S03.E23: Family Business

[HalcyonDays]

Quark returns to his home planet to confront his mother after hearing from the Ferengi Commerce Authority that she broke the law by earning profit.

 

[Maverick]

 Another Ferengi-centric episode.  Now with more Ferengi nonsense since they're on Ferenginar.   The Ferengi appearance doesn't generally bug me, but Ishka totally creeped me out.  The only bright spot in this is meeting Kassidy Yates for the first time.  

[John Potts]

I skipped this episode on re watch, but it does create, if not quite a plot hole, a puzzle: Moogie was supposedly the brains of the family that kept the family in profits when Quark & Rom were kids - so why at the end of the Series

Spoiler

does she introduce socialism? Equal rights, sure, but she seemed to WANT to prove that "Females can earn just as much profit as males!". As I've said before - Eddington was RIGHT, the Federation wants to assimilate all other cultures until they are all like them, just like the Borg, they just don't admit it.

[legaleagle53]

Are you using "series" in the British or the American sense of the word?  Because at the end of the series in the American sense of the word (i.e., the show's entire seven-year run), 

Spoiler

Rom becomes Nagus and promptly makes Ferenginar a democracy, much to Quark's horror.  That's a very different political set-up than Socialism.

[John Potts]

6 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Are you using "series" in the British or the American sense of the word?

I did mean it in the American sense:

Spoiler

He doesn't just make it a democracy, he introduces a whole raft of welfare reforms which require - The Horror! - taxes to pay for them. That sounds pretty socialist to me (Goddam communist to some Americans!). It would have been more "realistic" for him to build on Zek (Moogie's) reforms by going "If women have money, you have more people to sell to!" - which would give you political reform without changing everything that made the Ferengi distinct from the Feds. Moogie seemed to be as much a believer in the Rules of Acquisition as Quark was, she just didn't like Ferengi society's views on females, which is why it's odd that she would have encouraged changes that made it less based on the Rules of Acquisition.

Edited March 24, 2017 by John Potts

[SVNBob]

19 hours ago, John Potts said:

Spoiler

He doesn't just make it a democracy, he introduces a whole raft of welfare reforms which require - The Horror! - taxes to pay for them.

 

Spoiler

I just watched the penultimate episode in question.  Rom didn't introduce those reforms and taxes.  Zek did.  Then he retired, naming Rom, the Ferengi most likely to keep those changes in place and build on them, his successor.

[rmontro]

I hated when TNG had Ferengi episodes, I couldn't stand them.  But I have to admit Quark is one of my favorite characters.  He's dishonest and mostly motivated by profit, but underneath he has a sense of honor and decency.  I like the Ferengi clothes also - very colorful and detailed, like they were meant to show off the wealth of the person wearing them.  Which of course, makes perfect Ferengi sense.

Overall just a decent episode though.  The mother getting naked was kind of funny and repulsive at the same time.  Rom's adoration of his "Moogie" was kind of cute.