Star Trek: 10 Best Nog Episodes, Ranked

This week, Trekkies lost a true inspiration. Aron Eisenberg, the actor who played everyone's favorite first Ferengi in Starfleet, Nog, passed away after being rushed to the hospital. Eisenberg is a Star Trek legend for more reasons than being DS9's youngest Ferengi, though. He also played a young Kazon boy in Voyager and has been a beloved Trekkie panel member for years. Fans really fell in love with him as an actor and human.

In the wake of this terrible loss, we wanted to look back on the best episodes of his history-making main character. Nog and Eisenberg won fans' hearts, so let's remind ourselves about all the reasons why.

Here are the 10 Best Nog Episodes, Ranked.

10 "Empok Nor"

Nog is no hero in this episode (actually, he's more of a hostage). However, this is one of the first times that fans got to see his Starfleet uniform in action. Despite being such a rebellious kid, he'd really grown into the uniform. The rigor and order of Starfleet Academy focused all of Nog's energy towards creating and fixing things. It was adorable to see him admire Chief O'Brien so much, even if it was in quite a hectic, violent situation.

Fans are just happy Nog, O'Brien, and Garak made it out of that tough situation okay.

9 "Valiant"

While this is a great Nog episode, it's not an episode where Nog is the greatest guy. All throughout his time at Starfleet Academy, Nog was dazzled by Red Squad ad their special privileges. Seeing them out in the wild, running their own ship, all sense went out the airlock. Instead, all he could see was the glory of being the young heroes of the Dominion War.

Nog may have lost himself in Red Squad's ideology, but their feats were magnificent. The young cadets managed to keep a Starfleet vessel alive in Dominion space for months. Downside is that, although they are all brilliant cadets, their blind, youthful heroism ended in disaster. At least Nog survived and learned a valuable lesson about leadership.

8 "Progress"

Young Jake and Nog were quite the impressive pair, pulling off amazing hijinks. Few achievements are as profitable as the Noh-Jay Consortium. Flexing his young entrepreneurial skills, Nog convinced Quark to give him all of the excess Yamok sauce he bought, since Quark planned to get rid of it. One thing led to another and Jake and Nog ended up the owners of a parcel of land that the Bajoran government wanted.

They traded it to Quark for five bars of gold latinum, all that they wanted in the first place. Nog proved his young enterprising mettle, even if it came with one long string of crazy trades.

7 "The Visitor"

Even though Nog doesn't appear in most of the episode, "The Visitor" is a great highlight for the character. While Jake spends his time writing and searching for his dad, Nog climbs the Starfleet ranks and eventually becomes a captain in his own right. For the first Ferengi in Starfleet, that's an amazing and progressive career. Moreover, the fact his friendship with Jake ends up being a lifelong one is so endearing and indicative of their bond.

While this future didn't stick, it's still great to see Nog in succeed in his own way, no one else's.

6 "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang"

For most of Star Trek: DS9, both Jake and Nog are relegated to kid roles or young proteges of the older characters. In this episode, however, is where Nog gets to shine as an equal member of the DS9 crew. In their heist to help Vic take back the bar, he gets to play an important role of cracking the safe.

After all this time,  it's really nice to see Nog treated like a grown-up member of the crew. While it was fantastic to watch him grow up into a driven young engineer, seeing his dreams really start coming to fruition is heartwarming for any fan.

5 "Treachery, Faith, And The Great River"

It took until DS9 to get any real positive Ferengi representation, and even fewer put their powers of trade in a good light. Nog gave fans a peak example of how useful a good businessman can be in Starfleet when he makes O'Brien's impossible promise to Captain Sisko come true. Sure, it may have taken quite a few trades, but in the end they got the equipment that The Defiant needed.

Nog did probably give O'Brien a heart attack in the process. At least he got Sisko's desk back and gave General Martok better blood wine than his wife sent him.

4 "The Jem'Hadar"

One of the best parts of DS9 is the great, unique friendship between Jake and Nog. Few episodes demonstrate that better than "The Jem'Hadar'. In the face of danger, Jake and Nog worked together and used their respective skills to help save their family. While Nog always seemed like a troublemaker before this, his problem-solving really showed fans the first glimpse into the Ferengi that would one day be Ensign Nog.

Even if Ferengi aren't known to have the lobes for heroism and bravery, Nog certainly showed, when trying to circumnavigate the Jem'Hadar, that he did.

3 "The Magnificent Ferengi"

The series spends a lot of time showing how Nog is constantly growing as an engineer, supporting his father and Chief O'Brien. However, his shining moment of personal engineering triumph happens in "The Magnificent Ferengi", where a group of Ferengi band together to save Ishka, Quark and Rom's mother. Not only is the only one training them to use weapons, but he's the one who saves the group in the end.

When they realize their hostage, Kaveen, has passed on, Nog is the only one who figures out how to animate his body just enough to trick the Jem'Hadar so they can leave safely. Remote controlling an entire body to walk is no small feat. This episode was a true testament to Nog's capabilities.

2 "Heart Of Stone"

Throughout the early seasons of DS9, both Jake and Nog seemed a little aimless with their goals. Nog liked the normal Ferengi tricks, but didn't seem to agree with them completely, like his father. Similarly, Jake loved his dad but didn't seem all that excited about the prospect of Starfleet Academy. Jake eventually embraces his love of writing, but Nog still seemed lost.

That is, until "Heart of Stone". This episode encompassed Nog embracing his own life and dreams. With intense determination and serious drive, Nog showed Sisko and himself how badly he wanted to put his skills to good use. If he can impress Sisko, Nog is quite the Ferengi.

1 "It's Only A Paper Moon"

The Dominion War was hard on everyone, but Nog particularly struggled with it. Active combat led to the loss of his leg, and all that young excitement for combat and success went out the window. Everything he wanted out of Starfleet, being a force for good, now caused so much destruction in his own life.

Watching Nog deal with his conflicted feelings and trauma about the war and Starfleet was powerful and inspiring. Star Trek did a respectful job of exploring what would happen to his character after such loss, and fans couldn't be happier that he only came out stronger.

Source: screenrant.com