• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Spoilers Picard Prequel "Children of Mars"

IOW, you're the one not too lazy to do it. So thanks anyway!

I might go with symbolic. But the anachronism of the library probably isn't intentional. Unless this draws a connection between the Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies and Cogley's insistence on antiquated means of information storage and access. Perhaps after Marxit, the whole place has become a shrine to Ye Olden Ways?

Timo Saloniemi
 
It's about humans and Romulans. Note that the alien girl is crying before they're shown holding hands.
 
That's where the symbolism comes in. She's not literally a Romulan, she's representing one.

That, or Romulan acne.
 
After they changed the Klingons and Tellarites so much, it's certainly possible they'd give the Romulans such dots - but the adults didn't have them in the trailers. Maybe it is the Romulan version of teen acne, and that's what she's bullied for.
Or she is one of the refugees from a planet threatened by the Hobus nova who was evacuated by Picard, and now she has to go to a human school on Mars and is bullied for being a refugee.
 
Last edited:
It didn't even occur to me that she was Romulan. But it would explain why she's hiding her ears and got rid of her eyebrows.

But if that's acne, I could buy her putting makeup over it to not look red (or green in her case), but it's way too uniform looking and there's no such thing as perfect acne. It could be the Romulan version of freckles.
 
Or tattooing, another recently established Romulan thing.

Timo Saloniemi

She looks 13. I don't think so. And even if she could, it looks like she's in the 24th Century version of a private school. I don't think they'd allow it.
 
Why would an age of 13 be a counterindication to this being a Romulan tattoo?

Also, why would allowing be a factor? The Federation and especially its military seems quite welcoming of (sometimes former) citizens of enemy nations - no doubt this is considered a propaganda coup whenever it happens.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Why would an age of 13 be a counterindication to this being a Romulan tattoo?

Not much of a story, to be honest. You have to be 18 to get a tattoo, at least here. Unless you have parent's permission. Nothing to say it couldn't be tattoos, I'm just extrapolating. (EDIT: Before you hit me with "On Romulus it could be different!", yes it could be different but it doesn't look like she's on Romulus. It looks like an Earth/Human school.)

Plus Nero and this girl are apples and oranges. Nero wasn't in a school with a uniform code. Such places with dress codes as strict as those are slow to change. And parents who send their kids to private schools aren't likely to be the type who'll let their kids get tattoos.
 
Last edited:
Hate to repeat myself, but...she's not literally a Romulan, she's representing one. Human/alien = human/Romulan. It's symbolism. Not something that will literally happen in the story, never mind be explained. The two girls seem to be picking on one another, going by the hair color. Then something bad happens to the alien. The human comforts / bonds with the alien.

The acne thing was supposed to be a joke.
 
Hate to repeat myself, but...she's not literally a Romulan, she's representing one. Human/alien = human/Romulan. It's symbolism. Not something that will literally happen in the story, never mind be explained. The two girls seem to be picking on one another, going by the hair color. Then something bad happens to the alien. The human comforts / bonds with the alien.

The acne thing was supposed to be a joke.

Kurtzman has explicitly said the short is a Picard prequel. An allegorical story doesn't cut it IMHO.

My guess is still it's some sort of de-borging school.
 
Not the short, the preview. The preview of the short is symbolic of what the short will be about.
 
I don't mind allegory. These short treks are an opportunity to try new things, stuff you can't do as an episode, so why not do that every now and then.
 
Unless this draws a connection between the Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies and Cogley's insistence on antiquated means of information storage and access. Perhaps after Marxit, the whole place has become a shrine to Ye Olden Ways?

I doubt the current Star Trek TV writers even know anything about the Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies, or Samuel T. Cogley.

Here’s my take on it: It’s an allegory. These children represent the titular “Children of Mars:” One child represents Romulus, and the other child represents Remus. The two children pick on each other (like how the Romulans and Remans hate each other) but due to some circumstance (the destruction of Romulus) they come together in friendship.

Or maybe I’m looking too much into it...
 
Last edited:
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top