I watched the Star Trek TNG episode "The Survivors" last night. That is the episode where a planet has been laid to waste and the only survivors are an old couple living on a small plot of land. The male survivor, Kevin Uxbridge, has to be one of the most tragic characters in all of Star Trek. This guy is a douwd (basically an immortal, super powerful being) who refuses to fight some aliens who are besieging the world upon which he and his human wife live. He could easily stop the assault but chooses not to. The aliens then wipe out the entire planet, including Kevin's wife, whom he really really loves. Kevin is all that remains and in the end he goes nuts and kills all of the aliens, as in eradicates their entire species. Then he feels super guilty because he is a creature of conscience who had always refused to kill. Lamenting his wife, he recreates her so they can waltz their days away inside their home and tend to their yard. Kevin's plan goes great until Picard and the Enterprise happen upon the planet. Ultimately, Picard sees through Kevin's illusions and calls Kevin out forcing him to tell the truth. Kevin tells his tragic story and Picard informs him that he (and the Federation) don't even have a law against the crime Kevin has committed.
This has got to be the saddest sob the Enterprise has ever encountered. The whole episode left me feeling like I was kicked in the nuts. It seems like the writers basically took all of the terrible shit they could imagine and rolled it up into Kevin Uxbridge. Don't be an Uxbridge.
2 Comments
Benjamin Nitti
11/10/2016 07:23:03 am
Oh yes, this episode breaks my heart every time. To make things even more depressing, the writer Michael Wagner died 3 years later from brain cancer. Cheery!
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Dirk
11/10/2016 10:04:07 am
I didn't know that. I looked Wagner up on Memory-Alpha... god that's depressing. Thanks!
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