10 Background Star Trek Actors More Important Than You Think

The beloved voice actor Tom Kenny, famous for portraying SpongeBob SquarePants, appears in the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode Envoys as a Ferengi named Quimp.

Quimp was actually hired by Ensign Mariner to pretend to mug her and Ensign Boimler in an attempt to teach Boimler to stand up for himself. When talking to Mariner in his normal voice after the staged mugging, Quimp acts much like the Ferengi we see in Deep Space Nine; slightly creepy and mischievous, but overall still approachable, however, when putting on his act with Boimler he talks and behaves much more like the original Ferengi we saw in the Next Generation episode The Last Outpost. This was the first appearance of the Ferengi, who were at first incredibly unapproachable and downright evil looking. The Ferengi culture was retconned later in the franchise when it was decided that they would not be main villains to Starfleet but rather in an uneasy alliance.

Tom Kenny does an excellent job portraying both versions of the Ferengi and the inclusion of Quimp's "evil Ferengi" act is a lovely call-back to The Next Generation.