“The Last Outpost” is episode five of season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Enterprise is in pursuit of a Ferengi starship in order to recover an energy converter the Ferengi stole from an unmanned monitoring post. This could be their long-awaited opportunity for close contact with a Ferengi vessel – the Ferengi were mentioned in “Encounter at Farpoint: Part 2”. Discounting rumour, almost nothing is known about the Ferengi.
The Ferengi ship drops out of warp into an unexplored star system, possibly through an engine malfunction. Ferengi technology is said by Data to be generally equal to that of the Federation. There’s a power surge on the Ferengi ship, then they open fire and the Enterprise‘s own impulse engines surge.
Captain Picard orders the Enterprise to pull back, rather than open fire. The Ferengi ship slows and turns around. Then it starts getting closer; the Enterprise is being dragged forward. According to Tasha, readings are confused. Power systems are failing and something has immobilised them. There is no power to fire the weapons and no response from engineering when the captain tries to contact it. He dispatches Geordi to find out what’s wrong. Troi is sensing nothing from the Ferengi, but that could mean they can shield their thoughts and emotions.
When asked what is known about the Ferengi that isn’t contradictory, Data says the best description is that they are traders. Like the Yankee traders of the 18th and 19th centuries. They embody the worst qualities of capitalists, following the principle of caveat emptor – let the buyer beware. Picard sends Riker to engineering as well, because there is still no response. The worry is that the Ferengi weapons are vastly superior to theirs.
In engineering, Geordi explains the situation to Riker. Which gives the latter an idea; to shut down then boost to warp 9. He returns to the bridge and explains what they are planning to do, then Geordi returns as well. The captain first hails the Ferengi, demanding the return of the converter, then they attempt Riker’s suggestion. Which doesn’t work. Data says that someone is reading the Enterprise‘s memory banks. Counselor Troi states that, concentrating on the Ferengi, they haven’t considered the planet.
Captain Picard calls a conference of the senior staff for options. Tasha suggests attacking and Worf agrees. Picard thinks this is impractical and provocative. Troi suggests talking to them. In a different way. So, the captain does contact the Ferengi to discuss terms to resolve the situation.
The Ferengi ship starts moving again and the Enterprise is losing power to its shields. Captain Picard still doesn’t want to open fire. Daimon Tarr of the Ferengi vessel finally starts communicating in order to discuss terms of surrender. The surrender of the Ferengi. That was not expected. They realise that the Ferengi are in the same predicament as they are and Picard orders Geordi to send out a sensor probe. He then bluffs Tarr into opening visual communications with the Enterprise.
The captain, Data, Riker and Geordi then head to the conference room; Riker shooing out some kids who were playing there. Data starts fiddling with a Chinese finger trap they left behind as he starts talking about the planet. There’s no indication of lifeforms, but records indicate that it was part of the Tkon Empire, which had a population of trillions but has been extinct for 600,000 years. Then gets his fingers stuck.
The planet was one of the outposts of the empire – the captain frees Data – and the empire was advanced and highly powerful, capable of moving stars. Tasha contacts them; the probe is sending readings back. Both the Enterprise and the Ferengi ship are being affected by the planet. The Tkon Empire was destroyed when their sun went supernova (if they could move stars, why didn’t they move that one?) and there are no lifeform readings from the planet. Captain Picard suggests that they contact the Ferengi and have both sides beam down an away team.
The Ferengi were originally meant to be the primary villains of the series. Unfortunately, their portrayal was so daft that never happened. Notably, Armin Shimerman, who would later play the role of Quark in Deep Space Nine – in a far superior way to the Ferengi portrayal in this episode – plays one of the Ferengi away team.