STar Trek Voyager - False Profits

[slochmoeller]

Chuck doesn't address this at all, but one thing this episode does that always bothered me is try to expand the lore behind the rules of acquisition, then do nothing with it. DS9 established the rules and Quark's reverence for them, as though they were holy writ to Ferengei. This episode at first seems to take that a step further, as one of the ferengei suggests going to the "Unabridged rules," which contains, beyond the rules themselves, extensive commentaries, major and minor judgements, and considered opinions. When I first saw this episode years ago, that got my attention. I come from a religious background, and even as a kid I had noticed something: When the Bible had a verse that fit what the pastor was teaching, he would just quote the verse and leave it at that. But if someone brought up a "difficult" verse, that went against what he was teaching, then he would appeal to things like history, cultural context, and textual context, and a myriad other things to "neutralize" the offending verse. That's what I thought we were going to get here: quote a rule of acquisition, then they would quote from the commentaries and fast talk past the rule. I bet DS9 would have done something like that. But here, the bring up the "unabridged" rules then immediatly say that this can't help them and they fall back on the "unwritten" rule, which was just lame. There was a good idea in there, completely squandered.

[Madner Kami]

There was a good idea in there, completely squandered.

Voyager in a nutshell. This is probably the one thing that you can say about almost every single episode of the series and which characterizes the show like nothing else.

[Shuboy07]

Noticed a small error in the review. Chuck states Harry and Chakotay are sent to the planet. But it's TOM and Chakotay who form the away team (and Chuck gets the names correct later).

[chaos42]

Chuck doesn't address this at all, but one thing this episode does that always bothered me is try to expand the lore behind the rules of acquisition, then do nothing with it. DS9 established the rules and Quark's reverence for them, as though they were holy writ to Ferengei. This episode at first seems to take that a step further, as one of the ferengei suggests going to the "Unabridged rules," which contains, beyond the rules themselves, extensive commentaries, major and minor judgements, and considered opinions. When I first saw this episode years ago, that got my attention. I come from a religious background, and even as a kid I had noticed something: When the Bible had a verse that fit what the pastor was teaching, he would just quote the verse and leave it at that. But if someone brought up a "difficult" verse, that went against what he was teaching, then he would appeal to things like history, cultural context, and textual context, and a myriad other things to "neutralize" the offending verse. That's what I thought we were going to get here: quote a rule of acquisition, then they would quote from the commentaries and fast talk past the rule. I bet DS9 would have done something like that. But here, the bring up the "unabridged" rules then immediatly say that this can't help them and they fall back on the "unwritten" rule, which was just lame. There was a good idea in there, completely squandered.

voyager in a nut shell is summed up in that last sentence.

Also as i stated, though i rambled a bit, these two are probably the worse of the ferengi. Plus they probably don't know enough to build any of that stuff having money seems to be what makes these two happy. like people who buy things because they think their valuable but don't realizes they only have value because people tell them they have value. like collectables made to be collectables "that will go up in value" its all because its what they think is being wealthy. I think what we have are 2 of the idiots that the captain of that ship wasn't too concerned about losing if things when badly.

Also I have considered the ferengi a bit more and it seems to me they have 2 classes of people in there world. those who are exploiting people and those who want to exploit people but don't have the power yet to do it its almost as bad as the mirror universe as everyone wants to screw (kill) each other. overall some of the things i think makes a lot of sense is things like the ferengi didn't even invent their own warp drive having to buy it. I wounder some times if there was at some point some other species on their planet and the ferengi were some slave race until they died off and they inherited their tech, and these aliens where enslaving people and exploiting less advanced races the same way the prime directive states.

Overall i see them as being a race of aliens who have jumped ahead with out regards to the consequences

[FaxModem1]

Funny thing to note, but their shuttle doubled in size since The Price.

Here is what it looks like in The Price:

Small room barely able to fit both of them.

Now, by the time of False Profits, it's gotten a bit larger:


So, which one do you think remodeled the ship out of boredom?

[MyUserName]

Remember that the day before I wrote this, the ceiling collapsed while I was putting in a 16 hour day on my birthday. Neelix gets every body-punch I can give him on days like that.

I suppose Neelix coming round on that sort of day IS sorta like walking along the wrong end of a shooting gallery with a shirt that has a bullseye on it with the logo "Take your best shot" on both sides.

I also agree that Voyager played the Prime Directive a little too fast and loose at times. Add in Neelix at his most lame and incompetent, and chakotay shooting a matter/anti-matter device, and yeah, this episode deserves a few extra swirlies.

[DrLilo]

Just wanted to add that in regards to the whole thing about hording useless monopoly money... Remember that the acquisition of profit for Ferengi isn't just driven by intrinsic greed, but also by religious belief. By sitting on that mountain of local currency, they are securing their place in the divine treasury after death.

[Crimsonstar]

Kind of curious how that Security officer managed to survive on that barren planet in Basics if he is that incompetent. That’s pretty bad despite the Voyager security team’s track record. Starfleet having terrible Cybersecurity is practically a cliche that even non-Ferengi can hack into it.

[Rocketboy1313]

Funny thing to note, but their shuttle doubled in size since The Price.

Here is what it looks like in The Price:
Small room barely able to fit both of them.

Now, by the time of False Profits, it's gotten a bit larger:

So, which one do you think remodeled the ship out of boredom?

This is the sort of continuity change I am fine with them shifting around.
The core thrust is "two ferengi stuck in the Delta quadrant via wormhole" having their resources be limited, but with a set that is big enough to move around in is fine. It doesn't change the story at all.

[Shuboy07]

Interesting fact on this episode. False Profits was actually one of four episodes filmed in Season 2 and held over for Season 3. As such this episode could be slotted anywhere in those two seasons as long as the stardate is consistent.