The Survivors is a good episode that, ultimately, makes a few choices that sacrifice the overall story for a “gotcha” moment. Admittedly, the big reveal at the end of the episode is as fascinating and profound as it is horrific and disturbing. Unfortunately, in order to protect that moment, the sacrifices to the story are just too great.

To begin, the mystery of Rana IV, an entire planet is destroyed to the point where not even any vegetation exists, except for a few square acres inhabited by an elderly couple, is so bizarre that is immediately engaging. And as an audience, we are able to follow along with the crew as they struggle to solve the mystery: Why are Kevin and Rishon the only survivors? What is their connection to the alien vessel which so clearly seems intent on leading the Enterprise away from the planet? And what is happening to Troi?

Unfortunately, as the episode reaches its critical point, the choice to preserve the mystery supercedes the integrity of the story. And the problem falls squarely on Picard’s shoulders.

Picard rightly surmises that the alien vessel is “protecting Rishon and Kevin. It responds to their wishes — directly or indirectly, I’m not sure. That’s what I’m going to put to the test.” And Picard’s test is brilliant: provide Rishon and Kevin with the only condition on which the Enterprise will leave orbit (and, therefore, leave the couple in peace).

After this moment, however, Picard goes completely out of character. The mistake is in having Picard gamble with Kevin and Rishon’s lives. At this point in the episode, Picard doesn’t know the solution to the mystery — he makes an assumption (as he later admits to Riker). For Picard to gamble two possibly innocent lives on a mere assumption is a gross error in character.

What makes matters worse is that Picard doesn’t even inform his crew, let alone the audience, about this assumption. That Picard turns out to be right in the end, doesn’t change the fact that he orders his crew to remain at their stations and witness, as far as they know, the murder of two innocent humans. The result is that we have a character suddenly become omniscient, without any particular reason, other than it was necessary to both keep the audience from solving the mystery and to have the mystery be solved before the end of the episode.

The real disappointment is that instead of working to preserve the mystery for the big reveal, the episode could have had the reveal a bit earlier, and then focused on the two issues that were raised, but never fully explored: to what extent should someone go for pacifism and how do you judge a being that destroyed an entire species on a whim?

The Survivors gets a great deal of credit for its mystery and themes, but it barely manages to be a classic because it sacrificed substance for style.

Filed under: TNG Reviews