Flint - Trek's most absurd character?

[Psion]

Hold on, Christopher ... I thought the previous Rayna prototypes were just earlier casings for her mind, allowing her the illusion of physically growing as her mind developed. Hence the reason we see labels like "Rayna - Age 14" etc.

I've toyed with the idea that Soong was Flint and that Data was just another variation on a theme for him. I know, I know, McCoy said the man was dying now that he'd left Earth, but Flint himself said earlier that throughout his lifetime he'd pretended to grow old, die, and move on many times. I'm pretty sure a man of Flint's accomplishments would be able to deceive an old country doctor, too. And towards the end of "Brothers", his work with Data coming to an end, he's pulling the same stunt. Poor old Soong so old and feeble, he's sure to pass away any day now. Or so Data will tell everyone.

 

[Christopher]

Psion said:
Hold on, Christopher ... I thought the previous Rayna prototypes were just earlier casings for her mind, allowing her the illusion of physically growing as her mind developed. Hence the reason we see labels like "Rayna - Age 14" etc.

It didn't say "Rayna - Age 14," it said "Rayna 14," i.e. the 14th attempt at Rayna.

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=94&pos=216

Also, the Rayna prototypes we see are both adult women:

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=94&pos=214
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=94&pos=222

More to the point, they're both Louise Sorel in a wig or a bald cap, and therefore look exactly the same age as the final Rayna. They're not faux-adolescent forms.

The James Blish adaptation, which presumably reflects what was written in the script, describes them as failed prototypes, not younger versions.

As for Rayna's mind, it's clear from Flint's words that he's only recently achieved something with her that he's been striving to achieve for a long time -- namely, awakening her capacity for emotion. The Rayna we meet is a relatively new mind that's still being "primed," not one that's been switched between bodies on an annual basis.

I've toyed with the idea that Soong was Flint and that Data was just another variation on a theme for him. I know, I know, McCoy said the man was dying now that he'd left Earth, but Flint himself said earlier that throughout his lifetime he'd pretended to grow old, die, and move on many times. I'm pretty sure a man of Flint's accomplishments would be able to deceive an old country doctor, too.

Something similar (though not too similar) was done in the TNG novel Immortal Coil by Jeffrey Lang.

 

[Forbin]

btw, I saw Louise Sorel at a Creation Com last year, and she looks just as beautiful as 40 years ago! maybe she IS an android!

 

[pookha]

how i see flint is that perhaps he was one or two of the people spock thought he was..
but, over the ages he had become a master forger and this is one way he earned income without being too much in the spotlight.

he would have had the added advantage over ordinary forgers in that he could have collected some originals plus have the knowledge of how they came about if he had known the people he was copying.

what i found absurd was kirk's behavior considering the crisis back on the ship.

 

[AC84]

Sir Rhosis said:
Rarely watch this episode, honestly, so I do forget, but wasn't one of the figures listed as being Flint actually still alive when the show aired?

As much as I want to say Jackson Pollock (James Daly does look like him), I know that can't be right seeing as how that painter died ten years eariler and the actual painter (who had a similar name) died, I think, recently several years ago. I'm a college student here in southern California and feel really ashamed about not remembering his name. A girl in my art class two years ago did a paper on him.

EDIT: It was Reginald Pollack.