Acquisition (Star Trek: Enterprise)

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"Acquisition"
James Whitmore, Jr.
Story by
Teleplay by
Featured musicVelton Ray Bunch
Production code(40358-019) 119
Original air dateMarch 27, 2002 (2002-03-27)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
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Star Trek: Enterprise season 1
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"Acquisition" is the nineteenth episode (production #119) of the

James Whitmore, Jr. Set in the 22nd century, the series follows the adventures of the first Starfleet starship, Enterprise, registration NX-01. In this episode, a group of interstellar alien thieves knock out the Enterprise crew and begin looting the ship. Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trinneer
) is the only one left to stop them.

The Ferengi first appeared in the

Nielsen ratings
, it received a 5.2/6% audience share during broadcast.

Plot

As

Tucker
is still conscious and makes his way to Engineering and uses the ship's sensors to monitor the aliens as they plunder the ship.

The Ferengi awaken

PADD
to distract and then start an argument between them.

In Engineering, Archer tries to negotiate with Krem, who is tempted when Archer says that he will throw in T'Pol. Muk goes to the launch-bay and finds Tucker, who escapes, but Ulis subdues him with his

electro-whip. The Ferengi, Archer and Trip meet in the launch-bay where Archer plays along with Tucker's deception about "the vault". T'Pol assists in subduing the intruders, and the crew oversee the return of the stolen goods. Archer tells the Ferengi not to go within a light year of a human or Vulcan vessel ever again (and they indeed do not reappear until some 200 years later in the episode The Last Outpost
).

Production

Jeffrey Combs had already appeared as Shran in Enterprise when he guest starred in "Acquisition" as a Ferengi.

The writers of "Acquisition",

Dear Doctor".[2]

Story editor

Federation.[6] Mike Sussman said it was "one of the more controversial choices, but I think we structured the show in a way that preserves Picard's first contact with them". He also joked that (chronologically) first contact with the Ferengi really occurred at Roswell in 1947 (in the Deep Space Nine episode "Little Green Men").[7]

Director

James Whitmore, Jr. had directed episodes of 24, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell, The X-Files and many other shows. He occasionally acts in the episodes he directs, and he appeared in several episodes of Quantum Leap starring Scott Bakula, of which he directed 15 episodes.[8] Whitmore also directed the season 2 episode "Future Tense
".

The guest cast featured three former Star Trek alumni including Clint Howard who had appeared in the

Shran,[13] and would continue to do so for the rest of the series.[12] He said that being asked to appear as a Ferengi once again took him by surprise, but that Krem was "a world's away" from the Brunt character, which pleased him.[14]

Reception

"Acquisition" originally aired on

Nielsen ratings, it received a 5.2/6% share, meaning that it was seen by 5.2 percent of all households, and 6 percent of all households watching television at the time of the broadcast.[16] It had an average of 5.45 million viewers.[17]

Herc, in his review for

Tor.com gave it one out of ten, and wrote: "To call this episode a trash fire is being incredibly mean and unfair to hot flaming garbage." He said that the episode, in common with other bad Ferengi episodes, fails to take the concept seriously and instead goes for "what will get the most cheap laughs rather than what will make a good story". Furthermore, while acknowledging that Star Trek would break continuity and that it was worth it for the right story, he did not think it was justified for a dumb comedy episode. One of the few things he liked about the episode was the "nuanced" performance of Combs as Krem, calling it better than the episode deserved.[21] In his Season 1 overview, he reiterated that the low rating, joint lowest with "Dear Doctor", was "well-deserved".[22]

In 2014, The A.V. Club noted this as one of the top ten representative episodes of this series.[19] They noted how the show struggled to harness the existing canon, yet also stay within supposed limitations of a prequel, which was represented in the episode. For example, at this time the Federation was not supposed to have any knowledge of the Ferengi, but they still made an episode with them and got around this issue by having the NX-01 crew never discover who these aliens were. Despite this, they found the episode "fun to watch" praising the humour and acting of the episode.[19]

Home media release

The first home media release of the episode was on VHS in the UK on September 23, 2002.[23] It was first released in the United States on DVD, having been released as part of the season one box set during May 2005.[24] The Blu-ray release of Enterprise was released in the United States on March 26 with the UK release following on April 1.[25][26] The Blu-ray released featured the episode in 1080p video and with a DTS-HD Master Audio sound track.[27]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Garcia; Phillips (2009): p. 274
  2. ^ a b c d Hercules Strong (March 27, 2002). "Herc's Seen Ferengi On Enterprise!!". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
  3. ^ "Bormanis". Star Trek.com. Retrieved April 12, 2021.
  4. ^ Krutzler, Steve (March 26, 2002). "ENT Writer Andre Bormanis Answers Tough Questions and Gives a Look Ahead in Tuesday's TrekWeb Chat: Full Transcript Inside". TrekWeb. Archived from the original on March 27, 2005. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  5. ^ Nemecek (2003): p. 38
  6. ^ Forrester, Larry; Wright, Herbert (November 16, 1987). "The Battle". Star Trek: The Next Generation. Season 1. Episode 9.
  7. ^ kevin dilmore; dayton ward (August–September 2002). "Whose canon is it anyway?". Star Trek Communicator. No. 139. p. 50.
  8. ^ "Production News: Rhymes with "Bolians"..." StarTrek.com. December 18, 2002. Archived from the original on February 1, 2003.
  9. ^ "Howard". Star Trek.com. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  10. ^ "Catching Up With Ethan Phillips, Part 1". Star Trek.com. June 22, 2012. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  11. ^ Ruditis (2003): p. 131
  12. ^ a b "Star Trek's Mr. Everywhere – A Jeffrey Combs interview, Part 1". Star Trek.com. July 27, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  13. ^ "Andorians Reboard Enterprise". Sci-Fi Wire. Scifi.com. June 6, 2002. Archived from the original on June 7, 2002. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  14. ^ Krutzler, Steve (January 29, 2002). "Actor Jeff Combs Speaks To TrekWeb About Ferengi Role in "Acquisition"". TrekWeb. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  15. ^ "Enterprise Episode List". Star Trek.com. Archived from the original on August 2, 2002. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  16. ^ "NBC Wins Wednesday; 'Greg' Jumps '9:30'". Zap2it. March 28, 2002. Archived from the original on June 24, 2003. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  17. Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  18. ^ McGee, Ryan (July 13, 2011). "Alias: "The Box, Parts 1 And 2"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  19. ^ a b c Wilkins, Alasdair (August 6, 2014). "Enterprise was forever torn between our future and Star Trek's past". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  20. ^ Lipp, Chaz (March 25, 2013). "Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: Enterprise - Season One". The Morton Report. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  21. Tor.com
    .
  22. Tor.com. Archived
    from the original on May 23, 2022.
  23. ^ "Star Trek : Enterprise - Vol. 1.10 VHS". Amazon.co.uk. September 23, 2002. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  24. ^ "New DVD Releases". Star-News. North Carolina. May 5, 2005. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  25. ^ "Mar. 26, 2013 Blu-ray: 'Star Trek: Enterprise - Season One' (Photos)". World News. March 21, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  26. ^ Simpson, Michael (March 28, 2013). "Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 1 Blu-Ray Review". Sci-Fi Now. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  27. ^ "Star Trek: Enterprise - Season One Blu-ray Release Date March 26, 2013". Retrieved June 11, 2021.

References
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