Title: The Last Outpost
Airdate: 10/19/1987
Plot Summary
The Enterprise is in pursuit of a Firengi ship that has stolen a piece of technology. This is the first contact with this race. When the Firengi seemingly deploy a power draining weapon on them leaving them helpless, Picard reluctantly begins talks of surrender. The Firengi to his surprise refuse to surrender to him, and the crew realize that both ships are in this trap and the weapon is being deployed from the planet, an outpost for an empire that has died out tens of thousands of years ago. Can Riker and the away team figure out what’s holding them and stop it before the Enterprise loses all power and the crew freezes to death?
Make It So
Picard does his best to deal with the Firengi while in space but once the away team beams down, he’s pretty much helpless until Riker can convince the portal to release their ship.
Number 1
Riker has to stand up to the portal and answer his questions. His knowledge of Sun Tzu is intriguing to the portal. He also shows a lot of mercy to the Firengi. As time goes on, he won’t be as nice to them.
Fully Functional
Data has no idea how to defeat the Chinese finger puzzle. Superior to humans indeed.
Today Is A Good Day To Die
Worf gets immediately knocked out by the Firengi but is able to play possum and fight two of them at a time.
Phase Inducers
Geordi makes some wry comments here and there, compliments Data on the proper use of a human expression and ends up upside down when beaming down to the planet. He’s none to happy about it.
Counselor Cleavage
Troi helps with getting the crew blankets and herding them to the warmest parts of the ship.
Dancing Doctor
When Picard tells Crusher that Wesley deserves to face death awake, she asks if that’s a male perspective. Picard just calls her question rubbish.
Security Chief Dead Meat
Yar manages to stop the Firengi with a surprise appearance and the only one left with a phaser.
Shut Up, Wesley
Wesley is mentioned but does not appear.
Canon Maker
The Firengi! We see them for the first time and that’s pretty much how they are throughout the rest of the most of the series run. They would stop bouncing around like wild lemurs and only hiss and snarl in certain situations going forward. They’d also lose the stupid whips and furs and begin dressing somewhat more flamboyantly as you’d expect a profit minded race to be.
Canon Breaker
Lots of whoopsies in this episode. One, Troi senses the Firengi but Betazeds can’t read Firengi.
Two, the Firengi are much more refined than they are shown here, wearing animal skins and bobbing around like caged animals.
Three, they seem to value gold. That will later be shown to be worthless as you can replicate gold. It’s gold-pressed latinum that will function as a store of value or currency in the future, mostly because it cannot be replicated.
A Little Bloody Nose
No deaths!
Technobabble
Type II hand phasers make a good and proper introduction here. While we’ve seen the small ones get fired in Encounter At Farpoint, we finally see the main ones that will be become the default weapon going forward.
The conference room has a hologram projector in the middle of the table that we’ll never see again in favor of a TV on the wall.
I Know That Guy:
Darryl Henriques plays the Portal. He would go on to be Ambassador Nunclus in Star Trek VI.
Mike Gomez plays Daimon Tarr. He’ll be back in season six as another Firengi in Rascals. I most recall him in The Big Lebowski as the cop who can’t stop laughing about “leads.”
Jake Dengal plays Mordoc, one of the three Firengi on the planet.
Tracy Walter plays Kayon. Walter of course is best known as Bob, the Joker’s number one guy in 1989’s Batman. I liked him in Conan The Destroyer and he’s done some voice parts too. He’ll also return in Rascals, again a different Firengi.
Finally we have Armin Shimmerman playing Lelek. He was the principal in Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a few stops in Stargate SG1 and would join a lot of Trek alum in Boston Legal. He would return to Trek later this season as a gift box (don’t ask), and another Firengi in season 2. Of course he finally would play Quark for seven seasons in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, a role that he would guest on TNG, Voyager, and Lower Decks, making him the only main cast member to be in 4 different shows.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
This is the first pretty good episode of TNG. It’s not a classic by any means but I generally like it. Of course it is a little done in by what comes after, especially how the Firengi are portrayed here. Still, the idea is similar to Arena, where a powerful entity stops the Enterprise from getting into a admittedly justified battle with an unknown alien and Riker taking on the Kirk role of showing mercy, convincing the portal that there’s hope for us yet.
The biggest problem is the Firengi, at least how they are here. They would get a lot better over time, but only just barely be more than comedic relief. It was great to see Armin Shimmerman do his best to play the new race and of course knowing how he becomes a great character later on, it’s a nice moment for the viewer.
The Gorn in Arena may have had some legit gripe with the Federation even though how they handled it was completely evil. The Firengi here have no such legitimacy. They are thieves, liars, and really have not a single redeeming quality. That the portal would take anything they said seriously for even a moment stretches believability. It’s possible he didn’t and just wanted to test Riker though.
Overall, there’s nothing that makes this episode special or anything, but it is a step in the right direction.
