The Survivors

DVD, TNG S3 (The Survivors)

One of my favourites of the early seasons, this covers the breadth of what a Star Trek episode should be - chills, adventure, alien concepts and at heart a sad tale with vast magnitude. The small and the astronomical. Beyond the marvellously puzzling events, that Captain Picard works out before anyone else, there are also inconsequential minutiae: this is the first episode to feature Troi's turqoise dress uniform, the Andorians get a rare namecheck, and Worf appears to get very confused. I'm not talking about his failure to spot the hulking great battlecruiser, as that was the powerful alien's trick. No, it was his mistake over the shields. During battle with the enemy he says the shields are down at least three times. Either Geordi was working at super speed to repair the shields in mere seconds, the battle lasted longer than it appeared to on screen, or Worf was so shaken that he'd been wrong about the alien ship's absence he was thrown off-kilter for the rest of the episode!

The production scores on every level to banish the memories of the first two episodes and show us how the series is meant to be done. We get creepiness thanks to the musical box (somehow those things are always creepy) and Troi's great distress, a spot of humour with Riker caught in a trap and left to dangle, and Worf's succinct attempt at small talk ("Good tea. Nice house"), big ideas (one small plot of land intact on a devastated planet; the destruction of an entire species in anger; an immortal who chose to live in our galaxy and found his happiness in a human), and some excitement with an exciting impression of speed chasing after the enemy ship. Kevin and Rishon both carried the episode so well, the weight of events heavy on their craggy faces. I'm surprised the Douwd have never featured again (I'm not surprised the Husnock never featured), although the actress that played Rishon Uxbridge certainly did - she was the one hundred year old Bajoran judge Renora in 'DS9's' first season courtroom drama, 'Dax'.

There is a technical fault with the DVD on one scene - when Picard visits Troi's quarters to see if she's alright the picture drops down into the frame when he's speaking in one shot.

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