ENT: “Acquisition”

Date: November 4, 2021

Season 1, Episode 19

Music Video of the Day:

Interstellar News: Work was a little less busy today so I got the chance to see a dear friend’s new place. Post-dinner, I got to do another panel for my good friends on the American Sci-Fi Classics Track, celebrating Hocus Pocus. Professor Zoom and Thor got to make an appearance, it was a good evening… though I am hella tired.

TL;DR: A ship of Ferengi gas the Enterprise and start looting the place. Tucker is the only one awake, at first, because he was in the decon chamber. Archer is woken up by the Ferengi so he can tell them the location of “the vault” and T’Pol is woken up by Tucker to try to lure the Ferengi into a trap. The Ferengi, of course, are outsmarted and leave with nothing.

Favorite Quote:

Archer: Rules of Acquisition?

Krem: That’s rule number forty five. I’ve memorized all a hundred and seventy three, including the most important one. A man is only worth the sum of his possessions.

Archer: Back on my home world that kind of thinking almost destroyed our civilization.

Krem: You should’ve managed your businesses better. 

Ferengi wisdom comes in a book.

“No deal. I’d rather you take the women and go.”: I don’t know why, but I absolutely loved this episode and I laughed almost the entire time. From the Ferengi just completely tossing the place, to realizing it’s Ethan Phillips (who played Neelix) and Jeffery Combs (who has played everyone) as two of the Ferengi, and finally Tucker running around in his underwear for the first half of the episode – I was in stitches. For as many characters as Combs has played in Trek, including Brunt the Ferengi, I totally bought that he was green and just starting out.

I love how Archer tries to play along, he’s quite good at improv, and he promises to show them the “vault” and even negotiates with them. When that doesn’t work, he does his best to get into Krem’s head and start sowing some dissent. I cackled so hard when Tucker pretended that Sato was his wife and he got into a fake fight with Archer, I wonder how many times they had to film that scene. I also loved how T’Pol even got in on it by fake hitting on Krem. The fact that neither of them cracked a smile when Krem asked her to “stroke his lobes” is a credit to them both as actors. I couldn’t even type that without laughing.

There are a few small things that keep this from being a perfect episode. We supposedly make first contact with the Ferengi in “The Last Outpost“, and since this show happens waaaaaaaay before that – there’s a continuity issue. There’s also the fact that they say NOTHING about all of the females being clothed, though I do love that the crew is a good mix. But then there’s the whip that Ulis uses, which is a nice throwback, and the fact that Muk is so taken by Porthos. Speaking of my favorite beagle, Porthos is the absolute worst watch-dog ever. Despite these few small issues, I absolutely enjoyed this episode and give it 9 hours of cuddles with Porthos.

TA Out!