how did burlinghoff rassmussen know about the enterprise d?

Since the ship's arrival & departure, & the man's beam out seemed kind of preprogrammed, I'd think there likely was a legit study of the Enterprise, intended by the real historian(s). Therefore, it makes sense there'd be details onboard the pod about them, that the imposter could have gained access to. That plus some cold reading of the crew & surroundings would give an advantage, even if not all the facts, or enough of them to learn all he needed to aid his "Inventing", such that he had to steal artifacts.

I also assume some ability for the imposter to at least partly figure out the tech, because there were certain dynamic aspects about his communication with & transport to the Enterprise, knowing when the captain was/wasn't standing in his transport spot, etc... This would also maybe explain why a pod from the future was again going to return to the imposter's past, where it surely had already been, when he'd hijacked it in the 1st place.

After all, why would the actual historian(s) have been planning to return to the imposter's time, having already been there? I have to think the only one likely to want to go back there is the imposter himself, & even though he couldn't control the time of departure, it seems possible he found a way to set its destination, so he could get back home.

Let's not forget that he also had the door programmed to open upon recognition of his handprint, & by his own admission, he'd spent weeks tampering with the pod to manage using it, during which time it was not programmed to depart on its own.

I'd think he stumbled upon & found a way to engage a preprogrammed mission to study the 24th century Enterprise, which came with some rudimentary files about said mission, & took it as a chance for a future tech heist, but didn't work nearly enough on controlling the parameters of it.

I'm also of the opinion that the real historian was Professor Berlinghoff Rasmussen, & not the imposter. There were apparently "Credentials" that convinced Picard. It seems less likely that those would have the imposter's name

One thing is for sure. It really is a pity he wasn't more inventive. Dude hit the jackpot, & this truly was a half-assed scheme, that really could've been much better had he spent more time working it out. lol

 

Starling = Rasmussen.

....not that I'm the best guide to this stuff. I still cannot watch Voyager without seeing Red Dwarf.

 

Starling owns the world in the 1990s, hanging out with Nixon, bossing around other companies, etc. Very different to Rasmussen (Rasmussen was from the time of Archer, if he was as successful as Starling, information would be available on him on 24th century wikipedia).

Other than his unrealised plan to acquire more tech from the 29th century I don't see the narrative similarity. Had Starling turned up on Voyager, claiming to be on the future, then sure, but Futures End was a very different episode to Matter of Time.

 

I think the time traveling scientist definitely had the Enterprise's coordinated programmed, and planned to visit it. The thief wouldn't have gone to a random location of space hoping there would happen to be future tech there.

Also, I like the idea that Berlinghoff Rasmussen isn't the thief's real name. It explains why he pronounces Rasmussen so funny.

 

One had a devious plan, the other happened to have a ship crash near him

 

Well, the one happened to have a loose lipped time traveler visit him, so they both were "victims" of opportunity. The hard part in both cases would be figuring out future tech, and both did so to a limited extent. Starling probably better than Rasmussen, as he actually succeeds in reverse engineering it to some degree. But that could also be because he simply had a lot more time.

 

But perhaps fewer resources: "Rasmussen" hails from a time that supposedly postdates the post-apocalyptic horror and is associated with recovery and unification of Earth, so he might appear to have at least a bit of an advantage over a random hippie bum from the 1960s. Although of course he could also be disadvantaged by specific circumstance.

He appears to desire to return to his native time at the conclusion of his heist. Is this something dictated on him by the programming of the pod, which he cannot alter? If so, why was the pod programmed that way? Was the real Rasmussen "fanning out" from a temporary temporal base in the 22nd century, with these sort hops preprogrammed?

If our "Rasmussen" instead wants to go back simply because he's comfortable with his home base and knows exactly how to get rich there with these future goodies, why the timer-based return? Is it again something dictated by the nature of the pod, or is he just unable to properly choose the manual option?

I could see the original time traveler deciding to study this "Rasmussen" character on the false premise that his current make-believe is his true nature. Perhaps the thief had gone down in history books for having been King Charles IV of Great Britain, or the inventor of the phaser, or whatever. I have a bit more difficulty in the real professor deciding to study Picard's ship unless he had more finesse available to him than we see his usurper utilize. Perhaps the true scientist would have operated under a cloak of invisibility? But he did appear to freely engage in conversation with our time thief...

Timo Saloniemi

 

We don't know Starling was a bum or even poor. Lots of hippies came from well off families. Chances are Starlings Mom and Dad were rich, maybe unethical who helped hide the ship and study it and Starling simply took over the family business at some point once he got done going through a hippie phase in his youth.

Jason

 

Well, it is a known name today. Apparently it is in the 26th century, too (assuming Rasmussen is the name of the real time traveler). So why wouldn't a 22nd century figure know how to pronounce it?

 

Yeah, Rasmussen wasn't the one that throws me. Lots of interesting surnames floating around. 1st name Berlinghoff on the other hand? That one is quite the oddity

 

Back when ENT was being made, I heard a rumor that Rasmussen would turn up (supposedly he and Archer were roommates at MIT) prior to him stealing the time machine...I don't know if this was ever actually considered, though.

As for his name: surely he can pronounce it any way he wants?

 

Except for time, Rasmussen should have had a significant advantage, not even considering personal circumstances. He is from the 22nd century and studies technology four centuries more advanced than his own. Starling from 1969 has to study technology nine centuries more advanced than his own.

Also, he says: "If the auto timer is programmed the way I think it is, in about two minutes we should be on our way back to a place called New Jersey." Whether that means that he did program it himself or not, in any case it shows he has insufficient knowledge of the pod to be certain about its operation. And combined with his behaviour the entire episode, I would guess that he didn't know how to alter it, as you suggest.

Possibly. But what would be the advantage of establishing a "base" in the 22nd century when you're from the 26th century yourself and you intend to make "hops" to the 24th century and you could just as easily make them from your own time?

Unless of course the real Rasmussen was somehow involved in the Temporal Cold War. After all, we know the 22nd century is a front in that war by Daniels' statements....

 

I have no idea. Presumably it's the same reason a bunch of 20th century actors mispronounced it.

 

The only idea I can come up with is that by going "back" from your forays rather than "forward", you don't have to face the consequences of your meddling. Until, perhaps, the day you wish to return home, at which point you may choose the path that leads to your preferred home and dodges all the changes, or may engage in a series of corrective meddlings, depending on your time travel theory...

(The simplest anti-meddling would be for the traveler afterwards to stop himself from going in the first place, of course. Although in such a manner that the research results could still be conveyed to the 26th century somehow.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

I don't recall any mention of the professor having a base in the 22nd century in the episode. When was that mentioned?

 

In post #27 of this thread.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Oh, so the base is your original idea, not something mentioned in the episode.
I'd say the time machine was programmed to return to the 22nd century because the thief programmed it to do that. Is there a reason that would be implausible? What am I missing?

 

The thief stated that he was uncertain whether the return would take place as described. More specifically, he said

"If the auto timer is programmed the way I think it is, in about two minutes we should be on our way back to a place called New Jersey."

This is an odd formulation: why "is" the timer programmed in the passive sense? It sounds as if the thief had little say in this respect.

Also, what would be the logic of the thief setting an auto-return with a "timer"? Why not just hit the relevant "go now!" button? There is no tactical benefit to using a timer, and as shown, using it poses a massive risk to the thief and his operation.

Hence the possibility of the legitimate time pod owner being behind the timer setting, and the need for a reason for him to wish to return to New Jersey after visiting the E-D (or the dying planet, which had no E-D anywhere near it those "weeks" ago when the thief said he was still/already struggling with the controls).

Timo Saloniemi

 

The real historian was a Trek fan and had all seven seasons stored on the ship's computer. Unfortunately
Rassmussen only watched the first four seasons be for leaping to the 24th Century.

 

Or the thief did actually watch the episode of the original timeline, in which the genuine historian succeeded in his mission to study the ent-D crew. Lulled into a false sense of security, the thief decided he could pull that off with just some improvisation skills too, while stealing some of their gadgets for his own benefit.