When the crew beams down, there is a large wooded area behind them. If you look closely you can see powerlines running across the backround.

The matte painting when they first beam down to the planet looks so fake.

When the Enterprise and alien ship trade shots, the alien ship is out of focus when seen in close up as it approaches the Enterprise. Why should it be out of focus? It makes it look like a model.

It is said that Delta Rana possessed no interstellar spacecraft. Why not? Since the Federation never encountered the Husnok before then Delta Rana must be on the edge of the Federation. It is unlikely to be near any heavily used spaceship lanes. Did they really think there would be no reason to have such a vessel? Such as evacuating the planet in case of alien attack or their sun about to supernova?

The destruction of the planet is called a nuclear holocaust, but the damage seems too intense for that. I believe it is said that the planet is lifeless, except for Kevin and Rishon, but on Earth rats and cockroaches can survive atomic blasts. Why did the Husnok destroy everything totally anyway? Were they afraid that the worms and the grasses might strike back?

The Away team wears Federation uniforms, but Kevin needs to ask them who they are?

Troi says she was thinking of Rishon and Kevin when she was affected by the music, but she was in her room at the time. How did Troi know there were even two survivors, let alone their names?

Shouldn't Kevin have made the destruction of the Husnok ship tougher, or did Kevin think Picard was gullible enough to swallow it? (It could be argued that Kevin's guilt affected his judgment in chasing away the Enterprise. Perhaps subconsciously he wanted them to know his 'crime.')

Was I the only one who felt that Picard's deductive skills in this episode were nearly miraculous? With virtually no evidence he made these intuitive leaps which turned out to be correct.

Picard tells Kevin, "We have no law to fit your crime." Oh, really? What about Genocide?

Why did Kevin restore life as a square of land? Presumably he could have created any shape that he wanted, so is he just a stickler for property lines? I really doubt if his neighbors would complain, if he created more than just his own property.

Instead of trying to trick the Husnok why didn't Kevin just use his powers to protect the colony? He could have made it look like the Husnok had destroyed the colony, then when the Husnok had left, he could have dropped the illusion.

If Kevin Uxbridge had such amazing Q like powers that with just one thought he could destroy all Husnak everywhere, why is it that he couldn't use just one thought to bring them all back?

I guess his powers weren't quite so Q-like.

Destruction is generally easier than creation?!?

Destruction is generally easier than creation?!?

Sure, Second Law of Thermodynamics.

"But Captain, what if we run into some aliens who demand a beauty pageant?"

Nobody has really ever been too tough on Troi's dress before in the show, but this episode really takes the cake. You're going to allow one of your senior officers to be on duty while wearing a long dress *and* high heels? Why wasn't Troi on the first away team in case the poor humans left all alone needed counseling? It was those dang high heels! Troi may want to look nice, and Picard may give her some leeway, but really, practically has to step in somewhere. A senior officer on the flagship of the Federation on duty in high heels? I don't think so!

"I'm going to decieve you Captain! Look here, I have a penny in my left hand. I clap my hands together .. *clap* .. and now the penny's in my RIGHT hand!!!"

Did Kevin Uxbridge really expect the Enterprise to not disturb him when they ran into one little pacth of land perfectly intact? He may have had his own reasons for re-creating just his own house, but for the sake of being left alone, you'd think he could re-create the whole planet to get the Enterprise to go away. Or at least re-create part of it to show the attack only destroyed part of the planet. Nope, Uxbridge expects the Captain to believe every thing but a tiny patch of land was wiped out. Chalk it up to excessive grief?

"I refused to kill the Hunsock. Instead, I showed them my special magic trick, hoping they'd be scared of me and run away. They weren't."

If Uxbridge has this amazing power, how hard would it be to keep the Hunsock away? You don't have to kill them, but how about shorting out all their computer systems, and then knocking the ship back to the Hunsock world. You do that 3 or 4 times, and the Hunsock would get the message, and none would be killed! There are many other ways to go about getting the HUnsock to leave without killing them.

Proof that I pay way too close attention to meaningless details:

Rana is the Spanish word for "frog". It's an interesting name to give a star, and an interesting place to have this episode occur. I'm not into real astronomy very much: it's very possible that there really is a Rana star up there somewhere (the Aztecs had the star in one of their consteallations that looked like a frog. Certainly plausible). I couldn't figure out why this episode would pick a star named Rana to play around near, other than blind conicidence. I don't like blind coincidence though

Proof that I pay *WAY* too much attention to meaningless details:

I've seen that 47 has made a number of "cameo" apperences in Star Trek. However, this episode, for some reason, seemed to like 37 as an arbitrary number much more. The Uxbridge's patch of land is located at 37 N, 62 S. LaForge comments to the Captain that he'll be able to give "Warp 9.37". And the final stardate given in this episode, 43153.7, ends with 37. 3 numbers that really could have been anything, all are 37's. Hmmm ... a new conspiriacy perhaps! Maybe 47 was a decoy and the real goods are within 37!!

Now that you're all scared of me ...

Kmorgan, Troi never did go down to the planet, but she was present at the staff meeting after the away team's return. I'm not positive, but I think Kevin & Rashon's names came up in that meeting. Certainly the fact that there were only 2 survivors was brought up. Even though Troi was being distracted by the music at the time, she should have been subjected to those facts at the meeting.

And I left out my favorite nit of the whole show! Too busy with that 37 nonsense I guess

"Temporal sensors indicate a bridge system will short out in a few minutes. Dispatch sacrifical redshirt #165."

In a tribute to the old days of Classic Trek and redshirts getting mowed down, the creators strike down a red shirt during the second Hunsock attack. Problem is, this guy is standing in the middle of nowhere on the bridge! Apparently, he walked out of the turbolift and straight to the wooden bridge rail. I don't know why during red alert anyone would be there. And surprising enough, even though it doesn't look like there are any control panels there, sparks suddenly shoot out from nowhere and sizzle the poor redshirt. As it was with the original Trek, nobody cares that poor Mr. Redshirt was sizzled. Maybe they figured it was poetic justice for him standing around doing nothing during a crisis.

You've never heard of the Frogstar?
While I don't believe there are any stars named Rana. I believe there is a star or two named after a frog, but I'll have to check my astronomy books again to get the name.

But the frogstar was on betelguese to pick up Zaphod Beeblebrox! Or where you referring to the Frogstar Five that famous singing group of Bellatrix Three.

No, those were Frogstar Fighters, and they were on whatever world the HHG is based on. They went to Frogstar World B.

According to my books there are 2 celestial frogs.

Alpha Piscis Australis aka Fomalhaut was known to the Arabs as Al Difdi al Awwal which translates as The First Frog.

Beta Ceti aka Diphda was known to the Arabs as Al Difdi al Thani which translates as The Second Frog.
This was actually Latinized to Rana Secunda for some astronamocal texts. (The only star I could find ever designated as Rana.)

Delta Rana has several problems as a star name.

The name would imply the 4th brightest star of the constellaion Rana. Except that there is no constellation Rana & as far as I can tell, there has never been a constellation for a frog in any culture.

Also if there was a constellion Rana, the proper designation would probably be something like Delta Ranae, not Delta Rana.

Some could argue that Delta Rana refers to a fourth celestial frog, but as far as I can tell there were only 2, and even if there was a fourth frog it would probably be Rana Quarter, or something fully Latin, not a mixing of Greek & Latin like Delta Rana.

Finally I did consider that Delta might refer to a river delta & that the name could be given to a star that rose when frogs of the river delta came out of hibernation, but there is no evidence to support this wild theory.

Or maybe the writers just pulled a name out of their A$$

lol, I agree with Anonymous

Sorry I had one too many googlefrinchan ham sandwiches with a pangalactic gargle balster chaser.

Well, obviously Anonymous. The writers of Star Trek rarely use real star names & even when they do there are problems with them, as I've pointed out on a few boards. Still it's interesting to try & anti-nit nits just to see if there is a possible solution.

Too bad that it wasn't the Borg that ticked off Kevin, huh?

He sure could have come in handy at Wolf 359 anyway, come to that. Granted that Kevin has ethical qualms about wiping out a whole race, why not just have him whip the Borg back to home base and erase all their thoughts of leaving it?

On the whole, I bet the creators regret introducing the Douwds. So there's a race of super-beings out there with limitless power to create and destroy, huh? Apparently just sorta wandering around with no particular purpose in life, yet. You'd think - given that they seem to be governed by no more than basic human emotion - at least a few of them would've gotten up off their omnipotent butts and tried to conquer the galaxy or something. I guess they never saw "Where No Man Has Gone Before"...

Anyway. The Federation has somehow never heard of them up to now - I'm assuming, since nobody on the Bridge at Farpoint yells out, "Hey, a Douwd!" when Q starts acting out - but despite their obvious usefulness to the cause, we chalk up maybe the ultimate example of 'Technology-we-never-hear-about-again' syndrome.

I mean, the Douwd shown in this ep obviously has a highly fine-tuned conscience; why not at least try to recruit him - or others like him - to the Federation's side? Based on what we see here, he/they could stop wars, end plagues, terraform planets, map gaseous anomalies, you name it. Hey, maybe even help straighten out Q's messes!

NANJAO: I like Troi light blue dress in this episode. However, there's no explanation (or reason) why she is wearing it instead of her regular bunny suit.

GREAT LINE: "I admire gall!" Worf

DELETED SCENE:

Troi: "I hear music. A melody...playing over and over again!"
Picard: "I must be that Good Humor Ice Cream Wagon again!"

Although those two Arab star names are spelled "Al Difdi al Awwal" and "Al Difdi al Thani" they're actually pronounced "Ad-Difdi al-Awwal" and "Ad-Difdi ath-Thani" respectively.

I will now leave before the CIA decides I'm an Al-Qaeda sympathiser.

Too late. Oh, and when you see the visible clouds of gas, please lie down and breathe deeply to avoid injury.

The late Anne Haney has very noticeable roles in comedies like "Mrs. Doubtfire" (as the social worker) and "Liar Liar" (as Jim Carrey's secretary). Too bad she wasn't around in the 1940s or she'd be in every MGM film or something like an older Eve Arden.

I'm confused. I can't figure out how or when Picard realized that the Uxbridges weren't who they said they were.

Didn't he make that clear at the end, John, when he set up the experiment by telling Kevin that they'd remain in the system as long as the two of them were alive, and then that ship destroyed them?

Picard did say that. It just seemed like "a shot in the dark"

You mean in that he turned out to be right? Well, yes, it was an experiment. That's part of the scientific process. But it wasn't a shot in the dark, since that phrase usually connotes a wild guess made without any basis or theory behind it. Here, Picard was running off the suspicious behavior that large ship was exhibiting in the episode, and it was from this odd behavior that he theorized that it was somehow protecting the Uxbridges rather than a threat to him. So there was some basis for this guess on his part. The experiment confirmed it.

I see. I get it now. Thanks.

Occurs to me that the Husnock are another of those extinct races, like the Malurians, that could conceivably turn up in Enterprise.

Well they'd better hurry. If they don't appear this season...

;-)

You know, the whole torture by music stuck in your head thing would be a lot funnier if it was a song by Cher or something.

"In a tribute to the old days of Classic Trek and redshirts getting mowed down, the creators strike down a red shirt during the second Hunsock attack. Problem is, this guy is standing in the middle of nowhere on the bridge! Apparently, he walked out of the turbolift and straight to the wooden bridge rail. I don't know why during red alert anyone would be there. And surprising enough, even though it doesn't look like there are any control panels there, sparks suddenly shoot out from nowhere and sizzle the poor redshirt. As it was with the original Trek, nobody cares that poor Mr. Redshirt was sizzled. Maybe they figured it was poetic justice for him standing around doing nothing during a crisis."
Riker does actually call medical assistance to the bridge after the unseen panel blows up on that guy.

Or another song stuck in your head "
Dink dink dink dink dinkdink dink dink dink dink"

If they really want to torcher Troi, the song they should have stuck in her head should have been that god awful theme song from Star Trek Enterprise!

What about the dink dink song?

What about it?

Imagine that on constant loop playing in your head. could be quite maddening.

Imagine the Enterprise theme on a constant loop playing in you head, same effect!

"I've got FAITH of the HEART"

It was said that the building was in the middle of the area of vegetation, but when we acutally see the building, it is in one corner of the lot.

The Away team wears Federation uniforms, but Kevin needs to ask them who they are?

Perhaps he was just inquiring about what part of the Federation or Starfleet they were from, such as what ship or division. Or he may have just been playing along to maintain the illusion that he didn't know anything about what had occured.

By kerriem. on Friday, January 11, 2002 - 12:51 pm:

I mean, the Douwd shown in this ep obviously has a highly fine-tuned conscience; why not at least try to recruit him - or others like him - to the Federation's side? Based on what we see here, he/they could stop wars, end plagues, terraform planets, map gaseous anomalies, you name it. Hey, maybe even help straighten out Q's messes!

Prime Directive probably... Douwd version...


By John-Boy on Friday, October 21, 2005 - 5:33 pm:
If they really want to torcher Troi, the song they should have stuck in her head should have been that god awful theme song from Star Trek Enterprise!


or... "This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends..."

ScottN: Too bad that it wasn't the Borg that ticked off Kevin, huh?

From the way Kevin described them, it sounded like the Husnock were almost as bad. Maybe had he not destroyed them it would've been the Husnock who in a season or two came and tried to take over the federation and kill millions of people and destroy a good part of Starfleet in the process.

Maybe assimulated Husnock were a main component in the Borg way of life.

Surely all Kevin had to do was to create 1000 federation style ships in orbit, have them shrug off everything the Husnok threw at it and then bring down their shields with one shot and say leave or be destroyed. Surely that would have been enough to get them to back down assuming that he didn't have the power to fling them across space.

I think grief and rage were playing just a little bit of a role, though :-) - he WANTED them dead.

No I meant that's how he could stop the Husnok destroying the colony. Before they killed his wife.

Re his crime being genocide, he wiped out an entire race of 50 billion people, that goes so far beyond any crime seen before it would be an almost unnameable crime.

Just because the numbers are large doesn't disqualify it as genocide.

A billion here a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real numbers.

;-)

It's the whole thing of one death being a tragedy and a million being a statistic, the genocide of 50 billion people and an entire species is almost incomprehensible, the Federation might not even have any genocide laws.

Even now the definition of genocide under international law is wanting to say the least and has been called by academics as almost undefinable, for example would the holocaust not be a genocide because there are still Jews? Answer no but it does show the problem of defining genocide.

Yea, but from a pragmatic standpoint what could The Federation do? The man/entity is capable of destroying a whole species with a single thought and surviving a bombardment that decimated the surface of a whole Class-M planet.

They could put him on trial, but what would that accomplish? He can disappear in the middle of the trial and destroy every Federation citizen for the inconvenience if he chooses. They sure can't execute or forcibly confine him.

Considering that he destroyed a totally genocidal species that would have attacked the federation I doubt the Federation citizens would want him tried for genocide. Plus there is slso the fact that the poor guy is feeling pretty lousy about what he did.

KAM - "The Away team wears Federation uniforms, but Kevin needs to ask them who they are?"

I'm wondering if Rana hadn't been visited by Starfleet in a long time, or at least, Kevin, himself, hadn't seen the most recent Starfleet uniforms. It's possible, since as recent as Wesley's father being alve to record a message, Starfleet wore the old-style Trek movie uniforms, which are quite different from TNG.

John A. Lang - " DELETED SCENE: Troi: "I hear music. A melody...playing over and over again!" Picard: "I must be that Good Humor Ice Cream Wagon again!"

Which brings me to my own personal STOP-THE-MUSIC-PLEEEEASE!!! incident. An ice cream truck parked itself in my apartment's parking lot for a good half hour, playing in a loud, non-stop loop a muzak-styled version of 'The Sting' (the Paul Newman/Robert Redford movie for you youngin's!). 5 minutes was okay. 10 minutes was too long. 15 minutes was aggravating. 20 minutes and beyond had me gritting my teeth, plotting revenge, close the windows and balcony door (on a nice hot day, too) and crank up the volume of the TV.
I wasn't suicidal like Troi, but a mere half hour that I could 'mute' the music seems infinitly preferable to hav ing a song stuck in your head for hours and hours.

Did Wiorf's mother teach him how to drink tea? His pinky is sticking out like a girl, even though Rashon's hand his folded inwards and no outward-pointing pinky.

I was wondering things about this episode. Where are all the other Douwds? And did they ever encounter the other super-powerful races in the galaxy?

Like the Q, the Metrons, the Organians, the Thasians, the Greek God aliens, the Melkotians, or the Excalbians?

Just like the Traveler and the race he belonged to, I really wish that they had explored that theme a little more, it being that there happen to be numerous races in the galaxy that are immortal and/or possess god-like powers. I wish we could have found out more about the Douwd, other than the fact that Kevin Uxbridge had the ability to eradicate an entire race of beings, as well as implant music into an empath's mind so that she nearly goes insane.

As for the we-will-never-see-them Husnock, "a race of hideous intelligence", a previous poster was right in saying that eventually they would become a threat to the Federation. They seemed a lot like the Sheliak in the way that they had powerful ships and weapons and would not hesitate to kill. The Husnock did destroy the colony on Delta Rana IV and Rishon Uxbridge was killed, so Kevin lashed out with rage and wiped out the entire Husnock race!

Sadly, the actor who played Kevin, John Anderson, died a year after this show aired. And Anne Haney, who played Rishon, was in a DS9 ep. as a Bajoran judge. She was also in "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Liar Liar". She also passed away in the last year or so.

Also, this episode is not to be confused with the Animated Series show "The Survivor". Just thought I'd mention that!

One thing that bothers me about these races with such powers is the one question of who polices them.

Often, fiction portrays them as being able to do pretty much whatever the heck they want and no one can do anything about it.

The Q is one of the few examples where Q did get into trouble for the problems he caused with others had to repair the damage.

It would have been interesting to see what sort of judgment Kevin would have had to face for what he did from other Dowd. Yes, humans may not have had a court that could judge him. Perhaps there may not have even had a law that could even really cover a crime so serious.

However, saying that leaving him alone is the best thing to do seems wrong. It's like the idea of a witch/wizard that lives in the woods and people say to just leave her/him alone. It seems logical but when one considers that Kevin committed mass genocide and more or less got away with it, it's pretty scary to think that he doesn't have to answer to anyone.