Geordi La Forge falls in love with a woman accused of murder in an isolated communication relay station. TheEnterprise crew investigates the crime; the only other suspect is a Klingon officer who frequently visited the station.

Summary[]

Teaser[]

"Captain's log,Stardate 46461.3. We have arrived at acommunication relay station near theKlingon border, where we are scheduled to deliver supplies. However, the station has not responded to repeatedhails."

TheUSSEnterprise-D has sent anaway team composed ofDr.Crusher,Lieutenant Commander La Forge,Commander Riker, andLieutenant Worf over to the CommunicationsRelay Station 47. Upon arriving, they find the station has been abandoned and theaudio monitoring system in disarray, with a few thousandsubspace messages playing all at once. La Forge manages to deactivate the monitoring system. Investigating a banging noise from a service duct, Riker and La Forge find a large, fluffy whitedog, hiding there. The station'sshuttlecraft is missing, along with bothStarfleet officers,Aquiel Uhnari andKeith Rocha. Dr. Crusher discoverscell residue on a deck plate, which must be the remains of one of the personnel.

Act One[]

Crusher confirms that theblood traces match those of Uhnari, so the doctor assumes the cellular residue is Uhnari's also, but must study it further in her lab to make certain. Geordi La Forge explains to Riker that encryptedsubspace messages are all sent through a particular channel, and that someone has tried to bypass the access protocols, perhaps taking or rewriting some of the messages. He also mentions that the security lockouts froze up when it happened. La Forge accesses the station'slogs from the nearbyquarters, but at first can see only a handful of official and personal entries by Uhnari. Perusing the logs, he discovers that the dog was Uhnari's pet. Uhnari seems to be an upbeat person, though she appeared to have some intense friction with Rocha. The computer cuts out.

Meanwhile insickbay, Dr. Crusher tries to get a clearDNA sample from the metallic plate, she guesses to Picard and Riker that a high-levelphaser blast caused the death. It also could have been a Klingondisruptor, but Picard needs evidence since Klingon attacks have not occurred against theFederation for seven years.

In the quarters on board the station, La Forge orders a diagnostic while he gets an icedcoffee from the room'sreplicator. Soon, he gets a visual of Uhnari.

Act Two[]

Uhnari's personal letters continue to reveal her to be a spirited, romanticHaliian woman who was abused by her father, is intenselyhomesick for the rest of her family and traditions, and has difficulty getting along with "egomaniac" Rocha. At one point, she confesses countermanding his orders by taking on additional com traffic, which Rocha ordered her not to, as he believed they could not handle the signal load. Uhnari tells her sister that Rocha will be furious with her when he eventually finds out. Uhnari also mentions in her log that aCommander Morag, an aggressiveKlingon, has been harassing and threatening the station. La Forge reports this toCaptain Jean-Luc Picard, who then asks the Klingongovernor Torak to investigate. At first, the governor is hesitant to help but Picard uses his influence asGowron'sArbiter of Succession to convince him to assist.

La Forge watches more of Lieutenant Uhnari's personal logs in his quarters. In the log, she states that she misses her mother's ownmuskan seed punch and how the replicators on the station cannot quite make it the same when a loud bang is heard. Uhnari asks if it is Rocha. The log suddenly goes to static.

Back on the station, Worf, Riker and La Forge continue the investigation. Worf has discovered traces of KlingonDNA. La Forge has most of Uhnari's logs, but cannot find Rocha's, telling Riker that whatever happened to the station's encrypted messages had a cascade effect on the communications storage system.

Eventually, the governor arrives at theEnterprise's position on theIKSQu'Vat. Worf escorts Torak to theobservation lounge and the governor has Uhnari brought in, with her uniform torn and looking battered but very much alive.

Act Three[]

Uhnari claims that Rocha suddenly and irrationally attacked her; she first tried to access theweapons locker, but next remembers escaping in the shuttle; she was picked up by the Klingons. Possibly owing to a head injury, Uhnari's memory for exactly what happened is spotty, she notes it's as if her memories of the incident have been drained out of her, but she doesn't remember Morag on the station when she left. Torak is faced with the evidence of Klingon DNA on the station, and continues to be angered by theaccusation of any Klingon involvement. He permits them to talk to Morag. Dr. Crusher now assumes that the cellular residue on the station's deck plate is Rocha, but continues to analyze it.

While they wait for Commander Morag to arrive, La Forge escorts Uhnari out of the lounge, telling her he has a friend of hers that is probably eager to see her. La Forge brings Uhnari to his quarters, where he reunites her with her dog. The dog's name is revealed to beMaura, named after a character inCold Moon Over Blackwater, a gothicnovel. La Forge says Uhnari probably wants to be left alone in her assigned quarters after her recent ordeal, but she tells him that she would like to go to a place that has a lot of activity since she has spent nine months on the station with only Rocha to talk to. They go toTen Forward, where La Forge reveals that he knows quite a bit about Uhnari, such as getting her muskan seed punch to drink and that she lived on a house on a hill growing up. When the lieutenant is surprised, La Forge confesses that he has reviewed her logs, as well as her personal correspondence. He explains that they thought she had beenmurdered and needed to investigate. Visibly upset, she first sees it as an invasion of privacy, but eventually comes to understand. La Forge brings up her contemptuous relationship with her superior officer, Keith Rocha. She considered him hostile and obnoxious and felt she had to battle him to hold her own. But, she insists, she did not want to see him dead. La Forge asks why Rocha attacked her but Uhnari does not know. While taking Uhnari to her quarters, she asks La Forge, since he knows her the best from anyone on theEnterprise, if she seems like a person who would murder someone. La Forge admits she doesn't. She wishes him a good night in Haliian.

Riker has Rocha's and Uhnari's Starfleet files brought up to Picard on hisdesktop monitor. According to Rocha's file, he seems to have been a bright and promising officer, not as nasty as Uhnari's experience of him. Uhnari's records, on the other hand, show her to be difficult and argumentative from her previous posting onDeriben V. Picard orders Riker to examine theshuttle thoroughly to shed more light on her story, since there's still no hard evidence. There, Worf finds a missing phaser from the station in a small compartment under the shuttlecraft's helm controls: it is set to kill.

Act Four[]

"Captain's log, supplemental. TheQu'Vat has arrived with Commander Morag. We are preparing to question him regarding his involvement in the murder of Lieutenant Rocha."

"It was taken from the weapons locker on the station — "*It was taken from the weapons locker on the station.*"
"*I told you, I don't remember what happened!*"

Circumstantial evidence now points to Uhnari as possibly having killed Rocha, but she hotly denies this to Riker and Worf. Riker informs her that the phaser was found set on level ten and all phasers in weapons lockers are required to be set on level one. Uhnari still cannot recall what happened after her struggle with Rocha, but admits she may have used the phaser in self-defense. Riker tells her that to inflict the cellular damage found in Rocha's remains, it would take a sustained phaser blast on level ten of thirty to forty seconds. At this point, La Forge defends her, saying that the phaser found hasn't even been established to be the murder weapon. La Forge tells Riker he is heading back to the station to try to retrieve Rocha's logs. Riker stops him on the way out and asks him as a friend and not his superior officer that he not get involved more with Uhnari, so his relationship doesn't cloud his judgment. La Forge responds back that he's "not the one making judgments."

Commander Morag arrives shortly thereafter. He describes how he investigated the station when they did not answer his hails. He also confesses that he was the one who tried to bypass the access protocols and filched 27 priority Starfleet messages, but that while he saw blood and signs of a struggle, he did not kill anyone. Torak has Morag remain on theEnterprise under Starfleet custody at Picard's request, as he does not want to cause a diplomatic incident with the Federation.

On the station, La Forge discovers that Uhnari had established a subspace link with a console on the relay station and deleted a number of Rocha'spersonal logs, including a letter he was planning to send toStarfleet Command. Citing her as "belligerent and insubordinate", Rocha had planned to ask for aformal hearing. She explains that she did so because she was afraid that if Starfleet found the letter, they would place the blame on her for the murder. Knowing her pattern of running away in panic when she is afraid, La Forge advises her to stay and face what has happened, and she agrees. Theykiss passionately.

"Medical officer's log, supplemental. I've isolated the cellular residue from the deck plate, but the DNA has destabilized. I'm attempting to reform it."

On theEnterprise, Dr. Crusher continues to examine the cellular residue in sickbay; she is having trouble getting a stable DNA reading and finds that thenucleotide sequence is fluctuating. Suddenly, upon contact with her skin, the residue takes the form of her hand.

Act Five[]

On the station, Uhnari and La Forge are quite close, and she introduces him to a Haliian custom in which their minds can telepathically connect, amplified by a large crystal ornament called acanar.

Meanwhile, Crusher explains to Picard that the remains are not Rocha's either, but acoalescent organism that feeds off otherlifeforms, then assumes their shape. Rocha never had worked at the station; it was theshapeshifter that killed him at his last post of duty, in the remoteTriona system, and taken his place. Crusher warns that what appears to be Uhnari may actually be the creature, but the same also applies for Morag. Worf and Riker leave to find them. Riker enters as La Forge and Uhnari are linked by the canar, aiming his phaser at the lieutenant and telling her to step aside from La Forge.

"Medical officer's log, supplemental. Commander Morag and Lieutenant Uhnari are being kept under close observation. So far, no sign of coalescent behaviour has surfaced."

While Uhnari and Morag are being examined, La Forge returns to his quarters, where he's been keeping Maura. The dog approaches him; he assumes she wants to play, but suddenly, Maura begins to morph into the coalescent organism they are searching for, and attacks La Forge. With the organism blocking his escape route, he grabs his phaser that was in his drawer and fires, but it does no damage to the organism. La Forge resets his phaser to maximum and fires again, vaporizing the organism completely. Catching his breath, La Forge sits on the floor relieved and thankful to be alive.

In Ten Forward, La Forge tells his theory, that Uhnari'smemory loss after the Rocha-like creature attacked her was caused by the beginning of coalescing process; she felt her memory was being drained out because it was. Uhnari realizes she may indeed have taken the phaser and shot. She is grateful to La Forge for his advice and friendship, but refuses his offer to recommend her for a post in communications on board. She knows she is not an ideal Starfleet officer, but tells him she is considering staying in Starfleet and perhaps one day serving aboard theEnterprise – when she can earn the position on her own merits. La Forge takes her hands and holds them. She holds his as well.

Log entries[]

Memorable quotes[]

"The Klingon Empire will not stand for these kinds of lies!"
"Governor Torak… I apologize. I can see that you honestly didn't know what happened aboard the station. I will just have to take this matter up with Gowron. I'mreally sorry that we bothered you."

-Torak speaking withPicard, after Aquiel Uhnari stated in a log she was harassed by Morag, a Klingon

"We found traces of Klingon DNA on the station."
"You still try to blame us?!"
"Have the courage to admit your mistakes. Or are you alo'Be Vos?"
"At least I do not wear the uniform of thepetaQ!"

-Worf andGovernor Torak butting heads

"Governor, we are merely exploring all the possibilities. Lieutenant Uhnari's logs reported that Commander Morag had been harassing the station."
"He was doing his job."
"If he was only doing his job, then I'm sure you won't mind if we spoke with him."
"Very well. In the interests of diplomacy, I will allow you to speak to Morag. But my patience has limits!"

-Captain Picard andGovernor Torak

"You know me better than anyone here. Do I seem like the kind of person who would murder someone?"
"No, you don't."

-Aquiel Uhnari andLa Forge

"I think you've let your personal feelings cloud your judgment."
"I'm not the one making judgments."

-Riker andLa Forge

"Geordi?"
"I cansee you. Oh, and I can feel you."

-Aquiel Uhnari andLa Forge, while they both use thecanar to create a bond between them

"What are you doing, Commander?"
"That may not be Lieutenant Uhnari."

-La Forge toRiker, while he has a phaser pointed at Aquiel

"Concerned?"

-Counselor Troi, her only line of dialogue

Background information[]

Production history[]

Final draft script:5 November 1992 [1]
Premiere airdate:1 February 1993
First UK airdate:4 October 1995

Story and script[]

This story began as another attempt at providing La Forge with a recurring romance.Jeri Taylor recalled, "We were looking for a new spin to put on a love story. A straight love story didn't seem good enough." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 269)
AtMichael Piller's suggestion, the romance was tied into a mystery in the manner of the 1944 filmLaura, starringGene Tierney, in which adetective investigating the murder of a woman named Laura falls in love with her, only to discover that she is alive and may herself be a killer. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 2nd ed., p. 232)
WithColm Meaney (Miles O'Brien) andRosalind Chao's (Keiko O'Brien) departure from the series toStar Trek: Deep Space Nine, TNG had lost its only married couple. It was hoped that this episode would show that marriage and serious relationships still existed in the24th century. As Taylor observed, "We now portray the twenty-fourth century as being full of single people […] It seems to me that's not the comment we should be making – that marriage and serious relationshipsdo survive into the twenty-fourth century." (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 2nd ed., p. 232) One season later, however, recurringNurse Alyssa Ogawa and her husbandAndrew Powell started a family, so eventually the idea was pursued.
Brannon Braga,Ronald D. Moore and Taylor spent two days breaking the story. Braga recalled that it was a "torturous experience". (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 269)
At first, Aquiel was to have been the killer, but it was felt that this was too similar to the filmBasic Instinct. Keith Rocha and Morag were next considered, but dismissed as too obvious. According to Moore, "At one point, we finally said 'Why not the dog?' He had always been in the script; we had meant to leave him with Geordi from that time on." Moore joked that he and Braga had considered calling the episode "Murder, My Pet!" (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 2nd ed., p. 233)
Early drafts of the script included more backstory and family history for La Forge. This was dropped as it was felt that it was loading down the story. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 269-270)
The writers struggled with creating a mystery that couldn't be solved by24th century technology. Moore remembered, "We were at pains trying to make the murder mystery harder than it needed to be, so the script became verytechnobabble heavy." He added, "Technology had run amok on the show. People had gotten careless about establishing what devices like the tricorder could do, and we were stuck with that. Walk into a room with a tricorder and it could tell you who'd been in there, and what they'd done […] We were always trying to trip up the technology. It was just too powerful." (Star Trek: The Next Generation 365, p. 290)

Production[]

Maura was played byFriday, a terrier mix. The dog had previously played Commissioner Robert Scorpio's dog onGeneral Hospital. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 2nd ed., p. 233)
The golden tape in Aquiel Uhnari's quarters aboard the station was previously worn byNehemiah Persoff asPalor Toff in thethird season episode "The Most Toys".
The look of thecoalescent organism disappointed the staff. Visual Effects SupervisorRonald B. Moore recalled that many names were given to the creature, and that "Mr. Peanut was probably the kindest that I had." (Select Historical Data Year Six: To CGI or Not to CGI,TNG Season 6 DVD special feature) Moore noted that the effect was subcontracted out and was delivered without enough time for the touch-ups to add texture and motion that he felt were needed. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 2nd ed., p. 233)

Continuity[]

It is noted that at this point there has been no Klingon raid on the Federation in "seven years" (i.e. since2362). Ronald D. Moore added this to show that the situation could still be uneasy in the Federation-Klingon alliance. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 2nd ed., p. 233)
There are several references barely legible inKeith Rocha's log on the screen, including his linking of anAndorian comm channel, having a competition with aRyan aboard theUSSSaratoga,Starbase 237 in theDelta Vega sector, and thatStarfleet had diverted several starships to "theEpsilon IX station", implying they rebuilt it after its destruction byV'ger inStar Trek: The Motion Picture.
In the scene where Geordi finds that a log has been deleted, he asks"Where are the log entries for StarDate 46459?" but the missing StarDate is45459.

Reception[]

Manyproduction staff members were disappointed with this episode, considered to be the weakest of the generally goodsixth season. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 2nd ed., p. 233)
Jeri Taylor felt that Renée Jones was not suited to the nature of the series and that there was little chemistry between her andLeVar Burton. She commented, "Star Trek sometimes does to actors what it does to writers – people who are very effective in one kind of thing feel very exposed. So I don't think this was quite her cup of tea." (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 2nd ed., p. 233)
When asked what he would have done differently in his time onStar Trek, Ronald D. Moore stated that he would not have written "Aquiel". (AOL chat,1997)
Moore did, however, enjoy the Klingon subplot. "I thought it was a nice little runner. I didn't want to make that any bigger than it was. But in the final product, it was one of the more intriguing things […] it was just a cool little C story." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 269)
Brannon Braga had mixed feelings. He recalled, "I thought it was going to be terrible, but when I sat down and watched it I kind of liked the mystery. I rather enjoyed that the dog did it. Ultimately, I didn't think the romance part worked but I liked the feel of the episode, which had a rather tragic, mysterious feel to it." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 269)

Video and DVD releases[]

UK VHS release (two-episode tapes,CIC Video): Volume 70,6 September 1993
As part of theTNG Season 6 DVD collection

Links and references[]

Starring[]

Also starring[]

Guest stars[]

Co-stars[]

Uncredited co-stars[]

Stand-ins[]

David Keith Anderson –stand-in forLeVar Burton
Debbie David – stand-in forBrent Spiner
Michael Echols – stand-in forMichael Dorn
Nora Leonhardt – stand-in forMarina Sirtis
Lorine Mendell – stand-in forGates McFadden
Richard Sarstedt – stand-in forJonathan Frakes
Dennis Tracy – stand-in forPatrick Stewart

References[]

23rd century;2362;2368;47;accusation;alpha shift;Aquiel's parents;Arbiter of Succession;audio monitoring system;bark;Batarael;beta shift;canar;cellular level;coalescent organism;Cold Moon Over Blackwater;communication relay station;cycle;deck plate;Deriben V;diagnostic cycle;disruptors;DNA;duty engineer;duty roster;evidence;Fatal Revenge, The;Federation;Federation-Klingon border;formal hearing;generation;gothic fiction;governor;Gowron;Haliian;Haliian language;Horath;hour;iced coffee;impulse propulsion officer;irritable;Klingons;Klingon Empire;Klingonese;Klingon patrol ship;Klingon space;level 2 diagnostic;level 2 specialist;level 3 diagnostic;lie;Maura (character);Maura (imposter);memory module;message delay buffer;micro-vaporize;Milky Way Galaxy;Muskan seed punch;network relay tech;nucleotide sequences;nightstand;nowadays;oumriel;Pendleton;Personal log, Aquiel Uhnari;Personal log, Keith Rocha;petaQ;phase inducer;phaser discharge;playback;pooch;phaser, type 2;Qu'Vat, IKS;Relay Station 47;Relay Station 194;remote sector;Sector 2520;sense of humor;service duct;Shianna;shuttlecraft;Starbase 12;Starbase 212;Starfleet;Starfleet Command;subspace relay station;suspect;transporter systems officer;Triona outpost;Triona system;Triona system sector;Type 6 shuttlecraft;Uhnari's former commanding officer;Verne;Vor'cha-class;waiting list;warp propulsion officer;wig

Other references[]

External links[]

"Aquiel" atMemory Beta, the wiki for licensedStar Trek works
"Aquiel" atWikipedia
"Aquiel" atMissionLogPodcast.com
"Aquiel" script atStar Trek Minutiae
"Aquiel" at theInternet Movie Database

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