Season 3 Episode 3
"The Survivors"
Stardate: 43152.4

[Plot]
the crew respond to a distress call from a human colony. as it turns out, everyone is dead (Dave), aside from the guy that actually happens to be an alien. with all of the details the crew find out, like that alien guy wiped out a race of aliens and feels bad about it.

Meanwhile, Troi deals with the elevator music from hell.

[Rating]
1 - Bad episode: Multiple weaknesses (bad acting, bad story, disasterous effects, poor connection to lore)

{Episode Commentary}
this is a terrible episode mostly because it just treats the entire affair as something mechanical. It really fits the line made by Stalin (Maybe) that: "A million is a statistic". There is no real exploration of what happened. yes, those alien Husnocks were wiped out or whatever, but we don't visit them at all. Aside from the ship that attacked the human colony, nothing is known about them at all. And given that the alien guy lied about being an alien guy...

It makes him an unreliable narrator at best. the Husnock could have treated better than discount Klingons and some exploration made of them and their motives in attacking the colony. It comes across rather more like the alien guy just stepped on some bugs a whole lot opposed to getting rid of a sentient species. Treating it with such emptyness, it completely makes the alien guy having some kind of remorse or guilt meaningless.

apparently, the alien guy could make illusions that have power, and take out races or something. Why didn't he just get rid of or remove the Husnock attacking the colony? He could provided his power to help while having the colonists employ peaceful self defense means (Federation weapons all have stun settings) and done that. Instead, he just messes with the Husnock ship, doesn't explain his actions to them, nor does he do anything to fix the issue. Nor is any explanation given for why the Husnock showed up to the colony, or if they had planned to attack it anyway.

The story portrays the Husnock as basically discount Klingons, full of aggression. Nothing in the story sells that it was actually wrong to get rid of them. no attempt is actually made to define them beyond a small bunch and so one is struck wondering, what does it even matter? There are little reasons for not exploring Husnock (s) in some way because selling the moral wrong of what happened is such a major theme of the episode

which is promptly wasted. Why do we care about the exploration of what happened beyond, everyone died, and just leave it at that. We actually don't need anything about the alien guy or the things got wiped out. Just let us know something destroyed the colony, and have the crew just figure that out. Then they can try to find them to figure out an explanation or get one.

due to the events or the story itself, you could probably just drop the episode and not lose anything. There is nothing here that really matters even the slightest bit. and the episode just fails to generate sympathy for alien guy. Why should i care about what happened, when we get no exploration of anything: about the alien guy, about why he may be a pacifist (It seems that nearly every powerful alien that is not Q is some peace-nik hippie), why the wiping out of a race matters, and so on.

I don't think that any thought was put into why it matters what happens verse looking at what happens with detachment. given how the crew is regularly, i think that it really undercuts the point of the episode's plot, which was what exactly? Alien guy can wipe out a race, and does for reasons and then feels bad? Why do we need to care or care, about this?

So? Do fellow playgrounders agree? Disagree? Comments of your own? Get some discussing going on

Trackers)
Prime Directive Hell: 1
Q Messes with the Crew, For Laughs: 1
Doctor Who timey-wimey Destructo Enterprise Disco: 1
Klingon Rituals/Rites: 1
Poker Playing: 2
Gene Roddenberry ruins Star Trek: 3 ()
Redshirts Actually wearing a Redshirt Deaths: 1
Hidden Gems: 5
Funny Guest Star Appearances: 4 ()
Rank of Miles: Ensign, Two Gold Pips
Prime Directives: 2
Patrick Stewart Speech: 4 (Did I miss an earlier one? I don't think so)
Riker "Patrick Stewart Speech": 1
Riker Romances Something/Someone: 2
Pithy Aesops: 1
Klingon Proverbs/Beliefs/Sentiments: 1) Drink not with thine enemy; A) Several in the Episode, "Heart of Glory";
Worfed (Worf loses to establish danger): 2
Holodeck Mishaps/Breakings/Issues: 1
Actually Alien Aliens: 1
Lore's Appearances: 1
*Data's Emotions: 3
*Troi Troubles: 1
*Money Matters: 1
Polarize the Phase Inverters