Star Trek – The Next Generation:  1×05 – The Last Outpost

A historic episode as it marks the first appearance of the Ferengi, and much importantly, the first appearance of Armin Shimerman as a Ferengi.  But more importantly than anything else, Tasha Yar isn’t totally useless.  Hooray!

There’s also some guff about some ancient empire… the T’Kon Empire.  Not to be confused with the Iconian, although this episode does feel very similar to the one in which they’re first mentioned.

I get the feeling we’re supposed to take the Ferengi seriously here, but… you can’t.  They just look too ridiculous both in their make-up and the way they act.  ‘Pygmy cretins’ is how I believe Worf refers to them, in another stirling example of Star Trek being very sensitive about race.

But although it’s not a great episode, it is a slight improvement over what’s happened previously.  Don’t expect it to be only an upward slope from here though.