Picard's Irumodic Syndrome

[F. King Daniel]

In the alternate 2395 (or thereabouts) of "All Good Things", retired Ambassador Picard is suffering from Irumodic Syndrome. The same is true of the Admiral Picard in the alternate 2399 of The War of the Prophets.

In 2387's Countdown, Picard has stepped down from command of the Enterprise and become Federation ambassador to Vulcan. I've wondered if he stepped down because he feared the onset of this illness, and taken a low-risk job where he can't do much damage as the Irumodic syndrome slowly robs him of his faculties eventually forcing him to retire.

It's currently 2382 in the Treklit-verse. Is Picard's time counting down, or should his Irumodic Syndrome be cured somehow in a future book so he can remain Enterprise captain indefinitely?

 

[bok2384]

I'd like to see Picard face his mortality through the Irumodic syndrome, and yes, perhaps even die through the effects of the disease. It could make for some heartbreaking stuff as (with the exception of Janeway) everyone seems to be pretty untouchable. I mean how many times has James T. Kirk died and been brought back, and the rest of the TOS cast are just as immortal?

 

[Christopher]

Since the circumstances of the timeline have changed, we don't actually know if Picard will develop Irumodic Syndrome this time around. For that matter, we don't even know for certain that the AGT future was real rather than a Q simulation. All we know factually -- if we even assume that any of AGT beyond the finale actually happened -- is that Picard has a slight neurological defect that could potentially lead to various neurological conditions including Irumodic Syndrome. Whether that defect actually did lead to that syndrome could be influenced by a variety of environmental factors. In the AGT future, it could've been triggered by some kind of neurological trauma he suffered, an infection he caught, a type of radiation he was exposed to -- some event that might not happen at all in the current iteration of the timeline.

Picard's Irumodic Syndrome has been addressed in Trek Lit here and there. In the alternate 2400 of DS9: Millennium: The War of the Prophets, Picard was suffering from advanced Irumodic Syndrome. "Passages of Deceit" in Strange New Worlds 08 involved Picard suffering an apparent attack of Irumodic Syndrome in 2371, shortly after AGT, but of course there was something else going on that I don't want to spoil (since it's a pretty cool story). There was also "The Name of the Cat" in SNW IV, which was a McCoy story that purported to show the origins of Irumodic Syndrome, and which was predicated on the notion that Irumodic Syndrome caused its patients to jump through time -- a rather, err, revisionist interpretation of AGT.

 

[FordSVT]

I just read that story (SNW IV) last night, Christopher, and I didn't really enjoy it much at all. A very weak interpretation of McCoy, and a rather silly re-interpretation of the events of AGT.