Overview

In this episode, the Enterprise

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)

The USS Enterprise is a 24th century starship in the Star Trek fictional universe and the principal setting of the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series...

reaches a Federation colony where all but two of the 11,000 inhabitants have been killed by a mysterious attacker. The two survivors (Kevin and Rishon Uxbridge, an elderly couple) refuse assistance and do not want to be rescued. The crew of the Enterprise must determine why only two survivors remain on an otherwise obliterated planet.

Plot

The Enterprise, responding to a distress call from a Federation

United Federation of Planets

The United Federation of Planets, also known as "The Federation" is a fictional interplanetary federal republic depicted in the Star Trek television series and motion pictures...

 colony on Delta Rana IV, discovers the planet to be completely devastated and bereft of life, save for one small patch of land containing a single house and surrounding vegetation. Transporting to the surface, the away team meets the human occupants of the house, Kevin and Rishon Uxbridge. Data relates personal information about the couple; much impressing them. They witnessed the attack that destroyed the colony, but are unaware that they are the only survivors. Though Kevin would rather have the Enterprise leave them in peace, Rishon allows the team to stay and check the house for any reason why they might have been spared. The team, finding nothing of interest save for a small music box, insists the Uxbridges return to the Enterprise for safety, but they refuse. Aboard the Enterprise, Deanna Troi

Deanna Troi

Commander Deanna Troi is a main character in the science-fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and related TV series and films, portrayed by actress Marina Sirtis. Troi is half-human, half-Betazoid and has the psionic ability to sense emotions. She serves as the ship's counselor...

 begins hearing the music from the music box in her mind over and over, which slowly drives her insane.

An unknown spacecraft appears in orbit and starts to attack the Enterprise, then turns and leaves orbit at high speed. The Enterprise gives chase, but eventually Captain Picard

Jean-Luc Picard

Captain Jean-Luc Picard is a Star Trek character portrayed by Patrick Stewart. He appears in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the feature films Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek Nemesis...

 orders the ship to return to the planet. Picard transports to the surface with Worf to visit the Uxbridges, trying to learn more about the situation over tea; Kevin suggests they were spared because they were pacifists. Again, the Uxbridges refuse to be transported to the Enterprise for safety. Upon the away team's return, the spaceship appears in orbit again, but Picard orders the Enterprise to leave the system first, believing that the crew is being toyed with.

When they return to the planet, the ship is nowhere in sight, and Picard again transports to the surface to plead that the Uxbridges leave with him as well as to tell them about Troi's dementia. After being refused again, Picard tells them the Enterprise will remain to protect them as long as they live, and returns to the ship. The alien spaceship shortly appears again and attacks and destroys the Uxbridges' home. Picard orders an attack on the craft; unlike the previous encounter, this time the ship is easily destroyed by the Enterprises firepower. Playing on a suspicion, Picard has the Enterprise move to a higher orbit and continue scans of the planet; after a short time, the Uxbridges' home reappears.

Picard orders the Uxbridges beamed up to the Enterprise, and confronts Kevin with the details he has deduced: Kevin and Rishon's house was destroyed in the attack and Rishon was killed, but Kevin, who is not human, has somehow recreated them both. The alien warship is a device of Kevin's to make the Enterprise go away: in the last attack it seemed to destroy the Uxbridges because then the Enterprise would no longer need to stay and defend them. Kevin now admits the truth, and the illusory Rishon disappears. He now goes to Troi to remove the torturous music that he had placed in her mind to keep her from telepathically identifying him.

Kevin now reveals that he is a Douwd, an immortal energy being with vast powers. While traveling in human form, he had met Rishon and fallen in love with her, and eventually settled with her on Rana IV. When the planet was attacked by an aggressive, destructive species called the Husnock, he refused to join in the fight (in accordance with his species' strict pacifism), but Rishon did, and she died with the rest of the 11,000 colonists, never having known that he was not human.

Stricken by grief and giving in to his rage, Kevin used his powers to destroy the Husnock. Not just the attacking vessel and its crew, he explains, but "all Husnock, everywhere" -- annihilating the entire species, over 50 billion. Horrified by his crime, he chose self-exile to the planet, creating the replicas of Rishon and their house with which to spend the rest of eternity, and using a recreation of the Husnock ship as intimidation to keep their privacy. Picard feels it is not his place to judge Kevin's actions, so he decides that the best course of action is to allow the Douwd to continue his exile. The Enterprise leaves Kevin and his illusion in peace, and Picard warns that he be left alone.

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