Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

“Profit and Lace”

zero stars

Air date: 5/11/1998
Written by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
Directed by Alexander Siddig

"Drink Sluggo Cola, and keep your teeth that lovely shade of green." — Ferengi sales pitch

Review Text

Nutshell: Watch this episode, and then promptly pray to the porcelain god.

DS9 has been anywhere from simply middling to good to great this season, so I guess the series was about due for a loser. Still, I'm not so sure if it was due for a LOSER, which is what we got this week. "Profit and Lace" is a loser with a capital everything.

Considering I've gone the entire season without a strong negative reaction to any DS9 episode, it seems only fitting that the Annual Ferengi Outing™ would finally spark that strong negative reaction. True, we had "The Magnificent Ferengi" earlier this season, which was silly and contrived, but at least it had a some amiable zip and was somewhat entertaining—not to mention the fact that it was an episode that revolved around inoffensive cornball action instead of the grating, tired, clichéd Ferengi "profitics."

I tried, tried, tried not to prejudge this episode. After I saw the preview last week, I mentioned that I felt sick. But I still went into "Profit and Lace" with as open a mind as humanly possible. Unfortunately, I left the episode with an unmistakable desire to vomit.

This duller-than-dirt makeshift excuse for an episode is certainly the worst DS9 of the year, and ranks right alongside fifth season's abysmal "Let He Who Is Without Sin..." in the race for worst DS9 ever made. It's an all-too-obvious example of high concept ("Quark in drag!")—but why on earth anyone would want to see a high-concept premise fitting such a description is completely beyond my comprehension.

I've never bought into the idea that a man dressing in drag is inherently funny. In my not-so-humble opinion, it's not. Sure, I've seen it done time and time again—whether it was Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, or Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, or Nathan Lane in The Birdcage—and often the situations or the actors pull it off to make it work, but that certainly wasn't the case here. This episode was intended to be funny because Quark was dressed as a woman. I suppose maybe the premise could've worked if there had been any decent material to accompany the general idea, but there simply wasn't anything fresh in the writing. Heck, there wasn't anything in this story that didn't deserve to be hauled straight off to the nearest landfill. The story plods along from scene to scene, devoid of any shred of inspiration or even decent taste. If you're the type of person who likes Ferengi-induced silliness and stock gender-bending jokes, you might, maybe enjoy parts of this episode. As for me—count me out. I'd be content to play tic-tac-toe for an hour rather than watch this again. Or stick sharp objects into the palms of my hands.

If you care about the plot (I certainly didn't), I'll summarize the "essentials." Grand Nagus Zek, at the request of his true love Ishka, makes it legal for Ferengi women to wear clothes, therefore allowing them to engage in Ferengi business. As a result of this controversial initiative, the Ferengi government promptly votes Zek out of office. Brunt (formerly "Brunt, FCA") is named the successor. Zek and Ishka come to DS9 to ask Quark for help in some clever plan to remove Brunt from office before it's too late. Brunt follows them to DS9 for no other reason than to gloat. (Yeah, there you go—a brand-new leader of an entire world travels all the way from his home planet to stand around and poke fun at Quark, Zek, and everyone else. Uh huh.) Quark, Rom, and Nog convince a single Ferengi financial commissioner named Nilva (Henry Gibson), who has some political pull, to come to the station so that he can be convinced that women do indeed hold an important role in the future of Ferengi society. He's supposed to meet the well-versed, financial expert Ishka, but because Ishka is recovering from a heart attack suffered during a heated argument with Quark, it's all up to Quark to go through with the meeting—dressed in drag, of course.

It's a minimalist plot that is built upon cliché after mind-numbing cliché. And once Quark has been transformed into a woman, oh-so-awful and unrestrained mayhem ensues.

The underlying "story events" are a series of rehashes of rehashes. Zek and Ishka come to the station. Check. Quark expresses his irritation. Check. Zek and Ishka play lovey-dovey. Check. Rom and Quark argue over Whom Mom Likes Best. Check. Ishka and Quark argue about Ferengi sexism. Check. Zek (whose role is growing so old that I don't care if Wallace Shawn—as much as I like the actor—ever returns again) yells and hollers with that goofy voice of his. Check. Rom whines "Mooooogie" again and again. Check. Brunt shows up to scheme against, threaten, and mock Quark. Check, check, check, and just throw the clipboard away, already.

It's like a nightmarish smattering of every Ferengi episode cliché imaginable. And save maybe two lines the entire episode, I didn't so much as crack a smile.

And this is coming from someone who actually somewhat enjoyed "The Magnificent Ferengi."

Just about every scene in "Profit and Lace" was utterly annoying and humorless. Eventually, I was just hoping for a surprise, like perhaps a big explosion caused by a Dominion bomb (maybe as an act of revenge upon all those pesky Ferengi, who had double-crossed and captured their Vorta back in "Magnificent Ferengi"). Lesson of the week: When a viewer starts waiting impatiently for all the story's main characters to get blowed up real good, that's probably a telling sign that the story isn't working. (My preferred version of one scene goes something like this: Quark: "How do I look?" KABOOM! Scene over. The rest of the episode is about finding out how Dominion sabotage has penetrated the station, and why the saboteurs opted to take out a bunch of Ferengi rather than the entire ops staff. How little they all know what the Dominion's hidden strategy is ... that they're really working for me.)

Even the jokes are especially stale this time around. Take, for example, the whole gag of Brunt. I mean Grand Nagus Brunt. Oh, excuse me—I mean Acting Grand Nagus Brunt. I'm not sure how I could forget the "acting" part, seeing as the joke was repeated at least a dozen times in the course of an hour. The dialog was typical and hopelessly shallow, and scene after scene was utterly uninteresting ... until, of course, the "payoff" sequence, which simply turned downright unwatchable instead.

The last scene between Nilva and Quark in Nilva's quarters is so awfully executed that I was embarrassed to even be watching it. It consists of a lot of running around tables and ducking behind drapes, accompanied by a lot of growling, yelling, and other unintelligible noises. Thank you, Mr. Siddig, but I'll pass. I prefer my farce with a trace of humor, not simply unrestrained, anarchic stupidity. Henry Gibson, often an amusing and low-key character actor, is so far out of line as Nilva that the results are jaw-droppingly horrific.

And, by the way, the constant lobe references/entendres haven't been funny for a very long time, assuming they ever were. It's time for a new joke, because watching this one is getting to a point of redundancy comparable to playing that knock-knock joke—"Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Banana." "Banana who?" "Knock Knock?" "Who's there?" "Banana." "Banana who?"—where you repeat the repeating part 50 times or until the other person decides to stop being your friend.

The plot, such as it is, is resolved under a contrivance so transparent and unfunny that I just threw my arms in the air in defeat. Can someone tell me how one official can make the difference of whether Zek is reinstated or not—especially seeing that at least 400 other Ferengi wanted nothing to do with Zek's initiative? Besides, if Nilva is supposed to be a believable microcosm of Ferengi negotiators, it's a wonder that all of Ferengi society hasn't been conned out of everything it owns. I know, I know; I'm not supposed to think about any of that—I should just "enjoy" the comedy—but what's the point of using the Ferengi society as a quasi-allegory of progress if it can't be taken remotely seriously—and if we can't care in the slightest what happens to them? For all I care, their whole planet could be laid to waste by the Dominion next week. I probably wouldn't bat an eye.

I think I have little choice but to go with the dreaded zero-star option. I'm trying for the life of me to think of a redeeming value somewhere in this episode that might be worth even half a star, but I honestly can't think of a single moment worth even lukewarm praise. I thought "Let He Who Is Without Sin..." was the lowest of the low, and would never be approached again. To my dismay, I was wrong. "Profit and Lace" has given it some company.

I feel sincerely sorry for everyone involved in making this episode that it turned out as the terrible travesty that it is. All are certainly talented people who have enjoyed great success on this series. But here, they tried, and they failed. Miserably. I have no desire to look upon the likes of this episode ever again.

Next week: Deep Space "Nell."

Previous episode: Valiant
Next episode: Time's Orphan

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Comment Section

163 comments on this post

    Actually, I thought Worf's comment about if the Dominion invaded Feringinar, it wouldn't be a bad thing (or something to that effect) was amusing. After this episode, "Let He Who Is Without Sin" doesn't look quite so bad

    Jamahl, I must disagree with you on this episode. I think watching it again would actually be preferably to having someone "stick sharp objects into the palms of my hands".

    But apart from that, you're right.

    I got one laugh from this episode. It was shortly after Quark was trying to get used to walking around in heels and Leeta was repeatedly chastising him for "lumbering." In walked Nilva and Zek, thinking fast, introduced him to "Lumba." It wasn't so much that it was a great or even good joke, just that, while I vaguely remembered Quark's female name from the first time I saw this, I'd either forgotten the context or else it slipped by me. It was a laugh of recognition more than anything, laughter at a connection that had somehow been missed but is suddenly made crystal clear, a sort of, "Oh, how did I miss that?" kind of laugh.

    (Although, really, it was less than a laugh. It was more than a chuckle, decidedly more than a snicker, but not quite a full-fledged laugh.)

    So I have now, for your readers, described the episode's comedic high point and explained in great detail just how it is the apex of this particular 45 minutes. No one who reads this page now need ever sully themselves by watching this episode in its entirety. No need to thank me.

    Here it is: The worst episode of Trek ever, the absolute low. Actually, you'll never believe just HOW bad this episode is unless you watched it...

    Well, to respond to Straha's above comment, I wouldn't say it's the worst Trek ever. I give that honor to Voyager's "Threshold". But as someone who is debating with himself whether or not DS9 is truly the best Trek and went as far as to make collecting EVERY season of this awesome show in order recently, this episode might be the second worst Trek of all time next to Threshold. After going back through and watching all the episodes in order, there is no episode that makes me want to worship the porcelain God as much as this one. And yes, I hated "Let He Who is Without Sin..." too.

    This IS bad. Sincerely: Episodes like "Treshold" and "Let He Who Is Without Sin" are almost shining diamonds in comparison.

    Profit and Lace is easily the worst of DS9!

    I think that as far as "worst episodes of Trek ever," TOS' "The Alternative Factor" is unfairly overlooked. That episode was so horrible it gave me a headache. My head was in too much pain for me to want to vomit. Yes, "Profit and Lace" was abysymal (probably the worst DSN ever), but TOS' "The Alternative Factor" AND "And the Children Shall Lead" (as well as "The Way to Eden") stand proudly beside it.

    Another underachieving stinkbomb, a la "The Alternative Factor," is TNG's "Masks." "Spock's Brain" (and, yes, Voyager's "Threshold") were not quite the worst episodes made, because they were so ridiculous that they provided an Ed Wood "Plan 9 From Outer Space" kind of entertainment value. At least you got a laugh out of how bad these two were. "Masks," like "The Alternative Factor," (Voyager's "Twisted" falls into this category, too) was not only sub-abominable, it was terminally boring. These episodes were so boring that they denied me the satisfaction of filling myself with hatred over their sheer stupidity - which is why they are worse than "Threshold" and "Spock's Brain."

    The three worst Enterprise episodes? I don't know if there is a general consensus here, but I offer "A Night in Sickbay," "Bound" and "Precious Cargo") (with "Sickbay" being the worst) for consideration.

    Totally silly epp. Hey I liked it. If you are going to have fluff episodes then give me Quark anyday over Kiko or Jake.

    Worst episode of Trek ever? No way. That dubious honor has to go to Precious Cargo, one of the most painfully vacant episodes of TV I've had the displeasure of getting halfway through. Spock's Brain & Threshold profit greatly from being completely insane, and this episode at least has characters that can occasionally be likable (other weeks). Precious Cargo has no redeeming value.

    I enjoyed the numerous establishing shots of the station. Like a three-second conjugal visit during a 44-minute prison sentence.

    Check out that look on Rene Auberjonois' face near the end — he's showing a lot more discomfort than Odo usually does in even the most awkward of situations. He's clearly thinking, "why the hell do I have to appear in *this* episode?!" Even though he's only in for a few minutes, you have to feel for the guy.

    Not just but, but actually horribly offensive. Armin Shimerman apparently refused to read some of the more awful lines- it's hard to imagine how much worse it might have been. He should have refused the entire enterprise as far as I am concerned.

    I bet if you only allowed people who were secure in their gender and sexuality to respond and rank this episode, the ratings and approval for this episode would skyrocket. "Zomg crossdressing and borderline homosexuality! THIS SUCKS!" No, it is actually refreshing, funny, and what more of late DS9 should have been about instead of selling out and going serial character drama where everything was predictable.

    It isn't surprising that a panel at USC's film school found this to be one of the most provocative and original writing DS9 ever did.

    No, Georgia, you have to take into consideration the acting, the rationalization, the writing, the message, what has been established before, and if this necessarily looks great as opposed to the "big picture" of Trek.

    Obviously that panel does not take that into consideration when it is clearly to support minorites. I doubt many of them have seen Trek or even interested in watching the whole series.

    As for "serial character drama," you will find yourself in a minority. Those that are comfortable with their gender don't necessarily forms of media which do, as much as mainstream media sources would make you think.

    I'm being mean and harsh on you, but I am just saying supporting minorites in real life while establishing a great FICITONAL story does not always mix.

    This is far, FAR worse than "Threshold", which at least had some funny dialogue (Wake Up, Mr. Paris!), and when the dialogue was not funny you could laugh at how ridiculous it was.

    "Profit and Lace", on the other hand, is so badly written, acted, directed, and even scored that I couldn't even laugh at how bad it was, all I could think was "How can they turn out masterpieces like 'Rocks and Shoals' and 'In the Pale Moonlight' and absoloute garbage like this in the same season?'

    Worst of all, it was horribly sexist. It basically said "in order to prove that women are as intelligent as men are, we need a MAN to DRESS UP AS A WOMAN and show his intelligence". Most Ferengi episodes are sexist, but this one outdid all the others in that regard. I can't imagine any episode of Trek being worse than this.

    I have to second Michael's comment, though. The shots of the station had never looked so beautiful before.

    P.S. to Georgia: I am very comfortable with my gender and my bisexuality, thank you very much.

    What are you all talking about?! This episode is fantastic! It's one of my favourites. Totally hillarious :) That bit where Roms wife says to Zek "I've heard... so much about you" and Zek gropes towards her with "Would you like to hear some more..." is comedy gold.

    I love this episode and think everyone put in a top performance. I'm a DS9 addict (I watch it through every 6 months or so) and this will always be close to my favourite episode :)

    This is episode is pure drivel. The trek writers have no idea what they are trying to say, and do not understand enough philosophy to make the proper arguments for any of the positions/cases they are making here. The writers don't understand it, so how are the characters going to understand it?

    A lot of the comedy just doesn't work, and a lot of it is overdone. Even if "acting grand nagus brunt" was funny, did they need to say it 7 or 8 times in the same episode? That's overkill, and it wasn't funny to begin with.

    Quark in drag is just awful. What do you expect the actors to do?

    Gender issues aside, the dialogue in this episode spun Ferengi logic like a top. Quark had to explain in great detail over a couple hours that if women wore clothing and worked, then they'd have money to spend on the economy. No $hit. For an entire civilization of cutthroat capitalists to not realize this on Day 2 of business school was a terrible oversight on the part of the writers. Now if the Ferengi businessman had a decent comeback to Quark's assertions the episode could have been worth the effort. Star Trek is renowned for moral debates. This was a missed opportunity. We didn't need to be spoon fed another bad Ferengi comedy episode.

    This still remains one of the only two eps I hate from DS9's entire run.

    Here are my nominees for the worst episodes of Trek:

    TOS - Spock's Brain (which, yes, does benefit slightly from becoming an unintentional comedy), And The Children Shall Lead, The Way To Eden

    TNG - Really, the entire first season would be a good choice here. But, I'll go with Code of Honor (I'm not sure if that's the right title. It's the one where they go to the planet where everyone is black and Tasha fights some girl to the death with a ridiculous poisonous glove thing), The Naked Now (which, again, benefits from lots of unintentional comedy) and Sub Rosa.

    DS9 - This one, Let He Who is Without Sin and The Emperor's New Cloak. I actually think New Cloak is the worst of the lot on DS9. I've never cared for the mirror universe, and when you throw Zek in the mix... Ugh, deep hurting.

    Voyager - Everything in season two, with the obvious choice for the worst episode being Threshold and my close runner up being Twisted. That episode where Chakotay takes over people's brains from season one is also a real loser.

    Enterprise - Well, A Night In Sick Bay definitely takes the cake there. But, again, that one kept me laughing for all the wrong reasons. Precious Cargo and Bound are also exceptionally terrible. But, I think Marauders (the one where they fight a bunch of Klingons on some mining colony, but not really) is also a good candidate for the worst of the lot.

    That's my two cents, anyway.

    I think the reason Quark in drag fails so completely (despite being accompanied by such unfunny writing) is that Quark isn't a human male in the first place. He already looks alien, so just putting him in a different alien outfit that has breasts doesn't even give you the weak "Har har, 'she' still looks like Robin Williams!" chuckle factor.

    It's also never good when an episode makes you think of plot holes that have gone unnoticed for six seasons. Are there no other Ferengi females on DS9? I assume not, since A) we've never seen any, and B) Quark never suggested bringing one of them in to play the part. So all the Ferengi bartenders are single guys, and depend entirely on the holosuites for their female companionship? Come on, I know they're on the frontier here, but even the Old West had mail-order brides, which would seem to fit right into Ferengi society.

    Also, how does Brunt go from being the kind of minor functionary who gets sent to the frontier to hassle bartenders over regulations, to being elected (Acting) Grand Nagus? Did the show even try to explain that?

    I can only assume that the collective Trek fanbase has sticks shove arm-deep up their collective poopers.

    This episode wasn't nearly as horrid as everybody seems to want to claim. I found myself laughing throughout most of the episode.

    Georgia,

    As someone who is transgendered, I hated everything about this episode. A couple of times my stomach tightened up so much I really did wonder if I was going to be physically sick. From the unbearable opening scene, where Quark's sexual harassment made me wish for Aluura to put a knife in his eye, to the "lumbering" scene where Quark is being judged on his ability to pass, to the scene where "Lumba" is being chased around the room and trying to interpose physical objects to keep from being sexually assaulted -- it was all just plain awful.

    The whole thing was done from the standpoint of a smirking male gaze, specifically directed at a heterosexual male audience and trying to play on their discomfort with freaks like me, so the idea that this was some sort of positive statement bringing an outsider perspective to the Trek audience is simply obscene.

    If USC likes this episode, they can keep it.

    Re: female Ferengi on DS9...by Ferengi tradition (or law?) they'd be kept naked and servile, which would surely run counter to Federation sensibilities and probably Bajoran law, which co-rule on DS9.

    I liked it, well I am 13 but I thought was good laugh. Quark in drag what could be better and at the end when he had to have a hug from odo lol. The beging was stupid with how iska fainted but I loved slugo cola lol. It is rightlous in the climb for women equality. Jammer, You just don't have the lobes for this episode.

    According to Memory Alpha, Armin Shimmerman actually *toned down* his performance because he thought the script was too misogynistic. What's worse is that Michael Piller supposedly attached a memo after reading the script that said, "this is going to be a classic." OK, it's a 7-year run, bad episodes are bound to happen, mistakes are made, but SERIOUSLY???

    These inane Ferengi episodes do nothing but a disservice to the characters of Quark, Rom, and especially Nog. Not to mention the actors who play them.

    The first 20 minutes aren't bad. There are at least two solid jokes, including Worf's comment previously mentioned. However, the show immediately descends into 0 star territory the second Quark cross-dresses. Horrible. Just horrible. 2 star first half, zero star second half.

    Irony 1: A show that's about equality for Ferengi women ends up being the most overtly sexist thing ever seen on DS9. I might've considered this a 1-star episode if it stuck to being just dumb and unfunny.

    Irony 2: (I just finished watching this for the 1st time - it was the only one I inadvertantly missed back in the 90s.) The last unseen episode I will ever watch of DS9, arguably the most character-driven and thought provoking Trek (and also my favourite), is this piece of insipid and offensive trash.

    I've been watching every episode of DS9 in order since late June. I LOVE the series. I think it's the best of the Treks. But I'm tiring of it six months later and ready to move on, with one season and change still to go.

    I said I wouldn't do it, but I'm going to skip this one. Not a fan of men-in-drag movies. I kind of like the Ferengi episodes but the drag is going to drag it down.

    Thanks for warning me off.

    If you see this episode for what it is, a more lighthearted departure from an otherwise depressing season, it's actually quite enjoyable.

    For one, this season has to be the highest death count in any Star Trek series. Not to mention, the previous episode, "Valiant," basically ended with a starship full of kids being blown up.

    Ferengi episode aren't particularly outstanding or good, but in my opinion, zero stars is a bit harsh. I'd rate it as 2 stars at least. I mean, we did just witness Ferengi culture shift from a patriarchal society that treated women as slaves to one that's at least starting to acknowledge women as living beings.

    This episode was quite horrible to watch, yes, but the idea about sexual harassment and women's rights was not that bad: As Quark learns what it is to be a woman, he thinks twice before asking for sexual-related services from his employees again.

    Is this a bad episode? Yes. Is it worse than Threshold or Spocks Brain? I think thats debatable. I did at least laugh once or twice when Quark was trying to avoid having sex with the other Ferengi near the end of the episode.

    Trek never does sex stuff particularly well, and it doesn't do comedy particularly well. When you put both issues in the same episode, you are in trouble.

    One more disgusting element that hasn't been addressed yet:. The barmaid eagerly looking forward to having sex with Quark as a direct result of his sexual harassment of her in the workplace, playing into the whole "they all secretly want it" justification. Time to go visit that porcelain god....

    I didn't think this was sooooooooo awful... it seems like a logical development for all the characters involved and Ferengi society. I probably wouldn't have given it more than 2 stars but certainly not zero.

    I can only assume that everyone up above arguing over which is the worst episode of Star Trek is forgetting about TNG's "Shades of Gray". You remember. The clip show? Yes, yes, all those episodes you mentioned were bad to one degree or another. But at least there was SOME amount of effort put into their production. "Shades of Gray" is an episode that's so bad, it almost doesn't even count. It's like the writers suddenly realized they were short an episode, so they scribbled something on a napkin over lunch one day. And I refuse to believe that it took more than a single afternoon to shoot and edit. It wasn't bad because the writers and/or the actors and/or the director failed at their respective jobs. It was bad because no one even tried. It was LAZY and CHEAP, and that's just unforgivable, IMO.

    @Proghead: 'Shades of Gray' was necessitated by the writers' strike in 1988-1989. Season 2 of TNG actually only has 22 episodes (compared with a normal 26) and 'The Child' was actually a reuse of a 'Star Trek: Phase II' script.

    But about this episode ...

    DS9 is my favorite Star Trek series because it is the most ambitious and layered. I'm not saying everyone should want those qualities in a Trek series, but I do and I did. So DS9 is at the top of my list.

    That said, it's only SLIGHTLY at the top of the list ahead of TNG. TNG had three seasons that were really bad (1, 2 and 7) while DS9 *only* had two episodes of Ferengi drivel a year that were really bad. When I rewatch DS9, I won't watch any Ferengi episode other than "Little Green Men" or "The Magnificent Ferengi". There are a couple others that are passable ("Business as Usual"). But "Profit and Lace" and "Ferengi Love Songs" are just deplorable episodes and the Trek writers should be ashamed. As for a series-by-series list of the worst episodes:

    TOS: 'And the Children Shall Lead' is just so boring and annoying. 'Spock's Brain' and 'The Way to Eden' are at least interesting in a couple spots and laughable in others. 'The Alternative Factor' is actually a good call for an entry in the really bad camp. It's often forgotten because it's in the middle of a lot of good episodes. 'The Apple' is pretty awful, too.

    TNG: 'Sub Rosa' is amazingly bad, maybe the worst in all of Trek, IMHO. Honorable mentions to 'Code of Honor', 'Shades of Gray' and several Troi-centered episodes. Marina Sirtis is, hands down, the worst regular actor in Trek history.

    DS9: 'Ferengi Love Songs' and 'Profit and Lace' are awful -- and 'Take Me Out to the Holosuite' was almost as bad. I'd rather watch 'Let He Who is Without Sin ... ", honestly.

    VOY: 'Threshold' is ridiculous, but I've never understood why 'Spirit Folk' isn't considered worse. It gets my vote.

    ENT: 'A Night in Sickbay', because it makes Archer -- whom the creators spent four seasons building up -- look like a petulant child.

    I'd go with 'Sub Rosa' as the worst episode in the history of Trek with 'A Night in Sickbay' as a distant second.

    Ok, this was another painful one. The second junk in a row. By the way, the luck of this episode was precisely to come just after the "Red Squad", "Red Squad", "Red Squad" chorus episode.

    Compared to the absurdly annoying last episode this one became just bad, not fully atrocious as it could have felt otherwise. But what to say about an emperor deposition that is reverted because one guy agrees to support it?

    My god, quality of the second half of 6th season has been falling abruptly.

    I agree with Nancy. Quark takes his best employee, and attempts to extort her into having sex with him. Then at the end, he realizes he was wrong, and I thought the episode might have some redeeming quality. Nope. They undermine it by having her looking forward to having sex with him. In an earlier episode, one of the dabo girls went to Sisko to complain about Quark having it in the contracts that they have to have sex with him. Sisko of course struck down that aspect of the contract. Now Quark doesn't write it in the contract, he just uses extortion. Quark learns a lesson, but that lesson is instantly undone with the idea she secretly "wanted it".

    As far as this episode being original, it's not even remotely orginal. It is stale, stale, stale. Dressing men in women's clothes for a gag is an old comedy standby. When Quark was being made to look female, I expected him to say "I'm not going to dress like a girl, and you can't make me, you can't make me, you can't make me," just like that episode of Gilligan's Island. It's a cheap gag that doesn't really address women's issues at all. Rolling your eyes at this episode is not a sign of being insecure with your own sexuality, quite the opposite. The people who yuk it up over a man in women's clothes tend to be ones who are uncomfortable with their sexuality.

    Why did they need a woman at all? The Ferengi might have been willing to listen to an argument that allowing women to wear clothes and earn profit is good for business, but as they are so sexist, they would have been more likely to hear that message from Zek than from a female Ferengi. The idea that women don't have to be, in effect, barefoot and in the kitchen, isn't exactly a fresh idea. It might have been fresh in the 90's... and by that I mean the 1890's.

    And what happened to Quark's ears? Did they have to cut down his ears to make his lobes look female? If so, that's a pretty radical surgery. Putting on false lobes to make a female look like a male is easy, removing tissue is a different matter.

    @K'Elvis: I rewatch DS9 a lot, usually as background noise when I'm cooking or cleaning. It's a really good show and it usually holds up, even though it started airing more than 20 years ago.

    But, I almost always avoid Ferengi episodes. I find, that way, I enjoy the series more.

    There are a few decent Ferengi episodes in there -- I mostly liked "The Magnificent Ferengi", "Little Green Men", "Business as Usual" and "Who Mourns for Morn?" (not a Ferengi episode except that it stars Quark). But, generally, the characterization of every Ferengi but Quark and (later in the series) Nog is just awful. The writers rely too much on aspects of Ferengi that aren't remotely funny.

    Don't get me wrong. Quark can be a good character, especially when he's paired with Odo or when he's offering a unique perspective (like in "The Jem Hadar"). But an episode featuring a lot of Quark where another Ferengi gets a lot of lines almost always sucked.

    But you could usually figure that one or two episodes a season would 1) feature Quark and the Ferengi and 2) really stink.

    The only bearable moment in the episode is Worf's "I cannot think of any" in the beginning (thanks to Dorn's perfect delivery).

    Anything that precedes or follows that is an absolute nightmare of sexism. From the sexual harassment victim who LIKES IT, then the idea that women's personalities are defined by their 'hormones" (since Quark changes 100% as soon as he's been "transformed"), not mentioning the ridiculous plothole of "traditional female ferengi clothing". Everything is pathetic and transphobic / gay-baiting drivel (OMG! That's so funny that Rom says he wanted a ring from a man! Because he's a man!!! Get it??)

    Something good to say.. something good to say... Let's see...

    I liked how everyone hated Slug-O-Cola.

    I usually like the Ferengi outings, and have seen that the DS9 guys can do comedy properly, but not in this case.

    Once the cross dressing began it became unintentionally creepy, if Armin Shimerman chose to "tone down" his performance imagine what the original script looked like! I bet a lot of people regret this. Ultimately the episode failed because the comedy was not strong enough and the jokes were not funny, and not even due to the dubious lack of "political correctness" but they just were not executed well and had all been done better/earlier....

    *crickets chirping*

    Um...

    *silence, wind rustling leaves*

    Well...ahem...I just...

    Um.

    *more crickets*

    *stares blankly off into the distance*

    *current status seems to indicate Vylora is broken*

    *zero stars*

    What a piece of dreck. 51 minutes that i'll never get back. Makes "sin" look like a glittering turd as opposed to this unvarnished shinola. I wonder how this got the green light. It wasn't even Siddigs' direction. No body could have turned this script into something worthwhile. Worst of any trek universe.

    The only redeeming factor in this entire shitty episode is:

    Sisko: "A Dominion invasion of Ferenginar?"

    Rom: "Think of the repercussions for the Alpha Quadrant!"

    Worf:"I can not think of any."

    That made me laugh so hard. Oh, don't tease me DS9. That would be the best thing to happen to this show. Just lay waste to the entire planet, Death Star style.

    @Sean: My thoughts exactly- that was the only good line (I stopped watching after 15 minutes and rewatched In The Pale Moonlight twice in a row before I felt recovered)

    Someone call the people who made that doomsday machine Kirk ran into back in TOS, or Species 8472 (they blew up a Borg planet once) ;)

    Season 6 has offically tanked... my God what has happened to DS9?

    No discussion necessary.

    ZERO stars.

    (burp)

    I remember very distinctly not finding it funny, whatsoever, when Elmer Fudd fell for Bugs Bunny in drag. It actually made me angry.

    Skip ahead a few decades, and this was a whole new level of awful. I'm embarrassed for everyone even remotely associated with that episode.

    Zero stars indeed.

    This is even more horrible than the DS9 Risa installment.

    Painfully unfunny jokes abound in this implausible P.O.S. episode. I've read that Armin Shimerman had huge problems with this script and refused to do some of what they had asked of him. I shudder to think how this could be any worse.

    I hated how Quark became a tired female cliche once Bashir was done with him. Aren't we past these types of cinematic "farces"? This painting of women/transgendered people in a bad light is SO pigheaded. Why was Star Trek sending such boneheaded messages this late in the game?

    Couple that with some of the lamest Ferengi dialogue ever, a saccharine soundtrack and some very lackluster acting performances and what do you get?

    A very stinky turd.

    0 Stars

    Oh, and way for the writers to regress Quark back to his Terok Nor days: I really was shocked when he sexually harassed his employee and at the very end it turned out she was into "oo-mox".

    Just awful.

    It saddens me to think you all found that episode crap, for god sake lighten up. If you couldn't see the funny side of it, then well I feel sorry for you, you missed the whole point OF the humour.
    As someone who has been into Trek since it started here in the UK back in 1969, Trek has had its ups and downs, for me "The Omega Glory" (TOS) was a pile of crap, Star Trek: Into Darkness was crap, but "Profit and Lace" was actually making a social point - that you all missed!!

    Quote:

    "Profit and Lace" was actually making a social point - that you all missed!!

    @ Ian

    And what point was that?

    I must also let you know that most people have a very wide berth when it comes to what is funny: I can laugh at 3 Stooges, Frasier, Woody Allen, Cheech and Chong, Oscar Levant, Sarah Silverman, Marx Brothers, Dave Chapelle etc etc . . . yet for some reason, I still don't find this amusing. Stale and trite, yes, but funny? Nope.

    The thing about humor and what is personally funny is it's something that can't be quantified. Just because YOU find it hilarious doesn't mean anyone else has to, or that anyone else should (or would).

    The social point that it was making was that you gain a perspective walking in someone else's shoes. It was showing someone who, at the beginning of the episode was harassing and marginalizing a female employee what it was like to be her.

    I ACTUALLY think it was clever idea. It's just that...

    1) Quark may be a shade of grey on this show, but he's still one of the good guys and watching him sexually harass his employee was pretty awful.

    2) The fact that Doctor Bashir performs sex change surgery so that they can trick a Ferengi corporate kingpin is just.... insane?

    3) The stereotypical portrayal of women might have worked better in the 70s Trek alongside such masterpieces as "Turnabout Intruder".

    4) But no, what REALLY torpedoes the hell out of the episode is that at the end, the employee Quark sexually harassed WANTS to screw around with him. So the lesson that Ian touts is actually tossed out the airlock, because the new sensitive Quark doesn't get a chance to fix his mistake, the old jerk Quark wins.

    It did have a few cute moments. I personally loled at the scene where Rom was teaching him how to walk... but I like Rom/Leeta and their weird relationship... I know the majority of fans don't. And Worf's line about how a Dominion invasion of Ferenginar would have no repercussions for the Alpha Quadrant was one of Michael Dorn's finest one liners (shame it was in THIS episode). And the fight between Quark and his mother was decent character development for that relationship. But those few shining spots are not enough to recommend it.

    The best part of this garbage is Worf's legitimately funny one-liner. I like that the camera doesn't even emphasize him; it's comes and goes like good banter should.

    See, I like the *idea* of the Ferenginar arc. It's KIND OF well done, even though it only seems to involve six or seven individuals. The problem is that most of the Ferengi characters are annoying, and lots of their scenes are cartoonish and cliched.

    The first couple of acts aren't unwatchable, but after Ishka has her stroke the episode takes a nosedive into concrete. This is some of the most unfunny, laborious TV I've ever seen.

    Everything else has already been said, but I just want to echo everyone else.

    This is a legit zero star episode. That it doesn't get REALLY bad until 20 minutes in is the only thing that keeps this episode from being the absolute worst DS9 has to offer (for the record, I give "Move Along Home" that distinction).

    You know that episode of Voyager where Janeway and Paris hyper-evolve into space salamanders and mate? Yea.... that one was Emmy material compared to this drek.

    I admit, I couldn't bring myself to watch more than five minutes of it. If we're lucky, this episode in the DS9 cannon will spontaneously blink out of existence.

    "Lesson of the week: When a viewer starts waiting impatiently for all the story's main characters to get blowed up real good, that's probably a telling sign that the story isn't working."

    Huh, so does 7 years of Voyager count in all this?

    I thought this episode should have been Negative 5 stars. The 6 minute rape scene near the end was atrocious.

    I rewatched this the other day, thinking it couldn't possibly be as bad as I remember but sadly it was.

    I think there was one funny part to the whole episode, and luckily it happens in the first 4 minutes. Rom says something like imagine the rammifications if Ferenganar falls to the Dominion and Worf says I cannot think of one. LOL, but otherwise yeah this is a terrible episode.

    You have almost everything you'd never want all rolled into one!

    Character assassination: What the hell is up with Quark at the start of this episode?? I know he's a small-time criminal but here he's way WAY out of line with that Dabo girl, even for him. It takes all the wonderful character building with Quark they've done over the course of 6 years and craps all over it.

    Catchphrase Overkill: How many times did they say "ACTING Grand Nagus!" in this?? It wasn't funny the first time let alone the next 50.

    Lumba "herself": Poor Armin Shimmerman, I hope they paid him OT throughout the taping of this one :(

    Yet STILL it isn't as bad as TNG's Mrs. Troi and the mudbath planet. That is probably impossible to top. Er, bottom.

    This is probably the one DS9 episode that I have never seen in its entirety. And hopefully I never will. The synopsis alone makes me want to stay away.

    I'm not sure this is any worse than 'Let he who is without sin'. But as I have no desire to rewatch either episode, I think it's one mystery I'm going to have to live with.

    @Robrow - They are equally bad, it simply depends on which type of thing you find more offensive.

    Do you find the character assassination of Worf in "Without Sin" more offensive than the sexism in "Lace"?

    Personally having Worf commit an act of terrorism against the Federation is worse for me, but only by a hair.

    Required reading for those who hated "Without Sin" and "Profit and Lace":

    www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Star_Trek/Deep_Space_Nine/Let_He_Who_Is_Without_Sin___.aspx

    www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Star_Trek/Deep_Space_Nine/Profit_and_Lace.aspx

    I'll just leave these here.

    Next time someone says that DS9 was never as bad as Star Trek:Voyager, I'll have them watch this episode.

    @sloaches - Sure, comparing the worst to the best is fair play somehow. I'll see your Quark in a dress and raise you Lizard Sex. Your move.

    The best part of this episode was the closing credits......

    ....and yet I still find it less annoying than "Move Along Home".

    On a side note, what HAPPENED to season 6? It started out so well, but these last few episodes have just been awful. Ugh.

    I thought the sexism was nightmarish, but I still wouldn't have given this zero stars. In fact, I thought it was given zero stars as disapproval against the blatant endorsement of workplace sexual harassment by the writers (it's one thing for the Quark character to do/say what he does, it's another thing for the writers to endorse that completely).

    Nancy and others covered the main problems with this. I think the redeeming points for this episode are:

    1) Lumba kisses a man and there's no revulsion etc around it. The romance is also not something Quark-Lumba regrests or is homophobic about. (Although the rape-as-love trope continues in both storylines.)

    2) Quark arguing the case for females to earn profit (though again, with very stupid logic that should have been self-evident on Day 2 of Ferenginar, but still)

    3) Odo-Quark hug was kind of fun to watch, even though Quark is basically hyper-stereotyping 'female emotions' etc.

    4) While the transgender scenes are FAR from what we could easily expect from Trek (Consider Dax as a transgender character for instance), it's still 'something' to have that on screen (and I felt the review's absolute hatred for watching this - while tolerating other similarly bad stories might have been fed by this :p)

    I didn't like Worf's line or any of those Ferengi-hating lines that randomly show up as a normal thing, as if it's 'funny' to be dismissive and derogatory of an entire race. The best counter-scene to this is in one of the early episodes of one of the seasons when Quark tells Sisko that humans only hate on Ferengi's because they remind them of what humans used to care about, and yet Ferengis NEVER DID all the terrible things humans did, historically.

    The amount of hatred directed at Ferengis is pretty nauseating. You won't see that kind of dismissive hatred directed at the tall, white, changelings now, would you? :p

    This one is funny. A bit sexist too. But seriously take a break & enjoy the lighthearted fun you know... DS9 gives plenty of everything from its stories, & this is a comedy one.

    & this episode deserves a star from all the haters who like "arc" & "serialised" shows because it plays into the Ferengis final evolution at the end of the series

    Wow, the hate for this one is really strong...and, in my opinion, *not all* undeserved. I found most parts of the episode hilarious, and I enjoyed it very much. I agree with the point, too: that men would greatly benefit and grow as people if they empathized with women. "Profit and Lace" was a solid comedy in the tradition of Menander and Shakespeare.

    Like the (barely extant) plays of Menander, though, there is a massive blindspot, and that is the willingness to overlook sexual harrassment/assault. The opening scene with Quark was very painful to watch. I kept thinking, "have the writers learned nothing from their last outing all the way back in Season One?" And I hoped that by the end of the episode, we'd see that they had--only to watch them undermine it all by having the dabo girl want to perform Oomox for Quark.

    There are plays in both Euripides and Shakespeare that appear to confirm the prejudices of their audiences while actually undermining them. Menander could get away with this in the fourth century BCE. Shakespeare could get away with this in the 16th century CE. But the writers of Deep Space 9 in the twentieth century should have known better. The problem is that instead of presenting something with traditional Ferengi chauvinistic values and undermining them, the episode appears to undermine the new Ferengi value of equality.

    I think that the writers would counter that they were trying to say that an empathetic male is one who is also truly happier. Consent is not only required for sex to be non-criminal, it's also sexy. That's why Quark gets his "happy ending." And in a way, it also mirrors the last episode, "Valiant." In that episode, the only member of the regular Red Squad cadets who had the wisest attitude--a yearning for home--survived. Put militarism before your humanity, the writers are saying, and you've given up what makes you actually alive. It's not subtle, but the point is a good one.

    As for the episode itself, Quark would have been out of character to refuse Oomox once offered freely--but there's no way his employee would have freely offered that after being harassed. The closing scene as written should have never made it onto the printed page, let alone the screen.

    It's strange that in a society where women are expected to spend their entire lives naked, that there nevertheless apparently seem to be female Ferengi fashions. Ishka has worn clothes and earrings from the moment we first saw her...where did she get them? She can't just go shopping in the nearest town, and even if she could, they wouldn't have women's clothing. She can't have bought them abroad, since Ferengi females can;t do that either.

    Jack, I think the rule is they're supposed to be naked while in their houses only isn't it?

    Well that was a shocker. I thought it was an interesting choice to revert Quark to the sex offender he seemed to be in very early season 1. I was astonished by the choice at the end to have Aluura come round to the idea. And it's amazing to think that anyone thought that might be amusing to have Quark learn nothing at all from his experience as a woman, which might have provided at least some justification.

    And that's the main problem I have with this episode - it's just not funny. It's cliched, boorish, and exploitative. And all in an episode that's supposed to be championing women's rights. Horrifying. 1 star.

    This is indeed terrible. The basic idea is supposed to be that Quark learns from his experience what it is like to be a woman, and so gains some empathy in the process. But in order to push this, the episode reverts Quark to a s1-era sexism that has really not been a part of the character, with the exception of other Ferengi episodes, forever. The main lesson he seems to learn is that it's not pleasant being sexually harassed, first with Zek grotesquely feeling him up and then with Nilva's cartoon attempts to chase Quark around the table like Pepe le Piew, which the episode then bizarrely undermines first by having Quark have to kiss Nilva and then disrobe to prove he's a real woman (real women are apparently defined by their naked bodies and willingness to kiss men) and then by the awful ending with Aluura, yuk yuk. We also learn that the main specific advantages to women being consumers is that they can buy expensive clothes and that the best way to make colas appeal to women is to their vanity ("...that right shade of green"). Quark mutters that it's so hard keeping all these figures straight because he's now a woman. The excessive portrayal of a woman's emotionality rankles; while it's true that taking female hormones does tend to make people more emotional, the episode pushes it too excessively. RELUCTANTLY, I will give the episode a pass on the idea that Quark has to become a woman in order to sell that women can do finance; I find it really frustrating, because it still does somewhat send the message that it requires a man to prove that women can be competent, but I guess the episode is careful to frame it as being the consequence of there being no other Ferengi women on the station after Ishka collapses, and I guess Nilva is meant to be on his way already.

    Memory Alpha has stated that Siddig and the writers had a different idea of how to interpret the Quark-Ishka conflict, culminating in her heart attack -- Behr and Beimler wrote it as farce, and Siddig directed it as domestic melodrama, a demonstration of how we hurt the ones closest to us. This makes the scene particularly painful and bizarre -- it is played as if it were genuinely serious, and there is a sort of raw, unbearable anger in the performances, in the middle of a ridiculous episode. The episode's tone is all over the place, but this scene is one which particularly stands out. The jokes are really laboured throughout.

    I am not entirely sure what is stopping me from giving this 0 stars...but I still feel like I want to reserve that. I'm not sure if any episode truly gets 0 from me, which maybe is a sign that I m simply not calibrating my scale well enough. Anyway, 0.5 stars, alas.

    "I am not entirely sure what is stopping me from giving this 0 stars..."

    Well, it did have this exchange - possibly the ONLY "good" thing about it....

    SISKO: A Dominion invasion of Ferenginar?
    ROM: Think of the terrible repercussions to the Alpha Quadrant.
    WORF: I cannot think of any.

    This would've been a passable comedy episode without Ishka's heart attack. Perhaps Ishka could've coaxed the Negas into making Quark into her female assistant or something to help seal the deal with Sluggo Cola.

    As it stands, it seems like it's going to take a lot longer than a day for Ishka to ever recover from what happens between her and Quark, and you end up really hating Quark when Quark, for his part, pulls off a lot for the sake of female's rights.

    Half good, half-headbanging terrible episode.

    The script was unforgivable, but I will lay the blame for that at the feet of Piller, who signed off on it, and Siddig, who directed it in this fashion. I know the director must answer to the producers but if there is a serious conflict about how to present the work then the director should refuse to do it. You can't "direct" if you aren't allowed to choose the direction.

    That being said Siddig should have known better than to allow his actors to do what they did here. It wasn't that the tone was uneven or the style incoherent - it's that the actors were bad. They were straight-up bad. The thing about high comedy or farce is that it's considered in the industry to be far harder to do than serious drama or light comedy. Many directors will admit they simply cannot do it competently. This was not something for a new director to be given. That is also on the exec producers. This script, as unredeemable as it was, could have been twisted around by a clever director in such a way as to say something through all the mess. I'll give a few examples of how scene direction could have taken gruesome scenes and made them interesting in some way:

    1) Instead of Quark directly harassing Aluura the scene could have been shot in such a way that the male staff was sitting nearby watching, with Quark trying to impress them. Or add in a line about a liquidator auditing him and have the liquidator sitting nearby to ensure that Quark is sufficiently oppressive to his staff. Quark could then be seen to be harassing Aluura somewhat under duress, even though he does do it. It would still be bad of him, but more complicated than him merely being a slime. The final scene could then pay off by him realizing he never should have done it for any reason, and to hell with Ferengi custom.

    2) Quark and Ishka yelling at each other was both terribly acted (the actors were yelling but believing little of it) and comically dead. It's hard for something to be funny when it's aurally abrasive and a repetition of what we've seen many times before. The lines are garbage, and Siddig seemed to be cornered in that it HAD to end with a heart attack, which couldn't occur without histrionics before it. Or could it? Why not add just one line earlier indicating Ishka's health isn't what it used to be, and then in this scene have them teasing each other much more amicably than this, with Ishka getting herself worked up (rather than having a screaming match with Quark) and having a more subtle heart attack. As we here on planet Earth know, heart attacks frequently don't come in the form of a person dropping dead on the spot. Much more reasonable would have been a realization that she had chest pain and weakness, and Quark perhaps making a joke about her being overly dramatic before realizing what was happening. She still would have been unable to complete her task but at least we would feel badly for her (which we don't in the episode, which is a travesty). The scene could have been a touching family one rather than high farce, and it actually would have been much funnier with them 'amicably' sparring rather than screaming. In fact, the most funny would be them realizing they've said these things many times before, as if it was a ritual they could both appreciate on some level, which could then play like a family script that they've come to sort of like in an annoying kind of way.

    3) The scene with Quark and Nilva was abominable, and this one was completely Siddig's fault. Physical comedy was the wrong route here. But if it had to be physical comedy then at the very least it could have been something that would lead to the 'reveal' that Quark's surgery was 'complete'. For instance, if Nilva was trying to undress Lumba and for every piece of clothing or jewelry he takes off Lumba manages to put another one back on we could have a Marx Brothers type of chicanery. We could be led to think that "oh, if he sees Quark naked the jig will be up" only to then learn later that Quark was actually just being afraid in general rather than concerned about the plan being busted.

    4) The final scene should have been directed in such a way that Aluura said the things she said out of fear. Same lines, different direction. When she insists she was looking forward to the oo-mox the idea should be that she thinks what Quark is saying is a trick to test her and that she'd better prove to him she's serious about complying. This would give us much more of a release of tension when we see him realize this and assure her for real that he'll never ask her to do that again. We might have even ended up feeling good about the theme this way.

    As it is this is the worst episode of Trek ever, bar none. I like The Alternative Factor, am amused by Spock's Brain, don't hate Let He Who Is Without Sin as much as many people do, and Threshold...well, it's the *dumbest* Trek episode ever but it doesn't make my skin crawl and cause me to cringe with embarrassment repeatedly. Maybe just once or twice.

    I sort of want to give Profit and Lace half a star just for the Hupyrian standoff. I actually laughed out loud at that.

    As someone who normally likes Ferengi episodes quite a bit more than Jammer did, I have to agree on this one; it was a disaster of an episode. Apparently the writers wanted it to be played up as over-the-top comedy, tonally more like The Magnificent Ferengi, but Armin hated the script, then he and the director wanted to make it a more serious study, and tried to film it that way; quotes from several people involved suggest this was the problem, and I'll certainly grant it likely made things much worse. I can't buy into the idea that it was the whole problem, though. As pure comedy, it might've managed a few more laughs, but without at least a total rewrite of the dialogue, I can't see it actually being *good.*

    What gets me is that I think there *could* have been a good episode to come out of some of the ideas here. Polish but otherwise keep the opening bits - they're not stellar stuff, but they get the job done. But instead of the farcical "lets give quark a sex change!" thing - and people keep saying it's "quark in drag," but no, quark actually had a sex change. And because reasons, this made quark adopt a plethora of stereotypical "female" traits, including being both ditzy and vain. Which, in the middle of a plot that is nominally against sexism, just boggles the mind.

    So, no. Scrap that aspect entirely, and instead, do a call-back to an episode the writers seem to have forgotten - track down what happened to Pel, from Rules of Acquisition. Quark, Rom, and Zek all should've remembered this character, ffs. When needing a replacement female Ferengi with business sense to stand in for Ishka, she should've come to mind long before "lets give quark a sex-change!"

    And that could've made an much more interesting episode. You've got the Pel-Quark relationship, which I would've liked to see explored more back when she originally appeared - and a romantic interest seems a much better avenue for actually getting under Quark's skin and changing his views than his mother, who he's well-practiced at dismissing.

    You could even adapt some of the "teaching quark to female" scenes to Pel. She had, likely for most of her life, been pretending to be male, but it would make sense if zek and quark wanted her to present herself in a more conventionally feminine manner, since her being female is as much the point as her having good business sense. And that, for me, would be a better scene - Pel, who actually is female, being coached by a room full of men on how to act more feminine, resisting and resenting the whole thing. Them urging her to project the stereotype that she so clearly doesn't represent, and her reluctantly going along because, after all, what's at stake is nothing short of a revolutionary shift in women's rights on ferenginar.

    It's still wouldn't be for everybody - some people just really, *really* hate the Ferengi - but it could've been a good episode that said something without undermining itself at every turn, where quark actually had a chance of learning something without it being cliche and paper-thin. It could've been one of the better Ferengi-centric episodes, and instead, it was the utter rock-bottom.

    "but no, quark actually had a sex change"

    This is actually the biggest problem with the episode. Remove that and you have a misogynist pig from a misogynist society pretending to be a girl. So it makes sense that it'd be so stereotypical.

    I'm not saying it saves the episode or anything... but if Bashir didn't just perform gender surgery on Quark for funsies and Quark was pretending to be a girl the whole thing takes on a higher level of farce and leaves the offensive land that it occupies now.

    @Robert, I agree that one change would've helped.

    I've continued thinking about the idea of bringing back Pel, and the more I do, the more I start to lament what I think was a missed opportunity. There are so many possibilities there.

    For one, when Pel was first introduced, we knew nothing of Quark's family - we wouldn't meet his Moogie or learn of her unconventional (for ferengi) clothes-wearing, profit-making ways. Hell, in-story, *Quark* didn't even know, at least about the profit part (though it seemed ambiguous to me whether she had always had a thing for wearing clothes, if not in the defiant all-the-time way she did by the time we were introduced to her.)

    This extra information would add something for the Pel character - she, in effect, has a lot in common with Ishka. The main differences - the seeming lack of interest in family - is something she instead has in common with Quark. This creates so many opportunities for interesting interactions involving the three. And, of course, Dax would certainly have more to say on the subject as well, given a chance.

    Rather than being the final nail in the ever-divisive, hit-or-miss Ferengi -centric episodes, it could've been the seed for a final mini-arc that allowed Quark the opportunity to actually change and grow a bit before the end of the series.

    Suckish suckish suckish shit. Apparently a poster in 2010 called it fantastic-that person needs to find the nearest large metal spike and kindly die.

    As much as I hate [slur removed by Jammer] I'll tolerate a lot in sci fi I wouldn't in RL but this takes the cake for dogshit.

    Voyager's threshold at least had an interesting first ten minutes.

    Fuck anybody who likes this episode.

    @Caedus - "As much as I hate *****"

    May I ask what you could possibly hate about people you've never met? This feels like an awful lot of hate for a short post.

    I mean, I feel angry after watching this episode too... but this feels a bit extreme!

    And lots of good things happened in Threshold, at least until lizard sex....

    Jesus man. calm down before you press submit. Its a bad episode but, jeez.

    Fuck all this political correctness, and fuck so many ppl who can't take an episode for what it is - a ham-fisted comedy, and are so thin-skinned they can't take a joke. Thank god I dont live in the West, among so many politically-correct little snowflakes.

    That dabo-chick Alura was damn hot! Those tits and that smile.... mmmyummy a line from "Alien Resurrection" comes to mind: "Severely Fuckable" :) I dont blame Quark for salivating over her, I would too. Ofc, I would find a more subtle approach to get her in my bed, but... some chicks like directness, and she proved in the end that she likes it.

    btw forgot to rate it - 2 stars. Not much to the ep but its comedy value, but I laughed so hard that I'l give 1 star for that, and another star for Alura. Damn that bitch is hot! ;)

    Whew! I was nervous there for a moment when I thought we might not get Okrad's star rating, but there it is and the day is saved.

    I sometimes feel glimmers of what it must be like to run this site, and all the care Jammer has put into it. I don't know how exactly what his experience is of reading all the various kinds of comments people leave, but I know in his place when reading the comment section my finger would be twitching over the delete button at times.

    If we put Caedus and Okrad in a cage match, we'd easily get more entertainment than this episode.

    (Hopes the Discovery writers are reading.)

    I've always tried to err on the side of allowing open conversation and not moderating/deleting comments, unless they veer into slurs or hate speech. And on the whole I've always marveled at the high quality of the posts and civility here. It is reassuring.

    That said, there's always the exception who acts like an asshole, but what ya gonna do.

    We can all be grateful that the good people who post here FAR OUTWEIGH the... ah, well you know how it goes.

    #Chrome#

    Sounds good to me, I love to fight! :) Just make Alura the prize for the winner, and I'm game hehe.

    In answer to Quarkissnyder, Julian was wearing his surgical operating outfit. It's only been in one other episode.

    I got about 3/4 of the way through the comments and felt the need to make one of my own. First of all, the absolute worst episode. Not just because of the sexism and crossdressing and all of that, but because it was not even relevant to the plot. The Magnificent Ferengi was at least relevant, featuring the dominion and all...

    BUT the absolute worst thing about the episode which everyone seems to be glossing over but a few people is the rape scene. For God's sake, that ferengi was chasing quark around trying to FORCE HIMSELF ON HER (him? Anyway...). If a human woman was running away from a human man who was trying to do that, would this still be funny? Not to mention the bartender situation...

    As for the "message" of the episode, the whole quark learning what it was like to be a woman and to treat woman right thing, I would like to point out that Boy Meets World did it better, and STILL managed not to be so disgustingly sexist AND managed to hold on to the seriousness of the sexual assault situation.

    0 stars. Less than 0 stars.

    Zero stars?

    Way too harsh - 3 stars at least for Quark giving one of his employees a book called "Oomax for fun and profit"

    LOL

    I may be the only person in the world who didn't hate this episode. I thought it was kinda funny. I loved Rom showing Quark how to walk like a lady lol and Armon Shimerman was great. 2.5 stars

    Absolutely hilarious episode. I laughed all the time.
    Anyone who rates this as zero stars doesn't have any sense of humor whatsoever.

    So are Ferengi women usually completely naked...except for earrings?

    If not, why are the earrings necessary here?

    These sorts of episodes are a strong argument for the British 6-10 episodes per season (series in British nomenclature). As I rewatch DS9, I find myself wanting to skip ahead to the relevant Dominion episodes, which even the Magnificent Ferengi embedded itself in. In British TV, there isn't the pressure to produce 24-26 episodes per season, so you don't end up pulling scripts of the reject pile because you don't have anything better in the pipe, and I view this as a reject script that should have stayed on the reject pile.

    But this was a throwback to some of the more uncomfortable TOS and even early TNG episodes, with the cringe-worthy sexism. I realize it's all done in the name of Ferengi female liberation, but the episode does it so badly, the writing is so awful, and ultimately the whole thing comes off as wrongheaded I barely could stomach the 50 minutes of blech. This isn't just one of the worst Season 6 episodes, it's one of the worst DS9 episodes, and in the top ten bad Star Trek episodes.

    If they wanted to show Ferengi society becoming more liberated, even in a humorous way (which, let's face it, the Ferengi episodes are), surely they could have found a better vehicle than this.

    American TV is definitely headed in that direction. A lot of new shows, especially on cable or streaming, are 10 or even 8 episodes. Discovery season one will only be 15, and that was after being extended from the original 13.

    @AC and Jammer

    Sure, it's easy to pick from the worst of the lot and say seasons should be shorter, but for every "Profit and Lace", there's at least a handful of fluff episodes like "In The Cards" or "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" that can really make a fun hour out of a show that isn't progressing the story. I do generally like the way TV is heading like Jammer said, but I think we should appreciate the cost of this new production direction.

    I wasn't arguing for one or the other. There are pros and cons to both. Having fewer episodes means tighter focus and can mean the writers can really craft a full-season story without the bloat and exhaustion. But it also means you don't get what could be wonderful one-offs.

    I don't know how a staff used to turn out 26 episodes in a year, honestly. If you are going to have more episodes you probably need (and have) more flexibility to do standalones. An arc that long (e.g., ENT season 3) can be awfully hard to sustain.

    Yikes.

    There were a lot of terrible cringeworthy moments in this episode but what annoyed me is that it started with a pretence of women's rights, which would have been an interesting topic to explore, then turned it around by being incredibly insulting to women, transsexuals and with a bit of homophobia thrown into the mix as well.

    I'm someone who is very against SJW nonsense shutting down free speech, I found this insulting to women.

    My biggest issue with the entire episode is that it wanted to be a statement about women's rights but then turned it around by saying "Actually, only a man can do that job" and ended the episode by suggesting women are overly sensitive and emotional due to hormones!

    The DS9 writers did a good job with Kiera, Dax and Winn being strong competent characters, how the hell did the same team decide this episode was OK?

    Chiming in on the debate about the length of television seasons. I don't think shorter seasons necessarily mean better tighter writing. There are numerous examples--of course opinions may vary-- But shows like Strain, Heroes Reborn, Caprica, American horror story, under the dome, extant, Salem, the departed, X files reboot etc all have shorter seasons with 10-13 episodes and I personally thought they sucked

    I'd much rather have a full 24-26 episode season. I personally think churning out a consistently enjoyable season most weeks is doable. Plenty of examples--- from the first five seasons of X Files, Dallas, TNG, DS9, Hill street blues, Melrose place etc. Shows like TNG and X-Files demonstrated 26 standalones can be done and done well. And primetime dramas like Dallas or Hill Street Blues could sustain serialization entirely for the entire season.

    The problem with serialization nowadays is the way it has morphed into the "mystery box" style popularized by LOST. It's a totally different model of serialized storytelling where there's a large mythology, everything is intertwined with the energy directed at the shocks and twists and gotcha moments. Too much focus on structure rather than storytelling. Just my .02

    I definitely prefer the longer seasons. I hate when shows are intricately serialized like the Netflix shows. Almost all Netflix shows are terrible.

    Instead of being a large sprawling TV series, it turns into a 13 hour long movies cut up, but with only enough story to justify maybe 4.

    I like when a TV show has a mix of episodes that are one offs and continue the story. Shows like Buffy were great at balancing these aspects.

    Good grief -- pure stinking garbage here. I can't believe DS9 allowed this episode to come to fruition. Season 6 has featured some outstanding episodes like "In the Pale Moonlight" and "Far Beyond the Stars" -- how could some crap like this come about?? I guess every season, DS9 throws in what is supposed to be a Ferengi comedy. This time it went terribly wrong.

    Quark in drag as a main premise is just awful. Is this supposed to actually be some kind of women's lib lesson using the Ferengi? I don't think so since the Ferengi are so hopelessly useless in Trek -- nobody can take them seriously for anything. DS9's worst episodes have been Ferengi ones and for me, this one takes the cake, so far.

    Rom's at his idiotic worst here. Zek is also super annoying with his hehehe laugh. Technically, I can't find anything good here. Even the attempts at jokes didn't work for me since I was so quickly pissed off at seeing Zek and Moogie near the start of the episode.

    Zero stars for "Profit and Lace". Definitely worse than "Ferengi Love Songs" for which I gave 0.5 stars. Just complete stupidity from start to finish. It makes the argument for shorter seasons (fewer episodes) so that the show doesn't feel the need to come up with fillers. That's one thing Discovery has going for it.

    Also, since I'm a bit of a nerd, I keep track of my ratings in a separate spreadsheet -- thus far I've reviewed nearly 377 Trek episodes on this site and so far "Profit and Lace" is the 3rd I've rated at zero stars but it is clearly worse than "Spock's Brain" and "Acquisition". The rating difference comes when it gets translated to the 10-point scale!

    "DS9's worst episodes have been Ferengi ones"

    For me, they're by far the best. They're vibrant and funny, in stark contrast to DS9 which is for the most part dull and monotonous.

    The silly red robes were, IIRC, established in Samaritan Snare when Picard had the heart surgery -- and so we can blame early TNG for that dumb-looking robe, as well as the idea for the Ferengi.

    However, I think that most of this episode is bad in ways not TNG's fault.

    Quark should get the #MeToo treatment for that scene in the beginning, and so should the producers for putting in the "this is a comedy" soundtrack behind it to remind us that this should all be very amusing. Watching this show in 2018 it has for the most part aged very well, but that scene was agonizing. Maybe the rest of it was agonizing too, but I had to shut if off. A rare occurrence indeed.

    So...they removed Quarks' ears and transplanted...smaller ones?

    Are his old ones in a jar in the infirmary, next to his nuts?

    I can’t believe Brunt wouldn’t respect Quark’s pronouns

    Watching and commenting:

    --Wow. Quark really being horribly creepy with this dabo girl.

    --The Negus. Females now have the right to wear clothes. Caused lots of  chaos, and Brunt is the Negus. Not a promising start.

    --So far, so obnoxious.

    --Oh, no. Tootsie on DS9.

    --Like Dustin Hoffman's Michael before him, Quark learns what it's like to take what he's been dishing out.

    --This ending is extremely stupid.

    everyone needs to relax on this one... i disagree on jammer's dislike of ferengi eps... i usually add a star to each vs his but yes this one is bad and so what? watch it with that in mind like spocks brain or star trek 5 or masks from tng... have fun and get on with it. sometimes the bad ones are interesting to deconstruct. and read up on how it all came together... the goal and the end result were two different things. it also doesn't help to retroactively assign modern pc sensibilities to 20 plus year old shows or movies. ferengi's in general were awful towards women though they didn't see it that way.

    “watch it with that in mind like spocks brain or star trek 5 or masks from tng...”

    Or we could just not watch any of those and move on to more substantive episodes.

    @petulant I can't find who said that here, but that's a silly comparison. Spock's Brain and arguably Masks are unintentionally hilarious and Final Frontier, while also a bad comedy, I think can still be So Bad It's Good fun, since it has enough serious stuff and the comedic bits are so forced and cartoonish they become funny again. This is however, is a bad comedy, where the jokes are just dull and unfunny, among other issues.

    I just rewatched it for the first time in a long time and I didn't hate it like I did the first time.

    I always liked the ACTING Grand Nagus" running gag and Worf's comment that it might not be such a bad thing if the Dominion conquered the Ferengi.

    I thought the idea of selling women's rights on the idea that they would be great for the economy, as opposed to it being the right thing to do was very clever.

    Profit and lace

    In contrast to many star trek fans i almost always enjoy the ferengi episodes. I love the idea of the ferengi and most everything they stand for. Why should the whole galaxy embrace the same values as the federation? Jist look at what star trek has lead us to believe with episodes like TNG Angel One and a hundred others (no right or wrong, just a different culture). But, when one of those societies hold values that demean women like the orion's or the ferengi, star trek steps in to correct any misconceptions we may have had. So remember, it is okay to have different cultures with different beliefs and values just so long as they treat their women right. Well, right as compared to the federation anyway.

    @ D K
    You fail to see one important point, maybe the most important one.
    This is a show created by us, not aliens.
    The Ferengi aren't an alien society. They are a creation of Humans. They are created by the limits of our imagination to tell us something about ourselves.

    I may be a nihilist. In a million years humanity will be gone and what constitutes my body now will have been many things, earth, food, energy and after a few billion years this organism earth will also end and every one you know and everyone you never met will be energy or some form of it so yeah what is the point of anything, still I'm not a big fan of moral relativism.
    I'm actually a believer in strong principles. One of them is respect for people who are different but another is speaking my mind even if that may cause me harm.
    And in some form or another a lot of Humans must share this or we would still treat women like slaves like the Ferengi do.

    Oh man just saw the other posts of D K. 13 posts in less than an hour. Pretty rough stuff. Sorry people that I answered. My mistake. I had a glass of wine
    https://medias.spotern.com/spots/w640/175/175837-1547065496.jpg

    Rough stuff?

    Gotta say, I can't help but laugh whenever someone "accuses" Star Trek of going the Social Justice route, or starts whining about strong women that are giving men orders. Seriously, did this guy live under a rock in the past 50 years, that he doesn't know what Trek is all about?

    From a 24th century perspective, this "rough stuff" is just laughable. "Hey bro, what's a primitive guy like you doing on our shiny starship? Oh, and by the way, welcome to the 24th century" ;-)

    @ Omicron
    I didn't really read through all his texts but assumed that there were other bombshell revelations about how women controlled the USA in the 1980s. :D

    Well, this was an episode I spent largely in various stages of grimacing. Teaser is rock bottom "oh god no please don't", first half is at least standard Ferengi episode (and has the mildly amusing scene where Quark's family call up various Commissioners)... but from the second we see "Lumba", I knew there was no coming back from the zero star rating. Wasn't even funny to Jammer watching at the time, and it's aged to be even worse, for reasons I really don't need to elaborate on.

    The one line (apart from Worf's one) that got a laugh out of me was... probably unintentional. "Giving females the right to wear clothes allows them to have pockets." Women's clothing -- *with pockets???* Looks like the Ferengi are ahead of us hu-mans on one thing, at least.

    Now I'm gonna forget I had to watch this and move swiftly onwards.

    @Fenn,

    Yeah... kinda been dreading you getting to this one. DS9 hits some strong highs, but when it hits those lows... it plummets.

    @Nolan: for sure. And it's even more noticeable among all the high points this season has to offer.

    There are potentially interesting (and fun!) ways to do a "Ferengi feminism" episode. This is all the worst ways rolled up into a big awful ball.

    —Hello, Aluura
    She’s so nice
    —We’ll see.

    Only good part of the episode

    I guess this is one episode I haven't commented on - my goal is to eventually have a comment on each of the episodes Jammer has reviewed...

    I'll just say that I can see the possibilities when I consider that they could have kept so much of this episode's OVERALL plot intact if they just brought Pel back (and would have made for a most incredible circle back for Quark to deal with an Allura/Pel situation... I think Pel could have been hardened to living in a male-dominated culture long enough that she needed help reconnecting to her feminine side, which would give Quark something to work against in the episode (given his initial statements to Allura) and give Pel something to arc on from beginning to end.

    Not that this was what we got, but if you HAVE to rewatch this ep, this may be a good thought experiment.

    Boring. Badly written. Disgusting. Rapey. Offensive. Stereotypical. Basic. Stupid.

    And most importantly, pointless.

    I detest this one on principle, because it is the center point of a story arc that I found profoundly insulting. Not to me (I'm male), but to the millions of women who fought hard gaining equal rights in this country, and still fight for them elsewhere. The message here, essentially, is that one woman takes Ferengi females from being mere property (can't read, can't do business, can't leave the house, can't even wear clothes) to absolute equality... by seducing the Grand Nagus.

    If you have to ask why that's an insult... you probably won't understand.

    I don’t know what everyone is so upset about, I thought this episode was great!
    .
    .
    .
    Just kidding! Terrible! Pass the barf bag!!! Yecchhh!!!

    Ok, so the episode was preposterous, but it did make me laugh at the sheer silliness of it all.

    Loosen up everyone. This is parody of the highest order. So appropriate in today's "rainbow gender politics". Plus Armin Shimmerman is even more brilliant than ever cos he's in on the joke and he plays Lumba as if he knows it.
    I give it 5 stars for sheer prescience some 20+ years before its time about how western society was evolving. There are no cliches in parody, parody explodes all the cliches it engages with.
    Boldly goes where ST has not gone before.
    Bloody Brilliant!

    It might work for some but it also won several worst episode awards and the writer of the episode Behr considered it the biggest disappointment of his entire time in Star Trek (he wrote for TNG and DS9). They all saw the episode as a complete failure.
    Saying to people that they should loosen up is pretty douchy, though and firing a shot at "gender rainbow politics" which this episode is not parodying, is really saying a lot about what goes on in you head. I get it, until very recently LGBT people could be discriminated without problems and now they are kind of accepted. That change is tough for some.

    I guess it's also tough for some people to accept that others can enjoy things they don't.

    And, just so we're clear on this, I say that as someone who DESPISES this episode.

    @Luke
    That would all be fine but he/she but probably he found it necessary to start with an insult of everybody that had a different opinion. "Loosen up" is the nice cousin of "Don't be a pussy". and then the dig at LGBT. I know that is very popular right now but still.

    If he had just stated his love or admiration for the episode I would have thought "strange/different tastes" and moved on.

    I always hated Kids in the Hall and Bosom Buddies because of the assumption that men in drag is somehow automatically funny. Even acclaimed films such as the Some Like It Hot and Tootsie are barely watchable to me for the same reason.

    A man badly portaying a woman isn't funny (at least to me).

    It is a waste of time.

    PS- Sexual assault isn't funny either. The "chased by a lust crazed person" gag wasn't amusing when they did it on Three's Compamy 30 years before this was filmed.

    1) This episode sucked
    2) This argument is dumb
    3) The Kids in the Hall wasn't trying to be funny by having guys in drag. They were guys in drag who were funny.
    4) What the hell ever happened to Peter Scolari?

    Why is no one talking about the disgusting and unforgivable scene at the beginning where quark sexually exploits his Dabo girl by threatening to fire her. Only for her to at the end say umacks sound like fun. Truly awful and this was certainly written by a man who knows literally nothing about women.

    "Why is no one talking about the disgusting and unforgivable scene at the beginning where quark sexually exploits his Dabo girl by threatening to fire her. Only for her to at the end say umacks sound like fun."

    SFDebris covered it quite well. https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/d547.php

    First off....A lot of great comments have been expressed here. My hat's off to so many of you.

    The episode was rank fumetry to be sure, but damn, the quality of the writing and positions expressed in the negative reviews was really just amazing.

    Can't add much except to say that I never thought the word "vomit" was so funny until used to describe the efflux assembled by the writers of "Profit and Lace".

    To add a few observations.
    (1) The Lumba-Nilva (chase the skirt round the desk) scene was intended to redux Some Like it Hot. But didn't work and fell flat.
    (2) Worf: "I can't think of any" is a good line and very enjoyable. He's just a head in the background when he says it and without Rom's turn to the right, Worf's head might have been mistaken for a coconut.
    (3) The whole episode needed editing. There are actually IMO several short exchanges bottled up in the mess, which approach 'quality' . When Quark is looking at Nilva's ring and Odo says "interesting ring" a few lines follow that I adjudge to be worthwhile. After Odo says "not really", the brief magic ends and all is lost with the hug. Sensitivity, even vulnerability, can be charming. Simpering weakness is, alas, not.

    A few sustained seconds of enjoyable dialogue... .025 stars.

    not defending this episode , but Ferengi episodes by design were always cartoony , just insert a looney chase song when the Cola guy is sex crazed for Quark .

    Also, like someone mentioned , the Ferengi since episode one of DS9 were established as this patriarchy first society where women had no rights, why is it '' more '' offensive now when it was accepted into lore, it seems that for all vitriol this episode receives ,context has been thrown out the window ....

    "Yeah, there you go—a brand-new leader of an entire world travels all the way from his home planet to stand around and poke fun at Quark, Zek, and everyone else. Uh huh"

    You know Trump would do it.

    I watched only the opening scene. They've been trying to make Quark more likeable, then right at the very start of this episode, they turn him into Harvey Weinstein. Sickening.

    Anyone working at Paramount in mid-1998 would be embarrassed to be associated with a company that produced this. That includes the guys at the front gate who checked cars as they came on the lot. Unwatchable.

    Okay, D.S.9's finest hour, no question about it.

    But ZERO stars?!? Especially compared to episodes featuring some primitive, stone-age Klingon garbage or The Cisco's mind trips to some fakakta pseudo-spiritual MagicWorld!?!

    Come on, man... At least this one provides a few very decent laughs.

    It was OK. I'm not a big fan of the more cartoony Ferengi episodes in the first place. But as they go, other that being relatively boring story wise, it was OK.

    Interesting to see Quark having a "woke" moment at the end. Then reverting to his true self a minute later. Quark, ya bastid. But I won't cancel him yet.

    Agreed with Jammer that at a specific point, the episode became unwatchable (a little after the halfway mark). Before that it was “simply” pretty terrible. 1.5 stars and zero stars averaged rounds to one star. Jammer’s other zero star ratings, if memory serves (that’s a phrase; the episode “ If Memory Serves” was not given zero stars yuk yuk) are “The Way to Eden,” “Shades of Grey,” “Let He Who is Without Sin,” “Threshold,” and “Precious Cargo.” I think those were all worse than Profit and Lace; so were “And the Children Shall Lead,” “Sub Rosa,” “Demon,” “Bound,” and “Move Along Home.”

    “Quark in drag” is not high-concept, as I understand the term. “High concept” I thought is a variation on a theme that someone thinks is clever, like “Die Hard on a Plane.” Regardless, the concept as Jammer said is not inherently funny-there was no sense of comic or any other timing in this episode. Poor Henry Gibson-Haven Hamilton in Nashville!

    Like others, catching up on eps missed in the day. This has not aged well - wildly sexist stereotyping, misogynistic sexual exploitation... Nothing that hasn't been said before. But one point I'm surprised hasn't been raised - what was the name of Quark's ferengi love interest from a few seasons ago who successfully passed as a 'man with the lobes for business' for quite some time; surely she would have been worth a call before the ridiculous surgical plan?

    Pel ended up fleeing into the Gamma Quadrant and so is literally beyond contact.

    That's a reasonable excuse I suppose! Thank you for the reminder, I couldn't remember what had happened to her.

    I hate the fact they use this episode to push for progress. Like, God forbid a society should exist in the Trek universe that has different views of men and women. No, they must be changed to fit the modern day views. A perfect representation of America pushing its ideologies onto others, regardless of whether you think they're good or not

    "I hate the fact they use this episode to push for progress. Like, God forbid a society should exist in the Trek universe that has different views of men and women. No, they must be changed to fit the modern day views. A perfect representation of America pushing its ideologies onto others, regardless of whether you think they're good or not."

    This is such a bizarre take I almost can't believe it's genuine. Star Trek is all about pushing for progress, equality, fairness, logic, and reason. The episodes are allegories for our own human struggles against ignorance, racism, bigotry, and sexism. Are you actually trying to defend the misogyny bordering on slavery demonstrated by the Ferengi? Such vile moral relativism ignores that the Ferengi women (and by extension human women) are signficiantly harmed by such subjugation, and *they even say so themselves*. They're literally house-bound, naked, and can be punished for even talking to a male guest in the house. I'm just baffled that anyone could look at this and complain that the people *opposing it* are somehow the problem.

    Watched this episode two days ago and got a kick out of it. Found myself laughing out loud at most of the jokes and liked Quark's character development. Very fun episode with characters I like. Maybe I am that easy to make laugh?

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