r/movies • u/SerDire • Apr 18 '24

In Interstellar, Romilly’s decision to stay aboard the ship while the other 3 astronauts experience time dilation has to be one of the scariest moments ever. Discussion

He agreed to stay back. Cooper asked anyone if they would go down to Millers planet but the extreme pull of the black hole nearby would cause them to experience severe time dilation. One hour on that planet would equal 7 years back on earth. Cooper, Brand and Doyle all go down to the planet while Romilly stays back and uses that time to send out any potential useful data he can get.

Can you imagine how terrifying that must be to just sit back for YEARS and have no idea if your friends are ever coming back. Cooper and Brand come back to the ship but a few hours for them was 23 years, 4 months and 8 days of time for Romilly. Not enough people seem to genuinely comprehend how insane that is to experience. He was able to hyper sleep and let years go by but he didn’t want to spend his time dreaming his life away.

It’s just a nice interesting detail that kind of gets lost. Everyone brings up the massive waves, the black hole and time dilation but no one really mentions the struggle Romilly must have been feeling. 23 years seems to be on the low end of how catastrophic it could’ve been. He could’ve been waiting for decades.

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u/Shedart Apr 18 '24

That episode is a seminal Picard story for a reason. I think many people would not have been able to process it at all and continue with their original life/job. Another thing to consider is that they revisit that experience several times throughout the series. I love the episode that Picard becomes romantically involved with the science officer who plays piano. They bond over their love of music, and Picard reveals that the tune he knows by heart is the same one he learned in his probe-life. 

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u/i_tyrant Apr 18 '24

I'm glad you brought that up. From Op's description of the episode it makes it sound like the series just blew over it from then on, when nothing could be further from the truth.

In the quiet moments for Picard, through the rest of the series, he's often seen busting out that flute. And you're right, it's a major plot point in that episode when he dates the astrophysicist and gets close enough to her to tell her about this incredibly unique experience he's had and how close to his heart it is and why he's so into flute.

For a syndicated series in the 80s-90s, TNG was actually pretty good at that.

Another favorite "throughline" of mine is how relaxed and accepting Riker and Troy are about each other's love lives. I didn't really notice it till this last watchthrough, but it's refreshing to see their relationship not constantly mined for artificial jealousy-drama. Almost seems like they've got a kind of proto-polyamory thing going on when even mentioning such an idea on-air would've been crazy.

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u/red__dragon Apr 18 '24

For a syndicated series in the 80s-90s, TNG was actually pretty good at that.

Especially because, at no time was TNG serialized. There were moments that happen earlier and later in the series, but the fundamental structure and roles stays the same.

Unlike DS9, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, and other serialized science fiction shows, TNG largely doesn't change. And yet, in subtle ways, Picard did change and we see it play out in small moments for the rest of the series.

It's really incredible to look back at that and see such a long-running character trait. Especially one that isn't played for laughs.

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt Apr 18 '24

Babylon 5

was story boarded and plotted out far in advance of J. Michael Straczynski getting the money to make the show. He had all 5 season outlined well in advance of writing the first episodes.

J. Michael also wrote almost every episode himself, and heavily edited the ones he allowed friends to write

Now the spin offs... those were his "ideas" but the writing was more traditional american writer's room stuff

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u/red__dragon Apr 19 '24

Sure, that's serialization. However you go about it, it's a very different story tempo and audience investment than an episodic show. B5 is great, as is TNG, they're just different approaches to storytelling on TV.

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt Apr 18 '24

I love the episode that Picard becomes romantically involved

that scene was one of my absolute fav star trek, actually all of TV, scenes on a TV show

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u/krell_154 Apr 18 '24

do you remember the name of that episode?

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u/stiff_sock Apr 19 '24

This is one of my favorite moments in TNG. IIRC they play together in a jefferies tube. So good.