10 Changes Star Trek Hoped You Wouldn't Notice
2. The Ferengi's Reputation
In the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the writers had hoped to introduce a new villain in the shape of the Ferengi. They would rise to become rivals of the Klingon and Romulan Empires, effectively serving as the new show's gift to the franchise as a whole. However, none of this happened. The writing for the Ferengi fell before they even got a chance to get out of the gate.
In a bizarre move, the writers decided that they would be most effective if they were depicted as hopped-up Gerbils with fangs. The Last Outpost was a misfire in terms of offering the audience a new empire to fear, with Armin Shimerman appearing as one of the first of this new species.
Though they weren't exactly redesigned, they were overhauled as a species. The Battle was one of the last times that they were shown doing anything that was driven by anything other than profit, though even this ends with Daimon Boc stripped of his title. Going forward, they became salesmen, concerned only with the drive for acquiring wealth. They went from an attempt at a frightening species to an endearingly greedy one. Armin Shimerman got to return as Quark, becoming one of the most loveable characters in the franchise, even if he was always trying to get a leg up on the competition!