From: rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu (Michael Rawdon)
Subject: Re: TNG Grade Report: "Time's Arrow II"
Reply-To: rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Dept., Madison, WI
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 18:52:41 GMT

In <1992Sep28.141209.13230@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com> ogden_jon@macmail1.rtsg.mot.com writes:
>SPOILER WARNING!!!!!

>In article <rawdon.717625324@cs.wisc.edu> rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu (Michael Rawdon) writes:
>>  And I certainly don't see how
>>if Picard had never gone along on the mission that they never would have met.

>It is possible that Guinan would have died in the cave without Piccard being
>there to attend to her.  That is what I could figure out.

That's a good thought, and one I hadn't considered.  I'd been thinking more
along the lines that they got to know each other well in the 19th century,
and that provided the impetus for Guinan to get to know Picard in the future,
but I'll buy your theory.

>>Time travel stories are probably my favorite science fiction pieces, so I
>>was pleasantly disposed toward the premise here, and was further pleased
>>to see that the entire plot flowed together pretty smoothly, and didn't
>>seem terribly ad-hoc.

>This was the only time travel episode of any kind that I have ever seen that
>seemed to indicate that the past is somehow locked in stone, and that all
>future events must fit into it (for example, the fact that Data HAD to lose his
>head, that as Guinan said many times, "History must fulfill itself.").  I've
>always seen stuff where the past could be changed in order to modify the
>future.  Did anyone else notice this.  It's not a criticism, but I do think it
>is an interesting twist on the whole idea of time travel and its effects.

I agree.  Recommended viewing for you (and others who liked that facet of
the episode):  The Doctor Who story "Mawdryn Undead" (1983), which took
exactly the same tack on its plot as "Time's Arrow" did here (and did it
better, IMO, though that's not so much a criticism of TA as high praise
for MU, which is one of my favorite film SF stories).

>>Third, and least important, is how Picard and company managed to fit into
>>19th century society so well.  But I guess we can sort of abstract this
>>away by watching reruns of "City On The Edge Of Forever". :-)

>This bothered me big time.  How in the heck did they get the clothes with which
>to "hide" themselves.  At the end of episode one we saw them going through the
>rift with their Starfleet uniforms on, yet at the beginning of episode 2 they
>all had 19th century clothing.  Where did they get this, especially since they
>had no money since Piccard couldn't pay the rent?  Keep in mind that they
>couldn't have gotten it from the replicator since the Enterprise was 500 yrs in
>the future.

I thought that it was not handled very slickly, but we saw Kirk and Spock
doing it in "City On The Edge", so we can probably figure that Picard and
company had (ahem) "found" them.  They had clearly been in the 19th century
for a while (as they not only had found an apartment, but had been around
long enough to be delinquent on *rent* and piss off their landlady, which
spells "months" to me).

>Lastly, It seemed that from what I could tell the time correlation between the
>Enterprise and 1800's Earth parralled exactly.  What I am saying is that for
>example, spending 20 minutes on 19th century Earth and then returning to the
>Enterprise you would find that 20 minutes went by.  Another interesting time
>travel concept....It seems that there was no control over when or where they
>were transported.  Does anyone follow me??

Yeah, that was my impression too, but that then brings up the question of
whether Picard and Data and company had *really* been there for months,
since it seems unlikely that the Federation flagship could have been
orbiting Dividia for that long.

Oh, well.

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

"It is a fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak."
				- Dream, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current