Some episodes in alternate realities?

[DataLorca]

I've been trying to look this question up and finally decided to sign up and post because couldn't find anything. Anyway, I've been watching Next Generation and came across this episode where Worf is caught traveling through different parallel universes that are very much alike. It basically shows there are other universes besides the evil mirror universe.

Then recently I was watching an episode where Barclay is struggling and retreating to the holodeck all the time to cope. And the whole crew seemed to be acting like total bullies toward him. Even Picard slips up and makes fun of the guy, which seemed completely out of character for someone who is never seen to make such a mistake. Then I saw another episode where Riker finds a twin of himself on another planet who got cloned by the transporter 8 years before. Not only is Riker a total jerk, but the crew seems to do little to welcome him or tell original Riker to chill out. They even state Riker got his promotion for bravery on that planet yet somehow deny the clone that same promotion. These are two examples I can rememeber, but there are others.

My question is, do they ever mention or allude to the idea that some episodes take place in these slightly alternate realities?

 

[Mysterion]

Nope. Just inconsistent writing and characterization.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

These are cases of "Your dangerously savage childness is showing".

It betrays the idea that DS9 gets at. "The more things change, the more they stay the same". The context changed, the race stayed the same. People react to Barclay the may most modern humans would to a person who skips his shift at work to have sexual fantasies about their friends. Riker reacted to his twin in the immature way most people would if they had to share their uniqueness with a version of themselves that still had qualities they evolved away from. That's what those episodes were about, realizing the reactions were wrong and doing better.

 

[DataLorca]

These are cases of "Your dangerously savage childness is showing".

It betrays the idea that DS9 gets at. "The more things change, the more they stay the same". The context changed, the race stayed the same. People react to Barclay the may most modern humans would to a person who skips his shift at work to have sexual fantasies about their friends. Riker reacted to his twin in the immature way most people would if they had to share their uniqueness with a version of themselves that still had qualities they evolved away from. That's what those episodes were about, realizing the reactions were wrong and doing better.

In the Barclay episode, although yes, he is engaging in these fantasies, their attitude toward him is extremely bad before finding this out. Wesley making up the nickname (Brocolli) was one thing, but to have the crew adopting it like a bunch of 6th graders seemed out of character. Riker comes across as almost violent toward him before learning about and sexual fantasies. And in the Riker cloning episode, I do understand his reaction, however, the rest of the crew seem passive and okay with the way he's acting. Perhaps, as Mysterion stated, it was just the writing and characterization...

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

I've been trying to look this question up and finally decided to sign up and post because couldn't find anything. Anyway, I've been watching Next Generation and came across this episode where Worf is caught traveling through different parallel universes that are very much alike. It basically shows there are other universes besides the evil mirror universe.

Then recently I was watching an episode where Barclay is struggling and retreating to the holodeck all the time to cope. And the whole crew seemed to be acting like total bullies toward him. Even Picard slips up and makes fun of the guy, which seemed completely out of character for someone who is never seen to make such a mistake. Then I saw another episode where Riker finds a twin of himself on another planet who got cloned by the transporter 8 years before. Not only is Riker a total jerk, but the crew seems to do little to welcome him or tell original Riker to chill out. They even state Riker got his promotion for bravery on that planet yet somehow deny the clone that same promotion. These are two examples I can rememeber, but there are others.

My question is, do they ever mention or allude to the idea that some episodes take place in these slightly alternate realities?

Everybody ends up being a jerk from time to time. Otherwise they're a "Mary Sue" character (the phrase everyone is throwing around these days), even if it's Picard or Riker or the rest of the gang. But I think there were ok explanations for each of those examples within the episodes.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Our standards of continuity and their standards of continuity are very different. While we'll balk at changes in characterization or technology, or retcons in backstory, they'll pretend nothing's changed at all.

Next Gen's "Unnatural Selection" has the Enterprise visit a Federation base where they're genetically engineering the perfect human. Deep Space Nine turns around and claims genetic engineering has been banned in the Federation since the Eugenics Wars in the 1990's. We could argue the episodes take place in slightly different universes, but not to Trek's owners.

 

[Nakita Akita]

Our standards of continuity and their standards of continuity are very different. While we'll balk at changes in characterization or technology, or retcons in backstory, they'll pretend nothing's changed at all.

Next Gen's "Unnatural Selection" has the Enterprise visit a Federation base where they're genetically engineering the perfect human. Deep Space Nine turns around and claims genetic engineering has been banned in the Federation since the Eugenics Wars in the 1990's. We could argue the episodes take place in slightly different universes, but not to Trek's owners.

In my mind the Darwin station was more of a privately owned and operated organization. Not completly under the rules and restrictions of the Federation,
Just like a Fedetartion planet can have its own system of government.
Like when Vash wants to sell her artifacts to the Daystrom instutute, it's like an arm or segment of the Fedetarion but not fully under their control.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

Just different writers, not different universes.
If any of us wrote an episode, we'd all have slightly different takes on each character and the team dynamics. But everyone can be a meanie from time to time, that's just life.

 

[Lance]

Star Trek's "next generation" characters are allegedly supposed to have evolved above being meanies though

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

I'm sure we can find someone around here that believes every episode/series is it's own alternate universe.

 

[MAGolding]

I'm sure we can find someone around here that believes every episode/series is it's own alternate universe.

Someone like me, perhaps?

Actually I don't believe that each and every single Star Trek episode or movie is in its own alternate universe, I believe that most Star Trek episodes and movies are in their own alternate universes, but there are examples of Star Trek episodes and movies that happen in the same alternate universes, or at least very similar ones, as one or more previous productions.

I consider the odds that all of the fifty or more episodes in a long lasting television series happening one after another in the same alternate universe to be very low - astronomically low. Thus I prefer to believe that most episodes in a long series happen in their own separate alternate universes branching out from the situation in the pilot film and/or at beginning of the series. I think that the only time an episode should be considered to happen in the same alternate universe after another episode is when the later episode is clearly a sequel to the previous one.

If the vast a majority of episodes in a series happen in their own alternate universes and were selected as the most unusual and interesting events the protagonists experience out of millions and billions of possible alternate universes that avoids the vast statistical improbability of a long series of extremely improbable events happening one after the other.

Therefore, I think that the question should be which episodes are among the minority which are sequels to previous episodes.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

There we go! That is certainly a logical way to look at things, from a certain point of view. This is how I view Bob's Burgers and similar animated shows with a sliding timeline.