Do You Prefer the 'All Good Things' Future?

[Praetor]

Assuming it wasn't all a Q-generated illusion of some kind, ignoring the temporal anomaly and events surrounding it, and presuming that what we saw in the future of 'All Good Things' actually was the 'future' for the TNG crew until Q showed it to Picard, what did you think of this possible future?

Differences I can think of:

• Picard was a retired Ambassador living in his vineyard and diagnosed with Irumodic Syndrome
• Riker was a bitter Admiral and hated Worf
• Crusher had married and divorced Picard and was now a Captain
• Worf was a Klingon Governor and hated Riker
• Data was alive with a gray streak and a lot of cats, and held the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge University
• LaForge retired from Starfleet, married Leah Brahms and was a novelist with his ocular implants instead of VISOR
• Troi was dead
• The Klingons conquered the Romulans () and the Federation and Klingons friendly alliance was deteriorating
• The Enterprise-D was not destroyed (and was almost decommissioned ) and was upgraded with cannon, cloak, and third nacelle to become Riker's flagship.

I don't think I missed anything. It seems quite a bit different from what we've witnessed 'actually' happen.

I present you these questions:

1. Would you prefer this future (or elements of it, and if so, which ones) to what has actually happened in the following series, films and/or novels?
2. How compatible is what we know to have now 'really' happened with this possible future we've seen?

 

[Lateralus]

I prefer what has actually happened. AGT painted such a bleak future for the TNG cast.

The future that has actually panned out certainly isn't rosy either, but it seems as though it has been kinder to the characters themselves.

 

[Lateralus]

And as shitty as the Enterprise D's path to destruction turned out to be, I'm glad it got destroyed in battle rather than sit around rotting for years only to be made the victim of a cosmetic surgery disaster.

 

[Myasishchev]

I like elements of both.

Good things about the AGT future:
-the commbadge design
-Starfleet ships equipped with cloaking devices
-Admiral William "Douchebag" Riker
-acknowledgement of a post-TNG relationship between Picard and Crusher, better late than never, although it didn't work out, which I thought was a nice touch that in the absence of time constraints could have been explored further
-live Data
-Picard's brain disease

Bad things about the AGT future:
-three-nacelled E-D (I don't hate it, but they'd have been better off designing a new ship, which they eventually did, and it was awesome --shame we'll never see it again)
-Geordi marrying someone named Leah, and probably not nee Brahams; dude has got issues
-no Romulan Empire; oh, but this is actually happening in the novels right now, which is just super; and its corollary...
-a Klingon Empire returned to prominence; have we really not seen enough of the Klingons yet?

 

[Praetor]

Some of the 'Star Trek: Online' game future also seems to be 'lining up' with the 'All Good Things' future. They're releasing it in increments but so far Worf seems to have gone bac to the Empire and they don't like the Federation much at the moment. And as you say the Romulans are having... issues.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Yes, because things changed. Time marched on for the characters, their lives and their careers.

 

[Praetor]

They avoided the Star Trek IV clause in 'AGT.'

 

[USS Excelsior]

Good things about the AGT future:

-the commbadge design

Odds are that will be the actual combadge design given that we've seen it in at least 4 different alternate futures. AGT, Endgame, that Voyager episode with Geordi in it, and that DS9 episode with the time jumping Sisko.

 

[Red Ranger]

Although I prefer the way the future has actually panned out for the TNG crew, with the exception of Data's death in NEM, I voted "elements of both."

I remember when I watched AGT, when Picard kept going on about the Neutral Zone, and Geordi had to remind him, "There is no Neutral Zone," because the Klingons defeated the Romulans, I got a bit of a chill. I can imagine the refugee crisis after such a defeat would've been devastating, not to mention the humiliation of the once-proud Romulan people.

Would some of the Romulans have accepted reunification with Vulcan under those circumstances? Or would there be a protracted guerrilla conflict under their Klingon overseers?

I also kind of liked the idea of Admiral Riker using his old ship as his personal command vessel.

Red Ranger

 

[WillsBabe]

My immediate reaction was to vote that that I dislike the AGT timeline and prefer the way things panned out. However, thinking about it, I think that there are pros and cons to each timeline. Some things worked well for some people in one and not in the other, and vice versa. Eg: Data is dead and Geordi never got the girl in the timeline we have now. Deanna is dead and Riker never got the girl in the timeline from AGT.

On the whole, taking all things into consideration, though, I do feel I prefer things as they happend. And who's to say that some things couldn't still happen. Disregarding the books (because I don't know what's happening in them), there are still a lot of things that could head to an AGT future even from where we are now.

 

[JustKate]

I voted for "as it's 'actually' happened," but like WillsBabe and Red Ranger, with some reservations. The AGT timeline does some terrible things to characters I care about, particularly Picard. Yes, I know people really do get diseases that affect their ability to think, but that it happens to Picard...for him, the only worse fate would be assimulation by the Borg. I really, really, really don't want to think of him ending that way. So I choose to believe that he won't/didn't - that whatever factors caused him to get the disease in AGT are altered by the current timeline. Yay! And I don't like what happened to Worf and Riker, either, nor the Romulans. So I choose to believe those things won't/didn't happen. Yay again!

So yes, I prefer the current timeline. Data is no longer with us, but heck, Geordi could still get a girl - why not? And Riker finally has to quit chasing every other woman he meets, which is a fine, fine thing, too.

 

[backstept]

I may be in the minority but I like the design of the Pasteur

 

[WillsBabe]

The AGT timeline does some terrible things to characters I care about, particularly Picard. Yes, I know people really do get diseases that affect their ability to think, but that it happens to Picard...for him, the only worse fate would be assimulation by the Borg. I really, really, really don't want to think of him ending that way.

You know, I can totally understand where you are coming from with this. Picard is not a favourite character of mine, so when I think of him as potentially having the disease, or really having it in AGT, it makes me sad, but no more. However, if that were a threat hanging over a favourite character of mine I would really, really hate it.

So I choose to believe that he won't/didn't - that whatever factors caused him to get the disease in AGT are altered by the current timeline.

Quite right!

heck, Geordi could still get a girl - why not?

Absolutely!

And Riker finally has to quit chasing every other woman he meets, which is a fine, fine thing, too.

Agreed.

 

[Praetor]

I voted for elements of both. I wish Data and the D were still around, but I don't want Troi to die and I don't want Picard to get Irumodic Syndrome and I don't want the D to get triple-nacelled.

How do we know Picard still won't get Irumodic Syndrome though? Didn't Beverly scan him for it in the present and say there was a possibility that he could develop it?

As for Romulus... no comment.

 

[JustKate]

How do we know Picard still won't get Irumodic Syndrome though? Didn't Beverly scan him for it in the present and say there was a possibility that he could develop it?

We don't know. I have chosen to focus on the fact that if there's a possibility he could develop it, therefore there must be a possibility that he won't, and I'm betting on "won't." I'm squinting, OK?

 

[Ro_Laren]

The only good thing about the All Good Things Future is that Data is still alive.

 

[Praetor]

Perhaps Borg technology can provide a cure for Irumodic Syndrome.

 

[Anika Hanson]

I liked the fact that Picard and Beverly had been romantically invloved and that Geordi got with Leah and the the future Data. The rest of it im not too keen on.

 

[Thor Damar]

I voted 'neither' and here's why.

1) The conquest of the RSE: this does not sit well with me at all. One of the most interesting and iconic races reduced to the status of je'pwhi, (sic)this is an utter travesty and I cannot believe that it would actually happen.
Which brings me to;

2) That the KE would have been the dominant military superpower in both Quadrants. How many times have the Klingons wasted ships and resources in their blood feuds and civil wars and constant wars with every power that looks at them funny and yet they still end up either conquering the RSE or threatening the UFP. It seems that neither the Dominion or the Borg can stop the all mighty Klingons.

3) the status of the Cardassian Union. Obviouslyin the AGT future we do not know the exact strength of the Union or how the Cardassian people have fared but it may be that the CU may have fallen on hard times. In the canonical future we see that Cardassia does slowly recover from the dominion war but there seems to be indications that the Cardassians get up to their old tricks and will get beaten down by the Klingons again.

These are three main reasons why neither future seems quite right to me.

 

[JustKate]

I liked the fact that Picard and Beverly had been romantically invloved [snip] .

See, I just hate that. They got married and divorced! Romance followed by disillusionment and estrangement! Yuck! No, it is not always better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. So that's yet another aspect of AGT that I'm glad to think might be changed by the "actual" timeline.

2) That the KE would have been the dominant military superpower in both Quadrants. How many times have the Klingons wasted ships and resources in their blood feuds and civil wars and constant wars with every power that looks at them funny and yet they still end up either conquering the RSE or threatening the UFP. It seems that neither the Dominion or the Borg can stop the all mighty Klingons.

You make a really good point here, Thor - I mean, you often make good points but I particularly like this one. It's hard for me to imagine the Klingon Empire being this disciplined and deliberate. I would have said this is something they are just not very good at.