Episode Report Card Keckler: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Mucus of Borg
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 22 | Aired on 04.30.2002
Trip and Quantum rush to meet Reed and a random security guy at the cargo hold in question. Quantum orders them all to set their pistols on "stun," and Reed goes in first. The four of them creep around in the dark for awhile, until Trip finds what they're looking for. The other three join him in looking in horror at the Globlin, and we get a view of an unconscious Crewman Kelly wrapped in the Globlin's slimy embrace. Note that her head is conveniently non-slimed. As they watch, the slime tightens around her. "The light!" Quantum says, and Trip immediately lowers his flashlight. The slime hug relaxes around Kelly. Reed pulls out a tri-corder and determines that Kelly is alive. Well, considering that she groaned a bit when the Globlin slime-hugged her, I came to that conclusion as well. Without a tri-corder. Rostov weakly calls out to them and tells them to leave. His head is also conveniently non-slimed. The other four start to back away from the Globlin, but Quantum is finally grabbed around the ankle and dragged across the floor by a few really fake-looking CGI tentacles. Trip catches Quantum's wrists and is dragged along as well. Reed and Random Security Guy fire at one of the tentacles. The Globlin emits a high-pitched shriek and jerks the wounded tentacle away, but the other two tentacles jerk Quantum through the air. A few tentacles wrap themselves around Trip's chest and tug him backward. Trip fights to maintain his ground, but loses. Four slimed, two to go. What a mucus web we weave when first we practice to be dumb. Trip yells at Reed and Random Security Guy to get out of there. RSG looks down to see a tentacle snaking its way toward his foot. He turns and starts to clamber up a ladder, but the tentacle follows him and tugs. There's a classic Jaws moment when we see RSG's face as he grips the ladder handrails, before he's jerked down and out of sight, arms flailing. Reed looks around, terrified, and sees several tentacles meandering in his direction. He half-turns and stumble-falls backwards out of the cargo hold, slamming the door on a few stray tentacles and snapping a piece of one off before he manages to get the door securely closed. Reed backs down the corridor, phaser pointed at the sliming, wriggling Globlin segment.
Situation Room. Reed stands in front of a infrared view of the cargo hold, which shows the Globlin webbed against one corner of the hold, and announces that "this thing appears to be growing. There's no telling if it will get out of the cargo bay." Kelly identified it as a "cargo hold" and now Reed's calling it a "cargo bay." Isn't there a difference between "bay" and "hold"? Reed suggests that they evacuate the entire deck. Hoshi wonders how the Globlin got aboard, and Maywhodunit points out that the last time the airlock was open was when they were docked with the Kreetassans. "You think they left us a little souvenir," Reed states. T'Pol says that, although their meeting with the aliens didn't go swimmingly, they didn't give the Kreetassans any reason to attack them. Maybe they were more disgusted by Trip's foot odor than the crew realized. T'Pol goes on to say that they can't even be certain the Globlin has hostile intentions. "You didn't see that thing go after the Captain! It seemed hostile enough to me!" Reed blusters. Maywheeze suggests scanning for the Kreetassan's warp trail, since they might know something about the Globlin. T'Pol agrees, and tells Hoshi they'll need to be better at chewing the fat with them than they were the last time. Hoshi tightly tells T'Pol, "I'll do my best."