Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2.07

Rules of Acquisition

Quark a call from the Grand Nagus while playing cards with Pel (one of his employees), Rom, and Jadzia.

Grand Nagus Zek arrives on Deep Space Nine. He negotiates a deal with Commander Sisko to allow him to hold meetings there. The Geand Nagus also asks Quark to lead the Ferengi negotiations with the Dosi, a group that hails from the Gamma Quadrant. Quark asks Pel, who seems very adept at business, to be by his side during the negotiations.

The Dosi arrive on Deep Space Nine and the negotiations begin. The Dosi are very intimidating and push back on all of Quark’s demands. Quark gets flustered but with some help from Pel he pushes back hard enough to get the Dosi to consider his offer. 

Jadzia has a chat with Pel during which Pel reveals he that is actually a she. Pel swears Jadzia to secrecy about her status and about the fact that she’s in love with Quark

Grand Nagus Zek tries buying Major Kira’s attention with gifts but she’s nit interested in him.

The Dosi abruptly break off negotiations and returned home. Quark and Pel go to the Gamma Quadrant in Zek’s ship to continue the negotiations for Tulaberry vats. Quark makes some headway negotiating with Inhkatu but then he figures out that Grand Nagus Zek is interested in considerably more than Tulaberries.

Pel kisses Quaek. Pel tries to talk to Quark about what happened between them on way back to DS9. They were interrupted by Zyree, another of the Dosi, and nothing else happened between them during the trip. Things get complicated once they get back to the space station. Quark  negotiates a lucrative deal with Zek but later the deal falls apart after Zek learns that Pel is female.

Thoughts

Ferengi society does not allow females to do much of anything. Pel is the first Ferengi female to appear in any Star Trek series. There aren't many other, according to my research.

This episode has a rating of 7.4/10 on IMDb which is middle of the pack for Season 2. The hosts of the Mission Log podcast said that it was not a good episode. I might change my mind on a second viewing but I really like this episode. I love how the different bits of the story were layered together. I assumed that Pel wouldn’t be sticking around but I wasn’t sure where or how her story would end. The humor was a plus, not a minus, in my book. 

Notes

Wallace Shawn made his second appearance (of seven) as Grand Nagus Zek in this episode. He was last seen in 1.10 The Nagus.

Helene Udy played the part of Pel. This is her only appearance in Star Trek. I don't believe I have seen anything else in which she has appeared.

This is the fourth of 17 episodes that David Livingston directed of this show. The first episode of DS9 that he directed was 1.10 The Nagus, which he also wrote. He directed two episodes of The Next Generation, one of which was 4.24 The Mind's Eye. He directed episodes of Voyager and Enterprise and has directed more episodes of Star Trek than anyone else.