tv is bad for you

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

Picard was sitting, watching television.

To be precise, he was watching episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He remembered the Farpoint mission, remembered Q and his 'trial for humanity'. He only grew more sullen when he switched it ahead many episodes to First Contact with the Borg. He watched as a model of the Enterprise was bombarded with weapons fire, glaring when an actor dressed as him came on screen, pleading with Q to help him.

"It's entertainment to them," he said, his voice flat. "It's just entertainment to them."

Comments

[anoldtrickster.livejournal.com]

"It's inspiration."

Wednesday can move suprisingly softly, for a creaky old man, and until his words break the sound of the episode, he might as well have not been there at all.

"Everything you stand for is what they wish they could be. You know something really funny—in the world I come from, the space shuttle Enterprise was named for a starship in a television show."

He sounds sort of wistful.

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"Inspiration? What inspiration is there in watching someone beg and plead for the safety of their crew? To know they could do nothing to stop it, to stop the massacres that lay ahead?" Picard's anger had gone, deflating him, leaving only grief and an empty sort of despair in its place. How could he hope to possibly command people who saw him as nothing more than a character on a television serial?

[anoldtrickster.livejournal.com]

"Stories—and life—are worth nothing without conflict."

Wednesday takes a seat, grunting as he bends. It's strange, though—just how did he move so quietly before, if this effort is enough to pain him...?

"But the moral? Pride can be a dangerous thing, when all the chips are down."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"Pride goeth before a fall," the captain murmured, turning a glance toward Wednesday. "I suppose I can appreciate the moral. But this ... it happened. All of it. I can remember it as clearly as if I were still there, and here it's ... a television show."

[cowsquirtdrinkr.livejournal.com]

"It's not." The Middleman said, having entered the Media Library and overheard Picard.

"Well, it is entertainment, on a certain level, but it's much more than that."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"More? How?"

[cowsquirtdrinkr.livejournal.com]

"I suppose the best way to explain it is that to the people who watched it, enjoyed it, and were inspired it, is that it's their Shakespeare."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"I hardly think the exploits of myself and my crew make for tales of Shakespearean quality," Picard replied. "I'm sorry, I don't yet know the names of everyone on this crew. You are?"

[sonof-mogh.livejournal.com]

"Captain!" Worf was unsettled. He was used to the captain maintaining hsi cool, although, yes, when the Borg were involved he tended to be more...well, passionate. But still, even Worf could see the angry rant at the human girl was unneeded. He hurried after Picard, searching briefly for the man before he found him into the media library. He stepped quietly into the room, looking at the screen with a certain degree of unease and disgust. It was strange to see their lives palyed out on a screen...but there was something more important at the moment. He paused, standing a respectful distance behind Picard before he spoke.

"Captain, please. Show some restraint." This from Worf? Well, he had learned quite a bit on Deep Space Nine. "You must remember, not all of these people are from our world. Most have never encountered the Borg. And while I understand your personal feelings about the Borg, you cannot allow them to control you like this. With all due respect, sir, it sets a poor example for the crew and is detrimental to moral. Remember what happened to you on the Enterprise-E."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"I do remember, Mister Worf," he began. "However ... look at these. Look at them! It's everything, played for drama, for the sake of entertainment! All our flaws, all our losses, everything put on screen and emphasized with soundtrack, no less."

[sonof-mogh.livejournal.com]

"Captain, that does not make what happened to us less...real. Captain, you are the bravest and most capable man I have ever met and if you can deal with the Borg, Q, and everything else that has crossed our path in our missions, then I believe that you can deal with the idea that...that our lives are fictional entertainment elsewhere." He crossed his arms, shifting his weight slightly.

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"I know. I didn't mean to lose my temper like that, Worf. This whole place has gotten to me." He leaned into a seat, setting his palm against his forehead in a classic gesture, sighing as he continued.

"When I heard her speak of our experiences as an episode, and describe it like reading a chapter of a novel, my anger just got the better of me. I'm not perfect, Worf."

[reaverkiller.livejournal.com]

"At least you weren't canceled after fifteen episodes."

River has been doing some research, and talking with certain people, and she's decidedly put out by the untimely demise of her very own TV show.

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

The day had been entirely too stressful for this. "I think I would find that easier to deal with than this."

[reaverkiller.livejournal.com]

She reaches out to pat him softly on the shoulder, sensing clearly that this is about more than just television. She sits next to him, looking absently at the TV screen. "There are worse things to be to someone than fictional. They can't really make you less real."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"I suppose not."

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

"What in the flipping hell was that?!"

If you're expecting sympathy, Jean-Luc, it's not what you're going to get. Not from her. There's an imperious, defiant expression on her face.

One captain speaking to another.

See the icon. You know, minus the gun and all, but the expression could shoot to kill.

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

Ditto for the icon, as Picard sighed, thoroughly deflated of any anger. "That," he said, "was me demonstrating my fallibility and foolishness."

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

"Damn right it was! Jesus, Jean-Luc, you made a teenage girl cry! You think we all don't have a trauma button? And with this crew, knowing as much as some of them do about each other, it's not that hard to stumble all over them, that's for damn sure."

She breathes in a deep breath.

"When I suggested you for captain, I expected you to act with more restraint and stability than myself. I trusted that all your years of experience would lend itself to that. This had damn well better not happen again. You need to take your existential bullshit out behind the woodshed and need to put it out of its misery, because we do not have time for it."

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

"Correction, somebody from our worlds came up with the show as entertainment. People think more of it than just that, especially you asked some of my friends," Kate remarked as a pause inbetween episodes.

She stepped further in, and added with some snark, "That is if you don't try to bite their head off and punch them in the gut if they do so. *Captain.*"

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"I know," Picard replied. "I already received the sermon from Miss Bennett. I'll go apologize to the young woman, but I'm fairly certain she wants time away from me, considering the horrible ogre I became for a minute there."

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

"The young woman also is my best friend, and she's been through some bad times herself. And a lot younger than she is now." Kate wasn't going to say more on it just enough to get her point across. What happens when a family member's a superhero. Family can be targeted.

She kept her voice level, since she wasn't going to get loud like Picard had, even if she was tempted to do. Captain or not because of anything, he should know better.

"And yeah you were, and you're damn lucky you weren't lecturing one of us who went through that business with the Yeerks because we actually *know* what it's like to be turned in something else outside of our control. Don't make assumptions about what other people been through. Also? A lot of us here? Were seen as entertainment on other worlds. How can anybody know who's real until they see that person face to face?"

[captain-jtk.livejournal.com]

Hey, Picard. It's Kirk. The other Captain slips in, placing a hand on the back of Picard's seat, "Captain, I thought I mind find you here. That outburst... what was that about?"

He looks genuinely curious, "I'm afraid I don't know anything of the future or... of what you've encountered, but I have been in first contact situations and I have lost crew to them before."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"The Borg are a machine-race. They exist by taking other organic life forms and assimilating them into their collective. Ecology, theology, free will: none of it means anything to the Borg. Once you're assimilated, you are nothing. A mindless drone, dead but unable to die." Picard sucked in a breath, let it out shakily, and continued.

"During one of our encounters with them, I was assimilated by the Borg. I joined their collective and became a voice known as Locutus. With the knowledge they gained from me, they gained a tactical advantage over a waiting Starfleet assault. A fleet of forty ships was overrun. Thirty-nine of them were completely destroyed, and over eleven thousand lives were lost." Picard glanced away from the screen and Kirk.

"Because of me. Because of my inability to do anything, and the Borg's insatiable desire to consume all in their path."

[captain-jtk.livejournal.com]

Kirk is silent for a long moment, considering Picard's words, weighing them. He finally nods slowly, "I've never had to experience something quite like that, Captain. But... I can only offer you some encouragement and my support."