The Battle (Season 1 - Episode 9) Star Trek TNG

Commander's Logs - Earth Date...May 19th...year 2009.

Feel free to watch the trailer for this episode if you want a little refresher!



In this episode we also find out that the USS Stargazer was the first ship that Picard was ever captain. It comes up many times later in the series and it's nice to know the reference!

It's also the second time we see the Ferengi in this series. And this time their not such bumbling idiots. When we saw them in "The Last Outpost" they were monkey-like - frolicking around crouched/hunched and constantly breathing heavily. This time they seemed "normal" or at least as normal as Ferengi can be!

I'll be honest. I don't particularly like the Ferengi - but I think that's the point! I think Gene Roddenberry meant for some of these alien races to be difficult to like. It's always the races that have intolerance for for other species, are bigoted, aren't willing to grow, or races that undermine the equality of men and women! Ferengi for instance...don't cloth "their" women! Women have no power in the Ferengi world. Ferengi are also very very greedy! So between those two traits it's hard to like them much.

[funny - random note: "Farangi" or "Firang" are terms for foreigners (sometimes derogatory) in Farsi/Persian Language...this humors me because I am half Persian myself - but I was not raised in Iran which means that if ever I went there I may very well be telling people that I am Farangi, "Man Farangi Hastam" - Luckily for me, in Irani woman MUST wear cloths - beyond comfort infact!! Nevertheless, I still feel a little dirty being associated with the Ferengi in any way!]

All that being said, this episode is actually quite interesting because even though I still don't particularly like the Ferengi, Gene finds a way to bring out some of the 'humanity' in these creatures. Because Daimon Bok (the captain of the Ferengi vessel they encounter) is heartbroken about the loss of his son in a battle that Picard lead against a Ferengi ship when he was captain of the Stargazer. This may be one of only a few times that we actually see some 'humanity' from the Ferengi until DS9.

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Wikipedia summary of the episode!
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