How do you feel about "Relics"?

[Laughing Dragon]

Agree on characters acting out of character to fit the plot on both ends. Would not be the first time. I don't know what happened to Riker. He used to be more chill in the first two seasons. Even Q commented on it comically. Still like him, though. People say some they were nice enough to him, but it seemed like it was like they had to be and that they really didn't want to deal with him. And it had nothing to do with what happened in engineering. And to me, the episode itself reeked of ageism. Definite bias from the writers. Ther was some bad blood between TOS and TNG fans so maybe that had something to do with it but it ended up making most of the characters look bad. Agree about Data and Troi too. Older people are updated about new things all the time at work.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Older people are updated about new things all the time at work.

But not 80 years worth of change in a 2 hour tour, and Geordi didn't have time for a 2 hour tour.

6 months of classes and I'm sure Scott would be upto speed with the change in technology.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

It was Scotty himself who thought he was too old to learn everything all over again like a raw cadet when Picard offered to let him study some schematics. But then he decided he wasn't ready to retire yet after all and no one was trying to convince him otherwise. I don't think there's any ageism there.

 

[FredH]

I feel about “Relics” pretty much the way the producers want me to: There are logic holes, but I’m too busy going AAAA IT’S SCOTTY!!! to care.

 

[USS Firefly]

Was Scotty really that old? In the Trek shows people can live up to about 130 years

 

[JesterFace]

It has been a long time since I visited this episode but didn't they treat Scotty as something ancient who didn't know what he was doing?
Usually Scotty knew exactly what to do so this episode treated him poorly.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Usually Scotty was with technology of his era or earlier.

And when he had technology of his era on the Jenolan he was great.

Dennis Richie was clearly a great programmer and system engineer. Literally invented UNIX, and C. I'm sure (if he were still alive) he'd get upto speed with things like rust, node, systemd, containers, object stores, namespaces etc very quickly.

I wouldn't expect to put him in front of a modern computer running a kubernetes stack pulling data from s3 and be able to operate it in an hour.

Would you put Chuck Yeagar in the cockpit of an F15 with no training? Or drop Neil Armstrong into a Dragon capsule?

 

[Tallguy]

Would you put Chuck Yeagar in the cockpit of an F15 with no training? Or drop Neil Armstrong into a Dragon capsule?

No no. I saw Wonder Woman 2: You can totally take a WW I pilot and throw him in a modern jet.

 

[Mojochi]

It was Scotty himself who thought he was too old to learn everything all over again like a raw cadet when Picard offered to let him study some schematics. .

Then you don't teach him like a raw cadet. He doesn't need to learn everything all over again. He needs someone to update him like a seasoned pro, on the job where he wants to be.

I'd agree Geordi was not in the best position to be that guy for him right then, but Data? Data's got time to bartend for the guy. If anyone on that ship was able to know that guy's profile & get him up to speed without much trouble, it's Data.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Come on guys, the show’s less than 45 minutes long. Where are you going to cram all this extra dialog and exposition? In my opinion, they made great use of the minutes they had.

 

[Mojochi]

I just feel bad for Scotty lol

 

[tomalak301]

I'd agree Geordi was not in the best position to be that guy for him right then, but Data? Data's got time to bartend for the guy. If anyone on that ship was able to know that guy's profile & get him up to speed without much trouble, it's Data.

While not my favorite two part episode, I've always loved that scene between Data and Spock on the ship. Maybe they didn't want a scene between Data and Scotty because it might have been repetitive? Relics really was about two Engineers of two eras finding a way to work together despite being a generation apart.

 

[Qonundrum]

I just never could make that leap. The Jenolan crew triggered it. The Enterprise crew triggered it. Scotty & Geordi triggered it, managing to stay at a safe distance. It seems to pretty reliably open when triggered on 3 different occasions

The depleting shields is a good point for why they'd be hurried, but even still. It's pretty clear they meant the door to open whenever it got triggered, & it really didn't take long to open

With the bonus that they could beam through the shields in the process.

 

[Mojochi]

While not my favorite two part episode, I've always loved that scene between Data and Spock on the ship. Maybe they didn't want a scene between Data and Scotty because it might have been repetitive? Relics really was about two Engineers of two eras finding a way to work together despite being a generation apart.

I guess that's fair. I like the Data/Spock scene as well, even though it's really just a moment in an episode otherwise centered around a relationship between Spock & Picard.

That meeting of old & new counterparts is pretty much how they handled the 2 captains in Generations too, but they never felt the need to do it with the doctors. Data was tapped for that moment with Bones.

I always feel like Scotty got a little short-changed here, because he wasn't one of the top TOS leads. I'd have preferred something that fleshed out into a 2-parter. He really merits that imho.

It's a decent episode, with good performances, but just like a lot of folks feel Unification & Generations failed to live up to expectations for the old timers, I feel like Relics suffers a similar fate.

It always felt like they weren't committed to bridging the 2 generations enough imho, & even though we got a few stories out of it, sometimes I wish they hadn't bothered & just stuck to their own thing.

 

[kkt]

Ye, but Scotty is stubborn and he is Scottish, that's his character.

Both Scotty and Geordi took a little while to come around. Realistic, I think.

 

[kkt]

Seconded, co-sponsoring every word. I could have written this, although not as elegantly.

The previous idea, is the only way that this isn't a tragic ending for Scotty, growing old and dying alone in the future. What about his sister and her family? Its not like he didn't have anyone. The rest of the bridge crew were still relatively young. They went the rest of their lives, thinking their dear friend Scotty was dead. Thats tragic for not just Scotty himself, but for Uhura, Chekov, etc, as well. Even Spock would have felt the loss immensely. This was not a very well thought out storyline IMO.

I couldn't agree more about TNG - I was recently reminded how much fun the first two seasons actually are, and all of the things I dislike about the later series are firmly in place by late Season 3. After the Best of Both Worlds (tv movie) it is nothing but downhill.

I would have liked Scotty to work in the Fleet Museum. The ideal way to preserve a museum ship, if possible, is keeping it in operation regularly. Use it, at least a quick trip around the solar system, not just look at it. And the engineer who "knows more than the people who designed it" would be perfect for the job. Keep the Constitition class and other ships of the same era able to operate.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Obviously Scotty couldn’t have appeared in Picard season 3, but a line like “Scotty’s loading torpedos” instead of “Drones loading torpedos” could have been a nice homage, two old engineers working together to save the galaxy.

Scott was 103 in Vox, Geordi 66 (slightly young than Scott’s 72 in Relics). Scott was way younger than McCoy’s 137 in Farpoint, maybe too old to go galavantng around the galaxy, but not too old to work in the museum.

 

[Phoenix219]

Calling the Spock episode out for being a stunt (and not enjoyable) is spot-on.



From the tech presented in the TOS movies (or post, in Scotty's case) and TNG, there appears to be less of a technological gap between the two eras than real world 1949 and 2024. Yeah, Geordi behaved as if Scotty was completely out of place, but again, what we the audience viewed in the TOS movies and TNG, there's not some night and day technological difference.

They make such a big deal about this but the new shows expect us to believe that you can go a thousand years into the future and be brought up to speed almost immediately, and still be the absolute best of the best.

 

[Phoenix219]

Agree on characters acting out of character to fit the plot on both ends. Would not be the first time. I don't know what happened to Riker. He used to be more chill in the first two seasons. Even Q commented on it comically. Still like him, though. People say some they were nice enough to him, but it seemed like it was like they had to be and that they really didn't want to deal with him. And it had nothing to do with what happened in engineering. And to me, the episode itself reeked of ageism. Definite bias from the writers. Ther was some bad blood between TOS and TNG fans so maybe that had something to do with it but it ended up making most of the characters look bad. Agree about Data and Troi too. Older people are updated about new things all the time at work.

Yet another reason why I prefer the early seasons; Riker was likeable! He had charisma, a bit of Kirk in him, that is sorely missed later on.

 

[Paul Weaver]

They make such a big deal about this but the new shows expect us to believe that you can go a thousand years into the future and be brought up to speed almost immediately, and still be the absolute best of the best.

Discovery didn't get upto speed in two hours, there was plenty of time for the crew to have conversion courses between "Die Trying" and "Scavengers"