DS9 turns Picard’s beloved TNG episode into a horror story

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Turns a beloved Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation In a horror story. Rather than discounting the optimism of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine push Star Treks optimistic future in a darker corner. Nowhere is that more clear than in this way that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Sets TNGs first transfer to DS9Chief Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney), in increasingly dire situations, With writers even coining the maxim – O’Brien must suffer.

Chief Miles O’Brien certainly suffers in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4, Episode 19, “Hard Times”, when the Argrathis resentfully accuse Miles of 20 years in prison on unfounded espionage charges. O’Brien’s entire 20-year sentence was completed in mere hours by implanted memories Which reflect the choices Miles would have actually made in prison – including killing his cellmate, Eechar (Craig Wasson). Contrast Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, episode 25, “The Inner Light”, where an alien probe causes Captain Jean-Luc Picard to experience a whole life as Camin, a family man on a dying planet, in just minutes.

Star Trek: DS9’s “Hard Times” turns TNG’s “The Inner Light” into a horror story

TNG’s “inner light” technology was used to punish Chief O’Brien

Using the concept of fast-forwarded, simulated memories as in Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 25, “The Inner Light”, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s “Hard Times” turns the beloved Captain Jean-Luc Picard episode into a horror story. In “The Inner Light”, Picard’s simulated life on Catan is based on Kamin’s actual memories, which serve as a memorial to Catan’s people, and a warning to anyone passing through the dead planet’s system. in DS9Implanting memories without consent is a punishment tailor-made for Miles O’BrienHow O’Brien still feels the effects of his prison experience even in the real world.

Instead of dismissing the fake experience as easily as Picard did, O’Brien’s implanted memories of being starved and tortured for twenty years are inescapable. Miles is haunted by visions of Eechar, the man he killed for food scraps – vi himselfNot like another person from another time. Miles pushes away his wife Keiko O’Brien (Rosalind Chau), snaps at Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), and wants the therapy sooner. O’Brien reaches the breaking point of nearly taking his own life. Chief O’Brien’s desperate aftermath is a far cry from Captain Picard “Road Not Taken”, As the husband and father Jean-Luc never believed he could be.

Star Trek: TNG’s “inner light” aliens could have made Picard’s life much worse

Picard is no more evolved than O’Brien; They are both still very human

Star Trek: The Next Generations “The Inner Light” aliens could have made Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s life a lot worse if they were like the Argrathi of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. O’Brien suffers in “hard times” because the technology that allows someone to experience several years in moments is supposed to be torturedBut Cummins people used it to connect with the future in the best way they knew how. If Picard had received PTSD and the ghost of the man he murdered as parting gifts instead of the Resican Flute, Picard would have been just as tormented as O’Brien.

Star Trek Just saying that humanity is much more likely to bend than break in the 24th century, not that we will be completely unbreakable. Although Picard is easily rebounded from the experience, and O’Brien is nearly broken by his false memories, both characters are good examples of Star TrekHumanity’s evolved, even if O’Brien fears otherwise. The difference is the intentions of the show: Star Trek: The Next Generations “The Inner Light” is not meant to break Jean-Luc, because it is about Picard’s experience and reflection. In contrast, Miles O’Brien Must Suffer in the intentional restlessness afterward that Star Trek: Deep Space Nines “hard time” focuses on.