This episode is a mystery story, and I cannot dissect it without revealing the key revelations, so do not read any further if you have not seen the episode and are intending to.
So I just saw this episode for the very first time; somehow I had managed to miss it for all these years. It's pretty bad.
Someone else here did a nice job discussing many aspects of its badness, so I will not repeat them. I will instead focus on the problems with the plot, which I have not seen discussed. I find at least three plot flaws.
The least important of these involves the Klingon who boarded the station. While I actually *liked* the use of Klingons in this story as a red herring, the Klingon's actions don't really make sense. He comes on this station, finds no one around, and then, randomly takes a bunch of communications that are one of the worst macguffin's I've ever encountered: *no* mention of what they were or why they were important or what *possible* use he could have had for them. He's a Klingon, after all, not a Romulan or a Cardassian, he's unlikely to be interested in espionage. It's hard to imagine what could possibly be in the communications that could interest him. But OK, we'll suspend disbelief on this and assume there's some plausible explanation that the lazy writing couldn't be bothered to tell us about (or perhaps the broadcast I just watched cut the relevant scene). But here's the unacceptably stupid part: these are computer records, logs of data passing through this communications station. So if you "take" them, they're not *gone*, you just took a copy. For the records to be *missing*, the Klingon would have had to both steal a copy *and* then go and delete the originals. He's have to *go out of his way to leave evidence of trespass*. HUH????
But OK, the whole Klingon thing was a red herring anyway, and not essential to the main plot. So let's review said plot; with the benefit of hindsight, let's put together a time-line of what is actually supposed to have happened:
o On some remote assignment, Lt. Unpleasant-Guy gets eaten and replaced by this funky shape-shifting take-the-form-of-the-thing-you-just-ate entity. OK.
o The changeling Lt. Unpleasant-Guy gets transfered to the communication station with Lt. Geordi-Love-Interest. After a couple days, the changeling thing needs to eat someone else, so he attacks her. She manages to get to the weapons locker, grab a phaser, set it to 10, and escape in a shuttlecraft, albeit losing some memories in the process. OK.
o The changeling Lt. U-G, having no other alternatives, eats and turns into the dog. Then, the changeling dog-- get this-- for some reason manages to climb into that little access tunnel and somehow manages to pull that big heavy piece of equipment behind him to block the entrance to the tunnel. Neither the "how" nor the "why" of this makes the tiniest bit of sense.
o The Klingon guy shows up and does his preposterous steal-the-records-AND-destroy- them trick.
o The Enterprise guys show up and find this residue stuck to the floor that used to be someone. Later, it turns into Dr. Crusher's hand in order to prove it's this shape-shifting- and-replacing entity. BIG PROBLEM: Who the hell is *that*?!?!? It's *not* Lt. U-G's changeling, that became the dog!
So just who's remains did the Enterprise guys find? And what happened to it? Geordi has already asserted that even the set-on-10 phaser couldn't have done that, unless it was fired for like 30 seconds, which would not be self-defense. Nobody argued that point. Lt. G-L-I's only possible motive here would be self-defense; it's established that she was being attacked (her memory draining), and she fled in the shuttlecraft. There would have been no need to flee if she had stood there for 30 seconds annihilating-- who? Remind me again who that was supposed to be? Again, the shape-shifter guy wasn't annihilated, he became the dog.
When someone can give me a plausible explanation of who the remains were and how they got that way, I'll give this episode a higher rating.
So I just saw this episode for the very first time; somehow I had managed to miss it for all these years. It's pretty bad.
Someone else here did a nice job discussing many aspects of its badness, so I will not repeat them. I will instead focus on the problems with the plot, which I have not seen discussed. I find at least three plot flaws.
The least important of these involves the Klingon who boarded the station. While I actually *liked* the use of Klingons in this story as a red herring, the Klingon's actions don't really make sense. He comes on this station, finds no one around, and then, randomly takes a bunch of communications that are one of the worst macguffin's I've ever encountered: *no* mention of what they were or why they were important or what *possible* use he could have had for them. He's a Klingon, after all, not a Romulan or a Cardassian, he's unlikely to be interested in espionage. It's hard to imagine what could possibly be in the communications that could interest him. But OK, we'll suspend disbelief on this and assume there's some plausible explanation that the lazy writing couldn't be bothered to tell us about (or perhaps the broadcast I just watched cut the relevant scene). But here's the unacceptably stupid part: these are computer records, logs of data passing through this communications station. So if you "take" them, they're not *gone*, you just took a copy. For the records to be *missing*, the Klingon would have had to both steal a copy *and* then go and delete the originals. He's have to *go out of his way to leave evidence of trespass*. HUH????
But OK, the whole Klingon thing was a red herring anyway, and not essential to the main plot. So let's review said plot; with the benefit of hindsight, let's put together a time-line of what is actually supposed to have happened:
o On some remote assignment, Lt. Unpleasant-Guy gets eaten and replaced by this funky shape-shifting take-the-form-of-the-thing-you-just-ate entity. OK.
o The changeling Lt. Unpleasant-Guy gets transfered to the communication station with Lt. Geordi-Love-Interest. After a couple days, the changeling thing needs to eat someone else, so he attacks her. She manages to get to the weapons locker, grab a phaser, set it to 10, and escape in a shuttlecraft, albeit losing some memories in the process. OK.
o The changeling Lt. U-G, having no other alternatives, eats and turns into the dog. Then, the changeling dog-- get this-- for some reason manages to climb into that little access tunnel and somehow manages to pull that big heavy piece of equipment behind him to block the entrance to the tunnel. Neither the "how" nor the "why" of this makes the tiniest bit of sense.
o The Klingon guy shows up and does his preposterous steal-the-records-AND-destroy- them trick.
o The Enterprise guys show up and find this residue stuck to the floor that used to be someone. Later, it turns into Dr. Crusher's hand in order to prove it's this shape-shifting- and-replacing entity. BIG PROBLEM: Who the hell is *that*?!?!? It's *not* Lt. U-G's changeling, that became the dog!
So just who's remains did the Enterprise guys find? And what happened to it? Geordi has already asserted that even the set-on-10 phaser couldn't have done that, unless it was fired for like 30 seconds, which would not be self-defense. Nobody argued that point. Lt. G-L-I's only possible motive here would be self-defense; it's established that she was being attacked (her memory draining), and she fled in the shuttlecraft. There would have been no need to flee if she had stood there for 30 seconds annihilating-- who? Remind me again who that was supposed to be? Again, the shape-shifter guy wasn't annihilated, he became the dog.
When someone can give me a plausible explanation of who the remains were and how they got that way, I'll give this episode a higher rating.