Rant: Enterprise: Acquisition

[tuftears]

Since I started playing Star Trek Online the other month, I had a yen to watch the old Star Trek shows. My bro lent me a bunch of DVDs, and Enterprise was the only complete series in there, so... Sure, I'll start there.

I'm almost done with the first season. In general, Enterprise is really hitting the good old Star Trek nostalgia vibes. I've really enjoyed the feel of old-school nuts and bolts rather than the 'so future it's magic' feel of TNG. That said, there's this one episode that simply appalled me.

It's the one with the Ferengi.

In a word: there's no way that Ferengi developed warp technology. They are idiots. This episode made me want to bite the script writers.

I get the basic joke behind the Ferengis, they're hypercapitalists, obsessed with the pursuit of wealth. Sure. That's cool. But they can't be *stupid* because that's directly counterproductive, otherwise they'd be getting fleeced left and right by the smarter races, who should have all the advantage of their past experimentation with capitalism and knowing what breaks the capitalist model. Pillaging random stuff off of the Enterprise and stealing *perishable food* in the same "loot bag" as all the more durable equipment is just the mark of total amateurs who shouldn't be trusted with their own ship.

Sell the Enterprise the equivalent of the Brooklyn Bridge, that's a much better story. Or trick the crew into bumping into your ship, have the pre-stressed nacelle fall off, then charge them indemnities until their wallets cry. They are *capitalists*, not raiders like the Nausicaans. There are a thousand and one scams that would have made better episodes than this tripe that made me want to weep every time barely literate Ferengi struggled with technology that should be similar to their own.

Not that I like the Ferengis, but good writing can make you respect an enemy even though they're still on the opposite side. Bad writing just makes you want to stop watching.

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

The middle-end of Enterprise is some truly awesome writing. Alas, there was enough horrible writing in front of it that people had given up on the show before the new writers turned it around. :/

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Over the past couple of years I've watched all of the Star Trek series (including the animated one!) from start to finish... except Enterprise. A friend of mine tried to watch it and was telling me about blue Nazis and then he couldn't even finish watching it, just gave up because it was so bad. After listening to his complaints I decided I didn't need to see it. :D

Are you arguing that the Ferengi are idiots and could not develop warp technology? Or was that the premise of the show? Because I'd have to disagree with that, the Ferengi are really smart.

(I actually love the Ferengis, the episodes with them were among my favorites on Deep Space 9.)

[zorinlynx.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember that episode.

I think the best way to explain the situation is that these PARTICULAR Ferengi were criminals, and not very bright. They were, after all, robbing the ship and behaving like idiots. Just like we have stupid criminals on Earth, I'd kind of expect there to be stupid criminals of each species in a galaxy populated by a number of sentient races.

Of course, being that I saw that episode so long ago, maybe my explanation doesn't work; perhaps these Ferengi are on an official mission or something. But it's a shot, right? :)

[caffeinewabbit.livejournal.com]

I think there's an unwritten rule somewhere that Ferengi based episodes have to be bad by law or something. Ever see DS9's Profit and Lace? Quark, Rom and Nog are great characters in and of themselves, but holy God was that episode horribly unwatchable. Armin Shimerman officially disowned it.

I watched Enterprise for a little while, but it ultimately felt like a great premise completely squandered. As soon as the words "Temporal Cold War" were spoken, my enthusiasm dimmed, because I've always hated time travel in Trek. It's a beef I have with the reboot too (even though I like it for the most part) - we're already interested in the idea of what came before TOS, you don't need to add all this dumb time travel nonsense to it, just tell us the stories!