This penultimate episode of the episode. Most of this one it taken up with the Wild Cards doing some commando mission on some planet and being spotted by a non-combatant Chig and they have to figure out what they’re going to do about it. They’ve never seen a Chig out of its armour before, so they aren’t even sure if this alien is one of their enemies or some other innocent kind of life. They spend the episode chasing it down and trying to decide if they need to kill it so it doesn’t compromise the mission. Then, at the end of the episode, after they’ve decided not to kill it, the Saratoga is approached by a Chig vessel containing a lone Chig who communicates in Morse code that it wants to bring peace.
So we finally see the Chigs unmasked in this one!
As ever, I am very interested in alien design. We already knew the Chigs had a basic humanoid form, albeit with fewer digits on their hands, but I think I’d built up what might be under their helmets too much and so I was disappointed at first. The general facial layout looks too human for me. But I think I am over that disappointment. These are decent aliens. Right off the bat they’re better than the average Trek alien, right? And the performance sells it. They seem to breathe through those gills, which is cool. And we also are shown that Chigs (or at least the soldiers) seem to be grown in little pods (that resident In-Vitro Hawkes found familiar) and placed in armour at birth and never leave it until they die. All that stuff is suitably alien. Genuinely it made me think of Enemy Mine again, as I did last episode, and I think this design may look more alien than the aliens in that (though I admit it’s been a while since I’ve seen it) and they’re probably about on part with the Terrians from Earth 2 (though sub-Grendler). I do like that the Chigs look rather droopy, not like some fang monsters.
Some other thoughts of note:
-Hawkes uses the pictures of a comic called G.I. Geequed to aid communication with the alien, it’s a war comic that includes Chigs as enemies, making it like the comics published during WWII that had the heroes fighting the Nazis and Japanese. If “Geequed” is a pun or something, I don’t get it, but it’s neat to see the prop comic made for the show.
-Vansen also mentions that she got to see the last living panda at a zoo when she was a kid.
-The episode starts with Vansen narrating a history from the Big Bang to life rising on Earth and such. This, combined with her making a comment about feeling that the Chig comes from the same place as the humans. I’m uncertain what they’re going for here, but I’m still hoping we’re getting a big religious turn before the show ends.
-Perhaps the most important thing: We know from previous episodes than when a Chig’s armour is removed it dissolves into green goo. Apparently the humans have taken to calling this “spooging” and that’s just great.
