What if the Ferengi had joined the war?

[hyzmarca]

In TNG, the Ferengi were originally presented as a viable threat, a powerful nation with merchant ships that outgunned everything in the Federation fleet. Of course, their silly makeup design made it impossible for anyone to take them seriously as villains, and they got some great character development as a result.

Still, their mostly comic relief status in DS9 was a disservice to the race that the Federation once feared.

What if the Dominion had staged an attack against Ferenginar, one so devastating and despicable that the outraged Ferengi public jumped at the chance to get into the war and gave Zek a mandate for revenge.What if all of those Ferengi merchant ships, which are more powerful than most races' dedicated warships, were turned against the Dominion fleet?

 

[Admiral Shran]

It would have definitely helped the Federation Alliance to have them as another Ally. At one point, the Federation even had Nog deliver reports to Zek concerning the war, in hopes of forming an alliance. Any ally helps.

However, they probably wouldn't have been as powerful an ally as the Klingons or Romulans. It seems the Ferengi fleet was designed to protect commerce, not make war. As a result, each ship was probably owned by individual Ferengi bussinessmen for their protection and security, not by the government of the Ferengi Alliance. The Klingons and Romulans, however, clearly had unified militaries, which are much better at making war. A privateer military, no matter how well armed, probably wouln't stand a chance against a state sponsered one.

Also, it was never stated how large the Ferengi fleet was. Just because they had powerful ships doesn't mean they had a lot of them.

If the Ferengi had joined the war, it probably would have been more along the lines of providing material and supplies, as well as other finanical offers. That would play more to their strengths than using them as front-line soldiers would have.

 

[Jono]

Where the Ferengi ships that powerful? Only seen them in one TNG episode and they didn't strike me as a match for the Enterprise-D.

 

[Evil Ezri]

There is no profit fighting in a war.

 

[doctorfoto]

If memory serves, in early TNG episodes, the Marauder class was supposed to be a near exact match to the Enterprise in terms of both speed and abilities. No onscreen evidence has since disputed this, though one could speculate that this reputation was fabricated and spread by the Ferengi themselves, such as the rumor that they ate humans.

Personally, I would have LOVED to see a fleet of Marauders show up during the war. It would have been an unexpected surprise. I could see the Feds negotiating with Zek that the Alliance would get exclusive salvage rights to Dominion wreckage and technology. As it was mentioned, Starfleet sent Nog to negotiate with the Nagus in Valiant - but it's a shame that the Ferengi military arm was played down on DS9. Again, I would have enjoyed seeing how the Alliance could provide more than simple comic relief to the cause.

 

[nx1701g]

Wasn't it mentioned in an episode that the Ferengi were giving supplies to the Alpha Quadrant Alliance?

 

[Jono]

Wasn't it mentioned in an episode that the Ferengi were giving supplies to the Alpha Quadrant Alliance?

Giving supplies? That's very un-Ferengi, selling supplies (possibly to both sides), now that's Ferengi.

 

[Crimea River]

There is no profit fighting in a war.

That might be true, but...Rule of Acquisition #34: War is good for business.

Wonder why those Ferengi whips never showed up in DS9, by the way. Those were awesome, lol.

 

[Myasishchev]

There is no profit fighting in a war.

Actors capable of ignoring the externalities of war, like massive death and depredation of foreign land, would certainly disagree. There have been numerous examples of political units which prospered despite having virtually no economies apart from the exploitation of conquered peoples. These range from the obvious, like the Huns and Mongols during some periods of their history, to the less obvious, like the Romans during the late Republic. It's potentially much easier to steal than it is to earn.

Anyway, I sometimes like to think the Ferengi did join the war, or some Ferengi PMCs did, if such exist, and they probably do. The last few months of the war would have been an ideal time to seize Cardassian territory and resources, with virtually no threat of reprisal and even with the unqualified blessings of the AQ powers that would ordinarily frown on such aggressive behavior, namely the UFP.

I'd be surprised if Rom, once he became Negus, didn't as one of his first acts either personally fund a Ferengi expeditionary force or push legislation to permit private Ferengi to assist the Allies for their own profit, either by way of contracting with the Allied governments as mercenaries, or by independent operations against the Dominion and direct conquest of Cardie and Breen systems, which would become the property of either the Ferengi state (such as it is), the Negus himself, a multitude of enterprising daimons, or--most likely--their shareholders.

On a final note, I too was severely disappointed to never get to see a Marauder in DS9, despite the Ferengi-dense nature of the show. I mean, seriously, Zek can't travel in a bit of style? Say what you will about the portrayal of the Ferengi--I've written at length elsewhere about why I think it failed on just about every level possible, even if individual Ferengi were usually entertaining--but the D'Kora Marauders were a really cool spaceship, up there with the D'Deridex in my book.

 

[doctorfoto]

There is a scene in one of the major battles when the fleet is screwed and the Klingons arrive to save the day. Can you imagine that instead of Nog announcing "It's the Klingons!" that he says "It's the Ferengi!" and a dozen Marauders show up to save the day instead?!? The idea reminds me a bit of the battle of the 5 armies in The Hobbit, when the dwarf army shows up. At first, you're thinking, "Huh?" But then you're like "Well - okay ...we'll take all the help we can get!" And the dwarfs do much to prove that they're better fighters than they're given credit for.

I suppose that if the Ferengi military was played up, then you could argue it would be more difficult to sell Nog joining Starfleet, as such a similar organization of his own people would have provided a more logical alternative for him. Plus the need to bring in the Romulans might seem less pressing in order to turn the tide.

 

[Myasishchev]

There is a scene in one of the major battles when the fleet is screwed and the Klingons arrive to save the day. Can you imagine that instead of Nog announcing "It's the Klingons!" that he says "It's the Ferengi!" and a dozen Marauders show up to save the day instead?!? The idea reminds me a bit of the battle of the 5 armies in The Hobbit, when the dwarf army shows up. At first, you're thinking, "Huh?" But then you're like "Well - okay ...we'll take all the help we can get!" And the dwarfs do much to prove that they're better fighters than they're given credit for.

That'd have been awesome.

 

[Rarewolf]

It's odd cause we never even saw a single Mauauder docked at the station.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I think part of the reason we never saw a Mauauder on DS9 was that the image of the Ferengi as a mighty military power was something the producers didn't want to continue on with from TNG.

According to the Deep Space Companion, Ira Steven Behr said that "it was time to lay to rest this long-time feeling that the Ferengi were the 'failed villains' of the Star Trek universe. I wanted people to see them as something else."

That's a good idea, in my opinion. I like the thought that the Ferengi weren't really "failed villians." However, I think they took the Ferengi too far into comic relief terrority than was necessary. They could still have had a military, but one geared more toward the protection of commerce than toward overall strategic defense.

 

[Kai Winn]

i understood the ferengis didn't believe in taxes? so, how would the 'state' pay for a military? unlike the feds, romulans, klingons etc ferenginar doesn't seem to be an empire, but a single muddy planet. according to an st encyclopedia, the d'kora class was roughly a match for the galaxy ships, but the ferengi had no more than some 200 of them. their whole fleet was less than 1/10 the size of starfleet.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Kai Winn your avatar is making me sick!

 

[Timo]

I'd say the Ferengi already fought on the UFP side, or the Alpha side, or whatever name one wants to use for "the side the Ferengi wanted as the winner".

They wouldn't have fought with ships, as such - but with weapons they were superbly good at wielding. Their services as intelligence gatherers and diplomats would have been among key Alpha assets in the war. It was the Ferengi who first put together a picture of the Dominion, months before "Jem'Hadar". The Ferengi managed to maintain trade relations and information exchange with Dominion subject cultures even after the start of de facto hostilities, too. And when the wormhole closed and the war started, the Ferengi still probably had a major role to play, being in good terms (well, terms) with former Cardassian allies and subject cultures and other local players in the war zone.

All this without a formal intel organization, it seems. Or rather, with an organization that exploited independent businessmen as its agents, probably even without having to pay them extra. To waste such brilliant lives as cannon fodder would have been counterproductive to the Alpha war effort...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[doctorfoto]

It's a shame that the producers felt that they needed to make a choice with the Ferengi. Either portray them as a space faring race like the Romulans, Klingons and Cardassians, or focus on their society and play them off as comedy relief. Like others here, I don't understand why they couldn't have done both.

Trek is at it's best when it takes risks and goes against stereotype. A Klingon lawyer, an individual Borg, a nefarious Federation spy organization. DS9 had the perfect opportunity to show all the shades of grey in Ferengi society, but in a sense it was portrayed as almost as rigid as the Klingons in the way that they did things.

I mean, the tower of commerce, the great material continuum, the eternal vault of destitution... those ideas are fine and made for some funny moments, but it also left a lot of unanswered questions. How does a hyper-capitalistic society protect its assets? How do they seek and acquire new opportunities? What other planets are in the Alliance besides Ferenginar? It would have been great to see how the Ferengi fleet functioned in contrast to Starfleet. Rather than exploring planets to broaden their understanding, they seek to broaden their profit margin. Their combat skills might have been lacking, but like a gamer with an abundance of wealth, their personal armor and weaponry are constantly upgraded to the point of ridiculousness.

Unfortunately, aside from a casual mention of a Daimon here and there, and Nog's threat of a "fleet of Marauders" in Little Green Men, the show clearly decided to steer away from referencing the Ferengi military force. The leader of the entire Ferengi Alliance always arrives in a little shuttlepod, accompanied by a single servant.

The death blow to the idea is The Magnificent Ferengi. The love of Zek's life is kidnapped by the Dominion (?!?) and rather than dispatching the fleet, he asks Quark to rescue her. Quark then rounds up the best Ferengi he can come up with, and the best soldier in the lot is Leck, the "Eliminator" who by description is "not like most Ferengi". Sadly, I wish they could have done more than simply portray them as nothing more than a race of nerdy, greedy accountants.

 

[Myasishchev]

i understood the ferengis didn't believe in taxes? so, how would the 'state' pay for a military

Even if the state wouldn't pay for it, the market for military and police forces probably wouldn't disappear. Private actors would satisfy the demand. This is probably the stupid way to do it, since the military is very much a natural monopoly, but condottieri are not unknown to us. It seems reasonable that large PMCs would exist in the Ferengi Alliance, contracting to protect Ferengi commerce and Ferengi exploitation efforts abroad, but without a mandate to protect the state. The larger business concerns in the FA probably have their own, integrated paramilitary departments.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Star Trek has often suffered from stereotyping entire races.

Klingons are warriors. Romulans are paranoid and shady. Ferengi care only about money. Cardassians are fascist warmongers.

The members of these races that did not fit the stereotype were shown as outcasts. Alexander was a reject in Klingon society because he was a lousy warrior. Did we ever even see a Romulan that was a legitimately decent person and not working an angle? Nog, Rom, and Ishka were exceptional as Ferengi go, but Rom was portrayed as an idiot and Ishka was an outcast, at least until Ferengi society caught up.

Actually, out of the races on DS9, it seems the only one that underwent serious social changes were the Ferengi. There wasn't much evidence that the Klingons significantly changed through the course of the series, and we didn't get to see much of what happened to the Cardassian Union after they were decimated by the Dominion. It's conceivable they'd go back to their old ways as soon as they rebuilt.

For being a franchise that prides itself on diversity, Trek has often done a lousy job showing differentiation within alien races.

 

[Bad Atom]

I always thought it would have been neat to see some Ferengi marauders show up in the final battle in "What You Leave Behind", courtesy of Grand Nagus Rom.