End of "Aquiel"

[gillmanjr]

I watched Aquiel yesterday and at the end I was thinking: there is no way that both Laforge and Riker wouldn't have considered the possibility that the dog is the coalescent organism. Both of them are in Laforge's quarters at the end talking about who it could be and both of them pet the dog. I seriously doubt that neither of them would have thought of that, let alone everyone else who was involved like Worf and Crusher. What do you think?

BTW I like this episode. I think its the only one where Laforge gets some action, albeit very short lived. Poor Laforge...

 

[JesterFace]

This episode has a special meaning for me, it was the first episode I bought on VHS back in the 90s.

So, I've wondered about the same thing trying to find a way so "save" this episode.

Few options, don't laugh, I know these sound very far fetched...

• Maybe the dog was scanned for "coalescency", but nothing was found. Who knows why, maybe the coalescent being used a totally different way to take control over the dog's body than was previously learned. Dog is a different beign from human, not by much but maybe enough to ”fool” a tricorder. Also, this was a new life form, at least in some way. There might not have been enough information about this creature to understand it.

• Perhaps the being that is taken over needed to be self-aware so that the coalescent being could control the new body.

Another thing about this episode that bugs me a little bit is the part where Aquiel decides to leave because the investigation is not going her way.

Where was she going to go and how? Maybe it was just Aquiel trying to show Geordi how scared she was...

Feel free to use my "coalescent theories" in some other way if possible to save this episode.

 

[Timo]

It's pretty stunning that a phaser on kill leaves a puddle in this episode, and our heroes think it normal!

It's anything but, of course, and just goes to show how resilient the creature is (I doubt LaForge managed to get all of it with his quickdraw shot, either!).

Perhaps the creature originally wasn't the dog after all? Perhaps it was something that rode on the dog, but jumped behind the table or the chair or the potted plant whenever our heroes scanned the dog? Ultimately, it did eat the dog, but at that point the heroes had already eliminated the animal from consideration.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Wormhole]

there is no way that both Laforge and Riker wouldn't have considered the possibility that the dog is the coalescent organism.

Riker seems to have tunnel vision when it comes to officers with poor records, so the fact Aquiel was considered an insubordinate troublemaker was probably enough for him to damn her as a murderer and an unfit officer and so on. He was probably too intent on placing the blame on the troublemaker he wasn't interested in considering other options.

 

[JesterFace]

Maybe the possibility that the dog was the coalescent being was proposed. Then the dog was scanned but no evidence was found, other than it's a dog. Perfect coalescent camouflage fooled the scanners.