139 – Aquiel

Grade: C-

Summary

The Enterprise is investigating a Federation space station, which is no longer responding to any hails. Once aboard, they find some organic remains and a dog. Now they have to find out who is dead, and who the killer could be. Oh, and LaForge becomes infatuated with one of the lieutenants on the station who could have been the victim or the killer.

Commentary

I’m sorry, but this episode doesn’t do much for me. I don’t really care for it. It’s bland, uninteresting, and pointless. This is one of the few Star Trek episodes that I have no interest in seeing again.

But let me be a little more specific. First of all, the story is riddled with plot holes and scientific gibberish. At one point, Worf says that there is Klingon DNA on the station, but only from one Klingon. I assume he means only one other Klingon besides himself. But that’s not what he said, so it’s bad writing.

Right from the beginning of the episode, Dr Crusher notices that there is some genetic remains on the station, but she doesn’t know who it was. Then later, she says that until she can separate the genetic material from the deck plate, she won’t be able to get a clear DNA scan. Yikes, I can’t believe that in the future, medical doctors won’t have equipment that can tell the difference between DNA and metal plates. Oh well.

Finally, a major plot hole. Don’t read this if you don’t want to be spoiled. But here’s what we find out. Try to keep up.

1. Apparently, Lt Rocha was replaced by some kind of alien that can assume the form of its victims.
2. Then he came to the station and harassed Lt Uhnari. They had fight, and she left the station.
3. There was only one shuttle on the station, so we know Rocha and the dog were the only ones left on the station.
4. The dog survived, and it turns out the dog is now the alien life form.
5. We also know that once the alien assumes the form of its victim, the victim still survives as if nothing happened.
6. Also note that the goo in Sickbay becomes Dr. Crusher’s hand, which should have meant that the coalescent organism was dead and on the deckplate of the station.
7. Presumably, Rocha attacks the dog, and becomes the dog. So there would be the real dog and the fake one.
8. One of them would have had to shoot the other, and the victim would have become the mess of DNA on the deck plate.
9. But then, we find out that not only is the mess of DNA one of those coalescent aliens, but so is the dog. So now there are two of them, when there used to only be one.
10. And does it make sense that one dog could shoot another? So this story falls completely apart if you think about it.

Well, I think this episode is just plain bad. Skip it.

Of Note

Supposedly, the film “Laura” (1944) was the inspiration for this episode. I highly recommend seeing that film and skipping this completely.