Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Rules of Acquisition (1993) User Reviews

Entertaining...but perhaps an opportunity missed.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 18 December 2014]

While the episodes featuring the Ferengi were meant as comic relief, this one is a bit deeper--with a nice message about gender equality. When the show begins, Quark has a very efficient new assistant, Pel. Pel is invaluable to Quark--especially during his dealings with the Grand Nagus (Wallace Shawn) and the Dosi, a race from the Gamma Quadrant. However, no one knows that Pel is actually a woman--a woman who cleverly disguises herself as a man because unlike the usual docile and naked Ferengi women, she loves business and profit.

This episode is important because you hear the first mention of the Dominion--a race that will become SUPER-important in future episodes. However, this sense of continuity you do not find with Pel. She is a very interesting new character and like most, you never hear of her again after the episode is complete. It's a shame, as I would have liked to see more of this gender-bending lady. This is the fate of many great new characters on the show, such Melora from the previous episode!

A Ferengi Feminist

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 9 March 2010]

The Ferengis are renowned for their business acumen but only the men are allowed to engage in business, feminism clearly never took off on Ferenginar as their women are expected to stay at home and aren't even allowed to wear clothes... because of this Quark doesn't suspect for a second that Pel, his new business savvy waiter, isn't the man he appears to be. When the Grand Nagus turns up and asks Quark to lead a deal with a group of aliens from the Gamma Quadrant Quark invites Pel to assist him. It appears that the deal has collapsed but Pel suggests following the aliens back to the Gamma Quadrant so show just how keen they are to make a deal. While they are away Quark's brother Rom discovers Pel's secret and he intends to use this information to get rid of his brother's new favourite.

As is usual with Ferengi dominated episodes there were plenty of fairly humorous moments some of which were funnier than others. This episode is notable for being the first where The Dominion is mentioned; the Gamma Quadrant power which will dominate later series of Deep Space Nine. Helene Udy did a good job as Pel, until the reveal scene is wasn't obvious that she was female.

The tenacity of Ferengi ---

[thevacinstaller · 7/10 · 16 March 2020]

Like Jadzia ---- I enjoy the ferengi. They are so delightfully spoiled by profit and torn with pesky moments of morality. I also enjoy how the DS9 writers create smart characters. I had no idea that this was a Zeke ploy to discover the true power in the Gamma Quadrant ---- I guess those lobes are not just for show.

I enjoyed the character of Pel. She is a bit of trailblazer here and is the first seed of doubt that sprouts in Quarks consciousness about Ferengi society. I admire the pair of .... lobes?.... on Quark when he tipped over the wine in the Gamma Quadrant as the guy he was talking business with looked exactly like a 6'4 bif from back to the future! The physical comedy scene of Quark being told that Pel is a woman cracked me up. A nice little final cap to the episode was Jadzia seeing thru Quarks jokes as a cover for a real sense of loss.

There is good stuff here.

She's the Better Man!

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 30 September 2018]

I understand what was going on here. In the Second Season, many of the episodes have social justice efforts. Here it's about a Ferengi woman who dresses up as a man and leads Quark's efforts to acquire great wealth. The problem is that no one knows she is a woman. She is masterful, but has no chance in the male dominated world. My problem is that I am bored to death with the Ferengi and their Rules of Acquisition. Also, Quark is a pariah on the station, not because of his avarice but because of his involvement with evil consorts.

First Contact With The Dominion

[Nominahorn · 7/10 · 19 February 2021]

2.07 "Rules of Acquisition"

Grand Nagus Zek gives Quark the task of negotiating a trade deal with a Gamma Quadrant race. A new waiter hired at Quark's bar turns out to be very business savvy and helps Quark with the negotiations. But nothing is as it seems, with Zek appearing to sabotage the negotiations he requested, and Quark's assistant's true nature violating many of the Ferengi's most sacred taboos.

This is a good episode that gets a boost from its immense importance in the DS9 saga. For the first time in the show, we hear the name "Dominion." This is effectively first contact with the Gamma Quadrant superpower that will become central to DS9's story over the next 5+ seasons. It says a lot about the Ferengi's importance on the show--not as mere comedy relief but as significant dramatic players--that it is they, not the Federation, that initiates that first contact.

This is one in a long list of episodes where Quark is trapped between his desire to honor traditional Ferengi values and pressure from the people on DS9 for him to abide by Federation ethics. Dax plays a big part in this, as he is in love with her and she accepts him for the way he is (which is also true love even if it's not romantic), and yet she is constantly influencing him to act according to Federation ethics even if it violates his own values.

This leads to a very intriguing issue of subjective versus objective morality. In the ep "In The Hands Of The Prophets," Sisko says that his philosophy is that there is room for all philosophies, and this seems to generally sum up the Federation's subjectivist worldview. And yet, throughout the series we see that Sisko and the rest of the crew of the DS9 don't actually live up to that nonsensical philosophy. There are several times during the show's run where Quark goes "too far" by their standards and they punish him for it, even though the things he does are right according to Ferengi ethics. Why do they do this? Because subjectivism is a completely incoherent worldview. If anybody is allowed to justify any action as being "right," then there is no order, only chaos. Sisko and the rest of the Federation claim to be all about tolerance, but they aren't tolerant of the Ferengi because the Ferengi's values are twisted and wrong and they know that. Hence we see that subjectivism (and all of its other fallacious philosophies that it spawns, like total tolerance) is an impossible worldview to hold. There must be objective right and wrong. Some philosophies are inherently inferior to others based on objective morality. Starfleet officers know this on some level, but their words often contradict their actions and show how the political correctness influencing Hollywood writing (dating all the way back to Roddenberry's own secular humanist worldview) causes characters to say and do things that are nonsensical and self-contradictory.

THE GOOD

-Wallace Shawn!

-I feel like this is the first episode where we see the "real" Dax. She comes alive and really seems like somebody with the perspective of 300 years of living. Plus she is just a lot of fun. This is the Dax we know and love.

-Tight story with some good misdirection. And although it's starting to become more and more routine on the show now, going through the wormhole to a strange new planet is still a welcome event.

THE BAD

-I don't understand why the big red dude doesn't just come out and say he doesn't have that much wine to sell. It's a silly thing meant to draw out the suspense but really just makes no sense.

THE UGLY

-Rules of Acquisition quoted. Shockingly, this is by far the most entries for this section of any episode in the show. It includes the following: 21st - "Never place friendship above profit." 22nd - "A wise man can hear profit in the wind." 33rd - "It never hurts to suck up to the boss." 48th - "The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife." 59th - "Free advice is seldom cheap." 62nd - "The riskier the road, the greater the profit." 103rd "Sleep can interfere-" (gets cut off in the middle). This brings the total number of rules quoted up to 13; 14 if you include the half-quoted 103rd.

The Nagus comes to Deep Space 9

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 25 November 2019]

Wallace Shawn is always welcome for me on DS9 as the Grand Nagus of Ferengar, head of state and chief interpreter of the Rules of Acquisition by which their materialistic and male dominant society live by.

You've heard the phrase, 'barefoot, pregnant, naked, and in the kitchen'. It's how Ferengi women are supposed to be. They never go out. Moslem women under the Taliban had it better.

Helene Udy is a Ferengi woman in male drag who is working at Quark's establishment and she/he proves invaluable to Armin Shimmerman. Udy is also in love with the big lobe galoot.

Shawn and Shimmerman are working on a big deal and Udy proves to be a big help. But if she is unmasked, the foundations of Ferengi society could crumble.

This one is an amusing story about Ferengi male chauvinism.

Enjoyable Quark episode

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 4 February 2022]

Quark attempts to broker an important deal for the Negus.

This is a fairly good Ferengi episode with a strong central performance from Armin Shimerman and brief eye on what is to come from the Gamma Quadrant. It has a similar premise to the great Blackadder's episode 'Bells', but applied to a very different situation.

I think you need an interest in the Ferengi stories to really enjoy it, but nevertheless it does a good job of portraying the gender oppression and how fanatically the traditions are upheld within the culture. It also shows the hypocrisy of it all in full swing.

Shimerman does a great job of leading an episode with an entertaining and charismatic performance. Guest star Helene Udy is even better as Pel.

I think they should have waited longer before revealing the truth about Pel, as it might have come as a decent twist if it had been written in the right way.

Is The Ferengi Male-Dominated Society Really All That Bad?

[dand1010 · 4/10 · 31 August 2021]

1 SENTENCE PLOT SYNOPSIS: Quark gets romantic, woos two women, breaks up a party by tipping over a table, pursues profit in the Gamma Quadrant, is the first from DS9 to hear about "The Dominion" and does it all in a 49 minute episode!

VIEWERS TAKE NOTICE: *Every time I hear the Grand Nagus (Wallace Shawn) speak with his distinctive voice, I immediately think of the movie, "Princess Bride" and his many one line zingers & cackle laughter in that film.

*Other reviewers have tried to assert a LGBT agenda with the secret love desire the hidden Ferengi female (posing as a man) feels for Quark. I don't see it as clearly and, in any case, it is certainly not blatant. Hidden sexual identity is a frequent plot twist and other Star Trek series have used it.

*Doesn't Pel (disguised Ferengi female) remind you of Winnie The Pooh's friend, Piglet?

* One of the most interesting aspects of this episode is the fixation Dax has toward Ferengi culture and lifestyle. Major Kira is flabbergasted as Dax shares her near admiration of all things Ferengi. Dax is the only non-Ferengi (and only non-male) at the table playing a high stakes card game on at least 2 separate nights and when she tells Kira how Quark had wooed her into a date in a private holo-suite replication of Dax's personal bedroom, Kira is appalled. How could any advanced, space-age society (or person such as Dax) find anything redeeming in the way the Ferengi men isolate and abuse the females in their culture? It is revealed the Ferengi male-dominated society do not ALLOW their women to wear clothing, taking business advice from a female is a serious prison-inducing offense and other interesting misogynistic factoids. The Grand Nagus actually pinches/grabs Kira on her butt as she walks by him at one point. Huh? What is going on in the future for goodness sake?

*Speaking of grabbing and fondling....popular Quark's bar patron "Morn" (anagram for Norm from the popular NBC series, "Cheers") is seated at a table in the background when Odo and Rom (Quark's brother) have a brief conversation (27:00). It's hard to tell, exactly, but Morn is with either a Bajoran or human female. Take a look at all of the grabbing, pawing, pulling and familiarity going on in extra-ville. And that is in front of the camera - what in the world was going on behind the scenes?!? What a randy set DS9 maintained! Lol.

*At 33:35 the writers use the word "Dominion" to describe THE super power in the Gamma quadrant and THE group which would dramatically affect the entire rest of the run of the series and 5 further seasons. The whole thing was introduced by a woman from the Dosi race speaking to a Ferengi (Quark).

WAS THE GALAXY, DS9 or A PERSON AT RISK & NEEDED SAVING?

Unbelievable.....but NO ONE was in peril & needed saving! Mark this one down!!

WHAT DID YOU THINK??? FINAL THOUGHTS....... Hmmm. This Quark-centric episode had many relevatory moments. Those back-stabbing, Blood Flea Grub-eating, misogynistic women-hating, obsessed with profit above all things Ferengi men are central to the continuation of plot developments around the wormhole and in the Gamma Quadrant for the next 5 seasons! Can you handle it? I wonder if there was a Women's Rights or Me Too organizations on the Ferengi home world? If not, one of you ladies should advocate for it!

Completely Boring !

[Filmreader · 1/10 · 11 April 2020]

Completely boring ! One of the most boring episodes of any Star Trek TV series ever ! And I start to doubt for the reliability of the other reviews here that gave high ratings !