The Adolescent Captain

[Bad Thoughts]

I was watching Rascals last night for trivial reasons (let's just say I never realized there was a link between TNG and Sparks), and something about the explanation about what had happened to Picard and the others seemed contrived or outdated. Resetting their bodies back to the years before adolescence would necessarily affect the structures of the brains in a number of ways, and if they were to grow normally again, many of the neural structures would be reconfigured such that it would be impossible to say that they would become the same people.

I don't want to put too much on the writers' awareness of neurology--certainly a lot has been learned since the episode aired. Indeed, they would have been fools to put a hormonal Picard in charge of people's lives, let alone massive equipment. However, it seems unreasonably to treat the brain as storage space and how we think and what we know as software. Picard, Guinan, O'Brien and Ro would probably need to go through many of the experiences (albeit with modifications) of any adolescent of the era before they could function in their adult lives again.


On edit: my apologies for the misspelling in title.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

On edit: my apologies for the misspelling in title.

Fixed. It took me a second to find the error.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Fixed. It took me a second to find the error.

Thank you for saving me from eternal embarrassment.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Thank you for saving me from eternal embarrassment.

Oh, that possibility exists for all of us.

 

[matthunter]

Oh, that possibility exists for all of us.

Only if you believe in an afterlife.

 

[TommyR01D]

Some commentators have also noted that Picard's artificial heart must have shrunk as well.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The difference is that Picard has experience to put his adolescent drives in context. We know from Kamala he has the self control and discipline of a saint.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

The difference is that Picard has experience to put his adolescent drives in context. We know from Kamala he has the self control and discipline of a saint.

That, again, is just treating what is in the mind as software. Ignoring what we now know about myelinogenesis and the focusing of thought (his brain would be physically different, so whatever they say in the episode would be garbage), there has been volumes of literature showing how otherwise smart kids can engage in risky and self-harming activities. Not to mention, middle age Picard is simply not the same as adolescent Picard.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

That, again, is just treating what is in the mind as software. Ignoring what we now know about myelinogenesis and the focusing of thought (his brain would be physically different, so whatever they say in the episode would be garbage), there has been volumes of literature showing how otherwise smart kids can engage in risky and self-harming activities. Not to mention, middle age Picard is simply not the same as adolescent Picard.

I’m not dismissing the science, I’m saying the brain is complex. If we can agree Picard would keep all his experiential memories, then I don’t think we can absolutely determine what the result would be. We have never studied a 12 year old brain with the experiences of an adult. All we can do is speculate. I agree Picard would need to be scrutinized but I don’t think the result of that scrutiny is as clear cut. Being different does not automatically imply being incapable. So long as his brain is still complex enough for the same kind of abstract fluid reasoning.

Not to mention that if medical science has advanced that much, chemical changes can be managed pharmaceutically.

Just as you can’t treat the brain as software, you can’t isolate any one factor on its own as the determining factor without considering all the other factors.

 

[Nakita Akita]

I thought that only their outward appearance changed.
So Picard wasn't really a hormonal teenager but just a 50 year old trapped in a child's body.
I know nothing of neurology.
But since they can cure cancer by waving what looks like a car cigarette lighter over the tumor I guess I'm missing why they wouldn't just go back to being themselves as it didn't seem their personalities or memories or skills where gone when they were made younger looking.
It seems with the technology the would be able to change them back.

 

[Makarov]

It's just one of those things where their bodies completely change but they are back to normal by the end of the episode. In reality there would be no way to go back. See: Genesis, Voyager episode Threshold, many many more

 

[Stroudarian]

Oh, that possibility exists for all of us.

Indeed!

 

[Stroudarian]

The difference is that Picard has experience to put his adolescent drives in context. We know from Kamala he has the self control and discipline of a saint.

While I do not disagree on any particular point, I feel that the same can be said for Guinan.