So let's get this out of the way first: The show's wonky galactic geography continues to be awful. We're meeting a Ferengi in the Gamma Quadrant. If there was any possibility that this was near Dominion space and the Bajoran wormhole, maybe this wouldn't be so bad. But we know from last episode that we're not far from the Gamma/Delta border.
Other than that, not bad.
We have an episode that focuses on Dal that doesn't involve his hyperinflated ego. The Ferengi in question is Nandi, who was Dal's adoptive "mother". Nandi suckers the Protostar crew into helping her "exchange" metal for crystals on a pre-warp planet. The crystals wind up being necessary for the inhabitants to survive, so Dal has to stop her from getting away with them.
In the fight, Nandi reveals that she sold Dal to the mines instead of "losing" him, and that she used the proceeds to purchase her Companion Cube. Nandi has also swiped all the Protostar's supply of chimerium to power her ship's cloaking device.
Janeway is still trying to piece together what happened to Chakotay. We do get one tidbit of knowledge: Dreadnok was present at the attack.
Janeway also rips the kids some new ones for violating the Prime Directive, which she had explained earlier. Sweet.
Lastly, Nandi finds out the Diviner is offering a reward for info on the Protostar, so the chase is still on.
Other thoughts:
Fun with transporters!
Nandi's a Daimon. Ferengi females have certainly made strides.
While Grey Griffin is Nandi's usual voice, they apparently got Melissa Vilasenor to do Nandi's "sweet old lady" voice when they first meet her.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Not bad. Aside, of course, from the ridiculous geography.
My gut feeling is that Nandi has probably been away from the Ferengi Alliance proper for many years, probably predating Zek’s reforms (which started 6-7 years ago). We don’t know how long Dal was on her ship, but it sounded like years. And we also don’t know how long he was in the mines, but Nandi said she searched “for, uh, years”. It wouldn’t surprise me if she conned her way into control of that Marauder to get off world and started calling herself DaiMon. Plus she’s, y’know, at least 30-thousand light years away from Ferenginar. (The Protostar is too, but I’m pretty sure time travel is the explanation there.)
I knew Nandi was going to turn out to have something bad to reveal about Dal’s past the moment we saw he slept under the warp core.
Nandi’s cloaking device looked exactly like the one Quark and Rom stole off Martok’s ship in DS9.
The Protostar is at least 200 meters long, probably a fair amount more. When playing with the transporter Zero (I think) marveled at beaming stuff that far.
It looks like the text of the Prime Directive is pulled directly from the summary in “Bread and Circuses”, right down to the clipped grammar.
Was anyone actually surprised when we “discovered” that Dreadnok was coming through the door in the holo-recording? I wasn’t. If they want to make it a twist, maybe he wasn’t the one boarding the ship but was already on it as a passenger. (And probably the Diviner too.)
Lastly, I’m *incredibly* disappointed that we didn’t get a single new Rule of Acquisition. They quoted three, but they were all ones that we’d heard before.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Took me until now to finish. Started watching Thursday, but I stopped in the middle after checking on my guinea pig & finding she'd died rather than being asleep. 😢
Don't have much to add but little things. A Marauder that size shouldn't be able to land. Suddenly a Klingcloak needs the new magical substance to work? How have they never encountered transporters before?
Janeway has her mom face down pat. "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed."
I suspect multiple incidences of Murf ex machina in the future.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)