Did Q wear a masonic robe during Picards trial?
- Thread starter Yevetha
- Start date
antiquityscion
Commander
I would be surprised if the design influence (from a production standpoint) was a mere coincidence, but there is nothing canonically to indicate it.
Q was dressed as a judge from the late 21st century, post WW3 era.
Just a futuristic version of what a High Court judge would look like.
If he'd been given a horsehair wig, that would've been a little too much like a specific attack on the British legal system.
I know some like all the specific detail about WWIII, like who the flags belong to in that courtroom - a facist looking black eagle on a red banner. The Optimum according to the novel Federation incidentally - a military dictatorship that spread across western nations. Whereas the other main power block, the ECON got mentioned onscreen in First Contact.
I'm uncertain about all that myself. In a way, some like to think of Star Trek's universe as our future. Too much information about its past, quickly becomes outdated for us.
Then again, Star Trek's universe is more parallel with some of it already in our past, like Khan being from the 1990's or any realistic chance of making first contact with Vulcans in the next 50 years frankly.
So when they produce TV shows and films, they go with what they think millions of people watching can swallow. More often than not, keeping the tiny details vague and open to reinterpretation. Obviously throwing dates and names in there and it gets specific. 1996 Eugenics War ends. 2063. First Contact in Montana, with presumably WWIII still going on elsewhere in the world. Given the courtroom in Encounter at Farpoint is 2079.
It's an interesting thing... Star Trek's message. With it's utopian view of the far future, but a really nasty dystopian one pretty much within the lifetime of the audience watching. For their kids and grandkids. Both TOS and TNG pretty much espoused us getting to the stars, but through lots and lots of hardship. Somewhat easier for a 24th Century crew to sell that "hang in there baby" attitude to Zefram Cochrane, than say anybody else coming back closer to our present day.
If he'd been given a horsehair wig, that would've been a little too much like a specific attack on the British legal system.
I know some like all the specific detail about WWIII, like who the flags belong to in that courtroom - a facist looking black eagle on a red banner. The Optimum according to the novel Federation incidentally - a military dictatorship that spread across western nations. Whereas the other main power block, the ECON got mentioned onscreen in First Contact.
I'm uncertain about all that myself. In a way, some like to think of Star Trek's universe as our future. Too much information about its past, quickly becomes outdated for us.
Then again, Star Trek's universe is more parallel with some of it already in our past, like Khan being from the 1990's or any realistic chance of making first contact with Vulcans in the next 50 years frankly.
So when they produce TV shows and films, they go with what they think millions of people watching can swallow. More often than not, keeping the tiny details vague and open to reinterpretation. Obviously throwing dates and names in there and it gets specific. 1996 Eugenics War ends. 2063. First Contact in Montana, with presumably WWIII still going on elsewhere in the world. Given the courtroom in Encounter at Farpoint is 2079.
It's an interesting thing... Star Trek's message. With it's utopian view of the far future, but a really nasty dystopian one pretty much within the lifetime of the audience watching. For their kids and grandkids. Both TOS and TNG pretty much espoused us getting to the stars, but through lots and lots of hardship. Somewhat easier for a 24th Century crew to sell that "hang in there baby" attitude to Zefram Cochrane, than say anybody else coming back closer to our present day.
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Hmm I the years given in TNG of 2079 and 2063 seem to clash a tad...
Not necessarily. First Contact doesn't mean that civilisation is instantaneously returned to the whole of Earth immediately after.
It's canon that it took about fifty years to turn Earth into something resembling the utopia we're familiar with. I'd bet that a good proportion of that would involve defeating all the warlords who'd sprung up after WW3.
(In fact, I reckon there's potential for a good TV show in there somewhere -- after First Contact, bringing civilisation back to Earth. They could even set it with a real-time gap after the movie, i.e. it's now been 15 years since Star Trek: First Contact came out so if the show began this year its first season would be set in the year 2078.)
To me, the interesting prequel idea would be around Zefram Cochrane. Recast the role again, but remain within the FC-ENT-TOS canon. Do a show about him, and some early pioneers going off to colonise Alpha Centauri. Hard drinking, EM rifle toting frontier people, corrupt dilithium miners, a humanity who separated themselves from Earth and didn't accept Vulcan help. They get there and there's evidence of a long dead civilisation who ruled when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, remnants of technology they left behind too. Cochrane would have to be revised slightly, but they did that before and got away with a different portrayal than Glenn Corbett's.
A show set on Earth, just a few decades off, would have problems. Whereas getting off to our nearest neighbour, would allow just occasional visits enough to keep WWIII vague and less outdated eventually.
A show set on Earth, just a few decades off, would have problems. Whereas getting off to our nearest neighbour, would allow just occasional visits enough to keep WWIII vague and less outdated eventually.
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