'All Our Yesterdays' theory
- Thread starter LMFAOschwarz
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Exactly. The bit with Zarabeth is perfectly clear. She's being bitterly wry when she comments that her only crime was "choosing" her kinsmen unwisely. She didn't choose them at all or commit any crime herself. She just had the bad luck to belong to a family that was purged by a sadistic dictator. We can speculate as to exactly why he didn't just have her killed, but it seems it would have been bad public relations for some reason. Maybe she was popular with the masses? Or had influential friends at court?
In any event, a entire family being punished for the crimes of a few members is hardly unprecedented, particularly if there was some sort of attempted coup or assassination involved. Zor Khan may have wanted to avoid the assassin's relatives seeking revenge--or becoming a rallying point for other rebels or dissidents.
(Remember how Corazon Aquino became a symbol of resistance in the Philippines after Marcos allegedly had her husband killed?)
In any event, a entire family being punished for the crimes of a few members is hardly unprecedented, particularly if there was some sort of attempted coup or assassination involved. Zor Khan may have wanted to avoid the assassin's relatives seeking revenge--or becoming a rallying point for other rebels or dissidents.
(Remember how Corazon Aquino became a symbol of resistance in the Philippines after Marcos allegedly had her husband killed?)
I don't know what made me write that, but it was probably when Darth Vader of Vulcan visited George McFly.
Considering what a hottie Zarabeth is, maybe her original punishment was to become a palace slave. Maybe the guilty family members were also palace slaves, placed right where they could see her humiliation for something they had done. Then Zarabeth refused to "cooperate" and told His Heinous to go pound sand.
No witnesses to Zor Kahn's embarrassment could be allowed to live. Then His Nastiness's ego kicked in and gave him the fiendish idea to use the atavachron. If He was not good enough for her, then He'd banish her to a cold and desolate world to live out her life in utter loneliness.
(Incidentally, this whole scenario means the Sarpeidons probably had the atavachron long before they knew their sun would go nova.)
I must've been on a bathroom break during Zarabeth's conversation about Zor Kahn. Now I see what you guys are saying.
And yeah, Metryq, the atavachron could've been around for a long time. Heck, who is to say Zarabeth didn't come from a time hundreds of years prior to Kirk and company showing up? But, no...I think she mentioned Mr. Atoz..then again, this is the same universe where Bele was chasing Lokai for 50,000 years, so who knows!
And yeah, Metryq, the atavachron could've been around for a long time. Heck, who is to say Zarabeth didn't come from a time hundreds of years prior to Kirk and company showing up? But, no...I think she mentioned Mr. Atoz..then again, this is the same universe where Bele was chasing Lokai for 50,000 years, so who knows!
I'd have to watch the episode again, but I don't think Zarabeth ever once mentioned Atoz. (Spock uses the name in front of Zarabeth, though.) Besides, Atoz told Kirk they did not have much on recent history, "There was no demand for it."
Maybe the recent history, aside from being a poor destination for escaping the nova, was also the time of Zor Khan. What's "recent"? Maybe a generation or two? The lack of "recent" history may also be a technical limitation of the atavachron. Maybe it can bend time only so much, as "recent" history is below its horizon, so to speak, like the aim on a gun turret.
By the way, how did the Sarpeidons know their sun was going to go nova? They obviously have a time machine, but no spaceflight. So maybe someone stepped through into the future and got fried. We can only hope it was Zor Kahn.
My impression is that time-travel had been around long before it was used to escape the supernova. In the past, it was used by the likes of Zhor Khan to banish political rivals and enemies, but it was only recently that it had been put to the purpose of escaping the disaster. I always assumed the era of Zhor Khan was long before the era of Atoz. Certainly, Zarabeth never mentions Atoz . . . .
And, yeah, the way she talks, it does sound like she might have had some sort of personal connection to Zhor Khan, which may explain why he went to the trouble of arranging such a uniquely cruel exile for her. I can't remember the exact words, but she says something like "He had an inventive mind, that one?"
(This is the part where I hint that Sarpeidon plays an important part in my upcoming Trek novel, No Time Like the Past . . . .)
And, yeah, the way she talks, it does sound like she might have had some sort of personal connection to Zhor Khan, which may explain why he went to the trouble of arranging such a uniquely cruel exile for her. I can't remember the exact words, but she says something like "He had an inventive mind, that one?"
(This is the part where I hint that Sarpeidon plays an important part in my upcoming Trek novel, No Time Like the Past . . . .)
Her exact line is:
What I want to know is, if Zarabeth was exiled to live out the rest of her life alone in a frozen wasteland, why does she dress like a sexy jungle girl?
That's the "Theiss titillation theory" at work.
Agreed. One less tyrant on any world is a good thing.
Nice! It's so good to see these stories "live on". I guess they really are part of our modern mythology!
Aside from Melakon's quite right guess, it could also be related to Spock's comment that the cave was "agreeably warm". That could be Vulcan lingo for "Man, it's hot as hell in here!"
Aside from Melakon's quite right guess, it could also be related to Spock's comment that the cave was "agreeably warm". That could be Vulcan lingo for "Man, it's hot as hell in here!"
And that's coming from a Vulcan, mind you, who is accustomed to hot climates. I'm guessing it got pretty toasty in that cave.
For what it's worth, I decided that, for the purposes of my book, Atoz's doubles were solid holograms as seen in the later Trek series. Sure, that probably wasn't the original intent back in 1968, but who's to say that Sarpeidon wasn't a generation ahead of the Federation when it came to holographic technology?
No problem there, really. For some reason I have no issue with that in novel form, but it would bug me if it were done on a series episode. Funny, what is acceptable to us and what is not!
I'd gotten the idea in my head about Atoz and Losira replicas being very similar technology because of their similar attributes. Neither seem to be very formidable. Atoz told Kirk "You have done away with my replicas.". That certainly was an easy fight for Kirk, he hardly did anything! And Losira got pushed around pretty easily, too. I actually thought it was kind of refreshing to see artificial beings who weren't physical titans.
Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean they were holograms. They could have been really crappy androids.
Or merely that—library androids and not soldiers. They might have their own "three laws" and go down quietly while sounding a silent alarm. The real Atoz did show up very quickly to deal with the situation.
. . .it could also be related to Spock's comment that the cave was "agreeably warm". That could be Vulcan lingo for "Man, it's hot as hell in here!"
Spock wasn't as adept with the pick-up lines as his friend Jim Kirk. When he said the cave was "agreeably warm", he may have meant to say "let's get naked, baby!"
Exactly. If I had a replica to, say, wash dishes, take phone messages, etc., there's no reason I could expect it to deal with intruders and such. Losira's had that 'I-must-touch-you' thing going on, but beyond that apparently no 'fighting skills' per se.
It even took the real Atoz to try and push Kirk through the portal in that shopping cart.
Presumably they'd know the same way humans have already got a couple stars lined up as nova- or supernova-candidates (and a handful of worrisome potential gamma ray bursters): astronomy and physical calculation.
The real mystery of the episode is why the Enterprise is zipping over there three hours ahead of the deadline. Were they figuring to point at the remaining population and laugh?
(Yeah, I know, they're looking there to investigate why the population's suddenly vanished, although that implies the Federation knew the planet was going to die, had a population, and yet wasn't willing or able earlier to send a ship to investigate and maybe save at least a sample of the population or its culture. Granted Star Fleet was smaller in those days, but they couldn't arrange for your classical two-man doomed outpost to read the Sarpeidon Internet?)
Oh yeah, I think I remember reading about those: aren't they the ones that if we should happen to lie along the axis of one of those, we're toast?
Oh yeah, I think I remember reading about those: aren't they the ones that if we should happen to lie along the axis of one of those, we're toast?
Those are the scary ones, yeah.
For those who didn't know to worry about this: gamma ray bursters when they explode are able to channel a disturbing amount of energy in to a very narrow cone, so that they'd be able to fry an ecosystem at a substantial fraction of the galaxy's width. Literally: some models of the star WR 104 suggest it could kill by radiation poisoning whichever side of the Earth is facing it when it sends off a ten-second burst. WR 104 is eight thousand light-years away. (More recent models suggest it's pointing in a direction far enough away as to not be much of a threat to Earth. Good for us if that's so.)
(This is why I'm willing to give Star Trek 2009 a pass on its ``supernova that threatens the galaxy'' business. If the supernova is a gamma ray burster type, then, yeah, threatening the inhabited galaxy is an economical way to describe the threat. It would have saved the filmmakers a lot of tech fanboy whining if they said gamma ray burster, but ``supernova'' communicates with the audience faster and saves time for the lens to flare more.)
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