(upbeat music)
(clock ticking)
(suspenseful music)
- Earl Gray Piping Hot.
I'll see you in 500 years, Picard.
- And I'll see you in a few minutes.
(gun cocking)
- Who the hell are you, old man?
- [Narrator] Star Trek, Picard second season
has taken us on some wild twists and turns
that would even have Spock raising an eyebrow.
- Humans, make illogical decisions.
- [Narrator] But one of the unexpected surprises,
was when 2024 Guinan had no idea who Jean-Luc Picard was.
We suddenly had an new Guinan, a new time,
and a new attitude.
This was not the same Yoda-like El-Aurian,
Star Trek fans are used to seeing.
This was a frustrated, impatient, humanity sucks version
of our favorite enterprise bartender.
And the combination of all these things together
became the biggest talking point of
Picard season two so far.
I mean, Q loses his powers,
but the big debate is (fingers snap)
what happened to Guinan?
- That's unexpected.
- [Narrator] So, what gives?
Did the star Trek Picard showrunners lose a few pages
from their Star Trek Bible,
or is all this timey wimey stuff messing with our brains?
- People assume the time is a strict progression
of cause to effect,
but actually from a non-linear non-subjective viewpoint,
it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly,
timey wimey stuff.
- [Narrator] Or more importantly, were mistakes made
during the construction of our prickly new Guinan.
We've uncovered a few things that might have you saying.
- What you talking about, Willis?
- [Narrator] So you don't wanna miss this episode.
Also make sure you stay tuned until later in the show
where we'll be showing you how to get this awesome
Star Trek Picard, vineyard and winery graphic design
from the amazing artists at mixedtees.com.
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- If you're good at something, never do it for free.
- [Narrator] It's important to point out here that in 2024,
Guinan is already almost 300 years old.
That age is difficult to see in this fresh faced actress
despite being an excellent looking recast for young Guinan.
Ito Aghayere is a 29 year old Nigerian, Canadian,
and American actress, say that three times.
She did her homework on Guinan,
and boasts growing up as a star Trek,
the next generation fan.
So the question is, why were there so many mistakes?
Was it her, or was it the writers?
Was Aghayere just unable to tap into her inner Guinan,
or did the heavy handed political message take precedence
over her role?
But hold onto that thought for just a moment,
and let's take a deeper look into Guinan's memory.
The first time we realized
that time travel was going to be a core element
of Picard season two, we thought this could go really bad.
(man claps) - Goddamn time travel.
- [Narrator] But the good news is that Terry Matalas
was the co-showrunner and he is good for Star Trek.
Matalas is best known
for his work on the series 12 monkeys,
a science fiction TV series that mastered time travel,
told a cohesive story and left no plot holes.
Combine this with the fact that Matalas
was a production assistant on Star Trek Voyager,
and an associate producer on Star Trek enterprise,
and we have a guy who understands
how to deal with time travel,
and has a master's degree in Star Trek.
Recognizing the direction Picard season two was going
and knowing Matalas was directly tied
to everything happening at the end of enterprise,
including the two part shows of In a Mirror, Darkly,
as well as Demons and Terra Prime.
It was time to get excited.
Matalas helped craft enterprise episodes
that show us a future
where Zefram Cochrane shoots the Vulcan
that lands at first contact and create the Mirror Universe.
Something that looks eerily familiar
to the alternate timeline of the confederation.
He also worked on the enterprise episodes
that focused on Colonel Philip Green
and the legacy of his atrocities
that take place near and around 2024
in the Star Trek timeline.
He covered Augments, the Eugenics War,
and also helped create the character of Arik Soong,
whose descendant will soon be meeting
with Q in this season of Picard,
suffice it to say ,
he is the person to take us back to this time
in Star Trek history.
That said every Star Trek fan knows Guinan met Picard
in San Francisco in 1893.
Thanks to Data losing his head in star Trek
The next generation's two-part episode Time's Arrow.
So if you were confused when Picard walked into 2024,
10 forward, and Guinan looked at him
like a crazy old man off the street,
you weren't the only one.
But before we break that down
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- Okay, I'm sorry, sorry, apologies.
- [Narrator] As a fan of TNG Aghayere was confused
that Guinan didn't know Picard as well.
She said she brought up the potential continuity issue
of Time's Arrow, (indistinct).
"I don't think he ever got me a clear answer on it.
And I think, never will."
It took re watching Back to the Future two
for it to really sink in,
but essentially Guinan doesn't recognized Picard
because in this version of events,
she did not meet him in 1893
because in the Confederation future
that Picard comes from,
Starfleet doesn't exist.
And the whole thing with Data's head
and Time's Arrow never happened.
So if Picard and the crew stop,
whatever happens in three days,
Guinan and Picard can have that warm reunion
over some Saurian brandy before he heads back
to the future.
Or wait, will he just disappear because time is fixed?
No, that's right.
He will need one point 21 gigawatts of Borg electricity
to get him and the loss arena crew back to his own time.
(electricity cracks) - This is
what makes time travel possible.
- The flux capacitor.
- [Narrator] Oh, what about the whales?
If there's no Federation,
then Kirk didn't travel back in time to grab George
and Gracie to keep the alien probe
from destroying earth in the future.
- I think he did a little too much LDS
- [Narrator] Now, one time travel problem at a time please.
As for Guinan and her memory lapse,
Matalas got it right,
but we can't let him
and his writing team off the hook that easy.
Remember earlier when we were talking about Aghayere
struggling to tap into her inner Guinan,
that was very real.
This version of Guinan did not line up with the cool calm
and collected character Whoopi Goldberg
spent more than a decade cultivating.
On TNG, Guinan is more than 600 years old
and her wisdom is unmatched.
She's calm, cool, and collected.
Unless you start talking about the Borg
the nearly 300 year old version we run into in 2024
isn't remotely like her future counterpart.
And despite being on earth since at least 1893
it's hard to believe that this is the timeline
that finally makes her give up on humanity.
Humanity's destruction of the earth
and each other and the level of discrimination
she must have felt walking shoulder to shoulder
with mark Twain at the turn of the 20th century,
must have been incredible.
She witnessed the end of the industrial age
and the rise of the oil industry
where smoke stacks poured poison into the air for decades.
She witnessed 100 million people die in both world wars.
She watched nuclear testing, Vietnam,
and more than 20 genocides
that killed more than 30 million people.
She was there for the height of Lynchings and the KKK,
Jim Crow laws that legalize segregation
and the murder of Martin Luther king Jr.
Yet, for some reason
2024 is the straw that breaks the camel's back?
We would expect this from a 29 year old young woman
but a 300 year El-Aurian who should be wise
beyond the understanding of any human at this point.
No, in fact, the roles are reversed.
As Picard plays the wise person of reason
despite being a third of her age.
We should have been given glimpses of the woman to be
but instead we were pulled out of the story
and given a heavy handed political message.
But don't blame Aghayere,
she can only deliver what the writers give her.
She probably wondered why she was throwing up
from some made up time sickness.
When Guinan didn't blow a single chunk in 10 forward.
During the episode Yesterday's Enterprise
when she recognized the ship
and her crew were in the wrong timeline.
She probably recognized the forced plot device
when she realized they didn't have a good reason
for her to trust and believe Picard
without fabricating something unnecessary
to move the story along.
Did the writers forget
that Guinan got her time sensitive abilities
during star Trek generations?
When the enterprise be beamed her away from the Nexus
at a critical moment that brought her physical body back
but left behind her echo.
In an early version of the Star Trek generation script.
Guinan explains that her experience with the Nexus
and Enterprise B are responsible for her sixth sense.
This would end up not making it into the final script,
but Ronald D. Moore confirmed this
during a 1997 AOL chat session.
Even the novel Engines of Destiny includes a confrontation
between Guinan and the Guardian of Forever revealing
that the Nexus is her source of constant feelings.
Dear writers of Picard.
We found this in like five minutes,
instead of creating something totally new
about El-Aurians, contrary to cannon,
Picard could have simply earned her trust.
- I expect you to do better!
- [Narrator] While this version of Guinan
may leave us wanting more.
Her inability to remember Picard seems sound.
And while this hiccup during episode four
took us out of the story.
It is not a referendum on the entire season,
perhaps now that the messaging has been delivered,
we can get back to the story.
And perhaps I'm more recognizable version
of our wise advice, dealing bartender of the future.
What do you think?
Is this explanation of time travel sufficient?
Or do you see it another way?
Did the new Guinan pull it off?
Or does she have some work to do?
What the heck did Guinan do to the watcher
that makes her want to put her boot through her face?
- Perhaps you didn't hear me Guinan,
get out of here before I lose my very tenuous grip
on my knee to put my boot through your face.
- [Narrator] Let's talk about it in the comments below.
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