Episode

229

Aquiel

Lt. Aquiel Uhnari works at a communications relay station way out in the middle of nowhere. She might be dead, she might be a killer, or she might be a pile of coalescent microorganisms. Doesn’t matter: either way, Geordi has got the hots for her. This week, Aquiel goes into the Mission Log.

 

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Discussion

  • Dave Steph Taylor

    Even the writers got tired of Georgi’s failed relationships. They did a fake out and made us think, “Oh boy, another messed up relationship for Geordi.”

    • nathankc

      There is an upcoming episode where a co-worker is actually infatuated with LaForge (in fact, pretty much acts exactly like he does to all the girls he is interested in) and he is repulsed. Relationship Geordi writing is almost as bad as Yar writing

      • Dave Steph Taylor

        I try not to think of it

  • Pete2174

    I totally forgot about this episode too.

  • Matthew Carlson

    Hm, a little bit salt vampire, huh?

  • CmdrR

    59:15 and it’s about 10:00 before you even force yourself to talk about the episode. Just sayin’…

  • The Bengineer

    My friends and I love this episode based on one line that we quote regularly… “I’m scared Geordi!”. It was cheesy and that may be the only redeeming quality of this episode.

  • Konservenknilch

    Damnit, you guys made me laugh out loud on the street in a pretty ridiculous fashion.

    Ken: And they lived happily ever after. No wait, it’s Geordi.

    John: We need to talk about Geordi.

    Poor LeVar. Such a nice and talented guy, but his character is a major creep.

  • Dave Steph Taylor

    A couple more thoughts.

    Two murder suspects on board, seems like a perfect time to call in an empath. If only there was one onboard. 😉

    Did anything happen to the Klingon Commander that keeps bothering this station?

    I know in the end Aquiel is not guilty of murder, but she is still a crappy officer. There is a reason she is sent off to a two person station in the middle of no where.

    • CmdrR

      Why does a relay station need a crew?

      • Dave Steph Taylor

        Probably not

      • It doesn’t. It’s the island of misfit lieutenants.

  • MT

    You’re 100% Wrong – This Episode Holds Up – Here’s Why

    Geordi knows how to woo a woman. Opening line, “Hey baby, I know all your secrets.” For some, there’s nothing more attractive than a man who reads your diary and stalks you online before he says hello. Some might like it when a guy introduces himself and then asks how family members he should not about are doing “Is your Mom over the flu?” “Oh no, your dog isn’t missing, he’s back at my place.”

    Seriously, you guys nailed this unfortunate episode. It was painful to watch the M.O. that has been written for Geordi’s love life. Let’s have Geordi stalk an unfamiliar woman “online” and fall in love with a computer image first. A murder suspect? A married engineer? All in the name of love.

    Thank you for addressing the “crystal space mental love making”…. I’m just…. I can’t. Frankly if I was Levar I would have complained. My character has waited years for a real woman to like me and we have to use this crystal. Although maybe it was their lack of chemistry – someone was like, whoa, this isn’t working out, go find one of those mind crystals from the prop bin, so they don’t have to touch.

    Also, I had totally overlooked the whole bring a star fleet officer to the ready room on the down low for a big reveal – she’s alive! I mean she was a physical wreck, too. Torn clothing, cuts, bruises, the whole nine. Any other time, as soon as the transporter chief would have saw that, medical staff would have been called. It’s just ridiculous.

    Great job guys!

    MT

  • So…could the syndication synopses make this sound interesting? Um…no. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd7e12c79dbf139969ebc6de81a16768d747849c4b751e91d1de650e8edd2465.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86a3b3a0ef89be2b41affa61ef36528208eb4b9f74e0f7d118c666ed04f89ef8.jpg

    If Mission Log has had any major effect on my interpretation of Trek, it’s been to make me look in the mirror and ask myself some hard questions, such as why La Forge was my favorite among the 1701-D crew. (Seriously though – it’s a testament to LeVar Burton’s sheer charisma that a character so deeply flawed is so deeply likeable. And I think that’s the reason I like him – I like the actor playing him.)

    Kind of interesting that LaForge has a problem – i.e. cyberstalking – that didn’t even have a name when these episodes were made. If only there was a mental health professional somewhere on that ship to help him address this nearly-serial unhealthy behavior. Obviously there isn’t, so hey, I’m gonna go cash my gut checks with the emotionless android.

    Perfectly healthy. No biggie.

    • First time I’ve ever felt bad for a syndication writer.

  • Canavan

    Another great podcast, this time in service to the worst episode of Season 6. I watched this one when it originally aired and had carefully avoided re-watching it until this past week. Just as bad as I recalled it being. The script fails both as a mystery and as human drama. Quick thought: When no one even broaches the possibility that the dog might be the coalescent organism, you *know* it’s the organism.

  • Durakken

    Right that Geordi shouldn’t have been doing this, wrong that it should have been Data. If you have to have someone from the main cast do this it should be Worf… you know the Security Officer that is supposed to be responsible for security on the ship and such…

    The only thing that anyone from engineering should be doing with that stuff is decrypting it and transfering to a secure location for security to review, and that’s not a Chief Engineer job…

  • The monster in this episode was John Carpenter’s The Thing. They should’ve done that as the episode and made it Data-centric. Have Data & some random “red-shirts” get stuck on a research outpost with some scientists while the basic plot of The Thing happens. Data gets to be Kurt Russell. The Enterprise can’t rescue them because they’re caught in a space-blizzard & only Geordi can figure it out.

    The cyber-stalker Geordi stuff was just ugh.

    • Dave Steph Taylor

      The “real” threat comes up to late. In a rewrite, this dog creature thing stalks them for much of the episode.

  • Dave Steph Taylor

    Just gotta add, even with a lame episode like this to work with, you guys make an entertaining podcast.

  • Derwood

    They should’ve known the dog wasn’t real because it didn’t have a unicorn horn growing out of its forehead like a real space dog.

  • wchmara

    This episode was typical of 24th century Trekking, like it or not.
    TOS episodes were written by career SF writers, and had poetic titles, often Biblical or Shakespearean or whatnot in reference. But TNG onwards, one-word titles, and generally not written by folks with SF credentials.
    Funny how doing “Space Laura” doesn’t work, but “Space Moby Dick” (“The Doomsday Machine”) works like crazy.

    • Muthsarah

      SPOILER WARNING for “Laura” ahead. You’ve have time, but still.

      Nah, this episode is clearly on the lower end. A well-known embarrassment. Hard to believe this wasn’t from Season Seven, the “who cares/why not?” season.

      I can’t fault them for not having a good idea. Mysteries are always great, and noir’s a particularly rich field, I just don’t know how they failed THIS badly. As Ken and John noted, make Aquiel the killer, and a skilled manipulator, and base the entire episode around Geordi’s long-established naivitee, forcing him to face his past behavior and finally start to grow past it. It could have been REALLY good, all they had to do was change the ending. Also, that dog is no Clifton Webb.

      24th-Century-Trek will do noir much, much better when we get to DS9’s “Necessary Evil”, possibly my favorite Trek episode of all.

      At least next week will finally give another regular the redemption she’s long been due.

  • Ron Baugh

    Old Fat Klingons is probably one of the most realistic thing that they have.

    One common problem for soldiers in the real world is that expend so much energy as you recruits you can basically eat anything and stay in shape. The food provided for soldiers is extensive and full of calories, and sometimes unhealthy, but often it doesn’t matter because you are doing PT, an active job and forced to maintain standards. Even if you cut back on unhealthy you can still maintain those standards while eating mostly what you want.

    As you get older it gets tougher to do the same kind of exercise and physical work. In the Army the fat percentage standards are raised (lowered I guess but the number gets higher) so older soldiers and that often means higher rank, can be larger. Still have to work to not be too fat but there is more room.

    When a soldier retires or leaves the military, then it gets real tough, eating habits are hard to break, but if you don’t have to do PT or maintain weight standards the waistline can expand rapidly. I imagine in a society where few retire from the military the weight standards continue to decrease and the calorie expendatures decrease as well when you gain rank.

  • John Anderton

    This really happened.

    AQUIEL: … We use something called the Canar to help focus our thoughts. We also use the Canar for a stronger emotional link during love.
    (Aquiel picks up a crystal from her display stand)
    LAFORGE: I was wondering what that was for…