“The Survivors”
Written by Michael Wagner
Directed by Les Landau
Season 3, Episode 3
Original air date: October 8, 1989
Star date: 43152.4
Mission summary
Enterprise responds to a distress call at planet Rana IV, which was reportedly under attack by an unknown ship. But by the time they get there, the enemy is gone—along with all life and buildings on the surface. Eleven thousand colonists have been wiped out. No wait, make that 10,998. Scans show that there are two survivors located in an improbably intact square of land that contains a house and plant life.
Riker leads an away team to investigate the strange oasis and promptly steps into a noose trap set by Kevin Uxbridge. The old man and his wife, Rishon, are the last living colonists.
RIKER: Mister Uxbridge, as far as we’ve been able to determine, you and your wife and this house are all that survived that attack. That’s was either a bizarre coincidence or by design, and I don’t favor the coincidence theory.
KEVIN: Are you saying that we were kept alive intentionally?
RIKER: Yes.
KEVIN: I don’t understand. You don’t think Rishon and I did something that merited survival, do you? I mean, betrayed the others?
RIKER: I’m not accusing you of anything, Mister Uxbridge. The attacking force spared you for some reason. We’d like to know why.
Kevin reluctantly cooperates and tells them the colony was razed by a massive ship, then they just up and left. Riker knows there’s something different about the Uxbridges but he can’t quite put his finger on it. The colonists refuse to leave with him, so he passes Rishon his communicator and tells her to call him, maybe.
Meanwhile, back on Enterprise, Deanna Troi begins hearing a melody that echoes the one Rishon’s music box plays. Although the empathic counselor is the only one tormented by the increasingly loud tune, she tries to keep her anguish to herself. Picard is concerned, but he has a bigger problem when they’re attacked by an unidentified enemy vessel which takes a couple of weak shots at them before tearing off. The captain realizes it is trying to lure them away from the planet, so he pays the Uxbridges his own visit under the guise of a door-to-door replicator salesman. He is determined to uncover the colonists’ secret, convinced they had some deeper role to play in the planet’s devastation, but Rishon assures him that her husband is a gentle, peace-loving man who abhors violence and killing.
Troi’s condition deteriorates and the enemy ship returns, packing a bigger punch that forces Enterprise to retreat away from the planet. Picard is beginning to piece his suspicions together, but he’s only willing to divulge cryptic fragments of his working theory that the enemy ship is somehow responding to the Uxbridges’ wishes; they wanted Enterprise to leave, and they nearly have. Stubbornly, Picard returns to the planet and discovers Kevin and Rishon dancing a waltz. The old man is surprised to see the captain, as though he expected him to be gone.
KEVIN: This is a form of intimidation. I have my rights.
PICARD: Your rights? What about Rishon? Is she in favor of being here left here? Come to the Enterprise. Let me take you where you’ll be safe.
RISHON: No. I can’t leave Kevin.
KEVIN: I’m staying. She’s safe here with me. in this house.
PICARD: Why are you safe?. Why is this house a sanctuary? Does it have to do with you? With your refusal to fight? Tell me this. If Rishon were in danger, would you kill to save her life?
KEVIN: No, not for her. Not for anyone. I will not kill.
Picard insists that Enterprise will remain in orbit to protect the Uxbridges for as long as they live. When he returns to his ship, he is unsurprised when the enemy reappears and allows it to attack Kevin and Rishon’s house. The Enterprise easily destroys the formerly formidable vessel with a single photon torpedo. They seemingly have no reason to hang around, but hang around they do; Picard orders them to keep a close eye on the planet from a high orbit. They don’t know what they’re looking for, but they’ll know it when they see it.
Three hours later, they see it: The Uxbridges’ home inexplicably reappears. Picard beams Kevin and Rishon directly to the Bridge and launches into a passable imitation of Columbo, walking everyone through how he solved the mystery. “There was only one survivor of the war on Rana IV,” he says – Kevin Uxbridge. It turns out that Rishon was killed in the attack on the colony, and Kevin somehow recreated her and their home. Rishon vanishes and he calls Kevin out as a nonhuman lifeform.
Kevin does the honorable thing and relieves the unconscious Troi of the music that he has been using to keep her from detecting the fact that he is a Douwd, “an immortal being of disguises and false surroundings” who has been living as a human for more than fifty years, setting aside his power for the woman he loves. He reveals that with a single thought he could have wiped out their attackers, a race known as the Husnock, but preferred not to. But his guilt is much worse than that. After Rishon was killed in the fight, he completely lost it and destroyed her murderers:
I didn’t kill just one Husnock, or a hundred, or a thousand. I killed them all. All Husnock everywhere. Are eleven thousand people worth fifty billion? Is the love of a woman worth the destruction of an entire species? This is the sin I tried so hard to keep you from learning now. Why I wanted to chase you from Rana.
That is way above Picard’s pay grade. He decides the best thing to do is send Kevin back to the planet, allow him to recreate his wife, and leave him the hell alone.
Analysis
Even knowing Kevin Uxbridge’s nature and his horrific act ahead of time, this episode still packs a wallop at the end. His admission of guilt is shocking, and the mystery around what happened on the colony and to the Husnock is compelling. This has always been a favorite of mine, not least because of its Twilight Zone-esque reveals and its melancholic tone.
In some ways, I feel like Captain Picard is copping out on his duty, and I wonder what Starfleet’s response to his report would be. He says “We’re not qualified to be your judges. We have no law to fit your crime.” And I guess that’s probably true. But it’s also true that there’s nothing they can do to Kevin even if he had committed a crime, given how powerful he is, and perhaps that’s even more significant. Moreover, Kevin is such a being of conscience that no punishment they can enact would be worse than allowing him to live alone with his guilt, or worse, with a recreation of his wife that reminds him of his failure every day. Bummer.
I want to love this episode, but the more I think about it, the more I feel that it only works on a very superficial level. Digging deeper shows flaws that writers generally hope you will ignore, miss, or forgive because the drama is compelling, the dialogue works, and so on. I can believe that Kevin might strike out against the Husnock, even all of the Husnock, in anger, despite his strong moral code. But he suggests his only options were to try to trick the Husnock or kill them, and I can’t believe those are the limits of his powers. He clearly has been able to affect Troi’s mind somehow, which means he has some telepathic ability, so why doesn’t he know more about what’s happening on Enterprise? He can recreate Rishon, but not the other colonists? How powerful is he?
Even though Counselor Troi is showing off her flashy new dress, she’s still the lowest point of this episode for me. Anguished acting aside, it’s absurd for a telepath to a) fail to recognize a telepathic attack and b) try to hide it from everyone, particularly when it could be relevant to their situation. Little did Kevin know, but he had nothing to fear from her, because she just isn’t that good at her job. It might have been nice if the music had gotten weaker the farther they got from the planet as well, but instead it seems to be something he has to “help” her with, as opposed to just stopping the thing that he started.
I’m also a bit irked at how little Picard shares with the crew and certainly with Riker. Dramatically it serves a function to withhold from the viewers, but he takes chances and makes assumptions on his own. I mean, why not hold another meeting to discuss his suspicions? Unless he’s worried that Uxbridge will know what he’s doing? However, I did otherwise enjoy the way he figures out what’s happening, given his affinity for mysteries—but he acts like a dick in more ways than one. He really does seem to torment Kevin a bit, even once he feels like he’s figured him out, and I can’t discern if he pities him or despises him. Apparently, neither can he.
The episode also bandies about the word “holocaust” twice, once in reference to a nuclear holocaust when they don’t know what happened to the colony, and the second time to the attack that destroyed them. It’s never used in connection to what Kevin did to the Husnock, and I’m disturbed that perhaps it is meant to matter less because he calls them “a species of hideous intelligence who knew only aggression and discussion.” Was that really all they were? Are there really no other consequences, did their abrupt disappearance have no other affect in the entire galaxy? And what would the response have been if he had wiped out the Klingons, or the Romulans, or even the Breen instead?
Eugene’s Rating: Warp 2 (on a scale of 1-6)
Thread Alert: Normally I’d be mocking Deanna’s outfit of the week, but the first iteration of her blue dress actually isn’t bad. It’s definitely better than anything else she’s worn in the last two years. But hey, check out Kevin Uxbridge’s fancy duds. As soon as I saw him, the first thing that popped into my head was “Space buccaneer!” This frame could almost be a promo shot for some wacky serial SF adventure. Kevin, aren’t you supposed to avoid attracting too much attention? Nothing says “I’m totally a human” better than a yellow tunic and pirate pants.
Best Line: WORF: Sir. May I say your attempt to hold the away team at bay with a nonfunctioning weapon was an act of unmitigated gall.
KEVIN: Didn’t fool you, huh?
WORF: I admire gall.
Trivia/Other Notes: The original title of this episode was “The Veiled Planet,” which was changed sometime after the first draft of the script.
This is the first appearance of Deanna Troi’s casual blue dress.
This episode mentions the Andorians for the first time on TNG.
Actor John Anderson (Kevin Uxbridge) said this was one of the most difficult roles of his career as he had recently lost his own wife before playing the episode. He has appeared in many genre television shows, including Quantum Leap and several times on The Twilight Zone (“The Old Man in the Cave”, “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville”, “The Odyssey of Flight 33”, and “A Passage for Trumpet”.) Oddly, he also appeared in an episode of Little House on the Prairie titled “Haunted House,” in which he played Mr. Pike, a man obsessed with music boxes and waiting for the return of his dead wife.
Anne Haney (Rishon) returns to Star Trek in DS9’s “Dax” as Bajoran arbiter Els Renora. She also guest-starred in two episodes of Quantum Leap.
Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 2 – “The Ensigns of Command.”
Next episode: Season 3, Episode 4 – “Who Watches the Watchers?”
Meh. A weak-sauce, guilt-tripping space douche, with an inversion of “Metamorphosis” and a touch of “Requiem for Methuselah” thrown in for good (?) measure. For all the improvements we’ve seen in the new season (and they are there), early season 3 really feels like they’re clearing out their stock of scripts they already purchased but hadn’t filmed for whatever reason.
Really? The Federation doesn’t consider genocide a crime? Deliberately targeting civilians during war isn’t a war crime? Interesting.
I’m probably the only one who’ll feel this way, but I’m kind of apathetic about Uxbridge’s killing all the Husnock. I’ll confess that my reasoning is basically that they deserved it, but I don’t really have any pity for an individual who tries to commit a murder and winds up being killed in the struggle, and I figure the galaxy is probably better off without them if they’re really the sort of species that wanders around annihilating aliens with little warning for no reason. Of course this ignores the complexities of their society, whatever they may have been — maybe this ship just represented the Husnock equivalent of a Coalition of the Willing, and most of the rest are peace-loving artists who spend their spare time hugging trees. Of course Star Trek has clearly established that all alien species come from the Planet of the Hats and have monolithic cultures represented in toto by the attitudes, philosophies, and points of view of the tiny sample we’re exposed to, so most likely there weren’t any other divisions to Husnock society, but even so. Don’t start none, won’t be none, and if you do, the consequences are on your head — that and one death is tragic, sixty billion is a statistic…
…all that said, I find it laughably implausible that the PDEB who can genocide a multi-planet spacefaring race with a thought couldn’t figure out how to, dunno, cloak the planet? Or just keep turning their ship around every time it tried to get near, like a planetary version of the Lost Woods? Or erect a giant energy-absorbing magic shield? Or for that matter, just make them not want to attack the planet? Sure, he didn’t want to reveal himself to the other colonists, but who has to tell them why that menacing alien ship just happened to fly away?
Also what happened to all their mass? Did he wipe out their material culture too? What are the implications for their planets’ ecology? Explain!
Still, I am struck by the sadness of the immortal being who cannot accept loss. Presumably he’s seen it before in his infinite historical experience, but perhaps not… and even though he should have known her death was coming sometime soon, in this medical culture he should’ve had at least another ten years. And so he’s sitting in the basement in the dark talking to his sock puppet and imagining she’s still alive. That’s really awful, and I’d hope one day he can move past it.
I think this is a little gem of an episode, taking the tired old trope of the space douche and dumping it on its head.
I rather enjoy the way Kevin makes Starfleet look small and ineffectual. The situation is like looking at the Organians through a warped, dark mirror.
Veteran actor John Anderson—who IIRC won his SF cred on a couple of old Twilight Zone episodes—imbues the character with a real sense of tragic dignity; and the captain’s dilemma about how or whether to “punish” such a being might be a classic moment in ST history. The fact that it attempts to address the tragic costs of love, loyalty, duty and honor makes it a standout Trek.
I also like the fact that the script deals directly with Deanna’s powers, neutralizing them in an interesting way, instead of just moving her off-stage as we’ve often seen in past episodes where her powers were wanting and not present. Or glossing them, as we’ll see so often in future episodes.
The only annoying little flaw is the all-wise, all-knowing, inscrutable captain sctick we’ve seen too much of in past seasons. He knows the answer but is not telling anyone…. Probably we’ve just seen too much of it, tediously rendered, than any particular fault here.
Stands up well with time.
I think it is strongly implied throughout that Kevin’s powers (or at least his attention span) has limits. The little hostility games he plays with the Enterprise, then abandons when they’ve moved on, suggests there’s some range to his interests. The impression I get is that he wants to be passive, reclusive and left alone to his own little life, which is why he does not manipulate beyond achieving those ends. He is the ultimate lazy conscientious objector.
I also got the sense that Troi’s condition was permanent until lifted (the real reason Picard, full well suspecting the truth and his powerlessness within it, risked returning to wring a confession from Kevin), another indication of the Douwd’s reticent unfocused power and limited attention.
The Husnocks were evidently not intrigued by the tricks, but enraged by them. And Kevin, swatting them like a fly, swatted them much harder than he was later loathe to confess.
—-well friends, we started the engines, taxied for the runway, and now we take off and climb. we climb through the season that will establish this show as everything the original series was..and more.– this is a wonderful and compelling episode. and from here, not much descent if any at all. {pardon me, but i wish kevin had obliterated the sheliak instead}. this is a great episode in my view, because it carries along one of gene’s central tenets in his fiction: human frailty reflected in aliens.–I feel like Captain Picard is copping out on his duty—really?, destroy an entire civilization with a thought? that is pretty heavy to say the least–and godlike in it’s import–heck, even apollo didn’t have that ability i’d wager, and he was a god..or so we assumed.– you want to judge and punish super beings like the metrons, or the Q or perhaps the organians, how about the talosians? now, there was a telepathic race—good luck, man–perhaps kevin wasn’t telepathic as we understand it–in “eye of the beholder” troi {who looks stunning in that dress by the way}. has a episode long illusion brought about by an “echo”. the veiled planet huh? that veil meant to obscure left such an impression, it nearly drove her crazy. perhaps not intentional, you get too close to the flame and you burn. the captain’s a dick? ha!–he’s in command dammit!–didn’t we just get through telling data not to be so honest?–we are human, and despite outward confidence, we might hold inner doubts. i paraphrase kirk in “obsession”—“do i have a right to keep the ship here for a feeling i can’t even put into words.” and confronting this super being armed with only intellect?— it is because of episodes like this that jlp is a legend—
What this episode reminds me of, more than anything, is Jerome Bixby’s “It’s A Good Life”—once done as a TZ episode, with a wee Billy Mumy charming in the role. Extremely powerful being acting in unsophisticated, childlike ways, malice toward none, threat to all.
Well, I may be in the minority, but I love this episode. Yes it has plot holes, but it reminded me of an original series episode in the way I was willing to go along with the flow and ignore them rather than nitpick the whole way through. There are very few episodes of the Trek series that can stand up to really close, critical examination ( even the best require a certain ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ ) and this is no different. But this is an entertaining morality tale and it finally…FINALLY started the upswing into much better material than that we had been subjected to in the last two years.
Now, to some of the specific criticisms; Yes, it might have been more realistic for Picard to clue everyone in on his suspicions, but it would have let all the air out of the balloon dramatically. It also made the captain seem ‘in command’ and let him stand out from the crew ( as Kirk so often did ) without making the rest of them seem like COMPLETE dullards. And how unbelievable would it have been for them to even try to punish such a powerful being. Again, the sense of pity, disgust and dismissal that Picard emotes provides a far more effective ending than a scene of them hauling him in for arrest, or even him surrendering himself. Having Kevin commit suicide in atonement might have been effective, but not as poignant.
I cannot help but be moved by the loss and anguish that Kevin feels at the end of the episode and I still feel that this is one of, if not THE strongest offering from this series since “The Measure Of A Man”
I too love this episode. As others have suggested, this one has the feel of the original series. But, maybe that wasn’t good enough for this story. Maybe being a Star Trek episode is what kept it from being a perfect story. When I think of the episodes I love the most from all the Star Trek series, I realize that they are all good science fiction stories, or morality plays, that just happen to be Star Trek Stories. City On The Edge Of Forever, Remember Me, Family, Tim Man, and Northstar, to name a few, are all good Star Trek episodes but the basic stories would still hold up if you stripped away all the Star Trek identifiers and told them as stand alone stories. I do love this episode but I do not count it among those I love the most. Why? Could it be that the TNG characters were just not right for this story? Could this one have worked better within the Original Series? Or, in Enterprise?
I’ve gone back and forth on this one since I saw it.
On the one hand, I completely understand Eugene’s frustrations. I think the issue is less Picard’s secrecy than the complete surprise of the ending. It’s a bad mystery! There aren’t any clues! The first 35 minutes of the episode don’t so much as unravel as wobble, echoing last week’s “Will you leave the planet? How about now? Okay how about now? Come onnnnn leave the plaaaanet!” And with his phenomenal cosmic power, you’d think he could just cloak the planet or something. Plus Troi driven mad by endless Nickleback or whatever. Ugh. It’s bad! Yes.
But on the other hand, the ending is just devastating. I really can’t think of any other episode this powerful and heartbreaking, TOS, TNG, or otherwise. Of course there’s no law to fit the crime, but more importantly, there is absolutely nothing they could do to him (assuming they could punish him at all) that would ever come close to the soul-destroying guilt he’ll face for the rest of his existence. It’s a love story. The good, heart-tearing, gut-wrenching kind. I’ve seen it several times but I am still struggling to wrap my head around what this being has done.
Kind of crappy? Yes. Incredible science fiction? Yes. I wish so much that they had saved this episode for next season, when they were a little more sophisticated and could have done it justice. But I’m grateful all the same we got this story.
Warp 4
@ Eugene
I know Anne Haney from Mrs. Doubtfire and one of my personal favorites, Mother.
I like the buccaneer jacket!
@ 1 DemetriosX
There’s genocide on the scale we know it, and there’s this.
@ 2 DeepThought
But what about the civilians? Whether the Husnock were irredeemably evil or not is something no one will ever know, ever again. I think that would be Picard’s tragedy–not just that these people/beings are gone forever, but that we will never ever be able to know more about them.
@ 3 Lemnoc
Agreed. I really love his performance, too. I also think that this power is supposed to have limits, and the fact that he was able to wipe out all the Husnock is an indication of the EXTRAORDINARY emotion he felt at that moment he realized his wife was dead, which somehow amplified or otherwise extended his ability.
And while I’m sure on a conscious level he was aware that she was getting older and sure to pass at some time, there’s a very big difference between abstract understanding of mortality and immediate confrontation of it.
@ 7 dep1701
I think the strongest part of this episode is that they didn’t choose the suicide plot. It’s so much more powerful to have a being who can’t kill–including himself–live with his actions. Mostly because that is the more unimaginable scenario.
@ 8 Ludon
I actually think this would have better as a TOS episode, because TOS was a lot more comfortable with incomprehensibility as an idea–incomprehensible beings, societies, greed, anger, sadness. Early TNG often tries too hard to explain everything.