The Curious Case of Berlinghoff Rasmussen
- Thread starter Ragitsu
- Start date
I have asked that question in the past. Why would he visit the flagship of the Enterprise, where security is supposed to be top notch? (For Federation standards at least, as we know any security can be broken in minutes in the Star Trek universe). Why not go to some backwater location, where there isn't any security and steal some near-valueless trinkets there? If his fear is that he'll not locate tech that is as advanced there, he could simply move 50 years further into the future, when all that top secret technology has become old hat, declassified and ubiquitous.
One of the reactions that came back in that thread was that possibly he wasn't able to really program the pod, and only could follow a preprogrammed itinerary, and hence couldn't select his destinations.
On a tangent, what would have happened in the mirror universe (assuming the Terrans still had ships in the 24th century)? Certainly their instinct would have been to punish Rasmussen, but on the other hand, they might also have recognized the potential of giving the Empire an incredible headstart in technology over the aliens, if they were to allow Rasmussen to get away with 24th century tech back to the 22nd century.
One of the reactions that came back in that thread was that possibly he wasn't able to really program the pod, and only could follow a preprogrammed itinerary, and hence couldn't select his destinations.
On a tangent, what would have happened in the mirror universe (assuming the Terrans still had ships in the 24th century)? Certainly their instinct would have been to punish Rasmussen, but on the other hand, they might also have recognized the potential of giving the Empire an incredible headstart in technology over the aliens, if they were to allow Rasmussen to get away with 24th century tech back to the 22nd century.
Kirk didn't know what Kodos the Executioner looked like, and he lived under him as a teen.
Khan.
3 times.
Checkoff forgot what star system they left him in.
John Harrison.
####.
You know what would have been more awesome than the dumbest fake out ever?
Have Benedict play Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd century.
This is how I've always viewed it. The time pod already had a program to leave for that spot where the 1701-D finds it. The real time traveler was actually going to study them there, which could explain how the imposter might've known some things about them, if there'd been some open/available files on them around the pod
Picard claims to have examined some sort of credentials he'd brought aboard, which means they were more than likely the real time traveler's from the future, & he was the one named Berlinghoff Rasmussen, not the imposter. So, there'd be no records of that name to be found, and the kind of scanning they'd need to do on the imposter's face to determine he was someone else would have to have been insanely extensive. Who knows if this guy was anyone important enough to even have centuries old photographic records of anyhow. I'd think not.
It does seem kind of strange that the imposter managed to alter the pod's door security to accept his own handprint instead of the real owner's, but I suppose if he'd killed the unfortunate owner, he might also have held him hostage for a time and made him change it under threat of harm. He likely also made him program it to return to 22nd century New Jersey as well, as I doubt the real traveler was otherwise going back there again.
Point being, this lucky sap was just ignorantly joy riding around in that pod, planned to use it to grab some future tech, & get back home to try to capitalize on it. He probably even lured the real owner into thinking he might let him live & they'd make the trip together, but then reneged, once he realized how hard it would be to manage the poor fellow, once they'd arrived in the future. Once the guy was dead, the plan was set in stone, on a preplanned timetable.
If you apply for a driver's license or a general identification card, you'll get your photo taken during the process; that photo is then disseminated to multiple databases. Whenever your license or ID is renewed, a new photo is taken; over the course of an individual's life, there will be several such means of visual identification assigned to their name and one or more of them will persist on governmental digital storage somewhere. The development of facial recognition software is progressing quickly today...imagine how much more improved it will be in two hundred or so years with alien technology in the mix.
Possibly not. He did take his clothes, & he most likely did hold him hostage though. So the result is the same. He would've had to abandon him back in 22nd century New Jersey though, which if he was planning on returning to that time, it would be a bit dangerous to leave that guy around back there. So, he 'd have been better off if he'd eliminated him altogether.
Yeah, but in a couple hundred years no one is going to be bothering to keep that record around if I'm nobody, & if I were to just show up, having been some total insignificant from 200 years earlier. It's at least believable I could get by a few days without anyone tracking my identity down, with nothing to go on but my mug... especially if I had some stolen documents to boot
You're thinking a little too early twenty-first century, with our (frequently patchwork) systems and comparatively limited storage tech which is oftentimes centered around a profit motive
. As I've pointed out before, they (i.e., The Federation) have records on Earth citizens who predate even the third World War.Even if he was confronted with a photo of him of the 22nd century, he'd have shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Interesting, a guy from 400 years before my time had a strongly resembling face. Have you ever seen a picture of Arik Soong and compared it to that of his 24th century descendant dr. Noonian Soong? Or compared the pictures of Tom Paris and Nick Locarno?'
They'd still need a DNA scan to be sure.
And if, in the future, changing your face becomes trivially easy, that would probably be no longer be a useful means of identification either.
Also, I wonder what he could have done with those trinkets. I doubt the greatest inventor of the early 19th century would have gotten very far with reverse-engineering a 2022 microchip or a tablet, and Rasmussen wasn't exactly the best of inventors.
They'd still need a DNA scan to be sure.
And if, in the future, changing your face becomes trivially easy, that would probably be no longer be a useful means of identification either.
Also, I wonder what he could have done with those trinkets. I doubt the greatest inventor of the early 19th century would have gotten very far with reverse-engineering a 2022 microchip or a tablet, and Rasmussen wasn't exactly the best of inventors.
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Why? Not everything has to be connected. Neil Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's ancestors didn't help the Wright brothers build their plane.
It's far from a trial; the point is to arouse sufficient caution (guy shows up in a time machine and a record of someone from the past who appears identical pops up?). By the way, I find the thought of him conducting even that much prep work (i.e., memorizing those four names, two of which belong to fairly unknown individuals) in the event he was discovered to be mildly humorous; his affected persona was fairly sloppy.
I always got that impression with the dialogue, "Oh, this is a time pod, and it is from the twenty sixth century. At least that's what the poor fellow said. You see, he decided to travel back to the twenty second century, that's my time, and he had the misfortune of meeting me. His clothes fit quite well, don't you think? Took me weeks to figure out how to work this thing." He took the time traveler's clothes and then had to figure out how to operate the machine, presumably without the assistance of the traveler (cause he was dead ["poor fellow"].
Cheeriest murderer ever?
Maybe.
I didn't think Rasmussen stated that he explicitly killed the pod's former owner. It could be that he simply left the time traveler stranded after their encounter, then...possibly in a space and/or time period from which escape might be nearly impossible.
I mean if he went through that whole effort, he might as well have killed him.
