Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Quark
3. Armin Shimerman Hated The Last Outpost
In the development process of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Ferengi were created as the main villain species for the series, something like the Klingons or the Romulans were for The Original Series.
Their debut appearance came in the fifth episode of season one, titled The Last Outpost, and it ended up being a total disaster. The Ferengi came across as too comical and gimmicky to ever be considered a real threat to the Federation, and the idea of them being the main foes was subsequently dropped.
Thankfully, that was not the last we heard from the Ferengi. They would have further fourteen appearances in TNG, in which the writers were slowly changing their characteristics in order to make them a more serious civilisation, but it wasn't until Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that they would truly get their chance to shine.
Armin Shimerman, who appeared in The Last Outpost, was so disappointed with the script and his own performances that he made it his personal mission to right this wrong by portraying Quark as a much more nuanced and layered character.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Shimerman's performance as Quark, along with the DS9 writers, saved the Ferengi race from being the joke of the Star Trek universe.