Man is the warmest place to hide-The Thing vs the Enterprise

[Necro99]

Ok, here is the setting.
Upon arrival on another planet, one of the members of the exploration team is infected by a thing (http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~vampire/thing/thing.htm).

In how much time would the entire crew would be infected? And would they be able to ward off the things?
In my opinion unless they find who is a thing and who is not they are screwed.

[Necro99]

Biology Of the Thing
http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~vampire/thing/t-bio.htm

[Next of Kin]

I'd give the enterprise 72 hours before complete infection by the Thing. Of course, the Thing probably has high standards and would thumb its nose to assimilating the cellular structure of the enterprise crew.

[Joe Momma]

When I first read "Man is the warmest place to hide" I thought an ST slash story had accidentally been posted here instead of the fanfic forum.

Look at the episode "Acquiel". Same basic premise, only the creature was arguably less intelligent and apparently took a lot longer to absorb someone (given that it didn't do so at all during the several days the Enterprise was there). Despite a week of friggin' research, the hapless Enterprise crew didn't have much of a clue what was going on until the damn thing transformed right in front of Geordi (after being brought on the ship much earlier, no less).

Given the much greater efficiency of the Thing, if it was there instead of its inbred cousin the Aquiel's-dogbeast, it probably would have taken the entire Enterprise crew before Geordi finished examining the station logs.

-- Joe Momma

[Enforcer Talen]

the thing, the critter out of the 1982 movie of the same name? creepiest movie I've ever seen. it eats enterprise' crew and no one notices until it's their turn.

[Antediluvian]

The Thing would duplicate all of the crew.

It's very difficult to detect, being able to imitate organisms perfectly, and fairly intelligent, so it would prevail.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The Things, easily. It is what the Borg always wanted to be but is too bloody stupid to become.

[NecronLord]

Ok, here is the setting.
Upon arrival on another planet, one of the members of the exploration team is infected by a thing (http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~vampire/thing/thing.htm).

In how much time would the entire crew would be infected? And would they be able to ward off the things?
In my opinion unless they find who is a thing and who is not they are screwed.

I hate to go with the Feds, but the transporter would easily pick up the thing. They couldn't extract it though.

[Sea Skimmer]

The Thing would win easily. Federation bio sensors don't seem to work against anything they've not encountered before.

[Darth Wong]

I'm with SS. My TNG canon database is full of unidentified organisms being allowed through by the transporter. It's like a computer virus scanner; it has to know what it's looking for.