Star Trek: 10 Best Ferengi Episodes

In the lore of Star Trek, humanity changed greatly over the centuries. As human culture evolved, it left the lust for money and power behind, focusing on exploration and growth. Well, for the most part. There are more than a few humans in the future depicted in Star Trek who still love money and power.

But while humanity tried to leave that life behind as they reached for the stars, the Ferengi's greed drove them to space, keeping in mind they had to buy warp technology to do it.

The Ferengi are a race of short, troll like beings who are obsessed with profit. They're entire culture based on it. The Rules of Acquisition, 285 sacred guidelines the Ferengi do business by, are at the core of their culture. In reality, the Rules are not sacred and are really just a centuries old marketing ploy for selling a book. The Ferengi take those rules to heart, though, and use them to help take advantage of everyone they do business with.

In addition to greed, the Ferengi are misogynistic and untrustworthy, though specific members of their species do show more noble traits from time to time. It proves their species can grow and change, too.

While the species pops up on both The Next Generation and Voyager, they are the most prominent on Deep Space Nine due to several main and recurring Ferengi characters. If you want to see the best Ferengi episodes, that's the series you'll end up spending the most time with.

The earliest iterations of the Ferengi on Star Trek seemed less motivated by profit and a little more violent, as evidenced by the time they faced off against the crew of the Enterprise over the last outpost of the Tkon Empire. But the classic Ferengi traits eventually started coming out as time went on.

Daimon Bok, the equivalent of the captain of his Ferengi ship, met the Enterprise with a gift for Captain Picard. It was the USS Stargazer, Picard's old ship. He and the crew were forced to abandon it after a battle with what turned out to be a Ferengi ship. Picard won the battle but had to leave his ship behind. Bok brought the Stargazer back to him to commemorate his victory.

Nothing suspicious about that at all.

At the same time, Picard was suffering from unexplained headaches. It turned out that Bok was using a device to give Picard the headaches, then manipulate him into attacking the Enterprise using the Stargazer. The commander of the ship Picard destroyed nine years earlier was Bok's son and this was all a revenge plot.

Naturally, the crew of the Enterprise figured everything out and saved their captain. The Ferengi crew removed Bok from his command, deeming him unfit for putting a personal vendetta ahead of profit. It was a prime example of the importance of profit to the Ferengi in all things.