Why Is Braxton Homeless?

[2takesfrakes]

Because "Future's End" demands that unlikely and absurd events lead up to it, I can forgive Braxton's having kind of "lost" his Time Ship. But the Man could've gotten by, comfortably, without changing Earth's History in the Late 20th Century. Was it because he didn't have a Social Security Number to use on job applications? If so, then, he could've become Self-Employed, some way. I just don't see how, or why, he could've become homeless, when he had such an advantage with his knowledge of the future.

Honestly, it always kind of felt like there was a Deleted Scene in this episode, because of Braxton's fate. He does say that he was carted off to the Funny Farm and medicated, but the context is incomplete. The show wants Homeless Braxton to come off as a right nana, but a harmless one. So, he gets to answer questions and make statements that don't have to address anything the writers don't feel like making up. But of all of the questions that go unanswered, this one presents the greatest challenge: "Why is Braxton Homeless"?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Also, why wasn't Braxton able to regain control of the Aeon after it crashed? Some whacked-out hippie manages to steal it, but an experienced Starfleet officer can't?

 

[Paradise City]

He might have hit his head on landing and suffered seizures. We don't know what Braxton's society is like either; maybe the shift between then and the 20th century crushed him psychologically and a sense of desolation that he got his ship pinched off him, his various efforts to get it back having failed and he can't tell anybody about his plight drove him to frustration. Presumably it's a post scarcity society so maybe the ability to be a functional component in a capitalist society eludes him.

 

[locutus101]

Yeah, I think he got hit on the head. Became amnesic for a few months and that gave the hippie genius more than enough time to break into his ship and steal it from him.
In the meantime when Braxton started remembering his past he made the mistake of talking about it to his psychotherapist who thought he was suffering from schizophrenia, hence the treatments with pharmaceuticals. By the time Braxton was released from the looney bin, a few years had passed and the hippie was rich and powerful.

Braxton then went through a real depression and let himself become a homeless person up until he met with people from the Enterprise.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Braxton managed to execute an emergency beam-out, so why would he hit his head? Did he beam into thin air and fall to the ground?

 

[locutus101]

Braxton managed to execute an emergency beam-out, so why would he hit his head? Did he beam into thin air and fall to the ground?

Maybe Starling is the one who hit him and left him for dead. Braxton was then found by a good Samaritan who called an ambulance and that's how he ended up in a hospital, where people were trying to find out who he was. Remember that this was before computers became omnipresent.

 

[TommyR01D]

Maybe he materialised on a road and then got run over.

 

[locutus101]

Maybe he materialised on a road and then got run over.

Talk about bad luck!

 

[TonyaLang_SB118]

Good point. He couldn't have hit his head.
Therefore, the most logical explanation to me is that the hippies (when they found out he was coming from the future) drugged him or simply locked him inside a house or something, then stole his ship. It's very unrealistic, but that's the most logical version to me.
Then Braxton made the mistake of telling everybody the truth, which - as someone already mentioned - brought him to a therapy and then to a psychatric hospital or something like that. In the meantime our hippie opened Chronoworx and got rich. When Braxton got out, he already had the psychatric record and didn't get a job. That's how he became homeless. Poor guy.

But I agree, there where scenes missing in that cliffhanger. It should've been a three- and not a two-parter where they explained everything.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

That's a good point - perhaps both Braxton and Starling got to the Aeon at the same time but a fight broke out and Braxton was injured. I can buy this.

 

[locutus101]

That's a good point - perhaps both Braxton and Starling got to the Aeon at the same time but a fight broke out and Braxton was injured. I can buy this.

Yes, and Starling threw his unconscious body in a ditch (far enough from the ship) thinking he was dead.

 

[Paradise City]

He could've easily hit his head. A car could've knocked him over as stated above, a bit of fragile scaffolding gave way, boinked him on the head just as he materialised.

Heck maybe he clattered his head whilst on the ship on the bumpy ride down but at the second before the transporter beamed him out? .

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[NaughtyTrekkie]

well, he was dragged in 20th century from the 20th century, without preparation or training.
It's a miracle he survived.

There is an old twilight zone episode, where an old rich man do a deal with the devil and he is sent in his past.
He try to do some business, but he fails:
at first he buys a field he knows rich of petroleum, but then discovers he can't extract it (it is too in the depth), then go to a mechanic to try to sell a self-started, but he don't know how to build it....

 

[fireproof78]

I always thought Starling was somehow responsible.

 

[locutus101]

I always thought Starling was somehow responsible.

I am sure he is. He's totally without scruples.

 

[F. King Daniel]

People in Trek's 23rd and 24th century struggle with the 20th century. I imagine someone from the 29th would be hopeless. It's like they bred street smarts out of the human race.

 

[publiusr]

Lot's of vets can run classified equipment. Call on air strikes.

They have the entire budget of the DoD behind them.

On their own--they have our whole heartless economy in front of them.

They can't function. No back up.

 

[locutus101]

People in Trek's 23rd and 24th century struggle with the 20th century. I imagine someone from the 29th would be hopeless. It's like they bred street smarts out of the human race.

If any of us was sent to the 17th century without anything more than the clothes on our backs. I am not sure we would even survive for long, let alone avoid homelessness.