Earl Boen credited as playing...
Nagilum
- [on the viewscreen appears a distorted face]
- Nagilum: Why're you so alarmed when I've gone to such trouble to look just like you?
- Lt. Cmdr. Data: Captain, sensors show nothing out there - absolutely nothing.
- Lieutenant Geordi La Forge: Sure is a damned ugly nothing.
- Nagilum: [evaluating the Humans] You seem to find no tranquility in anything. You struggle against the inevitable. You thrive on conflict. You're selfish, yet you value loyalty. You're rash, quick to judge, slow to change. It's amazing you've survived. Be that as it may, as species, we have no common ground. You're too aggressive, too hostile, too militant.
- Capt. Picard: During this period, you, too, have been evaluated. It would seem that we have at least one thing in common.
- Nagilum: Oh?
- Capt. Picard: Curiosity.
- Nagilum: Your point is well-taken, Captain. Perhaps that *is* a trait we share.
- Capt. Picard: Then perhaps we shall meet again. But next time, it will be out here, among the stars.
- [Nagilum is wondering about the different physical "construction" of Dr. Pulaski, compared to her fellow crew members']
- Dr. Kate Pulaski: Yes, well, uh, there are minor differences. I am what we call a female.
- Nagilum: I understand - the masculine and the feminine.
- Capt. Picard: It is the way in which we propagate our species.
- Nagilum: Please, demonstrate how this is accomplished.
- Dr. Kate Pulaski: Not likely.
- Nagilum: To understand death, I must amass information on every aspect of it. Every kind of dying. The experiments shouldn't take more than a third of your crew, maybe half.