Star Trek The Next Generation s03e03 The Survivors Thanks for clicking, thanks for watching, hope you got what you came for. Buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/tjwp... Outro Music: • STAR TREK - THE NEXT G...
When Kevin breaks down in the following scene, talking about his loss and anguish, much of that was real; the actor had lost his wife the year before and almost turned down the role because it hit so close to home. The result was one of the most powerful guest performances in TNG
So this is the Star Trek version of that one "Fresh Prince of Bell-air" episode. The one where Will Smith asked his fellow actor out of character on set why his real life dad left him, and they kept it.
@@DarkonFullPower Will Smith had his dad in his life for his entire life up until his father's death. That whole thing with that moment being unscripted is complete bullshit. The truth is that Will Smith is just a really good actor.
This man could do loss like no-one else. He played a hard nosed general in MASH, who moves his command to the unit so he could be with his son that was being treated there. There's a really touching scene when Hawkeye comes in to share the news that his son died suddenly, and he muses on the callousness of his job...and then has to go back to being the hard nose again after only being able to spare himself a few moments of grief.
Compassion or good judgment considering he didn't know how much "reality" she'd been given or how much she might retain afterwards. Think about her like a hologram from the holodeck, but one with unknown safety protocols. Could she freak out and hurt him or others? For all he knew, she could have had the strength to rip him in half.
@@loka7783 There were some legitimate concerns, but it would be dishonest not to pin down his attitude on his absolute conviction on the value of life, wether it is what we identify as such or not. I mean, "you may even feel and think as I do..." is the argument he presented in the Data case already. And it is completely true and a very noble idea to this day. Even more so today, with all the polarization and political violence we see.
To a being that can construct or deconstruct any of us at will, “existence” is an awfully limited concept. To us, we are born, and we die. To them, we can be made, unmade, remade… Who are we to say that isn’t real? It just isn’t what we’re used to.
“He’s so powerful, Mr Worf, that he could destroy us in an instant if he so wished”. Then why did we transport him aboard, captain? “I think he might be nice”.
"Because he's so powerful he could transport himself aboard regardless and the only way to get him inside is to interact with it in a friendly and welcoming way, that we mean it no harm, we are after all meant to seek out new life and new civilisations"
Yes thank you for posting this! I couldn't understand why, if the guy was that dangerous, Picard would provoke him like this? I'd be Pissed off of my re-created spouse was cornered like that…
@@susanpicerno8113 But he does not suffer from rage, or jealousy, or indignation. He suffers from guilt. Crushing, overwhelming guilt. And although he could block Troi's perception of that emotion, he could not block Picard's.
“No, you don’t understand the scope of my crime. I didn’t kill just one Husnock, or a hundred, or a thousand. I killed them all. All Husnock...........everywhere.” Chilling words and great acting by veteran character actor John Anderson who’s wife had just recently passed away in real life and said this was the hardest role he ever had to play.
Little known fact. You will never see anyone talking as they walk though automatic doors. The reason is the doors make such a loud noise, it would be problematic to say the least, for the sound tech to deal with. So they just don't talk. And the crappy sound is edited over with a nice smooth sooshing sound.
Also, you almost always have people coming into the room much more quickly than they could have if they had to stop what they were doing, get up, navigate the furniture, and walk to the door. The actors are always just stood there waiting for their cue.
I think in the original series the government actually approached the production to find out how they made the doors open automatically. Turned out they had little people in the set pulling the doors open.
This was perhaps the first episode of star trek TNG that was higher level story telling. Season 1 and 2 had an occasional good episode, but this was the start of where star trek became what it was meant to be.
@@PromotedPawn measure of a man was absurd and made no sense. The fact that they even questioned data's sentience or the fact he was alive was disturbing. Nor did it make sense in terms of the timeline. He had been alive since 2338. Why would this not have happened sooner?
@@troyterry6919 where by "made no sense" you mean "I can't stand to process the reality that many people have value systems inimical to my own". as for your question, novel atrocities don't just happen because they could happen, any more than flammable materials spontaneously combust, somebody has to come along with the initiative to act.
Or, his sense of denial. There was nobody there to hear what he was saying to her. This story is a lot like that Twilight Zone episode where there was a man living all by himself, and he had an android who he treated like a real person and who responded by acting like a real person.
The trouble was and is that the federation and the Enterprise are so powerful. They were meant to represrnt the USA and a carrier battle group. Now, how you gonna go up against that with any conventional force? Yet it is an action/adventure TV show, so you have to create life or death situations, so you have to have super powered aliens.
@@Shakespeare1612 There are countless episodes and countless situations in reality where life or death happened with conventional force. The US became the dominant power in the Pacific after WWI and yet through surprise and new tactics, the Japanese inflicted massive damage on ships in Pearl Harbor and with other engagements. Even more recently, small groups have managed attacks like that against the USS Cole. We saw similar in Star Trek with Romulans and Klingons, who while not tactically superior, had enough power to be deadly enemies and stood a chance of victory against the Federation. There are also new conventional enemies like the Borg and Dominion that have an extreme tactical advantage that doesn't exist on Earth against the US military. Starfleet was definitely based on the US and British navies, but it didn't represent them. They were the navies that Roddenberry knew and he saw the parallels there that would exist in a future Earth crewed space fleet. He also used existing conflicts to inspire plots with Romulans copying aspects of Japanese history, Klingons copying aspects of Soviet tactics, etc. but they weren't "representing" them. These were just a baseline for storytelling. And a big part of science fiction storytelling is "what if there's someone out there who sees us like we see ants". Star Trek overused that concept, and after Roddenberry passed away, they started avoiding it to focus on more grounded storytelling. But it wasn't necessary to create life or death situations. In fact, these impossibly powerful aliens almost always were not life and death threats. Q toyed with the crew, but deaths around him were by others he put the crew in contact with like the Borg. The Organians try to ignore the Klingons and Federation killing each other until it becomes too much. The wormhole aliens don't directly get involved until Sisko pressures them. The creature the Edo worshiped merely prevented the Enterprise from interfering. Kevin only kills an off-screen enemy and uses a copy of it to chase the Enterprise off. The ones threatening death themselves like Apollo and Nagilum are the rare exception.
Sometime, far in the future, perhaps even further out than the Burn, there is a war which culminates in the destruction of all godlike species other than the Q.
i want a star trek TNG remake where the roles are the exact same but every single one of worfs ideas etc is considered good and implented just as he thinks it fits
Ask any man who lost his one woman. You know what his answer will be. A philosophical question that we all know the answer to. I can only dred the morning when I wake, look over, see she isn't there and never will be again. Think that isn't worth 30 billion other lives to me? I wouldn't think twice about it. She is worth the universe and all of the life in it.
What if he re-created the Hussucs? And they continued to live and travel space and BREED? What if hunanity was actually created by Q in a similar way? Is that why he/they are so interested in us?
Picard: "We have no laws to cover your crime." Huh? It's called a war crime. And in their time period, where one war ship can lay waste to an entire planet, and one determined group of insiders or outsiders can steal of construct such ships, how could there not be a law against it?
If the universe has been around for billions of years, then it would be common to have extraterrestrial species with technologies millions of years more advanced than our own.
@ODIN Force Havent we all sometimes felt the need to murder EVERY last one of an annoying group? Why not live the dream if you can? I mean you only live once, something you realise best if you have to run from genocide. And it is also a good way to show people how angry they made you when you not only kill them but everyone who shares dna with them. Also important: Inteligence is no reason to be spared nor is guilt something that will last forever, one day you have to move on... to another target.
@ODIN Force Of course they will be able to see how angry they made me, they die and then they go to the egyptian afterlife were osiris will judge them, and their hearts will be weighed against the feather of truth, then brabuk, the dinosaur headed god of regret, will show up and tell them how angry they made me and that they completely deserved that genocide, and that they should be happy nothing worse happened to them. And pacifists dont really exist, a pacifist is just someone who has not enjoyed the pleasures of senseless and excessive violence. Oh and yes (1) is true.
"In every respect, you are a real person with your own mind...and beliefs, but...you do not exist. You died along with the others defending the colony. *He* recreated you using beans, lots of beans."
The concept of this conscious troubled entity, was a master stroke of writing for this story.. And when he bares his soul, about losing control of powers, and wiping out an entire race and Coulter, Stewart's matter of fact response, was epic. He just told him, your guilt is your punishment, as mortals have means of discipline for his crimes.. Classic Patrick Stewart, showing us classical stage training and experience. For many of us, thinking it was great science fiction, we were really enjoying, Shakespeare, and many more great stage works, without even knowing it.. We were blessed to have seen this, in "real time", the ones who did, of course...
Picard's strength is his intuition and ability to suss out situations and find solutions from them. The entire crew owe their lives to him a million times over due to this. He is always ten steps ahead of the crew due to his expert intuition on shit. Like Riker, Worf and La Forge all didn't get why Picard wanted to stay, but he knew from early on shit didn't add up.
"...once, while traveling in human form, I chanced to fall in love with an earth woman." Perhaps the most romantic line ever uttered in the ST universe
True it's not necessary for the Douwd being to travel along the turbo lift, but besides the in-universe reasons why it chose to do so mentioned by the first three comments, there's a storytelling reason why it happens. When Geordi says "he's in the turbo lift" it gives the audience a puzzle that heighten's the drama. We understand "he's going somewhere" and ask ourselves "where is he going?" It presents a brief mystery. By posing the situation in terms the audience instantly understands - he's traveling through the ship heading somewhere - our minds are freed up to ask ourselves, is the being dangerous? That is the knee-jerk reaction and the defensive mindset as represented by Worf's line "Captain, he is dangerous!" But there's a reward to those who instead suspect "I bet he's going to heal Deanna Troi," a payoff which is confirmed by Picard's dialogue a the very end of the scene. We're shown that our fight-or-flight instinct (Worf) was wrong and our higher reasoning (Picard) was right. Dialogue that poses uncertainties and makes the audience think in such ways is great Star Trek writing.
This episode came out Oct of '89. John Anderson was a hell of an actor (Kevin Uxbridge in this episode -- the Q like guy). He sadly passed away right before TNG's 6th season on Aug 7, 1992.
*Anakin Skywalker:* I killed them, I killed them all. There dead. Every single one of them. But not just the men, but the women, and the children too. There like animals! And I slaughtered theme like animals! I hate them! So this lifeform went dark-side ? :P
@@xxxradicaldreamerxxx I don't know. Anakin chopped up sandpeople in their camp, first hand, personally. This star trek dude, killed everyone in a flash of anger; he's got infinity stone-like power, instant-death because of momentary rage and grief. Don't think it's the same.
Picard: "I can touch you, hear your voice, smell your perfume, but you don't exist." (woman disappears and stops existing) Next week's episode: "Just because Mr. Data is an android, doesn't mean he isn't a life form." :/
Exactly. If she's an exact copy, she's as human as anyone else. Star Trek had a silly attitude that humans had some magical essence that couldn't be duplicated. Even their transporters didn't make copies of people - they were supposed to disassemble the person, move the molecules individually to another location, and reassemble the same person on the other end. I think it's a shame that they never explored the ramifications of a society that could make endless copies of people and make everyone essentially immortal. It was just a TV show aimed at a broad audience, after all.
There is a very small but significant difference, the one is a copy and only acts like it is selfaware while the other actually is selfaware. Also, yea. The transporters always seemed weird to me. How are they different from a replicator?
@@jasperzanovich2504 I don't think they give you enough information in the episode to know whether she's self aware or not. What controls her behavior? An A.I.? Is it self-aware? Etc.
Theres a big difference between a figment of your imagination given life and voice and form, and something that exists without space magic making it exist
@@arthour051 Was it a magical figment of somebody's imagination? That doesn't seem to be supported by the story line. The Enterprise detected two life forms. Numerous characters in the story interacted with the image of the woman. No real explanation was given for how the image was generated, however if it was magic, I think that's the only time in the Star Trek franchise that magic was evoked as an explanation for anything. More likely, I think most viewers presumed the image was a result of some technology.... same as an android.
With all the near-omnipotent beings that Starfleet keeps discovering, you'd think cults devoted to 'em all would be popping up all the time in the Federation. ;-)
@@geoffroi-le-Hook The Ferengi believe in the Material Continuum. I say that's a religious belief. And many Klingons still believe that the real Kahless will return one day. When Starship captains say they no longer believe in gods, I tend to think they are referring solely to Starfleet. There's no way they can be speaking for the TRILLIONS of Federation citizens. IMHO
its a production mistake, a blind to keep the light from coming in that got left in the shot, either that or data just tried to make a joke to worf that didnt land right
I always laugh when Picard tells Kevin he is free to return to the planet and make his wife live again. I doubt Picard had the power to prevent Kevin from doing whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Kevin was an immortal being, that's like Picard telling Q what to do or suggest he even needs Picards permission.
The thing is that Kevin is going to great lengths to just somehow chase Enterprise away instead of unmaking them. It might be regret about what he did to the Husnocks, a courtesy, or maybe he doesn't want to attach unwelcome attention (Q might be upset about the extinction of his favorite pets before he is done with them). In any case, it's always worth to try to have a civilized talk about the issue at hand.
I think it was more of a "do what you need to find peace." kind of thing. He probably doubted he even deserved a copy of his wife because of what he'd done in a moment of madness so I think he just needed to hear those words from someone.
At the same time, though, Kevin says in this scene, "But I must know what you intend to do with me afterwards." It implies, at least, that he might submit himself to their judgement. He is an incredibly moral being.
I’m 38 years old now, I watched TNG nonstop growing up, I can quote many of the episodes by heart. I also generally agree with many of the popular “best episode” lists - Yesterday’s Enterprise, Darmok, The Inner Light, Best of Both Worlds - all classics. But this might be one of the most underrated episodes of all Trek - this is incredible science-fiction.
Worf: "Why is it we maintain watch on a planet that is now _totally_ dead?" Well now _remember,_ Worf, Counselor Troi is still incapacitated by this loud, close, seemingly supernatural _dance_ music that shuts out all thought every time she's conscious. Do you have a way to treat it?
Star Trek wasn't even that show. This was one of its very, very few episodes that happened to hit a mediocre bar of being intelligent. The rest were mostly really stupid. But a lot of those were still enjoyable for other reasons. Stop putting Star Trek on a pedestal. It's not at all what your warped memory recalls it as.
@@maxweber06 You say that like 99% of TOS and TNG and so on weren't utterly fucking stupid...or Strange New Worlds somehow has no sincerely thought provoking episodes at all. Fuckin fanboys...
And just like that Rashan disappeared in a puff of logic. “Oh, that was easy,” says Picard, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing. Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo’s kidneys, but that didn’t stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book "Well That About Wraps It Up For Rashan."
"Captain! He's moved from the turbo lift to the kitchen! He's opened the fridge and is drinking all the chocolate milk!" - "security team to the kitchen immediately!"
This is one of those episodes that you appreciate more and more with every viewing. On the surface it seems like the usual Star trek fare, but actually it is very well written and acted. Kudos to everyone involved.
Kevin ended up bouncing back as he sent himself back to early 20th century earth and became the first commissioner of major league baseball and his first act as commissioner was to ban 8 members of the Chicago White Sox for throwing the 1919 World Series.
The crazy part is the transporter being sophisticated enough to beam this higher order being aboard without permission. You'd think the complexity of him would have overwhelmed every memory bank at minimum.
up until 0:37, I mistakenly thought this was the episode where aliens replace Picard with a duplicate that bullshits the entire crew while needlessly putting the ship in danger.... was really admiring Stewart's performance. :D
Picard can identify non-real people - and his ability to supervise RBMK reactors is quite satisfactory. You... do not exist. You also definitely did not see graphite.
Picard is an idealization of calm, wise, deep, kind strength. Obviously he's stodgy and rigid at times but that's one of his few flaws (and it's presented that way generally) because other than that, he's depicted as the perfect mix of compassion and firmness that one who decides the fate of worlds needs.
God damn I miss these adventures. It's a real shame that you have to pay money each month to see new episodes. Can you imagine where Harvard grads would be today if not for this show bringing real science into our lives?
@@tescheurich nah warp is based on mathematical models using Einstein’s general relativity equations. It’s that based on those equations warp isn’t strictly disallowed
John Anderson does a good job as a man torturd by a guilty past. It reminds me of his role in The Big Valley. Also, his wife's voice is unmistakably recognizable from her role in an obscure John Denver Christmas movie. (The Christmas Gift)
Considering his true age, it's about as close as we can get as mere mortals to understanding his experience... if you were immortal, with crazy superpowers, why would appearing 80 years old bother you? as long as you could be with the woman you love? he's already changed her to believe she stayed with him instead of fighting to the death, the more he changes, the less she is like the actual woman that he fell in love with... every time I hear her say she stayed with her husband, my brain breaks, I can't imagine being either of them, it's like she knows that she wouldn't stay with him and he knows that she's not truly the woman he fell in love with. She never knew his true identity, so even if he told the recreation of her the truth (to start using his powers in front of her), he would only be admitting to himself that he lied to his real wife for all these years. So sad. I feel for the guy.
@@tjwparso this is Well written but if he's thousands of years old then him interacting with a woman who's in her 80s even, would be like us playing tennis with a toddler. I still can't reconcile him being an infinite age being and getting together with an Earthling.
@@Mandolatron That's why Picard cannot judge him in the end, how can you possible pass judgement over a being that has lived countless lives in multiple galaxies, to us he is a travelling god, an entity that strolled through our galaxy, glimpsed our short existence and found comfort in the brief life we lead... he attempted to escape his eternal hell by settling down with an Earth woman, only to see her die because she is mortal and he is not, the poor guy probably lived a million different lives in a million different forms eventually to lose hope, only to find the one woman that could bring him back from the edge, make him think that maybe life does have meaning and is worth living, only to then see her killed by some planet destroying Husnock for no good reason at all... so he SNAPPED, went back to his old ways, lost control and destroyed them all. The way I see it, she convinced him that mortals are worth something, their short lives aren't just ants to be stepped on and when he loses her he reverts to his old ways... for all we know he has stomped from galaxy to galaxy not caring less for the destruction he leaves behind, that would certainly explain why he is suddenly so intent on not taking any (more) lives... what's so special about her? who knows? TRUE LOVE if you believe in it... my point is, he is so far above us, a god, a watcher, a traveller, we mean nothing to his kind... but this short lived woman made him take a different perspective on mortal life, now she is gone and he is back to the waking nightmare that is immortality... I'm guessing he'll mourn for a few hundred years, spend a few thousand years alone and repeat the process in the next galaxy along, BUT PERHAPS this mere mortal, a dead woman had such an effect on the eternal that he will never INTENTIONALLY take another persons life.
Picard: I can touch you, I can hear your voice, and I can smell your perfume. In every respect, you are a real person, your own mind and beliefs. But you do not exist. Data: Ouch.
Love this style of TNG actor blocking. All one shot in Picards ready room. Great use of camera focus and movement. Love the push in to Picard with the Enterprise portrait behind him, it's rare to have such shallow depth of field in TNG, which I think was a strength. When they used it it amplified what the actors were doing. Super cinematic. Also I love the grip flag on the bridge clearly in view as Riker walks in. Definitely the end of the night, the operators were tired.
Q appears orders of magnitude greater than him. Q could have simply returned everyone to life or snapped the husnock away without killing them if they so wished.
@@docjanak True. Still, there's an interesting possibility of implementing some kind of evolutionary table describing how a species with great neurologically explainable abilities become as powerful as Guinan, a Caretaker, well-trained Okampa, a Dowd and a Q.
I think the Q are at the top of the table, the pinnacle of evolution. This Dowd was talking about his life which spanned thousands of years. Impressive to be sure, but nowhere near close to the billions of years Q has been around. It's a no brainer for me, Q takes it without even trying.
Maybe I've missed it. Admittedly, it's been a while since I've seen this episode. What reason did Picard have to believe that it was _Kevin_ who had recreated _Rishon_ and not the other way _around?_
If you look back, at every point there is a disagreement, Rishon falls into line with her husband, as one would expect were she only a projection of his will. Also, by his own admission, he was a pacifist, whereas the same is not asserted of her. Yet she supposedly stayed by her husband's side, refusing to fight, essentially committing suicide by Husnok, which is not logically consistent, and another instance of her falling into line with her husband. Moreover, his actions towards the Enterprise crew *are* consistent with a pacifist, like trying to bluff them with a dead phaser. A normal human traumatized by so much violence would probably take up arms out of fear. Only a true pacifist would refuse to arm up in the aftermath, and only an omnipotent being would do so without a hint of fear for his safety. But Rishon shows fear appropriately on more than one occasion.
I am waiting for any sci-fi that examples an artificial intelligence, believing itself to be corporeal, creating a synthetic being from a sense of compassion.
That’s an interesting point. When a being has basically infinite power, the best move is to just leave it alone. The whole plot of “The Menagerie” (in the original series) is based on the idea that some species are simply too powerful to mess with, so, best to just leave them alone.
if Patrick Stewart looked me in the eye and said "You Do Not Exist" i would probably evaporate
Excuse me. I drank a lot of beer. Let me pee and then I'll evaporate.
he is a very convincing actor.
I would have played it safe and talked to him alone, in case he couldn't save the simulation of her authentically if she learns the truth.
"Oh? I think there are three lights."
4:05
When Kevin breaks down in the following scene, talking about his loss and anguish, much of that was real; the actor had lost his wife the year before and almost turned down the role because it hit so close to home. The result was one of the most powerful guest performances in TNG
So this is the Star Trek version of that one "Fresh Prince of Bell-air" episode.
The one where Will Smith asked his fellow actor out of character on set why his real life dad left him, and they kept it.
@@DarkonFullPower Will Smith had his dad in his life for his entire life up until his father's death. That whole thing with that moment being unscripted is complete bullshit. The truth is that Will Smith is just a really good actor.
This man could do loss like no-one else. He played a hard nosed general in MASH, who moves his command to the unit so he could be with his son that was being treated there.
There's a really touching scene when Hawkeye comes in to share the news that his son died suddenly, and he muses on the callousness of his job...and then has to go back to being the hard nose again after only being able to spare himself a few moments of grief.
@@Alamandorious you had me at *M*A*S*H*
Thanks for that.
Did Picard ever tell Starfleet about any of these omnipotent, all-powerful creatures he ran into, or was he just "Naaaah, it'll be all right!"?
Why did I read that last line in a drunken Scottish accent? 😉
@@DerrickMims because appropriate
Critical drinker strikes again
He didnt have to tell them, it would all be in the captains logs
GO AWAY NOW
That line though told me that Picard has compassion even for those that “don’t” exist.
Compassion or good judgment considering he didn't know how much "reality" she'd been given or how much she might retain afterwards. Think about her like a hologram from the holodeck, but one with unknown safety protocols. Could she freak out and hurt him or others? For all he knew, she could have had the strength to rip him in half.
We all would do better if we aspired to such a higher level.
@@loka7783 There were some legitimate concerns, but it would be dishonest not to pin down his attitude on his absolute conviction on the value of life, wether it is what we identify as such or not. I mean, "you may even feel and think as I do..." is the argument he presented in the Data case already. And it is completely true and a very noble idea to this day. Even more so today, with all the polarization and political violence we see.
To a being that can construct or deconstruct any of us at will, “existence” is an awfully limited concept. To us, we are born, and we die. To them, we can be made, unmade, remade… Who are we to say that isn’t real? It just isn’t what we’re used to.
I always enjoyed it when a captain/leader in many ST shows took a moral standpoint to respect and have compassion for sentience.
"Let them!"
He knows the nearest lawyer is lightyears away.
This was before the emergency holodeck lawyer program. :)
@@Orgruk State your legal emergency.
I am pretty sure the ethical subrotines of the emergency holodeck lawyer program would prevent him from answering this question.
@@thiagodeandrade7081 What a Lawyer with ethical subrotines what a miscoception is that
Well a hologram one could conceivably have ethical subrotines.
Deep episodes like this are why Next Gen reigns supreme above the other series, in my opinion
Agreed!
Truth be told DS9 got super-deep too (duet & far beyond the stars) and occasionally Voyager (the thaw & distant origin) as well.
yeah DS9 had many good deep episodes. 'The Wire' is one of my favorites
@@juliusejudo What about "In the Pale Moonlight"?
@@lennierofthethirdfaneofchu7286 oh thats right! another excellent one with Mister Garak. i wish they used him more in the series
“He’s so powerful, Mr Worf, that he could destroy us in an instant if he so wished”.
Then why did we transport him aboard, captain?
“I think he might be nice”.
Captain “Batman gambit” Picard in action!
"Because he's so powerful he could transport himself aboard regardless and the only way to get him inside is to interact with it in a friendly and welcoming way, that we mean it no harm, we are after all meant to seek out new life and new civilisations"
Yes thank you for posting this! I couldn't understand why, if the guy was that dangerous, Picard would provoke him like this? I'd be Pissed off of my re-created spouse was cornered like that…
@@susanpicerno8113 But he does not suffer from rage, or jealousy, or indignation. He suffers from guilt. Crushing, overwhelming guilt. And although he could block Troi's perception of that emotion, he could not block Picard's.
“No, you don’t understand the scope of my crime. I didn’t kill just one Husnock, or a hundred, or a thousand. I killed them all. All Husnock...........everywhere.”
Chilling words and great acting by veteran character actor John Anderson who’s wife had just recently passed away in real life and said this was the hardest role he ever had to play.
Oh my god that's heartbreaking, no really.
I can understand how it would be hard. Literally playing a being who can bring back his dead wife, or at least the illusion of it. I couldnt do it.
@@steverobertson1729 You must understand his feelings to truly understand.
Didn't know about his irl wife, no wonder this performance hit so hard.
He was also a recurring character actor on the Rifleman show in the late 50s
Little known fact. You will never see anyone talking as they walk though automatic doors. The reason is the doors make such a loud noise, it would be problematic to say the least, for the sound tech to deal with. So they just don't talk. And the crappy sound is edited over with a nice smooth sooshing sound.
Damn I see
Also, you almost always have people coming into the room much more quickly than they could have if they had to stop what they were doing, get up, navigate the furniture, and walk to the door. The actors are always just stood there waiting for their cue.
@@voltaicfire1825 apparently in the 24th century you don't need to go to the toilet either.
@@stevetarrant3898 haha yeah i never seen any toilet on this ship
I think in the original series the government actually approached the production to find out how they made the doors open automatically. Turned out they had little people in the set pulling the doors open.
This was perhaps the first episode of star trek TNG that was higher level story telling. Season 1 and 2 had an occasional good episode, but this was the start of where star trek became what it was meant to be.
Yes sir. A brilliantly-written episode, and one of my all-time favorites of the entire series! 🖖😀
I would say Measure of a Man holds that title, but it’s an island of quality surrounded by a sea of dreck that is most of the rest of Season 2.
@@PromotedPawn measure of a man was absurd and made no sense. The fact that they even questioned data's sentience or the fact he was alive was disturbing. Nor did it make sense in terms of the timeline. He had been alive since 2338. Why would this not have happened sooner?
@@PromotedPawn indeed the greatest episode of season 2 was q who?
@@troyterry6919 where by "made no sense" you mean "I can't stand to process the reality that many people have value systems inimical to my own". as for your question, novel atrocities don't just happen because they could happen, any more than flammable materials spontaneously combust, somebody has to come along with the initiative to act.
I love that despite knowing what's coming, he still tells her to listen to him. Even though she's a reproduction. That shows his love.
Or, his sense of denial.
There was nobody there to hear what he was saying to her.
This story is a lot like that Twilight Zone episode where there was a man living all by himself, and he had an android who he treated like a real person and who responded by acting like a real person.
I like how this episode is essentially the premise of WandaVision only 20 years earlier. Kevin is... the Scarlet Witch.
Granted Wanda was essentially holding real people hostage, Kevin recreated a person.
Except Wanda didn't kill 30 billion people; Kevin Uxbridge did. He wiped out the entire Husnock race, every single one of them.
@@CorvusBelli01 You think Wanda doesn't have that level of power?
@@curtisberard7831 Whether she could do it or not is irrelevant; it remains a fact that she hasn't murdered 30 billion people, but Uxbridge did.
Why not have him spar with Thanos and the infinity gauntlet!?
At some point, powerful energy beings stopped being so commonplace in the star trek universe, and Q was the only one left. This was before that point.
The Wormhole aliens/prophets from DS9?
The trouble was and is that the federation and the Enterprise are so powerful. They were meant to represrnt the USA and a carrier battle group. Now, how you gonna go up against that with any conventional force? Yet it is an action/adventure TV show, so you have to create life or death situations, so you have to have super powered aliens.
What some people would call gods, we understand as energy beings. But maybe some can earn that title.
@@Shakespeare1612 There are countless episodes and countless situations in reality where life or death happened with conventional force. The US became the dominant power in the Pacific after WWI and yet through surprise and new tactics, the Japanese inflicted massive damage on ships in Pearl Harbor and with other engagements. Even more recently, small groups have managed attacks like that against the USS Cole. We saw similar in Star Trek with Romulans and Klingons, who while not tactically superior, had enough power to be deadly enemies and stood a chance of victory against the Federation.
There are also new conventional enemies like the Borg and Dominion that have an extreme tactical advantage that doesn't exist on Earth against the US military.
Starfleet was definitely based on the US and British navies, but it didn't represent them. They were the navies that Roddenberry knew and he saw the parallels there that would exist in a future Earth crewed space fleet. He also used existing conflicts to inspire plots with Romulans copying aspects of Japanese history, Klingons copying aspects of Soviet tactics, etc. but they weren't "representing" them. These were just a baseline for storytelling.
And a big part of science fiction storytelling is "what if there's someone out there who sees us like we see ants". Star Trek overused that concept, and after Roddenberry passed away, they started avoiding it to focus on more grounded storytelling. But it wasn't necessary to create life or death situations. In fact, these impossibly powerful aliens almost always were not life and death threats. Q toyed with the crew, but deaths around him were by others he put the crew in contact with like the Borg. The Organians try to ignore the Klingons and Federation killing each other until it becomes too much. The wormhole aliens don't directly get involved until Sisko pressures them. The creature the Edo worshiped merely prevented the Enterprise from interfering. Kevin only kills an off-screen enemy and uses a copy of it to chase the Enterprise off. The ones threatening death themselves like Apollo and Nagilum are the rare exception.
Sometime, far in the future, perhaps even further out than the Burn, there is a war which culminates in the destruction of all godlike species other than the Q.
"We found two people, apparently alive, in a house on the surface of a devastated world. But, there was only one survivor of the war on Rana IV."
Worf: "Captain he is dangerous!"
Worf you have no idea.
Worf never has any idea.
i want a star trek TNG remake where the roles are the exact same but every single one of worfs ideas etc is considered good and implented just as he thinks it fits
Eat any good books lately Worf?
Damn straight
I still can't understand why Worf wasn't promoted to Captain Obvious.
oh man i wish it went to the part where he describes his crime. that was a great scene! "Is the love of one woman worth 30 billion lives?" chilling.
czcams.com/video/m-ywkuT84KQ/video.html One of the greatest scenes in all of Star Trek!
@@tjwparso OH SWEEET!!!
Ask any man who lost his one woman. You know what his answer will be. A philosophical question that we all know the answer to.
I can only dred the morning when I wake, look over, see she isn't there and never will be again. Think that isn't worth 30 billion other lives to me? I wouldn't think twice about it.
She is worth the universe and all of the life in it.
What if he re-created the Hussucs? And they continued to live and travel space and BREED? What if hunanity was actually created by Q in a similar way? Is that why he/they are so interested in us?
Picard: "We have no laws to cover your crime." Huh? It's called a war crime. And in their time period, where one war ship can lay waste to an entire planet, and one determined group of insiders or outsiders can steal of construct such ships, how could there not be a law against it?
You can't throw a rock without hitting a near-omnipotent being in this galaxy.
It´s Q´s daddy!
That rock is a gabbro golem fragment.
If the universe has been around for billions of years, then it would be common to have extraterrestrial species with technologies millions of years more advanced than our own.
This ending just recked me.
The next part is actually my favorite because it's scope hits so hard.
"Ye reck not of lands or goods."
The Husnok propably deserved it anyway, it could be seen as justified genocide.
@ODIN Force Havent we all sometimes felt the need to murder EVERY last one of an annoying group? Why not live the dream if you can? I mean you only live once, something you realise best if you have to run from genocide. And it is also a good way to show people how angry they made you when you not only kill them but everyone who shares dna with them. Also important: Inteligence is no reason to be spared nor is guilt something that will last forever, one day you have to move on... to another target.
@ODIN Force Of course they will be able to see how angry they made me, they die and then they go to the egyptian afterlife were osiris will judge them, and their hearts will be weighed against the feather of truth, then brabuk, the dinosaur headed god of regret, will show up and tell them how angry they made me and that they completely deserved that genocide, and that they should be happy nothing worse happened to them. And pacifists dont really exist, a pacifist is just someone who has not enjoyed the pleasures of senseless and excessive violence. Oh and yes (1) is true.
@@ABW941 Im very glad you are a comedian and not a psychopath.
Got too many of those in the world as is. ^_^
One of the very best TNG episodes ever. The writers should have been awarded a medal for this piece of writing!
@Karl with a K
What do you mean concretely?
@@karlwithak.The real wife evidently wasn't like that. She had enough will of her own to go and fight with the colonists against Kevin's wishes.
@karlwithak. You're just Mister Insult, aren't you?
@karlwithak. And thus your insults are not facts.
@karlwithak. 'junior' high? You must be OLD. Senility is 'thus' a probable explanation for your incoherency.
I just realized that the elder man was more dangerous and lethal and destructive.. than the entire Borg collective.
Even Q would be like..."Nope...."
To have the power to wipe out an entire race that exists light years apart on a whim
The Borg could only dream of such power
"In every respect, you are a real person with your own mind...and beliefs, but...you do not exist. You died along with the others defending the colony.
*He* recreated you using beans, lots of beans."
He saw beans, lots of beans, lots-o'-beans lotsa-beans, oh beans, lots of beans, lots-o'-beans lotsa-beans, yeah yeah!
The concept of this conscious troubled entity, was a master stroke of writing for this story.. And when he bares his soul, about losing control of powers, and wiping out an entire race and Coulter, Stewart's matter of fact response, was epic. He just told him, your guilt is your punishment, as mortals have means of discipline for his crimes.. Classic Patrick Stewart, showing us classical stage training and experience. For many of us, thinking it was great science fiction, we were really enjoying, Shakespeare, and many more great stage works, without even knowing it.. We were blessed to have seen this, in "real time", the ones who did, of course...
Picard's strength is his intuition and ability to suss out situations and find solutions from them. The entire crew owe their lives to him a million times over due to this. He is always ten steps ahead of the crew due to his expert intuition on shit. Like Riker, Worf and La Forge all didn't get why Picard wanted to stay, but he knew from early on shit didn't add up.
"...once, while traveling in human form, I chanced to fall in love with an earth woman."
Perhaps the most romantic line ever uttered in the ST universe
Gozer the traveler will come in one of the pre chosen forms.....
That woman vanishing is one of the creepiest moments in Star Trek. It reminds me that our existence is tenuous.
He's in the Turbolift?!! This walking god needs to TAKE THE TURBOLIFT?!
It comforts the lesser beings to know his location and that his movements are familiar.
@@peterbach1126 Exactly your start springing up in random places minds will be blown and people panic.
He doesn't need to appear human either, it's all a formality of sorts.
True it's not necessary for the Douwd being to travel along the turbo lift, but besides the in-universe reasons why it chose to do so mentioned by the first three comments, there's a storytelling reason why it happens. When Geordi says "he's in the turbo lift" it gives the audience a puzzle that heighten's the drama. We understand "he's going somewhere" and ask ourselves "where is he going?" It presents a brief mystery. By posing the situation in terms the audience instantly understands - he's traveling through the ship heading somewhere - our minds are freed up to ask ourselves, is the being dangerous? That is the knee-jerk reaction and the defensive mindset as represented by Worf's line "Captain, he is dangerous!" But there's a reward to those who instead suspect "I bet he's going to heal Deanna Troi," a payoff which is confirmed by Picard's dialogue a the very end of the scene. We're shown that our fight-or-flight instinct (Worf) was wrong and our higher reasoning (Picard) was right. Dialogue that poses uncertainties and makes the audience think in such ways is great Star Trek writing.
He was traveling through the turbolift without the part people ride in
"No, he hasn't killed anyone!"
I mean, they're not anyone anymore.
"Thank you, Captain Picard, for telling me I do not exist. That's really made my day."
"You do not exist, Rishon."
*Kevin vanishes*
"...Of course, I could have that backwards...
lolol
This episode came out Oct of '89. John Anderson was a hell of an actor (Kevin Uxbridge in this episode -- the Q like guy). He sadly passed away right before TNG's 6th season on Aug 7, 1992.
He was in North and South book 1 with Johnathan Frakes he played George and Stanley’s father
"I killed the Husnock... all Husnock... everywhere..."
Awesome episode.
*Anakin Skywalker:* I killed them, I killed them all. There dead. Every single one of them. But not just the men, but the women, and the children too. There like animals! And I slaughtered theme like animals! I hate them!
So this lifeform went dark-side ? :P
@@xxxradicaldreamerxxx I don't know. Anakin chopped up sandpeople in their camp, first hand, personally. This star trek dude, killed everyone in a flash of anger; he's got infinity stone-like power, instant-death because of momentary rage and grief. Don't think it's the same.
@@Elurin So he snapped his fingers like Thanos? 😅
@@xxxradicaldreamerxxx something similar to that ..... yeah, pretty much!
@@dhinton1 Except he didn't even have to snap his fingers. He seemed to be very similar to a kid in The Twilight Zone who had similar powers.
Nice house.
Good tea.
I remembered the episode as soon as Picard said “house”
Picard: "I can touch you, hear your voice, smell your perfume, but you don't exist." (woman disappears and stops existing)
Next week's episode: "Just because Mr. Data is an android, doesn't mean he isn't a life form."
:/
Exactly. If she's an exact copy, she's as human as anyone else. Star Trek had a silly attitude that humans had some magical essence that couldn't be duplicated. Even their transporters didn't make copies of people - they were supposed to disassemble the person, move the molecules individually to another location, and reassemble the same person on the other end. I think it's a shame that they never explored the ramifications of a society that could make endless copies of people and make everyone essentially immortal. It was just a TV show aimed at a broad audience, after all.
There is a very small but significant difference, the one is a copy and only acts like it is selfaware while the other actually is selfaware.
Also, yea. The transporters always seemed weird to me. How are they different from a replicator?
@@jasperzanovich2504 I don't think they give you enough information in the episode to know whether she's self aware or not. What controls her behavior? An A.I.? Is it self-aware? Etc.
Theres a big difference between a figment of your imagination given life and voice and form, and something that exists without space magic making it exist
@@arthour051 Was it a magical figment of somebody's imagination? That doesn't seem to be supported by the story line. The Enterprise detected two life forms. Numerous characters in the story interacted with the image of the woman. No real explanation was given for how the image was generated, however if it was magic, I think that's the only time in the Star Trek franchise that magic was evoked as an explanation for anything. More likely, I think most viewers presumed the image was a result of some technology.... same as an android.
I love seeing picard reason things out, just like Farpoint station, and this guy
With all the near-omnipotent beings that Starfleet keeps discovering, you'd think cults devoted to 'em all would be popping up all the time in the Federation. ;-)
But they got rid of religion generations ago. Except on Bajor.
@@geoffroi-le-Hook The Ferengi believe in the Material Continuum. I say that's a religious belief. And many Klingons still believe that the real Kahless will return one day.
When Starship captains say they no longer believe in gods, I tend to think they are referring solely to Starfleet. There's no way they can be speaking for the TRILLIONS of Federation citizens.
IMHO
Imagine captain Picard talking to one of your socks, trying to explain to it that it is not actually your girlfriend.
I would scream "NO, NO, NO, HE'S LYING!"
0:07 Is no one else talking about the Tipped over Ops station behind Riker when he first walks in?
WHY HAVE I NEVER NOTICED THAT BEFORE
its a production mistake, a blind to keep the light from coming in that got left in the shot, either that or data just tried to make a joke to worf that didnt land right
@@kavinskysmith4094 Yeah, maybe you're right. It looked like a blacked out Ops/Conn station to me at first.
@@kavinskysmith4094correct. in the biz it's called a flag.
I always laugh when Picard tells Kevin he is free to return to the planet and make his wife live again. I doubt Picard had the power to prevent Kevin from doing whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Kevin was an immortal being, that's like Picard telling Q what to do or suggest he even needs Picards permission.
I think it's because by saying that he's letting him no he wont disturb him.
You never know. This omnipotent being somehow manages to be a push over even by mortal standards.
The thing is that Kevin is going to great lengths to just somehow chase Enterprise away instead of unmaking them. It might be regret about what he did to the Husnocks, a courtesy, or maybe he doesn't want to attach unwelcome attention (Q might be upset about the extinction of his favorite pets before he is done with them). In any case, it's always worth to try to have a civilized talk about the issue at hand.
I think it was more of a "do what you need to find peace." kind of thing.
He probably doubted he even deserved a copy of his wife because of what he'd done in a moment of madness so I think he just needed to hear those words from someone.
At the same time, though, Kevin says in this scene, "But I must know what you intend to do with me afterwards." It implies, at least, that he might submit himself to their judgement. He is an incredibly moral being.
I’m 38 years old now, I watched TNG nonstop growing up, I can quote many of the episodes by heart. I also generally agree with many of the popular “best episode” lists - Yesterday’s Enterprise, Darmok, The Inner Light, Best of Both Worlds - all classics. But this might be one of the most underrated episodes of all Trek - this is incredible science-fiction.
I am Brahms & Da Vinci ...What else can we call you?.. Kinda "Requiem for Methuselah"
I've always found this episode one of the more sincere & powerful in the TNG catalog.
Husnoc messed with the wrong droud.
The Douwd: I have eliminated all Husnock! How will you ever forgive me?
Picard: What is a Hussnock?
The Douwd: Uh, never mind then.
Amazing episode. The ethical and moral quandaries this show explored have simply never been satisfactorily replicated in any Star Trek show since.
Kevin is the brain in a vat theory in physical form. His consciousness exists and therefore others he wishes to exist do as well.
I miss when Star Trek was written with these type of stories. I haven't seen Stsr Trek for quite a while now.
Go watch it on Netflix and stop whining then.
@@OptimusGPrime charming. Star Wars fan?
Worf: "Why is it we maintain watch on a planet that is now _totally_ dead?"
Well now _remember,_ Worf, Counselor Troi is still incapacitated by this loud, close, seemingly supernatural _dance_ music that shuts out all thought every time she's conscious. Do you have a way to treat it?
The Douwd: The Universe is a Star Trek Fan Fiction, and I am the writer. Technically, Captain Picard, YOU don't exist.
The look on Worf's face when she vanished . .''WHOA'' !
He makes funny faces every time 😂
Such a shame that this generation does not have a smart scientific, philosophical and sophisticated show like this.
@Marc Dumont yeah this show is on Netflix, almost anyone of my generation could watch this show if they wanted too. Unfortunately most don’t want too.
It would be canceled for being too woke
Star Trek wasn't even that show. This was one of its very, very few episodes that happened to hit a mediocre bar of being intelligent. The rest were mostly really stupid. But a lot of those were still enjoyable for other reasons.
Stop putting Star Trek on a pedestal. It's not at all what your warped memory recalls it as.
Instead we just have fucking Rick and Morty and whatever the hell New Worlds is.
@@maxweber06 You say that like 99% of TOS and TNG and so on weren't utterly fucking stupid...or Strange New Worlds somehow has no sincerely thought provoking episodes at all.
Fuckin fanboys...
And just like that Rashan disappeared in a puff of logic.
“Oh, that was easy,” says Picard, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo’s kidneys, but that didn’t stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book "Well That About Wraps It Up For Rashan."
42!
"Captain! He's moved from the turbo lift to the kitchen! He's opened the fridge and is drinking all the chocolate milk!"
- "security team to the kitchen immediately!"
I first saw the actor who played Kevin Uxbridge on several episodes of "MacGuyver" where he played MacGyver's grandfather.
That actor was John Anderson. He passed away in 1992
@@ChuckBaker I first saw him on MacGyver when he played his grandfather.
One of the two finest episodes of science fiction of all time. ❤️
Imagine having 24th century Star Trek level tech & a planet entirely to yourself.
This is one of those episodes that you appreciate more and more with every viewing. On the surface it seems like the usual Star trek fare, but actually it is very well written and acted. Kudos to everyone involved.
Kevin ended up bouncing back as he sent himself back to early 20th century earth and became the first commissioner of major league baseball and his first act as commissioner was to ban 8 members of the Chicago White Sox for throwing the 1919 World Series.
They shoulda used FanDuel or DraftKings.
The crazy part is the transporter being sophisticated enough to beam this higher order being aboard without permission. You'd think the complexity of him would have overwhelmed every memory bank at minimum.
up until 0:37, I mistakenly thought this was the episode where aliens replace Picard with a duplicate that bullshits the entire crew while needlessly putting the ship in danger.... was really admiring Stewart's performance. :D
Probably the only time in Worf’s life that his sphincter puckered after the Dowd left the bridge.
Picard can identify non-real people - and his ability to supervise RBMK reactors is quite satisfactory. You... do not exist. You also definitely did not see graphite.
Your comment is not great, but not terrible.
Picard is an idealization of calm, wise, deep, kind strength. Obviously he's stodgy and rigid at times but that's one of his few flaws (and it's presented that way generally) because other than that, he's depicted as the perfect mix of compassion and firmness that one who decides the fate of worlds needs.
what if he was on the can when they beamed them up.
it would have likely resulted in */ plop* .... aaand star trek would have turned R-rated in the span of a blink. XD
Or if they were at the jiggyjiggy?
Or mid coitus about to climax...
Picard growing impatient waiting for them to finish: Cum!
Cleanup transport pad 2
@@ApocryphalDude yep >n
1:33 "But Captain, will they not protest?" He protested.
One of my favorites and yes quite deep. We can only hope that when we meet creatures of conscience like the Dowd, we don't accidentally piss them off!
John Anderson, what a great character actor.
God damn I miss these adventures. It's a real shame that you have to pay money each month to see new episodes. Can you imagine where Harvard grads would be today if not for this show bringing real science into our lives?
This is fake science too, just of a somewhat more elevated kind.
@@tescheurich Believe it or not the vast majority of the stuff we see in Star Trek is based on real science. IE: warp
Warp is technobabble, not science
@@tescheurich Bruh ...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive
@@tescheurich nah warp is based on mathematical models using Einstein’s general relativity equations. It’s that based on those equations warp isn’t strictly disallowed
Never saw this episode...but clearly it is a good one.
imagine sitting on a toilet about to let loose something fierce and suddenly youre teleported onto the bridge
"THERE. ARE. FOUR. LIGHTS!"
I know this Q guy that could bring them all back but meh... He's a hassle.
Q might ask Picard to have his child first
Did Q bring back anyone who was already dead?
@@walterdayrit675 Yeah, Picard, and the whole human race, in the final episode.
Right? Who needs that?
@@Shakespeare1612 He didn't bring them back to life, he simply stopped the event from finishing.
Easily among my favorite episodes. The key line that follows is unforgettable.
Those series were made for more intelligent population...
John Anderson does a good job as a man torturd by a guilty past. It reminds me of his role in The Big Valley.
Also, his wife's voice is unmistakably recognizable from her role in an obscure John Denver Christmas movie. (The Christmas Gift)
My apologies if I interrupted a waltz. Also, why would Kevin chose to live out in infinity with his wife in his 80s?
Considering his true age, it's about as close as we can get as mere mortals to understanding his experience... if you were immortal, with crazy superpowers, why would appearing 80 years old bother you? as long as you could be with the woman you love? he's already changed her to believe she stayed with him instead of fighting to the death, the more he changes, the less she is like the actual woman that he fell in love with... every time I hear her say she stayed with her husband, my brain breaks, I can't imagine being either of them, it's like she knows that she wouldn't stay with him and he knows that she's not truly the woman he fell in love with. She never knew his true identity, so even if he told the recreation of her the truth (to start using his powers in front of her), he would only be admitting to himself that he lied to his real wife for all these years. So sad. I feel for the guy.
@@tjwparso this is Well written but if he's thousands of years old then him interacting with a woman who's in her 80s even, would be like us playing tennis with a toddler. I still can't reconcile him being an infinite age being and getting together with an Earthling.
@@Mandolatron That's why Picard cannot judge him in the end, how can you possible pass judgement over a being that has lived countless lives in multiple galaxies, to us he is a travelling god, an entity that strolled through our galaxy, glimpsed our short existence and found comfort in the brief life we lead... he attempted to escape his eternal hell by settling down with an Earth woman, only to see her die because she is mortal and he is not, the poor guy probably lived a million different lives in a million different forms eventually to lose hope, only to find the one woman that could bring him back from the edge, make him think that maybe life does have meaning and is worth living, only to then see her killed by some planet destroying Husnock for no good reason at all... so he SNAPPED, went back to his old ways, lost control and destroyed them all. The way I see it, she convinced him that mortals are worth something, their short lives aren't just ants to be stepped on and when he loses her he reverts to his old ways... for all we know he has stomped from galaxy to galaxy not caring less for the destruction he leaves behind, that would certainly explain why he is suddenly so intent on not taking any (more) lives... what's so special about her? who knows? TRUE LOVE if you believe in it... my point is, he is so far above us, a god, a watcher, a traveller, we mean nothing to his kind... but this short lived woman made him take a different perspective on mortal life, now she is gone and he is back to the waking nightmare that is immortality... I'm guessing he'll mourn for a few hundred years, spend a few thousand years alone and repeat the process in the next galaxy along, BUT PERHAPS this mere mortal, a dead woman had such an effect on the eternal that he will never INTENTIONALLY take another persons life.
@@NameCallingIsWeak but he's not hooking up with us in a romantic relationship
@@Mandolatron Jesus calls Christians His "bride". The blessings come fast when you live right.
The scene immediately after this is one of the finest in the whole series. Well, at least for me it's one of the most memorable. RIP, Husnock.
Picard: I can touch you, I can hear your voice, and I can smell your perfume. In every respect, you are a real person, your own mind and beliefs. But you do not exist.
Data: Ouch.
Love this style of TNG actor blocking. All one shot in Picards ready room. Great use of camera focus and movement. Love the push in to Picard with the Enterprise portrait behind him, it's rare to have such shallow depth of field in TNG, which I think was a strength. When they used it it amplified what the actors were doing. Super cinematic.
Also I love the grip flag on the bridge clearly in view as Riker walks in. Definitely the end of the night, the operators were tired.
One of the best shows ever
I watch over and over again for decades
This channel has provided me with great nostalgia. Thank you.
Good to hear! You're welcome :)
Such a completely different character from the querulous admiral in ST:Picard
Obviously there are at least several life forms that evolved into beings no longer needing physical bodies.
Even Worf was taken aback when she just disappeared.
One of the more poignant episodes. Thanks for this.
Agreed! No worries, enjoy :)
That's some big talk coming from a fictional character.
This was years before Wandavision
One of my favorite episodes
I’m still hoping for a novel or episode some day putting a Dowd against a Q.
Q appears orders of magnitude greater than him. Q could have simply returned everyone to life or snapped the husnock away without killing them if they so wished.
@@docjanak True. Still, there's an interesting possibility of implementing some kind of evolutionary table describing how a species with great neurologically explainable abilities become as powerful as Guinan, a Caretaker, well-trained Okampa, a Dowd and a Q.
I think the Q are at the top of the table, the pinnacle of evolution.
This Dowd was talking about his life which spanned thousands of years. Impressive to be sure, but nowhere near close to the billions of years Q has been around. It's a no brainer for me, Q takes it without even trying.
Dowd is like a first step on the road to becoming something like the Q. He's not even at Trelane levels of power yet.
The Douwd will assume the form of The Sisko, then punch Q to a pulp.
when he came back again in "Star Trek Continues" it was pretty awesome too
Nice to find a channel that is good at picking scenes and also editing them well... thank you 😊
Kevin Kills a full Civillisation,The Nausicans.🖖🇦🇹
Maybe I've missed it. Admittedly, it's been a while since I've seen this episode. What reason did Picard have to believe that it was _Kevin_ who had recreated _Rishon_ and not the other way _around?_
If you look back, at every point there is a disagreement, Rishon falls into line with her husband, as one would expect were she only a projection of his will. Also, by his own admission, he was a pacifist, whereas the same is not asserted of her. Yet she supposedly stayed by her husband's side, refusing to fight, essentially committing suicide by Husnok, which is not logically consistent, and another instance of her falling into line with her husband. Moreover, his actions towards the Enterprise crew *are* consistent with a pacifist, like trying to bluff them with a dead phaser. A normal human traumatized by so much violence would probably take up arms out of fear. Only a true pacifist would refuse to arm up in the aftermath, and only an omnipotent being would do so without a hint of fear for his safety. But Rishon shows fear appropriately on more than one occasion.
If only they could make startrek like this today, the storytelling was so compelling. It was just top notch.
Patrick Stewart shows us, yet again, why Picard is best captain. Janeway was GOOD. Sisko was GOOD. Great, even. But Picard was a goddamn LEGEND.
I like sisko. He's the best.
Burnham? An irritating Mary Sue that SJW writers love! WTF!
@@walterdayrit675 Discovery is decent, when burnham is not there
Imagine they beam someone up who just gets ready to take a bath 🤣
There's baths in the 24th century they use "sonic showers" whatever that is
Better if it was in the middle of a number 2.
Read the Star Trek novel "Q Squared" where Q teleports Laforge into Deanna Troi's shower while she was using it. Hilarious.
@@FreelancerFreak as shown on VOY ^^
The part where she disappeared gave me chills the first time i saw it.
I am waiting for any sci-fi that examples an artificial intelligence, believing itself to be corporeal, creating a synthetic being from a sense of compassion.
Stewart is just a phenomenal actor. What a gift to Star Trek.
Arrogant Picard! Just leave the guy alone! No wonder StarFleet accepted his resignation so quickly.
That’s an interesting point. When a being has basically infinite power, the best move is to just leave it alone. The whole plot of “The Menagerie” (in the original series) is based on the idea that some species are simply too powerful to mess with, so, best to just leave them alone.
Which after Troi was cured is exactly what he decided to do.
That dissolve effect was amazing.
Patrick Stewart as Jean Luc Picard. The best captain in the entire Star Trek franchise in my opinion.
100% facts there mate
Sure, if you discount the movies and the series "Picard"...
If you've never watched a single episode of TOS...