Voyager 3x5 "False Profits"

rating: ****

the story: Stranded Ferengi perpetuate a hoax on an alien population.

what it's all about: Ferengi???  Well, there's a good explanation.  These Ferengi are the ones who traveled through an unstable wormhole in Next Generation's "The Price," by far one of the most clever sequel episodes in franchise history.  "False Profits" also bears similarities to Next Generation's "Devil's Due," in which a fraud pretends to fulfill a planet's prophecies using technology to pose as a figure from its mythology.  Basically that's what the Ferengi are doing here, too, but the results are wholly different because, well, they're Ferengi.

Every time there's a Ferengi episode I feel the need to explain them all over again.  Originally featured in Next Generation, they were a concept that totally failed as conceived, which made it hard for fans to take them seriously.  But they kept showing up, eventually as prominent figures in Deep Space Nine, where "Ferengi episode" became an epitaph meaning "bad episode."  It's funny, because Deep Space Nine went out of its way to flesh out and redeem the Ferengi.  Just goes to show how hard it is to scratch out prejudice. 

"Profits" is a wonderful addition to the Deep Space Nine version of the Ferengi, now better known for their outlandish devotion to, well, profit than their ability to scare as an enemy in battle.  The two Ferengi who make their second appearances aren't really important; it becomes a matter of Neelix being able to successfully impersonate one (Ethan Phillips later appears as one straight-out in the last Ferengi episode, Enterprise's "Acquisition").  This has the effect of helping redefine Neelix himself, contrasting his apparent opportunism, as he originally appeared when joining the crew, with his ability to play nice, as it were.  Entirely unlike the typical Ferengi, such as the ones who're fleecing the locals.  This also plays nicely into his later third season spotlight, "Fair Trade," in which he fears his usefulness to the crew has run out.  (Once again we see that much of the behavior the audience, and Tuvok, as in "Rise," considers annoying is actually Neelix massively overcompensating for his feelings of inadequacy.) 

Oh, and about that wormhole.  Like "Eye of the Needle" from the first season, it proves a dud, conveniently enough, as a means of getting the crew home quicker.  A little cheat, but at least it's addressed in the midst of using it for other means.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A "Ferengi episode" that's easy to enjoy.
• series - Cleverly links Voyager activity with stuff that happened in Next Generation.
• character - Neelix gets an unexpected and fun spotlight.
• essential - Foreshadowing the debut of the Borg later in the season, it's a clever way of bringing the rest of the franchise back into the series.

notable guest-stars:
Michael Ensign

The Next Generation 4x15 "First Contact"

rating: *

the story: Riker finds himself compromised on an alien world that has yet to find out they're not alone in the universe.

similar to: "The Communicator" (Enterprise), "Who Watches the Watchers" (Next Generation)

my thoughts: This is an episode that feels like it breaks new ground, but then you realize, the series itself had just done most of this episode already only a season earlier ("Who Watches the Watchers") with proto-Romulans instead of...whoever the alien race is this time. 

Yes, the approach is different, but the gist the same: alien species finds out Starfleet exists and puts our crew in a hairy situation.  Here you might consider it a Riker episode, but I'm hesitant to give "First Contact" too much credit.  It really could have featured anyone, and as a Riker episode, it's about as generic as you can get, in that he has a quasi-romance that's so convoluted and impossible (even for him!) that it's just not worth considering in that way.  Riker in peril, in short, is really it amounts to, and again, it could have been anyone.

It's a Prime Directive episode first and foremost, an exploration of something that's about as basic a Star Trek trope as you can get, so I'll recommend it for that basis alone.  Enterprise later goes a little deeper with the same basic premise ("The Communicator"), with the advantage of being able to add something to the mythos.

It's not a bad episode, it's just, in the grand scheme, not as memorable as you might originally think.  Enjoy it for what it is, but there are better episodes out there.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Bebe Neuwirth
Michael Ensign

Enterprise 2x14 "Stigma"

****

Paying off from the first season episode "Fusion" as well as touching on real world and fictional topics of great significance, "Stigma" is a standout for any number of reasons.

For one, it's the AIDS episode, which garnered Enterprise a fair amount of publicity at the time, a classic Star Trek social metaphor entry that deals with one of the worst health epidemics of our time.  Formerly one of the things the franchise was best known for, I think awareness and appreciation for it diminished a great deal during the period where fans started to embrace other genre properties and leave Star Trek behind, one of the reasons ratings and interest declined to the point of the first cancellation in forty years.  For that reason alone, "Stigma" is a wonderful reminder of the potential of the franchise to create drama that's not only interesting but topical.

But keeps it grounded in Star Trek, however, is the episode's Vulcan elements.  "Stigma" is a mind meld episode.  In the original series mind melds were synonymous with Spock and by extension all Vulcans.  I think one of the ways Enterprise offended some fans was by suggesting such a strongly established trait of an entire species was not always such a common or accepted practice of its society.  "Stigma" (and the earlier "Fusion") goes so far as to say that the Vulcan mainstream at the time shunned the practice!

So not only is mind melding bad socially but T'Pol has also contracted an illness from it, by the way, and so the episode is about how all of this gets dealt with.  It's strong continuity both for the series and franchise.  If you're still scratching your head about reconciliation of Vulcan society from one era to the next, there's the trilogy of episodes from the fourth season that addresses that, bringing back a more traditional practice of Surak teachings.

I would go so far as to say as Enterprise Vulcan episodes go, "Stigma" may be the essential one.

And that's not even all there is to say about it!  The episode also features a visit from one of Phlox's wives, and so also features the first time we meet another Denobulan.  As a bonus complication, this subplot involves Trip once again stumbling through understanding another culture.  It works as a commentary to other developments in the episode as well as for the character of Trip and a look at Denobulans and and Phlox, who is always great fun to watch.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Michael Ensign

Memory Alpha summary.