# STNG: Data's head is over 500 years old! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2016, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688 "2016-11-05T12:56:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/1 "2016-11-05T12:56:38Z")
Time’s Arrow. The one with the aliens that travel back in time to 19th century Earth to suck the life-force out of poor unsuspecting humans. So Data loses his head in an abandon cavern only to have it reattached 500 years later. And by show’s end, nobody thought to get the “newer” head to replace Data’s “old” head that has been sitting in a dusty old cavern for over 500 years. I don’t know why, but that really pulls me out of the show. Also, for this plot to work, doesn’t that mean in at least one timeline Picard and Guinan had to live out their entire lives (Well, Picard anyway) in the 19th century? What the heck did they do? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/2 "2016-11-05T13:42:33Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Also, for this plot to work, doesn’t that mean in at least one timeline Picard and Guinan had to live out their entire lives (Well, Picard anyway) in the 19th century? > > What the heck did they do? 🙂 Miscegenate. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/3 "2016-11-05T15:11:35Z")
They had to leave the head there because otherwise it would never have been found and all this wouldn’t have happened. Did you SLEEP through your Temporal Mechanics course at the academy? ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/4 "2016-11-05T15:14:02Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Time’s Arrow. The one with the aliens that travel back in time to 19th century Earth to suck the life-force out of poor unsuspecting humans. > > So Data loses his head in an abandon cavern only to have it reattached 500 years later. And by show’s end, nobody thought to get the “newer” head to replace Data’s “old” head that has been sitting in a dusty old cavern for over 500 years. > > I don’t know why, but that really pulls me out of the show. > Also, for this plot to work, doesn’t that mean in at least one timeline Picard and Guinan had to live out their entire lives (Well, Picard anyway) in the 19th century? > > What the heck did they do? 🙂 I think it’s possible for that entire plot to work without any alternate timelines at all! “History has to fulfill itself”, as Guinan told Riker. If they retrieve the newer head, then the old head never existed, and so they never find the life-sucking aliens, and it’s a whole big paradox. And no, Picard and Guinan don’t have to live out any extra time in the 19th century, though it’s possible that Picard may yet go back in time for another adventure with Guinan that she remembers. 😉 Any other questions? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/5 "2016-11-05T22:54:46Z")
So, was Guinan around when the aliens returned Gary Sevin to Earth? If so, diD she meet Kirk and Spock? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/6 "2016-11-05T23:10:08Z")
Doubtful. Guinan was a tourist - she wouldn’t have stayed on earth 150 years just on a lark. She may have encountered Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln, but Kirk and Spock? Highly illogical! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/7 "2016-11-05T23:17:34Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Doubtful. Guinan was a tourist - she wouldn’t have stayed on earth 150 years just on a lark. She may have encountered Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln, but Kirk and Spock? Highly illogical! She may not have met Kirk and Spock, but she did meet Scotty and Chekov on the Enterprise-B. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2016, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/8 "2016-11-07T19:53:56Z")
So that’s three Trek series now where someone is out of phase with the rest of the crew. Data’s head is 500 years older than the rest of him, Chief O’Brien is from half an hour in the future or thereabouts and Ensign Kim is from some sort of slightly parallel universe. Even the original series movies had Kirk’s glasses being sold only to become a gift again. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/9 "2016-11-10T00:30:25Z")
She met - or at least was aware of - Kirk inside the Nexus. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/10 "2016-11-10T01:06:26Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > She met - or at least was aware of - Kirk inside the Nexus. Her Nexus-self was aware of Kirk’s Nexus-self. How this meaningfully translates to conventional reality in the _Star Trek_ universe is unclear and likely to remain so indefinitely. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/11 "2016-11-11T21:31:06Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stng-datas-head-is-over-500-years-old/770688/12 "2016-11-12T00:18:22Z")
I’d say it was her Nexus-self, but his real self, since he met her before he was pulled out. And if we treat the resurrected Kirk from the novels as canon, it’s still possible he’ll meet her and talk to her.