To Trill or not to Trill, that is the ethical question. Nobler in the mind to leech, if you will, off a humanoid host, or to take arms against the sea of evolution (show me a few metaphors and a blender and I'm a happy man), and evolve yourself into an independent life-form. Weeeell, I wouldn't be in such a hurry to condemn the Trill for their Trilling. Symbiosis is necessarily an arrangement that suits both parties. It has to be, or else it couldn't work. Certainly we might argue that the humanoids are being taken advantage of, and indeed if they were sentient to the degree that you or I are then that might indeed be the case. It may be though that they are just barely sentient (if such a thing is possible) and unable to survive in the environment that is native to them without the assistant of the parasites. Maybe the humanoids themselves are a kind of external parasite. Maybe the humanoids would only live to be about twenty-five or so without their parasitic companions in place. As is pointed out several times during the show, we know very little about them.
Ironically, it was actually Beverly who had a little entity parked inside her. Gates McFadden was seven months pregnant when they filmed this one which may account, some might think, for the sudden profusion of furniture which seems to be overwhelming the ship in this episode.
Odan, representative of a race that both Picard and Data state they know very little about, is allowed to take over the body of the second-in-command of the flagship of Starfleet. I wonder if Picard had a quiet word with the computer and advised it that all high-priority orders from Commander Riker were henceforth to be ignored, or whether they just decided to take Odan on trust? Hmmm.
Why didn't the Trill host, the girly one at the end, have spots like Terry Farrell sports in DS9?
The Best of Both Worlds Part
Two Family Brothers Suddenly
Human Remember Me Legacy Reunion Future Imperfect Final
Mission The Loss Data's Day The Wounded Devil's Due Clues
First Contact Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors Identity Crisis
The Nth Degree Qpid
The Drumhead Half a Life The
Host The Mind's Eye In Theory
Redemption