Opinionated Next Gen Episode Guide returns with a brand new episode! An entire colony world is destroyed save for one house and yard. It's street address is now 1.
"I killed them all. All Husnock. Everywhere." John Anderson's delivery of that line gave me chills, and it's why this episode has stuck in my memory over the decades.
I loved this episode for the captain's log at the end. "I do not know if he should be praised or condemned. Only that he should be left alone." it's very clear that by the end, while Picard is obviously affected by the knowledge that a being so powerful exists and is as much a threat to the Federation as it is to anyone else, he's content to simply let it be knowing that there is no will to cause harm to others. It was as much a character study of a higher being as it was a great display of why Picard is a captain.
The older I have become Picard's reaction to it all makes more sense to me the scope of what Kevin did from his inaction to his grotesque over correction to it the magnitude of it is unfathomable.
I think Picard recognized the prison Kevin built for himself, constantly reminding him of what he lost and his subsequent crime, was far more secure than anything the Federation could fashion.
Incredible episode. A mystery that picard cleverly figures out to find a grief stricken being almost as powerful as a Q confessing existential pain. When picard said we are not qualifies to be your judge. Was peak star trek writing
If you think about the ship that inexplicably appears to lead the enterprise away, the design makes it look kinda like a large dog, a guard dog if you like. I dont know if that was the intention, but its just something i observed
Kevin's agony of guilt at what he'd done, and especially after it would have mattered to his wife andvtheir fellow colonists was very powerful. Picard's "Let's slowly back away from the emotionally fragile god-like being. Dammit, was not Q enough for a lifetime?" I have always been very fond of this particular outfit of Troi's, who can say why?
@@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999 The woman he loved and the place he retired too were bombed off the map from orbit by war mongers. That's not being emotionally fragile.
@bthsr7113 Which means he was emotionally broken and therefore unpredictable. This is a bad combination with the ability to genocide an entire starfaring civilization with a thought.
Yeah fr. Character actors rock. I just love those guys. I wonder if they sometimes wish they could be leads or supporting actors. They're frequently just as good if not better but have to be content with the more limited screentime character roles.
I was always struck by the special effects used to erase Kevin's wife, both in the original version and in the HD remaster. She doesn't just fade away or dissolve, like a transporter or a dying Yoda. Her body quickly loses details as she simplifies into her most basic components. The effect is subtly disturbing, seeing this person disassembling into nothing right in front of Picard, revealing that she was never real to begin with, is almost as haunting as the implications of what Kevin had done.
Beta canon expanded upon the Husnok in the novel "Fortune Of War" and the vast, fantastically powerful and advanced militaristic civilization they left behind after the Douwd genocide. They were advancing toward Federation territory and would have overrun and massacred the pre-Dominion War UFP if Uxbridge hadn't intervened. It was the first example of the Federation being saved from complete annihilation by god-like beings that would be followed by the Bajoran "Prophets" in the Dominion War and the Caeliar in the Borg invasion (the "Destiny" book trilogy). It's the lack of realization of the dire peril from which Uxbridge had just saved the Federation and the resulting undisturbed innocence of Picard and his complacent crew that makes this episode an ominously hair-raising harbinger of the UFP's near future.
I dont like that, it retroactively removes the moral ambiguity that makes the episode work. The Husnok should not have been an irredeemable evil threat to all the main characters. It undermines the whole point of the story.
@@seekingabsolution1907 You're talking about two different stories. "The Survivors" was about Kevin Uxbridge, a powerful immortal being of moral conscience whose one lapse of vengeful anger wiped out an entire species (regardless of their moral turpitude or ambiguity) and his having to live with that, and the knowledge of what he was capable, forever. One can understand why Picard wanted to just leave him well enough alone, since the Federation would have been helpless against him anyway. It's like Bruce Banner telling Jack McGee, "Don't make me angry; you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." Since "The Survivors" wasn't about the Husnok, they could be as Uxbridge described them (presumably accurate, since if he could eradicate them with a single thought, he must have been able to read their minds). It actually adds to the Douwd's anguish, since he could have easily rationalized his genocide along the lines of "They deserved it" and didn't. I find the Husnok interesting not in themselves but in the larger context of the existential threats that were on the UFP's horizon after its "golden age" complacency that was seen in the previous season's, "Q Who". Both as a prelude and as a treasure trove of advanced weaponry the location and harvesting of which should have been Starfleet's top priority given the already-established Borg threat. There really should have been a follow-up/sequel episode in season three in the run-up to "Best of Both Worlds".
@@seekingabsolution1907 I agree. I think that these Trek novel writers tend to go to the well of changing the context of earlier episodes too often. It was clever and original when Wrath of Khan did it, but a lot of these old stories should just be left alone, since they aren't making them better with these follow ups.
Riker suffers, and not Worf? I'll take that as a win. Shame they never explored Kevin again. I'm not familiar with any high-powered reality warpers in Trek other than the Q, and Picard's experiences with them might be an interesting contrast. Kevin certainly seems to have limits (Q's can bring back the dead as I remember), would have been an interesting contrast between the two.
I love this episode so much. It's the PERFECT transition between "good TNG" and the quality pre-TNG sci-fi. TOS was never this good (yes, there were good episodes, but none are THIS good). This is a remarkably strong character-based but emotionally-determined sci-fi worthy of the best of The Twilight Zone. John Anderson sold this magically, with stated real-life reasons, and the rest of the cast, and the writing in general, made an episode that would have been a stand-out for the 60s, 70s, or 80s. But this was in the transition to the GOOD TNG years, so it got overshadowed. But this episode, and other brilliant Season 3 episodes like The Defector, Sarak, and Tin Man, showed that there was a very strong strain of brilliant inter-(TOS-TNG)-Trek sci-fi that the new series could build upon. And, in this case, absolutely did.
@dupersuper1938 yeah, this episode would certainly be good by TOS standards, but I can think of at least 5 TOS episodes that are better than it off the top my head
@dupersuper1938 This episode might feel better to a modern viewer, because the performances are more naturalistic and subtle than TOS, which were generally more theatrical. That's more a matter of changing tastes than a measure of quality however.
I don't know if anyone will read this after so long, but a server I'm on had a unique pondering: Given we never see the species again after their episode, as well as this one happening right after it, imagine if instead of the Husnock, it was the Sheliak that attacked and were wiped out by Kevin.
He did review this, years ago. He's been re-uploading years' worth of his old reviews. UA-cam bots take down old reviews, so he re-edits and puts them back up. Either that or he abandons them entirely. Blip's been dead for years, and UA-cam keeps doing new stuff to mess with creators. Chuck doesn't want to abandon his old work (and neither do I want that, as a long-time viewer and supporter). He's been forced to re-edit and curate his old world just to keep it around for people like us to find and enjoy.
I collect all the scores he gives the episodes into my excel sheet, and this one is new. You might also want to know that Voyager is slightly above it's own average
This episode always leaves me emotionally exhausted in a good way. The idea of having all that power, giving it up because of love for a single tiny transient being who captures your heart with thier kindness and joy, only to see that being die before their time and lashing out in an act that you'll regret for all eternity... Absolutely heartbreaking. One of TNG's better episodes IMHO.
I really liked that this dealt more interestingly with the idea of a godlike alien, and the ramifications of that power, than almost all of the many, many other examples in Star Trek.
I think your assessment of why Riker was forced to be caught in a snare trap is accurate. Jonathan Frakes is very tall. Many directors seem to like taking large men and finding ways to have them be knocked down in various ways. John Wayne often had knock-down drag-out fights with shorter men in his movies. James Arness also lost a number of fights in "Gunsmoke." Honestly, Riker getting caught in the snare also lightened the tone of the episode. A nonlethal trap was also a hint of Kevin Uxbridge's nature.
Something that I've not heard anyone comment on, and it's mostly a plot contrivance. Once Picard figures out something's up, why does he get cagey about it with the bridge crew, leaving them in the dark? It doesn't make sense for him to not explain his thinking unless Kevin is supposed to be able to anticipate his actions if he explicitly states them verbally? Minor plot hole but I was recently watching this episode with a friend and that stuck out to me.
Funny they - and especially Worf - are so surprised when the Husnock-ship showed up out of nowhere. They will be really surprised when they find out about cloaking devices and things like that ... oh wait! I agree, it's not a bad episode. The only thing that made me dislike it the first time i saw it back in the day was Troy. No, not because of the episode itself and Sirtis' acting was ok, but i got so annoyed of her after the first two seasons every time her empathic abilities came into play i just hated it. And if it wasn't for later episodes with her that would still be the case.
Cleavage window... more like a cleavage balcony, it's not like Power Girls cleavage window. Still, I think this outfit and her actual blue uniform are the best, although I do kinda miss the one time we had the blue one with the short skirt.
@@bobbyshaddoe3004 Troi's post-Chain of Command uniform change showed Sirtis at her hottest (though I am aware of Roddenberry's and Berman's pressure to her to get skinny). But I still like the blue dress. Better by leagues than the stupid S1 miniskirt or bland, unflattering S2 gray onesie. Let a beautiful, curvy woman own her curves, and her long, trailing curly hair. It shouldn't have been so difficult.
I think there is a hidden Easter egg in voyager season 1 episode 5 time and again. I think the powerful being was one of the inhabitants of the planet and was killed off when the planet went nuclear or something, but because voyager change time, it never happened. Just look at the guy trying to sell tom paris that time piece.
The novel ST: Titan Fortune of War finds the Hus'noc homeworld. They were aggressive, xenophobic, hostile, sadistic and on the verge of launching an attack on the Galaxy. The Enterprise was rocked by weapons only half the power of the real thing. The arsenal of the Hus'noc was completely intact. There were lots of races very eager to get their appendages on it and the Ferengi were going to auction it off. They were something like evolved sea life octopus or squid like. What Kevin did was basically boil them all alive from the inside out!! Agonizing and not the quickest way to go. It took minutes to die fully aware and awake. No one is going to shed tears over them though. They were militaristic and thoroughly vile. 50 billion well armed soldiers with an infrastructure built for war. Yeah that tech laying around deep in the Beta Quadrant is very much a threat. What would the Gorn or the Green or Tholians do with such weapons is not a pleasant thought. I agree nothing you can do to a dowd and nothing as a sentence for genocide by thought could be imposed even if law allowed it, without his consent and nothing you can do could be more punishment then his conscious puts him through. Leave him his quiet prison world with his memories and a fantasy and stay away from him. A warning beacon to keep out of the system should suffice. Not mind blowing or heart breaking beauty but a solid start middle and finish to a story.
@@NeilBlumengarten I'm really more of a acquaintance :D More seriously yeah I do listen to them, and it's a mix of love and hate with mostly the positive feelings outweighing the negative.
this episode would make for an interesting prequel movie set in the trek universe but without any human perspective in it, just following the horrible incidentes around this character and the genocide he commits
I thought this was a season 1 episode. It has the TOS feeling to it as alot of season 1 episodes did. Also it has minimal resolution at the end it just ends
This is one of my top TNG eps, the weight of the subject matter that it dealt with. A being that is dedicated to peace, having a moment of pure rage, grief, and anger, and annihilates an entire species. There is no way a mere human could even think himself worthy of judging such an individual.
13:31 ya I would be disgusted at myself i could have stopped them but didn't not even the soles of the good act of making show the Husak could never do that to more innocent people un les he ashamed of himself for killing the Husak this wow what a piece of work that is just morally reprehensible
One thing I love about Trek is how often humanity encounters beings so much more powerful and mysterious than they can imagine or even dream of dealing with. The universe is so massive, it's the height of hubris (and boring) to write humanity as anything special. To quote Pain and Panic from Hercules: We are worms!!
@@Blueskybuffalo he was roleplaying a grumpy old man. Taking the elevator is peak old man. You are staying in character too, i see. Why you would choose to rp as a dense brick i do kot know, but you are good at it.
@@trazyntheinfinite9895I’d say you’re role playing an angry internet nerd but I think that’s just who you are. You talk about me being dense while completely missing the meaning of my mostly unserious comment. Kevin is unmasked on the bridge and he transforms into his alien form. His “role play” is over but transports into the turboshaft which we know because Geordi tells us.
With time goes by I wonder more and more if this universe allows evolution to an energy form of being... I am in a way tired of this trope of "god-person", Q excluded ;) Old tropes are getting older by the day, I wonder what will the new scifi bring. Blindsight and Three body problem are an indication of something I hope.
Yeah, I never liked this trope, because it's basically materialist Christianity. No scientific data to support it, just a dismissal of the human body as frail, sinful matter that inhibits reason and a desire to transcend it. The more modern versions are things like body transference or Matrix-style virtual worlds, which still assume Cartesian dualism, i.e. that the mind is separate if not _superior_ to the body despite no scientific evidence for this whatsoever.
I won't go as far as to say that I disslike it, but over the years I just have the impresiion that I have sen it all. I still like what the fan made TOS on youtube did with Apollo, but the tropes, one after another are getting tiresome in a way. Just tropes not the executions I mind you ;) I like scifi for crazy ideas, dualism is not so weird after thinking about it and hearing cleaver disscusions from various philosophers, thinkers, writers entertaining the concept. Darm matter is something we can not "see" and I hope simmilar emergent properties of the universe is simmilar to this effect ;)@@digitaljanus
so, nothing to do with the review but... at 9:50 we see a shot from within Troi's quarters, and am I the only one that would freak the heck out about those windows? "Yes, and here's the bedroom, see the full length windows? The only thing between your sleeping, helpless body and the cold infinite dark vacuum of space antithetical to all humanoid life is a few centimetres of transparent aluminium. Nothing to fear, It's not like shields can fail and you could be instantly blown out into one of the most horrible deaths imaginable. Sleep tight!" Yeah I know all the senior officers have the same setup, but seriously. I wouldn't be able to sleep.
Yeah let's hope future material technology is extremely first rate, including whatever they use for glass fixtures. I mean, on spaceships, if they exist lol.
Boarding a spaceship is like boarding an airplane or a submarine: you're accepting that there's some risk, and the difference between life and death can be measured in millimeters.
@@andrewklang809 Yes, but some effort has been made to mitigate those risks. airplanes have parachutes, submarines have life rafts. I'm just saying it's a little spine tingling to know how close you are to the endless void
@@ThomasFishwick Considering the energy transfer of the weapons, if they make it to the hull it won't matter what that section is made out of. That only matters at the rational level, of course, but in early _TNG_ when they designed the sets one can safely assume that 'humanity had evolved past mere emotional trifles.'
@@boobah5643 yeah I never bought into “evolved past our emotions” thing. We can learn, we can train ourselves to look past them. We can even accept and move on from them. But at a fundamental level emotions are a building block of our psyche. Without them, good and bad, we are not human.
Isn't this the episode that fucked up Frake's back for life? and resulted in him adopting the Riker lean for scenes when he was on his feet too long? or was that just and urben legend?
"I killed them all. All Husnock. Everywhere." John Anderson's delivery of that line gave me chills, and it's why this episode has stuck in my memory over the decades.
When I first saw this episode I immediately remembered Mr. Anderson in Psycho as the used car salesman!!
100% one of the guest stars that steals the show. So much emotion and layers to the performance.
Anderson also played MacGyver's grandfather a few times. 😎👍
The episode is plain average but this line and Picard's "we have no punishment to fit your crime" just kicked it up few notches.
“How I wish I could have died with her.”
I loved this episode for the captain's log at the end. "I do not know if he should be praised or condemned. Only that he should be left alone." it's very clear that by the end, while Picard is obviously affected by the knowledge that a being so powerful exists and is as much a threat to the Federation as it is to anyone else, he's content to simply let it be knowing that there is no will to cause harm to others. It was as much a character study of a higher being as it was a great display of why Picard is a captain.
Well said
The older I have become Picard's reaction to it all makes more sense to me the scope of what Kevin did from his inaction to his grotesque over correction to it the magnitude of it is unfathomable.
I think Picard recognized the prison Kevin built for himself, constantly reminding him of what he lost and his subsequent crime, was far more secure than anything the Federation could fashion.
Perhaps not the first instance of "when in doubt, make Riker suffer" but it is certainly an obvious instance
And unlike Miles O'Brien, Riker rarely, if ever, had the whole sympathy thing when it came to suffering.
Incredible episode. A mystery that picard cleverly figures out to find a grief stricken being almost as powerful as a Q confessing existential pain. When picard said we are not qualifies to be your judge. Was peak star trek writing
This really felt like an Original Series episode I always wondered if it was a left over script
Probably not TOS but maybe Phase 2, the show that never was. I mean we know TNG used a lot of the ideas for that show in the first two seasons.
"I saw her broken body. I went insane."
That gave me chills
If you think about the ship that inexplicably appears to lead the enterprise away, the design makes it look kinda like a large dog, a guard dog if you like. I dont know if that was the intention, but its just something i observed
Kevin's agony of guilt at what he'd done, and especially after it would have mattered to his wife andvtheir fellow colonists was very powerful.
Picard's "Let's slowly back away from the emotionally fragile god-like being. Dammit, was not Q enough for a lifetime?"
I have always been very fond of this particular outfit of Troi's, who can say why?
Emotionally fragile god-being lmao fr tho.
@@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999 The woman he loved and the place he retired too were bombed off the map from orbit by war mongers. That's not being emotionally fragile.
@@bthsr7113 well I mean he had good reason to be left grief-stricken. But he was nonetheless, fragile and grief-stricken. That's all we're saying.
@bthsr7113 Which means he was emotionally broken and therefore unpredictable. This is a bad combination with the ability to genocide an entire starfaring civilization with a thought.
I too like this of Troi's outfits.
I love the name "Uxbridge". My brain kept repeating it for decades after I saw this episode when a kid
It's the name of a London Underground station. You're welcome
The old man admitting what he did always sends chills down my spine. You can FEEL the agony and anguish he feels.
Yeah fr. Character actors rock. I just love those guys. I wonder if they sometimes wish they could be leads or supporting actors. They're frequently just as good if not better but have to be content with the more limited screentime character roles.
It always reminds me of 9th Doctor in the Episode Dalek(2005) "You all die! I saw it happen! I made it happen."
The actor’s real life wife had just died.
I was always struck by the special effects used to erase Kevin's wife, both in the original version and in the HD remaster. She doesn't just fade away or dissolve, like a transporter or a dying Yoda. Her body quickly loses details as she simplifies into her most basic components. The effect is subtly disturbing, seeing this person disassembling into nothing right in front of Picard, revealing that she was never real to begin with, is almost as haunting as the implications of what Kevin had done.
Beta canon expanded upon the Husnok in the novel "Fortune Of War" and the vast, fantastically powerful and advanced militaristic civilization they left behind after the Douwd genocide. They were advancing toward Federation territory and would have overrun and massacred the pre-Dominion War UFP if Uxbridge hadn't intervened. It was the first example of the Federation being saved from complete annihilation by god-like beings that would be followed by the Bajoran "Prophets" in the Dominion War and the Caeliar in the Borg invasion (the "Destiny" book trilogy).
It's the lack of realization of the dire peril from which Uxbridge had just saved the Federation and the resulting undisturbed innocence of Picard and his complacent crew that makes this episode an ominously hair-raising harbinger of the UFP's near future.
I dont like that, it retroactively removes the moral ambiguity that makes the episode work. The Husnok should not have been an irredeemable evil threat to all the main characters. It undermines the whole point of the story.
@@seekingabsolution1907 You're talking about two different stories. "The Survivors" was about Kevin Uxbridge, a powerful immortal being of moral conscience whose one lapse of vengeful anger wiped out an entire species (regardless of their moral turpitude or ambiguity) and his having to live with that, and the knowledge of what he was capable, forever. One can understand why Picard wanted to just leave him well enough alone, since the Federation would have been helpless against him anyway. It's like Bruce Banner telling Jack McGee, "Don't make me angry; you wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
Since "The Survivors" wasn't about the Husnok, they could be as Uxbridge described them (presumably accurate, since if he could eradicate them with a single thought, he must have been able to read their minds). It actually adds to the Douwd's anguish, since he could have easily rationalized his genocide along the lines of "They deserved it" and didn't.
I find the Husnok interesting not in themselves but in the larger context of the existential threats that were on the UFP's horizon after its "golden age" complacency that was seen in the previous season's, "Q Who". Both as a prelude and as a treasure trove of advanced weaponry the location and harvesting of which should have been Starfleet's top priority given the already-established Borg threat. There really should have been a follow-up/sequel episode in season three in the run-up to "Best of Both Worlds".
Egads, some Trek writers really don't understand the tone of the world they're writing for.
@@JosephDavies Indeed. 😎
@@seekingabsolution1907 I agree. I think that these Trek novel writers tend to go to the well of changing the context of earlier episodes too often. It was clever and original when Wrath of Khan did it, but a lot of these old stories should just be left alone, since they aren't making them better with these follow ups.
I feel for Troi. I had an earworm last week and it also about drove me insane.
Riker suffers, and not Worf? I'll take that as a win.
Shame they never explored Kevin again. I'm not familiar with any high-powered reality warpers in Trek other than the Q, and Picard's experiences with them might be an interesting contrast. Kevin certainly seems to have limits (Q's can bring back the dead as I remember), would have been an interesting contrast between the two.
Though even for Q, annihilating an entire civilization in one moment is not a trick to be so easily pulled off.
Watch more TOS and you'll see quite a few other examples.
"Good Tea.
Nice House"
Worf would be excellent at British Tea Partys
I do like the idea of a being so powerful that it cannot even trust itself - that it can annihilate a whole species by just letting go for a second.
I love this episode so much. It's the PERFECT transition between "good TNG" and the quality pre-TNG sci-fi. TOS was never this good (yes, there were good episodes, but none are THIS good). This is a remarkably strong character-based but emotionally-determined sci-fi worthy of the best of The Twilight Zone. John Anderson sold this magically, with stated real-life reasons, and the rest of the cast, and the writing in general, made an episode that would have been a stand-out for the 60s, 70s, or 80s. But this was in the transition to the GOOD TNG years, so it got overshadowed. But this episode, and other brilliant Season 3 episodes like The Defector, Sarak, and Tin Man, showed that there was a very strong strain of brilliant inter-(TOS-TNG)-Trek sci-fi that the new series could build upon. And, in this case, absolutely did.
It's a great episode, but TOS was often very much this good.
@dupersuper1938 yeah, this episode would certainly be good by TOS standards, but I can think of at least 5 TOS episodes that are better than it off the top my head
@dupersuper1938 This episode might feel better to a modern viewer, because the performances are more naturalistic and subtle than TOS, which were generally more theatrical. That's more a matter of changing tastes than a measure of quality however.
Kevin is a man of special conscience.
And zero conscience about torturing Troi.
I don't know if anyone will read this after so long, but a server I'm on had a unique pondering:
Given we never see the species again after their episode, as well as this one happening right after it, imagine if instead of the Husnock, it was the Sheliak that attacked and were wiped out by Kevin.
Love this ep, and glad to see it covered here. Enjoyed the analysis of how TNG's storytelling style changed.
The fact that his first response is to create a perpetual and ongoing assault on Deanna Troi, Kevin is most definitely in the "villain" category.
He is A Dowd. But not The Mighty En Dowd.
I've seen so many of your reviews, this one feels like a Mandela effect. I thought you already did this one. Excellent work as always.
He did review this, years ago. He's been re-uploading years' worth of his old reviews. UA-cam bots take down old reviews, so he re-edits and puts them back up. Either that or he abandons them entirely.
Blip's been dead for years, and UA-cam keeps doing new stuff to mess with creators. Chuck doesn't want to abandon his old work (and neither do I want that, as a long-time viewer and supporter). He's been forced to re-edit and curate his old world just to keep it around for people like us to find and enjoy.
@@andrewklang809 Based on his website this is a new one rather than re-upload.
This is a new one, actually.
I collect all the scores he gives the episodes into my excel sheet, and this one is new. You might also want to know that Voyager is slightly above it's own average
@@sfdebrisred6555What??? Uh... I'm honestly astonished. I coulda sworn you did this years ago. Obviously, I'm not gonna argue. Just... wow.
This episode always leaves me emotionally exhausted in a good way. The idea of having all that power, giving it up because of love for a single tiny transient being who captures your heart with thier kindness and joy, only to see that being die before their time and lashing out in an act that you'll regret for all eternity... Absolutely heartbreaking. One of TNG's better episodes IMHO.
Always really liked this episode. Enjoyed the review too.
I really liked that this dealt more interestingly with the idea of a godlike alien, and the ramifications of that power, than almost all of the many, many other examples in Star Trek.
Disagree with you on 6/10. One of my personal favourites, would have given in an 8/10. So many more mediocre TNG episodes than this.
What ratio of TNG episodes involve Troi getting physically or mentally violated, do you think?
I think your assessment of why Riker was forced to be caught in a snare trap is accurate. Jonathan Frakes is very tall. Many directors seem to like taking large men and finding ways to have them be knocked down in various ways. John Wayne often had knock-down drag-out fights with shorter men in his movies. James Arness also lost a number of fights in "Gunsmoke." Honestly, Riker getting caught in the snare also lightened the tone of the episode. A nonlethal trap was also a hint of Kevin Uxbridge's nature.
Something that I've not heard anyone comment on, and it's mostly a plot contrivance. Once Picard figures out something's up, why does he get cagey about it with the bridge crew, leaving them in the dark? It doesn't make sense for him to not explain his thinking unless Kevin is supposed to be able to anticipate his actions if he explicitly states them verbally? Minor plot hole but I was recently watching this episode with a friend and that stuck out to me.
Maybe they should have had Rasean ask Worf if considers himself humorous. She was played by Anne Hanney after all.
Funny they - and especially Worf - are so surprised when the Husnock-ship showed up out of nowhere. They will be really surprised when they find out about cloaking devices and things like that ... oh wait!
I agree, it's not a bad episode.
The only thing that made me dislike it the first time i saw it back in the day was Troy. No, not because of the episode itself and Sirtis' acting was ok, but i got so annoyed of her after the first two seasons every time her empathic abilities came into play i just hated it. And if it wasn't for later episodes with her that would still be the case.
You need Kevin's consent to arrest and convict. Star Trak inadvertently created the Sovereign Citizens movement.
This episode hit when I was a teenager, and I think all myself and my nerd friends (all 2 of them :) ) could talk about was Troi's dress
Cleavage window... more like a cleavage balcony, it's not like Power Girls cleavage window.
Still, I think this outfit and her actual blue uniform are the best, although I do kinda miss the one time we had the blue one with the short skirt.
@@bobbyshaddoe3004 Troi's post-Chain of Command uniform change showed Sirtis at her hottest (though I am aware of Roddenberry's and Berman's pressure to her to get skinny). But I still like the blue dress. Better by leagues than the stupid S1 miniskirt or bland, unflattering S2 gray onesie. Let a beautiful, curvy woman own her curves, and her long, trailing curly hair. It shouldn't have been so difficult.
@@andrewklang809 Sirtis was always great with curves. Trying to pressure her to stay skinny was just ridiculous.
@@andrewklang809 I agree, she looked great Post Chain of Command.
I think there is a hidden Easter egg in voyager season 1 episode 5 time and again. I think the powerful being was one of the inhabitants of the planet and was killed off when the planet went nuclear or something, but because voyager change time, it never happened. Just look at the guy trying to sell tom paris that time piece.
The novel ST: Titan Fortune of War finds the Hus'noc homeworld.
They were aggressive, xenophobic, hostile, sadistic and on the verge of launching an attack on the Galaxy. The Enterprise was rocked by weapons only half the power of the real thing.
The arsenal of the Hus'noc was completely intact. There were lots of races very eager to get their appendages on it and the Ferengi were going to auction it off.
They were something like evolved sea life octopus or squid like.
What Kevin did was basically boil them all alive from the inside out!! Agonizing and not the quickest way to go. It took minutes to die fully aware and awake.
No one is going to shed tears over them though. They were militaristic and thoroughly vile.
50 billion well armed soldiers with an infrastructure built for war. Yeah that tech laying around deep in the Beta Quadrant is very much a threat. What would the Gorn or the Green or Tholians do with such weapons is not a pleasant thought.
I agree nothing you can do to a dowd and nothing as a sentence for genocide by thought could be imposed even if law allowed it, without his consent and nothing you can do could be more punishment then his conscious puts him through. Leave him his quiet prison world with his memories and a fantasy and stay away from him. A warning beacon to keep out of the system should suffice.
Not mind blowing or heart breaking beauty but a solid start middle and finish to a story.
I usually bring this up when ppl start these "Q vs xyz" debates.
I don't believe the Federation could mete out a punishment that dude would give himself.
In a way, love, fear, and hope were the reason for the situation. Kevin's that is.
Well done for making it through this one with out making a real doll joke.
A fellow Friend of DeSoto! You have good (bad) taste!
@@NeilBlumengarten I'm really more of a acquaintance :D
More seriously yeah I do listen to them, and it's a mix of love and hate with mostly the positive feelings outweighing the negative.
The love and hope comment makes more sense if you assume Picard is spiking his tea.
15:44 - a power B'Elanna wishes she had.
this episode would make for an interesting prequel movie set in the trek universe but without any human perspective in it, just following the horrible incidentes around this character and the genocide he commits
Anyone else have an odd urge for ice cream?
I thought this was a season 1 episode. It has the TOS feeling to it as alot of season 1 episodes did. Also it has minimal resolution at the end it just ends
I usually like eps that have that about them.
I tend to like episodes of anything that have that raw, unfinished feel to them.
He goes to the Ready Room to watch football? Which football? 😏
"Awww, even in the 24th century, the Bears suck!"
One of my favourite episodes.
Shouldn't Kevin be a recipient of the $20 Bill award?
Either way, a very memorable episode for all the reasons you said.
I get your criticisms but idk, I'd still give it a 9. It always sticks out to me as one of the most notable TNG-era eps.
This is one of my top TNG eps, the weight of the subject matter that it dealt with. A being that is dedicated to peace, having a moment of pure rage, grief, and anger, and annihilates an entire species. There is no way a mere human could even think himself worthy of judging such an individual.
13:31 ya I would be disgusted at myself i could have stopped them but didn't not even the soles of the good act of making show the Husak could never do that to more innocent people
un les he ashamed of himself for killing the Husak
this wow what a piece of work that is just morally reprehensible
Do we think that he is a Q or something like a Q?
One thing I love about Trek is how often humanity encounters beings so much more powerful and mysterious than they can imagine or even dream of dealing with. The universe is so massive, it's the height of hubris (and boring) to write humanity as anything special.
To quote Pain and Panic from Hercules: We are worms!!
Powerful yes, but a Q could have reformed his wife as a human instead of an illusion.
Wort’s just glad he wasn’t caught in the snare trap!
If "Kevin" could do all he did do, why couldn't he undo it and or what the Husnock did?
It's always far easier to destroy than to create, especially when it comes to something as complex as life and a whole massive society.
It’s weird an alien that has the power to wipe out an entire species in the universe with his mind still has to use the elevator to get around.
Its called "staying in character"
@@trazyntheinfinite9895 that doesn’t make any sense
@@Blueskybuffalo he was roleplaying a grumpy old man. Taking the elevator is peak old man.
You are staying in character too, i see. Why you would choose to rp as a dense brick i do kot know, but you are good at it.
@@trazyntheinfinite9895I’d say you’re role playing an angry internet nerd but I think that’s just who you are. You talk about me being dense while completely missing the meaning of my mostly unserious comment. Kevin is unmasked on the bridge and he transforms into his alien form. His “role play” is over but transports into the turboshaft which we know because Geordi tells us.
Good video, nice voice. 😄
I too am a Dowd.
With time goes by I wonder more and more if this universe allows evolution to an energy form of being... I am in a way tired of this trope of "god-person", Q excluded ;) Old tropes are getting older by the day, I wonder what will the new scifi bring. Blindsight and Three body problem are an indication of something I hope.
Yeah, I never liked this trope, because it's basically materialist Christianity. No scientific data to support it, just a dismissal of the human body as frail, sinful matter that inhibits reason and a desire to transcend it. The more modern versions are things like body transference or Matrix-style virtual worlds, which still assume Cartesian dualism, i.e. that the mind is separate if not _superior_ to the body despite no scientific evidence for this whatsoever.
I won't go as far as to say that I disslike it, but over the years I just have the impresiion that I have sen it all. I still like what the fan made TOS on youtube did with Apollo, but the tropes, one after another are getting tiresome in a way. Just tropes not the executions I mind you ;) I like scifi for crazy ideas, dualism is not so weird after thinking about it and hearing cleaver disscusions from various philosophers, thinkers, writers entertaining the concept. Darm matter is something we can not "see" and I hope simmilar emergent properties of the universe is simmilar to this effect ;)@@digitaljanus
I'm not sure if there is anything new lol. Perhaps it's already all been done... Guess we'll have to see.
so, nothing to do with the review but...
at 9:50 we see a shot from within Troi's quarters, and am I the only one that would freak the heck out about those windows?
"Yes, and here's the bedroom, see the full length windows? The only thing between your sleeping, helpless body and the cold infinite dark vacuum of space antithetical to all humanoid life is a few centimetres of transparent aluminium. Nothing to fear, It's not like shields can fail and you could be instantly blown out into one of the most horrible deaths imaginable. Sleep tight!"
Yeah I know all the senior officers have the same setup, but seriously. I wouldn't be able to sleep.
Yeah let's hope future material technology is extremely first rate, including whatever they use for glass fixtures. I mean, on spaceships, if they exist lol.
Boarding a spaceship is like boarding an airplane or a submarine: you're accepting that there's some risk, and the difference between life and death can be measured in millimeters.
@@andrewklang809 Yes, but some effort has been made to mitigate those risks. airplanes have parachutes, submarines have life rafts.
I'm just saying it's a little spine tingling to know how close you are to the endless void
@@ThomasFishwick Considering the energy transfer of the weapons, if they make it to the hull it won't matter what that section is made out of.
That only matters at the rational level, of course, but in early _TNG_ when they designed the sets one can safely assume that 'humanity had evolved past mere emotional trifles.'
@@boobah5643 yeah I never bought into “evolved past our emotions” thing. We can learn, we can train ourselves to look past them. We can even accept and move on from them. But at a fundamental level emotions are a building block of our psyche. Without them, good and bad, we are not human.
algorithm comment
Isn't this the episode that fucked up Frake's back for life? and resulted in him adopting the Riker lean for scenes when he was on his feet too long? or was that just and urben legend?
Actually it was from before he was on TNG when he had a job moving furniture.
@@MegaOrwell1984 Ah so it was an urben legend then, good to know.