Original air date: February 1, 1993
The Enterprise visits the isolated Relay Station 47 and discovers that the two lieutenants stationed there, Aquiel Uhnari and Keith Rocha, are both missing. Only a dog and a pool of organic sludge remains, suggesting that there has been a murder. The crew begins their investigation by analyzing the genetic material and going over the station logs.
Geordi begins watching the personal messages of Aquiel, an attractive young Haliian. Aquiel's communications to her sister describe going stir crazy in her post, having repeated nightmares, unwelcome visits from the local Klingon Commander Morag, and growing tensions with her new crewmate Rocha. As Geordi befriends the woman's dog and hangs out in her quarters, he starts developing a crush on her. Her last communication is alarming: she reacts to the sound of a loud bang and calls out to Rocha before the feed cuts off.
Worf discovers traces of Klingon DNA on the station. Picard questions the local Klingon Governor Torak and presses him into helping the investigation by threatening to go over his head. Torvak visits the ship, bringing with him a very much alive Aquiel, who he says was found fleeing the station in Klingon space. Aquiel has little memory of what happened, saying that it feels like her memories of the event have been sucked out of her. Geordi quickly ingratiates himself to her and takes her side, trying to help clear her name. Aquiel displays mutual attraction to Geordi.
Things look bad for Aquiel, however. Her descriptions of Rocha as a combative officer don't jibe with his flawless personnel records. Meanwhile, she is the one with a reputation for being difficult. A missing phaser from the station is found on her shuttlecraft, set to Kill. Further, she's caught deleting a negative assessment of her written by Rocha. Geordi is alarmed that she has both motive and opportunity for murder. Riker advises Geordi to take a step back, but he insists on continuing to help her. The couple's relationship progresses into some necking. Meanwhile, Morag arrives and denies knowing anything of a murder, claiming he beamed aboard after everyone was gone. He is forced to admit, however, that he stole some Starfleet logs while he was there.
In Sick Bay, Crusher notes the organic sludge they found on the station is suddenly becoming active. It reaches out to touch her hand, then generates a perfect copy of it. She determines that the material is not Rocha's remains but part of a "coalescent organism" that takes the form of creatures it feeds on. The crew determines that Rocha must have already been a coalescent organism when he arrived on the station, which explains his change in personality. The question is who the coalescent organism is now: Aquiel or Morag?
The crew dispatches security teams to confront Aquiel and Morag. Aquiel is in the middle of a ceremony to telepathically commune with Geordi, telling him that he is about to get closer to her than anyone in his life. But Riker arrives to take her prisoner before he can either get eaten or laid. As both Aquiel and Morag are studied, Geordi returns to his quarters, where Aquiel's dog suddenly becomes aggressive and turns into a giant goo monster. The dog was the coalescent organism all along. Geordi manages to kill it with a phaser.
In the aftermath, Geordi offers to put in a good word for Aquiel so she can serve on the Enterprise, but she decides she'd rather make it there on her own merits. They hold hands, and the ship flies away.
Tropes featured in "Aquiel":
- Aesop Amnesia: This is the second time that Geordi has been burned for Loving a Shadow, after "Galaxy's Child." Last time, he learned that he should have been up front about his familiarity with the woman of his affections. This time, Geordi still doesn't immediately warn Aquiel that he's been watching her private communications. Just like Brahms, she gets creeped out by his unexplained familiarity with her before he guiltily comes clean. Luckily for him, she gets over it a lot faster.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Aquiel's dog is the only living being found on the relay station when the Enterprise checks on it. We later find out why, as the dog is actually the coalescent being that everyone is searching for.
- Continuity Nod: Picard recalls being the Arbiter of Succession for Gowron.
- Cunning Linguist: When checking the list of station personnel, Geordi's pronunciation of the name 'Uhnari' is different than the flat American / British r that the others use, hinting that he has knowledge of Haliian. He picked it up when his family was stationed on the planet.
- Dispense with the Pleasantries: Governor Torak when he comes aboard the Enterprise."Do not bore me with your human pleasantries."
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Aquiel's dog was consumed and replaced by the coalescent.
- Everyone Is Single: The writers realized this trope was in play after the O'Briens left for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, so they tried to bring in a love interest for Geordi.
- Kill and Replace: The coalescent's MO — its natural life cycle, in fact.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Aquiel claims to not completely remember what happened when Keith attacked her. Riker calls it convenient, but in the denouement Geordi speculates that it was because the coalescent was trying to steal her form.
- Lighthouse Point: The subspace navigation array where Aquiel was stationed is essentially a sci-fi version of the trope. Complete with dark and eerie murder mystery.
- Loving a Shadow: Geordi is at it again. He has to listen to Aquiel's video letters and personal logs to gather clues about her apparent murder and quickly develops a crush on her. Even after learning his lesson when this happened to him with Leah Brahms, it again takes the woman getting creeped out for him to admit why he's already so familiar with her.
- Military Brat: Geordi's background as a well-traveled Starfleet kid comes back here.
- No Kill like Overkill: Discussed. When Aquiel argues that if she shot Rocha with a phaser, it must have been in self defense, but Riker notes that it would take over 30 seconds of sustained phaser fire on the Kill setting to reduce him to the organic slurry that was found on the station. Worf points out that Klingon disruptors would get it done a lot faster.
- Not Helping Your Case: Aquiel is already under suspicion of murdering Rocha when she tries to secretly erase a poor performance report he was about to send to Starfleet. She's trying to protect her career, but it just makes it look even more like she had a motive to murder him.
- Not Himself: It's implied that this was the case with Rocha, as his Starfleet records paint a very different picture of him from the one described in Uhnari's logs — because the being she met wasn't really him. Also, when Uhnari learns that her dog has been chewing Geordi's shoes, she comments "That's not like you..."
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Klingon governor from the sector across the border is needlessly uncooperative throughout the entire affair.
- Pardon My Klingon:Worf: Have the courage to admit your mistakes. Or are you a lo'Be Vos?
Torak: At least I do not wear the uniform of a petaQ'! - Posthumous Character: Rocha. Aquiel describes him as an unprofessional jerk, but his files indicate that he was a model officer. Curious...
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Aquiel was transferred to a one-year tour on Relay Station 47 on the Klingon border because her previous commanding officer didn't like her attitude. There's no explanation for why the exemplary officer Rocha got assigned to the same post.
- Recycled In Space: The premise of the episode is based on Laura. Once Aquiel turns up alive, the plot follows Basic Instinct with her as the suspected murderer seducing the investigator. The climax turns the plot into The Thing (1982) where Aquiel isn't the murderer, it's really an alien shape-shifter that consumes other creatures and mimics them.
- Red Herring:
- Basically every guest character rotates through the 'suspect' position—first Keith Rocha, when they think the residue is Aquiel's remains. Then a Klingon officer is suspected of the murder, due to his DNA being found on the station. Then Aquiel is revealed to be alive, and everyone thinks she murdered Rocha to keep him from reporting her bad behavior.
- When trying to figure out what happened on the station, Geordi listens to Aquiel twice mention having the same nightmare over and over. This ultimately has nothing to do with the mystery.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Aquiel is a literal example, as the only thing different about her is a minimal rubber prosthetic on her forehead that leaves her attractive enough that Geordi is instantly interested in her on first sight.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!:
- Picard secures the cooperation of the Klingon governor by name-dropping Chancellor Gowron. The audience will know that Gowron feels no loyalty whatsoever to Picard, but the threat is itself enough to get Picard what he wants.
- Geordi offers to "put in a good word" and get Aquiel a posting on the Enterprise. She turns him down, noting that there are officers with better records dying to secure such a berth.
- Token Minority Couple: Although this was usually averted by Geordi having white love interests (Christy Henshaw, Leah Brahms), this time he's paired with a black woman, despite her being from an alien species.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Two: To Laura, and to The Thing (1982), complete with a shape shifting creature masquerading as a dog.
