper of the Bridge of Death–I mean, Portal 63–is just too much. And the exposition is far too convenient. A civilization of trillions of people does not get wiped out by one supernova. If this happened hundreds of thousands of years ago, how does the Federation know about it? Why haven’t they bothered to check out the area before? It’s far too pat. Thanks to Chrissie’s amazing transcript site (http://www.chakoteya.net/index.html) I can tell exactly how many times someone in the cast said “Yankee Traders”–five times too many. 

When you know all these things are coming, you mostly don’t worry about them, and enjoy the episode for what it offers. Last year, though, I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes and snickering.

 

Grade: Fail.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Last_Outpost

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6 responses to “1.5 – “The Last Outpost””

  1. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Can you be racist against a race that doesn’t actually exist?   I believe this episode nicely answers that question with a resounding YES.

    I did not like Picard surrendering within the first 20 minutes twice within the first 4 episodes.  I did not like him passing out while waiting for Riker to save him.  I did like the Ferengi mistaking his message as one telling them to surrender.  That was the only enjoyable moment for me.  Also nice face make-up on the alien drawbridge-keeper.

    Data finger trap scene annoyed me.  Why can they not respect this character?  He has trouble with human idioms, not basic principles of physics.

    Sigh.  Hoping this gets better…

    Reply
  2. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    The Federation does have a flag! The writers seem to think the future will be just like the John Lennon song: no country, no possessions, the only Heaven in outer space (see next episode).

    Totally agree that the Ferengi are racist caricatures of themselves. I’m tempted to say there’s influence from antisemetic ideas, but that might be going too far. Antisemetic or not, this again reflects badly on the writing and production team, and makes me wonder, were they under a big rush at the beginning of the season or something?

    Totally agree that Picard is being depicted as far too anxious to surrender. I wonder if this was done deliberately, as an answer of sorts to the caricature of Kirk as being too aggressive/militaristic (which I would dispute, but the idea is out there).

    Reply
  3. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Part of the problem: the original script idea seems to have been that the Ferengi are behind on the social evolution scale. They’re at the obscure 18th century Yankee Trader level, while Riker & Co. have evolved to a 26th century state of development, where they can finally understand Sun Tzu (who probably died around 500 BC). Of course, the appalling depiction of the Ferengi as hyperactive ferrets blows any comparison to real human history out of the water. But even if you imagine what was originally intended, the whole premise smacks too much of white-man’s-burden style Colonial-era condescension, which, guess what, was used to justify a lot of horrible racism.

    I don’t think we can totally blame the depiction of the Ferengi on the episode director (Richard Colla) and Armin Shimerman (who played the lead Ferengi and was eventually cast as Quark in Deep Space 9). A lot of it comes from the makeup design. Ferengi is a good made-up alien word, though. I’ll give them that.

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  4. sunny jim Avatar
    sunny jim

    I was laughing, again, this time, at the scene where Riker has to shoo a couple of kids out of the observation lounge…which is right off the bridge.  Did nobody notice that a couple of small children were missing?  Or that they snuck onto the bridge and into the observation lounge.  It seems to me that the general security of the Enterprise could be better – like, maybe the bridge doors only open for authorized personnel?  Regardless, that little piece of business had one purpose only:  to get a chinese finger puzzle into Data’s hands.  (And by the way – isn’t he so strong that he could just tear that thing apart to get his fingers free?)

    The Ferengi are horrible in this episode.  All the hunched-over, finger-waving, weird posturing.  And we get more of the writers’ pervasive sexism.  On the other hand, we do get some very unsubtle bits of the Crusher/Picard relationship, which they were very heavy-handed with at first.  It always struck me as weird that they went straight for the romance angle there – since supposedly, the only time they met previously was when Picard told Crusher that her husband was dead.

    I did like the button on the end of the episode, however – sending a carton of finger puzzles over to the Ferengi ship.

    Reply
  5. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Could not agree more!  Another example of writers having no respect for the characters and poking cheap fun that does not even make sense.  I watched a few episodes ahead and am relieved to report that it seems to get better within another 4 or 5 episodes….

    Reply
  6. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    The design of the Ferengi is all giant ears, giant nose, giant teeth, looks like a rodent–small wonder the actors played them as overly sensual with small brain capacity. BUT THEY HAVE SPACE SHIPS.

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