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One of my players is going to play a female Ferengi in my new campaign. She never watched much DS9 and as such has a limited perspective on the race and their culture.
So as always I turn to all of you and I ask you for what you think are the best Ferengi episodes and why?
Thanks in advance.
For me right now "Treachery, Faith and the Great River" is the best one I can think of off the top of my head :) I love the concept of the Great Material River :)
Personally, I think the first episodes with the Nagus were interesting (The Nagus and Rules of Acquisition).
Then Ferengi love songs and Family Business, while of discutable quality IMHO, are very interesting for showing life on Ferenginar.
Y'know, I'll go way off-track and suggest "the Jem'Hadar", even though many wouldn't consider it a Ferengi Episode.
"House of Quark", while not about the Ferengi per se, is a good one for showing how Ferengi can be honourable.
Unfortunately, most Ferengi episodes sucked, primarily because they beat the one-joke "look how primitive they are compared to the enlightened Federation" concept so far into the ground it is now poking out of Australia...
'Rules of Aquisition', and 'Family Business' best show a female's position in pre-Rom Ferengi society.
But the best Ferengi episodes in my book are 'House of Quark', and 'The Mangnificent Ferengi'.
I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Enterprise's Acquistion is the best episode to get a feel for a pure Ferengi culture before it bacomes infected with other Humon ideas. DS9's The Magnificent Ferengi also works to show how diverse they can be in there ideals. Voyager's False Profit where the two Ferengi are playing out "The Man Who Would Be King" is pretty good to show how far they might go if allowed to. TNG's Bloodlines shows the depths that Ferengi can feel personal loss and seek vengence for it like any other race.
Hey would you believe that besides the Vulcans and Klingons the Fernegi are the only other race to have been seen in all four post TOS series so far.
I'm with Eric on this one...Acquisition .
It showed them in a different light, if only for the "...you should have managed your businesses better..." line. I've always seen them as less plodding and silly than they are protrayed. I see them as highly ideological (capitalist) and very motivated. They play dmb, because the UFP views the capitalist impulse as primitive, and their looks lead people think they're thickies.
I run them smart, cut-throat, and very savvy; woe to the person who underestimates them.
I liked Rules of Acquisition and Profit and Loss (though the later is not a Ferengi episode as such). Why? Well, for once the Ferengi (specially Quark) were not portrayed as complete idiots.
Enterprise's Ferengi episode wasn't bad either, but AFAIR, Aslan was planning to play in a post DS9 setting. IMBW mind you.
OK, I can never remember the names of episodes, so someone has probably already mentioned this one. But one Ferengi episode I was pretty impressed by was the one where Sisko took Jake and Nog camping, and Quark tagged along. Early on, Quark is completely miserable and incompetent (obviously he is not much of a camper), and Sisko is looking down on him as Federation types ALWAYS look down on Ferengi. Eventually Quark gives this speech right back at Sisko saying how humons ALWAYS act superior to Ferengi because Ferengi culture reminds them of human culture a couple of centuries ago. But actually, HUMAN culture - with devastating wars and slavery - was worse. He ends it with a line like "You think we are like you used to be. But we're not. We're BETTER." It has very little to do with females in Ferengi society, but I think that it gives an excellent perspective of how Ferengi see themselves. And also points out how the "enlightened, tolerant" Federation apparently isn't too tolerant of greedy societies.
Bingo! Never saw that episode, but that's the heart of the Ferengi-UFP thing for me -- Federation ideology vs. Ferengi ideology. The Fed are elitists who thing they know best for everyone. Don't play by their rules? They won't deal with you straight.Quote:
Originally posted by LizardQueen
OK, IQuark gives this speech right back at Sisko saying how humons ALWAYS act superior to Ferengi because Ferengi culture reminds them of human culture a couple of centuries ago. But actually, HUMAN culture - with devastating wars and slavery - was worse. He ends it with a line like "You think we are like you used to be. But we're not. We're BETTER." It has very little to do with females in Ferengi society, but I think that it gives an excellent perspective of how Ferengi see themselves. And also points out how the "enlightened, tolerant" Federation apparently isn't too tolerant of greedy societies.
The Ferengi may be cut-throat and profit minded...but if you want to stay in business, you hav to have a modicum of honesty. You can't have the appearance of being criminal. I figure the average Ferengi businessman is fairly honest, but like many large corporations, the bigger economic players in the Ferengi Aliance play it as rough as they like.
The episode in question is none other than The Jem'Hadar (guess which species/galactical power was introduced ;))
'The Mangnificent Ferengi' all the way.