Enterprise 1x19 "Acquisition"

rating: ****

the story: The Ferengi unofficially make first contact with Starfleet.

what it's all about: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know: fans had kittens about yet another thing Enterprise "wasn't supposed to do."  And they weren't particularly amused about how "Acquisition" skirts canon, anymore than they were the next season when it was done with the Borg, too.  But those fans can seriously stuff it.  "Acquisition" is above and beyond anything else one of the best Ferengi episodes of the franchise.  Maybe the best.  Or most accessible anyway.

Those same fans, mind you, would call that faint praise.  Part of the problem is that the Ferengi have a bad reputation.  Originally conceived as a major new menace in the first season of Next Generation, they instead came off as goofy wannabes.  While that series revised its depiction of Ferengi over the years, Deep Space Nine actually included one in its main cast, the bartender Quark, not to mention a whole host of recurring Ferengi around him.  Now, Deep Space Nine is generally regarded, at least by a cult-within-the-cult, as the best Star Trek series.  But even so, it became plagued, so these fans suggested, by "Ferengi episodes," an epitaph that means anytime an episode revolved around a Ferengi, any Ferengi, all Ferengi...it was probably regrettable.

Anyway, Voyager managed to do a few Ferengi episodes, too, mind you, despite featuring a crew flung far from home.  I can only assume the amusement level of the fans.  But let's move along.

"Acquisition" features a pack of Ferengi who aren't trying to be warriors or merchants but...pirates.  It's really the first time they're ever depicted this way, and it's genius.  Of course it fits into their wheelhouse, perfectly.  And not only is the depiction perfect but the real treat is that the three Ferengi attempting to rob the Enterprise are all played by familiar faces (...underneath the rubber): Jeffrey Combs, Ethan Phillips, and Clint Howard.  Combs had played a Ferengi before, the recurring IRS figure Brunt in Deep Space Nine, Quark's nemesis.  Phillips, better known as Voyager's Neelix, had masqueraded as one ("False Profits," from that series, naturally).  Howard, meanwhile, subsequently became the first actor to appear in every era of the TV franchise when he showed up in Discovery.  He's a truly peculiar Star Trek institution.

Of them, it's Combs who's the lead, and like Quark's brother Rom, he's not especially happy trying to be a typical Ferengi.  Since it's Combs, who also plays Shran in the series, it's a strong performance, and he gets to play opposite Archer (as he does in Shran's blue makeup, too), and once again draws out some of Scott Bakula's strongest Enterprise material. 

Trip's running around, too, in a Die Hard scenario, so it's effectively a three-man drama.  And the thing about it?  In retrospect?  It's kind of a warm-up for the series finale, "These Are the Voyages...," in which another caper involving Archer, Trip, and some invading aliens ends...differently. 

Plus there's some classic comedy, because it's a Ferengi episode, and there's got to be comedy, too.  Eventually Archer admits they do have the vault the Ferengi are looking for.  But really, it's just their reaction to Porthos.  Honestly, the importance of Archer's beagle can't be overstated in the series.  He's not just a vague reference in JJ Abrams' later film reboot!

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Arguably the most accessible Ferengi appearance of the whole franchise.
• series - Foreshadows the final episode.
• character - Archer, Trip, Jeffrey Combs...you pick.
• essential - If you can get past your reservations about whether this should happen, you'll discover its immense pleasures.

notable guest-stars:
Jeffrey Combs
Ethan Phillips
Clint Howard

Deep Space Nine 3x12 "Past Tense, Part 2"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko and Bashir must figure out how Gabriel Bell originally resolved the historic hostage crisis that helped end the oppressive Sanctuary Districts.

what it's all about: The second part of the story is obviously the resolution, but it also serves to emphasize the significance and impact of "Past Tense" as a whole.  Technically, Gabriel Bell is a character we barely glimpsed last time.  We spend this episode with Sisko posing as Gabriel Bell, and yet for any fan of the series, this becomes an iconic name.  So does B.C., the guy who antagonizes him every step of the way, the guy who makes it so easy to believe all the assumptions that made the Sanctuary Districts possible.  Which is to say, why it's so easy to believe stereotypes, believe whatever you want to believe, the worst of everything, without even needing someone like B.C. to confirm it for you.  He becomes a convenient excuse.  But there's Sisko/Gabriel Bell, fighting that idea tooth and nail, summoning all his great abilities, but mostly his humanity, to end the cycle of oppression we find it so easy to impose on ourselves.  (I write this particular review days after the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.  The irony of this is not lost on me.)

If the first part of the story spelled everything out, the second part is about realizing that the first part wasn't kidding around.  The desperation of the hostage crisis, which in and of itself is a fairly common trope in storytelling, is amplified by its context, not merely the desperation of an isolated individual or even criminals, but the fight for positive change.  If this seems like wishful thinking, so be it.  That's Star Trek in a nutshell, which always put forth the theory that the path to radical change involved radical events, such a third world war.  Actually, in a lot of ways "Past Tense" might be viewed as a dramatic retelling of the classic episode "Mirror, Mirror," in which change comes about because someone finally took a moral stance on an immoral situation.  That both happen to feature characters literally ripped away from their own realities and forced into nightmarish scenarios is merely a quirk of fate, like the rest of it.

But "Past Tense" may best be understood as the clearest statement of the third season on the nature of Sisko's leadership, of Sisko himself, who stakes a personal claim on the battles he wishes to win.  In the later Dominion War it became personal because the enemy literally beat at his doorstep.  Here he willingly internalizes someone else's struggle, regardless of the possible consequences to himself.  That goes beyond the impulsive heroics of Kirk, the intellect Picard usually employed, the sheer willpower of Janeway, or fearlessness of Archer.  This is not so say he was better than any of them, but this speaks to why Deep Space Nine came to mean something more to its fans, why it remains a cult within a cult.  It has uncommon courage, both in storytelling and characterization.  It wasn't afraid to make a stand.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The social element, again.
• series - The characterization.
• character - Of Sisko, chiefly.
• essential - It's a classic.

notable guest-stars:
Frank Military (B.C.)
Clint Howard

Star Trek 1x10 "The Corbomite Maneuver"

***

"The Corbomite Maneuver" is a title that refers to Kirk's gambit at the end of the episode.  That, I'd say, is the lasting legacy of this one.  It's basically a whole episode that explores his command style, and is highly recommended on that score.

It's also the second episode filmed after "Where No Man Has Gone Before," and as such is technically the debut for McCoy, Yeoman Rand, and Uhura (who wears a gold uniform!).  Just in case you were wondering.

As with a lot of these episodes, there are precedents to be recorded.  This is the first time a character ends up in the position of being asked to spend time with an alien who has been misbehaving because of their extreme loneliness.  Some other examples of that include Star Trek: The Motion Picture, "Alter Ego" from Voyager, and "Exile" from Enterprise.

Speaking of The Motion Picture, there's a whole one-off character in "Corbomite" who serves as a direct counterpoint to Kirk, just like Captain Commander Decker.  So that's another precedent right there.

Aside from Kirk's cleverness, his willingness to take a chance, which is one of the few direct character studies in the series and as such is essential viewing if you want to understand him as a whole, there's also the lasting image of the alien form the lonely alien takes, which was something viewers saw every week in the end credits.

So there's plenty to recommend about this episode.  Not one of the greatest ever.  But closer than a lot of the other early episodes.

And does Kirk ever reference corbomite again?  You bet!  Is it even real?  Not a chance!

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
Grace Lee Whitney
Clint Howard

Memory Alpha summary