Dating me is wild;
You get a sage, a geek, a fellow traveler, a teller of tall tails, a friend, but mostly a guy comfortable with solitude.
Oh, I love this game!
Dating me is wild:
You get a chameleon who can probably match your interests with ease, and is good giving and game elsewhere, too; but whose warmth does not translate to love with ease, and probably won't ever, because that lil' ol' box of a heart is locked up something fierce, and carried around in a body perfectly comfortable being left the hell alone.
(😬 Part cat, part Grimm's Fairy Tale?)
Hmmmm, the first part reminded me of Kamala (not that one, lol), the empathic metamorph from ST:TNG. 🤓 🖖
You know me perfectly. :) That is secretly the episode of TNG that haunts me to my core.
Does she secretly want to be left the hell alone, though, like the likes of us??? 🤔
Well that's just it, isn't it?
The question of the episode is whether she made her final choice of her own volition, or because it was the kind of choice that Picard would have made. And if she has "chosen" to take his model for herself, then she'll retain that independent spirit of him, too.
From there on out, she will always have a private life that no one else can touch, and which will always be content simply on its own, as Picard affects he is so often, too.
The idea of "self", what it is, how it is formed. Does it exist at all. What happens to it under stress. Is a slightly uncommon theme is SF. Yet there are a few books and stories that plunge right into the meat of this. I am horrible with titles and authors, but I can think of a half a dozen plots that evolve around this.
Not enough though, we need more.
There were three on this year's Le Guin Award list that explore this question: Orbital, It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over, & Sift. The first uses the ISS to contemplate where we begin and end; the second is philosophical zombie fic; the third eradicates ego in a post-climate-change world.
Also, I think I mentioned The Employees to you (on the Arthur C. Clarke list some years back). That one is fantastic at meditating on the Self outside of Work. It's a great theme!
She and Picard are cut from the same cloth, but is it fair to say that she was born to be alone, but Picard chose it?
As an incorrigible pessimist, I assume the metamorph will finally lose "herself" to the one to whom she finally *vows* "I am for you" regardless of what came before. A re-watch is in order.
Excellent choice for a favourite episode! I usually say Chain of Command, though I've been known to change my mind from time to time.
By cut from the same cloth, I'm referring their shared sense of duty...
@LiseL @MLClark @corlin @Susandoyle Y’all remember a lot more about this episode than I do. It made an impression, sure, but not many plot details have stayed in my head since I last saw it in 1992.
@Boyceaz @MLClark @corlin @Susandoyle
Gosh, I wouldn't remember much if I hadn't watched it since it first aired! Time for a re-watch? Me too!
@LiseL @MLClark @corlin @Susandoyle Well that seems like cheating.
@LiseL @corlin @Susandoyle
(That is secretly/now-not-so-secretly my favourite episode. The question of Self and Choice that it presents is, to my mind, one of the biggest in all of Trek.)