It's been a while since I've seen this (and I didn't much like it in any case), but at the very opening the away team arrives in the Subspace Relay Station Control Room to the almost-deafening noise of several thousand subspace transmissions being broadcast simultaneously. Why? Granted, I believe Geordi makes some comment about a malfunction, but I were serving in Starfleet I would most definitely not choose to work in a room where at any time my eardrums could be exploded by half the com transmissions in the Quadrant whoosing through the speaker system!

Some of the consoles on relay station 47 look very odd. They have not touchscreens with okudagrams but buttons with blinking lights and LED's. There's even a console with a alphanumeric keyboard that looks like it comes from an old Commodore 64 Computer.

Well, that's just because the relay station was a 20th century cryoship in a former life ("The Neutral Zone").

This show was like a cross between the movie Laura and Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell.

My dad who has worked with computers since the '70s, couldn't believe this bit. La Forge tries to bring up information on a terminal, it doesn't work, so he mentions a piece of software as the problem (I believe it was 'Damaged File Server', but I'm not positive.) Then to get around this problem he decides to use another terminal. My dad explained that if the problem was in the software then it doesn't matter which terminal they use, that information will not come up.

Why would they waste the talents of the Chief Engineer on the task of watching personal logs? Wouldn't this job be better suited to someone like Counselor Troi, who could make a psychological evaluation of Aquiel Uhnari?

Worf tells Riker that he has found DNA from only one Klingon on the station, but since Worf was on the station earlier shouldn't his DNA show up as well?

Wouldn't Sick Bay have been the first choice for Aquiel to go to, instead of Geordi's quarters for her dog? (And was some kind of health check even run on the dog?)

Also, shouldn't someone trained in psychiatry be speaking to her instead of a Chief Engineer?

Worf just reaches in, grabs the phaser and starts handling it, probably obscuring most of the evidence of who handled it last. Is Starfleet's detection equipment so good that wearing gloves to preserve evidence is unnecessary?

When Crusher explained about coalescent organisms, she said the small ones had to regenerate every few seconds but that a larger being might stay in the new form for a few days. Does this seem a bit backward? Wouldn't a larger, more complex creature be a harder form to maintain than a smaller, simpler form of life?

The dog is right there in the room when Geordi and Riker are discussing the coalescent organism and neither of them even toys with the idea that Mora is The Thing?

Mora goes up to Geordi and starts chewing on his shoe, Geordi tells her to go away, which she does, then she turns into the thing. Earlier Aquiel says that Keith Rocha attacked her, not some thing attacked her, So why didn't Mora start absorbing Geordi then and there? Why did it go away from Geordi when asked to? Why did it turn into a blob before it attacked Geordi, but not before it attacked Aquiel?

Apparently the thing had been weakened by being blasted at level 10 for 30 to 40 seconds a few days earlier, since Geordi makes such short work of it at the end of the show, but isn't it amazing that the phaser beam only hit the creature? I would assume that as the creature is being vaporized sections of the beam would blast the wall behind it. Not to mention Geordi blasting a few seconds longer to be certain that it's dead.

I wonder if Geordi changed his quarters for the next few days until they were certain that none of it had escaped?

Could the coalescent organism have survived by absorbing dead organic materials like cloth or leather?

Aquiel thinks that she can become a member of the Enterprise on her merits? The way she acted in this episode, sleeping with the Chief Engineer is probably her only chance to be posted to the ship. (Okay, she could try sleeping with Riker, but he gets so much tail I doubt he feels the need to reward the women with promotions.)

Starfleet must really be pleased to find out that a flighty, overemotional person like Aquiel can make it through the academy, but an untrained coalescent organism can do a much better job of running a relay station.

How come no alrams went off when LaForge fired at the entity? I believe he had it set for "Kill"..Even if it wasn't, SOME KIND of alarm SHOULD HAVE gone off!

Whoops. That should be "alarms" How come no ALARMS went off when LaForge fired the phaser?

I should've been paying more attention.

NANJAO: I like the twist at the end of the episode...the killer turns out to be an alien disguised as the dog. No one investigated the animal, thereby it slipped by everyone!

Why didn't Picard ask Troi to see if Aquiel was "Hiding something"?

I must add that I find it insulting that the writers gave Marina Sirtis (Troi) only one line..."Concerned."

I'm surprised that no one mentioned the obvious "47" on the hull of the station.

that s relay station 47....to mee it was kinda weak episode

Wayne Grace (Torak) was the enraged, Risk-disliking Ukranian in a memorable episode of "Seinfeld," but I remember him more as Sheriff Hamilton (a.k.a. the Dog-Faced Boy) on the X-Files episode "Humbug."

Torak? The Dark God of the Angaraks is in this episode?

> Mora goes up to Geordi and starts chewing on his shoe, Geordi tells her to go away, which she does, then she turns into the thing. Earlier Aquiel says that Keith Rocha attacked her, not some thing attacked her, So why didn't Mora start absorbing Geordi then and there? Why did it go away from Geordi when asked to? Why did it turn into a blob before it attacked Geordi, but not before it attacked Aquiel?

Perhaps it did turn into a blob. Throughout the whole episode Aquiel hasn't regained her memories of the attack. She simply never remembered the last moments. She knew the only person on the station, apart from her, was Rocha and she knew she was attacked so she assumed it was him.

NANJAO: The blob looks like a Founder. I can't help but wonder if the blob-entity is a distant cousin of the Founders.

Am I the only one who finds it odd that no one investigated the Klingon threats in this episode -- like Toraq locking his weapons on a Federation outpost, and the Governor claiming he would have destoyed a Starfleet shuttle on sight -- considering that they are supposed to be allied?

I guess you are the only one since no one said anything about it before or after your post! ROTFLMAO!

The investigation took place during the commercial break.

I think all of the interesting parts of this episode must have taken place durning the commercial brakes! lol

Keith Roch: Apparently the thing had been weakened by being blasted at level 10 for 30 to 40 seconds a few days earlier, since Geordi makes such short work of it at the end of the show, but isn't it amazing that the phaser beam only hit the creature? I would assume that as the creature is being vaporized sections of the beam would blast the wall behind it. Not to mention Geordi blasting a few seconds longer to be certain that it's dead.

Watching it again, it looks like there should also be a little line along the ceiling. When Geordi fires the second shot, he appears to hit the trigger as he's still bringing the phaser to bear. When the beam comes out, it's still pointing upward.

Why does Torak refer to Worf's uniform as "that of the Pa'tahk" (a Klingon expletive)? Does he not like the Federation for some reason, and if so, why?

I mean, all Worf said that he should have the courage to admit his mistakes, and I thought that was appropriate, given the situation.

So, did Torak want to go back to "the old ways" of doing things, where the Klingons and the Federation are not allies? You know, like what happened during the 4th and 5th seasons of DS9?

I just thought it was weird that he insulted the Federation the way he did. Actually, his insult was mainly directed at Worf, but he was insulting the Federation too!

Hooray! Geordi *finally* gets a girlfriend! And it's reciprocal! Plus, when the "Blob Dog" (coalescent organism) attacks him, he vaporizes it. And just in the nick of time, too!

But why was that Klingon (Morak) harassing Lt. Uhnari and threatening to fire disruptors at the relay station? I wonder, just like I did with Torak in my above post, if these two Klingons were throwbacks to the old days when the Federation and the Empire were bitter adversaries. If you ask me, they should have been reported to Gowron and the High Council. They would probably have dealt with it, but then again, seeing as how Gowron was becoming increasingly more and more treacherous as time went on, maybe he would have done nothing!

But why was that Klingon (Morak) harassing Lt. Uhnari and threatening to fire disruptors at the relay station?
Klingon courting ritual? ;-)

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quote:

I must add that I find it insulting that the writers gave Marina Sirtis (Troi) only one line..."Concerned."

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At the end of the episode, when Geordi was explaining to Aquiel in Ten Forward why she lost her memory, there is an intercom "boo-oo-oop" but there is no response on either end.