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What about the Mirror Universe? If we've been willing, since the 60's, to accept that all our heroes are still born in such a drastically different universe, what we see in today's episode really shouldn't be a problem.
It's probably because the 'science' of why the Mirror Universe exists is largely mysterious. Is it a dark reflection of the Prime Universe as implied? A creation of the Q to view humanity at it's worst? Or the 'Parallels' multiverse theory that any and all possibilities always exist?
Meanwhile, the time travel stuff in televised Trek uses the 'cause and effect' theory , where an alteration to the past... will alter the future of the specific Prime Universe. That was the logic of this episode as well.
It gets strange when there's massive alterations to the Earth's timeline in the 90s/2000s, and the same characters from the Prime timeline are still conceived in this one 300 years later...somehow. I suppose they don't want us to consider that, to move the plot along. Fair enough.
The "Mirror" Universe seems to have started diverging with the Roman Empire never falling as completely as it did in reality. Trek in general...whenever the first of all those extra nebulae got added to our galaxy.
So, yeah, I'm not sure we needed to meddle with "when were the Eugenics Wars?" at all.
The Romulan’s remark how annoying time was to always seemingly reassert itself to the prime timeline no matter how much they meddled was also funny in a meta way.
Can't like this post enough. I was torn between "I don't give a rat's about Khan" and "The casting is so GOOD!"
I WOULD like to hear more about the other EW Tyrants. Why does Khan get all the credit just because he killed Spock and had a movie named after him? What are the other names that get school children ostracized centuries later? Are any of them named Smith?
The Romulan’s remark how annoying time was to always seemingly reassert itself to the prime timeline no matter how much they meddled was also funny in a meta way.
It fits with what we've seen and also with Spock's description in City on the Edge. (Boy, if that's true then how bad did McCoy break the timeline? Was the Guardian just MESSING with them?!?)
Yes, but they knew the Federation had to exist too. It makes me wonder if someone eventually suceeds in wiping out the Federation only for the Romulans to get conquered by the Dominion.
It fits with what we've seen and also with Spock's description in City on the Edge. (Boy, if that's true then how bad did McCoy break the timeline? Was the Guardian just MESSING with them?!?)
So what's the bigger triumph in Star Trek? Fans getting Uhura and Sulu screen used first names or some little town in Iowa (I've been there, it seemed nice) declaring itself the future birthplace of James T. and George S. Kirk? And now getting it made official!
"You have some insane (middle name)." "The LEAST discrete middle name." And all thanks to David Gerrold, middle-namer of Kirk.
Cards on the table, La'an has been my least favorite character. I'm not a fan of the stoic outside hiding (poorly) a well of anger, "Grr, I'm broken, I don't deserve compassion, but doesn't it make me great at my job?" type. There were bits throughout the first season to give her character growth with counseling, having to face the Gorn and showing others what she knew about them, and finally a chance to care for another (the girl she took care of and set off to find their family for). But none of that seemed to move the needle, even a little (As much as I'm not a La'an fan, I don't want her to change completely, as that's not believable). This episode seems to be the same, give her a reason to change, but then reset her back to regular at the end. I also don't love the, "Kirk can change her" underlying idea going on. I do believe she'll end up serving under Kirk (as we saw in "A Quality of Mercy"), but I hate the idea that she does so because of this connection to him.
I'm split on this version of Kirk. If I don't try to reconcile him with TOS Kirk, he's a good, likable character. I'll give a pass for the fact that, La'an's communication at the end aside, we haven't seen Prime Kirk yet, only two alternate versions (albeit the first one was more of a minor change than the second one). Like the sets, William Shatner's Kirk is of his time, especially the 60's version. Acting styles have changed, and I think it would be jarring to see Paul Wesley act as Shatner. This is definitely a me thing, but as long as they're trying to give us Kirk without giving us Kirk (except in small bits), I'll struggle with it.
As far as the episode, it was fine. Probably my least favorite of the series so far. There was nothing really bad about it, but it felt like Picard season 2 again, only in one episode rather than the 7ish they took. Really
Substitute Pelia for Guinan, DTI for Time Agents, the cold fusion explosion for the launch, and you're mostly rehashing bits. I even expected Wesley to show up.
.
I really wanted a bit with the money, where Kirk didn't understand how much he actually had, a la, the "Is that a lot" bit from TVH. Not really for the nod, but for the fact that he really wouldn't know. I guess we see that with the hotel room he rents being extravagant (really, a cheaper hotel would have had two beds, but probably not as great a view of the bridge).
It also really annoyed me they just threw the uniforms in the trash. I get that neither of them were trained, but Time Travel 101, you never leave behind any evidence. Really, that should be Landing Party 101, but we know Starfleet didn't teach that form "A Piece of the Action." I do like the nod to "City on the Edge of Forever" where Kirk asks if La'an could build a tricorder. Granted it was a device to emulate the connection the tricoder has with the Enterprise computer, but still, that took Spock about a week to build, if I remember correctly, and he's, well Spock.
I've always felt a reflection of my enjoyment of something is how much I let nitpicks bother me. If I love something, I barely notice or care about the nitpicks. The less I enjoy it, the more I focus on those things. The fact that I had a lot of nits to pick led me to give this one a 6.
I do want to say I don't think this is a sign that the writers have run out of ideas or the rest of the season will follow suit. Strange New Worlds, especially, since it's not serialized (while still have ongoing plot points). A weak episode doesn't mean that the rest of the season will suffer because of this. In fact, I expect next week to be much better just because I know this series is capable of much more than we saw this week.
For some reason I went into this assuming it was a two-parter. I feel we could've used a little more time of the two of them together to sell the bond that had formed - perhaps a little less jumping from plot point A to B.
Everything is an alternate timeline. Works for me.
Cards on the table, La'an has been my least favorite character. I'm not a fan of the stoic outside hiding (poorly) a well of anger, "Grr, I'm broken, I don't deserve compassion, but doesn't it make me great at my job?" type. There were bits throughout the first season to give her character growth with counseling, having to face the Gorn and showing others what she knew about them, and finally a chance to care for another (the girl she took care of and set off to find their family for). But none of that seemed to move the needle, even a little (As much as I'm not a La'an fan, I don't want her to change completely, as that's not believable). This episode seems to be the same, give her a reason to change, but then reset her back to regular at the end. I also don't love the, "Kirk can change her" underlying idea going on. I do believe she'll end up serving under Kirk (as we saw in "A Quality of Mercy"), but I hate the idea that she does so because of this connection to him.
I'm split on this version of Kirk. If I don't try to reconcile him with TOS Kirk, he's a good, likable character. I'll give a pass for the fact that, La'an's communication at the end aside, we haven't seen Prime Kirk yet, only two alternate versions (albeit the first one was more of a minor change than the second one). Like the sets, William Shatner's Kirk is of his time, especially the 60's version. Acting styles have changed, and I think it would be jarring to see Paul Wesley act as Shatner. This is definitely a me thing, but as long as they're trying to give us Kirk without giving us Kirk (except in small bits), I'll struggle with it.
As far as the episode, it was fine. Probably my least favorite of the series so far. There was nothing really bad about it, but it felt like Picard season 2 again, only in one episode rather than the 7ish they took. Really
Substitute Pelia for Guinan, DTI for Time Agents, the cold fusion explosion for the launch, and you're mostly rehashing bits. I even expected Wesley to show up.
.
I really wanted a bit with the money, where Kirk didn't understand how much he actually had, a la, the "Is that a lot" bit from TVH. Not really for the nod, but for the fact that he really wouldn't know. I guess we see that with the hotel room he rents being extravagant (really, a cheaper hotel would have had two beds, but probably not as great a view of the bridge).
It also really annoyed me they just threw the uniforms in the trash. I get that neither of them were trained, but Time Travel 101, you never leave behind any evidence. Really, that should be Landing Party 101, but we know Starfleet didn't teach that form "A Piece of the Action." I do like the nod to "City on the Edge of Forever" where Kirk asks if La'an could build a tricorder. Granted it was a device to emulate the connection the tricoder has with the Enterprise computer, but still, that took Spock about a week to build, if I remember correctly, and he's, well Spock.
I've always felt a reflection of my enjoyment of something is how much I let nitpicks bother me. If I love something, I barely notice or care about the nitpicks. The less I enjoy it, the more I focus on those things. The fact that I had a lot of nits to pick led me to give this one a 6.
I do want to say I don't think this is a sign that the writers have run out of ideas or the rest of the season will follow suit. Strange New Worlds, especially, since it's not serialized (while still have ongoing plot points). A weak episode doesn't mean that the rest of the season will suffer because of this. In fact, I expect next week to be much better just because I know this series is capable of much more than we saw this week.
Honestly, the fact this is all of Picard Season 2 in one episode is a argument for it. It was fast, kept all of its plates spinning, was never confusing, and didn't wear out its welcome. It also shows poor La'an's reason to be connected to Khan. She had ONE FRIEND in Una and it turns out she was lying to her about one of the two biggest issues she has.
Then she meets someone who doesn't hold Khan against her (kirk, in the massive case of irony there) and it gets erased.
Hell, the more we have La'an, the more its obvious that Kirk and the Enterprise crew acted so nice to Khan because they assumed he wasn't a monster due to her.
I watch it as a timeline that has been slightly altered after being reset on multiple occasions on the various shows and there are multiple other timelines in which things turned out differently and change...
I think those temporal agents were from the 29th century. The little popup on that devices looks the same as the timeline tracker on the bridge of the Relativity.
There are people dicking with the timeline up and down the spacetime continuum across almost every series. Temporal wars centered on The Federation's existence have been confirmed by - what - three series now? I think there's enough in-universe stuff to give the more rigid canon / continuity nerds permission to dismiss any notion of a pure, untainted prime timeline and give themselves over to timey-wimey.
