In the ninth episode of the fifth season of The Next Generation<\/i>, this is a supremely messed up story. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n
God, the more I think about this episode, the more I think it’s one of the best-written entries in the whole show. It is unbearably uncomfortable to think about, too, especially when you consider Rasmussen’s actions in light of the final scene. Throughout “A Matter of Time,” there was one huge behavior of his that made absolutely no sense to me, and I figured that it was a deliberate thing. When Rasmussen arrived on the Enterprise<\/i>, I found him to be kind of hilarious and slightly irritating. I mean, a professor of history from the future<\/i>! Here to observe an important moment in Federation history!<\/p>\n
Which was\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what? Something to do with Penthara Four, as far as we could tell. Whatever happened once the Enterprise<\/i> tried to assist the ecological disaster on that colony would go down in history. But why observe it? And why do it in such an invasive way? Professor Rasmussen’s presence would not have been such a bothersome thing if he wasn’t such a gloating asshole. And that’s what bothered me: if Rasmussen was so committed to observing history without changing it, why did he constantly<\/i> hover about the crew? Why did he frequently make reference to the importance of what was about to happen? Why even make his presence known when he could have ostensibly found a way to observe in a much less invasive manner?<\/p>\n
I didn’t even really think of these inconsistencies as clues, though, because I bought his story so completely. By the time it became readily apparent that Rasmussen was waiting to witness the outcome of the phaser blast that would either save Penthara Four or obliterate it, I had accepted that he was truly a historian. He was just a really bad<\/i> one, the kind of historian who is more interested in his own observations than reality. How often did Rasmussen seem to view history as if it had happened to characters instead of real people? His view of the past was so detached that it often felt offensive.<\/p>\n
But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whole point. He was a bad historian because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to that in a second. Even if you analyze this episode without that final scene, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still an invigorating moral examination about Picard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s duty. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hard-pressed to think of a better written exchange than the argument that Rasmussen and Picard have. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s electrifying, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so thrilled that I got to watch these two actors perform it. But you know why it rules? Because Picard basically holds up his middle fingers to the Prime Directive.<\/p>\n
Moral relativity has been a part of the canon for The Next Generation<\/i>, and we certainly have seen these characters struggle with their own ethics and morals over four seasons. But there are plenty of times when certainty fills the decisions these people make. They have a fairly rigid framework they must follow as a part of Starfleet and the Federation; many times, specific situations have a very specific code that they can follow. Truthfully, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even think about how many times these people just obey their training and everything turns out fine.<\/p>\n
But what happens when training and moral codes might seemingly fail you? Here, Picard admits that the Prime Directive, the code he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sworn to uphold, may actually harm<\/i> the millions of live that it should save. This is him admitting that the Prime Directive is not immutable. It cannot be a solution to 100% of the crew\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problems. Does that mean Picard is right to demand to know what happens in the future? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really the point here, as far as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m concerned. Picard felt he was not doing his duty to the people of Penthara Four if he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t at least pursue<\/i> the question, even if it resulted in the ending we see here. Rasmussen remains quiet, refuses to budge on his position, and Picard must make the decision by himself, as if the professor wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there in the first place.<\/p>\n
In hindsight, though, all the clues to Rasmussen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s identity are right there. His poor historian skills were one part of it, but you wanna know the most damning thing? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the theft. It was Rasmussen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to the big moment of truth. He was riveted by it, but not because he was seeing the thing he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been waiting for. HE NEVER KNEW WHAT THE OUTCOME WAS. For me, that totally explains why he behaved as he did. By constantly making those aggravating comments about how he seemingly knew what the future held, he gave the illusion that he knew what he was doing. BUT HE WAS LYING THE WHOLE TIME.<\/p>\n
So I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel bad about him being stranded in time. He was a fraud, and his actions could have unraveled everything<\/i> up to that time if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d invented those gadgets back in his own time. Good for him. Maybe he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll feel differently about everything when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s turned into a historical subject for the Federation.<\/p>\n
Gods, this was such a great episode!<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Matter of Time\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>. In the ninth episode of the fifth season of The Next Generation, this is a supremely messed up story. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[614,632],"tags":[615],"class_list":["post-4988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-trek","category-the-next-generation","tag-mark-watches-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S. this summer and fall Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"