The Ferengi: Better as comic relief or villains?

[The Overlord]

What were the Ferengi better as, comic relief or villains

 

[Tosk]

Ferengi as villains? Hah ha! That's a good one.

 

[Melakon]

With the Ferengi, "comic relief" and "villains" were never mutually exclusive.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

They were better as a very interesting race whose values gave the Federation the finger without that finger being all about bloodshed.

 

[Captain Nebula]

The Ferengi on DS9 were hilarious. They were one of the best parts of the show.

"Then the Andorian says... 'That's not my antenna.'"



On TNG, they were sort of a replacement for the Orions from The Original Series. Not the scariest villains, tho.

 

[Lance]

What were the Ferengi better as, comic relief or villains?

And the correct answer is: which ever one turns up the most profit for them.

 

[sonak]

comic relief


they're too broad of a caricature to really be effective villains, and they don't really care about conquest, which makes them less scary as adversaries-they don't want to defeat you, they want to swindle you.

 

[BillJ]

Honestly, they're better off being completely forgotten.

 

[Anji]

They were created as comic relief and are brilliant when used in that capacity. If I'd ever get the chance to guest star I'd love for them to make me a Ferengi!

 

[BillJ]

They were created as comic relief and are brilliant when used in that capacity. If I'd ever get the chance to guest star I'd love for them to make me a Ferengi!

They weren't created as comic relief, they were suppose to be the replacement for Klingons/Romulans and failed in spectacular fashion.

 

[The Wormhole]

They clearly worked better as comic relief, though I think it is possible to make them villains that work. They'd just have to be villains in a different mold than the Klingon/Romulan replacement they were originally imagined as.

Think about it, the Ferengi are basically corporate CEOs. That's some pretty scary shit right there.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

No reason why they can't be both.

In episodes like "Peak Performance" (TNG) they seemed menacing enough.

 

[Dream]

The problem is that they started jumping around like monkeys when they first appeared.

The shitty writing of TNG S1 doomed them as villains from the start.

 

[plynch]

Hopping monkeys making a sleestak noise, with energy whips, iirc. Ridiculous. The best enemies are the cool ones: Kor the Klingon or Gul Dukat.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

They were created as comic relief

No, they weren't. From http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Ferengi#Background:

• The Ferengi were initially conceived by the early writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation to become a real threat to the Federation, as the Klingons were in The Original Series. In fact, the Ferengi were intended to take the place of the Klingons, who could no longer be used as regular antagonists. It was soon realized, however, that nothing about the Ferengi was threatening at all. Producer Robert Justman later reckoned, "If you wanted to keep the characters around I suppose that's what you have to end up doing – you can't have them always hissing at each other. I guess Rick [Berman] took the road that was the best way to go once they became popular." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 12, p. 21) The Ferengi's level of technological development therefore also changed. For example, in "The Last Outpost", the Ferengi have technology on par with that of the Federation, but by the time of "Little Green Men", it is revealed that they are not that technologically advanced, and have bought a good share of their technology.
• Many people (including Ira Steven Behr and Armin Shimerman) consider the introduction of the Ferengi in TNG to be "a disaster". Indeed, Behr asks, "Was there ever an alien race on Star Trek that did not work more than the Ferengi when they were introduced?" (Quark's Story, DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) Likewise, Wil Wheaton has stated that the Ferengi were "probably the lamest enemy ever introduced in the history of television." [2] On the other hand, Robert Justman thought the Ferengi worked best when they were first introduced. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 12, p. 21)
• [...]
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine re-imagined the Ferengi as a scheming, profit-driven, yet likable species – a change that had begun in TNG episodes such as "Ménage à Troi". As Ira Behr states, "Deep Space Nine and Armin Shimerman and Quark and some others, have made the Ferengis a race to be enjoyed and cherished." (Quark's Story, DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) Indeed, Armin Shimerman himself even goes so far as to say of his DS9 character, "My agenda in playing Quark was to try to undo the horrible thing that I had done to the Ferengi in "The Last Outpost", where I had presented a real one dimensional character." (Crew Dossier: Quark, DS9 Season 6 DVD special features)

---

No reason why they can't be both.

In episodes like "Peak Performance" (TNG) they seemed menacing enough.

Yeah. Personally, I agree with both of these points.

Some of the DS9 comedy involving the Ferengi was truly funny; I found a lot of Rom's lines hilarious. But some of those episodes were monumental bores.

 

[The Overlord]

They clearly worked better as comic relief, though I think it is possible to make them villains that work. They'd just have to be villains in a different mold than the Klingon/Romulan replacement they were originally imagined as.

Think about it, the Ferengi are basically corporate CEOs. That's some pretty scary shit right there.

The problem is the Ferengi in "The Last Outpost" came off as a generic warrior race rather then a collection of slick corporate moguls. From the get go, they should have been more like Lex Luthor and less like jumping monkeys.

 

[Melakon]

Armin Shimerman blames the monkey business on "The Last Outpost"'s director. I have to wonder if the actors' auditions were based on that, or if the director suddenly got that idea on the set. Moreso, why didn't anyone fire him after seeing the dailies?

The serious viewscreen face to face scenes differed immensely with what we saw on the surface.

I thought the power whips were pretty cool though, definitely a different weapon than the usual raygun, but apparently the prop never worked right.

 

[Lance]

Browsing through that Memory Alpha article somebody posted above, it seems to me that several factors conspired to weaken the Ferengi from the very start. I mean, Michael Westmore talks about how he softened up the original visual conception into what we eventually got, removing any sense of menace from their original 'look' in the process. That can't have helped.

That said, they are effective villains in at least a few episodes (noteably "The Battle" and "Peak Performance", although the former does have a few residual moments of the comedic florishes from "The Last Outpost").

On the other other hand, we have "Rascals". Maybe I'd believe in a bunch of Ferengi taking over the Enterprise if it had happened in Season One, but by the time that episode was filmed the Ferengi had descended completely to joke status. Which is IIRC the reason they were chosen as villains of the episode at all (the writers felt they were the only threat that could be believably stopped by children).

 

[Lucky]

I preferred them as comic relief.

 

[Sector 7]

With the Ferengi, "comic relief" and "villains" were never mutually exclusive.

So true. It is no secret that I've never been a DS9 fan, but my 2 favorite exceptions are "Little Green Men" and "Trials and Tribble-ations". Ferengi work best as comic relief AND villains. As for their original appearance, it is best forgotten.