star trek original series ferengi

Ferengi history

The logo of the Ferengi Alliance in 3190

Ferengi history was the history of the Ferengi from the planet Ferenginar , whose development can be described with its 10th Rule of Acquisition: " Greed is eternal ". ( DS9 : " Prophet Motive ")

• 1.1 20th century
• 1.2 22nd century
• 1.3 24th century
• 2.1 Battle of Maxia
• 2.2 Delphi Ardu system
• 2.3 Post-first contact
• 3 Contact with the Borg
• 4.1 Business ventures in the Gamma Quadrant
• 4.2 Contact with the Dosi
• 5 Joining the Federation
• 6 32nd century
• 8.1 See also
• 8.2 Background information
• 8.3 External link

Early history [ ]

Gint, the first Grand Nagus, as he appeared in a vision to Quark

Ferengi history reached back at least ten thousand years before the 24th century, which was the time span needed to establish the Ferengi Alliance , the governing body of the Ferengi. ( DS9 : " Little Green Men ") There was a time when the Ferengi's acquiring nature was not so pronounced and was less adversarial - a time, in fact, when the Ferengi were not greedy but were extremely generous. ( DS9 : " Prophet Motive ")

At some point in the distant past, Ferengi and Dopterians diverged from each other. ( DS9 : " The Forsaken "; TNG : " Firstborn ")

Compared to Human history , the Ferengi developed many features of a modern economy earlier, already having currency , banking , speculative investments , and a unified global economy by around 2700 BC. An important event of early Ferengi history was the creation of the Rules of Acquisition by the first Grand Nagus , Gint . ( DS9 : " Little Green Men ", " Body Parts ")

Gint's lifetime or when the Rules of Acquisition were first created was never mentioned on-screen. However, if he is considered the founder of the Alliance, this might imply Gint lived at least ten thousand years before the 24th century.

While the Rules of Acquisition enshrined fundamental principles of Ferengi society, such as greed and materialism , Ferengi history avoided atrocities such as slavery , concentration camps , and interstellar wars . However, their social evolution created a society that was far from being liberal , with an extremely misogynistic attitude that denied females their most fundamental rights. ( DS9 : " Rules of Acquisition ", " Family Business ") Furthermore, violence was not a complete stranger to Ferengi society, as evidenced by the Battle of Prexnak , during which all ten involved Ferengi were slaughtered by 273 attacking Lytasians . ( DS9 : " The Magnificent Ferengi ") Moreover, Smeet became the only Grand Nagus ever to be assassinated while in office after a dramatic drop in the Ferengi Market Exchange during his reign. ( DS9 : " The Jem'Hadar ", " Ferengi Love Songs ")

20th century [ ]

Photograph of the Ferengi vessel that crash-landed on Earth in 1947

A temporal incident known on Earth as Roswell Incident caused the unofficial first contact between three Ferengi from the future and Humans of the mid- 20th century . The Ferengi's shuttle had accidentally performed a time warp en route to Earth and crashed on the planet in the year 1947 . The United States of America , one of the Human nation-states of that era, treated the visitors with suspicion and would keep this incident a secret after the Ferengi managed to re-acquire their shuttle and return to their own time. ( DS9 : " Little Green Men ")

In "Little Green Men", Quark specifically stated that the Ferengi would have had warp drive before the "Klingons and even the Vulcans", had he delivered warp technology to Ferenginar in 1947. However, this remark has been subject to controversy. See Little Green Men - Trivia for more information.

22nd century [ ]

By the mid- 22nd century , the Ferengi had purchased warp drive technology and, by 2150 , begun using it to pursue business opportunities in the galaxy. Even at this point, however, the Ferengi remained a mysterious race who were often only known through rumor. ( ENT : " Acquisition "; DS9 : " Little Green Men "; VOY : " False Profits ")

By 2150, the Ferengi had visited Valakis , the homeworld of the Menk and the Valakians , the latter of which sought help to fight a medical crisis on their homeworld. As of 2151, Ferengi had encountered Bolians , but T'Pol of the Vulcan High Command was unfamiliar with the name "Ferengi." ( ENT : " Dear Doctor ", " Acquisition ")

Prior to meeting the Humans, the Valakians were visited by two warp-capable species, the Ferengi and the M'klexa . Nothing is known about these encounters, but apparently, neither species was able or willing to help the Valakians.

Ferengi pirates boarding Enterprise in 2151

In 2151 , Starfleet had its first, unofficial encounter with the Ferengi. This initial encounter took place when four Ferengi marauders boarded Enterprise NX-01 after rendering its crew unconscious using a "Trojan Horse" device . The pirates attempted to plunder the starship of items they believed held value, but their plans were ultimately foiled by the Enterprise crew and the Ferengi's own greed. With Enterprise back under Starfleet control, the pirates, who never disclosed their species or allegiance, were allowed to leave with a warning not to plunder any more ships in the area. ( ENT : " Acquisition ")

One of the Ferengi marauders in "Acquisition" rhetorically asked " Do I look like a Menk to you? " This might suggest that the Ferengi marauder ship was the same vessel that had previously visited Valakis, the homeworld of the Menk, as mentioned in "Dear Doctor".

24th century [ ]

Around the mid- 24th century , the Great Monetary Collapse occurred on Ferenginar . It was described as " rampant inflation and currency devaluation that were burning like wildfires through the lush financial foliage of Ferenginar ". ( DS9 : " Homefront ") In 2381, the Ferengi were considered for Federation membership ( LD: "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place" )

Contact with the Federation [ ]

Battle of maxia [ ].

In 2355 , while Captain Jean-Luc Picard was in command of the USS Stargazer , Starfleet had another encounter with the Ferengi, although the latter's identity would not be realized until nine years later. While traveling through the Maxia Zeta system , the USS Stargazer 's shields were damaged by an unidentified starship – a Ferengi vessel commanded by the son of a DaiMon named Bok . This forced Captain Picard to perform a maneuver in which the Stargazer jumped into high warp, making it appear to the attackers that the ship was in two places at once. This tactic was so highly regarded by Starfleet that it was given the designation "the Picard Maneuver ". During the ensuing confusion, the Stargazer was able to destroy the enemy vessel, but the damage to the Stargazer was substantial and the crew were forced to abandon the ship. ( TNG : " The Battle ")

Delphi Ardu system [ ]

" The ugliness of the Human was not an exaggeration. " – First official, visual Ferengi-Federation contact in 2364

By 2364 , the United Federation of Planets was aware of the Ferengi, but had yet to make official first contact . For this reason, Federation scholars had to rely on rumors and hearsay, likening the Ferengi to " Yankee traders ", American sailors of the 18th and 19th centuries who traveled Earth's oceans "in search of mercantile and territorial opportunity." Official first contact between the Federation and the Ferengi eventually occurred in 2364 in the Delphi Ardu system , where a Ferengi vessel and the USS Enterprise -D were trapped in orbit by a derelict outpost of the ancient Tkon Empire . The ship had originally stolen a Federation-owned T-9 energy converter from Gamma Tauri IV and the Enterprise was sent in pursuit. Despite some hostilities, the situation could be resolved peacefully and the Ferengi returned the converter. ( TNG : " The Last Outpost ")

Post-first contact [ ]

Upon first official contact with the Ferengi, Starfleet personnel observed the species to speak broken English , often gasping and hissing, and moving in a cat -like "slinking" manner. Within the space of two years, however, the Ferengi had adapted their mannerisms and later encounters saw the Ferengi speaking and moving in much less peculiar ways. A carry-over which was common among all Ferengi is to call Humans by the name "Hew-mons" instead of the correct pronunciation. ( TNG : " The Price "; DS9 : " Emissary ")

The Kreechta , a D'Kora class Ferengi marauder commanded by Bractor in 2365

In general, Ferengi values were fundamentally incompatible with those of the Federation and a few aggressive incursions against Starfleet occurred over the years following 2364. In most cases these were provoked by overambitious DaiMons, e.g., Bractor , Nunk , and Prak , who acted without sanction by the Ferengi Alliance and who did not shy away from aggressive moves against the Federation in their pursuits for profit or, in Bok's case, personal revenge for the death of his son back in 2355. ( TNG : " The Battle ", " Peak Performance ", " Rascals ", " Force of Nature "; VOY : " Inside Man ")

Despite such incursions, both sides maintained sufficient relations for Ferengi representatives to participate in Federation-hosted events, e.g., the negotiations for the Barzan wormhole and the biennial Trade Agreements Conference on Betazed in 2366 , or for Starfleet ships to answer Ferengi distress calls. ( TNG : " The Price ", " Ménage à Troi ", " The Perfect Mate ")

Contact with the Borg [ ]

The Borg designation for the Ferengi was "Species 180". Under the Borg species designations , this number was lower than most Delta Quadrant races in the Borg's native space. The Borg had assimilated Ferengi prior to 2375 , including at least one individual known as DaiMon Torrot . ( VOY : " Infinite Regress ")

The Ferengi holding such a low Borg designation seems to imply very early contact with the Borg, perhaps as a result of the Ferengi's trade and mercantile activities throughout the galaxy. In the novel " Vendetta ", a Ferengi equivalent of Locutus of Borg acts as a new Borg spokesmen and offers to broker a deal with the Federation , claiming the Borg had assimilated the ability to trade from the Ferengi.

Developments under Grand Nagus Zek [ ]

Business ventures in the gamma quadrant [ ].

Grand Nagus Zek convenes a conference on business opportunities in the Gamma Quadrant on Deep Space 9 in 2369

A few months after the re-discovery of the Bajoran wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant in early 2369 , Grand Nagus Zek convened a conference at Quark's Bar on Deep Space 9 in order to discuss how the Ferengi Alliance could exploit the wormhole. He pointed out that their reputation had suffered in the Alpha Quadrant, but in the Gamma Quadrant the Ferengis' word would still be trusted. Surprisingly, Zek declined to lead the new venture himself due to his advanced age and instead appointed Quark as the new Nagus. However, this move turned out to be but a ploy to reveal that Zek's son was unsuited as a successor, which prompted him to remain in office. ( DS9 : " The Nagus ")

Contact with the Dosi [ ]

Soon after this, Zek made contact with a species from the Gamma Quadrant, the Dosi . In early 2370 , he invited them to Deep Space 9 for a business meeting in order to discuss the purchase of large quantities of tulaberry wine . Although he claimed this to be the "greatest deal in Ferengi history" as it would help the Ferengi Alliance to get a foot in the Gamma Quadrant, Zek's plans reached beyond that. As Zek's chief negotiator, Quark was able to purchase ten thousand vats of wine, only to be subsequently dispatched to the Dosi homeworld in order to procure ten times that quantity. By artificially exaggerating the demanded volume, Zek accomplished his goal of making the Dosi refer the Ferengi to an even more powerful business partner in the Gamma Quadrant, the Karemma . They were described as an important member of something called the Dominion , thereby making the Ferengi the first Alpha Quadrant power to have ever learned of its existence. ( DS9 : " Rules of Acquisition ")

Joining the Federation [ ]

In 2381 , when an unidentified ship began attacking Ferengi trade routes, Grand Nagus Rom opened up negotiations with Admiral Vassery and Captain Carol Freeman to have the Ferengi Alliance join the United Federation of Planets . During the negotiations, Rom and Leeta angled to make a massive profit as "signing bonuses," but Freeman added a provision of her own that the Ferengi must first recruit one other planet themselves for the Federation. After Rom gleefully signed, confident that he could easily fulfill that requirement, Freeman revealed the fine print that the specific planet was Qo'noS , the Klingon homeworld, quoting the eighth rule of acquisition . Impressed that he'd been swindled -- thus proving that there were those in the Federation who respected Ferengi culture -- Rom had Freeman bring him the standard forms to sign. However, this was only the first step to the Ferengi joining the Federation. ( LD : " Parth Ferengi's Heart Place ")

The Ferengi were still only allied non-Federation members by 2384 , coming to the aid of a Starfleet armada in response to Gwyndala 's distress call when the living construct seized control of the armada and turned the Starfleet ships against each other. ( PRO : " Supernova, Part 1 ", " Supernova, Part 2 ")

32nd century [ ]

A Ferengi Starfleet captain

By the 32nd century , a number of Ferengi served in Starfleet , up to the rank of captain. ( DIS : " Anomaly (DIS) ")

In 3190 , the Ferengi sent delegates to the Multilateral DMA Strategy Assembly . ( DIS : " ...But to Connect ") One of the delegates later embarked on USS Discovery on a mission beyond the galactic barrier to contact Unknown Species 10-C . ( DIS : " Rosetta ", " Coming Home ")

Timeline [ ]

• At least ten thousand years ago : The establishment of the Ferengi Alliance begins.
• Approximately five thousand years ago : By this time, the Ferengi had invented currency , banking , speculative investments , and a unified global economy.
• 1947 : Roswell Incident – On July 2 nd , a Ferengi shuttle from the 24th century crashes in Roswell, Earth . Humans make first contact with the Ferengi. The event is buried by the United States of America .
• 2150 : By this year, the Ferengi have purchased warp technology and visited Valakis , whose pre-warp inhabitants are in desperate need of medical assistance.
• 2151 : Ferengi marauders are unsuccessful in an attempt to loot the Earth Starfleet ship Enterprise NX-01 , however, without disclosing their allegiance or species.
• Mid- 24th century : Great Monetary Collapse – Rampant inflation and currency devaluation occurs on Ferenginar .
• 2355 : Battle of Maxia – The USS Stargazer encounters a Ferengi ship commanded by Bok 's son leading to a violent confrontation.
• 2364 : Official first contact between the Federation and Ferengi occurs in the Delphi Ardu star system . Later that year, Bok unsuccessfully tries to take revenge against Starfleet Cpt. Picard for the death of his son. Prior to this date, the Ferengi make contact with the Bandi .
• 2366 : The Ferengi unsuccessfully bid for the exclusive rights to the Barzan wormhole . Later that year, they participate in the biennial Trade Agreements Conference on Betazed .
• 2369 : The Bajoran wormhole is discovered. Grand Nagus Zek sees vast profit to be made in the uncharted Gamma Quadrant .
• 2370 : Via the Dosi , Zek manages to get into contact with the Karemma . They are said to be a powerful member of the " Dominion ", thereby making the Ferengi Alliance the first Alpha Quadrant power to learn of this Gamma Quadrant superpower.
• 2373 : Ishka secretly becomes Grand Nagus Zek's lover and advisor. Ferengi Commerce Authority (FCA) Liquidator Brunt later fails at an attempt to oust Zek and install himself as new Nagus.
• 2374 : Brunt briefly becomes Nagus after Zek, under advice from Ishka, amends the Ferengi Bill of Opportunities to allow Ferengi females to wear clothing. Zek is soon reinstated after the FCA changes its mind and, later that year, the Board of Liquidators considers allowing females to earn profit.
• 2375 : Rom succeeds Zek as Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance and ushers in an era of reform that includes the codification of rights for females.
• 2381 : The Ferengi became candidates to membership into the Federation ( LD : " Parth Ferengi's Heart Place ").
• 2384 : The Ferengi are considered allies of the Federation as of this year ( PRO : “ Supernova, Part 1 [!] ”).
• 3190 : The Ferengi send delegates to the Multilateral DMA Strategy Assembly .

Appendices [ ]

See also [ ].

• Federation history
• Human history

Background information [ ]

The Borg identified the Ferengi as Species 180 – the fourth-lowest, canon Borg designation. Interestingly, the three lower designations, as well as the next higher number, species 218 ( Talaxians ), were all species from the Delta Quadrant . Other than the Ferengi, the lowest Alpha/Beta Quadrant species designation by the Borg that was ever given on screen is 3259 ( Vulcans ). ( VOY : " The Raven ", " Infinite Regress ")

Some fans of Star Trek were (at least initially) disgruntled about the Ferengi being encountered by Starfleet as early as the 22nd century in Star Trek: Enterprise , as the earlier-produced TNG : " The Last Outpost " seemed to involve the first contact between the two groups occurring later. Michael Sussman characterized the encounter in "Acquisition" as "probably one of the more controversial choices" in ENT Season 1 . Responding to the fan complaints, Brannon Braga stated, " The crew [of Enterprise ] never finds out what this species is called. We may even deal with that as we go along. But I think the [upset fans] perceived it as a 'screw you.' " Sussman concurred, " I think we structured the show in a way that preserves Picard's first contact with [the Ferengi] [....] Besides, every Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fan knows Earth's real first contact with the Ferengi was in Roswell in 1947! " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 139 , pp. 27 & 50)

Quark actor Armin Shimerman commented, " What I found really interesting [....] was that it was the Ferengi who made the first contact with the major power in the Gamma Quadrant. It was the Ferengi who discovered the Dominion, which I think is wonderful. " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 97)

External link [ ]

• Ferengi history at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 1 USS Voyager (NCC-74656-A)
• 2 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Star Trek: Prodigy

A Complete History of the Ferengi in Star Trek

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The ferengi where created as the 'new klingons', the history of the ferengi alliance in star trek, the redemption of the ferengi as a species, the future of the ferengi and star trek.

There are countless interesting alien species in the Star Trek universe, and they have rich histories both in the narrative and off-screen. While some species like Vulcans or Klingons are immediately iconic, others take some time to ingratiate themselves with the fan community. The history of the Ferengi is one such story, since Star Trek fans took some time to warm up to the aliens that were meant to be a critique of capitalism . In fact, the idea that the Federation had moved beyond capitalism was present in the universe since the Star Trek: The Original Series era.

While developing Star Trek: Phase II , Gene Roddenberry and his writers tried to figure out how the universe of the Federation continued to evolve. The first attempted sequel series would've been a mash-up of The Original Series era settings and characters, along with new elements to expand the universe. That series, however, evolved into Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the successive film series. However, for the 20th anniversary of the universe, Paramount tapped Roddenberry to create a new series, this time set well into the future so as not to bump up against the films. It was through this process that the Ferengi were created by Roddenberry to have a huge role in the next chapter of his Star Trek universe .

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When assembling the Phase II leftovers into Star Trek: The Next Generation , there were some changes that Roddenberry made. One such change was the idea that Klingons would no longer be the antagonists they were before, especially with the addition of Worf. Thus, he created the Ferengi and tapped producer Herbert J. Wright to further develop the species. Because the 1980s seemed to celebrate the idea of greed, the newest antagonists were meant to be a critique of that kind of capitalism. The Ferengi had a Hollywood twist, too, coming from "the stereotype of agents and lawyers being cutthroat, greedy and wanting only money," Wright told Cinefantastique in 1990.

After the first appearances of the Ferengi, fans hated them , and they were alone. Season 2 head writer Maurice Hurley also didn't enjoy the new antagonists. He called them "a waste of time" and said he was the "lone voice" speaking against them. Thus, when he took over, it was "good-bye Ferengi. They're out of here. Bring on the Borg!" he said in The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman. However, it wasn't over for them. When Deep Space Nine debuted, the show rehabilitated the Ferengi beyond the single-note villains they were in The Next Generation .

Actor Armin Shimerman wanted to fix his mistake , in his view, in how he defined the species through his performance in Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1, Episode 5 "The Last Outpost." The Ferengi became a massive part of that series. They also appeared in both Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise , as well as showing up as background aliens in Star Trek: Discovery . Even with a rough beginning, the Ferengi found their place in the franchise and are here to stay.

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In the Star Trek universe, the Ferengi have a long history with "hew-mans" despite not making official first contact with the Federation until the 24th Century. One time-travel adventure that changed Star Trek canon was the Deep Space Nine Season 4 episode "Little Green Men" when a time-travel anomaly sent Quark, Rom and Nog to Roswell, New Mexico in the 1950s. The Ferengi purchased warp drive technology in the mid-22nd Century but remained a mysterious merchant race. A group of Ferengi boarded and took over the NX-01 Enterprise in Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1's "Acquisition." While some aliens like the Bolians, Menk and Valakians knew of them, Vulcans and humans did not.

In the mid-24th Century, the USS Stargazer under the command of Captain Picard encountered Ferengi, which attacked. He used a "high warp" trick which made the Stargazer seem to be in two places at once, later called the Picard Maneuver. They were eventually identified in "The Last Outpost," considered the official first contact moment. They had successive hostile contacts with the USS Enterprise-D, including personal revenge against Picard himself for that first attack. Many Ferengi still tried to menace the Federation, such as the group that encountered the USS Voyager through an unstable wormhole.

Through their interaction with the Federation on Deep Space 9, the Ferengi became cautious allies of Starfleet . Under Grand Nagus Zek, and his successor Rom, the Ferengi society underwent reforms. Women gained more rights, and the Ferengi even helped oppose the Dominion. Under Zek's successor, Grand Nagus Rom, the Ferengi Alliance joined the Federation in the late 24th Century when Captain Freeman out-negotiated him during Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 6, " Parth Ferengi's Heart Place ."

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During the run of Deep Space Nine , the Ferengi culture was further defined in ways The Next Generation never did. In fact, as the conflicts in that series between Starfleet and the Maquis, the Cardassians and Dominion unfolded, they became the conscience of the series. Quark often talked about how war was not good for "profit," however he, Rom and, especially, Nog were principled, moral characters. Rom left his brother's employ to become an engineer working for the Bajorans. However, it was his son Nog who had the most impact as a Ferengi on the universe.

Nog was the only other young character on the station, becoming fast friends with Jake Sisko. The latter, however, didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps and join Starfleet. Looking up to Captain Sisko, and with his help, Nog became the first Ferengi to join Starfleet . Later, Nog was injured in a battle against the Dominion, which led to the amputation of his leg. Nog had to overcome that trauma with the help of sentient hologram, Vic Fontaine . By the end of the series, he'd earned a promotion and, as far as canon goes, is still serving the galaxy with distinction.

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When the USS Discovery time traveled to the 32nd Century and helped rebuild Starfleet and the Federation, the Ferengi were still there . An unnamed captain was seen amongst the ranks of Starfleet officers. Even as founding members like Earth and Ni'Var (the renamed Vulcan) left it behind, the Ferengi stayed loyal to the idealistic galactic union. When the new series Starfleet Academy debuts, it's quite possible that more Ferengi characters will be introduced among the cadets or, perhaps, the academy professors. Perhaps by this time in the future, they'd left behind their capitalist ways, no longer caring about profit or gold-pressed Latinum.

On Star Trek: Lower Decks the Ferengi have appeared in a number of episodes, beyond the one in which the Ferengi Alliance officially joined the Federation . It was revealed that Quark is still on Deep Space 9, though his eponymous bar has become a franchise with locations all across the galaxy. Another Ferengi named Quimp is friends with Mariner and appeared in Lower Decks Season 1's "Envoys" impersonating a cruel, criminal so that her friend Brad Boimler could "save" her. Later, in "Part Ferengi's Heart Place," he helped Mariner get to the root of her malaise about her promotion and future in Starfleet.

Despite almost disappearing from Star Trek entirely in the early TNG seasons , the Ferengi have become as vital a part of the universe as any aliens. While they didn't become the "new Klingons" as was originally envisioned, their impact on galactic history is perhaps more profound because of it. Like most Star Trek antagonists, they've gone from simple villains to becoming full-fledged allies of Starfleet. Whatever is next for the Ferengi in this universe, it's bound to be interesting.

Star Trek: Discovery will debut its fifth and final season on Paramount+ on April 4, 2024.

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.

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Published Oct 6, 2023

Ferengi, Farangi, and Fearing the 'Other'

How one fan's relationship with Star Trek was forever altered upon learning the double meaning of 'ferengi.'

StarTrek.com

It’s dark on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise . A red alert echos, and someone is trying to force their way in. It feels like I’m being chased, unable to find a means of escape. The door is broken through, revealing throngs of Ferengi and Klingons on the other side.

And then, I am awake.

It’s one of the earliest nightmares I can recall; I wasn’t even five years old yet and some of Star Trek ’s frequent flyers were already infiltrating my sleep. As an adult, I began to wonder why my early nightmares revolved around Star Trek ; I’ve always been a nerd, and I couldn’t figure out why something I love would cause me that level of distress. It’s understandable that some of the show’s species would frighten children, especially the ridge-faced, wild-looking Klingons, and the Ferengi with their oddly placed, sharpened teeth. But I’d never thought that I could have very easily been associating those alien races with monsters.

"The Battle"

Recently, I brought up this nightmare to my father and mentioned the Ferengi.

“Did you know," my father commented, "that farangi in Persian means 'foreigner’?”

In America, everyday civilians who appear as foreign tend to bear the brunt of our "Fear of the Other," xenophobia encouraged by the terrible rhetoric politicians spew, spreading ignorance like a cold on the subway.

While it’s an obvious fault of our society, it’s also one I know from personal experience. I’m a first generation American on my father’s Iranian side of the family; my Irish and Italian-American mother was born and raised in New Hampshire. My parents had friends and extended family who were Indian, Russian, Argentinian, Polish, Jewish, African American, and I was raised to be accepting and open to others, even when I encountered strangers who were ignorant and rude to us. Iran was still associated with hostages, Iran-Contra, and everything else horrible on the world stage (not that this has changed, sadly). In one spectacular miscommunication during the early '90s, a waitress thought my father was Russian and nobody corrected her. Though the Cold War was only just warming, it was still much less problematic to be thought of as Russian than Iranian.

"Encounter at Farpoint"

These days, it’s safe to say that I am more afraid of prejudice and narrow-mindedness than I am of actors in prosthetics. Still, I can’t help but to wonder more about the decision to name an alien species after an Eastern term for foreigner, when the species are often seen as symbolism for Western capitalism and greed. That right there, you might say, is a Fear of the Other — or, to a Westerner, a Fear of Ourselves! And that is Star Trek at its best, holding up a mirror to ourselves. The Federation navigates this Fear of the Other concept admirably, with the franchise overall being arguably one of the greatest explorations of equality and xenophobia in the genre.

Racial tropes are nothing new to science fiction (take HP Lovecraft, or the early Edgar Rice Burroughs works), and it’s easy for creators to use the themes of science fiction to reinforce xenophobia and justify their own fears and prejudices. But, sci-fi has also long been a landscape where storytellers confront these conflicts and turn them on their heads. Think, for example, of Invasion of the Body Snatchers , X-Men , and, of course, Star Trek . The stories of the Federation serve as a way to bring us face to face with our own culture’s prejudices. It forces us to confront xenophobia within America’s own melting pot.

You can't deny that you're still a dangerous, savage child race [...] you slaughtered millions in silly arguments about how to divide the resources of your little world. And 400 years before that, you were murdering each other in quarrels over tribal god-images. Since then, there are no indications that humans will ever change.

Q, "Encounter at Farpoint"

Q reminds us of humanity’s downfall right at the outset of Star Trek: The Next Generation , in a statement that even the Federation has trouble rebuking time and time again. As history has shown us here on Earth, economic and political turmoil can leave a society feeling angry, afraid, and full of despair — feelings that would-be dictators wield to convert fear and anger into racism and bigotry. It can be argued that the Federation portrays a Utopian future propelled by humanity’s need to turn around from near self-destruction. In our own universe, this doesn’t always feel as fictional and out of reach as we might like, since Fear of Farangi has been used as a means to start wars, tarnish foreign relations, stoke conflict, and even justify genocide.

"Errand of Mercy"

Star Trek has often used America’s real life foreign interactions to inform its own plots, asking audiences to reflect on conflicts close to home, while challenging them to look outside of an American lens. Throughout The Original Series , we see blatant parallels to the Cold War with Kirk and his crew often warring against opponents unseen. They fear what The Other — the Klingon race, in their case — is capable of.

Kirk resents Klingons, declaring them all savages when his son is killed by one. But, 200 years in the future, we find ourselves watching Worf on The Next Generation , Starfleet’s first Klingon officer. If Klingons were first meant to portray the West’s troubles with the Soviet Union, Worf working his way to being an officer, of security no less, is shown as a recognized path towards building trust between cultures at odds.

American society often questions the loyalty of those who look different, have different names, or speak differently — President Obama may not have been asked to produce a birth certificate if this were not still the case. Thus, the messages in these episodes hold a continuing relevance the one could craft an entire thesis around on Star Trek and xenophobia (I know you are out there, thesis writer, and I’m proud of you). The diverse bridge of the Original Series' Enterprise shows what Gene Roddenberry wanted America to eventually be — after all, boldly going where no man has gone before almost ensures that you’re going to come in contact with the unknown!

Sometimes we might need to look at storylines set on the U.S.S. Enterprise in order to see the conflict and hypocrisy on our own soil. It’s human nature to fear the unknown, but if Star Trek has shown us anything, it’s that society and progress would be better served by addressing our Fear of Farangi with reason and intelligence, not isolationism and bigotry.

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This article was originally published on May 15, 2019.

Farah Joan Fard is a digital media specialist and writer who is especially fascinated with film theory and the intersection of art and society. She has written for Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Bustle, and more. You may find her on Twitter @LaParadiddle.

Star Trek: 10 Crazy Facts About Ferengi

The greediest species in the galaxy on Star Trek is also its most endearing.

When the Ferengi first appeared in The Next Generation, the intention was to create another villainous species on par with the Romulans. The attempt was necessary as the Klingons had transitioned to allies in the time between TNG and The Original Series. Things didn't quite work out as planned.

As the Ferengi evolved as characters, they became increasingly comedic through various appearances on TNG. Deep Space Nine was the first, and only, series to features a Ferengi as a regular member of the main cast. Quark was part of most DSP stories on some level, and the focus several.

Through Quark and the series of secondary Ferengi characters around him, fans got deeper look into Ferengi culture. What they saw showed how absurd it truly is. Their focus on greed runs much deeper than anyone could have suspected, with a lot more weirdness related to women wrapped around it.

The Ferengi are honestly one of the oddest species on Star Trek and that's not just due to their desire for profit. They have a lot of idiosyncrasies and and traits that set them apart from everyone around them.

10. Non Violent...Kind Of

The general focus of the Ferengi as fans have come to know and love them has been primarily on profit. They're not exactly known for their prowess in combat. In fact, they're known for avoiding it, as evidenced by the fact that they never seem to send warships into any of the major conflicts.

That being said, it wasn't always this way. When the Ferengi first appeared early in The Next Generation, they looked like they were ready for a fight. They wore furs and carried what can best be described as laser whips. To clarify, these were not whips made of energy. They were awkwardly thick whips that shot lasers. Big difference.

While individual Ferengi have gotten involved in altercations on occasion, they avoid it as a species. The hypocrisy of this is that they don't mind profiting off of it, frequently by selling arms to both sides of a conflict. Ferengi might not like to fight but they certainly don't have any issues operating in the shadows of it.

Ian Goodwillie is a freelance writer based out of Saskatoon, SK, Canada. He has a BA in English Literature from the University of Saskatchewan and completed the Writing Program at Vancouver Film School. More importantly, Ian is also a wrestling fan, comic book reader, video game player and photographer. He loves to write and writes about what he loves. Ian's also an unrepentant, unapologetic Cougar Town fan, a show he will defend until the day he dies.

Awful Versions of Ourselves: Creating the Ferengi

With Star Trek: The Next Generation , Gene Roddenberry had a new ship, with a new crew, and he wanted a new villain for them to contend with. He asked Co-Producer Herb Wright to develop a race that would become the series’ recurring antagonist. Wright introduced the new species in “The Last Outpost,” in which the Federation makes first contact with the Ferengi.

Wright recalls, “When Gene asked me to come up with a kind of grand villain for the new Star Trek series, he said he didn’t want to rely on the old stuff.”

Well, take a look at the Klingons; they were basically the Stormtroopers of space and the Romulans were kind of like the SS of space. I went off to noodle what the look and shape and construction of this new villain would be physically and emotionally and to work out what their society would be like; basically I had to come up with a new world. That wasn’t too hard. I just looked around at 80s America where greed was good and Gekko was one of our heroes. I came back to Gene and I said, “Where are the carpet baggers? Where are the robber barons? Where are the guys where every time you turn around they’re buying space ships out from underneath your feet or stealing from you?”

The idea was to create a race of capitalists on steroids.

With the Ferengi, the idea is that profit is the most important thing. You always like to come out on top and business rules supreme. Even when you die, the heaven you go to is in fact where they count up how much profit you have and give you a good table in front, while hell was the place that you’d go to penniless and have a damned future in which you would be taken advantage of every five seconds, which is the worst thing the Ferengi can possibly imagine.

One of the reasons Wright was attracted to the idea of a species obsessed with the accumulation of wealth was that they would provide the ideal contrast to Roddenberry’s highly evolved crew.

The twenty-fourth century that Roddenberry envisioned was one in which humanity had worked out its personal and public differences. I saw the inner logic of what Gene was doing. He said he had tried for that in the first show and for all kinds of reasons he was never really allowed to take it to the nth degree. Now he wanted to show us that it was possible for there to be a higher ideal. The real conflicts would have to do with cosmic rays or alien possession things that would alter us against our will. But there was no one who could voice those aspects of greed and corruption and selfishness, so the only people we could relate to on the show were the aliens and the villains, because those were the people who acted like us.

Thus the Ferengi continued Star Trek ’s tradition of creating alien races who reflect real groups of people on Earth. Where the Klingons had stood in for the Russians, the Ferengi would stand in for the forces of unrestrained capitalism.

The thing I’ve always thought about a good villain is that, basically, they’re just like us; they’ve got our vices, our faults but they are exaggerated — or at least everyone thinks they’re exaggerated. The reality is they are usually closer to us than we would wish to admit.

Large parts of Ferengi society were worked out from the premise that they were greedy and unscrupulous. But this was not enough for Roddenberry and Wright, who decided they should give them a few even less attractive traits.

“Sexism came with the package,” said Wright, “and Gene wanted to take that to an ultimate degree.”

He loved that idea enormously. It was his idea that it was by law that no female Ferengi could even own clothing, let alone wear it. The fact that women are not allowed to make profits was decided early on. It’s almost like [a] Victorian industrial revolution kind of attitude toward women, which is they should be home, taking care of kids and they shouldn’t even be wearing clothes because that just gets in the way and it costs money. There’s no profit in that!

Unpleasant though Ferengi might seem, Wright wanted the viewer to recognize that their society did work for them and that humanity must seem as strange to them as the Ferengi did to the crew of the Enterprise .

One of the first things they do when they first come aboard and realize they’re looking at human females is say, “My God, you clothe them? Why would you want to do that?” They’re thinking, “What are these savages doing?” To the Ferengi, it’s such a savage idea to have women clothed and they’re thinking how disruptive it would be to one’s society.

Gene Roddenberry also wanted to make sure that, if we stopped to think, we would have reasons to be jealous of the Ferengi.

His whole point was they may be nasty, mean little sons of bitches but, between all the stuff they’ve got and the money, they get all the hot ladies and they know what to do about it; that’s something they’re actually good at. See what happens down the road: Quark has some hot women on his arm. If you look at all those who have got that kind of power, the same thing applies.

This aspect of Ferengi superiority goes to the heart of the race. The idea was that, because they were really more like us than the Starfleet characters,s viewer could find themselves agreeing with them.

“I also wanted to create someone who we could love,” said Wright, “and then hate ourselves for loving them, which is always the dirty little secret of villains.”

Little guys

In order to work out what the Ferengi would look like, Herb Wright worked with concept artist Andrew Probert and they started to produce different drawings. Wright remembers that the original brief he gave Probert was simple:

When I first thought about these guys, I had kind of an image of Scrooge McDuck diving into his gold coins and cackling. I figured that since we had the big guys already with the Klingons, and the medium-sized guys with the Romulans, the little guys who you really have to worry about would be the Ferengi. I wanted us to loathe them and despise them and fear them, and also think they were ridiculous. We played around with a bunch of concepts. I kind of scrunched up my face and popped my eyeballs and bared my teeth and put my hands upbehind my ears. It was probably the most grotesque thing you could get. We always fear the thing that doesn’t look like us. In this case, the idea was to take them away from looking like us, but of course they do look like us in some ways. They’re weird, but they are still humanoid.

In some of the early drawings, the Ferengi have small pointed beards, something Wright approved of because it reminded him of another inspiration for the Ferengi: Shakespeare’s Shylock, who puts business above all else. He went on to say that the beards also had distinct echoes of ancient Babylonian sculptures.

That Middle Eastern look came right off the statues. What was Babylon all about? It’s the same issues of greed and gold that we were trying to endow the Ferengi with. But they were looking a little bit too Assyrian and a little bit too severe because of that. At the end of the day, I felt it was better, and so did Gene, that they would have hairless features.

Brain splatters

The baldness also accentuated the prominence of the brain. The Ferengi’s large, four-lobed brains almost led to them becoming more violent.

“I had been deeply affected by the horror film Scanners ,” said Wright. “There was a moment when I thought, ‘These are the smartest villains out there; they have to be.'”

They’re businessmen. Jeez, they generate all that electrical steam upstairs; how about if one of the things they could do is make your head explode? The intention was that they’d have this brain-splattering ability and could literally blow out the brains of other people.

The idea was rejected for several reasons.

First, it would be too expensive. Second, it would be too gory for a family show. And third, as Wright put it, “once you’ve done that stunt, who’s going to get in a room with a Ferengi?”

Other ways were explored to make the Ferengi seem more dangerous. “Encounter at Farpoint” mentions a rumor they ate humans.

I was worried about that, because I thought it would allow people to turn around and step away from the larger issues that these villains were about because they could just say, “Oh well, they’re just a bunch of cannibals,” as opposed to saying, “Yeah, they seem silly, but you find yourselves agreeing with them. They get things done, they’re wearing the hot clothes and they’re the ones living life with all the stuff.”

The result was that the Ferengi ended up being taken less seriously than Wright had hoped.

Michael Piller intervenes

Wright left The Next Generation toward the end of Season 1

By Season 2, nobody cared very much for the Ferengi. They were supposed to combine humor with a genuinely aggressive side, but from the moment they appeared on screen, something had been off. The humor had overbalanced the threat and they literally became a laughing stock.

Michael Piller remembered that when he joined the show during its third season, the Ferengi were on the point of extinction. “There’s no question that most people would have been happy to lose them,” said Piller.

In general, the perception was that they were silly, even stupid. Everybody felt that it was a one-joke premise and for all intents and purposes, the joke had been played out.

Piller wasn’t so sure.

I didn’t see anything wrong with some villains that brought smiles to your face.

He made the Ferengi reappear, but less as a threat. They increasingly began to integrate with the Federation.

Like Wright, Piller realized that Ferengi stories could deal with themes that were normally off-limits to the noble Starfleet crew.

“The Ferengi represented a segment of the universe that was not being dealt with in any other way at the time,” he said.

Roddenberry’s vision was very clear: human beings had evolved to a place where they wouldn’t be particularly interested in material goods or petty jealousies. It was impossible to get those kinds of emotions out of our human characters, so we had to use aliens to give us conflict and the ability to comment on the kind of social issues we wanted to explore. My philosophy about the Ferengi was that they were the most human aliens that we had to work with. I think we identified, as Star Trek does so very well, a theme of life that needed commentary and we were able to do that through the Ferengi.

On the Federation frontier

Still little was known about Ferengi society. That changed when Piller joined the production of Deep Space Nine . He and Rick Berman decided to make one of the series regulars a Ferengi.

In the beginning, the station was seen as a frontier town in the tradition of Dodge City and this environment instantly suggested several characters to Piller:

Every frontier town that I’ve ever seen in the movies had a Brian Donleavy character who ran the saloon, who was greedy and was buying land and was cheating at cards and running hookers. To me, it seemed like a natural place for a Ferengi.

Some of the references in the writer’s bible suggest that the Ferengi, who was soon named Quark, would have been quite a malevolent presence with a hand in every illegal activity on the station.

Nevertheless, Piller insisted he was never meant to be a villain:

He has a different agenda to everyone else. I think what you wanted was a strong, adversarial but not unlikable character to play against Sisko. Quark was always meant to be a benevolent adversary; remember, he was going to be a regular character. Look at Dr Smith in Lost in Space : you have a really hard time when one of your regulars is just pure evil. It becomes tiresome.

The lawman and the outlaw

When Deep Space Nine was in the planning stages, Piller intended Quark to be “a thorn in Sisko’s side,” but as he was writing the pilot it became clear to him that Quark was a more natural adversary for one of the other characters: Odo, the lawman of the station.

In Quark and Odo, he found two characters who were philosophical opposites but also inextricably linked by their roles. It soon became clear they had a grudging respect for one another and over the years their many scenes together provided a rich vein of humor.

Obviously conflict is a wonderful thing and conflict with burner is even more fun. When you discover it, you realize you are tapping into a goldmine. We all know what the relationship was between Spock and Dr McCoy in The Original Series ; it was an unrelenting conflict, but it always was fun. Nobody set out to create an imitation of that in Deep Space Nine , but whenever you can you look for conflict between two characters, and the lawman and the outlaw are the classic two.

Comic relief

Once Deep Space Nine was up and running, Piller stepped down from day-to-day management of the show and handed the reins to Ira Steven Behr, another veteran of The Next Generation .

Behr is widely credited with rejuvenating the Ferengi, but he had little interest in them when he first joined the show.

“I never took them seriously,” he said, “and no one I know took them seriously. So I was quite surprised when Mike Piller told me that there was going to be a Ferengi on Deep Space Nine .”

The idea became that Quark was still looking for his chance in life. “It’s obvious, really,” said Behr, “the guy’s a bartender.”

You can say that a lot of the Mafiosi led sedate lives and did not live in palatial estates, but they weren’t bartenders; they made sure they never had to wait on people and that’s what Quark was doing. He wanted to get that leg over and prove to everyone and I guess to himself that he had what it took.

At the same time, Quark was supposed to provide comic relief.

I looked at Sisko, I looked at Kira, I looked at Dax — I was looking for something humorous that was going to be clearly different from The Next Generation . Instead of Data walking around making comic remarks, I wanted someone who was going to embody a different sensibility. The Ferengi gave us the chance to bring something to the show that was different from anything we had seen in the other Star Trek series. The Ferengi gave us a chance to see the kind of people who grasp, who reach, but can’t get there.

Star Trek is filled with confident, fearless people. Behr felt Deep Space Nine needed someone different.

One of the things that really worried us as writers were the clean deaths in Star Trek and the way we were feeding this rather insidious view of violence and heroism. Something about it did not seem right. We tried to deal with it in a number of shows, but one of the ways we could address it continually was to have Quark. Any time you showed weakness or fallibility, it had to be in alien characters. When you have eight people talking and saying, “We should attack,” or, “These people need our help,” it’s good to have someone saying, “I want to get out of here!”

Like Wright and Pillar before him, Behr discovered the value of having flawed characters on his show. The Ferengi, he said, allowed him to get away with things that didn’t rhyme with Roddenberry’s philosophy.

We could be greedy. We could be in love with latinum. We could be less than perfect. We saw these shows and the Star Trek world didn’t implode.

“The Ferengi opened the door to make everyone not more Ferengi, but,” said Behr, “the irony is, to make everyone more human. That’s the beauty of it. That’s the success of it.”

Thanks for this article. I’ve been a TOS fan for a long time, but any time I turned on a random TNG episode I ended up being not interested. Instead to give it it’s proper chance I finally decided to try watching TNG from episode 1, and so far it’s been pretty decent, then I got to the Ferengi and I really couldn’t believe these characters had the mythos that they portrayed in the episode “The Last Outpost”. I think they could have gone the original direction to be the series’ big bads with a few simple tweaks. For one, I was surprised at how cheaply the makeup looked, they appear more similar to TOS aliens than say to Worf’s wonderful makeup job. I think the actors also played them a bit too hokey, if they had gone to the smart and brooding traitors they could perhaps have lived up to the legends of a race that had previously escaped view and that could pose a major threat. Granted I have watched beyond that episode, but it did lead me to this article with a search for “Design of Ferengi”.

One influence on the Ferengi was what Herb Wright described as Gene Roddenberry’s “sex fetish.” In early first season discussions between them about developing the Ferengi, Roddenberry let Wright know it was his intention to make the species well-endowed. “He wanted to put a gigantic codpiece on the Ferengi,” Wright stated. “He spent 25 minutes explaining to me all the sexual positions the Ferengi could go through. I finally said, ‘Gene, this is a family show, on at 7:00 on Saturdays. He finally said, ‘Okay, you’re right.'” ( Cinefantastique 23, 2/3, pp 60-61) With Roddenberry’s approval, the development of the new species got underway. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p 36)

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Star Trek has many forms of intelligent life, but the shiftiest examples are Ferengi. These little goblins prize profit above all, and they concoct a slew of shady business practices to attain that profit. This behavior makes them a recurring nuisance, but there is more to them than meets the eye.

RELATED: Potential Premises For A New Star Trek Movie

The franchise has unveiled several curious facts about the Ferengi, both in front of and behind the camera. These are odd quirks that make any outsiders scratch their heads. Some factoids even go back to the species' inception. It's hard not to wonder what the creators were thinking with these guys. Whatever their origins, though, the Ferengi are now a permanent part of Star Trek history.

7 Based On Money-Grubbing Humans

When creator Gene Roddenberry and his team were conceptualizing the Ferengi, they looked to humanity as inspiration. Specifically, they zeroed in on the corporate world. According to the Cinefantastique magazine, they used "agents and lawyers" as templates. Granted, they admitted that vision was based on stereotypes, but the inspiration remains.

People in these fields know how personally important their tasks are to clients, so they charge extraordinary amounts for their services. It's easy to see how that mindset informs the Ferengi . It's also easy to imagine how real agents and lawyers would be offended. Then again, as long as they get paid, they may just laugh the whole thing off.

6 Replace Klingons

When developing The Next Generation , the creators wanted an alien race to serve as recurring villains. The Klingons filled this role in the original series: Kirk and co. tangled with the warrior species every few episodes. Though said Klingons were now allied with the Federation, why lose a regular antagonist?

RELATED: Star Trek: Most Iconic Klingons, Ranked

The Next Generation 365 book outlines this process. In contrast to the Klingons' might, the Ferengi would make mischief through scheming and corruption. This is somewhat confusing since the Romulans act as similar enemies. However, the showrunners presumably wanted a new faction--one more suited to the utopia's contrast with capitalism.

5 Men Wear The Pants (Literally)

On top of being greedy to a fault, the Ferengi are a misogynistic society. Males handle all financial transactions while females are at their beck and call . Women can't set foot in the business world or even own property. The policy goes all the way.

Female Ferengi don't wear clothes. Their normal wardrobe is no wardrobe at all, as they run around completely naked. When Quark and Rom's mother defies conventions by donning a dress, it makes them physically uncomfortable. Let's hope they never invite outsiders to family gatherings.

4 Their Ears Are The Way To Their Hearts

A Ferengi's most noticeable feature is the massive pair of ears. Combined with their beady eyes and bulbous teeth, they look like intergalactic rats. One obvious function of these oversized ears would be an auditory advantage. Naturally, they want to hear whatever's going on so that they can manipulate it to their benefit. That's not the only music to their ears, though.

Their lobes seem to stimulate pleasure. Massaging said lobes generates a state of euphoria. This is a crippling weakness, as it makes the Ferengi susceptible to whatever suggestion comes their way . That happens to Quark several times on Deep Space Nine . By that logic, nailing a Ferengi with a wet willie could tank his entire enterprise.

3 They're Run By A Woman

Female Ferengi may not normally amount to much, but Quark and Rom's mom is a living refutation of that . The boys eventually learn that she's dating Grand Nagus Zek: the Ferengi leader. He is renowned for his keen business sense and insight into profit. Sadly, he's not as sharp as he once was.

RELATED: Similarities Between Star Wars' Hondo Ohnaka And Star Trek's Ferengi

Age has slowed Zek's mind. He's not entirely senile, but he makes several mistakes that would shock his followers. Luckily, his lover is there to pick up the slack. She has an eye for acquisition to rival the best Ferengi, so Zek is happy to let her run things from behind the scenes.

2 One Joined Starfleet

Given their inherently selfish and capitalistic nature, one would expect the Ferengi to be at odds with the United Federation of Planets. After all, the latter's mission is exploration and intercultural cooperation with no thought of profit . One Ferengi believed in that mission.

Enter Nog. A resident of Deep Space Nine , he comes to admire Starfleet's noble goals. His friendship with Jake Sisko likely fuels this attitude, but it's also due to him having no prospects as a businessman. Because of that, he strives to become the first Ferengi in Starfleet. He dives into the academy and eventually attains a captaincy , much to everyone's shock and admiration.

1 Death Is Yet Another Sale

Some people donate their bodies to science, but the Ferengi sell their bodies. Yes, even funerals become business transactions. They dry out the body and divide it into several pieces . These pieces go into vacuum-sealed discs. Attendees can then buy said discs for a fixed price.

Sure, it's tasteless, but it can also be extremely profitable. Some of the more famous Ferengi turn into valuable collector's items. It's similar to how celebrity belongings go for big bucks on the internet, albeit more morbid.

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A Ferengi's entire existence revolved around the acquisition of wealth, even above family and friends, according to their sacred Rules of Acquisition .

• 1.1 Medical conditions
• 2.2 Self Preservation
• 3.1 Business and crime
• 3.2 Females
• 4.1.1 Plasma pistol stats
• 4.1.2 Plasma rifle stats
• 5.1 Profit and loss
• 5.2 Beliefs
• 5.3 Rituals
• 5.4 Diplomacy
• 7.1 Civilians and businesspeople
• 7.2 Military
• 7.3 Government
• 7.4 Law enforcement
• 7.5 Starfleet
• 8.1.1 Appearances
• 8.1.2 References
• 8.2 External link

Biology [ ]

Ferenginar may have also been home to the Gree (though this could have only been a myth used to illustrate the 3rd Rule of Acquisition). ( DS9 novel : Legends of the Ferengi )

They were all considered small in stature by other humanoid species. ( DS9 novel : Betrayal )

The Ferengi were physically distinguishable by their large ear lobes (larger and more pronounced on males than females), which gave the Ferengi keen hearing. Their lower ear lobes also served as erogenous zones.

Unlike many other species whose ears were made primarily of skin and cartilage, Ferengi ears were partially made of bone. ( PIC episode : " Penance ")

Ferengi eyes were much less sensitive compared to that of a Human. ( DS9 novel : Devil in the Sky )

The scoop-like ear was, however, highly sensitive and was a product of evolution in the thin atmosphere of Ferengal. Under certain conditions, Ferengi blood is violet in color. ( TNG novel : Debtors' Planet )

The Ferengi species also had poor vision. They were considered short but "highly energetic." ( TNG video game : Echoes from the Past )

Ferengi biology included special cells called pyrocytes . These could provoke deadly allergic reactions in other species if exposed to them. ( TNG episode : " The Price ")

They tended to generate a sharp fermented scent. ( DS9 novel : The Big Game )

There were rumors among Human children that the sharp teeth among Ferengi were a sign that the species were cannibals. However, this appeared to had been a misconception and an amusing one to those who knew the species well. ( DS9 novelization : Emissary )

Their physiology was noted as being very different from other species to the point that they were able to survive certain forms of stab wounds that would have kill Humans or Klingons and leave Romulans in a critical condition. ( DS9 novel : The Big Game )

They were used to heavier atmospheric pressures when compared to Humans. ( DS9 novel : Fallen Heroes )

Ferengi also had four-lobed brains, making them resistant to telepathic or empathic "reading" by species with such abilities, like the Betazoids . ( TNG episode : " The Battle ")

With proper care, the average Ferengi life expectancy was up to 300 years. ( DS9 reference : Legends of the Ferengi )

Medical conditions [ ]

• Dorek Syndrome

Psychology [ ]

They were considered a greedy people and highly dishonest. ( DS9 novel : Antimatter )

Greed was never enough amongst Ferengi with true members of their kind believing that they combined greed with pure corruption with a passion for staying out of other peoples' business unless there was profit to be made. ( DS9 novel : Vengeance )

Some believed the concept of money and the particular manner it flowed from other sources into the possession of the Ferengi was an implicit factor in any conversation with the species. Their reputation meant that it was held that the species never did favors without either receiving payment or because they had an ulterior motive. ( DS9 novel : Valhalla )

As such, they were noted for being an acquisitive race. ( DS9 novel : Trial by Error )

One old proverb of the race involved not looking so intently for the silver coin an individual dropped that they missed the gold ones around it. ( DS9 novel : Valhalla )

One tactic used was the art of Kraggnish whereby a Ferengi attempted to get their enemy to think that their rival was their friend and dying to do them a favor when in actual fact the Ferengi was only dying to see the latinum in their pockets. ( DS9 novel : The Laertian Gamble )

Repeated acts of berating and verbal abuse were a means for them to vent any tensions. ( DS9 novel : The Long Night )

Self Preservation [ ]

Suspicion was considered a natural state of mind amongst the Ferengi who tended to hold a sharp mind. ( TNG novel : Debtors' Planet )

Ferengi proudly lay claim to holding the most highly developed sense of self-preservation in the known galaxy. When a warning was heard, they took cover first and asked questions later. When feeling threatened, a common act was to back up near the wall with the reason being so that no one attacked them from behind. ( DS9 novel : The Siege )

They were considered holding a particular instinct towards self-preservation. ( DS9 novel : Fallen Heroes )

The cowardice of the species was noted to be legendary amongst other races. ( DS9 novel : The Long Night )

Society [ ]

Business and crime [ ].

A Ferengi's word was worth nothing without profit. ( DS9 novel : The Long Night )

Their culture had a caste system based on profits. ( TNG video game : Echoes from the Past )

Caste-tattoos sometimes featured on the forehead of a Ferengi. ( TNG novel : Debtors' Planet )

All Ferengi were answerable to the Ferengi Commerce Authority . ( TLE novel : The Art of the Impossible )

Businessmen were expected to memorize their business account going back five years. ( DS9 novel : Vengeance )

Under their law, any deal fairly and lawfully made meant that any Ferengi seeking revenge, especially unprofitable revenge, was committing an illegal act. ( DS9 novel : The Siege )

As such, business was considered the priority before revenge. ( DS9 novel : Antimatter )

A highly placed legal position included that of the Ferengi Supreme Contract Arbitration barrister. ( DS9 novel : Fallen Heroes )

The simple act of not wanting to start a business was seen as sacrilege amongst their kind. ( DS9 novel : The Long Night )

Ferengi without a head of business were even believed to hold no future. ( DS9 novel : Saratoga )

Contracts and regulations were seen as being sacred items within their civilization. Breaking contracts was seen as the greatest taboo within their society. Such violations can bring about the loss of standing with the offender potentially getting their business license revoked and all their assets being seized to pay the victim with the government getting a cut. Though guided by the Rules of Acquisition, additional legal books provide further guidance on specific regulation's and covered all aspects of business as well as social conduct. Despite this volume of guidance, Ferengi law was noted for ironically being flexible with all aspects of the legal system being subject to interpretation. As such, even the lowest ranking functionary was capable of freely interpreting the law if they felt necessary to do so. ( Decipher RPG module : Worlds )

Stealing was against the Ferengi code of honor. ( TNG video game : The Transinium Challenge )

Yet, at the same time, it as not considered a big deal amongst their species. ( DS9 novel : Devil in the Sky )

Though kidnapping was seen as an old business practice. ( TNG novel : Debtors' Planet )

In their legal system, their courts did not distinguish a line between breaching a contract due to greed and breaching it because the act was illegal. Both cases led to a swift and severe punishment of the offending party. ( TNG novel : Balance of Power )

A Ferengi business was noted to never close. They often kept many hidden resources that they were able to tap at a later date. No Ferengi ever admitted that if they were broke that the fault lay on them and that reason for such a failure lay somewhere else. ( DS9 novel : The Laertian Gamble )

They were considered practical businessmen who always believed that no matter how good their business was going that their "marks" might figure out the rules of their game. At which point, their customers would storm the Ferengi's ships with torches and pitchforks. In fact, a standard business practice was to always build an tunnel or bolt-hole into their establishments as a means of escape. ( DS9 novel : Vengeance )

All of their kind were unable to resist the idea of bargaining. One practice made by the Ferengi that was considered an archaic form of scams was the use of insurances. ( DS9 novel : Devil in the Sky )

Their physicians did not bother with pleasantries such as a bedside manner unless they were paid extra. ( DS9 novel : Saratoga )

Females [ ]

Some considered that Ferengi tend to hold a protective view towards their mates. They preferred to keep them unclothed as a sign of submissiveness and some speculated as a strange way of making them less provocative. Medical experts in the Federation theorized that this was perhaps indicative of a low birth rate and high chances of genetic reason being the reason why they were so protective of their females. Others, however, believed that Ferengi psychology may had evolved in a way that it was seen as a great sign of prestige of taking a female from another. This was further linked to the other theory that a lack of clothing was seen as an open challenge to rivals to attempt to seize a Ferengi's female. These theories were based on initial observations of interactions with the species that required confirmation or to be disproved. ( FASA RPG module : Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual )

Male Ferengi had high libidos with their tastes not restricted to their own species. ( Last Unicorn RPG module : Star Trek: The Next Generation Core Game Book )

One common habit seen among their kind was the pestering of non-Ferengi women with some wondering what was the fascination of their species with female aliens. ( TNG novel : Debtors' Planet )

Ferengi were known to parade their most lewd sexual thoughts to others in a constant attempt to outdo one another by proving who was more base. ( DS9 novel : The Siege )

It was believed that male Ferengi did not live with their mothers. ( DS9 novelization : Emissary )

They gained great deal of pleasure when females touched their ears which were known erogenous zones. ( DS9 novel : Fallen Heroes )

Some female Ferengi were quite comfortable with their nudity and took the wild-eyed stares of others as compliments. They enjoyed being naked as they believed they had great physical forms and because their men desired them in such a manner. The practice of keeping multiple naked female Ferengi were seen within their harems. ( DS9 novel : Antimatter )

Their culture held the symbolism of a hammer as a sign of sexual prowess. ( TNG episode : " Birthright ")

Ferengi children's toys include erotic action figures and the popular line of Marauder Mo toys.

Technology [ ]

While none have accused them of being among the galaxy's greater warriors, Ferengi are known to possess excellent shielding. ( DS9 novel : Antimatter )

Ferengi weapons, common [ ]

• Energy whip
• Concealable plasma disruptor-pistol
• Plasma disruptor-rifle with detachable Antican laser-bayonet
• Selayan " slug-thrower " pistol

Plasma pistol stats [ ]

Plasma rifle stats [ ], culture [ ], profit and loss [ ].

Within their society, power and wealth were equated as being the same quality. By displaying wealth, a Ferengi displayed their power and in turn commanded respect. Poor families were thus considered a handicap in their civilization. This focus on business acumen meant that they were more impressed with those individuals with these qualities instead of ancestry. ( TNG novel : Debtors' Planet )

In fact, the goal of almost every Ferengi was to become incredibly rich. ( DS9 novel : Valhalla )

Their focus on profit meant that the Ferengi looked down on the obsessions of justice, honor, logic, compassion or warrior pride which they saw as being foolish notions. Greed was an exalted trait and seen as a noble virtue. ( Last Unicorn RPG module : Star Trek: The Next Generation Core Game Book )

They held a story similar to that of the Terran "boy who cried wolf" fable. In the Ferengi version, a boy cried "Audit" so many times that when a real Auditor arrived, no one believed him. ( DS9 novel : Vengeance )

"Charity" was considered a particularly rude swear word among Ferengi. ( DS9 - Mission Gamma novel : Cathedral )

They lacked a word for "admiration" in their language. ( DS9 novel : The Laertian Gamble )

Initial impressions of the social characteristics of Ferengi society indicated that the species had a pack based mentality. Dominance was equated to the acquisition of wealth and the head of the pack had to contend with constant challenges to their command from the lower ranks. ( FASA RPG module : Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual )

A basic unit within their society was that of the family business that was headed by a male head. He managed the direction of the household who are encouraged and expected to exploit labor from the rest of the family. Those of lower status work as employees of others until they can afford to establish their own operations. Any addition to the family business were expected to be exploited to the same extent as the other employees. Their society was male dominated with females not even allowed to hold a business license. ( Last Unicorn RPG module : Star Trek: The Next Generation Core Game Book )

The standard pose of subservience involved squeezing their hands. ( DS9 novel : The Siege )

One old adage that was considered a source of eternal wisdom was that; children should be worked and not seen. ( DS9 novel : Devil in the Sky )

Ferengi claimed that they did not work but rather operated by a trading, bargaining and selling. The secret of their success on the bargaining table was the fact that any Ferengi already knew what they wanted before they entered into a deal. This provided them a key advantage as while other parties studied the game rules, a Ferengi already knew what they needed exactly out of the bargain. ( DS9 novel : Fallen Heroes )

They were noted to always hold a major business deal in the making. ( DS9 novel : The Siege )

In addition, while they were acknowledged as being greedy, Ferengi were known to know the value of reinvestment with the goal of achieving greater profits in the future. This was used as a way of distinguishing them race from the Cardassians who tended to be misers by comparison. ( DS9 novel : Warchild )

An old proverb of their people when facing a losing situation was; to fold our tents like the Gortz and silently steal away. This saying was only used when a Ferengi needed to make a particularly dire point. ( DS9 novel : The Laertian Gamble )

The Rules of Acquisition served as only the most basic of guidelines. ( DS9 novel : Saratoga )

Most members of the species wore their pockets on the inside of their clothes. ( DS9 novel : Devil in the Sky )

It was believed that they held a fairly underdeveloped sense of humor. ( DS9 novel : The Siege )

A unique specialist aspect of the Ferengi language was similar to Human Morse code , known as B'Zal . This was a pattern of lights in the darkness designed to reveal codes that only another user could identify. ( TNG episode : " Bloodlines ")

Ferengi energy whip included. ( DS9 novel : Devil in the Sky , DS9 episode : " Ferengi Love Songs ")

Though extremely materialistic, the species did have some forms of poetry. This included an epic about a price war that almost wiped out three whole families. It read, "Though cities burn, and all the land's consumed by ravening fire,/Go forth, my son, and buy them out! Acquire! Acquire! Acquire!" ( DS9 novel : Warchild )

They hated to fight prolonged engagements as such acts ate away at their precious profits. ( DS9 novel : The Long Night )

Beliefs [ ]

Ferengi were never noted for being a greatly spiritual race and never openly showed their religious side. Despite this being the case, this did not mean that they did not have their own religion. Its dictates held that Gain was a sacred matter while Loss was a device of the devil. Thus, the concept of loss was seen as an act of supernatural retribution and though few Ferengi were believers all feared such an act. The act of being broke was considered a sin amongst Ferengi. ( DS9 novel : The Laertian Gamble )

They were noted to hold a pantheon of gods. ( DS9 novel : The Big Game ) Modern Ferengi believed in a number of evil spirits though they did not believe in superstitions as their age old ancestors though at the same time still feared them. ( DS9 novel : The Laertian Gamble )

Ultab was one such ancient deity that personified self-doubt. He was considered a demon of self-doubt and its dark shadow that was commercial failure. His arrival meant that many that suffered from such times believed that they had done something wrong to warrant his presence. ( DS9 novel : The Laertian Gamble )

Most Ferengi believed in the Great Material Continuum , a spiritual belief that guided them when they accumulated wealth. Only those that followed the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition were said to travel the "river" that is the Great Material Continuum. [ citation needed ]

Those that profited in life and accumulated well were said to be allowed a place in the Divine Treasury . However, those that failed to do so were doomed to suffer within the Vault of Eternal Destitution as punishment for not following the profit-driven ways of the Ferengi. ( DS9 episodes : " Treachery, Faith, and the Great River ", " The Dogs of War ")

When a Ferengi died, they went to the Divine Treasury. ( DS9 novel : Vengeance )

Priests such as those that were part of the Charismatic Fathers of Profit and Loss wore long blue-and-yellow striped robes of office and sometimes were a rare sight for outsiders. ( DS9 novel : The Laertian Gamble )

Rituals [ ]

Their society were different from Humans to the point that while their customs may seem wrong they had worked for the species for a long time. ( DS9 novel : The Long Night ) Their sacred death rituals often saw a Ferengi lying on their deathbed where they said that they could not go as they had a deal to close. ( DS9 novel : The Siege )

Two Ferengi closed a business deal by pressing the backs of their hands together, then bringing in the palm to clasp their own chest or shoulder. The maneuver signified mutual suspicion and distrust, yet a willingness to work together honestly for the betterment of both parties. The ritual began with contact and agreement, albeit with undertones of confrontation, followed by a reminder that each Ferengi is motivated by his own greed and is co-operating for self-serving reasons. No successful Ferengi would respect anyone not motivated by their own greed; that would signify they were mere servants, agents of another’s wealth. [ citation needed ]

Ferengi commonly greeted one another by putting their wrists together, hands apart, with fingers curled inward; this appeared to be their equivalent of the Human handshake. The grasping gesture of course signified that the person making it was a true Ferengi, always ready to acquire. A Ferengi acting in some form of service or submission would usually bow low, or even kneel, with their face raised, and make the same gesture. When used in concurrence with the excessively low posture, it signified the individual as yet possessed nothing - and was therefore subordinate to the wealthier, more successful Ferengi - but it also served as a visual hint that they expected payment for any services they performed; the hands were waiting to be filled. The cultural connotations of displaying open hands were echoed again in the "obscene" gesture of a person waving empty hands above his head; obviously, overtly signifying you possessed nothing was a disgustingly deviant action. [ citation needed ]

• Ferengi Attainment Ceremony
• Ferengi death ritual

Diplomacy [ ]

Their society was believed to had evolved to form a different set of values with traits such as cheating and stealing not being considered bad so long as the perpetrator was not stupid enough to be caught. To them, there was nothing worse to their standards than stupidity. As such, acts of dishonesty and thievery were approved by their society. Yet, concepts of justice and honesty were traits that were mocked amongst Ferengi. They also did not approve of courage either. ( DS9 novelization : Emissary )

Despite this being the case, they were considered to hold honor but a very different kind of concept of it compared to other species. Ultimately, they were more concerned with profit rather than rules. ( DS9 novel : The Big Game )

Ferengi believed that their centuries of prosperity in the galactic community was due to the fact that their race knew how to turn any circumstance into a profitable deal. ( DS9 novel : Fallen Heroes )

They had their own definition for what constituted "civilized" behavior though recognized that this was not accepted by other species. ( DS9 novel : Valhalla )

They also had a universal reputation as being perfect hosts. ( DS9 novel : Warchild )

It was claimed that the Ferengi did not travel much. ( DS9 novel : The Laertian Gamble )

Food and Drink

• Slug-o-Cola

History [ ]

Individuals [ ], civilians and businesspeople [ ], military [ ], government [ ], law enforcement [ ], starfleet [ ], appendices [ ], appearances and references [ ], appearances [ ].

• TNG episode : " The Last Outpost "
• TNG episode : " The Battle "
• TNG episode : " Peak Performance "
• TNG episode : " The Price "
• TNG episode : " Captain's Holiday "
• TNG episode : " Ménage à Troi "
• TNG episode : " Future Imperfect "
• TNG episode : " Unification "
• TNG episode : " The Perfect Mate "
• TNG episode : " Rascals "
• TNG episode : " Chain Of Command "
• TNG episode : " Suspicions "
• TNG episode : " Force of Nature "
• TNG episode : " Firstborn "
• TNG episode : " Bloodlines "
• TNG novel : Masks
• TNG novel : Fortune's Light
• TNG novel : Balance of Power
• TNG novel : Quarantine
• TNG novel : Vectors
• TNG novel : I, Q
• TNG - The Dominion War novel : Behind Enemy Lines
• TNG - Maximum Warp novel : Dead Zone
• TNG novel : Indistinguishable from Magic
• TNG novel : Shadows Have Offended
• TNG - Slings and Arrows short story : " The Oppressor's Wrong "
• TNG comic : " Prisoners of the Ferengi "
• TNG comic : " Holiday on Ice "
• DS9 episode : " Emissary "
• DS9 episode : " A Man Alone "
• DS9 episode : " Babel "
• DS9 episode : " Captive Pursuit "
• DS9 episode : " Q-Less "
• DS9 episode : " Dax "
• DS9 episode : " The Passenger "
• DS9 episode : " Move Along Home "
• DS9 episode : " The Nagus "
• DS9 episode : " Vortex "
• DS9 episode : " The Storyteller "
• DS9 episode : " Progress "
• DS9 episode : " If Wishes Were Horses "
• DS9 episode : " The Forsaken "
• DS9 episode : " Dramatis Personae "
• DS9 episode : " Duet "
• DS9 episode : " In the Hands of the Prophets "
• DS9 episode : " The Homecoming "
• DS9 episode : " The Circle "
• DS9 episode : " The Siege "
• DS9 episode : " Invasive Procedures "
• DS9 episode : " Cardassians "
• DS9 episode : " Melora "
• DS9 episode : " Rules of Acquisition "
• DS9 episode : " Necessary Evil "
• DS9 episode : " Second Sight "
• DS9 episode : " Sanctuary "
• DS9 episode : " Rivals "
• DS9 episode : " The Alternate "
• DS9 episode : " Armageddon Game "
• DS9 episode : " Whispers "
• DS9 episode : " Shadowplay "
• DS9 episode : " Playing God "
• DS9 episode : " Profit and Loss "
• DS9 episode : " Blood Oath "
• DS9 episode : " The Maquis, Part I "
• DS9 episode : " The Maquis, Part II "
• DS9 episode : " The Wire "
• DS9 episode : " The Collaborator "
• DS9 episode : " The Jem'Hadar "
• DS9 episode : " The Search, Part I "
• DS9 episode : " The Search, Part II "
• DS9 episode : " The House of Quark "
• DS9 episode : " Equilibrium "
• DS9 episode : " Second Skin "
• DS9 episode : " The Abandoned "
• DS9 episode : " Civil Defense "
• DS9 episode : " Meridian "
• DS9 episode : " Defiant "
• DS9 episode : " Fascination "
• DS9 episode : " Past Tense, Part I "
• DS9 episode : " Life Support "
• DS9 episode : " Heart of Stone "
• DS9 episode : " Destiny "
• DS9 episode : " Prophet Motive "
• DS9 episode : " Visionary "
• DS9 episode : " Distant Voices "
• DS9 episode : " Through the Looking Glass "
• DS9 episode : " Explorers "
• DS9 episode : " Family Business "
• DS9 episode : " Shakaar "
• DS9 episode : " Facets "
• DS9 episode : " The Adversary "
• DS9 episode : " The Way of the Warrior "
• DS9 novel : The Way of the Warrior
• DS9 episode : " The Visitor "
• DS9 episode : " Hippocratic Oath "
• DS9 episode : " Indiscretion "
• DS9 episode : " Rejoined "
• DS9 episode : " Starship Down "
• DS9 episode : " Little Green Men "
• DS9 episode : " The Sword of Kahless "
• DS9 episode : " Our Man Bashir "
• DS9 episode : " Homefront "
• DS9 episode : " Crossfire "
• DS9 episode : " Sons of Mogh "
• DS9 episode : " Bar Association "
• DS9 episode : " Accession "
• DS9 episode : " Rules of Engagement "
• DS9 episode : " Hard Time "
• DS9 episode : " Shattered Mirror "
• DS9 episode : " The Muse "
• DS9 episode : " For the Cause "
• DS9 episode : " To the Death "
• DS9 episode : " The Quickening "
• DS9 episode : " Body Parts "
• DS9 episode : " Broken Link "
• DS9 episode : " Apocalypse Rising "
• DS9 episode : " The Ship "
• DS9 episode : " Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places "
• DS9 episode : " Nor the Battle to the Strong "
• DS9 episode : " Trials and Tribble-ations "
• DS9 episode : " The Ascent "
• DS9 episode : " Rapture "
• DS9 episode : " The Darkness and the Light "
• DS9 episode : " The Begotten "
• DS9 episode : " In Purgatory's Shadow "
• DS9 episode : " By Inferno's Light "
• DS9 episode : " Doctor Bashir, I Presume "
• DS9 episode : " A Simple Investigation "
• DS9 episode : " Business as Usual "
• DS9 episode : " Ties of Blood and Water "
• DS9 episode : " Ferengi Love Songs "
• DS9 episode : " Blaze of Glory "
• DS9 episode : " Empok Nor "
• DS9 episode : " In the Cards "
• DS9 episode : " Call to Arms "
• DS9 novel : Call to Arms...
• DS9 episode : " A Time to Stand "
• DS9 episode : " Sons and Daughters "
• DS9 episode : " Behind the Lines "
• DS9 episode : " Favor the Bold "
• DS9 episode : " Sacrifice of Angels "
• DS9 novel : ...Sacrifice of Angels
• DS9 episode : " You Are Cordially Invited "
• DS9 episode : " Resurrection "
• DS9 episode : " Statistical Probabilities "
• DS9 episode : " The Magnificent Ferengi "
• DS9 episode : " Who Mourns for Morn? "
• DS9 episode : " One Little Ship "
• DS9 episode : " Honor Among Thieves "
• DS9 episode : " Change of Heart "
• DS9 episode : " Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night "
• DS9 episode : " Inquisition "
• DS9 episode : " In the Pale Moonlight "
• DS9 episode : " His Way "
• DS9 episode : " The Reckoning "
• DS9 episode : " Valiant "
• DS9 episode : " Profit and Lace "
• DS9 episode : " Time's Orphan "
• DS9 episode : " The Sound of Her Voice "
• DS9 episode : " Tears of the Prophets "
• DS9 episode : " Image in the Sand "
• DS9 episode : " Shadows and Symbols "
• DS9 episode : " Afterimage "
• DS9 episode : " Take Me Out to the Holosuite "
• DS9 episode : " Chrysalis "
• DS9 episode : " Treachery, Faith, and the Great River "
• DS9 episode : " Once More Unto the Breach "
• DS9 episode : " The Siege of AR-558 "
• DS9 episode : " Covenant "
• DS9 episode : " It's Only a Paper Moon "
• DS9 episode : " The Emperor's New Cloak "
• DS9 episode : " Field of Fire "
• DS9 episode : " Chimera "
• DS9 episode : " Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang "
• DS9 episode : " Penumbra "
• DS9 episode : " 'Til Death Do Us Part "
• DS9 episode : " Strange Bedfellows "
• DS9 episode : " The Changing Face of Evil "
• DS9 episode : " When It Rains... "
• DS9 episode : " The Dogs of War "
• DS9 episode : " What You Leave Behind "
• DS9 novel : The Siege
• DS9 novel : Bloodletter
• DS9 novel : Warped
• DS9 novel : Warchild
• DS9 novel : Valhalla
• DS9 novel : Betrayal
• DS9 novel : The Big Game
• DS9 novel : Fallen Heroes
• DS9 novel : Devil in the Sky
• DS9 novel : Antimatter
• DS9 novel : The Search
• DS9 novel : The Laertian Gamble
• DS9 novel : Proud Helios
• DS9 novel : The Long Night
• DS9 novel : Station Rage
• DS9 - Invasion! novel : Time's Enemy
• DS9 novel : Saratoga
• DS9 novel : Wrath of the Prophets
• DS9 novel : The Tempest
• DS9 - Day of Honor novel : Armageddon Sky
• DS9 novel : The Heart of the Warrior
• DS9 novel : Trial by Error
• DS9 novel : Vengeance
• DS9 novel : The Conquered
• DS9 novel : The Courageous
• DS9 novel : The Liberated
• DS9 novel : The 34th Rule
• DS9 novel : A Stitch in Time
• DS9 novel : The Fall of Terok Nor
• DS9 novel : The War of the Prophets
• DS9 novel : Hollow Men
• DS9 novels : Avatar, Book One , Avatar, Book Two
• DS9 - Section 31 novel : Abyss
• DS9 - Gateways novel : Demons of Air and Darkness
• DS9 - Mission Gamma novel : Twilight
• DS9 - Mission Gamma novel : This Gray Spirit
• DS9 - Mission Gamma novel : Cathedral
• DS9 - Mission Gamma novel : Lesser Evil
• DS9 novel : The Left Hand of Destiny, Book One
• DS9 novel : The Left Hand of Destiny, Book Two
• DS9 novel : Unity
• DS9 - Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novella : Bajor: Fragments and Omens
• DS9 - Worlds of DS9 - Volume Three novella : Ferenginar: Satisfaction is Not Guaranteed
• DS9 novel : Warpath
• DS9 novel : Fearful Symmetry
• DS9 novel : The Soul Key
• DS9 novel : Sacraments of Fire
• DS9 novel : Ascendance
• DS9 novel : The Missing
• DS9 novel : Force and Motion
• DS9 novel : The Long Mirage
• DS9 novel : The Star Ghost
• DS9 novel : Stowaways
• DS9 novel : The Pet
• DS9 novel : Field Trip
• DS9 novel : Gypsy World
• DS9 novel : Highest Score
• DS9 novel : Cardassian Imps
• DS9 novel : Space Camp
• DS9 novella : The Badlands, Part IV
• DS9 short story : " Barclay Program Nine "
• DS9 comic : " Requiem "
• DS9 comic : " Requiem II "
• DS9 comic : " N-Vector "
• DS9 comic : " Lapse "
• DS9 comic : " The Looking Glass War "
• DS9 comic : " Star Trek: Ferengi "
• DS9 short story : " Chiaroscuro "
• DS9 short story : " The Orb of Opportunity "
• DS9 short story : " Broken Oaths "
• DS9 short story : " Foundlings "
• DS9 short story : " ... Loved I Not Honor More "
• DS9 short story : " Three Sides to Every Story "
• DS9 short story : " The Best Defense... "
• DS9 short story : " Reservoir Ferengi "
• DS9 short story : " Lust's Latinum Lost (and Found) "
• DS9 short story : " Rules of Accusation "
• DS9 short story : " The Dreamer and the Dream "
• DS9 short story : " I, The Constable "
• DS9 video game : Crossroads of Time
• DS9 video game : Harbinger
• DS9 video game : The Fallen
• VOY episode : " Caretaker "
• VOY episode : " False Profits "
• VOY episode : " Inside Man "
• ENT episode : " Acquisition "
• PIC episode : " Disengage "
• PIC novel : Rogue Elements
• LDs episode : " Envoys "
• LDs episode : " Temporal Edict "
• LDs episode : " Mugato, Gumato "
• LDs episode : " An Embarrassment Of Dooplers "
• LDs episode : " Reflections "
• LDs episode : " Hear All, Trust Nothing "
• LDs episode : " The Stars At Night "
• TTN novel : Taking Wing
• TTN novel : The Red King
• TTN novel : Sword of Damocles
• TTN novel : Fallen Gods
• TTN novel : Fortune of War
• ST novel : The Return
• ST novel : Preserver
• ST - Typhon Pact novel : Plagues of Night
• ST - Typhon Pact novel : Zero Sum Game
• ST - Typhon Pact novel : Raise the Dawn
• ST - The Fall novel : Revelation and Dust
• ST - The Fall novel : A Ceremony of Losses
• ST - The Fall novel : The Poisoned Chalice
• ST - Coda novel : The Ashes of Tomorrow

References [ ]

• PIC novel : Firewall
• ↑ DS9 episode : " Life Support "
• ↑ DS9 episode : " Little Green Men "
• ↑ ENT episode : " Acquisition "
• ↑ VOY episode : " Infinite Regress "
• ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 TNG episode : " The Last Outpost "
• ↑ DS9 episode : " Rules of Acquisition "
• ↑ STO - Klingon War mission : " Welcome to Earth Spacedock "
• ↑ DSC episode : " Anomaly "
• ↑ 9.0 9.1 TNG episode : " The Battle "
• ↑ TNG novel : Debtors' Planet
• ↑ DS9 novel : Fallen Heroes
• ↑ DS9 novel : Antimatter

External link [ ]

• Ferengi article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• 1 Lamarr class
• 2 Wesley Crusher
• 3 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Magnificent Ferengi

• Episode aired Jan 1, 1998

At the request of the Grand Nagus, Quark puts together a mission to rescue Quark's mother, who is in the hands of the Dominion. At the request of the Grand Nagus, Quark puts together a mission to rescue Quark's mother, who is in the hands of the Dominion. At the request of the Grand Nagus, Quark puts together a mission to rescue Quark's mother, who is in the hands of the Dominion.

• Chip Chalmers
• Gene Roddenberry
• Rick Berman
• Michael Piller
• Avery Brooks
• Rene Auberjonois
• Michael Dorn
• 11 User reviews
• 4 Critic reviews

• Captain Benjamin 'Ben' Sisko

• Constable Odo

• Lt. Cmdr. Worf
• (credit only)

• Lt. Cmdr. Jadzia Dax

• Chief Miles O'Brien

• Doctor Julian Bashir

• Major Kira Nerys

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia Iggy Pop , as Yelgrun, can be seen frequently holding his left arm during his scenes. This is due to the fact that the night before while performing at a concert he did a stage dive and in his words, "the crowd parted like the Red Sea" causing him to hit the floor hard and he separated his left shoulder. He still managed to perform his role the next day despite his discomfort.
• Goofs At one point, Leck refers to his people as 'Ferengis'. The correct plural term for Ferengi is still 'Ferengi'.

[Quark's mother Ishka has been squabbling with Nog]

Quark : [to Yelgrun] Family. You understand.

Yelgrun : Not really. I was cloned.

• Connections Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Celebrities You Didn't Know Were on Star Trek TV Shows (2017)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Main Title (uncredited) Written by Dennis McCarthy Performed by Dennis McCarthy

User reviews 11

• Apr 18, 2023
• January 1, 1998 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
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The 10 Best Ferengi Episodes Of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Ranked

"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" is unlike any other "Star Trek" series, diverging from franchise creator Gene Roddenberry's vision after his death  and digging into stories and characters that were more morally gray than the original series or "Star Trek: The Next Generation." "Deep Space Nine" took place on board the space station Deep Space Nine, located in a key position near the freshly liberated planet of Bajor and a newly discovered wormhole to another quadrant of the universe. Several seasons are occupied with the Dominion War , forcing "Star Trek" to contend with concepts like terrorism, torture, and more, making it one of the darkest of all of the "Trek" shows. Thankfully, however, the show also has a secret comedy card: the Ferengi.

The big-eared, bulbous headed aliens obsessed with capitalism were something of a bad stereotype in the franchise until "Deep Space Nine," where they finally got a chance to shine and correct earlier missteps by making the Ferengi more complex. It paid off incredibly well, with several Ferengi characters becoming fan favorites by the series' end, especially begrudgingly empathetic bar owner Quark (Armin Shimerman). As a result, there are quite a few great episodes centered around the Ferengi and their various misadventures, and I have collected and ranked the 10 best for your enjoyment. Honorable mentions include "Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places," "Who Mourns for Morn," and "In the Cards," which are all fantastic episodes but weren't  quite as Ferengi-focused as the ones that made the cut. Without further ado, please insert your latinum to the left and let's check out the best Ferengi episodes on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine!"

10. Prophet Motive

Throughout "Deep Space Nine," Quark has a complicated relationship with Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn), the supreme leader of the Ferengi people, but things get their absolute weirdest in the season 3 episode "Prophet Motive." In the episode, Zek reveals to Quark and his brother Rom (Max Grodénchik) that he is changing the Rules of Acquisition and completely turning Ferengi culture on its head, embracing kindness and sharing — not exactly well-known Ferengi traits. He even tells a customer of Quark's how to get the item he's trying to sell her at wholesale, which is pretty much a Ferengi hate-crime. It turns out that he found one of the Bajoran prayer orbs and the prophets changed him, so Quark decides to take Zek into the wormhole to confront the prophets directly.

The prophets are basically gods who exist outside of linear time, so having the Ferengi, who are basically just greedy "Star Trek" hobbits, go to confront them is absolutely hilarious. The prophets aren't particularly impressed with the Ferengi and it takes some serious sweet-talking on Quark's part to not be changed the same way Zek was. Instead the prophets "fix" Zek and kick Quark and his ship back out into the Alpha quadrant and tell them not to ever come back, like some unruly house guests no longer welcome at a party. It's  really funny and gives the prophets the chance to be something other than just frustratingly mysterious.

9. The House of Quark

Quark has to be good at talking his way out of trouble ... because his mouth so frequently get him into trouble. When he's not working on various get-rich-quick schemes or ways to smuggle illegal goods through a Federation station, he's lusting after women that are totally out of his league and pretty dangerous for him to be around. Quark loves a feisty woman, and perhaps his most intense romance was with Grilka (Mary Kay Adams). After Quark accidentally kills her husband in a bar fight and then claims to have done it on purpose, he is tasked with marrying Grilka and taking over her Klingon house. That goes about as well as one might expect, since Quark is not exactly up to Klingon social standards.

In the end, Quark ends up saving Grilka and her house in a very Ferengi way, using his wits and knowledge of finances to figure out that Grilka's rival house has been stealing from her, which is a real Klingon no-no. Quark ends up divorced from Grilka but they stay friendly, and he eventually tries to woo her for real a few seasons later in "Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places." Who doesn't love a Ferengi-Klingon episode? That's a match made in "Star Trek" heaven.

8. Family Business

In the season 3 episode "Family Business," three great recurring characters were introduced for the first time, and two of them are Ferengi. (The third is freighter captain Kasidy Yates, played by Penny Johnson Jerald, who eventually goes on to marry Captain Sisko.) In the episode, Rom and Quark are tasked with returning to the Ferengi home planet of Ferenginar because their mother, Ishka, has been charged with the crime of earning a profit while female. It's the first appearance of Ishka, played by Andrea Martin, though in future episodes she would be played by Cecily Adams, and she's a hilarious blessing of a character. Ishka is a brilliant financial mind who wears clothes (Ferengi women are supposed to stay nude) and resists the gendered rules of her society, and that drives Quark absolutely up a wall.

The episode also introduces Jeffrey Combs' character Brunt, who works as a liquidator for the Ferengi Commerce Authority and has it out for Quark and his family. Combs has played a ton of "Star Trek" characters over the years, but as Brunt he gets the chance to be a part of the greater ridiculous Ferengi family, and he's terrific. "Family Business" is great for finally showing us Ferenginar and introducing Ishka and Brunt, but there's another episode that gives them even more to do and it's wonderful.

7. Ferengi Love Songs

Quark can be pretty selfish, and in "Ferengi Love Songs," he puts his own happiness and success before his mother's when it's revealed that she's having a romantic affair with Zek and Quark does everything in his power to drive a wedge between them. The episode introduces Adams as Ishka, better known as "Moogie," taking over the role from Martin. Ishka is a sassy, self-assured woman who ends up being the brains behind the throne, so to speak, helping Zek to right Ferengi finances and become more competitive throughout the universe. When Quark gets in the way, it ends up being disastrous not only for Moogie and Zek but for all of Ferenginar, and he soon realizes that he needs to give his mother a lot more credit than he has before.

The episode is one of the best comedic episodes in all of "Star Trek," with several great moments involving people either hiding in Quark's closet or using it as a place to teleport, leading to some sci-fi sitcom-esque hijinks. Adams and Shawn are fantastic together, calling one another pet names and nuzzling their prosthetic-covered noses, and it's hard not to root for their romance. It's rare to see love between elderly couples on TV, let alone elderly aliens with bulbous heads, making "Ferengi Love Songs" as refreshing as it is funny.

6. Body Parts

"Deep Space Nine" is unique among "Star Trek" shows in that it forces characters who otherwise wouldn't interact to live in the same space station. Quark is, arguably, the greatest character in the franchise because he provides a totally different lens through which to view humanity and the Federation. His episodes run the gamut from zany and irreverent to much more serious fare, and in the episode "Body Parts," we get to see who he really is when things go horribly, horribly wrong. When Ferengi die, they have their ashes pressed into collectible coins to be sold to the highest bidder, and when Quark discovers that he is terminally ill, he begins the bidding. Unfortunately, the medical tests were wrong and Quark isn't going to die, but he's already sold his remains to an anonymous bidder who turns out to be his nemesis, Brunt. He either has to kill himself and fulfill the contract or break it, which will lead to him being cut off from all of Ferengi society and forfeiting all of his assets.

He ends up deciding to live even though it goes against everything he's ever believed, and in the end all of his friends aboard Deep Space Nine help him by replenishing his supplies and helping him to restore his business. Even though Quark thinks he's lost all of his assets, Rom informs him that he's richer than he ever knew because of his friendships. It's a moment that shows how much Quark has grown and changed on account of being surrounded by filthy hu-mans, and it shows how much the people around him have changed too, growing to love the fiscally finicky Ferengi.

5. It's Only a Paper Moon

Not all Ferengi episodes are funny or full of warm and fuzzy feelings. The season 7 episode "It's Only a Paper Moon" follows Nog (Aron Eisenberg), Rom's son and Quark's nephew, after he loses his leg in battle during the Siege of AR-558 and is subsequently stricken with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After years of hard work to become a Starfleet officer, he becomes unable to cope with what happened on AR-558 and seeks solace in the holodeck. He spends all of his time in a well-loved program that hosts Vegas lounge singer Vic Fontaine (James Darren), trying to escape reality through Vic's music and the glittering false world. It's tough to believe that one of the best episodes in all of "Deep Space Nine" features a Ferengi who we were introduced to as a child character and a hologram, but "It's Only a Paper Moon" is truly an all-timer.

Originally, the plan was for Nog to lose both legs , but that was just a bit too much. Even then, "It's Only a Paper Moon" is heart-wrenching stuff that deals with the horrors of war in a very personal way. Eisenberg's performance is nuanced and exquisite even beneath all of those layers of prosthetic makeup, and the episode is even more poignant following the actor's death in 2019. If you can watch "It's Only a Paper Moon" without crying, you might be a Vulcan or a Borg.

4. Little Green Men

Time travel episodes in "Star Trek" can be hit-or-miss, but the season 4 "Deep Space Nine" episode "Little Green Men" is a total blast. After being gifted a shuttle by his cousin Gaila, Quark takes Rom and Nog to Earth so that Nog can enroll in Starfleet Academy. Of course, he also does a bit of illegal smuggling in the process to make things profitable, and that illicit cargo helps send the Ferengi back in time to Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. The shapeshifting Constable Odo (René Auberjonois) also comes along, as he hid aboard the shuttle to spy on Quark. The Ferengi crash land and end up waking up in a government facility and Quark sets about trying to swindle humanity as quickly as possible once Rom gets their universal translators fixed. Odo ends up convincing them not to change the timeline or alter Earth's history any more than they already have, though Quark has to really fight against his worst instincts. 

"Little Green Men" is great because it's not just fun "Star Trek" but fun science-fiction, positing that the little green men with big heads and beady eyes associated with the purported Roswell crash were actually Ferengi from 24th century. Not only that, but it's also an episode that forces Odo and Quark to work together, which is always pure gold. "Little Green Men" isn't groundbreaking, but it is a seriously good time. 

3. Rules of Acquisition

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Ferengi society throughout "Deep Space Nine" is the way it evolves, especially when it comes to the treatment of women (or "females," as Quark and co. are prone to calling them). Ferengi culture is deeply sexist, forcing its women to stay home, naked. The only men they are allowed to talk to are members of their own immediate family, and they're not allowed to hold jobs or earn profit. While Ishka eventually made major changes to the status quo when she started dating Zek, another Ferengi woman first shook things up in the season 2 episode "Rules of Acquisition."

Pel (Helene Udy) is a Ferengi woman pretending to be a man, wearing prosthetic ears over her own. She works for Quark and falls in love with him, eventually confessing her secret to Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell). When Quark discovers her true identity, he is shocked but actually tries to help her, offering her money so she can leave and start a new life. (Sure, it would protect him from the punishment of doing business with a Ferengi woman as well, but he could have thrown her under the bus just as easily.) Quark has feelings for Pel but can't accept them, and though Zek learns the truth, Quark still defends her. Pel ends up starting a new life in the Gamma Quadrant and we never see her again, but she made a lasting impact on Quark, who would develop newfound empathy and become a much better man in time.

2. Bar Association

While Quark learns to be more flexible in his dealings with women, he has a much harder time when it comes to his hardcore capitalist leanings. He treats his employees terribly, even his brother Rom, which leads to poor Rom collapsing at work with an ear infection. In the infirmary, Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) suggests that Rom form a union, something that's extremely illegal among the Ferengi. Rom does it, taking advice from Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney), who tells him about his ancestor who wasn't "just a great man, he was a union man." Rom and the rest of Quark's employees unionize and go on strike, leading to just about everyone boycotting his establishment. The episode gives Rom a chance to really shine, which is great because he's a truly unusual Ferengi man. He's sensitive and caring and in touch with his feminine side, and is more interested in doing the right thing than he is in making profit. (He even gives up all of his wealth when he marries a Bajoran woman, something that's absolutely unheard of.)

The episode doesn't have the same kind of dramatic tension that became the standard on "Deep Space Nine," but the interpersonal character relationships are stellar and it shows that Ferengi are still individuals who can shirk tradition. Despite Brunt showing up and giving Quark a hard time, the bar owner eventually relents and gives his employees raises and time off, as long as they pretend like he "won" to save face with the Commerce Authority. The best part is that Rom ends up taking a job in engineering, realizing his own worth and giving himself a fresh start.

1. The Magnificent Ferengi

What do you get when you task a group of ragtag Ferengi with a hostage rescue mission against the Dominion? You get "The Magnificent Ferengi," an absolute joy of an episode that sees Quark assemble a team of crooks and relatives to rescue Ishka after she's taken hostage. They end up doing a hostage trade, turning over a Vorta named Keevan (Christopher Shea) in exchange for Ishka on an abandoned Cardassian station that looks just like Deep Space Nine. The only problem is that they accidentally kill Keevan before they can do the exchange, and they're surrounded by an army of Jem'hadar under the command of a Vorta named Yelgrun (played by punk icon Iggy Pop). As such, they end up pulling a "Weekend at Bernie's" by rigging electrodes to Keevan that Nog can control via remote, forcing his body to walk. It's  really funny, and while the episode is about as deep as a kiddie pool, it's a much-needed respite from the bleak Dominion War episodes that dominate the later seasons of "Deep Space Nine."

"The Magnificent Ferengi" has it all: Quark being savvy, Nog saving the day, a whole bunch of great in-fighting among the Ferengi, a reanimated Vorta corpse, and some brilliant moments. Keevan's last words might be "I hate Ferengi," but this episode should help anyone who watches fall in love with them.

Messed Up Things About The Ferengi In Star Trek

Starfleet boldly goes where no one has gone before, but the Ferengi boldly sell what no one has sold before. Short in stature and big on commerce, these pointy-toothed, big-eared aliens look like the stuff of nightmares, but they'd rather take your latinum than your life. The Ferengi pursue profit above all else, and swindling or even piracy are par for the course. Notably neutral when it comes to major galactic conflicts, they'll do business with any willing power — the Romulans, the Cardassians, the Dominion, and more. After all, scruples are for humans. 

That's the popular image of the Ferengi, but they're much more than cut-rate comic relief villains to be trotted out when the writers are out of ideas. Take a closer look, and you'll see a rich culture, steeped in history and tradition. So what if it's all related to money? The stars are made of latinum, so here are some messed up things about the Ferengi in Star Trek .

The Ferengi were supposed to be TNG's main villains

When Star Trek: The Next Generation was in development, the Ferengi were meant to be the show's main antagonists, as the Klingons had been in The Original Series . As noted by Trek Movie , they were ominously referenced in TNG 's premiere episode, and fans didn't have to wait long until they were introduced in "The Last Outpost." Their big reveal, however, didn't go as planned. The Ferengi were slapstick goofballs, no attempt to make them seem like a real threat afterward worked, and TNG 's main villain slot was eventually filled by the Romulans and the Borg .

In 2018, Armin Shimerman, who played one of the Ferengi in their initial appearance and went on to play Quark in Deep Space Nine , revealed to Gamespot that he blamed himself for the species' introductory faceplant, stating, "'The Last Outpost' was a disaster. And no one one bears the brunt of that mistake more than I do." Despite his sense of guilt, Memory Alpha points out that people behind the camera were the ones who directed him and the other Ferengi actors to, as Shimerman put it, "jump up and down like crazed gerbils." On a related note, although the Ferengi did not come out how Gene Roddenberry intended, his idea to make them rather ... well-endowed (as indicated by massive codpieces) probably wouldn't have helped, either.

Those big Ferengi ears are erogenous zones

One of the most immediately recognizable Ferengi features are their big ears, or "lobes" as they prefer to call them. Per Memory Alpha , those ears, which are larger in males, grant the Ferengi exceptional hearing, sufficient to gauge decibel levels and even tell another's species. As noted by the Star Trek Database , bigger ears are seen as a mark of virility, which makes sense given that they're also erogenous zones. That's right, you can rev a Ferengi up by stroking his ears, and they even have a word for the act: oo-mox .

As you might expect, the Ferengi have put quite a bit of thought into oo-mox. In addition to the usual massaging, stroking, and caressing, there are a variety of techniques for the more advanced lobe-handler, as detailed in the book Oo-mox for Fun and Profit. One might try the auditory nerve nibble, the Eustachian tube rub, or the tympanic tickle (though the latter should not be performed by beginners). However they're done, oo-mox need not be relegated to the bedroom. Some Ferengi hire women to give them oo-mox anytime, anywhere, which is a sign of wealth.

Profit is everything for the Ferengi

Ferengi culture is capitalism on steroids. According to the Star Trek Database , business and pleasure are one and the same, and commerce permeates every aspect of society. The ultimate ideal is acquiring wealth, and the Ferengi idolize successful businessmen the way Klingons might revere a great warrior.

As detailed by Memory Alpha , greed is a virtue among Ferengi. Only a fool without the lobes for business would cut into his profits with silly ideas like "fair prices" and "workers' rights." Exploitation of both customers and employees is the norm, and don't expect the downtrodden to fight for change. They'd rather rise to a position where they can do the exploiting. Opportunism is a virtue as well, and nothing in Ferengi society is free. Visitors to a Ferengi's home are charged an admission fee of one slip of latinum, even sons visiting their parents.

All that greed leads to a lot of intrigue and suspicion. The Ferengi equivalent to a human handshake is two businessmen placing the backs of their hands together and then quickly pulling them away in distrust, and when one Ferengi enters another's home, it is traditional for the host to say, "My house is my house," to which the visitor replies, "As are its contents." Despite the cutthroat nature of their culture, however, a Ferengi might be quick to point out that their focus on commerce has left their history far less bloody than those of other species.

Women are nothing to the Ferengi

Ferengi society is patriarchy on steroids. Men are born into a galaxy full of latinum and opportunity, and women ... aren't. Ferengi women, often simply referred to as "females," aren't allowed to own property, to speak to males other than family members, or even leave the house without a man escorting them. They must be naked at all times, and, per the Star Trek Database , a woman wearing clothes can cause a male Ferengi to avert his eyes the way a human might in response to nudity.

By far, the most hobbling restriction Ferengi women face in their business-obsessed culture is that they aren't allowed to earn profit. According to Memory Alpha , those who do must give all the money back or be sold into indentured servitude. Despite this, some Ferengi women have gone into business, such as Pel, who disguised herself as a man to do so. Another woman, Ishka , secretly made a fortune after the death of her husband and eventually became romantically involved with an aging Grand Nagus Zek, after which she influenced the business decisions of the entire Ferengi Alliance from behind the scenes.

Toward the end of Deep Space Nine , Zek called for some reforms, such as allowing women to wear clothes. He was temporarily deposed for such a radical notion but was ultimately reinstated. Women, after all, comprised more than 53 percent of the Ferengi population, and that's a huge untapped market.

Oligarchy is the name of the game

With commerce being so central to the Ferengi, is it any surprise that their government runs on money? Business and politics are inextricable, and, as detailed by Memory Alpha , bribery and cronyism are par for the course in the Ferengi Alliance. A Ferengi who wishes to move up in the government will have to make profit for both himself and his bosses, and to even speak to a higher-up requires a bribe. On top of it all, the Ferengi head of state, the Grand Nagus, also leads the Alliance's business ventures .

Despite all the corruption, there are governmental bodies to regulate business (or just maintain the corruption), such as the Ferengi Commerce Authority . The FCA is especially dreaded, as are their agents, known as liquidators. They require business records from all Ferengi, and any fool who dares try to unionize will feel their wrath. Most terrifyingly, liquidators have the power to revoke a Ferengi's business license, a fate that's arguably worse than death.

A Ferengi who finds himself charged by the FCA will face an uphill battle to stay in business. Simply asking one of their receptionists a question costs a strip of latinum, and taking a seat in the waiting room costs three (though this can be bartered down to two). Don't blow all your latinum on a good seat, either, because it'll cost another slip to stand back up.

Profit is holy for the Ferengi

As far as the Ferengi are concerned, business is religious. According to Memory Alpha , Ferengi far and wide pray to the Blessed Exchequer, the divine accountant who awaits them in the afterlife. Shrines of the Exchequer contain slots into which supplicants place slips of latinum, and the Ferengi are totally cool with bribing their god. A typical prayer begins with, "Blessed Exchequer, whose greed is eternal, allow this bribe to open your ears and hear this plea from your most devout debtor."

According to Ferengi spiritual belief, upon death, one will find himself at the entrance to the Divine Treasury , a mystical place made of pure latinum. The deceased are met by the Registrar, who accepts the bribes of the worthy and admits them to the Treasury, after which they will face the Blessed Exchequer himself, who will review the profits they made in life. Successful businessmen may bid on their next life before the eyes of the Celestial Auctioneers, but those who did not turn a profit are condemned to the Vault of Eternal Destitution.

Business dominates Ferengi childhood

Young Ferengi (or at least the males) learn the ways of business from an early age. Little lobelings are first introduced to others outside their family on their Naming Day, a ceremony which, as stated by Memory Alpha , is a rare instance of gift-giving in Ferengi culture. This uncharacteristic generosity is significant in another way, though — the young Ferengi has just acquired his first property. Some Ferengi get a taste of their society's cutthroat ways right from the get-go, such as when Quark stole his brother Rom's Naming Day gifts, sold them, and replaced them with rotten vegetables, as recounted in the Deep Space Nine episode "Rivals."

As the adorable little entrepreneurs grow into young men, the time comes for the Ferengi Attainment Ceremony , after which they are considered capable of their own decision-making. The next step is to buy one's way into an apprenticeship in the business of his choosing (such as the ever-popular arms-dealing), and a Ferengi might consider auctioning off his childhood possessions  to raise funds. To complete an apprenticeship, the apprentice simply has to survive it.

Greed is enshrined

Good business sense is invaluable in Ferengi life, but they don't line their pockets on instinct alone. The Rules of Acquisition, arguably the most sacred of Ferengi documents, serve as a guide to life, love, finance, swindling, schmoozing, and more. Per Memory Alpha , Gint, the very first Grand Nagus, introduced the original Rules, and by the 24th century, 285 of them had been established. Befitting the Rules' revered status, the Ferengi have also written at least 47 commentaries, 900 judgments, and 10,000 opinions pertaining to them.

The First Rule of Acquisition is "Once you have their money, never give it back," and the deceit, greed, and backstabbing for which the Ferengi are known are soundly codified within the Rules, as evidenced by tips like "Never place friendship above profit," "Treat people in your debt like family ... exploit them," and "Never be afraid to mislabel a product." Also keep in mind that the 34th Rule states, "War is good for business," but the 35th Rule holds that, "Peace is good for business." The Rules of Acquisition aren't entirely heartless, though — according to the 57th Rule, "Good customers are as rare as latinum. Treasure them."

Ferengi marriage is a contract

As detailed by Memory Alpha , Ferengi marriage is quite literally a contract. When a man marries a woman, he signs an agreement with her father and leases his new wife for a set period, with five years being common. Should the marriage end, the wife is left with nothing, as she will be required to sign a Waiver of Property and Profit as part of the union. Given that Quark's parents appear to have been together throughout his childhood, marriages do last longer than five years, though, something that might be more likely to happen if the wife gives birth to a son, at which point the husband must pay his father-in-law a previously agreed-upon fee. In other words, Ferengi marriage is a man renting a woman's uterus from her father for the purpose of baby-making.

A Ferengi wife has duties beyond being barefoot (or bare-everything) and pregnant, though. As you might expect, she will be her sons' primary caregiver, responsible for such things as chewing their food for them and teaching them the Rules of Acquisition. Despite the generally despicable treatment of women in Ferengi society, the way in which mothers traditionally care for their sons tends to leave Ferengi men very protective of their mothers as adults. In fact, the 31st Rule of Acquisition states, "Never make fun of a Ferengi's mother."

Ferengi food isn't for the squeamish

Much like Klingon food, Ferengi cuisine would make the most hard-core paleo dieter cry for his mother. According to Memory Alpha , Ferenginar is a wet, rainy, world, the Ferengi have no word for "crispy," and they eat a lot of grubs, slugs, and worms and generally favor invertebrates. They're such insectivores that when Nog first heard of entomology in the Deep Space Nine episode "Sanctuary," he took the profession to be culinary in nature. Tube grubs are a perennial Ferengi favorite, and many prefer to eat them alive and cold. They can, however, be fried or minced. Gree-worms are another delicacy best served live, though they can bite back.

Quite a few Ferengi enjoy washing down a hearty, wriggling meal with a nice bottle of Slug-o-Cola , which proclaims itself to be "slimiest cola in the galaxy" and contains 43 percent live algae in each bottle. Of course, no dinner would be complete without partaking in some beetle snuff , an extremely popular recreational drug consisting of dried (for once) and powdered beetles which is snorted up the nose. Despite the nature of many of their delicacies, Ferengi won't just eat anything they find crawling on the ground — while they love to dine on the bugs of their own world, other planets' insects won't necessarily be appealing.

Death is just another business opportunity

When a Ferengi passes away, the body is not to be touched, even if the death came under suspicious circumstances, as noted by Memory Alpha . An autopsy would be a gross affront to tradition — which is carving the body up for profit. After all, who'd want to buy damaged goods?

Typically, a deceased Ferengi's body is vacuum-desiccated and divided into 52 slices. These disks are then sold, often at the funeral, and they're frequently emblazoned with the Ferengi Seal of Dismemberment , which certifies that the dried slice inside is indeed from the Ferengi stated on the container. Such authentication is important for famous Ferengi, whose remains could become valuable collectors' items and even be sold on the Ferengi Futures Exchange.

A Ferengi funeral might feature a framed picture of the recently departed set up behind a table featuring the desiccated disks for purchase, although sometimes, such as when a Ferengi knows his death is coming, his 52 slices are pre-sold before he passes. In such cases, the terminally ill Ferengi can also set the admission price for his funeral. When Quark believed he was going to die in the Deep Space Nine episode "Body Parts," for example, he intended to charge three slips of latinum per guest.

Capital punishment raises capital

Execution is rare in Ferengi society, and the revocation of one's business license is generally seen as the ultimate penalty, as a Ferengi who suffers this fate can't do business with any other Ferengi and is left virtually unable to make profit. Per Memory Alpha , there are some capital offenses, though, such as going on strike. In a similar vein, Grand Nagus Smeet was killed after a massive crash on the Ferengi Market Exchange, and he was buried along with his First Clerk, presumably because no one would want to buy their remains.

If a Ferengi needs killing, the favored method is to drag him to the top of the Tower of Commerce , the tallest building on Ferenginar and the workplace of the Grand Nagus. The criminal is then thrown down into the Sacred Marketplace below. Not only is this an effective and very public form of execution, but spectators can gamble on what part of the Marketplace the condemned businessman will hit.

5 Things Only Adults Notice In Star Trek: The Original Series

For folks who grew up watching "Star Trek: The Original Series" either in syndication or during its original run, dropping phrases like "I'm a doctor, not an engineer" and "Live long and prosper" comes as naturally as the old Vulcan salute. Even though the special effects were pretty dodgy by today's standards and the universe seemed inexplicably overrun with omniscient beings in those days, the original series still slapped. 

And for those now-grown Trekkies among us with the good sense to watch the Kirk crew as adults, the series still holds up with some of the best episodes in the "Star Trek" franchise — even if there are a few things we didn't catch the first time around. From scenes so thirsty they give "Star Trek: Enterprise" a run for its money to progressive politics on full display, here are five things that stand out to adults when they're rewatching "Star Trek: The Original Series."

Enterprise is the thirstiest ship in the galaxy

"Star Trek: Prodigy" notwithstanding, most "Star Trek" series have their hornier moments. There's a reason "Star Trek: Enterprise" has earned the sobriquet "Sexy Trek" — and that reason begins and ends with the decontamination chamber. "Star Trek: The Next Generation" certainly had its share of freaktastic frolics, from intergalactic playboy Riker's equal opportunity joysticking to the space orgy episode Patrick Stewart would call a "sex farce." But at least "The Original Series" remains pure in our childhood memories, right?

Despite our tendency to Disneyify TV time from the 1960s, a grown-up's revisiting of "The Original Series" reveals it's easily the thirstiest "Star Trek" entry — thirsty enough to make even a Denobulan blush. Reddit user u/thekruton gave the ultimate breakdown of the original series' horny quotient in a lengthy r/startrek post detailing all of the show's thirstiest moments. Numerous plots involving sex robots, sexy hypnosis, horny crewmen, and women obsessed with jumping Kirk's (William Shatner) bones make up the list.

Rarely does an episode pass without Kirk stepping full-tilt into a scantily-clad alien woman's personal space bubble while gently rubbing her upper arms as a prelude to a G-rated face-mushing. But it's dialogue like "That ancient earth custom called spanking, what is it?" or the desperate "I must touch him!" that makes this series almost too caliente.

Captain Kirk shows a lot of moob

While it could technically fall under Thirst Trek, the phenomenon of Kirk's incessant shirt-ripping and all-around free-the-nipple energy is so confounding it truly warrants its own school of literary analysis. According to "These are the Voyages," a "Star Trek" book series that references production notes, firsthand accounts, and various ephemera chronicling the series, the moderately hairy Shatner had consented to a Ken doll-esque shave for the show. In Roddenberry's mind, 23rd century men would be hairless, after all. And judging by the final product, the notoriously cheesecake-loving showrunner would take every opportunity to show off Kirk's waxy, soft natural physique. A lover and a fighter, Captain Kirk is fairly prone to getting into fisticuffs with everyone from Charlie X to his own crewmen. And whenever those fists come out, it's only a matter of time before his shirt gets ripped, revealing an unnecessarily oily chest.

YouTuber EC Henry compiled a list to find out exactly how many times Kirk gets his shirt off. Over the course of the series, Kirk either removes or rips his shirt in 17 separate episodes, which Henry notes amounts to more than 20 percent of "The Original Series" episodes. And it's not just little rips — often, Kirk's top ends up quite literally hanging off of his body. With a shirt loss rate that high, it's a good thing they can just replicate him new ones as needed.

Star Trek has always been pretty woke

No fandom is perfect, and the "Star Trek" community certainly has its share of gatekeeping fanboys who love to comment about just how "woke" the franchise has become. Spend enough time in any "Star Trek" Facebook group and you'll be sure to find a salty p'takh outlining their arguments against Woke Trek — namely, that there aren't enough white dudes and straight folks among the main cast in "Star Trek: Discovery."

But when rewatching "The Original Series," it's hard not to notice just how hard the series was working to telegraph its progressiveness — particularly in light of the 1960s zeitgeist. While miniskirts have come to be associated with objectification to many in today's world, when "Star Trek" first aired they served as a symbol of female empowerment and rejection of traditional values. Cultural inclusivity has always been baked into the storytelling, from the multicultural (for its time) casting and Uhura's role as one of the ship's most essential officers. While these elements might go unnoticed to many viewers today, it's difficult to overstate just how trailblazing they were at the time — so much so that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed Uhura's role would change the world.

And then there are the narratives that challenge the inherent nihilism of hatred and war based on chauvinism. Nowhere is this theme better exemplified than in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," which sees nearly identical aliens with opposite skin color patterns watch as both their races are functionally driven to extinction over prejudice and enslavement.

Star Trek was also pretty darned sexist

Despite the show's efforts to portray a semi-utopian future where infinite diversity creates truth and beauty in the universe, even "Star Trek" had its oversights. And like so many sexist "Star Trek" moments to follow, "The Original Series" did a pretty poor job with its treatment of women. As with Kirk's constant shirt-removal, rarely does the Roddenberry-driven thirst engine pass up an opportunity to show off as much lady skin as possible — a demand that led a young Teri Garr to storm off set over an insanely tiny skirt while filming "Assignment: Earth."

But the show's maltreatment of women extends far beyond slinky costumes into the storytelling. Fans have long struggled to find a passable retrocanonization for Captain Pike's (Jeffrey Hunter) offhand comment that he can't get used to having a woman on the bridge in "The Cage." "Star Trek" also features many narratives portraying women as damsels in distress and temptresses with hidden agendas. Take, for example, the Shakespeare-reciting Orion woman Marta in "Whom Gods Destroy." A former psychiatric institution patient, the delusional Marta (Yvonne Craig) follows her shapeshifter zaddy Garth (Steve Ihnat) to freedom only to relentlessly seduce and nearly stab Kirk aboard the Enterprise before getting unceremoniously blown up while absolutely no one tries to stop it. Later, the would-be genocidal Garth is given a miracle cure and seems to bounce back as if nothing ever happened.

The Star Trek costumes were incredible

Despite the show's complicated portrayal of everything from gender issues to Captain Kirk's nips, one thing remains consistent throughout "Star Trek: The Original Series" — the quality of the drip. When they're not sporting Starfleet uniforms, future folk can be seen dressing for success. And on board the Enterprise, that means more lamé, sequins, and glitter than a Gaga video. There are plenty of fur moments, like the fur-detailed cloak worn by Garth of Izar in "Whom Gods Destroy" and the plush sleeves of Anton Karidian's robe in "The Conscience of a King," both of which are clearly Tribble fur in the correct headcanon. And then there's Karidian's daughter Lenore, whose mink mini dress may or may not secretly be targ fur.

For anyone in search of culturally offensive Burning Man or Coachella fashion inspo, "TOS" is a veritable compendium of unambiguously appropriated festival 'fits. Nowhere is this more obvious than in "The Paradise Syndrome," which sees Kirk decked out in a long, multicolored feather cape representing the finest in futuristic avian fashion.

Of course, no "Original Series" episode would be complete without a little eye glam from the emo boy eyeshadow Bones (DeForest Kelley) and Sulu (George Takei) rock on the daily. Factor in the show's countless complicated, sculptured hairstyles and loads of whimsical space accessories, and it's a recipe for runway domination.

Den of Geek

The Star Trek Alien Race That No One Can Ever Redeem

Even in the nostalgia filled new era, no one’s tried to salvage one of the biggest mistakes Star Trek ever made.

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Star Trek has a mixed record when it comes to introducing new alien races. Sure, even non-hardcore Trek fans can list off facts about Vulcans, Klingons, and the Borg , but there are many, many more aliens that fall into obscurity. Mostly because they’re one-off guest aliens used to set up the ethical dilemma of the week. But every so often, the makers o f Star Trek bet BIG when it on a new alien species, confident they’ll become a major recurring element of the Trek franchise. And then they faceplant in spectacular fashion. 

The most well known disaster was the Ferengi, the money-obsessed culture that was introduced as major recurring (and “imposing”) new threat for Star Trek: The Next Generation . But what was supposed to be a critique of capitalism just came off as silly at best and actively offensive at worst. Yet even with that horrid intro, the Ferengi were eventually rehabilitated in Deep Space Nine , which shifted them to intentionally comedic villains. That spinoff was able to take the shattered remains of the Ferengi and flesh out a race that provided not just comedic stories but moments that offered serious critiques of our modern day. No other Trek race has received this level of redemption, though Lower Decks’ delightful obsession with utilizing obscure bits of Trek lore means deep-cut alien races often get a second shot in animation. 

Yet one an alien race that was created at the height of Trek’s cultural relevance in the mid ‘90s has been quietly swept under the rug, even in an era where bringing back characters from critically reviled franchise entries is the hip thing to do. Remember the Kazon?

Introduced in Star Trek: Voyager ’s premiere as the major antagonists for the series, they did little to impress. A fragmented race of warring sects, the biggest accomplishments in their debut were kidnapping Kes, a one year-old space elf girl, and bickering over water. Thrilling. They weren’t helped by their makeup design, which can charitably be described as “generic Star Trek alien with a bad hair day.” More accurately they’re just Dollar Store Klingons.

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The Kazon are the worst Star Trek alien species. they are just beardless Klingons with an assortment of cruciferous vegetables on their heads. who said this looks good? pic.twitter.com/r6jjkUO4aR — Eddie Steak (@EddieSteak) August 13, 2018

Even as Voyager attempted to make the Kazon work, fleshing out their culture in episodes such as “Initiations,” they never came off as anything more than pale imitations of the massively popular Klingons. The best the series managed was a storyline about how young Kazon earned their place in society. Which amounted to just “kill somebody.” So much depth. Yet despite the Kazon’s clear failure, series co-creator Michael Piller, speaking in Captains’ Logs Supplemental: The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , was adamant at the time of Voyager’s second season that they’d become “perhaps one of the top five adversarial alien races in Star Trek ‘s history.”

That season put all its hopes on the Kazon. They prominently featured in Voyager’s first attempt at a serialized story…which was an unmitigated disaster. While Deep Space Nine was blazing a trail for multi-season arcs in the franchise, Voyager haphazardly tossed “arc” moments into episodes with no rhyme or reason. Remember “Threshold,” the episode where Tom Paris turned into a salamander? It has a bewildering scene where a traitorous Voyager crew member informs the Kazon of the salamander-creating technology. The Kazon never followed up, sadly. It’s telling that as time went on, the entire Kazon race was subsumed into the soap opera antics of Cardassian agent Seska and her baby drama with Commander Chakotay . 

Voyager finally abandoned the Kazon as a viable adversary in the season three premiere and never looked back, outside of time travel shenanigans where the Kazon were shorthand for “hey, it’s early Voyager !” The failure of the Kazon, especially as main villains for Voyager ’s attempt at serialization, can easily be seen as a contributing reason why the show avoided serialized stories for most of the rest of its run. The writers looked at how badly the Kazon arc went and decided to throw serialized stories out with the Kazon bathwater.

The reputation of the Kazon hasn’t improved over time. No one’s rushing to flesh out the race, like Discovery attempted to do with the Breen . They haven’t gotten a semi-ironic reappraisal like “Tom Paris as a Salamander.” The best they’ve received are small appearances in Star Trek: Prodigy where their main purpose is to be a signifier to the audience that “this is gonna be a show with a lot of Voyager elements in it.”

It’d be easy to say everyone’s agreed the Kazon were off-brand Klingons and move on, but that observation hides the real core problem behind them. One that goes back to their earliest conception. As revealed in the behind-the-scenes book, A Vision of the Future: Star Trek Voyager , the earliest notes for the Kazon from co-creators Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, and Rick Berman describe them as “gang”-like villains: “They come in and ‘squat’ on a planet. They’re basically bullies. At least two gangs, Crips and Bloods, in competition for influence.” 

Nope. With all respect to the work of Taylor in particular, this is somehow worse than the way she attempted to portray gay discrimination in TNG’s “The Outcast,” which had nonbinary aliens as the villains in what feels like a straw man argument from Fox News. 

Speaking in Captains’ Logs Supplemental, Piller added that the Delta Quadrant itself was supposed to resemble then contemporary East Los Angeles, with the Kazon as LA street gangs. He had hoped to represent that by casting younger actors, between 18 and 25, as a way to demonstrate the Kazon, “never lived to be old enough to have the kind of experience and perspective on the world that, say, the Klingons or Romulans might have.”

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This didn’t end up happening and Piller pointed to it as a reason why the Kazon didn’t ultimately work. Unfortunately, the explanation lacked the self-reflection that a team of producers which featured no one actually familiar with living in East Los Angeles were the wrong ones to create a species that served as a metaphor for that experience. At least Piller admitted that the Kazon “ultimately came out being sort of Klingon-ish.” 

Taylor was more scathing, also speaking in Captains’ Logs Supplemental. “They’re just sort of big, loutish characters that cause our people to overact. They had a cartoon like quality that I think was not our finest hour.”

Let’s just call them what they are: the Kazon were ill-conceived outright racist caricatures of LA gangs. That’s the real reason no one is rushing to redeem the Kazon. You’d have to completely reinvent them to the point it’d be better to just start fresh with an entirely new alien race.

Thus the Kazon are doomed to their fate as the back-up of the back-up alien race that represents Voyager . The Borg will always truly belong to TNG and the Hirogen, arguably Voyager’s biggest original alien race success story, are too fleshed out to just plop them into small cameos. That’s why the Kazon are referenced by Tom Paris in Lower Decks . They needed something instantly recognizable as being part of Voyager f or a quick punchline, nothing more. 

You’ll never see a Ferengi-like redemption for the Kazon because they were beyond one from the moment they were conceived.

Shamus Kelley | @ShamusWrites

For more from Shamus including original TV scripts visit www.ShamusKelley.com. He’s been a TV writer since 2009 when he created and executive produced the 21 JSR…

Screen Rant

10 new star trek reveals about the ferengi 24 years after ds9.

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Star Trek’s Quark Actor Apologizes, Accepts Blame For TNG’s Ferengi Mistake

Vikings valhalla: leif erikson true story & what happened to him in real life, ncis: origins bts video reveals first look at austin stowell's young gibbs, and he finally looks like mark harmon.

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 6, "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place."

• The Ferengi have abandoned arms dealing and embraced leisure and hospitality for greater profits.
• The progressive changes to Ferengi society, including equality for women, are evident on Ferenginar.
• Ferenginar is filled with gambling dens, sleazy television shows, and quirky customs, such as chocolate statues and harsh punishments for discounts falsification.

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns to Ferenginar for the first time since the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and massively updates Ferengi society while they're there. After a Ferengi ship falls victim to the mysterious starship attacking species across the galaxy, Grand Nagus Rom (Max Grodénchik) seeks Starfleet's help. Applying for Federation membership, Rom and his wife, First Clerk Leeta (Chase Masterson) arrive on the USS Toronto to negotiate terms with Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) and Admiral Vassery (Fred Tatasciore). Vastly underestimating the newly progressive Ferengi Leadership, Vassery gets tied in knots by Rom and Leeta's shrewd negotiation skills.

While Captain Freeman participates in a historic moment for the Ferengi and the Federation, the Lower Deckers are tasked with guidebook duty. This involves a trip to Ferenginar for Lt. JGs Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) and Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero). While visiting Ferenginar, the Lower Deckers get to experience Rom and Leeta's progressive changes to Ferengi society first hand. It's clear that Rom, one of the best loved of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's Ferengi , has vastly changed Ferenginar for the better.

Quark actor Armin Shimerman gives a mea culpa for his performance as a Ferengi in Star Trek: The Next Generation on The Shuttlepod Show.

10 The Ferengi Are No Longer Arms Dealers

In Star Trek: Lower Decks ' season 4, episode 6's cold open, it's revealed that the Ferengi have turned their back on arms dealing. Grand Nagus Rom has decreed that leisure and hospitality reap bigger profits in the long run, and so get-rich-quick schemes like illegal gun running has been outlawed. Not everyone on Ferenginar is happy about this, however. One disgruntled Ferengi has made a deal with Lower Decks ' mystery villain to sell them a brand-new Genesis Device. They soon regret their actions, however, when their ship becomes the latest victim of the attacks that are sweeping the galaxy.

9 Lower Decks Honors Quark's Mother's Star Trek Legacy

The Ferengi were a traditionally misogynistic species that believed women were second-class citizens and treated them as objects. Before the changes inspired by the romance between Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn) and Quark and Rom's mother Ishka (Cecily Adams), it was illegal for Ferengi women to wear clothes or earn profit. All of this was changed toward the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , and this can be seen during the scenes on Ferenginar. The clothed Ferengi females in places of commerce during Lower Decks prove that Ishka's progressive equality laws have been upheld by her son Rom.

8 Gambling Dens Are Everywhere On Ferenginar

Planning his trip to Ferenginar, Boimler wants to visit both the Museums of Gambling and Haggling, which highlights these key tenets of Ferengi society. While Boimler ends up getting side-tracked by Ferengi TV, Mariner does get to experience the Ferengi's unique approach to educational establishments. Reunited with her old Ferengi friend Quimp, she pays a visit to a public library, which is basically a huge casino. It appears that nobody on Ferenginar has read a book for thousands of years, so the library has become another gambling den to meet the public demand. Deep Space Nine 's Quark (Armin Shimerman) has even opened his own youth casino to teach the kids how to gamble from an early age.

7 Ferengi Television Is Sleazier Than Their Holonovels

Boimler gets sidetracked by Ferengi TV in his hotel room, and delights in the addictive nature of their sleazy shows. Boimler is initially dismissive of the outrageously misleading commercials but soon gets suckered in. One of the most hilarious shows is Landlord Cops in which slum landlords take extreme action to tackle their tenants. However, it's Will They, Won't They , the workplace sitcom where everyone is secretly in love with each other that really captures Boimler's imagination. He promptly spends eight hours in front of the addictive show, until Commander Jack Ransom (Jerry O'Connell) has him forcibly removed from the TV.

6 Ferengi Honeymoon Traditions Explained

As part of guidebook duty, Tendi and Rutherford are required to act like a married couple to experience a Ferengi couple's holiday. Parth, their Ferengi hug-cierge takes it upon himself to give the "newlyweds" an unforgettable experience. Included in their deluxe romance package is a hilariously awkward couple's photoshoot involving fancy costumes and props. After that, they're treated to the " most romantic meal possible " - sexy chocolate statues of one another. Tradition dictates that every time Tendi or Rutherford takes a bite from the chocolate statue they have to say something they find attractive about each other. It becomes an incredibly awkward experience for platonic best friends Tendi and Rutherford, that makes them relieved to return to the Cerritos.

5 Falsely Claimed Discounts Are One Of Ferenginar's Worst Crimes

While Tendi and Rutherford have their awkward romantic meal, another couple are singled out for lying about their relationship status. Lying to get a discount is apparently one of Ferenginar's worst crimes, and the lying couple are sentenced to a lifetime working in the subaquatic sulfur mines. It's obviously an outlandish comedy moment, but it does ring true for a society so heavily focused on profit to harshly punish those that claim discounts they're not entitled to.

4 Quark's Starfleet Bar And Grill

Tendi and Rutherford dine at Quark's Federation Experience, a themed restaurant based on the legendary adventures of some iconic Starfleet officers. The waiters are dressed in a variety of Starfleet uniforms from the Star Trek: The Original Series and Next Generation eras. The restaurant's security staff are appropriately dressed in TNG era yellow uniforms, while customers are greeted by a Ferengi dressed as Lt. Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy). There are also replicas of the USS Voyager, USS Enterprise-D, the Guardian of Forever and a Mugato. It's a gloriously tacky Capitalist tribute to Star Trek 's socialist Federation.

3 How Star Trek's Ferengi Honor Their Dead

Mariner and Quimp have a heart-to-heart at the Dominion War Memorial, which takes a suitably Ferengi approach to honoring the dead. The lists of those Ferengi that lost their lives during DS9 's Dominion War are included on plaques that are organized around a giant bar of gold-pressed latinum. Dead Ferengi are memorialized by the profits that they'll never make, rather than the personal loss that they may represent. It's a blackly comic joke, but the use of a war memorial as " a sober farewell to lost profits " is very on-brand for the staunchly Capitalist species.

2 Rom Has Become Obsessed With Baseball - Thanks To DS9's Sisko

During the negotiations with Freeman and Vassery, Rom reveals an obsession with baseball. This is thanks to his role in the Niners, the baseball team led by Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks). Although Rom showed no real skill for the game, his accidental hitting of a home run saw him raised as the hero of the baseball game against the Vulcan Logicians. Star Trek: Lower Decks reveals that this left a lasting impression on Rom as he now has an extensive collection of baseballs in his temple on Ferenginar.

1 The Ferengi Will Join Star Trek's Federation

The biggest update to the Ferengi in Star Trek: Lower Decks is their successful application to join the United Federation of Planets. Rom and Leeta's tough negotiations were a means to see if the Federation truly understood Ferengi culture. While Admiral Vassery was bending over backwards to fulfill their increasingly elaborate demands, Captain Freeman rescued the diplomatic mission from falling apart. Playing to Rom's Ferengi heritage, she placed a clause in the agreement that would entitle Ferenginar to one billion bars of gold pressed latinum if they recruited on planet into the Federation - Qo'noS, the Klingon home world.

Quoting the eighth rule of acquisition , " Small print leads to large risk ", Freeman earns Rom's respect by swindling like a true Ferengi. It's enough to convince the Grand Nagus to sign the original contract with the Federation, finally completing the rehabilitation of the Ferengi which began with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Following its trip to Orion earlier in the season, Star Trek: Lower Decks ' new Ferengi episode continues to expand the Trek universe while retaining its irreverent sense of humor.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

• Star Trek Lower Decks (2020)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

'That Would Be Great': Star Trek: Voyager Star Hoping for Reunion Movie

One Star Trek: Voyager cast member is ready for a reunion movie. Robert Picardo, who portrayed The Doctor in the sci-fi television series, has expressed interest in reuniting with his old co-stars for a follow-up project.

Speaking with Screen Rant about his return as The Doctor in Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Picardo shared that he would love to appear in a Voyager reunion movie, although he doesn't expect one to materialize anytime soon. "You know, of course, that would be great. I think it's unlikely considering the cost and the lead time for those projects. It's unlikely but anything's possible in the world of Star Trek ," he said. "And it was so successful with the Next Gen cast and who knows? Maybe we'll get the shot."

Wolf Pack Star Among New Recruits for Starfleet Academy Series

Wolf Pack's Bella Shepard is one of the new additions to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which will be headlined by Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti.

The Next Generation Cast Reunited for Picard Season 3

While the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation did headline four theatrical movies — Generations (1994), First Contact (1996), Insurrection (1998), and Nemesis (2002) — Picardo is probably referring to the TNG cast reuniting for the third and final season of Picard . The Paramount+ series initially featured only Patrick Stewart's title character, Jean-Luc Picard, in a major role before Season 3 paired him with the rest of his TNG co-stars — LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Worf), Jonathan Frakes (William Riker), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), and Brent Spiner (Data) — for a season-long story arc.

Created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor, Star Trek: Voyager premiered less than a year after the conclusion of The Next Generation on January 16, 1995. The fifth Star Trek series, Voyager was set in the 24th century and followed the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager as it attempts to return home to the Alpha Quadrant after being stranded in the Delta Quadrant on the far side of the galaxy. After seven seasons and 172 episodes, Star Trek: Voyager aired its final episode on UPN on May 23, 2001.

'Just Unforgivable': Captain Kirk's Death in Star Trek Generations Slammed by Original Series Star

Original franchise cast member Walter Koenig criticizes how Captain Kirk's death was handled in the 1994 movie, Star Trek Generations.

Prodigy Season 2 Features a Mini-Voyager Reunion

Although not a proper reunion, the second season of the animated Star Trek series Prodigy does feature several cast members from Voyager . Besides Picardo as The Doctor, Robert Beltran and Kate Mulgrew both reprise their roles from Voyager as Chakotay and Kathryn Janeway , respectively. The Next Generation stars Wil Wheaton, Ronny Cox, Eric Menyuk, and Gates McFadden also appear throughout the second season as their respective characters Wesley Crusher , Edward Jellico, the Traveler, and Beverly Crusher.

Set five years after the events of Voyager , Star Trek: Prodigy is a 3D-animated series focusing on a motley crew of young aliens who must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy, in search of a better future. These six young outcasts know nothing about the abandoned ship they have commandeered — the USS Protostar — but throughout their adventures together, each will be introduced to Starfleet and the ideals it represents. In Season 2 , the young aliens serve as Admiral Kathryn Janeway's warrant officers aboard the USS Voyager-A , with the crew tasked with finding the original crew of the Protostar .

Both seasons of Star Trek: Prodigy are available to stream on Netflix.

Source: Screen Rant

Star Trek Voyager

Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home.

Release Date January 16, 1995

Cast Majel Barrett, Jennifer Lien, Garrett Wang, Tim Russ, Robert Duncan McNeill, Roxann Dawson, Kate Mulgrew, Jeri Ryan, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo

Main Genre Science Fiction

Genres Action, Science Fiction, Adventure

Rating TV-PG

Creator Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor

Number of Episodes 168

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Now you can own captain kirk’s original ‘star trek’ phaser (exclusive).

The prop weapon and a communicator used by William Shatner on the original series will go on display at the Comic-Con Museum before heading to auction in November.

By Mike Barnes

Mike Barnes

Senior Editor

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Fans of Star Trek , get set to be stunned.

A original phaser and communicator used by William Shatner ’s James T. Kirk on the 1960s NBC series will be on display starting Monday at the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego. The iconic props, created in 1966, have not been seen in more than 50 years, organizers say, and will be available to purchase through auction.

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The original owner of both pieces, a late relative of the current owners, was a Hollywood prop veteran who is believed to have acquired them from a former employee at Paramount Pictures, home of Star Trek .

The pistol-like phaser and communicator, which features a spinning dial, will be at the museum through July 28, then will go on the block at a Julien’s Auctions / TCM Hollywood event Nov. 9 in Los Angeles. Each piece is conservatively estimated to sell for $100,000 to $200,000.

Meanwhile, a button-down shirt with images of Ryan Gosling worn by Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson in the Deadpool & Wolverine movie that hits theaters July 26 also will be on display at the museum. That can be bid on during a “Harry Potter & Other Heroes” auction — estimate: $2,000 to $3,000 — on July 28 at the museum.

Reynolds is offering other stuff associated with his role of Deadpool/Wilson to that auction, which also includes items from the Harry Potter (think: Slytherin house robe), Marvel Cinematic Universe (Captain America shield) and D.C. Comics (a batarang) franchises.

The July 28 auction represents Julien’s and TCM’s first trip to Comic-Con, which runs July 24-28 this year.

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