The wrecked spacecraft itself would be interesting, because it would actually resemble one we had seen before, either moored at DS9 for several episodes, or else in the background at the Battle of Wolf 359. It might have had an extra nacelle fitted.
If it happened in the ‘Original Series’ then it would be Spock who would get the face-hugger, after first finding it “Fascinating!†Dr. McCoy would say, “He’s dead, Jimâ€. Then we would discover that Vulcans have a special immunity to attacks of this kind, and Dr. McCoy could pretend that he wasn’t relieved after all, followed by a stretch of forced laughter. First of all, though, we would discover that the creatures had previously killed most of Kirk’s family, and at least four red shirts would be killed in the initial planetary investigation, together with Kirk’s love interest of the week.
If it were Worf, instead of Riker, in ‘TNG’, then we would find out that the Klingons also have this special immunity, but only after Worf first asked all the senior crew, in turn, to help him commit ritual suicide. Lt. Barclay would become paranoid about infection. Troi would sense something, but would be unsure exactly what. Picard would have several long speeches about whether they had the right to destroy the creature or not, but whatever he decided Q would turn up and let him know that he had made the correct choice. Eventually, he gives the order, “Engage, the Aliens,†just as the closing credits roll.
In the second episode we would discover that Guinan and the El Aurians had met this race before, but neglected to warn the Federation it had wiped out whole civilisations. While most of the crew get killed or infected, Wesley is able to find a way of defeating them and saves the ship again.
If it were ‘DS9’ then O’Brien would get infected, Dr. Julian Bashir would very quickly discover a miraculous cure, only before he has time to do the operation, Sloan from Section 31 would arrive and steal O’Brien’s body, to make use of the alien as a new weapon against the Dominion. Of course, by this time, these aliens would have already taken over Starfleet Command, and most of Earth. We discover that it was Quark who smuggled the aliens onto DS9. And two more Runabouts get wasted! On the other hand the Trill planet could open up diplomatic relations with the aliens, as their long lost cousins.
If it were ‘Voyager’ then the ship would have several run-ins with the aliens, each time getting a little less scary. Harry gets his alien parasite from intimate contact with a female, obviously. All of the senior crew would actually each get a parasite inside them at one point, so that they could communicate with the Queen alien on her distant planet, but the Doctor would easily remove them before the start of the next episode, using either Vidiian medical technology or Borg nanoprobes. The aliens would be established to have come from inside a spatial anomaly, in which ‘Voyager’ gets itself trapped, and would only communicate with holographic images. Captain Proton would then come to the rescue. Neelix would probably cook a few of the aliens in a Leola Root sauce.
If it were ‘Enterprise’ it would have to be Tucker who gets it, again, and he would start to grow nipples all over his body. I think that the ‘Enterprise’ away missions have a very alien-esque feel about them anyway, so obviously we would get lots of that creeping around in the dark, with half-light shadows and the sound of dripping water, and lots of screaming from Hoshi. And we would discover that Reed was really an Android placed on the ship by the Suliban, to make sure a captured creature is returned. On finding this out, Hoshi would freak out, and shoot him.
