MERYL, MERYL, MERYL

Meryl Yourish writes:

I recently watched the ST:TNG episode where they went back to early 20th century San Francisco and ran into Mark Twain. The writer made Twain out to be a technophobe whose mind was changed after he met the Trek crew (and wound up on the Enterprise). Twain is my favorite author. I have read many biographies. It wasn’t just a clever plot device, it was an outrageous character assassination on the man who wrote “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” which was (among other things) a paean to technology by a man who believed strongly in building a better mousetrap (or a better typesetting machine, which was, alas, part of the reason Twain blew through the millions his books earned).

A bit of research shows that the crew actually went to visit Twain in 1883. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court was not published until 1889. Thus, the crew’s visit altered the space-time continuum. The history that we know was shaped by that visit six years earlier. This is very similar to the film First Contact when the TNG crew travels back in time to stop the Borg from preventing Zefram Cochran’s making the first warp flight and meeting the Vulcans–without which event the Federation, let alone that particular crew, would presumably not have existed in the first place. It’s quite simple, really. Certainly less complicated than why Bruce Banner’s pants seem to fit the Hulk.

Speaking of the green one, he’s guest blogging for Meryl and reveals a disturbing incident Meryl experienced at work:

Girl say she was working today and boy showed her Thing bean.

I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed these days.

FILED UNDER: Popular Culture, Science & Technology, , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. bryan says:

    Not in Ashcroft’s Amerikkka. ;-P

  2. jen says:

    You should have warned us about the nerd post to come. 😉