When we see Beverly akip on the Enterprise, the candle, which is out, mysteriously bursts into flame. This is strange enough in itself, but one must wonder exactly why, given the circumstances was it out in the first place? Wasn't it kind of the Howard family's eternal flame?
Very rarely do we see any weather involved in Star Trek, especially used as a mood device. It must also have strange viral properties, as the colony governor, just after complaining pointedly about how the weather was approximating too accurately that of the original Highlands for his liking, sneezes. The inference here is obviously that he has the beginnings of a cold. Hang on, though. He is on the Enterprise when he sneezes. No shuttles are being used, everyone beams to and from the planet, so he has therefore just been through the transporters which as any fule kno routinely filter out any known viruses. Why, then, is he sneezing?
Ned dies and no-one seems to make any effort to revive him. Not like Tasha, eh?
Notice when Beverly is arguing with Picard in her cottage. One minute she is holding the candle in one hand, the next shot she is pushing Picard with both hands, without any interval to enable her to put down the candle.
It seems strange to me that Felissa would not have had friends who would have known about Ronin, or, like Quint, suspected that things weren't right. This is a very small community, after all.
Speaking of Quint, he says something quite strange. If you light that candle, he tells Beverly, they'll be burying another Howard woman. How so? Ronin needs to keep his hosts alive, so why would he bump off our Beverly? Perhaps this is why no-one bothers to try to revive Ned when he dies, it's because he's such a plonker . . .
Interesting that in the shots of the Enterprise when it is operating the energy beam to the planet, sometimes it's moving around the planet and sometimes it's still.
The effect that Ronin has on Beverly is like a drug. Wouldn't you expect a trained experienced physician to recognise symptoms when she has them?
When Picard comes round after being zapped by Ronin, he says to Beverly "I'm all right. Go to the cemetery". He's been unconscious for the past few minutes, so how does he know that everyone is to congregate at the cemetery?
One thing I must say here. Throughout this critique cum review cum whatever I've been casting not always oblique aspersions upon Gates McFadden's acting ability or lack of thereof. In this episode she acts her socks off, and it's great to see. I wonder if this has anything to do with sympathetic direction from Jonathan Frakes?
Descent Part Two Liaisons Interface Gambit Part One Gambit Part Two Phantasms Dark Page Attached Force of Nature Inheritance Parallels The Pegasus Homeward Sub Rosa Lower Decks Thine Own Self Masks Eye of the Beholder Genesis Journey's End Firstborn Bloodlines Emergence Preemptive Strike All Good Things Part One All Good Things Part Two