"You know that thing has settings other than Disintegrate, right?"
"There's also 'No, Really, Disintegrate.'"
"... Okay, I'm taking that phaser away from you."

>I did think it was kind of cute that multiple characters in the "you
>have just arrived in 2410" bit of the story arc remark on how good
>your repro 2260s uniform is, like they've taken you for some kind of
>25th-century SCA member. The tailor at ESD even gushes a little about
>how authentic the materials look.

Oh please. The Tailor knows it's the real deal. The Tailor knows everything. He's just having far too much fun Not Saying It.

> I don't really get why you have to
>pretend you're not from the past, though. When has any time traveler
>in Star Trek ever not just said "yeah, I'm from 2269, nice
>future you got here"?

Something to do with That Asshole making up a cover story when he kidnapped you, so the Na'Kuhl don't know you're secretly working to stop them. That's my best guess anyway. It's 2410, accidental time travellers accounted for at least 5% of Captains even before That Asshole showed up.

> Shit, even the Time Police have a dude standing
>right outside Admiral Quinn's new office wearing a name tag that says
>"Hello, my name is Time Cop". They're obviously not a
>secret organization, except that they are.

Well, he's from the Department of Temporal Investigations, who is there to assist in cleaning up after all time travel related shenanigans, which in this case is apparently done by... helping to cause another time travel shenanigan... Huh. He must wonder about his job sometimes.

(Also, he's actually another time traveller from the 23rd Century himself. He was on that ship that got stuck in a time loop and crashed into the Enterprise-D a few dozen times.)

Personally, I have the mental image of That Asshole going on and on about a cover story, how he's magically implanting all the technical and cultural knowledge of 2410 into your brain, dropping you off and telling you you can't tell anyone how you were just kidnapped, lost everyone you ever knew, and are now trapped in a strange land that looks twistedly familiar... Then you sit down in Admiral Quinn's office.

"So, Commander, according to this file DTI doesn't want me to see, you're from 2269?"
"Yes sir. Kidnapped by a time traveller from the 31st Century."
"Ah yes. Federation Time Criminal Minus One. We know of him. Well, let's see what we can do for you."

>Anyway, thinking about this again has reminded me of the thing I'm
>most disappointed about in re the 23rd-century storyline, besides how
>short (and almost entirely contaminated with the Time Police business)

I'm fine with shoutouts, hell, that's pretty much what STO runs on sometimes, but man oh man, did early AoY do such a lazy job about it. "Do pretty much what Kirk did this episode. Do what Kirk did in this episode. Stand in the background of this scene!"

>it is: which is that they wrote it in such a way that your character
>expresses no skepticism at all about Agent Daniels when he
>reveals himself. He offers no evidence of anything he is saying

Supposedly, everything about Daniels involvement in the 2150s was well and truly classified. And clearly, the player captain couldn't know about him, because any official information would likely include an order from Admiral Archer to punch him in the face.

>(until much later in the story arc), and you, a hard-nosed
>Starfleet captain from an age when they were still Largely Autonomous
>Two-Fisted Explorers, just sort of nod and start doing what he says
>immediately,

STO's pretty bad at giving the player the ability to emote. I don't wanna know how many times we've committed war crimes because of that.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter