In a way, I'm glad I started watching this series now in 2023, otherwise I might have given up in 1987 after episode #1.3 'Code of Honor' and this one, with it's newly introduced and less than formidable alien antagonists called the Ferengi. Mentioned by Groppler Zorn in the pilot episode, I thought I might have missed something during the run of the original 'Star Trek' series, but I knew I hadn't when they first appeared on screen. Unlike the Klingons and Romulans, the Ferengi were depicted almost like comical yet vicious goons, with a goofy looking whip like weapon that operated like a taser. In any event, both the Ferengi and the Enterprise-D crew found themselves at the mercy of an energy draining planet once inhabited by the Tkon Empire, extinct now for six hundred thousand years, but guarded by a portal being who missed that memo while he slept for all those centuries. I couldn't help thinking that the Portal (Darryl Henriques) was based on the character of Emperor Palpatine, who first turned up in "Return of the Jedi". He had the same stance, cloak and aged visage of the evil emperor. Nevertheless, the away team that beams down to the unnamed planet holding the Federation and Ferengi vessels immobilized, led by Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes), is eventually able to reason with the Portal and gets the Enterprise released from the Portal's grip. And he didn't even have to snap his fingers, he just made it happen by thinking about it! The Ferengi get to slink away, and once aboard the Enterprise-D, Commander Data (Brent Spiner) gets to contemplate his Chinese finger puzzle one more time.
Review of The Last Outpost
