GEN: Picard didn’t know the ENT-D was destroyed

[Lyon_Wonder]

The other day I watched Generations and wondered why Picard didn’t just simply travel back while Soran was still onboard the Enterprise-D before he hitched a ride with the Duras sisters and kidnaped Geordi?
When Picard was trapped in the Nexus with Kirk and went back to Veridian III just before Soran launched his trilithium-warhead missile, I don’t think he knew the 1701-D was destroyed with the saucer crash landing onto the planet. I think the saucer crashed in another geographic area since the region where Soran launched his missile was mountainous, while the Ent-D crashed into a forested area. The ENT-D could have crashed hundreds - if not thousands - of miles away from Picard.

 

[Falcor5]

The other day I watched Generations and wondered why Picard didn’t just simply travel back while Soran was still onboard the Enterprise-D before he hitched a ride with the Duras sisters and kidnaped Geordi?
When Picard was trapped in the Nexus with Kirk and went back to Veridian III just before Soran launched his trilithium-warhead missile, I don’t think he knew the 1701-D was destroyed with the saucer crash landing onto the planet. I think the saucer crashed in another geographic area since the region where Soran launched his missile was mountainous, while the Ent-D crashed into a forested area. Heck, for all we know the ENT-D could have crashed hundreds - if not thousands - of miles away from Picard.

Yea I dont think he knew (or of least there was no indication in the movie that I can remember that he did). If he did know I am sure he would have gone back further like you said to save it.

 

[Mr. B]

It really doesn't matter that he didn't know about the Enterprise's fate. He still should have went back to when Soran was in Ten Forward or something and locked him up... of course he wouldn't have needed Kirk's help for that.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Why even travel back to the Enterprise....he just lost his brother and nephew in a tragic house fire, why did he not travel back to then and save them, then deal with Soran.


Oh my!

 

[Brady]

LOL... yea the Nexus was stupid.

 

[JB2005]

Picard made some stupid decisions in the movies...

Generations - Just go back and tell Data not to plug in the emotion chip, then nothing goes wrong

First Contact - Good one Picard, watch while a few more ships get blown up by the Borg then give the order to fire

Insurrection - I know there's a few but can't choose!

Nemesis - "Mr Data, may I borrow that prototype transport module, I have an idea..."

Movie Picard = Abit thick

 

[Warp Coil]

Any time you have a time travel element in the plot, it tends to require leaps of logic and suspension of disbelief. It's true that Picard should have exited the Nexus at an early part of the story in order to capture and stop Soran, but since the story demanded the joining of Kirk and Picard, they had to sacrifice some logic.

Look at what the Borg did in FC. They had a sphere that was capable of time travel, so they went back to 2063 in an attempt to stop first contact with the Vulcans and assimilate Earth. Well, that failed, so why didn't the Borg just try again? Hell, they probably could have gone back in time to BoBW and destroyed the Enterprise-D, allowing the cube with Locutus to approach Earth and carry out their plan.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

I've always thought Picard's line of reasoning was that the less farther back in time he went the less damage he'd do for the timeline.

 

[Rarewolf]

Look at what the Borg did in FC. They had a sphere that was capable of time travel, so they went back to 2063 in an attempt to stop first contact with the Vulcans and assimilate Earth. Well, that failed, so why didn't the Borg just try again? Hell, they probably could have gone back in time to BoBW and destroyed the Enterprise-D, allowing the cube with Locutus to approach Earth and carry out their plan.

Or just travelled back in time out of the solar system, and gone the rest of the way by traditional methods

wouldn't have been much of a movie though

 

[USS KG5]

It really doesn't matter that he didn't know about the Enterprise's fate. He still should have went back to when Soran was in Ten Forward or something and locked him up... of course he wouldn't have needed Kirk's help for that.

This is so incredibly easy to rationalise. Picard knew that time travel to fix problems was a big no-no, if it wasnt and didnt cause ma\ssive problems starships would be slingshotting around the nearest star to fix problems all the time.

On this occasion however he had a job to do, namely saving the Veridian system, and he had to leave, so he chose a point where he could do that. Heck he could second-guess himself right back to Encounter At Farpoint otherwise.

 

[JB2005]

Yeah but intellectually the smart thing to do would be go back a few days and stop Soran on the Enterprise, where he had security officers at his beck and call...

Going back to Veridian, even with Kirk, was getting into a fight he wasn't guarenteed to win...(maybe he didn't and we saw the twelfth attempt)

 

[Caretaker]

I remember a few years ago when some here at TrekBBS wrote their own summary of a new ending for this film that dealt with some of this - er, problem logic. Still wish I had a copy of that ending.

 

[Anticitizen]

Maybe we can rationalize it by saying that he could only exit the Nexus as some point along its trajectory. That is, he couldn't just make himself appear just ANYWHERE, but only at a place the Nexus was travelling anyway (at any point along its path). So he exited at that mountaintop where it took him in the first place. The next place he could've knowingly existed safely would have been, when, at the Enterprise B's coronation, when it took Kirk?

 

[Ben]

Easy to rationalize this. The Nexus probably just does the first thing you think of. So when Picard found out he could leave, his first thought was to go back a few minutes before he entered the Nexus. If given another instant to think about it, he probably would've thought of a more strategic time to leave, but by then it was too late.

 

[DWF]

I don't think I'll ever understand the logic of Picard going back and locking Soren up after meeting at Ten Forward. Lock him up for what? He hadn't done anything yet.

 

[Warp Rider]

I don't think I'll ever understand the logic of Picard going back and locking Soren up after meeting at Ten Forward. Lcok him up for what? He hadn't done anything yet.

Yeah, I'd have to agree with that, since no one but Soran and Guinan would have known about the Nexus, and everyone else would have had a "WTF" flag raised about Picard's order to arrest and detain Soran. :P

Though we could go the Deus Ex Machina route and have his crew just believe and take his word for it that Soran was a threat, and no one questions his order. But then we have no Kirk and Picard team up, which IMO, should have been way better, and possibly Kirk should have maybe faded into existance instead of dying the way he did; in that heap of metal. Somehow suggesting he's still out there... somewhere. In the Nexus maybe.

 

[Broccoli]

Maybe we can rationalize it by saying that he could only exit the Nexus as some point along its trajectory. That is, he couldn't just make himself appear just ANYWHERE, but only at a place the Nexus was travelling anyway (at any point along its path). So he exited at that mountaintop where it took him in the first place. The next place he could've knowingly existed safely would have been, when, at the Enterprise B's coronation, when it took Kirk?

Nope. Guinan specifically says that he can go anywhere at anytime if he chooses to leave the Nexus. Then again, Guinan might not know what was up.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

^^^Plus is was not actually Guinan but a echo, who for some strange reason seemed a fully self aware being in their own right, and who seemed to know what was happening outside as well as inside the Nexus.

Plus i do find it odd that Starfleet would encounter the Nexus way back in Kirks time yet have no real valuable info on it when its turns up again in Picards time.....maybe they got board really quick with sparkly clouds in space and went back to watching the George and Gracie jumping about in the bay.

 

[Broccoli]

^ If memory serves, the Nexus comes around every 37 years. In other words, it appeared in Kirk's time, appeared again, then appeared in Generations.

Presumably, it had appeared several times earlier and Earth should, in theory, know more since it flies near the planet (unless they cut out a lot of the traveling time to the Nexus in Gen).

 

[Saul]

The other day I watched Generations and wondered why Picard didn’t just simply travel back while Soran was still onboard the Enterprise-D before he hitched a ride with the Duras sisters and kidnaped Geordi?
When Picard was trapped in the Nexus with Kirk and went back to Veridian III just before Soran launched his trilithium-warhead missile, I don’t think he knew the 1701-D was destroyed with the saucer crash landing onto the planet. I think the saucer crashed in another geographic area since the region where Soran launched his missile was mountainous, while the Ent-D crashed into a forested area. The ENT-D could have crashed hundreds - if not thousands - of miles away from Picard.

Looked like it had almost crashed on another planet.
In the Novel Picard didn't know the D had crashed until Geordi and Worf told him.