"Aquel" 24 May 2013
This is another great ep that took a critical pounding. I wholeheartedly say "Get Stuffed!"-Even to Ron who wrote it! It was great. I never knew the "Mr Peanut effect" - I thought I was the only one who called it that.
This ep begins as a Murder Mystery as someone else suggests. And just as any Hitchcock Mystery, this episode has a "Maguffin" - That thing which our attention is drawn to while the real murderer slips right under our noses from the very start.
In a Hitchcockian Mystery, the bad guy is one of the first characters introduced. As with Hitchcock, so too Braga and Moore in this Jeri Taylor story.
Our Psycho Murder House is a Communications Station in deep space - Near the Klingon Border. As Worf and Geordi and Riker investigate a grim scene indeed, foul play is evident. Geordi finds a great dog in a locker, apparently just left there.
The Victim appears to be a woman, Lt. Aquiel Unhari (the very attractive Renée Jones) - The owner of the dog. And Geordi has to break into her private communiques to try to find clues as to what happened. There was another Lieutenant posted - Never seen but referred to, is missing and there is a grease-spot of protoplasmic goo embedded into a metal plate, which Dr. Crusher must needs extract from the metal.
There was also a Klingon Commander who had been harassing the station - Reg E. Cathey as "Morag" - And he is a suspect. But the Klingon Governor of that parsec of space pulls a conundrum from his pocket - He drags in Lt Unhari, who claims memory loss, making her the perfect suspect.
But when Crusher finally separates the goo from the metal - It becomes her hand! She describes this as a "Coalescent Life Form" which on a smaller scale, ingest other life forms and Mimic them - But on a larger scale, can they imitate people?
All Signs point to Aquiel, is this misdirection?
Until Geordi comes face to face with a Coalescent "Peanut Monster" and was lucky he had a Phaser in his drawer and has to "waporize" it.
I will not say which character in this array of interesting characters is our "Coalescent Monster" - Find out!
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