SFDebris: Rapture

[Captain Seafort]

Blip

Decent review, although I'm slightly disappointed that Chuck didn't raise the possibility that Sisko's "visions" were simply hallucinations caused by brain damage. The Prophets have, after all, never before or since attempted to communicate through visual metaphors in this way, and it's not exactly stunning to suggest that the Dominion would invade and attempt to establish a beachhead.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Although I won't be able to watch this until tomorrow... now I've got that Blondie song stuck in my head.

[Teaos]

That painting was apparently done by the DaVinci of bajor if he painted in a blurred reflection in a painting 20000 years ago. Someone call dan brown.

[McAvoy]

I have a hard time believing the Bajorans are stupid enough not to notice the reflection.

[Tyyr]

I have a hard time believing the Bajorans are stupid enough not to notice the reflection.

Yeah, that's my issue with it. 20,000 years an Sisko is the first person to notice it? What did Bajorans appreciate the painting by not looking at it?

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I rather like his spiel before the episode, about what Trek can be to different people. Also, I'm looking forward to 'Who Watches the Watchers?'. I rather liked that episode.

[Tholian_Avenger]

It would have been nice if the painting had been damaged and only the advanced technology of the Federation was able to recover the bits needed for the reflection.

[Tyyr]

Now that could have worked. Something besides Bajorans being blind.

[Sonic Glitch]

Honestly, how much attention would you pay to the reflection of a painting? Even if you noticed the painter had included the reflection would you honestly expect the writing on it to be accurate and not just artistic license?

[Graham Kennedy]

Honestly, how much attention would you pay to the reflection of a painting? Even if you noticed the painter had included the reflection would you honestly expect the writing on it to be accurate and not just artistic license?

Any individual might well miss it. The entirety of Bajoran society collectively to miss it for centuries looks like idiocy. For Sisko to then solve it within ten minutes... it's a bit nonsensical.

[Tyyr]

Seriously, look at any popular classical painting. Do you know how scrutinized they are? There are people who devote weeks or months to individual works of art, studying them in minute detail. For a painting as high profile as this one is supposed to have been there's no way you wouldn't have had dozens, even hundreds of scholars studying it intensely. And they all missed the reflection.

[Teaos]

They even scan them in light waves to see old layers of paint.

[McAvoy]

Well at least the special ones. The Bajorans consider this one very special.

There are so many tests that we do in old even semi famous paintings even to see the brush strokes.

The Bajorans were blind not to see. I do think it would have been better if the painting was damaged or faulted in some way so only Federation could figure it out. Seems more plausible to me.

[Tsukiyumi]

Considering how religious the Bajorans were, it would make plenty of sense for no one to be allowed to study or even see this painting for thousands of years, Tabernacle style.

[Graham Kennedy]

Personally I would have made it a fabled long-lost work of art that had just been rediscovered a few weeks ago. The Bajorans have asked the Federation to scan it for them precisely because they want to do a super-detailed analysis of it and the Federation scanners are better than anything the Bajorans have. Hence this is the first time anybody has really given it a detailed close look.

Or maybe it's that they want it restored - very old paintings can be covered in layers of dirt, maybe the Federation has some super-accurate ultra precision transporter than can literally beam the dirt off the surface of a painting to restore it. Then Sisko finds the reflections which have been lost under the dirt and not visible all this time.

There are ways they could have gone that make waaaay more sense.