Aquiel

DVD, TNG S6 (Aquiel)

This was one episode I saw relatively early in my Trek viewing career. Someone lent me the video featuring this and 'Face of The Enemy' and anyone who's watched the pair can probably guess which one I preferred. I didn't watch 'TNG' very often growing up, I saw the occasional episode just 'to see how bad it was' since I only knew 'TOS' well and had begun to enjoy 'DS9' and possibly 'Voyager,' and my impression of the series, or the one people gave me, was that it was slow, boring and didn't have much to recommend it, and though I often found that wasn't the case (with the episodes I did catch mainly good ones: 'Conspiracy,' 'Remember Me,' 'Frame of Mind,' 'Phantasms'), my impressions were proved true watching 'Aquiel.'

It's not that it's particularly bad, it's just that the pieces that might have been used to craft a tense, exciting and thought-provoking outcome were left as minor building blocks which weren't used to build something good. The episode starts out as a murder investigation, beaming over to an empty relay station, and while the set looks very good and makes for a good environment, there's little of the brooding atmosphere a chiller needs. So the Klingons are added, and aside from having a weak name (Morag doesn't conjure up images of fear, more like cows grazing), they don't play a big part with only Picard's expert manoeuvring around Torak to enjoy, throwing in the fact that he was Arbiter of Succession and can get Gowron's ear quite easily. I'd like to know how they smuggled Aquiel aboard as you'd think that as soon as an injured Starfleet officer that was missing, presumed deceased, came aboard in the company of Klingons, the Transporter Operator would be on the blower right away to inform the captain! I recognised Wayne Grace's name right away, he was a Legate in 'Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night' on 'DS9.'

The investigating of the investigation isn't very dynamic, and though it's probably more true to life that it consists of trawling through data rather than crawling around in Jefferies tubes, it doesn't make for an exciting story. That story changes to become Geordi in Harry Kim mode, falling for an image of Aquiel before he's even met her, just as he did with Dr. Brahms, and then pushing himself into the realms of unprofessionalism, beginning to show a defiant tone in defence of his newfound friend that borders on insubordination. If he'd displayed that kind of spirit to Captain Jellico of 'Chain of Command' you can be sure he'd have been relieved of duty in the blink of an eye! Fortunately, Riker is more level-headed and even tries to give La Forge some friendly personal advice which is also rebuffed, but it's nice to see the characters caring for each other.

So we've gone from murder investigation to Klingon story to romance and then it becomes a bit of a horror, just for good measure. This dipping in and out of genres far from making a good mixing pot of ideas seems like jerky transitions. The most interesting aspect of the story was the coalescent life form and its ability to take over a new body each time - the hand in the pile of goop in sickbay was a good effect, though it's hard to reconcile that with the tiny amount of residue shown on the deck plating that it originated from. It's a good effect anyway, as is the dog becoming the mound of goop that attacks Geordi. Yes, it was the dog all along (why did its name, Maura, sound so similar to the Klingon's, Morag? A subconscious blind for the audience?), but it kindly allows La Forge time to notice it before it goes for him, giving him time to kill it after a panic-stricken series of acrobatics around the room!

I think the main problem, apart from a lack of necessary impetus or a corresponding boil of tension, is that there's little reason to care about Aquiel beyond Geordi's interest in her. The Haliians aren't explored in any depth and she's more of an annoying character than anything, doing everything she can to incriminate herself. She even chooses not to accept Geordi's help to work on the Enterprise, so she can't have been that enamoured of him, though of course her sentiment of wanting to do the hard work herself is laudable - it still sounds more like an excuse not to stay somewhere Geordi is, unfortunately, but he was better off. It's usually the case that if an episode concentrates its attentions on a guest star, especially one that doesn't come across that well, it doesn't work: we want to see the main characters and their interaction is what makes the series.

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