The Last Outpost (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

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"The Last Outpost"
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode
The design of the Ferengi was created by Andrew Probert, with modifications by Michael Westmore and Mike Okuda.
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 5
Directed byRichard A. Colla
Story byRichard Krzemien
Teleplay byHerbert Wright
Cinematography byEdward R. Brown
Production code107
Original air dateOctober 19, 1987 (1987-10-19)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
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"Where No One Has Gone Before"
Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1
List of episodes

"The Last Outpost" is the fifth episode of the American

Richard Colla. The guest cast included Armin Shimerman, Jake Dengel and Tracey Walter. Although this was Shimerman's first appearance as a Ferengi, he had previously filmed his first appearance in an uncredited role in "Haven", but that was broadcast after "The Last Outpost". He would later gain the role of the Ferengi Quark in the main cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
.

Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. In this episode, the Enterprise pursue a Ferengi starship to the planet Gamma Tauri IV, where both ships are disabled by an unknown power drain. Away teams from each vessel beam down to the planet where they find an automated system left behind by the Tkon Empire.

This episode marked the first on-screen appearance of the Ferengi, who had been mentioned earlier in the series. They were intended to replace the antagonist roles that

Mike Okuda
, while Probert was also responsible for the design of their starship.

Plot

The

Middle Pleistocene
). Picard contacts the Ferengi and gets them to agree to mutually explore the planet below to try to find the source of the energy drain.

On the planet, the away team is momentarily separated due to effects of the energy field on the transporters. They regroup but are attacked and bound by the Ferengi, who believe the Enterprise crew was planning an ambush of their own. The away team break free, and begin to exchange weapon fire, but the energy expelled is absorbed by a nearby crystalline structure. Data investigates the tree and awakens an entity that displays itself as a humanoid and calls itself Portal 63 (Darryl Henriques), "a guardian of the Tkon Empire." Portal 63 asks the two groups if they seek to enter the Tkon Empire, and does not comprehend when it is told that the Tkon have long since disappeared.

The Ferengi accuse the Enterprise away team of being a hostile force; Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) admits that they are hostile to the Ferengi, inadvertently confirming humanity to be indeed hostile in the eyes of Portal 63, who steps forward, apparently ready to attack Riker, and claims his species is barbaric. Riker responds, "Fear is the true enemy, the only enemy," while not flinching as the attack comes. Portal 63 accepts this and stands down from the challenge, satisfied that the Federation is civilized, and allows the Enterprise to go free. It further offers Riker the opportunity to destroy the Ferengi vessel, but he declines on the grounds that the Ferengi would learn nothing from such an action. Both away teams return to their ships with power restored, and the Ferengi return the stolen energy converter. As a means of ironic thanks, Riker suggests sending the Ferengi a box of Chinese finger traps, a toy that fascinated Data when he became stuck in one earlier in the mission.

Production

Creating the Ferengi

The creator of Star Trek,

Borg.[7] By the time that they appeared in Deep Space Nine, they were used in a comedic fashion.[8] The look of the Ferengi and their ship was created by Andrew Probert.[3][9] The vessel was inspired by a Horseshoe crab and was built by Greg Jein.[3]

American dollar bills.[citation needed] Each bar (referred to by the production crew as a "rocker") to the side of the symbol designated a rank, with more bars meaning a higher rank.[10]

Writing and casting

"The Last Outpost" marked the first appearance of Armin Shimerman as a Ferengi character; he would later be cast in the role of Quark in Deep Space Nine

In

Chief Engineer Scott beams over a shipload of tribbles to a Klingon ship.[3] Wil Wheaton later recalled that the cast was unhappy with the episode as they didn't like several aspects of it including the fingercuffs joke and the Ferengi in general.[13] The episode also featured the first occasion that Geordi La Forge gave a report to the bridge from the engineering section. The producers liked this image so much that from season two onward the character became the Chief Engineer.[14]

The guest stars in this episode re-appeared in different roles later in the series. Both

Betazoid gift box in "Haven". He made a further appearance as a different Ferengi in "Peak Performance" before gaining the main cast role of the Ferengi Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.[3] In that role he would also shoot a scene for the movie Star Trek: Insurrection, but it was cut from the final version of the film.[15] He said of his performance in "The Last Outpost", "I was pretty much playing over-the-top villain – that turned out to be very comical. I thought I was being serious, but obviously, it was not serious. It's because there was no subtlety to the performance, there was no attempt to try to give them some real cojones ... It was bad acting. It was just bad acting. They liked it, god bless them, Star Trek liked it."[16]

Reception

"The Last Outpost" aired in

Nielsen ratings of 8.9, reflecting the percentage of all households watching the episode during its timeslot. This was the lowest ratings received by any episode during the first season.[1][17]

There was initial criticism regarding the Ferengi from reviewers.[5] Several reviewers re-watched the episode after the end of the series. Keith DeCandido reviewed the episode for Tor.com in May 2011, and praised Mike Gomez as the first Ferengi seen in Star Trek, but thought that they were "far too comical to be taken in any way seriously as the threat the script desperately wanted them to be".[14] He said that apart from the first appearance of the Ferengi and Armin Shimerman that the episode wasn't "anything to write home about".[14] He gave it a score of three out of ten.[14] Cast member Wil Wheaton watched the episode for AOL TV in October 2006. He thought that the episode saw some character growth but felt that the Ferengi "were a total joke" until they were later partially redeemed by Shimerman as Quark in Deep Space Nine.[13] He thought that the episode didn't show a great deal of improvement after "The Naked Now" and "Code of Honor" and may have resulted in the show losing viewers. He gave it a grade of C.[13]

Mark A. Altman reviewed the episode for the 1998 book Trek Navigator stating it was "one big, inferior rip-off of "Arena"."[18] James Hunt wrote about the episode in October 2012 for the website Den of Geek. He thought it worked "surprisingly well" and that the ending was "Star Trek at its best - big idea philosophical nonsense".[5] He praised the plot twists and said that the Ferengi "while completely ridiculous, are genuinely hilarious".[5] Zack Handlen watched the episode for The A.V. Club in April 2010. He described the Ferengi as "really, really terrible", and said that Portal was a lazy device reminiscent of such god-like beings in The Original Series.[19] He gave the episode a grade of C−.[19]

In 2017, Screen Rant ranked this episode the 13th worst episode of the Star Trek franchise.[20]

In 2020, GameSpot noted this episode was one of the most bizarre episodes of series.[21]

The 2023 video game Star Trek: Resurgence is a sequel to this episode, with Frakes reprising his role of Riker and Mark Rolston voicing Portal 63.

Home media release

The first home media release of "The Last Outpost" was on

Blu-ray set on July 24, 2012.[24]

Episodes from "Encounter at Farpoint" to "Datalore" were released in Japan on LaserDisc on June 10, 1995, as part of First Season Part.1.[25] This included the first season episode "The Last Outpost", and the set has a total runtime of 638 minutes across multiple 12-inch optical video discs.[25]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Nemecek (2003): p. 37
  2. ^ Roddenberry (1987): p. 11
  3. ^ a b c d e f Nemecek (2003): p. 38
  4. ^ Parsons, Dan (February 7, 2013). "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Armin Shimerman: The CFQ Interview". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d Hunt, James (October 5, 2012). "Revisiting Star Trek TNG: The Last Outpost". Den of Geek. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  6. ^ Nemecek (2003): p. 41
  7. ^ Nemecek (2003): p. 86
  8. ^ "Biemler: Ferengi Episodes not Very Funny". TrekNation. June 15, 2002. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  9. ^ a b Westmore; Nazzaro (1993): p. 15
  10. ^ a b Westmore; Nazzaro (1993): p. 16
  11. ^ Gross; Altman (1993): p. 157
  12. ^ a b Gross; Altman (1993): p. 158
  13. ^ a b c Wheaton, Wil (October 10, 2006). "Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Last Outpost". AOL TV. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  14. ^ a b c d DeCandido, Keith (May 19, 2011). "Star Trek: The Next Generation Rewatch: "The Last Outpost"". Tor.com. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  15. ^ Nemecek (2003): p. 343
  16. ^ "An Interview with Armin Shimerman". IGN. August 4, 2003. p. 2. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  17. ^ "Star Trek: The Next Generation Nielsen Ratings – Seasons 1–2". TrekNation. UGO Networks. Archived from the original on October 5, 2000. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
  18. ISBN 0-316-03812-1
    .
  19. ^ a b Handlen, Zack (April 9, 2010). ""The Naked Now"/"Code of Honor"/"The Last Outpost"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  20. ^ "15 Worst Star Trek Episodes Of All Time". ScreenRant. May 22, 2017. Archived from the original on June 8, 2019. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
  21. ^ "The 11 Most Bizarre Moments Throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation". GameSpot. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  22. ^ "Star Trek – The Next Generation, Episode 7: The Last Outpost (VHS)". Tower Video. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  23. ^ Periguard, Mark A (March 24, 2002). "'Life as a House' rests on shaky foundation". The Boston Herald. Archived from the original on June 10, 2014. Retrieved October 13, 2012. (subscription required)
  24. ^ Shaffer, RL (April 30, 2012). "Star Trek: The Next Generation Beams to Blu-ray". IGN. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  25. ^ a b "LaserDisc Database - Star Trek Next Generation: Log. 1: First Season Part.1 [PILF-2005]". www.lddb.com. Retrieved February 18, 2021.

References

See also

External links

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