Speaking of Star Trek. I noticed that the Clingons are far and away the most popular alien species on the series. There are Clignon dictionaries and there are people who speak fluent Clignon. As far as I am concerned, they are a bunch or humourless, agressive, brutish and warlike boors. They bore me to death with their talk of honour and duty.
Now, you may think me strange, but the ones I really like are the Ferengi! I think there is something definitely likeable about Quark. He may be mercenary and materialistic, but at least he is totally honest and up-front about it.
Am I the only one who likes Ferengis, or are there other closet Ferengi-lovers out there?
The Ferengi were pretty unlikeable until Quark came on the scene. In TNG they were pretty much sniveling opportunists with no redeeming social qualities whatsoever. Quark is a charming sniviling opportunist.
Except for the first encounter. Mini Klingons with plasma slings! 
Clingons!?
You doing that to us on purpose? 
Trek always had a problem with portraying aliens, a problem that many sci-fi/fant writers fall in to. Namely, making the entire race exhibit one major trait.
Klingons? Fighty bastards.
Vulcuns? Brainy bastards.
Romulans? Sneaky bastards.
Ferengi? Greedy bastards.
Bajorans? Boring bastards.
And so on.
In Enterprise, they actually finally made a pretty good show of one particular blue skinned race, showing several different traits in different people, even giving one Andorian a fairly complete complement of personality traits all by his lonesomeness.
:dubious:
:smack:
;j <----- spider headed guy from The Thing
Crap. My 3rd post already?
:: le sigh ::
In answer to what the OP actually asked: I really like Quark. Other Ferengi? Bleah to meh.
You’re not the only one! I love the Ferengi; indeed, I have role-played Ferengi in online RPGs and enjoyed it immensely. 
The Ferengi did not truly come to the fore until ST:DS9; the inclusion of the Quark and Rom characters led to several story lines about the Ferengi. If you’re really interested, there is a ST novel, from the “Worlds of the Federation” series; the Ferengi are paired with the Dominion. There are two stories in the novel–the first is about the Ferengi and the second about the Dominion. It’s a very good story, imho, although to be honest, it is NOT considered canon ST. I think the author did a really good job of going into detail about the Ferengi, though, and aspects of their society.
They suffer from RHMS (Rubber Halloween Mask Syndrome). Most of the aliens in the original series were more convincing than the Ferengi.
And I include the Gorn in that statement!
I’d say that this is one of the strengths of the show, not a flaw. Indeed I’d argue that the idea of having aliens as archtypes of various human characteristics is the reason the first two series were so well liked.
I guess I’m kind of on the border here as to whether it’s a true flaw or not. EEB did the same thing in his Barsoom stories and sometimes it made for an easy tool to further the story along, and other times seems like a lazy way out to ID a villian (not to mention the casual racism some see in it).
So, if even a good writer can be hit or miss with such a writing device, it’s easy to see why some of the lesser eps of different Treks might give me a cause to pause.
ERB, not EEB.
I’m missing some fingers today.
Apparantly.
I too liked the Ferengi. I agree that Quark on DS9 made them a going concern, but there were other major characters like the Grand Nagus, Brunt and of course, Moogie. “Mother! You’re wearing…clothes!”
My favorite scene: Quark and I believe Rom are stealing a cloaking device. They are stopped by someone and lean against the invisible CD while speaking to them.
The Ferengi comedy episodes of DS9 are some of my favorite. Come on, Iggy Pop is in an episode.
Thanx for your comments. But when you get right down to it, what I really liked about the Ferengi was the fact that they made no pretense to NOT being greedy, acquisitive bastards. They were up front about it. They had made acquisition a national religion with their “Rules of Acquisition”. The one I loved best is “Never give them their money back”.
Think how much more refreshing it would be if mulktinational corporations, instead of insulting our intelligence with patronizing ads about how they plant trees and dig fresh water wells for little coloured children, were to be up front and tell us that they exist to acquire material goods and profits. Surely we would like them better, not less.
My favorite was one I creted for some list somewhere:
“Blood is thicker than water, and latinum is thicker than either.”
I liked the Ferengi more and more as time went on. They started out on TNG as annoying and whiny, not at all the worthy and fearsome foes they were originally intended to be. But in DS9, the Ferengi hit their stride, and some of the comedy episodes explored their potential fully.
The Ferengi? You mean the Jews from outer space?
My wife teaches business law, and while DS9 was on, she had fun comparing and contrasting the UCC with the FROA.
It was wierd for a while when the same actor was Quark and Principal Snyder on 2 shows running at the same time.
Many people don’t know that Ferengis are real and among us.
…And they’re great clutch shooters.
A Ferengi