Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 3, Episode 3
Star Trek: The Next Generation is the poster child for the “it doesn’t really get going until season __” show. That isn’t to say that seasons one and two are totally skippable garbage. But I’ve rarely seen another show undergo such a steep and impressive rise in quality between seasons as TNG does between two and three. The quality and maturity of the writing, the complexity and interest of its stories, and the visual style of Season 3 are so jarring (in a good way), that it retroactively makes the first two years seem like a rough draft for an incredible final product. “The Survivors” is an expertly-crafted hour of sci-fi mystery that is as interesting as it is haunting.
Many of the episodes of Season 3 have a much greater level of sophistication than the previous two, which is very welcome. There is much less unintentional goofiness and far fewer bizarre WTF moments that held back the show from greatness. Gone are the spandex onesies, odd camera angles, flat lighting, and workmanlike cinematography that defined the first period of the show. It just looks and feels so much more cinematic.
The Enterprise is responding to a distress signal from a Federation colony on Delta Rana IV that reported an attacking ship. However, they find no vessels and a planet wiped totally clean of its structures, water, and vegetation, with no signs of its 11,000 inhabitants – except a single square patch of land left bizarrely intact with two humanoid life forms. There’s an appropriately grave tone set by the crew, as well as a healthy level of suspicion towards this oddity.
Beaming down, Riker and his away team find what the orbital survey read – a totally normal house and lawn set against the ruined and barren landscape. Riker falls victim to a booby trap and is held at (nonfunctional) gunpoint by an old man who is literally like “get off my lawn.” His wife has a much friendlier disposition and excitedly welcomes them, and identifies themselves as Rishon and Kevin Uxbridge.
They describe how an enormous alien ship laid waste to their colony. Riker wants to look inside the house to investigate, but Kevin seems defensive about Riker’s suspicions. Worf privately expresses his admiration to Kevin for trying to hold them off with a broken weapon. It’s great. He’s definitely bluffed his way out of a few sticky situations himself.
Data picks up a musical ornament, while on the Enterprise Troi simultaneously starts hearing the same melody in her head.
Having found nothing unusual about the house, Riker prepares to beam the Uxbridges with them, but they are both stalwart in the desire to remain in their home. Unable to force them Riker gives them his communicator in case they change their minds.
It’s an interesting setup to a mystery that Picard and the crew contend with for the duration of the episode. There’s clearly something about the old couple (Kevin in particular) that is unusual, but the premise defies any easy guesses as to what’s actually going on. The senior staff throws out various hypotheses as to what’s behind all of it, but nothing really makes sense.
The music in Troi’s head seems to be causing her a great deal of distress and she excuses herself from the meeting. In her quarters, she begins to sob from the torturous repetition before being interrupted by Picard, who picked up on her discomfort during the meeting. Troi seems oddly evasive about revealing what’s happening with her – she’s clearly in distress and doesn’t want to inform Crusher about it or seek medical attention. Don’t be such a man, Deanna! Plus it seems like possible telepathic fuckery is the kind of thing worth mentioning to the captain. But what do I know? Zilch, dill, shit, and nothing, that’s what!
But after some prodding from Picard, she admits that she’s been hearing the same repeating melody in her head from beginning to end, a tune she’s never heard before. Stewart’s performance in the show from here on out is such a welcome change from the first two seasons, and it’s exemplified in this scene. He exudes such a warm, paternal presence.
Their chat is interrupted by a red alert as a massive alien warship approaches the planet, apparently having hidden behind one of Rana IV’s moons. I love the evil-looking eyes and snout the ship has; it looks like a big metal alligator. The unknown ship ignores the Enterprise’s hails and blasts it with low amounts of energy. After a warning shot, the ship scurries out of the system as the Enterprise gives chase. But it proves to be exactly as fast as the Enterprise and matches their acceleration so that they can’t catch up. Picard immediately clocks it as an attempt to lure them away from the planet and orders the ship back so he can talk to the Uxbridges personally. He’s so smart!
Picard and Worf beam down under the guise of gifting them a replicator to meet their material needs. Kevin brusquely rejects the offer (and even accuses them of wanting to spy on them), but is overridden by his wife, who invites them in for afternoon tea. Rishon recounts their meet-cute that happened approximately one million years ago, where she proposed to him within two hours of meeting him. Feisty gal! Picard gently steers the conversation towards their life on Rana IV and the alien attack. Rishon seems genuine in not understanding their inexplicable survival, but Kevin needles Picard about when his ship will be leaving. Picard tells them about their own encounter with the ship and warns it might return, but Kevin seems oddly confident that it won’t.
Picard probes further and tries to pin down something about the two of them that set them apart from everyone else. Kevin only says that he is “a man of special conscience,” and that he refused to fight the attackers, unlike his fellow colonists. Despite all of his stonewalling, it’s an interesting detail for him to volunteer, almost as if he’s attempting to convince himself of that more than Picard… Rishon echoes that sentiment and describes her husband as a very gentle man. Before beaming up, Picard urges her to leave with them, but she is firm in her desire to remain.
On the ship, Troi screams in agony over the melody in her head, which she cries is getting louder. But she at least has finally sought medical attention, and Crusher tries to tend to her pain by inducing the deepest sleep possible. However, that still doesn’t seem to relieve Troi, and Crusher decides to put her in a coma in an attempt to shield her from all outside stimuli. Yikes!
The alien ship returns, and Picard is not surprised. It attacks the Enterprise once more, but with much more power this time. The Enterprise responds in kind, but the alien ship’s shields appear to be impenetrable. After another punishing attack, Picard orders retreat as the other ship seems to take a defensive posture of the planet. However, Picard surmises that the Uxbridges are in no danger from the vessel, and that they are also responsible for blocking out Troi from sensing what they are hiding.
He orders the Enterprise back to the planet despite not having recovered from their battle damage. Preparing to beam down once again with Worf, he muses to Riker that the alien ship is responding to the Uxbridges’ wishes, whether directly or indirectly.
I love how Picard’s mind works in this episode – he’s not so much drawing specific conclusions as he is responding to simple cause and effect. He doesn’t make any guesses as to who (or what) Rishon and Kevin are, but he is picking up on how this mysterious ship is carrying out their wishes of scaring the Enterprise away. There’s an abstractness to his thought process I find really interesting and refreshing, and it makes sense given that him and his crew are flying through space and encountering the weirdest stuff anyone ever has. They can encounter anything and everything out here, so it pays to keep one’s mind open and to tolerate the vast (and at times terrifying) ambiguity of the cosmos.
Picard finds the couple dancing a waltz and wonders aloud if they’re celebrating. Kevin seems surprised that they came back, which Picard makes note of. He vows to not set foot in their house again but is adamant that the Enterprise will remain in orbit to protect them. He wonders if Kevin would kill to protect Rishon, who replies that he never would. Before leaving, he underlines that he will not leave as long as the two of them are still alive.
Aboard the Enterprise, they detect the alien vessel returning once again, seemingly out of thin air. Picard orders no action from the crew, and passively watches as the alien warship obliterates the remaining patch of green land from the planet’s surface. Picard orders a single torpedo fired, which in turn destroys the alien ship. He moves the Enterprise to a higher orbit and to scan the planet for anything and everything.
Lo and behold, after a few hours the square patch of land and house reappear, and Picard orders the Uxbridges beamed to the bridge. “My apologies if I interrupted a waltz,” Picard quips to them. LOL, I love me some Picardy with salt on the rim! He explains his now-proved hypothesis that the house that survived the attack in fact didn’t – it’s an illusion. Rishon is resistant, but Kevin urges her to listen to Picard. He reveals that he purposefully gave them the conditions that would cause the Enterprise to finally leave – their deaths.
Kevin seems ready to surrender to Picard, who will hold him responsible for the attack on the colony and the deaths of 11,000 people. The other conclusion he’s come to is that Rishon was among those who died in the attack. She’s quizzical, and Kevin simply turns away, unable to face her. In an oddly sweet moment, Picard explains to her that although she looks and feels real, she is a recreation of something that doesn’t exist, at which point she disappears. It’s interesting, and I appreciate the humanity Picard displays. It’s not necessary at all, as she’s not a real person, but Trek pretty much always rolls with the philosophy of “if this being thinks they’re real, they are real.”
Kevin disappears from the bridge and visits Troi in her quarters to remove the music he placed in her mind. He explains to Crusher that she was beginning to sense his true nature so he had to incapacitate her. LOL, Troi was on the cusp of being useful and needed to be dealt with! Picard barges in and demands the entire story. Kevin reveals that he is an immortal being with fantastic powers and has lived in this galaxy for thousands of years without anyone ever knowing his true nature – not even his late wife. While in human form, he fell in love with her and lived as a mortal being for over 50 years.
Their colony was attacked by an aggressive race known as the Husnock, but Kevin refused to destroy them due to his conscience and abhorrence of violence. He did try to trick them and lure them away, as he did with the Enterprise, but it only made the Husnock angrier and more destructive. John Anderson is great in this episode, and his gruff voice and deep, mournful eyes contribute to making Kevin such a memorable character. Anderson’s wife died around a year prior to this episode, and he almost didn’t accept this role. Maybe that’s part of what makes his portrayal here so gutting. Kevin’s voice breaks as he describes seeing his wife’s dead body and going mad with rage, causing him to destroy the Husnock.
Picard and Crusher seem nonplussed until Kevin explains the true scope of what he did. He didn’t just destroy the Husnock ship that attached them, but the entire species – all 50 billion of them.
It’s an insane plot point, perhaps the most of any Star Trek installment ever. We’ve seen all kinds of destruction on planetary levels, and met many beings with unimaginable amounts of power. But this is another level, and there’s something quietly awful and terrifying about this mild-mannered grandpa completely losing control and deleting an entire civilization from existence.
Picard’s response is so measured and also one of the most quietly disturbing moments of the series. Abandoning any notions of judging or punishing Kevin due to the scale of his atrocity, Picard simply “allows” him to return to the planet and recreate his house and wife. The tight close-up of Stewart is evocative and communicates the intensity of the moment. Kevin grimaces in satisfaction and disappears.
Despite his unspeakably monstrous “oopsie,” Kevin really does seem like a decent being of strong conscience who is desperately craving some form of absolution or judgment, even if it’s from a puny being that’s equivalent to an ant for him. In the previous scene he seemed willing to abide by whatever course of action Picard was going to carry out, as if welcoming some type of punishment for what he’s done. Picard has absolutely zero power or control over this being, but still grants him permission to do whatever he wants. It’s a magnanimous gesture, but one made out of fear as much as generosity.
It’s interesting to consider the morality of Kevin’s pacifism. There’s a slight sense of revulsion from both Picard and Crusher concerning it, one that’s perhaps not entirely unjustified. As Crusher underlines, he had the power to stop the attackers but chose not to. Hindsight is over course 20/20 (even if you’re superpowerful lowercase-g god thousands of years old), but one of the main messages of not only Star Trek, but most properties dealing with heroes is that those with the power to stop bad guys have a moral obligation to do so, as unsightly or personally repugnant as it may be. If great power comes with great responsibility, then godly power entails a divine sense of ownership over the universe around oneself, one which Kevin chose to abdicate in order to feel righteous and good about himself.
Not using his vast power to destroy a belligerent aggressor in order to save 11,000 people was his first mistake. If the Husnock were really as bad as Kevin described, then them being at your doorstep means that either they kill your 11,000 neighbors, or you kill your 11,000 neighbors through your inaction. But again, this was a decision that Kevin thought he could escape by remaining passive. He seems to value his moral purity when he states “I will not kill.” But it’s more like an abstract concept of morality that doesn’t take reality into account, and ends up being cowardly in the unwillingness to stop an injustice by committing another, smaller one.
It’s a tragic situation all around, and the ethical math still doesn’t quite square this mind-boggling cosmic scenario. Kevin Uxbridge is something akin to an Eldritch horror, a vastly powerful being with emotional frailties that has committed destruction that defies human comprehension. Picard can only regard him with hushed awe, and as the Enterprise departs the planet, the only thing he knows for certain is that this is a being that should be left alone. It’s a disquieting ending and one of my favorites of the series. The episode ends up having a strong Twilight Zone / Outer Limits vibe in the best ways due to its mysterious premise, sci-fi twist, and the haunting ideas it brings up.
Star Trek is all about meeting strange aliens and discovering how alike we really are. But occasionally the crews encounter beings whose natures are far removed from humanity’s and defy comprehension. Kevin Uxbridge is such a being, but stricken with the same emotional qualities as any mortal. Unfortunately, it’s a mix that results in an unimaginable catastrophe and one of the greatest and most haunting mysteries of The Next Generation.
Stray Observations:
- Troi’s little bathroom sink dish is the same one that the evil aliens served up their worms in in “Conspiracy.”
- Well, there’s one unintentionally funny part of the episode. This random crewman who’s just chilling on his iPad (in the middle of a battle mind you), does a total flop and tumble when the ship gets rocked. Picard glances over and is like, “Eh, he’s fine.”
- Presented without context:
- The lighting and cinematography in this season is just leagues above what came before:
- We pretty much never see the Enterprise cut loose with its weapons the way they do here. Especially not against tiny Birds of Prey that are no match for it.
- Classic Worf:
- Love this hero shot right here. Album cover!
