When I first saw this episode I had not seen The Thing so I am sure I thought it was waaaay more original than I did on this watching. Don't get me wrong, I understand why they would want to rip off such a fine film, but rip off really is the best way to describe this episode. Fortunately there is a bit more to it that just a rip off, the parts with Picard negotiating with the Klingon's are really good. Geordi's terribly romantic advances are less amazing. Also if Aquiel was really trying to prove her innocence she really did just about everything she could to make herself seem guilty.
The episode opens with the Enterprise stopping by a communications relay station on the Klingon border to drop off supplies, but when they arrive their hails go unanswered. Riker, Worf, Dr. Crusher and La Forge all beam down to investigate and find the station empty, a shuttle missing, and blood and stains of organic material on the bulkheads. They also find a lovable dog hiding in an access tunnel. The station was supposed to have only two occupants: Aquiel Uhnari and Keith Rocha. The blood matches that of Rocha but Beverley is unable to get any DNA from the tissue residue on the bulkhead so they cut it out and take it back with them. Geordi finds some discrepencies with the message logs implying someone tampered with them and also finds that the station logs have been partially scrambled.
Geordi gets to work on the logs and finds that he can only access those of Aquie. She was clearly pretty lonely on the station and complains a lot about Rocha. She also mentions being harassed by a Klingon captain who regularly locks weapons on the station to mess with them. Picard contacts the Klingon's to see if their captain could have been responsible and at first the governor isn't interested, but when he learns of Picard's ties to Gowron he gets right on it. A Klingon ship arrives and the governor shows up to prove their innocence. Picard doesn't want to believe him but he produces Aquiel alive and well. She was found the missing shuttle inside Klingon space. She claims to have been attacked by Rocha and tried to get a weapon, but doesn't remember anything after that until she was on the shuttle. This now makes her the prime suspect.
Ignoring all this plus the creepiness of having spent the last few days reading her logs, Geordi goes straight to asking her out. They start hanging out together and she is really happy to be reunited with her dog Maura. Back in sickbay Crusher does something to the goop on the bulkhead and it makes a copy of her hand she she realized they are dealing with some sort of shapeshifter that steals the shape of creatures it touches. Suddenly not only is Aquiel suspected of being the shapeshifter, but the Klingon captain who admitted to going on the station is a suspect as well. They are both put in confinement and Geordi starts going through logs again, but he is attacked by the dog Maura. It tries to shapeshift on him but he manages to blast it with a phaser and end the alien menace.
Review: I am going to have to take off at least one whole point for how much this episode borrows from The Thing. Not a bad episode never the less, but it would have been nice if they at least covered their tracks a little better.
5 out of 10
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