So I finally got a chance to see the next-most-recent ST movie.

[conuly]

It was a free showing, and I was tired of being out of the loop.

So, if we know that parallel universes exist in Star Trek, as seen by that one TNG episode with crazed Riker in the Borg-verse, does that mean that there are parallel mirror universes as well? And if so, does that mean the villain evil Romulan in this mirror verse was not so evil?

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it yet, because i heard that it Boldly Went straight into the Implausibility Zone, and I didn't want to pay that much just to snark at it. The fact is, sometimes Star Trek is awesome, sometimes it sucks; often it's both. I'll always be a Trekkie, but I'm a pretty laid-back Trekkie these days, and more than a little jaded about the whole SF genre, so I can wait for the video.

My daughter's so annoyed with the trailer for the next The Hobbit movie that she says she will not talk about it or see it with me, because that was one of her most-beloved books of childhood, and they've made such a travesty of it that she's trying to think of it as just some random fantasy flick, not as anything to do with Tolkien's actual writing. "Fanfic. Fanfic. Fanfic, dammit! It's only fanfic." Otherwise one would just want to weep. I told her that's how I've felt since Fellowship of the Ring came out: so near, yet so impossibly far.

According to the whole 'multiverse' model, everything that can happen does happen. Consider: if that were true, there would be - for example - an infinity of parallel universes all identical in every detail except differences in the coloring of one single species of insect on one planet or the erosion patterns of one single creek. The whole idea of a "mirror universe" in which everything is much the same except that everybody's character alignment is reversed is totally implausible unless one also postulates an infinity of infinities of other universes in which everybody's character alignments are in every possible configuration.

So yeah, there's an infinity of universes where everything is exactly the same except for the evil Romulan being less evil, more evil, evil in different ways, good in different ways, etc. That's the beauty of having the 'multiverse' concept in SF: it can be used to justify practically anything.

[conuly]

If you don't buy the alternate universe idea, it made everything non-canon except for Enterprise.

This is deeply problematic, because Enterprise was eaten by the tumor that was the Temporal Cold War, and surely those people wouldn't just let one pissed off Romulan change the entire course of history like that, would they? (Apparently, they would.)

Also, that one pissed off Romulan devoted years to getting revenge on the Federation for failing to save Romulus in time (but before they could do that, which if you ask me takes the fun out of it. If they don't understand your vengeance, what the hell is the point!?), but surely that time could have been more productively spent giving Romulus advanced technology ahead of schedule, allowing them not only a real strategic advantage but also the ability to avert the crisis on their own.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Very true. The problem with time travel is that once it's invented in any era, by definition it's been invented in every era.

Well, that's one problem with it, anyway. There are a whole bunch of others. I don't really have an opinion about the plausibility of the multiverse model, because I don't speak anywhere near enough math to understand the issues involved, but I'm willing to accept it at face value in an SF tale, just like I'm willing to accept warp drive, wormholes, telepathy, shapeshifting, humanoid aliens, gaseous intelligent life-forms, Galactic empires, mechas the size of skyscrapers, the zombie apocalypse, and all kinds of other stuff I think has a snowflake's chance in hell of actually working in real life.

The Temporal Cold War was *so* Made of Fail. Plus.... aaaggh, Tasha Yar!!! I couldn't believe it! How many times do they have to kill that bitch before she stays dead?!?

I wonder if New Spock is still betrothed to that c-word T'Pring? Any fertile Vulcan females that survived their planet's destruction are now going to be their species' only hope for survival; it would be highly illogical to mate one of them to a half-breed. I'd love to see T'Pring and Romulan Tasha Yar bitch-fight it out in the Vulcan challenge-arena, but I can't think of any plausible way to bring that about.

[conuly]

Very true. The problem with time travel is that once it's invented in any era, by definition it's been invented in every era.

Well, if you let it get public. If I ever stumble upon the secret of time travel I'm going to limit myself to lottery tickets and the occasional bargain antique. Maybe save a few Jews during the Holocaust, to clear my conscience after the antiques. But I'm sure not telling anybody, or trying to dubiously "fix" things. Nuh-uh!

[conuly]

Uh, fix things on the large scale, that is. I'm sure every freed slave and living not-Holocaust-victim will consider their lives sufficiently fixed.