[6.8/10] I think Geordi would become fast friends with Tina Belcher from Bob’s Burgers. They could commiserate over their shared propensity to fall in love with people they barely know through brief recorded (or imagined) snippets of their lives. First Leah Brahms, now the eponymous Aquiel -- Geordi just can’t help crushing on women he only knows through their personnel files and correspondence.
At least he meets this one in person and quickly owns up to how he knows all these personal details about her. His affections unfurl when the Enterprise is investigating a disappearance and, effectively, a murder mystery aboard a relay station. When they think the two Starfleet officers on the station have been killed, Geordi goes through Aquiel’s personal logs to try to figure out what happened, gradually becoming enamored with her after seeing her personal messages to her sister.
Of course, the complications come when it turns out Aquiel isn’t dead, but the superior officer she had rampant disagreements with definitely is. Oh, and she can’t remember what happened on the station and has been having weird stressful dreams lately. So, you know, nothing fishy there whatsoever, Mr. LaForge!
But honestly, that’s one of the best parts of “Aquiel”. Geordi is kind of a dope here. He falls for his virtual love and goes head over heels when, against all odds, she actually returns his affections rather than being creeped out by his accidental stalking session. That leaves him blinkered to the creeping signs that she is the culprit, setting aside his objectivity because of his infatuation with this woman.
The episode is basically a noir story. There’s a crime that needs to be solved. Our protagonist is basically a detective investigating it. He becomes attached to a femme fatale who clouds his judgment when it comes to evaluating what really happened. There’s personal squabbles and external threats that all provide plausible alternative theories for the murder. And the gumshoe is in too deep with his lady love to see the truth staring him in the face. All the ingredients are there.
The problem is simple -- there’s zero style to “Aquiel.” It’s a dull, staid episode without any of the flavor that a good noir mystery brings in spades. The first half of it is a dry, technical recitation of what may have happened aboard the relay station. And even when Aquiel shows up on the Enterprise and Geordi starts falling in too deep, there’s a staid quality to everything. Maybe it’s just the guest actor’s performance. She’s unconvincing and breathless in a way that leaves the mood of this one stultifying. But whatever the reason, this episode manages to make the prospect of a murder with multiple legitimate supsects and a Starfleet officer being compromised into something so so boring.
It’s especially disappointing because this is a well-built mystery. The show offers scads of clues that could point in any direction. Aquiel is the obvious killer, given her resentments for her superior officer and questionable memory lapses. The presence of a combative Klingon who left DNA at the station also suggests some skullduggery that could account for the grisly incident. And as always with Star Trek, there’s the possibility of some science fiction phenomenon to explain why all our more prosaic suspicions were wrong. The story does a good job of keeping the audience on its toes.
Naturally, it turns out to be the third option, though. There’s a “coalescing” organism that possesses other organisms like a parasite and leaps from body to body after a period of days in each host. The concept is a cool one, creating a unique answer to the murder mystery -- an alien both killed and was the victim -- that only a show like The Next Generation could do. The organism half-possessing Aquiel before she escaped accounts for her lost time. The knowledge that the organism exists but not who it possessed creates some tension for the audience when Aquiel’s alone with Geordi. And the episode even plays fair with the twist that it’s her dog who’s been absorbed by the organism, since the pup was introduced and present from the jump.
For all the great conceptual work here though, the nuts and bolts writing and scene-to-scene tone is just so flat. If you described this plot to someone at a coffee shop, they’d think it was a twisty, tightly-wound adventure. Instead, it’s a slow-moving, awkward slog from the technical manual-esque beginning to the strangely subdued finish. How you tell the story matters, even when the idea is a sharp one, and for whatever reason, the Next Generation creative team got stuck on the “doldrums” setting.
Some of that owes to the unavailing romance between Geordi and Aquiel. Nevermind the fact that their whole dalliance begins with another act of accidental creepiness from LaForge. I can buy their mutual infatuation in principle, even if Geordi’s willing to risk his career for a woman he just met. The guy’s been unlucky in love as long as we’ve known him, so him going overboard for the first woman (more or less) to give him the time of day isn’t as crazy as it may seem. But there’s very little chemistry there, so it’s hard to feel the pull of their relationship enough to buy him ignoring her as an obvious murder suspect.
And yet, I couldn’t help recall an interview LeVar Burton gave where he talked about not being permitted to evoke sexuality or intimacy as a black man on television in the 1990s. The sparks don’t exactly fly here, but Geordi is allowed to have intimate moments with Aquiel, ones where, however stilted his scene partner’s acting, they feel close and physically attracted to one another in a way beyond the chaste. There’s value in that, even if the execution leaves more than a little something to be desired.
Even so, it only makes the squandered potential of “Aquiel” all the more egregious. Somewhere in this stolid whodunnit is the makings of a brilliant noir homage with a cool sci-fi twist in the ending. But the way The Next Generation goes about it sucked all the life out of the story. Personal conflicts of interest, diplomatic tangles, and a death with no witnesses all have the punch good episodes are made of. This one just can’t put the pieces together in a way that holds onto those thrills.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-10-27T03:15:28Z
[6.8/10] I think Geordi would become fast friends with Tina Belcher from Bob’s Burgers. They could commiserate over their shared propensity to fall in love with people they barely know through brief recorded (or imagined) snippets of their lives. First Leah Brahms, now the eponymous Aquiel -- Geordi just can’t help crushing on women he only knows through their personnel files and correspondence.
At least he meets this one in person and quickly owns up to how he knows all these personal details about her. His affections unfurl when the Enterprise is investigating a disappearance and, effectively, a murder mystery aboard a relay station. When they think the two Starfleet officers on the station have been killed, Geordi goes through Aquiel’s personal logs to try to figure out what happened, gradually becoming enamored with her after seeing her personal messages to her sister.
Of course, the complications come when it turns out Aquiel isn’t dead, but the superior officer she had rampant disagreements with definitely is. Oh, and she can’t remember what happened on the station and has been having weird stressful dreams lately. So, you know, nothing fishy there whatsoever, Mr. LaForge!
But honestly, that’s one of the best parts of “Aquiel”. Geordi is kind of a dope here. He falls for his virtual love and goes head over heels when, against all odds, she actually returns his affections rather than being creeped out by his accidental stalking session. That leaves him blinkered to the creeping signs that she is the culprit, setting aside his objectivity because of his infatuation with this woman.
The episode is basically a noir story. There’s a crime that needs to be solved. Our protagonist is basically a detective investigating it. He becomes attached to a femme fatale who clouds his judgment when it comes to evaluating what really happened. There’s personal squabbles and external threats that all provide plausible alternative theories for the murder. And the gumshoe is in too deep with his lady love to see the truth staring him in the face. All the ingredients are there.
The problem is simple -- there’s zero style to “Aquiel.” It’s a dull, staid episode without any of the flavor that a good noir mystery brings in spades. The first half of it is a dry, technical recitation of what may have happened aboard the relay station. And even when Aquiel shows up on the Enterprise and Geordi starts falling in too deep, there’s a staid quality to everything. Maybe it’s just the guest actor’s performance. She’s unconvincing and breathless in a way that leaves the mood of this one stultifying. But whatever the reason, this episode manages to make the prospect of a murder with multiple legitimate supsects and a Starfleet officer being compromised into something so so boring.
It’s especially disappointing because this is a well-built mystery. The show offers scads of clues that could point in any direction. Aquiel is the obvious killer, given her resentments for her superior officer and questionable memory lapses. The presence of a combative Klingon who left DNA at the station also suggests some skullduggery that could account for the grisly incident. And as always with Star Trek, there’s the possibility of some science fiction phenomenon to explain why all our more prosaic suspicions were wrong. The story does a good job of keeping the audience on its toes.
Naturally, it turns out to be the third option, though. There’s a “coalescing” organism that possesses other organisms like a parasite and leaps from body to body after a period of days in each host. The concept is a cool one, creating a unique answer to the murder mystery -- an alien both killed and was the victim -- that only a show like The Next Generation could do. The organism half-possessing Aquiel before she escaped accounts for her lost time. The knowledge that the organism exists but not who it possessed creates some tension for the audience when Aquiel’s alone with Geordi. And the episode even plays fair with the twist that it’s her dog who’s been absorbed by the organism, since the pup was introduced and present from the jump.
For all the great conceptual work here though, the nuts and bolts writing and scene-to-scene tone is just so flat. If you described this plot to someone at a coffee shop, they’d think it was a twisty, tightly-wound adventure. Instead, it’s a slow-moving, awkward slog from the technical manual-esque beginning to the strangely subdued finish. How you tell the story matters, even when the idea is a sharp one, and for whatever reason, the Next Generation creative team got stuck on the “doldrums” setting.
Some of that owes to the unavailing romance between Geordi and Aquiel. Nevermind the fact that their whole dalliance begins with another act of accidental creepiness from LaForge. I can buy their mutual infatuation in principle, even if Geordi’s willing to risk his career for a woman he just met. The guy’s been unlucky in love as long as we’ve known him, so him going overboard for the first woman (more or less) to give him the time of day isn’t as crazy as it may seem. But there’s very little chemistry there, so it’s hard to feel the pull of their relationship enough to buy him ignoring her as an obvious murder suspect.
And yet, I couldn’t help recall an interview LeVar Burton gave where he talked about not being permitted to evoke sexuality or intimacy as a black man on television in the 1990s. The sparks don’t exactly fly here, but Geordi is allowed to have intimate moments with Aquiel, ones where, however stilted his scene partner’s acting, they feel close and physically attracted to one another in a way beyond the chaste. There’s value in that, even if the execution leaves more than a little something to be desired.
Even so, it only makes the squandered potential of “Aquiel” all the more egregious. Somewhere in this stolid whodunnit is the makings of a brilliant noir homage with a cool sci-fi twist in the ending. But the way The Next Generation goes about it sucked all the life out of the story. Personal conflicts of interest, diplomatic tangles, and a death with no witnesses all have the punch good episodes are made of. This one just can’t put the pieces together in a way that holds onto those thrills.