"Time's Arrow" Line-by-Line

MRS. CARMICHAEL: Mister Pikerd. I'll be reminding you that it's one o'clock.

 

PICARD: Yes.

 

CARMICHAEL: 1:00 on a Thursday. I'm sure I made it clear to you that the rent is always due, payable in full, by 1:00 on Wednesdays.

 

PICARD: Ah, yes, er, the rent. Mrs. Carmichael, even now my troupe are in rehearsals for a new production.

 

CARMICHAEL: Oh? I haven't heard of any new production. What play is it?

 

PICARD: The play? A Midsummer Night's Dream. We have performed in London, Paris, Milan. Milan. To sold out houses. I assure you, you will have the rent, in full, with a bonus.

 

CARMICHAEL: Oh, no, no, no, no. I've heard you silver-tongued devils before. I'll have the rent in full tomorrow by one o'clock or you'll be out performing on the street.

 

[Back at Data's hotel room, Jack London opens door and enters followed by Samuel Clemens]

LONDON: I wouldn't do this for just anybody, Mister Clemens. And I hope you won't spread it around that I let you in. People start talking.

[Clemens starts searching the room.]

 

CLEMENS: Of course not, Jack. And I assure you that Mister Data would be most upset if you didn't. If I can't find that Letter of Intent that he left me, our major investor is going to pull out and take his business elsewhere.

 

LONDON: It has to do with Mister Data's engine, doesn't it?

 

CLEMENS: Engine?

 

LONDON: Yes.

[He points out the time-shift monitoring device sitting on the desk, currently it's running with an electrical beam visible in it. The device is connected to a seismograph.]

 

CLEMENS: Oh, yes. Yes, this is exactly what it's all about. Ow! (he gets a shock from it)

 

LONDON: You know, Mister Clemens, I'm going to do you another favour today. You're always looking for good stories, right? Well, I've got a real humdinger for you. The story of my life. Now, I know you may think I'm young, but I've covered a lot of ground and if I do say so myself, it'd make for some pretty fascinating reading. So, what do you think?

 

CLEMENS: About what?

 

LONDON: About writing my life story. You and me. Literary partners, of course.

 

CLEMENS: Young man, I have a maxim that I have always lived by. No one is more qualified to write your story than you are.

 

LONDON: Me? Be a writer? You think I could do that?

 

CLEMENS: As long as you write what you know. You got any passions, boy? Any dreams?

 

LONDON: I'd like to do some travelling, maybe go to sea. And Alaska. I've had the strangest notion to go see Alaska.