Monday, September 17, 2012

Non Sequitur

**** (4 stars out of 5)
Ensign Kim wakes up in San Fransisco with Ba'el's identical human cousin Libby. (You all remember Worf's bathing beauty Ba'el from 'Birthright', don't you?  Not just me? These gratuitous Jennifer Gatti scenes are rather memorable... I mean, CRUCIAL STORY POINTS!)

When asked what day it is, Libby answers 49011. (Uh... do people really think in Stardates? I'll accept it, but... well, it's weird. Wouldn't you expect her to say Wednesday? Unless it's Tuesday...)

Harry's swapped destinies with his Academy chum Danny Byrd, who got the post on Voyager.

Stereotypically ethnic barista Cosimo (of Cosimo's Cogs 'N Coffee) brings Kim a Vulcan mocha every morning. Harry graduated eight months ago, requested service on Voyager... and got turned down. He must somehow console himself with his lovely fiancee and fulfilling job designing spaceships.

Time really IS screwy. There are people in hundred-year-old uniforms outside Harry's office!  (No wonder, since the establishing shot is from Star Trek IV.)

Poring over the Voyager's crew manifest, Harry notices Tom Paris wasn't aboard either. The pool-playing parolee missed the boat because he got into a bar fight with Quark.

Breaking into classified files and talking to a Maquis sympathizer gets Harry a new anklet and some complimentary house arrest.

Cosimo "explains" that he came from a temporal inversion fold in the space-time matrix. (Whatever that is.) When Harry's shuttle collided with it, history got slightly scrambled.

In order to keep his cushy job, Earth-adjacent apartment, and towel-clad lover, Harry has to be willing to accept a reality where his own inadvertent actions wrecked things for Tom and Danny. And he's too good a guy for that!

"Non Sequitur" had a happier ending when I thought of it as reversible time-travel, rather than maybe a viable alternate reality.
If that reality still exists, Tom made the ultimate sacrifice and Libby's still probably never going to get Harry back.
Speaking of which, avoid hairy back with Deltan Depilatory! You'll need to re-record your Oath of Celibacy when your partner gets a feel of your smooth, supple skin! (This blip-vert is an unpaid advertisement on behalf of Delta IV and the United Paramount Network.)


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