
RBDS9 027 – Rules of Acquisition (S2E7)

Rebinging Star Trek DS9: Rules of Acquisition
Hello Star Trek fans! We have arrived at episode 7: Rules of Acquisition. There’s a whole lot of Ferengi going on in this one. Maybe a little bit too much? But we also have Tongo, The X-Files and lobe augmentation to discuss. Thank goodness for some humor here and there because otherwise this episode hits some very low points. Just going to issue a warning here folks….we are pretty hard on the blatant sexism in this episode. You’ve been warned! (I’d like to apologize for how many times I sigh on this recording. -kv)
258 Rules
In this episode, we meet Pel, a Ferengi with a secret who is well-versed in the Rules of Acquisition. Pel is a new waiter at Quark’s but Rom is not impressed. We also get more of the Nagus from season 1 as played by Wallace Shawn and we are introduced to a new race from the Gamma Quadrant called the Dosi. The Dosi are into red face paint and being generally scary. There are some important developments in this episode, but also just some bad bad bad writing. Tune in for our take on rules of Acquisition.
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Please listen to season 1 and some of our favorite episodes like Dramatis Personae and Duet. Or you can also listen to our previous episode Melora.
Next time…
We dive into Season 2 Episode 8 of DS9: Necessary Evil.
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First I want to say that I am not a fan of the furangi way of treating women, I enjoy Quark at times but any time he talks about women I want someone to punch him! This was an episode where it could of had a good lesson but some of the dialogue choices at the end actually set back it’s message I feel. I’m going to venture a guess before I listen and say Kim didn’t like it, but let’s see how she votes! 🙂
I would have skipped commenting on this episode but Kim asked my thoughts so I will revisit it for you. 🙂
The Kira-Dax debate over the furangi was funny but yeah the dialogue is extremely problematic.
I’m with Kim, I think Dax thought Pel was a man until she told her; the only thing you could argue about “Dax is a scientist” is maybe she should notice the lobes were fake but for that point why didn’t Quark so. I remember when I first watched this episode I was wondering if Pel was setting Quark up for something for some reason and then I thought it was interesting they were going to do a queer pairing in the early 90s, well in Quark’s case at least show friendship but then they came out that she was a woman and that was cool because I felt maybe he would learn something which he kind of does but again the writing making them a romance kind of takes away some of what she was working for with comments at the end so it was a rollercoaster of feelings with this you could say. Ha.
“I hate the furangi so much!” – second Kim! 🙂
SO agree James about how limiting half the population is stupid on the furangis part!
“I’m just like ‘I don’t think so!’.” – ha; I love Kim’s anger about this episode. 🙂
*whispers to Kim* I’ll spoil it, there’s more to come and no you probably won’t like it. *normal tone* Sorry James but I couldn’t do that to her. 🙂 I definitely feel there will be groaning in a later season episode; I will say Kim Quark and Rom do change some and thus aren’t as horrible as they start off but the society does suck basically the whole time. Ha. You would not want to be a furangi woman!
I do wish they had either shown or referenced Pel later in the series to show she’s doing great financially to prove her point about how women could do just as well as the men but sadly they never do – this is what I mean by the ending letting me down in terms of how Quark could have grown from this encounter and how she herself kind of betrays her own statement.
Here’s a question – if five bars of lattinum is a good price for deals is Dax officially loaded because she was pulling out a lot of strips from the bowl at the poker game! Ha. The use of lattinum makes no sense to me on the ship because they have replicators so it’s not like they really are want for anything and you could just charge for a holo suite rental or make Quark give you one if you press hard enough so why was it even used on the series really? I can get maybe non Federation groups using it as trade but on the station it’s like why even use it beyond as chips because it seems to have no real value…I never know if Quark is making a huge deal or a normal deal because all deals usually end with some money which excites him so it’s hard to tell why the furangi value it so much. I’ve just never understood the big deal about lattinum in a setting where no currency of any kind is shown exchanged honestly.