#025 - No, Geordi, you’re not conveying noble frustration quite right.

Hey, remember the battle of Wolf 359? Where Picard-as-Locutus, newly kidnapped and recruited commander of the Borg forces, blew up a crapload of Starfleet vessels, getting Ben Sisko’s wife killed in the process?

Well, Picard doesn’t, and neither does anyone else, because, as previously established, we’re still in the middle of Season 3 of Next Gen when this game is taking place, so that hasn’t happened yet. Or ever? Who knows, it’s the future. Okay? Okay. Good.

But! Sisko’s distate for, and icy confrontation with, Picard obviously happened in the (sometimes muddy on the details) televisual recreation we have of this RPG campaign, so that must have been more or less part of Picard’s conception of the Sisko character. But Picard is not the sort of guy I see as imagining himself as being compromised in body and mind by a hostile alien society; that’s just a bit dark, yes? So, not that. Something less morally compromising, something that creates a difficult situation but one in which Picard can still claim some redemptive high ground regardless of the stakes. Less “ocular implant” and more “stiff upper lip”, and all that.

And so, yes! The battle of Morton’s Fork! Who can forget it! I’m sure we’ll hear a little bit more about that on Monday. This was in fact originally going to be a single strip, but I think it’ll work better if I break it up a bit and let Picard really properly shout at himself a bit in a followup instead of rushing it in here. Plus it seems to be working pretty well for Peter Jackson.