Director Richard Colla felt that the episode had problems which were only identified after shooting was completed. Riker's notion of sending Chinese finger traps to the Ferengi vessel at the end of the episode was a reference to The Original Series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" where Chief Engineer Scott beams over a shipload of tribbles to a Klingon ship. Wil Wheaton later recalled that the cast was unhappy with the episode as they didn't like several aspects of it including the fingercuffs joke and the Ferengi in general. The episode also featured the first occasion that Geordi La Forge gave a report to the bridge from the engineering section. The producers liked this image so much that from season two onward the character became the Chief Engineer. The guest stars in this episode re-appeared in different roles later in the series. Both Tracey Walter and Mike Gomez re-appeared as other Ferengi in the sixth season episode "Rascals". This was the second recorded performance of Armin Shimerman in a TNG episode, although the first to be broadcast. He has gone uncredited in a previously filmed role as the face of a Betazoid gift box in "Haven". He made a further appearance as a different Ferengi in "Peak Performance" before gaining the main cast role of the Ferengi Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In that role he would also shoot a scene for the movie Star Trek: Insurrection, but it was cut from the final version of the film. He said of his performance in "The Last Outpost", "I was pretty much playing over-the-top villain – that turned out to be very comical. I thought I was being serious, but obviously, it was not serious. It's because there was no subtlety to the performance, there was no attempt to try to give them some real cojones ... It was bad acting. It was just bad acting. They liked it, god bless them, Star Trek liked it." Reception "The Last Outpost" aired in broadcast syndication during the week commencing October 17, 1987. It received Nielsen ratings of 8.9, reflecting the percentage of all households watching the episode during its timeslot. This was the lowest ratings received by any episode during the first season. There was initial criticism regarding the Ferengi from reviewers. Several reviewers re-watched the episode after the end of the series. Keith DeCandido reviewed the episode for Tor.com