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I never noticed that before...Movie Edition

I remember speculation on Starlog's letters page about Saavik being Spock's daughter, spurred mostly by the novelization stating that Spock had been part of the team that first investigated the abandoned Romulan outpost Hellguard, and had been the one that found her there. This never bore fruit, fortunately.
 
GEN - in the Worf promotion scene, there's a big beam or something tethered to keep the waterlogged "Enterprise" ship in place while Worf does his plank-hopping game. Every other scene makes it look like they're in the middle of nowhere. The plank thing just makes it look like they're tethered to a dock.
 
GEN - another fun tidbit that went over my head until the latest viewing: Soran tells Picard "for 80 years" - he was rescued by Captains Kirk and Stuart Bondek* 78 years earlier (per the screen caption in big white lettering), so for 2 years he was working on his plan, and probably had his first attempt -- the Borg incident probably took place several years earlier, with he and the other El Aurians making do and all while he was plotting. This probably ties into Guinan's "uncertainty" about not being able to get into the Nexus at all, yet seems certain later in the scene how Picard could. She may have remembered the earlier attempt.

Another fun thought, whee, is that this movie really has some nifty philosophical ideas and observations. On top of the Data/Geordi subplot, which is underrated, despite not being quite tightly intertwined into the main plot as it could be - but is adequately enough. The movie isn't more than the sum of its parts, but enough parts remind me that this is our TNG crew and not action hero caricatures... even if they're wearing DS9 costumes not tailored to them.

The David vs Goliath reversal where Lursa and B'Tor are the Davids is actually really innovative - the baddies overtake Goliath. Okay, it's only because nobody remembers to modulate the shield frequency. Or maybe everyone was taken so off guard over this set of happenstances... I dunno. I just shoved chips and cream cheese into my throat and enjoyed the scene as Riker orders a full spread of torpedoes but the ship only plops out just one...

...also and here I go again, didn't the crash scene last longer in the theater, with extended scenes with the ship going down through the clouds and more time for people to run around in corridors? With a camera angle pointing down at the saucer? I saw this in the theater 3 times (with the third reminding me of the transparent aluminum problem as none of it would or should be simple glass...)


* Yeah, I know he's really Captain Harriman**, but to me he will be the one and only Stuart Bondek
* It's really not a partial anagram of "hairy man"​
 
GEN - another fun tidbit that went over my head until the latest viewing: Soran tells Picard "for 80 years" - he was rescued by Captains Kirk and Stuart Bondek* 78 years earlier (per the screen caption in big white lettering), so for 2 years he was working on his plan, and probably had his first attempt -- the Borg incident probably took place several years earlier, with he and the other El Aurians making do and all while he was plotting.
As neat an idea as this is, I really believe Soran was just rounding the number of years, lol.

This probably ties into Guinan's "uncertainty" about not being able to get into the Nexus at all,
I'm not sure what you're referring to here?

yet seems certain later in the scene how Picard could. She may have remembered the earlier attempt.
If this is the scene in Guinan's quarters with all the candles, Guinan's remark "If you go... all you'll want is to stay in the Nexus," is her sly reference that from her perspective she's already met Picard in the Nexus - that's 23rd century Guinan who Picard runs into in his Nexus Christmas; also recall that she knows who he is because she'd already met him in that episode where the crew visits the 19th century. (The way I understand it is that everything in the Nexus happens more or less simultaneously. Everyone who's ever been or ever will be in the Nexus is currently there, always and forever). She knows for sure Picard can enter the Nexus because she saw him there with her own eyes.

Though, now that I think of it, it makes me wonder why Guinan feels the need to warn Picard about the intoxicating euphoria of the Nexus if she's already seen that he ends up successfully resisting it. Makes me wonder if in her memory that scene played out differently and is making an attempt to correct it. Or maybe she could tell back then that Picard had some foreknowledge about the Nexus and by the time he talks to her about it in the 24th century she realizes it must have been she herself who'd provided that to him, and so she takes the opportunity to fulfill that "destiny."
 
^I'm pretty sure the only point of Guinan's line was to try to warn Picard that if he made it into the Nexus...as he ultimately did...that he would find it exceptionally difficult to make himself want to leave, much as part of Guinan wasn't happy to be torn away from it by the E-B, and Soran was so distraught that he became obsessed with returning to it.

If the line was intended to be anything more than that, I'd like to see a source substantiating such a claim.
 
^I'm pretty sure the only point of Guinan's line was to try to warn Picard that if he made it into the Nexus...as he ultimately did...that he would find it exceptionally difficult to make himself want to leave, much as part of Guinan wasn't happy to be torn away from it by the E-B, and Soran was so distraught that he became obsessed with returning to it.

Oh, no disagreement there, that is exactly what she's doing. It just occurred to me pretty much right there when writing the post, why should Guinan feel the need to warn Picard about the Nexus in the first place since from her perspective their meeting in the Nexus already happened in the past (though for Picard it's in the near future) and presumably she would remember that Picard managed to convince himself to leave. And then I rationalized that she might suspect that Picard was able to resist the Nexus precisely because someone had warned him about it beforehand, so she goes ahead and warns him about it herself, since who else would be able to?
 
There was a similar conversation in "Time's Arrow" where Guinan unambiguously knew what was in Picard's future, so she's definitely not going to think she should remove herself from a situation when she's already seen it'll work out thanks to time-travel. Her "sixth sense" about time-travel might also contribute to her knowing that she has to do something to ensure events she already experienced come to pass.
 
As neat an idea as this is, I really believe Soran was just rounding the number of years, lol.

Aye...

I'm not sure what you're referring to here?

I recall Guinan and Picard talking. In the same scene, Guinan was saying how it's impossible to get into the nexus, but if one manages to get in then it's impossible to leave. I wasn't paying too much attention as I was counting the number of lit candles, because that's the universal sign of "corny display to suggest the character is mystic" trope.

If this is the scene in Guinan's quarters with all the candles, Guinan's remark "If you go... all you'll want is to stay in the Nexus," is her sly reference that from her perspective she's already met Picard in the Nexus - that's 23rd century Guinan who Picard runs into in his Nexus Christmas; also recall that she knows who he is because she'd already met him in that episode where the crew visits the 19th century. (The way I understand it is that everything in the Nexus happens more or less simultaneously. Everyone who's ever been or ever will be in the Nexus is currently there, always and forever). She knows for sure Picard can enter the Nexus because she saw him there with her own eyes.

^^that makes sense now, much thanks, and I can't believe I missed spotting the detail, or I was hyperfocused on other aspects (not just the footcandle count)... I do recall she did say something about being ripped away, which ties into her (and Soran's) rescue - so somehow she managed to be in it. Perhaps just briefly. El Aurians have a unique ability with time and the cosmos, as well as doing better than Troi with counseling, but how can distinctly corporeal life forms like Kirk and Picard float in the ribbon forevermore? This is approaching the fun of 'The Next Phase' in some ways...

And it's a good point about the nexus being simultaneously. I'm mired in two marathons right now, but will revisit this movie. It's still funny that of all the time periods Picard would want to leave to, it's not before Soran did his deed but after. But then we'd lose out on seeing three old people try to beat each other up, as well as still having the 1701-D... which actually looked really cool on the big screen, but we still needed the pastiche hodgepodge of D and A to form the E... which looks cool in its own right...

Though, now that I think of it, it makes me wonder why Guinan feels the need to warn Picard about the intoxicating euphoria of the Nexus if she's already seen that he ends up successfully resisting it. Makes me wonder if in her memory that scene played out differently and is making an attempt to correct it. Or maybe she could tell back then that Picard had some foreknowledge about the Nexus and by the time he talks to her about it in the 24th century she realizes it must have been she herself who'd provided that to him, and so she takes the opportunity to fulfill that "destiny."

^^ Great point as well. That's worth simmering on. I'm hard-pressed to rip myself away from the Babylon 5 universe, but I might this weekend... (Also, Sheridan rules, but I digress again...)
 
In TUC, Kirk has a model of the TOS NCC-1701 Enterprise in his quarters. I've seen TUC millions of times but for some reason only noticed this when watching the 4K version of it.

Kirk+behind+the+scenes+Star+Trek+VI.jpg

And whales on the wall! (EDIT: Ah, I see someone else already said that.)

Okay, I don't suppose anyone who wasn't in the know could have noticed this, but how's this for trivia? Valeris was originally supposed to be Spock and Saavik's daughter, also named Saavik, after her mother.

On the UseNet and Genii news services of the day, the rumour mill claimed that when Kirstie Alley turned down the chance to return (and Robin Curtis had not even been considered by Meyer at all), there was a thought that the new Vulcan protege would be Saavik's daughter, who had aged-up due to the Genesis Effect radiation in young Spock's DNA. They just as quickly abandoned that idea, cast Kim Cattrall to play Saavik, but then went with Cattrall's suggestion of a new Vulcan named "Eris", because she did not want to play a character who had been portrayed by two previous actresses. (Cattrall had been Meyer's initial preference during the initial ST II casting of Alley.) Meyer adding the "Val" prefix. The published version of the script (Premiere) actually uses "Val'eris" throughout. The shooting script has "Saavik".

I agree. At most you could say that Roddenberry naturally gravitated to that more restrained style. Saying they were intentionally evoking "The Cage" just sounds like a fan theory to me.

Certainly TMP's field jackets were meant to remind us of "The Cage".

I remember speculation on Starlog's letters page about Saavik being Spock's daughter, spurred mostly by the novelization stating that Spock had been part of the team that first investigated the abandoned Romulan outpost Hellguard, and had been the one that found her there. This never bore fruit, fortunately.

Supposedly, it was also considered that Saavik had been the secret product of Spock's liaison with the Female Romulan Commander in "The Enterprise Incident".
 
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