LogFAQs > #972656681

Episode 13: Aquiel

Someone on this station is a murderer.

Picard won't risk the peace for just anything. Really leaning on that arbiter of succession stuff, isn't he? Still, it's fun to watch him run rings around someone and be nothing but pleasant about it. Stony faced during Uhnari's story.

Riker teases La Forge. Doesn't believe Uhnari, but I can't blame him in his situation. Very aggressive with his questioning. I'm pleasantly surprised how restrained he was with La Forge going to bat for her. He's been a bit of an arse for a while, so, its nice to see some of his old characterisation come back.

La Forge is having another shit day at work. Bit too happy to first see Uhnari's face. Rifles through her things like nobody's business. Snaps to attention when she mentions aggressive Klingons. Passes judgement on her tastes (though he's right about the wig) and seems to be loving a shadow again. Actually does alright when he properly meets her. Handles their drink like a functional human being, even with the unfortunately necessary breach of her privacy. Can hardly believe it himself when she shows some affection to him. All his anger is clearly born out of worry for her. Finally gets some action and doesn't look like a complete creep doing so. Like a moody teenager when Riker arrests her. Glad the relationship continues in some fashion.

Worf's new confidence in himself finally gets tested against an antagonistic Klingon and he dismisses the idiot beautifully.

Crusher does her job. Even when she's not doing much more than experimenting with technobabble, McFadden continues to act the hell out of her coming to and occasionally dismissing conclusions.

Troi doesn't get up to much, but it is nice seeing her in a proper uniform.

Data asks a pertinent question.

Uhnari's nervousness during her story and the convenient memory loss flagged her up as the obvious suspect, though, naturally, I assumed she was a red herring. Her and La Forge's banter is adorable. Completely right of her to feel a bit put off for a bit by La Forge knowing a lot about her, but she handles their drink brilliantly, too. Her breakdown after deleting a letter is painful to watch. Psychic aphrodisiacs are perfectly okay with me. Hope she gets the job.

Bless La Forge for shutting up that racket. Maura is cute. Nice bit of tension with the audio logs. The dream one is like a horror movie. Almost like a locked room mystery, the amount of time La Forge spends on that set. More fun than it sounds to watch La Forge watch home movies. Nice transition to La Forge getting some drinks in. Crusher briefly gets menaced by red Flubber. Hand in the sludge is just nasty. The coalescent is certainly an effect.

It's pretty much just a murder mystery. Literally just Star Trek does Laura (one of the few films in this "Star Trek does x" series I hadnt heard about before) and done decently well. There are a few interesting things to mention, though. Firstly, La Forge is finally a mostly functional human being and has a relationship. Can't complain there. Secondly, Uhnari joins Barclay in the interesting category of Starfleet officers who aren't quite up to snuff, but nevertheless remain sympathetic. Thirdly, my insistence on referring to characters by their family name where applicable and unlikely to cause confusion (Keiko is probably always going to be referred to by her given name) has run into a minor problem, since the title and basically every character prefers what I assume is her given name (wouldn't put it past La Forge to be weirdly formal with that sort of stuff, though). Finally, apparently even the creators don't reckon much to this episode and I can't understand why. Far from a highlight, but it does what it set out to do and does it well.

And that's basically the final word. Fairly solid episode, but not much more.

Looking into Face of the Enemy next.