Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Best of Both Worlds Blu-ray Review

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today, visit www .sfi .org. Greetings my fellow

shipmates! Welcome back to Future Imperfect,

only on This Week in Geek .net. I am your commanding

officer this evening, Mike the Birdman Dog, but

I'm joined by my faithful exo, the officer who

keeps me from messing with the transporter system.

Steve Megatron Phillips? on the big screen now

unfortunately i had to miss this tonight because

i don't know what i ate out of the replicator

but it just did not agree with me and i spent

most of the day in bed playing skyrim damn tribbles

yeah oh my god i thought i was going to die but

i'm better now uh so yes so big shout out to

them big I love it when we get a chance to interact

with the community. And one of our guys on the

mailing list for Starfleet, we have these colleges

where you can like, there's like a section of

Starfleet where if you want to be the professor

of Harry Potter, but they also have other subjects

like hardcore physics, math, et cetera, et cetera.

So it's like going to Starfleet Academy. I actually

completed about half of the Borg subsection for

xenobiology before I just got too busy, but I

might be turning in some stuff on physics. I've

been reading a lot of stuff up on SolarWinds.

In fact, there's a really cool YouTube channel

I think you guys should check out. It's called

Suspicious Observers, and the guy talks about

space weather and how it interacts with the Earth's

magnetic field. but also how it ties to potentially

earthquakes as well. So it kind of strays into

that pseudoscience, but I think he makes a lot

of really valid points. So now that I've yammered

on for near two minutes, Steve, what have you

been doing since the last time we were in dry

dock? Well, in school, I got to release our class

project. We had five of us doing this video that

I scripted, which is the meme killer. We go around

and kill internet memes in the video. Well, one

guy knows. Did you kill Grumpy Cat? No, we only

had some memes in there, you know, like the dancing

baby and the Harlem Shake, planking, owling.

Something that came out right around the time

we were making it was the Hadoken and the Vadering.

See, I'm okay with the Hadouken or Hadouken,

whatever, Street Fighter. But that Harlem Shake,

my God, it is my goal, Steve, my personal mission

to never see that video in my life. I will kill

you. That's my wife in the background. It's my,

I didn't see Gundam Style or whatever the fuck

it is till like eight months later. Well, if

you ever see the game the the Harlem Shake you

have to watch our video because it's not the

traditional Harlem Shake. It's a mass killer

hunting down people We should link that in the

episode post I will um but uh, yeah, so I mean

I was doing that and then working on a side feature

so to speak for geekcastradio .com I mean I'm

prepping a lot of year five content as far as

the site's concerned but there's one specific

feature which we're launching well it'll be launched

by the time this episode comes out the forums

for GCRN which will be fully interactive and

it gives people another place to piss and moan

about the the wars tournaments that You and I

are both involved with. Ah, yes, because after

this episode, well, we're going to go talk about

some of that stuff, which kind of brings you

about what we're going to be talking about in

today's episode. We're going to be talking about

time travel and time travel in Star Trek, talking

about some of the science behind it. But also,

how does it fit into the to the Trek universe?

Has it been treated well? Not so well. Or is

it merely lazy writing, depending on what school

of thought you come from? Well, we'll have to

wait and see where the discussion takes us. also

have the replicator back online for a change

thank you paramount for supplying me with something

we're gonna be talking about the best of both

worlds blu -ray that just came out and then when

we come back in probably about a week and a half

two weeks we're gonna be talking about star trek

in the darkness and I'll have a full review of

the season 3 blu -ray as well. So without any

further ado, let's go check in with the L -Cars

computer network about, well, I guess we'll do

the replicator first, I think, yes, and then

we'll go to L -Cars. So that makes sense. We'll

be back right after this. From this time forward,

you will service...us. Welcome to From the Replicator,

I'm Mike the Birdman Dodd, and we are taking

a look at a selection coming to us from Paramount.

This is Star Trek The Next Generation, the best

of both worlds, Blu -ray. This is one of the

most celebrated episodes of Star Trek The Next

Generation. But for maybe the three of you that

don't know what I'm talking about, I'll set this

story up. The best of both worlds takes place

at the end of the third season, leading into

the fourth, and well, the Enterprise has been

called out to a Federation colony that sent a

distress call. Suddenly, it's gone quiet, and

the attack shows similar signs to what happened

to a colony that was attacked by the Borg back

in the episode, Cue Who. And well, the Enterprise

runs afoul of the nefarious cyborgs. and the

unthinkable happens. Captain Picard is captured

by the Borg and assimilated into Locutus of Borg,

who's chosen to speak for humanity to basically

make the transition to assimilation easier, or

so they think. There's a lot of things going

on in this episode. We actually meet Admiral

Hanson, we also meet Commander Shelby, played

by Elizabeth Dennehy, as well as an up -and -coming

hotshot who wants... Commander Riker's job because

he's been offered a command for a third time

and he keeps saying no So is Riker gonna leave

the enterprise? Well, you'll just have to check

this out and see but For us hardcore Trek fans,

we know how this turns out. This is an amazing

episode of television. In fact, they actually

have this specific Blu -ray edited into the Hour

and Change movie version of it, rather than just

cutting the two episodes right down the middle

with that fantastic cliffhanger we saw at the

end of Season 3. And I think that's a big reason

to pick this up, because it's awesome to go from

Mr. Wharf, fire. and then it just goes into the

next scene where they fire the main deflector

dish. So let's talk about the presentation. This

is probably one of the best looking episodes

I've seen across the three seasons of the show

being upgraded to Blu -ray and 1080p. There's

a lot of little things you didn't notice, specifically

looking at some of the Borg costumes. It looks

like they're wearing this sort of brown chainmail

underneath the Borg apparatuses. You also notice

little details, like I never noticed the little...

the little pimple or mole on Commander Shelby's

face so much. Just seeing the piercing color

of Captain Picard's eyes and Riker's, noticing

little things on the uniforms, how crisp they

look, it's the little details you notice. And

there's even something I notice, and I don't

know whether I'm 100 % seeing this right, there's

one point where they're looking over Commander

Shelby's shoulder and it's one of the access

panels going towards one of the turbo lifts.

And it looks like there's a musical note on one

of the display screens, because I know there's

tons of little hidden references in there, and

you can actually make out a few of them if you

zoom in really close. But that's just awesome.

Once again, fantastic sound mixing to hear the

score that was done for this episode in 7 .1.

That's a treasure. Lastly, I want to talk about

the special feature. This is actually worth picking

up because you do get a special feature which

is not included upon the other Season 3 release,

which we'll review next time on Future Imperfect,

and it's called Regeneration Engaging the Borg.

It's about a 20 to 25 minute feature. It talks

about the episode, Conception, designing it,

the writing. Seth MacFarlane from Family Guy

talks about it. Patrick Stewart shares a couple

stories about it, and one of his... His favorite

story is how a guy on a subway train told him

he was cute and real for doing this. And it's

neat because it's not included upon the Season

3 features, so if you're a huge feature fan like

me, then this is probably worth picking up. Plus

you get the episodic promos, that's a given.

You also get an interesting commentary with director

Cliff Bull, the Okudas and Elizabeth Dennehy

talking about things they remember from the episode,

the shooting from it, etc. And you get the gag

reel. with Riker and Crusher making out. It's

pretty weird. But anyway, this is a seriously

fantastic buy from Paramount. Like I said, this

is one of the best episodes of the series, and

this is something you could probably show to

anybody. It might make them a fan in the end.

So anyway, guys, that is Star Trek The Next Generation

The Best of Both Worlds Blu -ray. Definitely

worth picking up. Now back to Future Imperfect.

And we're back with Future Imperfect. Thank you

for that awesome review of the best of both worlds.

I gotta say, when you watch this on the right

kind of TV, I'm really impressed just how well

some of these transfers have actually been done.

It was really cool to learn about the process

through Denise and Michael Okuda. However, as

I mentioned in my review, looking at the Borg,

when you see them really close up, it looks like

they're all wearing varsity sweaters. It's really

weird. If you look under their armor, there's

this brown shirt and it's mesh and it just it

looks like something out of a 1980s college movie.

I don't know. It took me completely out of it

again. I like to better when I couldn't see it.

But still, it's still cool seeing Captain Picard

in high def looks really neat seeing all the

little things that they did and also Just all

the little details I went into making the different

Borg head pieces. So seriously, worth it. And

like I said in the review, you get a special

feature that's not on the Season 3 Blu -ray.

But I'll tell you what special features you do

get in the Season 3 Blu -ray when we after we

see Star Trek in the darkness. But we have one

more thing to take a look at today. We have to

check out the L. Carr's computer network as we

talk about time travel in Star Trek. This computer

terminal provides full access to the LCARS computer

net. It can be operated both by voice and keypad

commands. Initiating update. Hello, and welcome

to another edition of LCARS. I'm your host, Steve

Megatron Phillips, and in this edition of LCARS,

well, we're covering something that's closely

tied to the feature topic of the episode, which

is time travel. This edition we're covering temporal

mechanics and well all of the statistics on the

Star Trek Time travel episodes and the various

kinds there is Temporal mechanics is the study

of the workings of time and its effects on the

space -time Continuum and is particularly relevant

when dealing with time travel as late as 2154

time travel was deemed impossible by the falcon

science directorate The United Federation of

Planets had had some form of time travel ability

since at least 2268. It is possible that at least

some of their current and future regulations

regarding time travel can trace their origins

back to this date. However, compatibility at

this point was most likely inaccurate making

any attempt at time travel experimental and dangerous.

It is known that the Federation, the Borg Collective,

the Bajorans, and the Klingon Empire were known

to have some form of time travel capabilities.

A historical research in 2268 suggests the Federation

was capable of controlled time travel and used

this ability at the very least for research purposes,

which it could be bad in the wrong hands. As

of 2378, at least 40 different instances of some

form of time travel had been noted in Federation

records. Again, that they know of. Technologically

speaking, the Federation's capabilities concerning

time travel have, for the most part, remained

unclear. In the 25th century, time travel was

mostly possible by but still risky. As of the

26th century, historians and anthropologists

used time travel pods to travel through time

to observe historical events. This is where it

gets fun. The temporal violations. A temporal

violation was a report filed by the Department

of Temporal Investigations when it was determined

that an individual under Federation jurisdiction

had not complied with regulations designed to

ensure minimal contamination of the timeline

in the event of time travel. In 2373, Department

member Dolmar told Captain Sisko that James T.

Kirk had the biggest file on record with 17 temporal

violations. I love that episode of DS9, the trials

and tribulations. It is awesome. Not only that,

but it goes back to the original series with

DS9. You just can't get any better than that.

So, cutting into it, time travel episodes, the

overall count, is the original series has 5,

the animated series has 1, the films have 4,

TNG has 13, DS9 has 11. Voyager has 12, and Enterprise

has 10. Now, alternate timeline episodes. The

original series has 1, TAS has 1, TNG has 1,

DS9 has 2, Voyager has 3, and Enterprise has

1. Alternate timeline episodes weren't as frequent

than the regular time travel episodes themselves.

And as you can see, most of them take place because

of 24th century shows or because they just ran

out of things to do. Now parallel universe episodes

were a little bit more than alternate timeline.

The original series had three of them. The animated

series had one, which that seems to be a token

with the animated series. The Next Generation

had two, DS9 had five, Voyager had one, and Enterprise

had two. There are many types of temporal incursions

or violations, but three that kind of stand out.

Enterprise had the temporal cold war. The next

generation had the Borg, Voyager had the Anorex,

Voyager, well the ship itself, constantly was

doing it, and the JJ Abrams verse had Nero. The

three top things of temporal mechanics that include,

and are used quite frequently in the show, anti

-time, tachyon pulses, and slingshot effect.

So that rounds up this history lesson of Elkar's.

Tune in next time when we'll have some awesome

information. And for now, back to the show. Please

confirm deactivation request. Deactivation complete.

Hey, guys, welcome back to Future Imperator brought

to you by SFI .org Starfleet, the world's largest

Star Trek online fan club. And of course, only

on ThisWeekInGeek .net. Don't you feel awesome?

So I don't know where that enthusiasm came from.

I'm just going to presume it's because I'm talking

about science. I love science, even pseudosciences,

especially theoretical stuff. So like Steve said

in the L -curse thing, we're talking about time

travel, the ability to go forward, backwards,

or depending on your school of thought, you could

in theory go sideways. So, I find that time travel

is one of these things that is really hot in

the media right now, with the explosion of popularity

with Doctor Who and the fact that time travel

was involved in the first Star Trek reboot movie.

Well, it's kind of relevant to what is going

on, and I guess it could kind of lead into what

happens in the next one, because I've been privy

to some information about the new Star Trek movie.

And, well, I probably shouldn't spoil it, lest

people set phasers to kill. So, I guess let's

start at the beginning. Steve, do you believe

in time travel? It's kind of a tough one, because...

While there's no proof besides jumping over one

edge of a border of an area where the time zone

changes, because technically that's time travel,

I do think that it is possible. Do I think that

it will happen in our lifetime? Probably not.

Yeah, I just don't think we're at that point

technologically. I mean, considering we haven't

really escaped our own solar system. at least

with manned flights. I'm highly skeptical of

it. However, though, I do think it's possible.

I just don't think we're ever going to use it

because, well, I think it's Stephen Hawking that

said, if time travel were possible, where's all

the vacationers from the future? So think about

that for a second. I mean, and there's also different

theories of time travel. I mean, for example,

look at the Terminator. uh series of movies for

example right uh in the first three because then

okay in all right in the first two because the

last two don't count because they sucked um it's

a fragile future Basically, one event can change

changes the entire future. Like, obviously, you

go back and kill John Connor, the machines win.

But for that to happen, the machines have to

have to live. So John Connor can be born to be

brought back to the present so he can do it,

thus creating the machines by them killing the

first Terminator. But it's a self -fulfilling

principle. It's a loop, right? But In essence,

there is still a future possible where the machines

could have won. Another theory is a friend of

mine mentioned this in one of his videos. I'm

sure there's a more scientific term for it called

hyper time. And that's where every possibility

happens, but only exists for a fraction of seconds

based upon the likelihood of it actually happening.

For example, I'm talking to you right now and

my microphone turns into a pineapple. That could

happen in theory, but not truly time travel.

It's just It's more like a parallel world that

brings me to my next theory of time travel parallel

worlds a really good example of this kind of

obscure at least I Don't know how familiar you

are with Dragon Ball Z. For example. I love Dragon

Ball Z. All right then trunks Trunks gets sent

back to the past to prevent the androids winning

in Goku's future, but not his own. That's already

happened. He can't change the past. So that's

when you go back. It's kind of like sliders.

It's like parallel worlds once again, but it

is still in theory time travel, though they do

time travel in later seasons of that show and

it sucked after season two. Moving on. I think

of another theory of time travel that I'm missing

here. Oh, if you change a major event... It will

still happen anyway, just slightly different.

I know we see this in the original series a couple

of times. I think there was an episode where

they kidnapped some fighter pilot, but his son's

destined to go to Saturn at some point, so he

has to be back. He can't be removed from the

events. Well, it also happened in Enterprise

at one point. They took Captain Archer to the

future and it threw off all of time. because

he never formed the United Federation of Planets.

And then that's one instance where if you don't

leave people where they're supposed to go, then

it kind of throws things off. But at the same

time, look at the first rebooted Abrams movie

and you have Nero throwing off everything and

history kind of course corrects. Yeah, and we

get the alternate universe, which is weird because

technically the Well, what I consider to be the

prime timeline still exists in Trek, whereas

the Abrams universe, sort of the side B of all

this, also exists concurrently, but in the past.

I'd be very curious to see where Abrams universe

ends up in terms when it advances to the next

generation era. Basically, what would the technology

look like? How would history have changed? Because,

well, Vulcan's a pretty big deal. I mean, depending

on how you look... at the conocity of the animated

series and some of the novels, it does play a

pretty big role in basically the politics of

the Federation, the fact that this race is almost

extinct. But then again, it's the future to one

word cloning, not a problem. But still, you kind

of get my point where I'm kind of going with

this. But then you look at time travel, for example,

with the Borg. And if you exist outside of time,

you're protected by by events that have happened

in it. For example, with First Contact, they

get caught in the Borg's temporal wake, whatever,

and Earth has been assimilated. So it's something

like 8 billion Borgs sitting in our solar system,

but the Enterprise is fine. And yet, the Borg

somehow succeeded, which means there are multiple

timelines technically happening, but there is

something interesting that I'm not going to talk

a whole lot about it because I'm not entirely

sure I understand it, but you're going to want

to look this up on Wikipedia and Google, however

reliable those are. It's the Nikolov self -consistency

principle. Basically, it's impossible to create

time paradoxes is basically what it says because

events have to play out the way they do, which

is why I kind of wonder myself Do I believe in

time travel? Because if that's true, is it like

the kind of butterfly effect? You change one

thing, you change everything. Or the old, I guess

it's an adage, the whole grandfather paradox.

If you go back in time and kill your own grandfather,

do you still exist? And I know there's been a

few TV shows and other forms of media that have

actually talked about this saying, yes, but you

turn into a parallel world. Which is... It's

enough to make your headache when you look at

it, but I think Star Trek is one of the few franchises

that I think has actually treated time travel

either extremely well or really badly. For example,

The City on the Edge of Forever, one of the most

celebrated television episodes ever. Hmm. So

your turn Steve Yeah, I I put a lot more thought

into this than you probably thought didn't you

yeah, yeah, um Yeah, so I mean Even with all

the the various time travel going on throughout

the series and and all the you know, whether

we believe it or not Truck did have more involved

with that than what I previously thought before

doing research for this. Like, for instance,

I knew that the Borg and the Federation had access

to it. I did not know that the Bajorans in the

Klingon Empire had the capability. Explain that.

I'm not familiar with this. They mentioned it

in DS9. And as far as I believe the episode was

wrong, it's darker than Death of Mornight. I

believe they mentioned something about the Bajorans

and the Klingon Empire being known to have some

form of time travel capability. There's also

evidence to suggest that the Federation was capable

of controlled time travel in the year 2268 to

use the ability, but for research purposes only.

Yeah, I can't see that being so regular that

someone couldn't slip through the cracks But

then again, we kind of see that in Voyager where

the one guy comes back from the 29th century

and gives technology to some douchebag in LA

and That's how the doctor gets his mobile emitter

or some shit like that Yeah, and it well, I mean

and even even in TNG they had 25th century and

26th century people coming back in time either

Through various other methods or or trip time

travel pods Yeah, and you know if Captain Kirk

for example in Star Trek for the voyage home

He just had the slingshot around the Sun So what's

to prevent any asshole in a shuttlecraft from

doing this because it would burn up it has to

be capable of a shuttlecraft would not have the

the force necessary to cause it okay so anything

of say a frigate size or dreadnought size so

but it would have to be able to achieve high

warp speed okay but let's say the upper limit

of warp is 9 .9 yes I know they've gone the 10

but that doesn't count yeah it turns them into

lizards And you know, we can actually talk about

that too, because that actually kind of plays

in the time travel as well. Yeah, like they never

address this. And I'm pretty sure there's some

Trek nerd writing us right now, feedback at thisweekengeek

.net by the way, telling us, no, you're wrong.

And I don't understand that because it seemed

to me in the 23rd century when Kirk and all of

them had access to this, They could have solved

a whole lick of problems, because I promise you,

that's not the only Klingon bird of prey they've

captured. The Constitution class could keep up

with those things, I'm pretty sure. Well, and

the original Enterprise went back in time. Yeah.

So why are there not more paradoxes going on?

Basically, is Star Trek really inconsistent with

its time travel things? Like if you, for example,

let's go to Enterprise again. The temporal Cold

War. that happened which is really stupid by

the way um that's because all of a result of

taking uh the captain out of his original timeline

i believe yeah and when you destroy the time

travel device everything resets you see this

also again in voyager with i think it's called

the year of hell where they're fighting Red from

that 70s show. I can't remember the name of the

episode, but he's like, I will get my people

back. And they have a ship that exists outside

of time where basically they're like, we have

99 .8 % restoration. He's trying to bring back

his dead wife, but... Once again, I could tie

in Doctor Who, where they talk about this. The

Doctor says there are certain fixed points in

time. He's a time lord, so he knows this. He

just has the ability to perceive time as we do

a painting, for example. And certain events have

to happen. Otherwise, well, bad shit goes down,

paradox good, in theory, tear apart reality.

And I like to think of Star Trek as a show that...

Pretty much Treats science a little more seriously

than say doctor who for example, and I know I

know that's blasphemy guys. Trust me I'm a hoovian.

I have a TARDIS on top of my monitor right now

Nice, so I get both schools of thought but I

just I don't know I want consistency among everything.

But then again, that being said, some of the

time travel episodes have also been some of the

strongest across Star Trek. Once again, City

of Forever, Yesterday's Enterprise, and I really

think it's called the Year of Hell for Voyager.

Why do I think I'm getting that name wrong? Are

really good. I really enjoy them. And some of

the best Trek movies involve time travel. Voyage

Home, First Contact. generations and generation

oh it was it was not great but it wasn't bad

either yeah and that actually kind of brings

up the um another thing when you tie in generations

we can also talk about stars at the next generation

because you look at the last episode all good

things where that temporal anomaly he detects

in the 26th century or the late 25th it's the

late 24th century it's it's early 25th it's It's

because of anti -time and tachyon pulse. Yeah,

and the further it goes back in time the larger

it gets because all time exists at once. It's

like a closed loop Sort of thing and it's actually

funny. I was actually just watching Something

but just before in fact, I really recommend you

guys check this out. There's a documentary on

YouTube It might actually be on Netflix too about

time travels by National Geographic And this

one guy talks about time travel using cosmic

strings though. I'm pretty sure this is different

from string theory Allow me to explain. A black

hole or gravity will compresses time and space.

Technically we live in a four -dimensional world.

Time, space, basically, you know, everything.

And what happens is when you compress things,

you can technically take two pieces of string,

put them in a black hole or something like that,

and the strength of that gravity warps around

it. Now if you could create that on your own,

it would take... A, the energy of almost half

the galaxy to do it, just because of the mass,

and once mass reaches a certain speed, science

stuff, it starts to collapse in on itself, which

in theory you could go back in time in that one

place. However, though, when you do that, you

are creating a black hole. So I'm just... That's

another thing too, with all these inventions

in the future of Star Trek, because like you

see, I think in Voyager they have like temporal

time cops, they snap their fingers and they're

back in time, or they have time ships and all

this stuff. So that's another thing too, because

like I said, I love Trek, don't get me wrong,

but just looking at the phenomenal amounts of

energy. that would have to be used to travel

back in time. But then again, like I said, I

know I'm gonna get some guy going, you know,

Mike, it's just a TV show. But Star Trek is one

of those shows that really got me interested

in space and science and everything. And obviously

I enjoy time travel fiction, like Back to the

Future, Doctor Who, The Terminator, for example.

I don't know, what do you think works with time

travel in Star Trek specifically, Steve? Specifically,

I think that it allows the ability to explore

other alternatives than what they consistently

show week to week to week. It lets you have the

option of having them explore something that

is completely out of their element. Sometimes

they're aware of what's going on, other times...

One person is aware of the change or two people

are aware of the change and then everybody else

is kind of oblivious to what's going on or You

know one person realizes that hey something's

not right But they can't put their finger on

why I? Mean it allows other areas to be to be

visited without necessarily having to totally

detract from the the ongoing storyline But they

they allow for this one shot to happen With something

new now what episode do you think above all else

treats time travel the best? Maybe across the

entirety of the series. I'll go first to kind

of give you an idea where I'm going with this

I Really like yesterday's enterprise, and I'm

pretty sure that was nominated for several awards

on if I'm not mistaken I'm pretty sure you're

right and actually I was going to mention that

very same episode Because, and the reason I think

it is, why it's treated so well, it brought a

character who was more or less written off stupidly.

I like Tasha Yar. I'll come right out and say

that. Worf is better, but Tasha deserved more

of a shot than what she got in that stupid rhyming

and bullshit. But the fact that she went back

in time with the Enterprise -C to make a difference,

and that's how history had to happen. I really

like that, and plus it's just really weird seeing,

I think that's Michael McDonald or Chris Foment,

the bad guy from Happy Gilmore, is also in that.

And I just, there's something about that I really

like, is it really makes a time travel, it's

not even about the science of it, it's about

the consequences of it. And I like it when Tash

is like, Captain, I'm supposed to be dead. This

should never have happened. And there's another

episode I want to bring up as well. Once again,

TNG. And it deals with parallel worlds. It was

a very late season episode. Late season 7 episode.

Science bullshit happens, and he's thrown into

a different timeline, a different parallel world,

and you see all the different possibilities that

would have happened. Isn't that the episode,

oh, Future Imperfect? It might very well be,

actually. I'm not sure of the actual name of

it. But the thing that really got me on that

episode is how one little thing can change. There's

one episode, or they basically see different

versions of the world. a one where they're used

to seeing Captain Picard dead and like he's alive

where he died during the Borg attack. There's

another one where the Borg have conquered the

Federation and there's like nobody left. And

you see Riker looking really scraggly and that

enterprise blows up. I really like that episode.

And you just see, Worf starts to see... That

he could have something with counselor Troy because

the Troy from an alternate worlds like you and

I are married in this timeline Maybe you should

take a look at it in yours when he gets back

to the alpha timeline He's like hey counselor

truly. What are you doing tonight? And I just

really like how that even carries through to

other series and like how he just never works

out with counselor Troy in the prime timeline

he gets together with with with Dax, and then

later Esri, but not so much, that doesn't end

well. But yeah, I really like the fact that that's

time travel was used merely as the background

for it, but it was not the primary setting for

it. With I guess the exception of Yashers Enterprise,

they needed to do it, but it was a matter of

moral choice. Do I preserve where I am or do

I go back and make a difference? Well, and then

there's also replicated fake future that you

don't realize has happened. For instance, bringing

up the episode Future Imperfect, I looked it

up again. It is the episode where Commander Riker

is celebrating a birthday and they have to go

on an away team and it fills with some kind of

a gas. It's him, Geordi, and Worf and he passes

out. He awakens to find that 16 years have passed

and he is now captain of the Enterprise and Data

is his first officer and Picard is an admiral

and he's got a son named Jean -Luc. Wow. And

it turns out that everything is pretty much a

simulation in a holodeck. the holodeck. You know,

we're actually going to have to talk about that

in a future episode because I think that's the

laziest plot device. I know it's it's the the

hidden MacGuffin in the room. But then again,

there's also some really good episodes that happened

in the holodeck, with the exception of the season

or the series finale of Enterprise, because that

was complete bullshit. Well, mostly it happens

good. And yeah, I know that was that was horseshit.

I was like, what? Really? Yeah. I'm like, this

is a cop out. And they said it during such a

weird episode. But I would say Voyager is probably

the primary... Yeah, they relied entirely too

much on time travel, or they'd have people displaced

out of time. There's another episode I remember

from... Well, they used that and the Halodeck

up. The wazoo. Yeah. And you know what's weird?

The more I think about it and the more I realize

there are problems with Voyager, the more I love

it. I don't know. Figure that one out. Because

they would use a lot of historical Earth stuff

there. And I remember one episode they went back

or they went to this planet in Amelia Earhart.

Exactly. I'm like, what the fuck? Really? It

just so happens. And once again, it's just a

TV show. Yeah, but there's good TV and bad TV.

I know Voyager a lot of people don't like. But

I think they had the most fun with time travel.

In some ways, like I said, we had the war with

the Kremen getting the Doctor's mobile emitter.

They benefited most from the future because Admiral

Janeway in the series finale of that bringing

back the ablative armor tech, the Borg middle

finger, basically, and the fact that the collective

has been in shambles since then. So I don't know.

Voyager. They made the most difference, I think,

outside of maybe yesterday's enterprise with

establishing the peace treaty with the kind of

Klingons to solidify the Alpha Quadrant. But

we kicked the Borg's ass in basically two shots.

Like when you see Voyager coming out of that

transwarp tunnel and they're firing those transphasic

torpedoes, the Borg cube is fucked. Oh yeah,

from the get -go. And that's another thing too.

The Borg actively no time travel. they're like

yeah here's our temporal transwarp thingamajig

and they never use it do you know that was the

biggest waste of time travel device that i've

ever seen in star trek yeah i mean the board

they have this huge web and they can't use it

yeah like they have this armada of ships and

resources basically they should have conquered

the alpha quadrant seven times over by now at

least They have access to the ability to wipe

us out beforehand or at least take us when we're

at the height of our population and assimilate

us and never do. And that's likely just a plot

oversight or, you know, it's not happy when the

good guys lose. But it makes you wonder in the

greater context of the fiction of Star Trek,

why? It kind of makes me wonder maybe. I can

see it from this angle, so follow me through.

Maybe time travel on Star Trek, the fact that

they do have the temporal cops more or less,

the time cops in the future that are able to

come back and they have to repair shit like now,

they don't necessarily get multiple tries. They

gotta get it right. Although I'm pretty sure

this episode was seven and they keep fucking

it up, but anyway. I like the fact that time

travel more or less has been respectfully treated

by Star Trek. The best movies use it, some of

the best episodes use it, but also some of the

worst use it too. So I guess ultimately, time

travel on Star Trek, you know what? It's fun,

it's pretty good fiction, and uh... I do hope

when we get a new Star Trek series on TV, which,

you know, I'm crossing my fingers, it's gotta

happen sometime sooner or later. Hopefully. Hopefully,

that we get it figured out and we make stuff

happen and they don't rely so much on it. If

you had one time travel episode every other season,

maybe two, maybe two, I'd be okay with that,

but there should not be a consistent time travel

episode every season, I think. No, I definitely

agree. I think that between that and the holodeck,

they relied entirely too much. Yeah, I mean,

you have to be able to rely on the strength of

your characters and your setting before you can

use time travel. I mean, like I said, I think

a number of great time travel movies have strong

characters before the time travel thing is even

introduced. I think a best example of this is

Back to the Future. You care about Marty and

Doc before the time travel thing even happens.

And throughout the series, you know, and that's

another thing to talk about time travels the

back to the feet just recently. Honestly, I could

be here spewing nerd bullshit all night. It's

kind of just that. But then again, that's the

way this show works. We can just kind of talk

about things like this. Like one of the big inspirations

for this show. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned

this well before. I think what episode are we

on now, Steve? I think it's 16. Yeah, 16 episodes.

We've been going for quite some time. And there

is a podcast radio show, the first one that I'm

aware of. It was called Talking Trek. And it's

just putting everyday spins on everyday topics

with Star Trek. So that's kind of why this show

is kind of taking a little bit of a different

direction. Why we don't necessarily put out episodes

as often anymore. Once a month, I think, is more

than enough considering how in -depth these conversations

can actually get. So for our next show, which

is going to happen pretty early on, we may actually

get two Future Imperfects out next month just

because the one is just talking about the new

movie. And then, you know what, Steve, we should

maybe do one of our easy shows, but probably

one of the more fun ones. For the next one? Yeah.

So we're going to do Star Trek Into Darkness

for the next episode. Then after that, before

the Memorial Day weekend in Canada in the U .S.

We're gonna talk about the Borg. This is such

an easy show, so many topics within them, their

strengths, their weaknesses, some of the tie

-ins. In fact, I just finished reading the Doctor

Who and Star Trek crossover where the Borg and

the Cybermen start working. together. Surprisingly

cool, actually. So that's what we're going to

be talking about next time on Future Imperfect.

So I want to thank everybody who stuck with us.

Like I said, big shout out to the USS Hadfield

for doing wonderful work in the community. Like

I said, guys, check out sfi .org to find out

more information about the world's largest Star

Trek online fan club. They supply us with phasers.

and photon torpedoes to destroy our enemies.

So for Future Imperfect we have been Steve Megatron

Phillips and I've been Mike the Birdman Dodd

saying Live Long and Prosper.