star trek aquiel cast

13th episode of the 6th season of Star Trek: The Next Generation / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dear wikiwand ai, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:.

Can you list the top facts and stats about Aquiel?

Summarize this article for a 10 year old

" Aquiel " is the 139th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation , the 13th episode of the sixth season .

Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D . In this episode, the crew of the Enterprise investigates a mysterious death on a remote station, and Commander La Forge falls for the main suspect.

This episode was written by Jeri Taylor, Brannon Braga, and Ronald D. Moore. [1] It was directed by Cliff Bole, and aired on television on February 1, 1993. [1]

Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

• View history

"Aquiel" was the 139th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation , the 13th episode of the show's sixth season , first aired during the week of 1 February 1993 . The episode was written by Jeri Taylor , Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore MA and directed by Cliff Bole MA .

• 1.1 Characters
• 1.2 Starships
• 1.3 Locations
• 1.4 Races and cultures
• 1.5 States and organizations
• 1.6 Other references
• 2 Chronology
• 3.2.1 Timeline
• 3.3 External link

References [ ]

Characters [ ], starships [ ], locations [ ], races and cultures [ ], states and organizations [ ], other references [ ], chronology [ ], appendices [ ].

Connections [ ]

Timeline [ ], external link [ ].

• Aquiel article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• 1 USS Triumph (NCC-26228)
• 2 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 3 Odyssey class

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• The Fall Guy Link to The Fall Guy
• I Saw the TV Glow Link to I Saw the TV Glow
• The Idea of You Link to The Idea of You

New TV Tonight

• Doctor Who: Season 1
• Dark Matter: Season 1
• The Chi: Season 6
• Reginald the Vampire: Season 2
• Bodkin: Season 1
• Blood of Zeus: Season 2
• Black Twitter: A People's History: Season 1
• Pretty Little Liars: Summer School: Season 2
• Hollywood Con Queen: Season 1
• Love Undercover: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• A Man in Full: Season 1
• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1
• Sugar: Season 1
• The Sympathizer: Season 1
• Them: Season 2
• Shōgun: Season 1
• Ripley: Season 1
• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Hacks: Season 3 Link to Hacks: Season 3
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

30 Most Popular Movies Right Now: What to Watch In Theaters and Streaming

Box Office 2024: Top 10 Movies of the Year

Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Movie Re-Release Calendar 2024: Your Guide to Movies Back In Theaters

2024-2025 Awards Calendar

• Trending on RT
• The Fall Guy
• The Idea of You
• Best Movies of All Time
• Play Movie Trivia

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 6, Episode 13

Where to watch, star trek: the next generation — season 6, episode 13.

Watch Star Trek: The Next Generation — Season 6, Episode 13 with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

More Like This

Cast & crew.

Patrick Stewart

Capt. Jean-Luc Picard

Jonathan Frakes

Cmdr. William Riker

LeVar Burton

Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge

Michael Dorn

Gates McFadden

Dr. Beverly Crusher

Marina Sirtis

Counselor Deanna Troi

Episode Info

No Additional Articles

External links.

• Entry at Wikipedia
• Entry at IMDb
• Search at Google

• English German French Spanish
• encyclopedia

Patrick Stewart

Jonathan Frakes

Brent Spiner

LeVar Burton

Plot keywords, alternative titles.

Embed Movie Information

• Crew / Cast

Writing Department

Directing department.

Camera Department

Sound department.

• assign appropriate genres
• assign plot keywords
• enter an abstract
• enter the plot of the episode

All text information on this page is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons License. See Copyright for more information. We're cooperating with TV-Browser .

* Affiliate link: If you order something via this link, omdb might get a small commission.

Imprint   |   Conditions of use   |   Privacy policy   |   Copyright

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Episode Preview: Aquiel

PALEY ARCHIVE

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION: AQUIEL (TV)

One in this series of science fiction programs about the voyages of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the 24th century. This sequel to the original "Star Trek" series is set approximately 85 years after the journeys of the first Enterprise crew. In this episode, Lt. Cmdr. La Forge is dangerously attracted to a Starfleet lieutenant named Aquiel (Renee Jones), who could be responsible for the murder of her commanding officer. Arriving at a communications relay station near the Klingon border, the Enterprise crew is dismayed to discover that the station is empty, except for a dog and some bizarre cellular residue that appear to be human remains. While the doctor examines the residue, La Forge studies the personal computer records of Aquiel, whom he believes is dead; in his attempts to determine what happened on the station, he finds himself strangely attracted to her image. When Capt. Picard accuses the Klingons of attacking the station, the Klingons bring forward two suspects: Aquiel, who is alive and unsure of what actually happened on the station, and Commander Morag. As La Forge grows increasingly attracted to Aquiel, the evidence against her mounts, and La Forge becomes determined to help her. Meanwhile, Dr. Crusher begins to suspect that another being could be responsible for the murder of Aquiel's commanding officer -- a being that may have taken control of either Aquiel or Morag. No commercials.

• NETWORK: Syndicated
• DATE: February 1, 1993 Monday
• RUNNING TIME: 0:45:43
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: T:29472
• GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
• SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
• SERIES RUN: Syndicated - TV series, 1987-1994
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Cast & Crew

Renee Jones

Lt. Aquiel Uhnari

Wayne Grace

Governor Torak

Reg E. Cathey

Information

© 2011 CBS Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Accessibility

Copyright © 2024 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Internet Service Terms Apple TV & Privacy Cookie Policy Support

Star Trek: The Next Generation : "Aquiel"/"Face Of The Enemy"

"Aquiel" (season 6, episode 13, originally aired: 1/30/1993)

or  The One Where Geordi Meets The Thing

Sometimes you make an emotional connection to a person, or a piece of art (or entertainment, if we want to avoid getting all snobby about it) that far outweighs that art's objective value. Admittedly, "objective value" is hard to pin down when it comes to stories, because there really are no hard and fast rules for setting standards. But if I were to tell you that I have a certain affection for  Tango & Cash , a terribly silly Slyvester Stallone/Kurt Russell action movie in which Russell dresses in drag at one point and Stallone is supposed to be "the smart one," I certainly wouldn't expect you to rush out and buy a copy. Nor would I put much effort into defending the merits of the film, even if I've seen it half a dozen times at least. People always get awkward and over-contemplative whenever the subject of conversation turns to guilty pleasures, but I think the phrase really just means "this is something I like a lot, and I have no idea why."

Related Content

I don't think I'd go so far as to say I like "Aquiel." It's a weird episode, one that establishes a mystery and that resolves it via a solution that comes perilously close to cheating. It's also another awkward electronic meet-cute for Geordi, and once again, the writers of  TNG  show themselves largely incapable of creating a romantic relationship that doesn't come off as really, really creepy. This is is probably the weakest I've seen of season 6, a bunch of awkward story ideas mashed together with some weird character behavior and an unintentionally funny ending. But I have to confess something; while I don't really like this episode, I also have a certain affection for it, for reasons that don't have a lot to do with the ep itself. I don't think that affection affected my critical judgment (if anything, I was harder on this  because  I remembered parts of it so well), but, hey I thought I'd mention it. "Aquiel" is the first show I ever remember stealing from.

Right, so I've mentioned I decided I was going to be a writer when I was eleven, right? Stephen King novel, wandering tortured genius, not much of a juggler—I'm sure you've heard a thousand times before. The first thing I ever wrote (okay, not the  first  thing, not even the first  fictional  thing, because I also did this great story when I was really young about a magic bat, only the magic was in the kid who had the bat  the entire time , so I guess this whole digression is based on a lie, since I'd already stolen from  Dumbo  when I was, like, eight, but we'll just push forward anyway) was a short story called "Poe," about Edgar Allan Poe's typewriter, and his ghost who wanted to murder the descendant of the guy who beat him to death. It wasn't very good, but it had a beginning, a middle, and an end. But I didn't know what to do next. Until I watched "Aquiel."

The  Enterprise  is on a mission to deliver supplies to Relay Station 47, but when the arrive at the station, they find it empty of personnel. The station  should  have two Starfleet officers, Lt. Aquiel Unhari (Renee Jones) and Keith Rocha, but instead, there's a dog, and a strange blob of genetic material that may be someone's remains. There's also a suspicious absence of shuttlecraft. Beverly finds some dried blood, and determines that it's Aquiel's, but she doesn't know who the blob used to be. So Geordi, after poking around, gets access to Aquiel's personal logs, and he starts watching the logs to try and put together what happened to her and Rocha. And, because he's Geordi (and because this part of the episode is doing a little stealing of its own), he starts falling in love with what he sees.

That's the part that struck me, when I was twelve or so. Not the romance part, but the idea of someone trying to piece together a story through the subjective accounts of the people who were no longer around to answer questions. The idea isn't original to  TNG , but I didn't know that. And for whatever reason, I decided that I was going to write my own story, stealing the set-up (guy comes to a seemingly empty space station, starts watching video logs), and then making up my own ending. There was a robot, and it was terrible. Just godawful, but I was 12, so that was my excuse, and at least ending made some sense within the context of the world I'd clumsily created. Sure, there were crazy plotholes, and nearly every idea was ripped off of  Trek  or Isaac Asimov, but at least you knew there was a robot on the station at the start of the story. I didn't pull that whole robot thing out of thin air, is what I'm saying.

"Aquiel" goes a different route, and that route makes an already uneven and forced episode appear even shoddier. The locked-room-ish mystery isn't a bad hook for a genre show, and while the possibilities of space travel make the intended claustrophobia of the premise less restrictive, I was curious throughout the episode as to how they would explain the absence of crew-members on the station, and the presence of that organic goo. And to its credit, "Aquiel" does do a decent job of keeping you guessing right up till the end. There are Klingons hanging around, which always complicates matters, and the information Geordi finds in Aquiel's logs doesn't clear things up one way or the other. He develops an almost instant attraction to the presumed dead crew-member, because, well, of course he does. This is Geordi, after all, and the show refuses to allow him even the slightest sliver of dignity when it comes to romance. But there are aspects of Aquiel's personal journal that are troubling. She had significant problems working with Rocha, and while she seems harmless enough, who knows where those problems might have led?

I think we're supposed to find the character charming, but I didn't. She has all the earmarks of someone who's supposed to be quirky and offbeat and passionate, which in real life would mostly just translate to insufferable and unstable. But hey, maybe  that's  the intention. We're definitely supposed to suspect she's capable of murder, or at least some kind of violence, and it is, admittedly, hard to create a character out of thin air who has chemistry with one of the ensemble and also appeals to the audience. I guess my problem here is that I found Aquiel off-putting throughout the episode, and not in an entertaining way. I wanted her to be the killer at the end, even though I was pretty sure she wouldn't be; not because that would necessarily make for a better story (although it certainly would've made for a better story than what we ended up with), but because I wanted some sort of justification for her creepiness. Instead, she gets a friendly send-off from Geordi, after the two of them have  Demoliton Man- style sex.

Oh, right, I forget to mention: Aquiel isn't dead after all! She just passed out, and was rescued by the Klingons, who return her to the  Enterprise  as proof that they didn't murder her. Only, she doesn't remember what happened in her final moments on the relay station, which doesn't exactly clear her name, and when Riker goes digging into personnel records, he finds she has a history of causing problems and rejecting authority. Rocha's record, on the other hand, is spotless. So here we do get some justification for all the bad vibes Aquiel was sending out earlier. Her personality type is clear enough, and it's one I'm sure we've all had to deal with at some point or another: the "free-spirit" who's basically just irresponsible and flighty and prone to blaming other people whenever her work isn't done on time.

Okay, that may be the stodgiest sentence I've ever written. We don't ever see Aquiel working with anyone, so it's possible that she's been misunderstood or ill-represented. At the very least, though, the records Riker finds suggest Aquiel isn't particularly stable, and her behavior around Geordi doesn't contradict this. After being initially bothered that Geordi went through her private recordings, Aquiel quickly (and accurately) realizes that Geordi is the only person on the  Enterprise  willing to defend her from accusations of murder. Either that, or she's charmed by his directness and honesty—either way, she starts getting closer to him, which in turn makes Geordi even firmly on her side, reservations or no. And that, of course, means that at some point, someone has to pull Geordi aside and tell him that his emotions are clouding his judgment; in this case, it's Riker, but it really could've been anyone.

This whole plotline is an odd fit for the show—it's basically  Basic Instinct  or any of a dozen other movies where a lawyer or a cop got too close to his or her potentially guilty client. (The writers themselves realized this, as they changed the ending of the episode to avoid direct comparisons.) Only, Geordi isn't a prosecutor, and he certainly doesn't have any legal obligation in this case. Really, who does at this point? How does Starfleet handle murder investigations, and is it Picard's responsibility to make some kind of final call regarding her guilt or innocence? I'm sure there's some procedure built in, and I suppose the  Enterprise  is obligated to investigate once they realize potential Klingon involvement. But that still can't really support the sort of sexy, tense shenanigans this scenario is designed to create. Much as I dislike Aquiel, it seems out of character for everyone on the ship but Geordi to side against her. Our heroes always err on the side of trust, so their eagerness to jump to conclusions comes off more as an attempt to generate false tension between Geordi's obligations and his desires. Which isn't to say that his relationship with Aquiel is healthy or reasonable. Almost as soon as she's on board the ship, she's sneaking back to the station to delete some of her more incendiary logs. Geordi finds out, and lectures her how bad this looks, and her protestations sound hollow—the entire conversation could've come from something like  Double Indemnity  or  Body Heat.  And then the two of them hook up using this magical stone which is supposed to increase the mental and emotional connection of a couple, because that's normal, right?

All of this would make a decent amount of sense if it turned out that Aquiel really was the killer. It still wouldn't  work , mind you, but at least we'd have some justification for the off-putting nature of these scenes if we knew Aquiel was hiding a guilty conscience. Instead, in the last ten minutes of the episode, Beverly discovers that the puddle of goo on the station floor didn't actually come from a human, or from any other traditional sentient life form. It's actually cast off from a kind of body-snatcher organism—presumably, it had taken Rocha's shape before Rocha arrived at the station, and then decided it wanted to jump to another host. There's some hemming and hawing as to what form the coalescent (as Beverly describes it) eventually took, but it's the dog. Not Aquiel, not one of the Klingons, but the dog Geordi found on the station at the start of the episode. So, yeah, the weakest choice there, on a plot twist which comes to late to be anything but tacked on. Geordi and Aquiel have one last conversation, in which she turns down his offer to join up with the  Enterprise  crew. It's all supposedly to be very pleasant, but the subtext screams, "You did what I needed you to do, but I'm moving on now."

Just a weird, weird episode all around, and normally one I wouldn't give a second thought to. It sticks in my mind now because I associate it with an important time in my life, but even viewed through the lens of nostalgia, this is weak, with all the hallmarks of bad writing: characters behaving against type (why the hell is Geordi so drawn to Aquiel, anyway?), and a story in which the most interesting concepts are ill-defined.

Stray Observations:

• It seems like whenever someone on TV says, "She has a quirky sense of humor," it translates to, "I would like to have sex with that, please."
• We do get a nice scene in which Worf stares a Klingon Governor down.
• Aquiel is Haliian, an alien race so different from humans that they have slight bumps on their foreheads.

"Face of the Enemy" (season 6, episode 14, originally aired: 2/6/1993)

Or  The One Where Troi Meets The Enemy And She Is It

This is another frustrating episode—more so, even, than "Aquiel," because where "Aquile" seemed misguided from the start, "Face of the Enemy" had a fair bit of potential. And it manages to achieve quite a bit of that potential, really. Troi gets to take a much more active role in the proceedings than she usually does; we get to hear more about Spock's efforts to bring peace to Romulus, albeit without any commentary from the Vulcan himself; and the episode resolution is clever and unexpected. Really, that Troi is the main character here is the big deal, especially considering that at no point in this episode does she fall in love with or become seduced by an ambassador. Hell, she doesn't establish a romantic interest in anyone, and she's even called on to be forceful, quick-thinking, and driven.

So why don't I love this episode? Looking back at it now, a little less than two days after watching it, I feel like I  should  have loved it, or at least liked it more than I do. The episode tries to make Troi credible, and Sirtis certainly isn't terrible at doing what she's called on to do here. But "Face" just wasn't plausible enough for me to buy into the story, and I spent most of the ep expecting a final twist that never came. Arguably, that's more my fault than the episode's; it's not responsible for my expectations, after all. But I'm the reviewer you're stuck with, so all I can do is try and explain my reaction as best I can. If "Aquiel" benefited (marginally) from nostalgia, "Face" suffers for not being as complicated as I hoped it would be—although the fact that I was hoping for those complications may tell you something.

Troi wakes up in a dark room, and when she finally gets the lights on, she sees from her reflection in the mirror that she's been surgically altered to look like a Romulan officer. (And a terribly cute one at that.) Before she can get her bearings, another Romulan, a  real  Romulan, bursts into her room, telling her she's part of a vital mission, that he works with Spock and that they kidnapped Troi from a conference and altered her so she could help them get some precious cargo off a Romulan warbird into Federation space. All Troi has to do, this N'Vek (Scott MacDonald) tells her, is pretend to be one of the elite Romulan officers known as the Tal Shiar, and order Commander Toreth (Carolyn Seymour, whose played a Romulan before, as well as the head scientist back in "First Contact") the warbird's captain, to take them to the Kaleb sector, and everything else will fall into place.

Understandably, Troi doesn't quite know how to handle this situation, especially given that she knows little about the Tal Shiar, or about Romulan culture in general (at least I think she doesn't; if I remember right, Romulans are still fairly unknown quantities to the Federation?). As well, Toreth is a stern, unforgiving leader, and one not accustomed to being ordered around on her own ship. But Troi catches on quickly, and, in a nice change of pace from the character's usual behavior, takes control of the ship as best she can, barking orders and using intimidation tactics when the rest of the crew shows reluctance to follow her. And it's a good thing she works fast, too, because the cargo N'Vek is using her to transport is especially critical: a high-level member of the Romulan government who has chosen to defect to the Federation.

So far, so good, and like I said, I really feel like I should appreciate this more than I do, after all this time complaining that Troi is by far  TNG 's most useless character. Only—I don't buy her involvement here. It just seems like such a random, poorly thought out plan, to the point that I spent most of the ep expecting to learn near the end that N'Vek was actually playing Troi for a fool. I suppose the justification that it was easier to grab her than anybody else on the  Enterprise , given that she was attending a conference, should be enough. And it makes sense that Spock would want them to find someone from Picard's ship, given that he already has a relationship there. But… Troi? And to not give her any sense of what she was doing until maybe five minutes before she actually had to pull it off is bizarre. I suppose it's to create more suspense, that Spock and the others' efforts are so tenuous that they need to resort to this kind of desperate play to have a chance of working out. But it's all very artificial, like one of those dreams when you wander into a class final without being able to remember ever having been in class before.

Still, if you can buy into that (and this could very well be something that irks me in particular, and not a more general flaw of the episode), it is exciting to see Troi bashing in heads. The episode milks a lot of tension out of her butting up against a suspicious-but-can't-prove-anything Toreth, and there's something to be said for having two women vying for power without their gender being relevant in the slightest. (Troi doesn't mention chocolate. Not once.) And as improbably as the set-up is, the seat of the pants feeling works well for "Face" as a whole, because there's a definite sense of risk here. We know intellectually the show isn't going to kill Troi off, but her mission could easily fail, and the fact that she's working without a safety net, on a mission that no one back on the  Enterprise  even knows about, raises the stakes considerably.

There's also the fact that Troi never really knows how far she can trust anyone, not even the ever-demanding N'Vek. Halfway through the ep, the Romulans encounter the Corvallen ship that's supposed to take N'Vek's cargo and deliver it to the  Enterprise . Within a few moments of conversation, Troi realizes the Corvallens are lying, and when she whispers this to N'Vek, his response is to  fire on and destroy the ship . This upsets Toreth, because no commander likes having someone else fire her ship's weapons without her authorization, but if anything, it's even more upsetting to Troi, who had no idea N'Vek would react with such immediate violence. At first, I thought this meant we were going to find out later on that N'Vek was working some other angle, but he stays true to Troi right up until the moment he gets phasered out of existence.

Which, the more I think about it, is actually cool. I mean, how often do shows acknowledge that just because everybody is working for the good guys, that doesn't mean they all have the same idea of how to get the job done? N'Vek reacts like he does because he's a Romulan, and that's what Romulans do—they don't have maybes, just "save" or "destroy." We get this helpfully explained to us in "Face"'s other plotline back on the  Enterprise . The ship picks up a Federation member who had defected to the Romulans twenty years ago, before realizing he'd made some bad choices and defecting back. (Re-defecting? De-defecting?) Ensign Deseve is a stiff looking dude, with larger breasts then you usually get on a man, but he's able to articulate the appeal of Romulan culture, as well as his disenchantment with that culture, very clearly: the Romulans answer every question "yes" or "no," and that's appealing when you're a young man, stuck in a Starfleet full of people constantly trying not to step on each other's toes. But when he got older, Deseve realized that "maybe" has its place as well. It's a pleasantly complex idea—while Deseve is carrying his own message from Ambassador Spock, there's never any suggestion that he's going to go unpunished for his defection. But he came back anyway, knowing the cost.

If it sounds like I'm talking myself into liking this episode more than I thought I did, well, I'm pretty sure that's what's happening. Which must be terribly exciting, I know. But the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that my false apprehension of where the story was headed did "Face" a disservice. I haven't even gotten to the cool ending. Toreth's ship finally runs into the  Enterprise  (after Troi cleverly works out a way to let the  Enterprise  track the ship even while it's cloaked), and Troi takes the bridge to communicate to Captain Picard directly. She says some things that sound like they may be code words, but don't have to be, and convinces Picard to lower his ship's shields. Then Troi orders N'Vek to fire on the  Enterprise— only the weapon he fires is at the lowest setting, and really serves as a smoke screen so N'Vek can transport the Romulan cargo directly to the  Enterprise 's bridge. It works beautifully, only Toreth immediately recognizes the ruse, and N'Vek is killed. Troi survives only because the Romulan ship has to drop its shields when it cloaks, allowing Worf to beam the counselor back to the  Enterprise  at the last second.

I'm sure there are problems I'm overlooking, just as I was almost certainly overly hard on the episode the first time I watched it. That happens from time to time. But really, I think we can all agree that it's a relief to see Troi getting to be more than a victim. While the episode never explicitly stats it (that I can remember), her empathic abilities would be helpful for this kind of espionage work, as it would allow her to fine-tune her performance based off the emotions of the people she was trying to fool, so for once, that power seems useful rather than an after-thought. I'm going to grade this conservatively, as I can't shake the feeling that it didn't entirely work, but I would like to watch this one again sometime. At the very least, it shows that Troi really isn't useless, even if the way the show uses her so often is.

• According to Memory Alpha, this is the last time Spock's efforts on Romulus were mentioned in the franchise until the 2009  Star Trek  movie. This seems like a waste.
• I'm going to go out on a limb and assume we never hear about the defecting Romulans again, either.

Next week:  We trip the light fantastic with "Tapestry," and Worf investigates his "Birthright, Part 1." (There are a lot of two-parters this season!)

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Star Trek: The Next Generation

• Murderous intrigue abounds for the Enterprise when one of the crew aboard a subspace station is believed dead, and suspected to have taken part in it until the Klingons show up with the young lieutenant, to Geordi's taste.
• Bringing supplies to a Federation subspace communications relay station near the Klingon border, the Enterprise finds it deserted by shuttle, only a dog remains. There is a residue Dr. Crusher guesses to be the remains of Lt. Aquiel Uhnari, the dog's owner, whose personal logs reveal to Geordi her childhood paranoia and theory the local Klingon commander made frequent visits to abuse her, while she also feared her only male colleague. When Picard hints at his influence with the Klingon leader since he arbitrated his succession, the planet governor Torak accepts to help himself - and produces Aquiel, alive - or not, and what about the DNA traces Worf found of one single Klingon? Dr. Crusher continues the DNA identification with spooky results... — KGF Vissers
• Bringing supplies to a Federation subspace communications relay station near the Klingon border, the Enterprise finds it deserted by shuttle, only a dog remains. There is a residue which Dr. Crusher guesses to be the remains of Lt. Aquiel Uhnari (Renée Jones), the dog's owner, whose personal logs reveal to Geordi her childhood paranoia and theory the local Klingon commander Morag (Reg E. Cathey) made frequent visits to abuse her. For some reason Geordi can't access any of the video files of the station but can only hear audio. Geordi can't find any of Lt Rocha's log on the station's memory banks. Something is missing. Geordi gets the video files to work and finds that Aquiel was having nightmares was seeing the same scenario again and again. One time Morag even locked his Disruptors on the station, while she also feared her only male colleague Lt Rocha, who joined the station only 2-3 days ago. The shuttle-craft of the station is gone. It is not clear if Rocha left the station before or after Aquiel was killed. The residue on the station has singe marks that are consistent with a Klingon Disruptor. But there hasn't been a Klingon raid against the Federation for the last 7 years. At this point it sounds like Morag attacked the station, killed Aquiel, and Rocha escaped. Beverly brings the DNA sample from the residue remains of Lt Aquiel on the station to her lab and performs test on it. Worf finds the DNA of a single Klingon on the station. When Picard hints at his influence with the Klingon leader since he arbitrated his succession, the planet governor Torak (Wayne Grace) accepts to help himself - and produces Aquiel, alive. Aquiel testifies that while running a routine diagnostic, Lt Rocha attacked her. She managed to escape on the shuttle after trying to access the weapons locker, which she claims she couldn't open. She was found on the Klingon side of the border. She remembers nothing else. Torak allows Picard to speak with Morag. Aquiel is angry that Geordi reviewed her personal logs. Geordi does says that he felt that Aquiel was deliberately trying to rile Lt Rocha. Riker finds that Rocha's record was spotless, while Aquiel was reported by her previous COs to be argumentative and quick to take offense. Also, he finds that a phaser was missing from the weapons locker. The missing phaser was found on Aquiel's shuttle, set to kill. Geordi finds Lt Rocha's personal logs and finds one entry for a specific date is deleted. Aquiel admits that she deleted it, as that was a letter from Rocha to Starfleet command saying that she had become belligerent and insubordinate. Now Morag arrives. He says that his patrol takes him near the station every 6 days. 3 days ago, he hailed the station and found no answer. He boarded the station and found no one. He stole some messages to Starfleet command from the message console. But says he killed no one. Dr. Crusher continues the DNA identification of the residue with spooky results... She finds that the DNA belongs to a coalescent micro-organism that mimics the DNA of the life form it comes in contact with. Prior to the current posting Rocha was on the Triona system and might have touched and absorbed by a coalescent life form. This life form entered the station. The life form needs to change bodies every few days and which is why it might have attacked Aquiel. Aquiel and Morag are apprehended. That night Geordi is attacked, and it turns out that Aquiel's dog that Geordi rescued was the coalescent life form. Geordi kills it with a phaser, and this absolves Aquiel and Morag.

Contribute to this page

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More from this title

More to explore.

Recently viewed

• Web Channels
• Star Trek: The Next Generation

A Starfleet Lieutenant and a Klingon officer is implicated in the murder of the missing starfleet officer on a remote relay station. One of the shuttlecraft's is missing as well. Aquiel Uhnari is befriended by Geordi after he reads her personal logs during the investigation.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry

Reg E. Cathey

Renée Jones

Wayne Grace

Cast appearances.

Patrick Stewart

Jonathan Frakes

Michael Dorn

Gates McFadden

Marina Sirtis

Brent Spiner

Episode discussion.

No comments yet. Be the first!

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E12Aquiel

Recap / Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E12 "Aquiel"

Edit locked.

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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E11 "Ship in a Bottle"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E13 "Face of the Enemy"

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement:

• Jan 30, 1993

Summary "Space... The final frontier... These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life; new civilisations... To boldly go where no one has gone before!" Monologue of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the opening credits Star Trek: The Next Generation is a science fic ... Read More

Directed By : Cliff Bole

Written By : Gene Roddenberry, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore, Jeri Taylor, René Echevarria, Naren Shankar

Where to Watch

Created By : Gene Roddenberry

Season Episodes

Patrick Stewart

Captain jean-luc picard, locutus of borg, michael williams, brent spiner, lieutenant commander data, lore, dr. noonien soong, jonathan frakes, commander william thomas 'will' riker, lieutenant thomas riker, levar burton, lieutenant commander geordi la forge, lieutenant geordi la forge, marina sirtis, counselor deanna troi, michael dorn, lieutenant worf, commander worf, risa tourist, gates mcfadden, doctor beverly crusher, dr. beverly crusher, majel barrett, enterprise computer, lwaxana troi, narrator, wil wheaton, wesley crusher, acting ensign wesley crusher, ensign wesley crusher, colm meaney, chief miles o'brien, transporter chief, battle bridge conn, james g. becker, youngblood, ten forward crew, denise crosby, lieutenant natasha 'tasha' yar, sela, whoopi goldberg, diana muldaur, doctor katherine pulaski, doctor pulaski, patti yasutake, nurse alyssa ogawa, doctor alyssa ogawa, dennis madalone, ansata terrorist, borg, cardassian, fajo's henchman 1, guard, holodeck warrior, holographic warrior, ramos, science division crewman, transporter technician, michelle forbes, ensign ro laren, dara, lieutenant ro laren, rosalind chao, keiko o'brien, keiko ishikawa, john de lancie, brian bonsall, alexander rozhenko, user reviews.

There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.

Related Shows

Samurai Jack

Genndy tartakovsky's primal, battlestar galactica (2003), game of thrones, the pacific, harley quinn, buffy the vampire slayer, the last of us, scott pilgrim takes off, star wars: visions, the legend of vox machina, star trek: strange new worlds, the long road home, from the earth to the moon, the tourist, the guardians of the galaxy holiday special, related news.

2024 Summer/Fall TV Premiere Calendar

Jason dietz.

Find a frequently updated calendar of premiere dates for all upcoming new and returning television shows on broadcast, streaming, and cable, plus TV movies and specials and VOD releases.

What to Watch on Apple TV+ Right Now

Get a list of the best movie and TV titles recently added (and coming soon) to Apple TV+, updated frequently.

What to Watch on Peacock Right Now

Get a list of the best movies and TV shows recently added (and coming soon) to the Peacock streaming service, updated frequently.

May 2024 TV Preview

The month ahead will bring Apple's latest sci-fi series, the return of Hacks, a new Doctor Who, and more.

What to Watch on Paramount+ Right Now

Find a list of the best movies and TV shows recently added to Paramount+ and Paramount+ With Showtime, plus a list of titles coming soon to the streaming services.

What to Watch on Max Right Now

Get a list of the best movies and TV shows recently added (and coming soon) to Max--plus all of the titles leaving the streaming service this month--updated frequently.

Star Trek The Next Generation: Aquiel

Yeah. "Meh" is correct. I honestly didn't remember this one except it was so obvious that it was all about the dog.

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.

Aquiel Stardate: 46461.3 Original Airdate: 1 Feb, 1993

<Back to the episode listing

Star Trek ® and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc . Copyright © 1966, Present. The Star Trek web pages on this site are for educational and entertainment purposes only. All other copyrights property of their respective holders.