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Star Trek DS9 - Season 3 - Episode 16

Star Trek DS9 - 3x16 - Prophet Motive

Originally Aired: 1995-2-20

Synopsis:
When the Ferengi leader suddenly decides to abolish his race's greedy ways, Quark is determined to find out the truth behind his actions. [DVD]

My Rating - 5

Fan Rating Average - 4.79

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 20 5 5 4 8 13 14 12 10 9 5

Filler Quotient: 2, filler, but an enjoyable episode nevertheless. You can skip this one, but you'd miss out on some fun.
- There's no essential plot or exposition in this episode that renders it unskippable, but it's a decent episode, even though it could have been better.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Bashir's negative reaction to being nominated for the Carrington award.
- Zek's revised Rules of Acquisition and Quark and Rom's reaction.
- Bashir and O'Brien getting under each other's skin during the dart game.
- Odo: "I have a friend at Starfleet Intelligence and she has a friend who has a cousin who's married to the assistant of one of the members of the Federation medical council." Bashir: "Really..?" Odo: "And according to my friend, her friend heard something from his cousin that his wife heard from the council member that I thought you might find interesting." Bashir: "Which is?" Odo: "Dr. Wade is not going to win the Carrington." Bashir: "Oh, not you too."
- Odo just "knowing" somehow that Bashir was working on his acceptance speech.
- Rom having embezzled money from the Nagus.
- Rules of Acquisition (revised by Zek); 1. If they want their money back, give it to them. 2. Never (we don't hear the rest) Never (we don't hear the rest) 3. Keep (we don't hear the rest) 4. Profit (we don't hear the rest) 5. A (we don't hear the rest) 6. Good (we don't hear the rest) 7. Smile (we don't hear the rest) 8. Honesty (we don't hear the rest) 10. Greed is dead. 21. Never place profit before friendship. 22. Latinum tarnishes, but family is forever. 23. Money can never replace dignity. 285. A good deed is its own reward.
- Rules of Acquisition (real); 10. Greed is eternal.
- Morn appearances; 1. Behind Zek just after Zek orders everyone a week. 2. In Quark's orb experience.

My Review
Another humorous Ferengi episode. The Prophets have turned Zek into a "more pure" Ferengi by de-evolving him. :) Though I like this episode, nothing particularly groundbreaking actually happens. This is a filler episode. Though a well done filler episode.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Mike on 2016-11-18 at 10:53pm:
    It was interesting to see Quark launch on another passionate defense of his people's ways to those who seem to look down their noses at the Ferengi. In DS9: The Jem'Hadar, he does this with Sisko/humans, pointing out that the Ferengi never engaged in genocide, slavery, or nuclear war. Here, he tries to convince the skeptical, slightly annoyed "Prophets" that there are good reasons for Ferengi avarice.

    Overall the episode was okay. I enjoyed seeing Quark figure out what happened to Zek. And it's always a bit boring to me when Sisko or others interact with the Prophets. Seeing Quark interact with them was a nice change of pace, both funny and intriguing.

    The Bashir award subplot had some funny scenes, especially when Odo takes interest.

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