Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 6x23 — Profit and Lace

Aired 1998-05-13

SpaceOpera.com rating:1

Average reader rating:2.98

Synopsis

When Zek's status as the Ferengi Grand Nagus is in jeopardy following his revolutionary ideas about female rights, Quark temporarily changes sexes to prove a point.

Filler rating: not filler

As obnoxious as this episode is, it's essential to the Ferengi arc, as Zek passes a law in this episode allowing Ferengi females to wear clothes.

Remarkable scenes

Odo's reaction to Quark's odd behavior after he was turned back into a man.
Rules of Acquisition; 94. Females and finances don't mix.
Morn Appearances; 1. In the bar after Quark is turned back into a man.

Review

An episode that's so bad that it's embarrassing to watch. The whole thing is an excuse to get Quark in drag. I can't believe Armin Shimmerman agreed to do it. The only thing that makes this episode worth watching is Zek passing a law allowing Ferengi females to wear clothing and earn profit.

6 reader comments

Remarkable scenes:
Maihar'Du and Uri'Lash facing off.
As for the rest of the episode…the less said about it the better.
by JemHadar359 | 05/16/2007 at 8:28 pm

A wonderful set-up. What a shame that it wasn't followed up on. Ferenginar conquered by the Dominion? That would have made for an interesting story, and hopefully would have finally gotten Ishka, Zek and Brunt killed off so that we didn't have to ever see them again, except in reruns. What we get, instead, is not only the worst episode of DS9, not only the worst of Star Trek, not only the worst science fiction episode ever, but the single worst hour of television ever written. An hour that really, truly hurts, in the most physical, literal and direct sense of the term. An hour that, luckily, I shall never, ever have to ever watch ever again, ever. Now, to suppress all memory of this travesty…
by EKH | 07/13/2007 at 8:15 pm

I think most of what needs to be said has already been said. This is a very, very bad episode.
There's one bit that made me laugh. Shimmerman's timing to deliver the final joke is absolutely spot on. Otherwise… what were they thinking???
by Rob Herbert | 08/03/2010 at 8:25 pm

Don’t listen to the critics! This episode was hilarious!
Each rival Nagus has his own tall silent servant.
Rom reveals his feminine side to his disconcerted friends. The look on his wife’s face was priceless.
Sluggo Cola: the slimiest drink in the galaxy.
How the initally annoying feminism of the episode is subverted: Quark persuades the Ferengi to clothe the females because they will become irrationally voracious consumers.
Countless other offensive jokes about gender relations.
by Tallifer | 04/21/2011 at 10:29 pm

I guess I'm in the minority, but I thought this episode was quite entertaining. Now, I do wholeheartedly agree with the critics, that the cross-dressing thing wasn't funny at all. But most of the jokes WERE funny. And as usual, Armin Shimmerman gets 110% out of the script.
Not a masterpiece by any means, but a decent (pardon the pun) episode nevertheless. I would give it a 5.
by OmicronThetaDeltaPhi | 06/30/2014 at 12:49 am

I think this was a decent idea for an episode, but the execution was awful. Every now and then the humor worked -- the main example being Rom teaching Quark how to be female -- but most of it missed the mark big time. The Nog gag where he was running around the hallways made no sense. Why was he having such a hard time following a guy who was walking? And why would a Starfleet cadet be so out of shape? And even if you ignore that stuff, it just wasn't funny.
They hardly even worked the obvious "Quark learns how hard it is to be a persecuted Ferengi female" angle. They sort of hit on that at the end, but again, it was done really poorly.
by tigertooth | 02/27/2018 at 4:11 am