The Last Outpost by: Herbert Wright from a story by: Richard Krzmeien and directed by: Richard Colla

 

“The Last Outpost” is written by: Herbert Wright, from a story by: Richard Krzmeien, and is directed by: Richard Colla.  It was produced under production code 107, was the 5^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on October 19, 1987.

 

Star Trek introduced the Klingons late into its first season in the episode “Errand of Mercy”, establishing them as already having an intergalactic Cold War with the Federation through their empire and in an episode that saw them coming to blows, already aware of what the other side was capable of.  Star Trek: The Next Generation, in developing a future post-Klingon empire, wanted to recreate a long-running enemy to match the pop culture status of the Klingons and Gene Roddenberry came up with the Ferengi, mentioned in “Encounter at Farpoint” before appearing proper in “The Last Outpost”.  This episode was produced as the seventh episode, but shown fifth for whatever reason and it’s the closest Star Trek: The Next Generation has gotten to producing an episode that is actually good.  This is an episode of two halves: buildup to the reveal of the Ferengi’s actual appearance and the fact that the trouble the Enterprise finds itself in is also affecting them, and the payoff of it being the remnants of a third, godlike empire of aliens turning it into a remake of “Errand of Mercy” with much less charm.  The back half of the episode is really where things fall apart: the Ferengi almost immediately stop being a threat and reveal themselves to be sniveling capitalists and particularly boring ones at that.  When given any real pushback they begin to lie to the godlike alien apparition trying to make humanity look bad, Armin Shimerman playing the Ferengi leader on the planet as especially over-the-top.  This is an episode that also ends in a complete anti-climax, almost rushing to fill the runtime and sidelining the Ferengi as any sort of threat, though allowing Jonathan Frakes as Riker to show off his own philosophy.

 

There is the possibility that this is an episode is attempting to be more comedic when the Ferengi are involved: this has a running gag with Data being trapped in a Chinese finger trap that ends with a box being sent to the Ferengi as a way to annoy them.  A charitable reading is that screenwriter Herbert Wright wants to directly make the Ferengi look pathetic as a way to show the outdated nature of capitalism in the far future, which seems in line with Star Trek in general.  Wright does become another writer who decides to write Tasha Yar as being sexually harassed, this time by the Ferengi who for whatever reason have a culture where Ferengi women are naked and clothes on women make the men wish to assault Yar to strip her.  This is the third episode in a row where something uncomfortable like this happens to Yar.  There are some good things in the back half of the episode however, mainly the few scenes on the Enterprise as the power is going out, Picard, Troi, and Crusher ensuring everyone stays warm as death looms.  There is a particularly interesting scene between Picard and Crusher, Crusher reflecting on the danger and the fact that she’s keeping Wesley in their quarters and contemplated sedating him so he didn’t have to suffer.  It’s quite a dark scene, and is just left hanging in the air that both Gates McFadden and Patrick Stewart play incredibly well, Stewart for the first time in the series really feeling like he’s getting how to play Picard.

 

The first half of the episode is all buildup, but it’s quite good buildup.  The decision is made to start the episode with a chase between the Enterprise and a Ferengi ship, taking nearly a third of the episode before hearing from a Ferengi, and a further five minutes to actually show the Ferengi, the leader on the ship being played better by Mike Gomez going less over the top than those on the planet.  It takes cues from the original series episode “Balance of Terror”, the best episode of the original series, though it lacks any parallelism between the two captains and crews at play.  It is, however, the setup for a good episode even if the setup is derivative, the derivative nature allows the crew to actually begin to gel slightly, though this could be because this was the seventh episode produced.  It is not until getting to the planet that the Ferengi become incompetent villains, the initial discussions are largely played straight and that is for the best.  The design is also quite impressive, if a bit silly which adds to the question if the Ferengi were ever really meant to be taken seriously like the first half of the episode attempts to make them.  Some of this also may be down to director Richard Colla, once again a director who only did a single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and he doesn’t really set up a whole lot of interesting shots.  At best his direction is incredibly flat, and at worst it actually is quite poor at framing a lot of things in the episode, making this one slightly more difficult to actually watch, especially on the bridge viewscreen where the Ferengi leader really needed to be framed as intimidating.

 

Overall, it’s actually quite surprising that “The Last Outpost” is heralded as one of the worst episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, because it’s actually the closest the series has come so far to being good.  The main cast is finally starting to click or at least understanding their roles with even the weaker material given to them and the first half of the episode is a fairly enjoyable watch.  The back half lets it down completely as things devolve into an incredibly inferior, almost poorly comedic remake of “Errand of Mercy”, simplified and rushed, but it is more an average hour of television instead of anything all that bad, and after the streak it feels like maybe something good could be on the horizon.  5/10.