One thing that did surprise me is that Data specifically stated the "hole in space" has never been encountered before. Yes it has and Kirk found a giant amoeba inside.
"Where Silence Has Lease": Nagilum's observations
- Thread starter Ragitsu
- Start date
I can see your point, but on the other side they still seemed to try using the Ferengi as at least one of the main antagonists in Season 2, considering that Q especially mentioned them in "Q, Who" and their appearance in "Peak Performance".
I can't lie, Nagilum's end statement always felt like something out of an unused script/bit with Q that they dusted off for that scene.
Seriously, read that end assessment in De Lancie's voice at his smuggest and (other the than the remark about common ground) it feels completely natural for Q.
Seriously, read that end assessment in De Lancie's voice at his smuggest and (other the than the remark about common ground) it feels completely natural for Q.
I'm highly fond of Earl Boen's voice work. The spirit of that message may have been properly conveyed by John de Lancie, but the delivery of the former actor is inimitable.
For Nagilum. There's really nothing that can be remotely compared to scientific about what it's doing. It's not trying to prove some sort of scientific hypothesis, or discover a new way of understanding a scientific notion or what have you, wherein lives of subjects happened to be lost in the effort (which even in itself is debatably ethical)
This creature is merely trying to decide whether the crew are beings worth valuing, by subjecting them to its scrutiny & torment. A certain amount of experimentation might be forgivable, like the original mazelike tests, but saying it should destroy half of them, to see how that goes, is abhorrent.
I think we'd all agree that any scientist who took a newly discovered life form & experimented on it, cruelly enough to destroy it in multitudes of ways, simply out of curiosity, is a horrible scientist & disgusting being, akin to like Mengele. It might as well be a kid pulling the wings of insects
I have no problem with a totally alien being not having human ethical standards, ones which actual humans violate as mentioned.
Nagilum even does not really understand much about other creatures being capable of dying. Killing off half the crew to study that was not a surprise, he/she/it can create physical objects (or close enough to physical that for all intents and purposes they are real) which fold space to test Riker and Worf. Nagilum created a warbird indistinguishable from real just to see their reaction.
Nagilum seems comfortable with objects but lacks an understanding of biological ones. For all we know the Enterprise encounter might have been his first contact with limited biologicals and the desire to test and learn about them drives the episode. At the end he does let them go but showing up to chat with Picard indicates he was not done, he just altered the experiment, sort of like Q's neverending trial.
Nagilum even does not really understand much about other creatures being capable of dying. Killing off half the crew to study that was not a surprise, he/she/it can create physical objects (or close enough to physical that for all intents and purposes they are real) which fold space to test Riker and Worf. Nagilum created a warbird indistinguishable from real just to see their reaction.
Nagilum seems comfortable with objects but lacks an understanding of biological ones. For all we know the Enterprise encounter might have been his first contact with limited biologicals and the desire to test and learn about them drives the episode. At the end he does let them go but showing up to chat with Picard indicates he was not done, he just altered the experiment, sort of like Q's neverending trial.
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Had the same impression and considering that
the Metrons, Nacene, Iconians and the Q Continuum was mentioned in Discovery Season 4's latest episode in regard to the DMA and they also brought back a rather obscure species (the Akaali) from ENT, i think there is a really good chance we'll see Nagilum continue it's experiment in Discovery and/or his conclusion.
Neither do I honestly. I'm not a fan, obviously, but it should be expected that they'd come across that out there. The main issue is that it's a hypocrite at the end, passing judgements on the crew as if it's somehow above those traits it condemns others for
If I were Picard, I'd have been like... "Quick to judge, rash & aggressive? Dude! 5 minutes ago you were headlong into snuffing us out for a book report. Don't understand us? Fine. Don't like or approve of us? Cool. Want us to bugger off? Great. Just spare me your empty platitudes, dick."
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