DS9 - Profit and Lace

Deep Space Nine’s 6th season had some of the best episodes of Trek ever produced, but this is definitely not one of them. In fact Profit and Lace was the worst episode of the season. During DS9’s 6th and 7th seasons most of the episodes centered on the Dominion war, dealing with either the horrors of war, such as in the Siege of AR- 558 or with other serious issues related to that war. During this period of DS9, Ferengi episodes were used a comic relief form the more serious stories being told in other episodes at the time. When done well these Ferengi episodes can actually be quite entertaining, such as The Magnificent Ferengi. Profit And Lace was intended to be a comical story, but ends up being pure farce, almost painful to watch. This episode is too melodramatic, and the whole thing about Quark having to “be” a female. Instead of being funny, it is, quite frankly, stupid. It is not accurate to say that this episode has problems; rather, it is better to say that the entire episode is a problem. The entire premise of the plot is based on the false assumption that that story line is funny, when the exact opposite is true, thus this episode displays levels of sheer idiocy never before, or since, seen in a Star Trek episode.