#s6e15

[remyfire]

I would sell an organ to get her in this shirt in 500 more episodes

[stampedestring]

Mr. Favor's idle animations 2/?: Snacking

(Candy x2, eggs x2, unidentified snack he made for himself, donuts)

[eggybug]

dean is jealous of balthazar i can see it on his face every time he shows up

[omjitskailay]

Arcadia is so much funnier if you realize that the Dick Van Dyke show was a hugely popular tv show from thirty years ago, so its like if two agents today went undercover as Fox and Dana Scully but were like "we pronounce it Schooley"

[d3adite]

gil telling rowdy to take his hat off

[correctrvbquotes]

Caboose: Ah- ah- I just won again! Man, you guys are really bad at this game! It's- it's like you're not even playing at all!

[doctor-cunt-phd]

Oh fuck this is gonna be a jack/maybourne episode. Expect me to be unwell

[irat-that-s-me]

wait - are these s'mores he took out of the oven?

@american tumblr: is that something you regularly do?

[lightningarmour]

I have several thoughts I want to try to articulate about an episode of Star Trek

Revisiting Star Trek: The Next Generation Season6 Episode 15: Tapestry

I've only ever watched TNG all the way through once, a few years ago at this point, so I don't have a precise recollection of every episode. Going back and revisiting it is interesting because I'm able to sort of absorb more of it than I did the first time. Since the sort of awe has worn off, I can look at it somewhat more analytically this time around, and that results from time to time in being let down by an episode that I remember liking quite a lot originally.

In specific, today I rewatched Season 6 episode 15, Tapestry, which more or less is Star Trek doing It's a Wonderful Life. I remember really liking this episode the first time I watched it but this time it just didn’t sit well with me and I’m going to try and explain why. 

The episode starts quite boldly with Captain Picard fucking dying. I'm pretty sure this is the first time it's ever mentioned that he has an artificial heart, so it's kind of jarring to hear them talk about it like it's totally normal. But yeah, his artificial heart shorted out or something and he dies on the operating table. He then appears in like, limbo or heaven or whatever with Q belittling him for dying. Picard explains that when he was a young man he got into a fight with some aliens and was stabbed in the heart, so they had to replace it with a fake heart, and he laments that if it weren't for him being so foolish and getting into that bar fight, he might not be dead now if he had a real heart instead.

So Q sends him back in time to relive the day he was stabbed, giving him the opportunity to prevent his eventual death by changing the moment that would domino effect to his fake heart malfunctioning. Long story short, Picard changes the past so he never gets into that fight, and Q then brings him back to the present, except that the ripple effects have changed the course of his life and he is not the captain of the Enterprise in this timeline.

It's all a pretty solid set-up and I for the most part quite like the episode, but this here is where I take umbrage. So Picard comes to and in this version of his life, he is just a random crewmember aboard the Enterprise. They mention specifically what his rank and position are but I don't remember exactly. He's a junior science officer who has had an "unremarkable career." He goes to ask Troi and Riker to like, give him an on the spot evaluation and they both tell him that he's like, a reliable officer, but has never had any real ambition to move up or whatever. He just like, does his job adequately. Picard asks if they think he would ever make for like, command material and they're both like, eh, probably not my man. You just don't really seem like the kind of guy who has the gumption to be in charge.

And with that, Picard beseeches Q to send him back again so he can make things right. Like, he effectively says "I would rather die" than be an average person. So he goes back, ensures that the events play out as they originally did and wakes back up on the medical table, having survived his heart malfunctioning and wondering if any of it was real, or if Q had just kind of been fucking with him.

The whole kind of "moral" to the story ends up being "don't be a boring person" or whatever. Both Q and Riker tell Picard that basically not being stabbed when he was 20 made him a loser because he never experienced what it was like to take risks and live dangerously, so he wound up being just some guy who doesn't stand out and, kind of most revolting to Picard, isn't important. And the thing is, I can totally believe that for that character. Like, Jean-Luc Picard is a tremendous leader, he's devoted to his work and clearly finds fulfilment in the challenges and the demands required of being in charge of a starship. It's not an easy thing to do. So having a humble life would seem lame to him, but the problem I really have with the episode is that he doesn't really even try to live this new life. They spend so much time doing the flashback sequence that his time as "some dude" is incredibly glossed over and it all ends up feeling very like, dismissive and contemptuous of the sort of "little people" aboard the ship. I feel like there should have been something where instead of the lesson of the episode being "oh you should put yourself in mortal danger more often if you want to be cool and have a big boy job," Picard kind of instead learns the value that other people have on board the ship.

Like, he effectively sees that he is wearing a blue shirt and says "I'd rather be fucking dead" than not be the guy in charge. He doesn't try at all to even like, do a day in the life of Lieutenant Picard, learn about like, what this version of his life might be like, or anything. Like, who knows, he could have been fucking married? Had kids? Had friends? Like, if you are going to imagine a version of his life where he is not a total hard ass who has isolated himself from others and has like, no life outside of being the ship's captain, then I dunno, it's possible that in this version of his life he has like, actual meaningful relationships with others, or that like, maybe the job he has as a junior science officer is like, actually something this version of him enjoys doing, or if he's not like even an exceptional worker, then like, oh well, he's dedicated to his job, and like, we could get a whole sort of sequence where he comes to realize that even if the work he is doing is not glamorous, in some way or other, it IS important to the continued function of the ship or accomplishment of research or whatever. Like, the moral of the story should have almost been Picard gaining a newfound sort of respect for all the extras in the show. All the people who may not be big important members of the command structure, but who nonetheless contribute to the mission.

But instead the episode just seems like, kind of cruel. Like the fact that Picard finds death a more welcoming proposition than doing what he sees as work that is beneath him. It feels just very insulting towards anybody who isn't a big special important person, which I think is kind of antithetical to the whole egalitarian future thing. Like, belittling people who are doing necessary work. It just resembles a bit too much of the kind of contempt people in the modern day have for like "minimum wage workers." The idea that oh if people don't want to work at Mcdonalds they should just try harder to get a better job, but also acknowledging that some people have to be doing that work.

It also feels somewhat inconsistent with what the show will later do with the Lower Decks episode, and has previously done with that same kind of theme in the character of Reginald Barclay. Barclay is basically supposed to be the biggest wiener on the ship. He's just a total loser dork. He's nervous, he's unsociable, he's weird, and he doesn't excel at his job. And yet the kind of entire arc he gets when he's first introduced is that the main cast are all trying to help him out. Geordie and Troi are like, trying to encourage him to succeed, and to make friends and show him that like, just because he's kind of a dork doesn't mean he's not a useful member of the crew, and like, he becomes a semi-regular reoccurring character, and I kind of love him.

So in Tapestry, Picard basically rewrites his life so that he's effectively Barclay and he's like okay I'm going to kill myself. Which feels just kind of shitty. Again, if he had actually tried even a bit to understand what kind of life he was living and then still decided he couldn't give up the life he had I might be more amenable to the situation, but he doesn't even give it a chance, and that feels wrong. He should have like, learned something from the experience beyond "being a regular person is fucking lame."

Which, brings me to Miles O’Brien. I love O’Brien. He’s great, he’s fun, he’s charming. And he started out as a bit character. He was, for 6 seasons of TNG, one of those “little people” (this is not a leprechaun joke) who are just there to do a seemingly mundane job in the background, but then he gets moved up to being a lead character in DS9, but it’s not like he even gets a promotion or anything. He doesn’t become Lieutenant Commander or whatever, he’s still the same rank as he ever was and I really really like him as a depiction of a fairly like, working class member of Starfleet. He’s just a regular guy doing his job and he’s important for doing it.

[normcore-tertiary-character]

Buck's tits looks sooooo fat in this mustard collared shirt he's wearing on this date with Natalia. Honestly, respect to her for having a conversation and not just asking to motorboat him

[invisiblyvisiblejay]

EVERYONE HAS SEEN HIS PORN

[remyfire]

I'm having a moment tonight.

[stampedestring]

In S1E2, Incident at Alabaster Plain, as Rowdy and co. set off to try to get water from a church, Mr. Favor has some reminders for Rowdy:

Gil: Rowdy, you speak real gentle to those padres, you hear? Rowdy: Yessir. Gil: You go inside, you take your hat off, understand? Rowdy: (tips hat slightly)

A real character-establishing moment.

(S1E19, Incident of the Dry Drive; S2E5, Incident of the 13th Man; S6E15, Incident of the Rusty Shotgun)

[eggybug]

eric kripke wrote himself in the show just to kill just to kill himself off

what a goodbye

[lightningstorm003]

My roommate is asleep, and for some reason I thought it would be a great idea to hit next episode... which happens to be season six's "The French Mistake." The struggle to not laugh out loud and wake her up is SOOOO hard

[microcosmtoxin]

watching this godforsaken episode on mute with spanish subtitles because i am physically cringing too hard to listen