From: rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu (Michael Rawdon)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: Group Dynamics Review: Time's Arrow, Part II (*SPOILERS*)
Date: 28 Sep 92 02:28:34 GMT
Reply-To: rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Dept., Madison, WI

In <1a5d76INN482@bigboote.WPI.EDU> jtruss@cauchy.WPI.EDU (Free the Expo 67!) writes:
>     Spoilers follow (24 whitespace lines in case I screw up)...

>     As for the "destroy them, they must be evil" mentality, it's been
>brought up so much it's not worth going into yet again.  Suffice to
>say that I can't see Picard condoning that activity.  Worf, yes.
>Riker...*maybe*, considering the "loss" of his Captain.  But not
>Picard.

I don't have any problems with this.  They were mucking around in Earth's
history, and could have screwed things up extremely easily (witness how
easily it was done in "City On The Edge Of Forever").  Negotiation didn't
look even possible, much less likely (especially since time was of the
essence - no pun intended), Picard had no idea whether he would be able to
get back to the 24th century, so he did the only thing he could under the
circumstances (given that the alien he encountered didn't seem very receptive
to alternatives), and Riker and company didn't have many alternatives either.

And if the aliens HAD screwed things up, there would have probably been no way
at all for them to fix it, since history itself would have been altered.

>     Was it just us, or did they not even *try* to look for Data once
>they got back to the 19th century?

We don't know.  They might have, but Data didn't have his communicator.
(Granted, though, the gap in pacing there was a little jarring.)

>     Andrew, at least, was slightly annoyed that they didn.t tamper
>with the timeline at all, since previous time travel episodes have
>etablished that it can be done.  To put it in his words, "I thought it
>was unimaginative.  It didn't turn out nearly as twisted as I was
>expecting.  Maybe I'm just weird, but I think time travel stories
>should have a big mindfuck in them or else not be written.  They
>could've had Data narrowly escape getting his head blown off.  Then,
>when the crew returns to their own time they find out they had gone to
>the past for some other reason, since the head was never found.
>That's kinda what I was expecting to happen."

I enjoy time travel stories where everything flows together smoothly, without
any such "mindfuck".  This came close to being one such.  My favorite
Doctor Who episode, "Mawdryn Undead", is in exactly the same vein (and is
an excellent story to boot).  The fun is not in seeing things get screwed
up, but in seeing the web of confusion untangled.

("Tomorrow is Yesterday" is in a similar vein.)

>     What *was* the thing Data built?

They explained that:  A gizmo to detect rips in the time contintuum, which
is how he encountered Picard and company later in the episode.  Seemed
crystal clear to me.

>     The Guinan/Picard interaction was good.  At least, what there was
>of it.  Am I the only one who thinks the writers' continuous 'teasing'
>regarding Guinan's past is starting to get a little old?

YES!

>Jer......"6, but I *like* Dr. Who."

Doctor Who is an excellent show, and a large chunk of it vastly exceeds
the quality of most of TNG!  (I'd rather re-watch the Tom Baker Doctor Whos
than re-watch TNG.  About 1 in 3 of those DWs are worth watching, at least,
while about 1 in 5 or 6 TNGs are.)

-- 
Michael Rawdon				 rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department, Madison, WI

"Can this world not do better than you for a champion?"
"Probably.  I just do the best I can."
					- The Brigadier
					  Doctor Who, "Battlefield"
					  [Probably misquoted]
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current