Nagilum

Within, the Enterprise crew found themselves dealing with a region where the physical laws themselves seemed to be different. Although the void had appeared relatively small on the outside, all attempts to reach its edge and emerge failed. Near copies of Romulan and Federation vessels appeared and disappeared before them, spatial relationships became oddly distorted. [1]

Eventually Nagilum itself appeared, showing itself as a disembodied catlike face hanging in the void - an appearance it claimed it had chosen because it was so close to Humanoid. It announced that it had been testing the crew because it was interested in seeing how they would react to unusual situations. It appeared intrigued by the physical differences between members of the crew, and surprised by the concepts of birth and death. In order to more fully understand the idea of death, Nagilum proposed to study the different ways in which a person could die by killing one third to one half of the Enterprise crew. [1]

Captain Picard chose to engage the ships autodestruct system rather than participate in the experiment. Nagilum attempted to deceive him into changing his decision by imitating members of the crew, but Picard remained resolute in his decision. Faced with this determination, Nagilum released the ship. [1]

Afterwards, Nagilum reappeared to Picard and stated that it had learned all it needed to know about Humanoids. It did not have a high opinion of them, and had decided that they had no common ground with itself, although Picard pointed out that both species were curious. [1]

The abilities it displayed were reminiscent of the Q and it is even possible that Nagilum was indeed a member of that species, although its behaviour was not typical of the continuum. Still, many fundamental questions remain unanswered. Since this incident there has been no further contact with this life form, and given the attitude to life that it displayed this is perhaps fortunate. [1]

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