Title :
Sub Rosa
Series :
Rating :
Overall Ep :
165
First Aired :
31 Jan 1994
Stardate :
47423.9
Director :
Year :
Writers :
Season Ep :
YATI :
Okay, what about marriage and names in the 24th century? Beverly Howard became Beverly Crusher when she married Jack Crusher. So apparently the whole thing about women taking the man's surname still applies. Yet the alien dude says that his first host was Jessel Howard, hundreds of years previously. Shouldn't Jessel have had a different surname? Or did all of Beverly's ancestors keep their surname, and she broke with the tradition and decided to adopt her husbands?
Beverly claims that her grandmother Felisa was a hundred years old at the time of her death. But her gravestone displays her year of birth as 2291, which actually makes her 79 at the time of death. Interestingly, this is close to the age of the actress who played Felisa, Ellen Albertini Dow - and she went on to live to be over one hundred before she died.
Worst Moment :
Those Scottish folk rival the Oirish of "Up the Long Ladder" for silliness! I've been to Scotland, and they are not like this!
Body Count :
Beverley's grandmother dies shortly before the episode, and Ronin is killed during it.
Factoid :
The original concept for the episode was that there was a race of aliens who had possessed many humans down through the centuries. This would explain most of the supernatural stories in history as events involving these aliens.
The episode features a modification of the traditional Anglican burial service, replacing "in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life" with "in sure and certain hope that her memory will be kept alive within us all." This was done to represent the Federation's largely secular nature.
"Sub Rosa" stems from a Roman traditions of displaying roses in a meeting as a sign that anything said there were to be kept confidential. Such meetings were said to have been held "sub rosa", meaning "under the rose" in latin.
According to the producers, fan reaction to this episode was evenly split - men hated it, and women loved it. I can certainly say that whilst I didn't hate it, it really came across as very silly to me.
Everyone involved praised Gates McFadden's performance in the episode. She, however, really didn't like it. She once summarised the episode as "I fell in love with a lamp."
Plotline
Beverly quits Starfleet to sit up all night with a candle. Picard responds by joining Ghostbusters.
