In a nutshell: seaQuest investigates a meteorite that lands in the ocean, only to find that an alien stormtrooper was aboard. With the alien loose and killing aboard the boat, the crew retreat into shelters and send out search parties to destroy the alien and locate missing colleagues. The alien then takes Henderson hostage and attacks an eminent scientist – who turns out to also be an alien.

Okay, despite the fact that Ortiz is barely there at all, and in spite of all the alien stuff, this is a fairly good episode. In fact, Ortiz barely being there at all is part of the story (in the first half, at least). And they do a good job of keeping things tense, building up the suspense.

Well, we start off with blind astrophysicist Tobias LeConte making out with his research assistant instead of watching the skies. It turns out that he also has an open vid-link to seaQuest because they are using his trackers to follow the descent of an asteroid. Bridger's old pal Scott Keller (remember him from Season One?) is aboard, all excited about being able to study the asteroid and hopefully learn something that will make inter-stellar travel possible. Tobias is less enthusiastic about this idea. It all comes to nothing anyway, because the asteroid lands in the sea and dissolves completely. But what nobody notices is that a film has started to form around seaQuest …

Up to this point Ortiz has not been seen. Lucas and O'Neill had been giving the information you would expect the sensor chief to provide, so it appeared he wasn't going to be in this at all. Then a brief glimpse is seen of him; he is on the bridge after all, so I have no clue why other people have been doing his job.

Events quickly escalate as the film spreads to cover the whole of seaQuest, making it very hot and heavy, so that it sinks to the bottom of the ocean. The heat appears to be a random excuse for practically the entire crew to strip down to t-shirts or tank tops so that the audience has got plenty of flesh to stare at. And then the ship loses power.
Piccolo discovers a kind of cocoon, which is revealed to have a fast-growing alien creature inside. A guard detail is placed on the door. But then the two Random Extra Guards go into the room to have a look, and you just know that they are doomed. The cocoon pops, and the guards are toast.

Having seen this on the cctv (or whatever they call it) Bridger orders the entire crew into shelters, and locks down the boat, sealing all hatches and doors. O'Neill informs them that there are three crewmembers unaccounted for, including Miguel (he uses the first name: a sign of how worried he is, perhaps, as surely you'd expect a professional report to use the surname). This prompts dramatic music and shock face from everyone, and then the point is hammered home by Dagwood asking, "Ortiz is missing?" just in case the audience hasn't grasped this yet. Still, it's nice to see how concerned they all are about him, since nobody seems to care two hoots about the other two people who are missing, or the two REGs (Random Extra Guards) who just got killed. Possibly this only happened to prove to the audience that this alien is dangerous, unlike those they had met previously? They clearly weren't important enough to mourn.

So a search party is sent out, to find and destroy the alien, and locate the missing crewmembers, and Keller goes along with them. While Brody assembles some RESPs (Random Extra Security People) for the search party, we see one of them kissing his medallion: having been given this much detail, chances are he won't make it. Brody and Ford each take a team and split up.

While checking what looks like a men's changing room, Brody's team finds lots of blood on the floor, bloody handprints on a wall, and a uniform jacket with Ortiz's name on it. While Brody and one of his security men are looking grim at this discovery, the other RESM (Random Extra Security Man - the one with the medallion) is attacked and pulled up into the ceiling by the alien. The guy is given a name at this point, Coulter – it's a bit late, though, as he will never be seen or heard of again, or even mentioned.

The two search teams meet up at a mag-lev, and inside they find another kind of cocoon. The audience is expecting either another alien, or a corpse, but instead, this one has got loot inside that the alien has collected. Coulter's medallion (as seen earlier) is pulled out but not commented on, although Brody does look sad. Then Ford finds a soggy boot with Ortiz's name inside. Again, they all look grim and despairing of finding their friend alive. Back at base (in the shelter) Bridger points out via PAL that "a person is missing until found."

Well said, captain. He even goes so far as to admit that his interest in science wanes when his crew is threatened, although Keller is still fascinated by trying to work out what makes it tick. Bridger then turns to the others in the shelter to reinforce the point that, "this doesn't necessarily mean that Ortiz is dead." O'Neill, Henderson and Lucas promptly agree, although they don't look convinced. The other missing people are not mentioned; clearly nobody cares about them. It is Miguel they are worried about.

It is also a good character point to note for Bridger – he is never willing to give up on a missing crewmember. Not if they are regular crew, anyway (Random Extras, even those with names, are a different matter entirely). We saw the same phenomenon in 'Dead End' when he refused to stop looking for the missing launch.

Bridger then gets an idea that is terribly technical and has to do with regaining power, but involves someone crawling along the ductwork in the ceiling. O'Neill and Lucas both volunteer, but Henderson overrules them (since when does she decide these things?) and goes herself. Bridger stays out of the discussion, which is surprising – you'd expect the captain to intervene and assign the duty to someone (i.e. the best person for the job) instead of letting them debate it out for themselves.

The ductwork tube is remarkably spacious; one would think a space like that would be used for something, like pipes or wires. Also, it seems Henderson has another conquest, judging by Lucas' attempts to stop her going – at last we see evidence of the crush that was referred to in Dead End.

Meanwhile, Dagwood is wandering around all alone and sniffing. Has nobody noticed that he is gone? Shouldn't someone be responsible for making sure he is safe, since he never strikes me as mentally competent? He pulls a ventilation shaft cover off a wall only to come face to face with a gun barrel: it is Ortiz, hiding inside and ready to attempt to defend himself should the alien attack again. Relieved that it is a friend and not the alien, he shows Dagwood his leg, which has apparently had the boot found by Ford ripped off it. The leg is fairly torn up, and there's even some blood. Then the alien reappears and Dagwood fights it, while Ortiz tries to aim his gun but can't get a clear shot.

Dagwood then gets thrown to the ground just as the two search teams (now apparently searching together) turn up and shoot the alien. Their pulse rifles have absolutely no effect on it, but it seems bored with them and disappears.

Ford and Co. are suitably pleased to see Ortiz, who has to be supported because he can't stand on his injured leg, and he thanks Dagwood for saving his life. When? As far as I can see, Dagwood actually endangered him by revealing his hiding place. Of course, Dagwood did then fight the alien and distract it from Ortiz, but it could be argued that that was as much in self-defence as the defence of his friend.

Anyway, Ortiz tells them that he and the others were unable to get to the shelter because the boat was locked down (I don't see why, since everyone else from the bridge got there okay), and that the others didn't make it out. Nobody seems to care too much about these nameless crewmen who have been killed, any more than they cared about the first two guards, or the hapless Coulter. Then Ford helps Ortiz hobble back to the shelter, and Dagwood and the rest of the searchers go along with them, evidently believing in safety in numbers.

It's worth pointing out that Marco Sanchez acts pain well, it's very subtle and understated but believable. He really looks like his leg is very painful and he can't walk on it. O'Neill was less convincing when he broke his leg, again in Dead End.
Somewhere in the ceiling, Henderson has found the controls she was looking for and is restoring power – the last uplink with Tobias appears on screen as memory reboots. Over the com-link, O'Neill tells her about Ortiz being found all right, "a little banged up, but he'll live to tell the grandkids." Sadly, he won't – his next encounter with the aliens will prove a little more fatal, but that's another story.

We catch a glimpse of Ortiz surrounded by relieved crewmates, having his damaged leg bandaged by a REFC (Random Extra Female Crewmember). Dr Smith appears to have the day off, as she isn't in this episode. It's a shame, really, as this would be a rare opportunity for her to actually perform medicine. There looks to be blood soaking through the bandage, amazingly enough in the same place as the gash Ortiz showed Dagwood – the props and makeup people seem to have been having fun with this one, and even managed a bit of continuity.

Just at that moment, the alien appears behind Henderson, and sees the image of Tobias on-screen. She screams, raising the alarm, and manages to get away and into the ductwork. O'Neill dashes up there, but is unable to prevent the alien dragging her away.

Lucas is distraught about Henderson's capture, and refuses to believe that she could be gone, arguing that she could be hiding, like Ortiz. Brody tells him that even with Miguel hiding in the belly of the boat, something always showed up on the scanner. In that case, why did they find it so hard to find him? Or worry so much when they found his jacket and boot? And could they tell that the others were truly gone if they ceased to show up? Where they aware of the other two disappearing off the scanners? There are too many questions and not enough answers provided.

Anyway, Bridger has another bright idea about flushing out the swim tubes and ballast to get rid of the alien, although surely for this to work they would need him to be in the swim tubes, not the ceiling ductwork. Darwin is apparently secured in the moon pool before they do this (although, like Dr Smith, Darwin does not appear in this episode). Everything goes according to plan somehow, and to everyone's delight Henderson reappears in the swim tubes (having managed not to get flushed out with the alien).

Piccolo, who is having a very quiet episode, pulls her out of the moon pool on the bridge, where everyone suddenly appears to be – including the injured Ortiz, who is back at his station. I suppose having your leg torn open by an alien is no reason not to sit at your station and carry on working in a crisis. But shouldn't they be worrying about exotic alien infections? Besides which, I would have expected a crewmember with a bleeding wound to be sent to medbay at the earliest opportunity as an automatic precaution.

Henderson claims to have hidden in the ballast, and to have seen the alien being flushed off the boat into the ocean, where clearly they just expect it to drown and not be washed up on shore somewhere alive and angry to wreak havoc, despite having no knowledge of its physiology and therefore nothing to base this assumption on. Henderson insists that she is fine and doesn't need an escort to get to medbay, and wanders off the bridge alone. I just wanted to know why does she get to go to medbay when she doesn't have a scratch, while Ortiz is kept on duty despite his bleeding leg? Surely not because she is a girl …

The next thing anyone knows, a shuttle is taken without permission – security tapes show that Henderson took it, but on the tape she unexpectedly morphs into the alien. SeaQuest gives chase. The alien/Lonnie travels to the university where Tobias teaches, and attracts his attention. They are just kissing when Lonnie morphs into the alien, and Tobias throws it half way across the room, just as Brody, Ford and a handful of random security men appear.

It turns out that Tobias is an alien, too. He explains that he really is Tobias – many years earlier, the LeConte's were in Africa when a giant ball of fire crashes nearby, blinding their infant son. The child developed cancer as a result, and would have died but for the natural immunity of the alien who had inhabited him. He comes from a planet called Hyperion, which is permanently at war, and was exiled because he believes in peace. Whatever. This other alien is a trooper, a bounty hunter searching for him. Just how the aliens are able to take over someone's body like this is left unexplained, like so many other details. Anyway, the gang pull a ruse to make the alien abandon Lonnie, and are able to kill it, on which it crumbles into dust, much to the disappointment of Scott, who wanted to study it – which is very in character for him.

Tobias then says that he can no longer stay on earth, much as he loves it, because if one trooper can find him then so can others. Amazingly enough it seems he has managed to build an entire spaceship and has even found a way to power it, apparently for just such an eventuality. Only Bridger, Keller and Lucas are taken to see it (where did the away team disappear to? How much time has passed?). Tobias asks Keller to go with him, since he is blind and needs a navigator – is the alien blind too, or just the human body he inhabits? Without even stopping to consider the children and grandchildren he talked about when we first met him, he agrees. They leave in the spaceship; Bridger and Lucas are left standing there and agree that neither one of them knows how to get back out of the cavern. Ever heard of retracing your footsteps, fellas?

Okay, overall. There wasn't nearly enough Ortiz – I know that by not showing us what was happening to him they kept the element of suspense, but I would have liked to see what happened to him and the other two with him, as they were picked off one by one – now that would have been nice and dramatic, although it would have involved introducing us to two more RECs (Random Extra Crewmembers). In fact, I would have settled for just seeing how he got away from the alien, at the expense of a boot and that leg injury. Even after he is found, we don't see enough of him (although granted he wasn't fit to go with the away team in search of Lonnie since he could barely walk and should have been in medbay getting stitches and antibiotic).

Also, there are some fairly major plot holes in the story, such as the reason why the alien attacked and killed most of the crewmembers it encountered, but then decided to take Lonnie hostage. I know it spotted Tobias at the same time it saw her – but how did it recognise Tobias as one of its kind just from that video image? And why did it think it needed a hostage to get off the boat, anyway? There are just too many plot holes and flaws to go into, and I hate all the alien stories anyway.

But nevertheless, there are aspects that work: it hangs together well as a piece of dramatic television. And I do like to see everyone worrying about Ortiz, demonstrating his importance to the group (which is too easily forgotten in the next season when his loss is not even referred to never mind mourned for. Did they get their memories of their lost friends wiped, as well as of recent events?). And he looks great in the gratuitous tank top, and suffering with his damaged leg. So I'm shallow, so sue me. Ford also sports the gratuitous tank top, as does Lonnie. Others are in t-shirts, while still more wear full uniform. Hmm, I suppose it all depended on who the director thought was the best in terms of eye candy. Ortiz wins this one hands down.