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This week on the mighty GLoP podcast, we once again throw pre-agreed topics to the curb and let the Big Brains (that’s really what they make us call them) take the show where they will. So, we cover the infamous history of Rob’s NYC neighborhood, The Watchmen and The Man in The High Castle, whether or not The Irishman is trash or treasure, and are the Ferengis (characters on Star Trek: Voyager for you non-nerds) members of the Chosen People? A GLoP investigation. Finally, fair warning: we do some Rank Punditry® on impeachment and some of you may be get triggered by what you hear. We apologize in advance to those that don't want to hear politics, and urge you to use your fast forward button the the last five minutes where we discuss Christmas vs. Hanukkah (or is it Chanukah?) and then do stick around for an outtake or two after the closing song.
John Podhoretz
Jonah Goldberg
Rob Long
Discussion (94)
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Error! The Ferengi were mostly seen on Deep Space 9, although introduced on Next Generation. They only made one appearance on Voyager. (And one on Enterprise for those keeping score at home. )
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When the Ferengis were introduced on ST:TNG in Season 1, the idea was with the Klingons now part of the Federation, the Ferengis would join the Romulans as the new alternating bad guys in the series. That .... didn't quite work out as planned, and the more they were brought back, the less they were used as a threat and the more they were as a source of comedy, to the point by DS9 the Ferengi were to the Federation about what the Hakawis were to the soldiers at Fort Courage in "F-Troop" (and TNG eventually would develop a much better alternative danger with The Borg).
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My deepest apologies for the error, but take comfort in the fact that I will be hearing about this mistake from Goldberg and Lileks until the end of time.
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I never really got the Ferengi as being antisemitic. I thought they where meant to be anti-founding fathers. The method to ridicule libertarian economics in general, as ST:NG was peak socialism in star trek.
On the topic of "Fan Service" I was hoping the topic of real Hollywood fan service would come up, in the form of making movies from books. I would assume that when a studio buys the rights to a book, they're buying a fan base for their movie. That movie should be about pleasing the book's readers and providing a reasonable interpretation of the book. So how does something like "Chaos Walking, Catch a Falling Knife" happen? Where the first cut of the movie is so bad, the studio will re-shoot most of the movie and delay its release a year...
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Yeah, sniveling little guys with neon whips wasn't as menacing as they thought. The great thing about the Ferengi - actually a Persian word that meant "foreigners," the term for Europeans - was this: capitalists are fun, dramatically. Aside from the broad parodic character Wally Shawn played, the Ds9 Ferengi were interesting characters. Quark was a great cynical counterweight, and his relationship with the town's lawman was one of Trek's best pairings.
And RIP Odo.
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