Armin Shimerman reminds everyone of his disastrous first run as a Ferengi on Star Trek: The Next Generation

Armin Shimerman wants you to know he’s sorry for the early Ferengi on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: The Next Generation had several rules that series and franchise creator Gene Roddenberry wanted to follow. One of which was leaving the past in the past. This meant very little to no Klingons, Romulans, and the like. At least when it came to antagonists. So that meant they needed to create new aliens, and it also meant the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D needed a new main antagonist.

Enter the Ferengi.

The Ferengi were supposed to be the new villain on the block and the idea was that they’d be creepy and scary like movie monsters, more akin to vampires than aliens. They had scary features, sharp staggering teeth, and the idea was that they’d tear you limb from limb.

Fans hated them, so they were made into the weasels of the franchise, more of an annoyance than a threat. One of the early Ferengi was Armin Shimerman, who would go on to Deep Space Nine to play arguably the most famous and most popular Ferengi of all time; Quark.

But before he was Quark, he was Letek, one of the first Ferengi ever seen in the franchise’s history, and he did so on the Next Generation. And yes, Shimerman knows he and the other actors who played the Ferengi did a bad job, and he’s still apologizing for it.

Armin Shimerman still apologizes for the Ferengi in Star Trek: The Next Generation

Speaking on the Shuttlepod Show (via Cinema Blend), hosted by Star Trek: Enterprise stars Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer, Shimerman went full tilt by apologizing for the original portrayal of the Ferengi. He claims to have tried to take them seriously, but obviously, it was a failure.

"I apologize for that first episode. Not the episode, my performance. Letek was the character, the Ferengi’s name was Letek, and it was nothing like what I was told they wanted. I’m the one that screwed up. It’s all my fault. I take responsibility. The Ferengi, originally, were meant to be the new Klingons. We were supposed to be threatening, we were supposed to be a menace to the Federation, we were supposed to be everything that the Klingons were and more. And I had the largest Ferengi part on that episode… I thought I played it seriously, but I failed miserably."

It’s admirable for Shimerman to take responsibility for his role, but the directors and writers could’ve and should’ve intervened. They didn’t, and that’s on them. Shimerman could only do what he was asked of him.

Do you think Shimerman holds any responsibility for his role in the downplaying of the Ferengi as a threat?