Rating: 2.5
A distress call from a Federation outpost leads the Enterprise to a planet that has been completely destroyed, with thousands of colonists killed – except for a small, untouched block of land and a house containing an elderly couple.
Comments
Although there are the prerequisite plot holes, this is still a pretty good little confusing mystery.
I like Troi’s long, light-blue dress.
Nits
When the alien ship appears, Picard (who has just gotten Worf to ‘apologize’ for being wrong about the ship’s existence) says to Worf, "Hailing frequencies." Watch Worf: he responds "Open", and then turns back to his console and presses the necessary buttons to open them! Funny, I always thought he responded "Open" after they were actually open.
Why does Picard act independently here, without sharing his reasons for breaking off contact with the alien vessel and leaving the planet defenseless when the vessel attacks?
Obviously, there are some unanswered questions about an alien so powerful he can create matter (such as a Starship), yet he can’t figure out how to fool the Husnok when they attack the colony. And there are questions about why, if Kevin really didn’t want to be discovered, didn’t he simply recreate the entire colony before the Enterprise arrived, so that there appeared to be no damage. But perhaps his guilt actually made him want to be discovered.
Picard tells Kevin, "We have no law to fit your crime." The Federation has no law to punish people for wiping out an entire race? They have no laws against genocide any more?
At the end, Picard, commenting on the Doud alien, says, "I’m not sure if he should be praised or condemned…". Okay, let’s think about this. The alien wiped out an entire race – every Husnok male, female, and ‘child’ – because they killed his partner, and Picard is not sure if he should be condemned? Let’s say a team of Iraqis breaks into the White House and kills the U.S. president’s wife. The president retaliates by invading Iraq and killing every man, woman, and child. Would Picard be in conflict about whether or not to condemn this action as well?
Memorable Moments
• The shot of the landing party beaming into the matte painting of the planet’s surface is well done.
• Kevin’s transformation to his/its native form is cool.
Quotable Quotes
"My apologies if I interrupted a waltz."
– Picard to Kevin and Rishon
I'm not sure if your comparison to US genocide was very apt. You put Kevin in the place of a president in command of a huge nation, making decisions based on talk with advisers, predetermined policy, public opinion, etc. Except that's not at all his position. Kevin is one lone individual. When he saw his wife's dead body he knew he was completely abandoned of all companionship and was pretty much going to be alone for the rest of his life. He let his emotions take hold of him and couldn't control them. Having destructive emotions/thoughts immediately after a terrible sudden revelation is completely normal - it's the heat of the moment, and it happens to everyone. Only when that destructive emotion turns into destructive action is there any problem, but for Kevin, he only needed the emotion and boom, all gone. It's a lot easier to slip into sin that way, and I think that's what Picard was getting at when he said he wasn't sure if Kevin should be condemned. He reacted how a human normally would in such a situation, but his "curse" did the damage.
ReplyDeleteContrast that with the genocidal president you talk about. If he wanted to kill all Iraqis, he would need action to move the nation toward an invasion. Speeches to the public. Countless hours of international diplomacy. Exhausting military planning. Endless standoffs with opponents/anti-war activists. The president would have to exert incredible power to commit genocide on Iraqis - there is not a chance he could sit through it all and still convince himself he was making sane decisions. But Kevin had no such time or opportunity to think on what he was doing. He just got angry and the unfortunate happened. There is no comparison here.
Er, that was long...
Although the presidential analogy is admittedly poor and in retrospect a 'straw man' argument, I still do not fully understand why Picard is unsure whether Kevin should be praised or condemned for what he admittedly views as genocide (despite the motivation or level of premeditation).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I appreciate your comment, and it is nice to hear that you saw the other side to what Kevin did.