Things That Will Never Be Answered

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I admit we don't know precisely how many nukes were fired, but Data's comment in ST:FC about the radioactive isotopes still left in the atmosphere (10 years after the war ended) plus Riker's reference to most of the major cities destroyed and very few governments left, do seem to suggest quite a lot. It's World War III, after all. Not likely to have been a brushfire.

Also regarding the war: We know one of the factions involved (the Eastern Coalition) but what were the others? Were there other groupings of nations that banded together, like how the ECON was centered around China?

 

[fireproof78]

The Trickster (Q's real name, there is no Continuum)

Really?

Yup, they describe the plane of existance where the energy beings live. It's an emense "place" filled with the ascended from hundreds if not thousands of different species from all over the universe.

It's presented as a much more diverse community, where they keep their personalities. Q is a tiny, misbehaved brat of a being that most of the community ignores.

Except when he torments the lower beings, they are slow to notice and act but don't take kindly to it.

Hey, random question here. Did you read one of the recent IDW comics "The Q Gambit"? It actually explores this a little bit as well (in a similar vein to Q and Trelane betting) that the Prophets, the Pah-Wraiths and the Q are all on the same plane.

The comic was ok (a bit Mirror Universe/alternate time for the nu-crew but still fun). The concept of the Prophets and the Q was interesting to me.

^ I admit we don't know precisely how many nukes were fired, but Data's comment in ST:FC about the radioactive isotopes still left in the atmosphere (10 years after the war ended) plus Riker's reference to most of the major cities destroyed and very few governments left, do seem to suggest quite a lot. It's World War III, after all. Not likely to have been a brushfire.

Also regarding the war: We know one of the factions involved (the Eastern Coalition) but what were the others? Were there other groupings of nations that banded together, like how the ECON was centered around China?

I thought it was just an East Side versus West Side thing

Well, I think the WWIII part is something left deliberately a mystery (and this has happened in several fictional worlds). Spock comments that few records survived the time, so the nature of the reconstruction would be speculation, at best.

 

[The Wormhole]

It's debateable just how accurate a picture Riker was describing post-WWIII Earth anyway. After all, Zefram Cochrane's dream was to sell the Phoenix for millions and retire to a tropical island. If there's no governments left, there's likely no space agencies, so who is there to pay millions for a fancy rocket anyway?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Riker said there were few governments left. He didn't say "none."

We know the USA was one of these governments (the war was in 2053, yet an early TNG episode features a US flag with 52 stars which was in effect until 2079), so I'm sure that's where Cochrane got his money.

 

[JoeZhang]

I think in the Buried Age they imply it eventually ascends further to the great menagerie of energy beings where The Trickster (Q's real name, there is no Continuum) resides.

Em.. it doesn't say that and talks about his people and ties into what the version of the Q Continuum we see in the books.

 

[Kemaiku]

I think in the Buried Age they imply it eventually ascends further to the great menagerie of energy beings where The Trickster (Q's real name, there is no Continuum) resides.

Em.. it doesn't say that and talks about his people and ties into what the version of the Q Continuum we see in the books.

The book seemed to be implying more that the "continuum" was a small collection of misbehaved creatures that refused to grow up and join the greater world they lived in.

Picards love interest when she arrived certainly already looked down on The Trickster with some pity and amusement, at all his hollow boasting.

 

[2takesfrakes]

In The Classic Series, Captain Kirk beats the tar out of da Vinci so he can have his way with Leonardo's android and its simulated female features. Also revealed in this episode, da Vinci is immortal, thanks to the elements that the Earth provides. Once he left it, Leonardo began to forfeit his eternal lifestyle. What will never be answered is was he the next step in Human evolution? A fluke of nature? What's his story, exactly? We were just kind of left dangling, with all that.