Yeah I’ve actually thought about this.
Like… did Q just re-create existence around him? Or did he pluck Prime Picards consciousness and dump it into the body of Beta Picard? I like to think it’s the latter with Beta Picard in the background just like “Wait… what? What’s happening?” and then Q and Picard fuck off leaving this poor dude to desperately rely on therapy for the next couple years.
I think this is a rare case where “it was all a dream” is fine
My headcanon is that Q shifted Picard to an alternate quantum reality. Like what happened to Worf that one time.
Q has made little pocket realities before that don’t seem to affect the rest of the universe.
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So like the episode of TNG titled “Lower Decks” and not the series titled “Lower Decks?”
I just want to see how happy and relaxed Ensign Picard is. No critical decisions to make. Able to make friends among the crew without his rank getting in the way.
We get to see Captain Picard in Ensign Picard’s body, but we never get to see the slacker who has big dreams but doesn’t bother to push himself.
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Ensign Picard living his best life, until he dies at Wolf-359.
Makes me think of the plot from The Office when Michael had a telemarketing job and seemed so much happier when he was one of the underlings instead of the guy at the top.
I’ve been in that position before. From manager to agent, and back to manager.
It was a blast, I had so much fun.
It got boring pretty quick though.
ensign picard is the nurse who died on a starship voyager commanded by captain harry kim
This is legit horror
It reads like a Chief O’Brien at Work strip. Except he wouldn’t say “hey what the fuck” because he would just be so sad he couldn’t speak.
Holy shit, was this a real episode? Anyone got the Season Episode and Title handy? I know at least a few of you nerds do
6x15 Tapestry
👑
Ebenezer Scrooge was the true Multiverse of Madness.
This reminds me of Vanilla Sky.
spoiler
Kurt Russell’s character realises he is in a simulation and has an existential crisis. You lived your entire life to this point and from someone else’s perspective you’re basically an NPC. Dread.
Hehe Kurt Russel as the lead in vanilla sky? I’d watch it.
You know what Jack Burton always says… what the hell?
Well, poor guy/girl is probably from a reality where Kurt Russell did play the lead in Vanilla Sky and is now having an identity crisis.
All other people are NPCs from the perspective of one person. That’s what “non-player character” means.
You’re the player in your own mind, aren’t you? That makes the rest of us NPCs.
I just don’t see how someone else’s perspective of my autonomy should cause such a crisis in me.
The difference is NPCs exist only for the main character’s experience. Oblivion’s Adoring Fan does not have a life outside of interacting with the main character or an existence outside of when the human in the external reality controls the main character in the simulated reality. In our reality there is apparently no main character. Everything and everyone simply is. To learn one is an NPC is to realise that everything one has done is artificial and confined to the boundaries of someone else’s experience. A created slave with a hollow origin and no means of escaping a forced purpose.
I mean a cursory glance at your own life ought to show you that you do in fact have a life outside of the experiences of some arbitrary person. If you were told you are an NPC, does your lifetime of personal experiences simply vanish?
Even if you were shown proof that you’re a simulation, can you really just let go of your entire existence like that?
I think denial would be a far more common reaction than existential crisis.
mfw a version of me from an alternate universe possesses my body and begs an omnipotent god to let him out
And it works.
On a related topic I wonder if Plague of Gripes ever finished that fence around his farm.
Still one of my favorite episodes, great to see actually humble for a change
