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Forum namePass The Popcorn
Topic subjectHa, those Prospero lines from The Tempest.
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=6&topic_id=737791&mesg_id=738294
738294, Ha, those Prospero lines from The Tempest.
Posted by stravinskian, Thu Mar-26-20 08:08 PM
I just rewatched it. Liked it a lot more the second time around. I think the first time through my annoyance at the lazy golem idea tainted my view.

I'm still not happy with a few aspects of the episode. But I can come back to my pattern of 'liking how they're saying it' making up for my quibbles with the story.

In particular, the closing got to me more this time than the first time. Those lines from The Tempest are hardly obscure, but I looked up the whole quote:

"
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
"

As Data died, they had Data, then Picard, then the whole room, melt 'into thin air.' (A phrase that Shakespeare invented here, BTW.)

Next episode of Star Trek on my list is Emergence, in which Data plays the part of Prospero and gets notes from Picard. It's one of my favorites (new Vertiform city!).

By the way, anyone who isn't following Patrick Stewart on instagram should know that he's been reading the sonnets, one each day, during the lockdown. Pretty great so far.