I love the portrayal of time travel in this. When Picard gets stabbed the first unaltered time, he laughs at the alien that stabs him (no doubt giving him a rather fearful tale to tell his people about fighting humans). When he gets the chance to put things back as they were, he gets stabbed again, and laughs at the Nosikan (sp?) because he's fixed his life, he's put things right, meaning, as far as the timeline is concerned, that was always the reason for his laughter in that fight. The mind, it boggles!
Q: You mortals always have difficulty perceiving time and continuity in anything other than a linear fashion. It is an orchestra without a conductor, happening all at once.
"The Observants look at time like they are watching a parade: one thing after another, passing by in sequence right in front of them. I see the parade from above - all the twists and turns it might, or might not, take." Clockwork from Danny Phantom
I love how Q gets pissed at Picard, "Of course you'll die. You'll just die at a later date." Q was thinking of Picard's entire lifespan while Picard was just thinking about the recent incident. The contrast of perspectives between an immortal and mortal is a fountain of laughs.
I always loved when we remind to depict immortal beings as always knowing mortals are just passing by for them, a small burning candle in a dark room. The light might be beautiful, but it is finite.
@@Jake007123 time doesn’t even work the same for Qs so it probably isn’t that big a deal. they seem to imply in VOY that time moves way faster in the continuum given that Q flash raises his son, he sees Picard once every 100+ years probably
"Of course you'll die, it'll just be at a later time" Q said it like it doesn't matter what you do to live longer its a drop in the bucket, what matters is what you do in your life. Such a deep philosophy.
Back when Star Trek actually had great writing and characters. "Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or galaxies to explode. To be blunt, you're not that important." Damn but I loved Q and Picard when they had scenes together.
Old Trek: A god vibe checks you and says you're not important in the grand scheme of the Universe even though you've saved humanity multiple times. New Trek: OMG Micheal Burnham you're the bestest evar and Spock wouldn't be Spock without you and everyone loves you so much and you should be Captain but you're too humble and great to take such a role.
Well, he really is talking to us. We all know that. 📝 Especially since he _still_ looks like his Captain Self, I think Picard would be unmoved at this point, in his suspicion that this was all one of Q's mock ups of a real time & place. 😒 On the other hand, if Q did engineer all of that, he did go over Picard's past life events very thoroughly. Why bother wearing clothes when alone with someone who has already seen you naked? (Metaphorically speaking, of course.) (Flashlight emoji shining on a brain emoji) .
@Tom Steeper yes. Was a great mistake of the franchise dont use him in movies. The movies lost originality and quality and box office and had to make the reboot. Thats not bad but dont seem star trek. Characters like hugh, q, ginan, garak, etc were great were not used well to keep the movies succesfull.
One of the best episodes of the show for sure. I loved the chemistry between Picard and Q in this, and an insight that perhaps Q isnt totally heartless and cares for him as a friend. TOO BAD KURTZMAN DECIDED THAT HE ABANDONS PICARD AND LEAVES HIM TO RETIRE IN LONLINESS AND MISERY
Yes but at the same time it was kinda like a payback for Deja Q episode. Spoilers in case you didn't watch it, Q was in a tough situation where Picard had to take care of him. SO in this episode, Q both satiates Picard's worst thoughts but at the same time getting him back for the way he treated him by making him feel miserable in the alternate timeline.
"Please! Spare me your egotistical musings on your pivotel role in history. Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or galaxies to explode. To be blunt, you're not that important" Oof! Q cold 🥶😂
It's ironic, because Picard *was* that important. Without his suggestion of "sleep" to Data, the Borg might have assimilated Earth. And that's just *one* example.
@@PaperbackWizard Who's to say that Q didn't make a new "Picard-like" person to take Picards place in this timeline? Or alter aspects so that things like the Borg never became a threat. The Q are literal gods, able to create and destroy entire realities with but a single thought. Changing a few pieces and making a more boring timeline for a boring Picard would be easy.
"Oh, you mortals are so obtuse. Why do you persist in believing that life and death are such static and rigid concepts?" Q laying the basis for the later test, "We wanted to see if you had the ability to expand your mind and your horizons, and for one brief moment, you did."
If you never heard, there's a term that came out of O'Brien episodes. "O'Brien must suffer," because episodes that revolved around him never went well, like: He lost his daughter for 12 years in 3 seconds in one episode, or got stranded on a planet in another, or infected with a sickness, or stranded on another Deep Space satellite, or stranded- Y'know, for a guy who's job was largely (and reliably) picking people up and dropping them off, he got stranded a _bunch...._ and that just feels mean, for some reason... It's like if you gave a man who makes mechanical clocks in a factory a digital watch, that keeps breaking, as a gift to celebrate his promotion, lmao
@@landonletterman831 To be fair, if the clock maker loves his job, the gift of a clock that keeps breaking sounds fantastic, like a puzzle that keeps on giving. But yes, O'Brien got to suffer so much... specially his shoulder.
Q said "nothing you do here," referring to events of that time period in Picard's youth. Q was not referring to the temporal paradox arranged by the Continuum in "All Good Things" in order to test adult Picard's ability to perceive time in ways he hadn't considered before.
I love how Q seems arrogant by telling the simple truth to Picard, but it's the absolute opposite. Picard is not as important as he thinks he is in the grand scheme of the Universe, and Q gives him a vibe check. It's like an ant trying to argue physics with Einstein. Picard didn't even consider the possibility that Q could simply let Picard die in his own timeline and create a new one where he continued and that the two could exist perfectly without interfering with each other. You can see why Q is frustrated: Picard simply doesn't understand the uncharted possibilities of existence.
@@JLAAMERICA So technically Q also saved Picard's life, as he was saying you died on the table. Soo, that means that Q somehow stopped him from dying then?
jadenova How disgusting of you to say a person in a wheelchair cannot have a full and happy life. Please note: invisible disabilities can be much, much worse. Only 2% of disabled people use wheelchairs.
The way he talked to Q there about the girls he was dating, he ALMOST lapsed into the way he might talk to an old friend. I honestly think that some small part of Picard actually likes Q.
I liked how he puts aside his misgivings about Q and the situation to fondly reflect on the story, he let his guard down and was being himself around him for a bit.
"Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or galaxies to explode. To be blunt, you're. Not. That. Important." After all these years, that line still makes me laugh.
Yes, hurtful. 😭 But, for Q to have to live up to that promise, he must have needed to turn invisible and follow around the course of Picard's original life , minute by minute, for decades; Spilling drinks at cocktail parties to be sure Jack and Beverly Crusher met, warning engineers on the "Stargazer", "Don't touch that control panel!" , Swiping the personnel files out of the pile of candidates for whoever the Captain of the Enterprise would have been, so Riker would have gotten chosen as First officer. Plugging himself into the Borg collective to add his voice when they were trying to decide which human to use as Locutus, etc, etc. If one could have watched it, it must have looked like a big musical comedy directed by Peter Sellars. 🤣😆😄😄😆
Q: You're not that interesting. Fans/Time experts: Well actually, even the slightest change will- Q: 1:43 (Translation) Shut UP Nerds! Time is what I say it is!
it's adorable how he always dressed up in his little star fleet uniform. I would have loved to see an episode or 2 where someone had something other than contempt towards Q. I thought he was quite charming.
@@Jake007123 True. Still, in other hands it might have worked. Q at various events, throughout history, doing what he does--helping, hindering, or just observing. I suspect the hands that could have done him justice just aren't out there any more.
@@beckoning-chasm I suspect the hands that would have done him justice are out there, but they are not famous, influencial, etc. We must remember that for every 100 crap TV series and movies, there is a gem. There are still good creators, they just don't get the chance under our current system.
I love the look Picard gives when Q calls him a cad. You can tell that a part of him was actually nostalgic, and a slight bit proud of his past reputation as a ladies man, if only for a moment.
@@Spacegoat92 You only say that because current is known and future is not. so in effect going back would altercate it, but then you would be stuck in knowing something, and by the way, how do you forget pain?
@@SightForMemories Because the thing/s wouldn't happen. Even if I told my past self not to do it, would be good enough. Although that would create a temporal paradox...
de Lancie is one of the few actors who can keep up with Stewart. Just watch the interaction in this clip; it alone will show you everything I mean. I was sad to learn that the two of them (as people) never had much interaction other than these brief scenes.
Having watched Extras it was kind of weird to see Picard explaining his dates. I was half expecting him to say "Her name was Colina and I'd arranged to take her out today and then her clothes fell off, and I saw everything".
It’s amazing the amount of work Q had to do in order to give Picard this second chance. Allowing Picard to change his own history without altering any of the infinitely other outcomes that directly resulted from those altered interactions must have been insanely complicated.
Q is omnipotent. That means that nothing is more than a wish away from being done. The Q cannot do "work", because they can do everything just by willing to do it.
@@Jake007123 the Q are able to make impossible things possible because they understand the nature of how things operate in a manner we do not. While it may look like he simply ‘willed’ it into existence, that’s a bit like an ant looking at a TV and saying we willed the picture into existence because we waved a remote at it. Q had to create an alternative timeline for Picard and then had to ensure it could be reversed so as not to damage the original timeline he was pulled from. That required work on his part, a lot of it.
@@Balshem In the episode where a human discovers that she is a Q, "our" Q teaches her how to be one, how to use her powers. Turns out, it just meant visualizing what you want. In other words, will it and it is done. That's not work by any stretch of the imagination. I think the "work" our Q did was to actually be pacient, which says more about his flaws as a person and not as a member of the Q.
@@Jake007123 Amanda Rogers? I always viewed that as a limitation on the writers part, given they don’t have the knowledge to answer questions that complicated on the nature of reality, and the explanation given by Q to Rodgers (in the same manner he explained to LaForge that you simply ‘do it’ when it came to altering the gravitational constant of the universe) was an abridge method of explaining something the audience wasn’t seeing. Q was in very close proximity to Rodgers an undoubtedly was using his own cognizance to allow her to see the mechanisms she would utilize to create in the reality she was a part of.
@@Balshem That sounds like putting unnecessary fault on to the writers in order to keep your fan theory from criticism. You know you can enjoy your theory and still be very uncredable, right? For me, the Q just alter reality like we can alter the position in space for an object by kicking it with ease. It doesn't work too well with the civil war they had in Voyager, where they used "weapons", though.
"To be blunt, you're not that important." Yes, the words EVERY human being needs to hear...preferably on a repeated basis during youth, then from time to time as needed throughout adult life. This is especially true with people of privilege.
Being alive is a privilege, so is having access to the internet and time to watch clips of a 40 year old TV show. So as you requested: „To be blunt, you are not that important.“
What a cold person you are. Completely lacking in compassion and empathy. I have faced enough people like you in my life. I will make sure that the people I care about always feel important and that they matter to me, I will always try to appreciate them and love them.
@@christianriddler5063 But I'm not wrong. And if you really feel my humility is a sign of missing compassion and empathy, then YOU have a problem to address, not me. "People like me." LOL! What does that even mean? Trust me, none of us really matters. No one is that important, in the universal scheme of things. Compared to the time, size, and scope of the universe...we are NOTHING. Dust in the wind.
Star trek the classic series such as Original, tng, DS9 and voyager all contained great writing that made you think instead of having it forced down your throat.
Yes, and Q should be wise enough to know that "pivotal roles" in History are just a matter of opinion. Actions being on a "large scale" as opposed to a "minor scale" are an illusion created by the human mind's need to classify everything to make up for the mind's limitations.
I just love this part: "To be blunt - you are not that important" Where Q slams this piece right into Pickard's face xD In fact i think this totally sums up the new Pickard series xD -
1:40. THIS is the moment the Q likely decided to test Picard's unwillingness to alter the past in All Good Things... SECONDARILY Q is moving the pieces correctly. Clearly John DeLancie has a decent concept of chess openings, and has given that to Q.
I love the little touches they make to Q. They didn't have to put him as any kind of flag officer this time just someone senior enough to physically demonstrate Q's view on his superiority over humans.
@@annehaight9963 I always interpreted it as both. One single reason to do something doesn't fit Q, several at the same time is more appropiate. So, he show himself as human to relate to them, as a superior ranking officer to show superiority, as a fellow captain to convey kindship, and so on.
"I certainly don't look it." "Well, to everyone else you do." What a great, simple way to not need any kind of special effects or "young Picard" actor for this. They could have used the actor in the fight recreation, but they would have had to sacrifice a little bit of this great scene.
The Knight and the Bishop are too close, but there are genuine simplified chess sets out there. www.coroflot.com/ben_powers/Chess-Cube What I don't understand is why they gave up on ST 3D chess.
i love this. nowadays everyone expects for him to look different in the mirror it has much more ballz that he actually doesnt. its cgi vs storytelling in a nuthsell.
Even if you have brought me to the past somehow……man the writers just having characters say dumb stuff. We’ve established Q has powers beyond powers. Going back in time is a snap for him
Perhaps by "Somehow", Picard was referring to the improbability that Was actually _telling him the whole truth_ about all this. Remember, Picard didn't seem to himself to be 21 again. I'd have taken that as a solid clue that this whole thing was one of Q's fabrications. 😒
