1.19 : Aquisition.

Dave

Dave

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Episode Title: 'Acquisition'

Rumoured to feature Ethan Phillips (Voyager's Neelix) as one of the Ferengi. This marks Phillips' second apperance as a Ferengi, after playing Dr. Darek in 'Menage a Troi,' and the first time a regular cast member from any of the Star Trek series will appear on Enterprise.
 
Guest Stars:

Jeffrey Combs as Krem
Ethan Phillips as Ulis
Clint Howard as Muk
Matt Malloy as Grish

Episode Notes:

1. Captain Archer's crew will never find out that the intruders are called Ferengi, allowing for the existence of the Ferengi to remain hidden for another two centuries and still allowing official First Contact witht he Ferengi to take place in the Next Generation episode 'The Last Outpost.'

2. Ethan Phillips played the part of 'Neelix' in Star Trek: Voyager. This marks Phillips' second apperance as a Ferengi in Star Trek, after playing Dr. Darek in 'Menage a Troi,' and the first time a regular cast member from any of the Star Trek series will appear on Enterprise.
 
I thought this as a really good episode, even though I missed the first 5 minutes. I recorded it so I'll watch it later on.

Here is a brief synopsis, so don't read on if you don't want to know what this episode was about.
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This on starts with the Ferengi coming on board Enterprise and all of the crew has been knocked out by some kind of gas. They go through the ship looking for things to take. Trip, who was in the decontamination chamber, is the only one still awake. He comes out to find everyone asleep and these strange aliens on his ship. The aliens wake up Archer so that he can tell them where is vault filled with gold is. Archer tells him there is not vault and they of coarse don't believe him. Trip comes across Archer and they make a plan to get the aliens off Enterprise. Trip wakes T'Pol and with her help they get the aliens off the ship. They never find out the aliens species name and T'Pol gives one of them Omox(sp?) and she tell them that they should leave the humans alone because they are mean and decetful, thus starts the mispronunciation - "hew-mon". I thought this one was very funny, one of the better episodes this season.

:blpaw:
 
Online Critics

Online opinions are varied about the latest Enterprise episode, 'Acquisition'.

Some found it made them laugh, others thought the humour fell short. Below is a selection of comments about the episode:


For T'Bonz at Section 31, the good points in the episode outweighed the bad. "This was an amusing episode," she wrote. "I liked how the possible conflict with canon was neatly sidestepped [...] I loved the nods to TNG and DS9. The Ferengi whip effect was awesome."
For the full review in which the episode is graded B+, follow this link.

"The Ferengi have to be truly amazed at Starfleet stupidity," wrote Scoop Me's CJ Carter. "An otherwise unspectacular device is brought on board a starship where it is to be examined outside of quarantine. [...] Heaven help them if they have a plasma leak."
For the full analysis, follow this link.

Over at Monkee's Place, Monkee had some interesting points to make about the episode. "This is an advantage of doing a prequel," she wrote. "We don't have to worry about the Ferengi selling women to slave markets. We already know Ferengi males are chauvinistic pigs who make their females pre-chew food for them and run around naked. We also know that by the end of DS9, a lot of that is going to change. We can relax, and enjoy the episode as a comedy without getting distracted by things that would normally bother us."
In her full review, the episode is awarded a nine and a half out of ten rating.

"In brief," wrote Jamahl Epsicokhan at St Hypertext, "Lame and pointless."

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't take so kindly to people taking over my ship and almost getting away with stealing everything of value on board - including all the weapons! What kind of rules does Starfleet have on conflicts of this nature? What kind of responsibility does Archer have in holding people who are essentially criminals and pirates? [...] All are questions that might actually be worth consideration but which this episode couldn't care less about, since it's merely a Dumb Ferengi Episode.


In the full review the episode is awarded one and a half stars.

Matt D at Trek 5 gave the episode a Warp 4 rating. "Acquisition was not the dog that Rogue Planet was," he wrote. "I laughed a little, slept a little and ate some pizza. Perhaps that's all I was meant to do on this beautiful spring evening."
The complete review can be found here.

"The preview for this episode, filled me with a sense of dread," wrote TrekWeb's Bill Williams. "Particularly in that this would be Starfleet's "first" encounter with the Ferengi and all the continuity questions that go along with it. But with the main interaction focused around the Ferengi, Archer, Tucker, and T'Pol, 'Acquisition' allowed our new characters to shine."
For the complete review, follow this link.

"OK. OK. So this episode was supposed to be a comedy," wrote Brad at Trek47.com. "I wasn't laughing. I was bored. Watching Trip bite Ferengi earlobe wasn't humourous. It was... well... more embarrassing than anything. [...]The Enterprise writers are teetering on the verge of slapstick with the gags in Acquisition and are really going to have to mature their senses of humour before attempting another comedy episode."
In the full review the episode is given a D- grade.
 
Ferengi pirates use Acme Knock-Out Gas to take over 'Enterprise'.

I was one of those DS9 fans who hated the yearly 'Ferengi' episodes, because they weren't that funny really, and destroyed a species that TNG had actually introduced to be their new enemy! However, IMHO this is one of the best Ferengi episodes ever. OK, the plot is predictable, and it uses many elements that we've seen before already. The 'lets play along with hidden bank vault idea' is overdone. But, it does have Ethan Philips, Jeffrey Combs, and Clint Howard. Plus, the Ferengi were actually quite threatening, not just comic foils. We also saw the return of the Ferengi whip, not seen since 'The last Outpost' TNG. Nothing mentioned about the females wearing clothes though, I thought that they would find that more shocking.

Then they had a run-in with Phlox's bat, not to mention his trash can, and they nearly fired at a biobed. We now know that Ferengi favour purple striped socks, and like to sniff other people's food. And their boots! And it looks like Trip, and Chef, have introduced pecan pie to the Ferengi too.

I was trying to listen to the Ferengi speech, which we haven't heard before, and I think the Ferengi with the ear fettish (who was checking ear sizes, and was interested in the pointy ones) said "DaiMon" and "Latinum" before the translator kicked in. Even though the teaser and most of the first half was in Ferengi, there was no problem understanding what was going on.

Also, I like episodes like this when one or two crew have to save the ship against all odds ('The Basics pt2' VOY, 'Rascals' TNG, 'The Game' TNG, and 'Starship Mine' TNG.) Brannon Braga compares Trip to Bruce Willis, but I must have missed all the 'Die Hard' action packed fight sequences, explosions, and special effects, since Trip spends most of his time sitting on a balcony watching the Captain being smacked in the face. It’s getting to be another tired cliché seeing Archer getting thumped every week. He needs some self-defense classes or else a bodyguard. This was also the long-awaited episode with Trip in his underwear, though the reports of him in his longjohns for the whole episode were widely exaggerated.

As far as continuity goes, Krem's parting "You'll never see US again," was enough for me, they never find out who they are.

We also got to see the 'Biomatter Resequencing' room, for those asking "How Enterprise cleans itself", I noticed a 'metal waste' processing unit also, so they must have some kind of primitive matter replication system.

The best part was when they found Porthos (it went something like this):

"It's a lower lifeform, probably the Captain's next meal!"
"Don't be stupid! Look at the size of it's lobes!"

The Acme knock-out gas has no effect on dogs, apparently!

Other good lines:
"Everyone knows you'd steal earwax out of your mother's ears."
 
I found it quite boring... as u said dave they have to have an episode when the ferengi come into it and look daft..
 
Well, I liked it, even though I didn't like most of the DS9 Ferengi outings. I much prefered it to last weeks ('Rogue Planet'.)

If you read the reviews this is a episode that splits them in two. Half of them loving it, half of them hating it.
 
Good for the humour if nothing else.

Ferrengi strippy socks and measuring shoe size be comparing boot sole with foot, interrogating Porthos (Well I suppose he had a speaking part!)- all good stereotypical fair.
But why oh why did they think they need to cut through a bulkhead to get to Archer's quarters

Also some classic T'Pot stuff.
'Sometimes I wish Vulcans had not learnt to control their violent impulses', surely it is an easy to unlearn? She's unlearnt most of the others.
Or teasing Archer before removing his cuffs- '(Vulcan females) Not that interesting, always complaining, no sense of humour, always complaining.'

Sadly, a typical Trek job.
 
Not particularly interesting, but some good humour. :rolly2: I liked the scene where Trip and Archer are yelling at each other and then they start fighting. Also liked it when T'Pol was teasing Archer before taking his handcuffs off - "Not interesting, no sense of humour, always complaining?"

BTW, not complaining about Trip not wearing any clothes! :D -
"Just because a guy's in his underwear, you think the worst!"
 
Just rewatched my tape of this episode and it puts a crowbar in the cracks of the Trek universe, like:
Jjust how far the Vulcans have explored in their x hundreds of years in space?
Was Earth their first discovery of newly warp capable races?
They certainly don't seem to know anybody else who aren't local to their space.
The Ferrengi being an example of this. For them not to be known to the Vulcans, their home territory must be out of range of the Vulcan ships, yet they have managed to find the Enterprise half a quadrant away from home, then disappear for several more hundred years, ergo their ships must be in advance of the Vulcans to traverse so much further?
 
Originally posted by ray gower
The Ferrengi being an example of this. For them not to be known to the Vulcans, their home territory must be out of range of the Vulcan ships, yet they have managed to find the Enterprise half a quadrant away from home, then disappear for several more hundred years, ergo their ships must be in advance of the Vulcans to traverse so much further?
Click to expand...

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to defend the continuity breaks that Enterprise makes. If it makes a good story, such as in 'Resurrection' in S2 then I will forgive it, but here it stretched the imagination a little far.

The Ferrengi did, however, buy Warp capability, they didn't invent it themselves. That being the case it is entirely possible that not only what they bought was superior to the Vulcan's technology, but that quite by accident they strayed into our region of space for the very first time just as the Enterprise was passing by.
 
Happy to accept they bought, or stole, the warp drive, but they have manged to stray a long way: Straight through Klingon and Vulcan space!

Ever wondered why Enterprise needs a big control panel for its driver to sit behind, when the Ferrengi (and others) only need a barrel organ thing with two levers?
 
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