Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x08 - "Mercy"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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World War III was never directly mentioned in "Past Tense, Parts I and II(DS9)." The closest we got was comments about how 21st century history was too depressing and that people in that century would eventually remember how to care. Not one line from any of the leads about how World War III was just over the horizon.
Isn't the only real canonical information that the war began in 2026 a single screen briefly seen in "A Mirror Darkly?"
We know that regular space exploration happened during the 2030s (Ares IV went to Mars in 2032, Charybdis was launched in 2037) which suggests that even if Colonel Green does kill 37 million in 2026, global civilization isn't destroyed till the later exchanges in the 2350s.
IIRC, O'Brien said about an alternate timeline that it was not the mid-21st century he remembered, and that earth had some rough patches, but never that rough. Which implies he didn't think WW III was a big deal.
Edith Keeler writ large.
But their luck turned for the better by the end of that movie and the sequel, Coming 2 America, implied they restore their fortunes.
More importantly, we were on track for another Prince and the Pauper remake.
Or that a war or disaster happened before 2053 in that altered timeline that was even worse. Which is hard to imagine but I guess possible if more nukes were used and devastated even more of the planet, killing off a lot more people.
I wasn't super impressed with this episode but I liked it better than last weeks. I am starting to get tired of serialization in general across all TV but that is another topic. Two more left. Come on now please stick that landing! Lets go out with some great episodes.
Trekyards uploaded their review of this weeks episode.
Trekyards uploaded their review of this weeks episode.
The story was poignant because of Kirk's feelings for Edith in particular. Just having a trolley scenario with no personal element wouldn't be compelling at all.
8/10
Not a bad episode. Can tell we are heading towards the conclusion of this particular arc.
Random Thoughts in no particular order:
- Adam Soong is an asshole. How did he get all of those top soldiers so quickly? It seemed like no time had lapsed at all.
- The soldiers seemed down with the chick in a red dress and black eyes touching all of them a little too easy. Not sure if I care for this new assimilation manner all that much.
- Detective Wells was cool. Not sure I buy into his black ops interrogation site and the resolution to breaking Picard and Guinan out was kind of contrived. Can't imagine that there were no cameras his superiors weren't listening in on in the interview rooms when they caught Picard beaming into an alley so easily.
- Rios ain't going back to the future.
- We got more Q which is always a good thing. Was nice of him to explain to his enemy Guinan what's ailing him.
- Wonder how long Vulcans had been watching the Earth prior to the first warp flight?
- I miss Annie as the real Queen.
- Could Raffi be any slower on the phaser draw in the car salvage yard? Stun her or at least try to. She's the freaking Borg Queen. She's eating batteries for God's sake.
The battery thing had me in stitches, that scene screamed 'We have no science advisors, lol'.
Rafi and Six act like they're hearing about lithium for the first time, then we see Jurati chomping down on car batteries. Ummm, what happens when lithium is exposed to air and moisture if, say, a mad woman was trying to bite into it? Quick look on Youtube for lithium fires, exploding cell phone batteries... oh.
If the writers hadn't been such prats they might have been able to pull the scene off... 'they use lithium in batteries', 'yes but that's fairly pure and has the habit of combusting when exposed to oxygen', 'Hmmm, are there any sources of more stable lithium used in this time?'... quick cut to Agnes of Borg sitting in a pharmacy gobbling on bottles of Bipolar medication like an angry Pac Man...
Oh yeah, I totally agree. It's the same reason why I've always felt that Gene Roddenberry's "Kennedy Must Die" storyline wouldn't work.
I've got a feeling they won't even touch WWIII. Just as well. It would make PIC look like it's encouraging us to go to war; and during a time when WWIII now looks like a more real possibility than it has since the first Cold War.
Agreed. The mission is to restore the timeline, warts and all, not to specifically cause World War 3. It doesn't need to be mentioned at all because it's part of the timeline they're restoring.
“Let’s have a World War so that our descendants don’t conquer the galaxy” would be a tough message to sell.
Well, when you put it that way. But if you explain to people that WW3 will usher in a time of unprecedented peace, democracy and prosperity. Humans will get over their nationalistic prejudices. Earth will be a paradise with no disease, no national wars, and no poverty. Humans will peacefully explore the galaxy and be one of the founders of a federation of like minded species that bring peace, prosperity and rights to billions, then it is an easy sell.
Better than last week's.
They sure get a lot of mileage out of Courage's theme, don't they? It even shorthands the action for them - when Picard rolls off all of that preposterous stuff about being from the future and being here to save the Entire Galaxy you have to wonder whether Wells is gonna buy any of it...until you hear the fanfare come up. Then - Bam! You know the fix is in. And sure enough, right after the commercial, he sacrifices his career and lets 'em go, because of course he does.
They sure get a lot of mileage out of Courage's theme, don't they? It even shorthands the action for them - when Picard rolls off all of that preposterous stuff about being from the future and being here to save the Entire Galaxy you have to wonder whether Wells is gonna buy any of it...until you hear the fanfare come up. Then - Bam! You know the fix is in. And sure enough, right after the commercial, he sacrifices his career and lets 'em go, because of course he does.
Re: ((WW3 = good or WW3 = bad) = irrelevant). Attaching moralistic naval-gazing to its existence is a futile (pun not intended) gesture, and only serves to make the characters and viewers feel good/bad about themselves, depending on their POV. Doesn't really serve much to the current story being told.
As tragic as it was/may be, it's already happened. It needs to happen. Otherwise you have another timeline glitch.
As tragic as it was/may be, it's already happened. It needs to happen. Otherwise you have another timeline glitch.
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