Star Trek: Picard Discussion (SPOILERS)

[Flying Gremlin]

Since it premiered yesterday, I figured we could use a thread. If Zeke wants to sticky, so be it.

[Flying Gremlin]

So here's my thoughts, separate from the main post because that's how I roll:

- The first scene shows the Enterprise-D in all its glory, in great CG. I may or may not have squee'd at it.
- I know Disney owns a lot of the tech, but couldn't they have at least tried to de-age Spiner a bit? He was really showing his age there, and it took me out of it.
- I am a sucker for dogs, and it was nice to see a friendly pit bull. I was genuinely wondering if it's Patrick Stewart's actual dog, I had heard he adopted one.
- The connections with Discovery were subtle, but appreciated. For example, the boyfriend who got offed, nice to see that Xaheans make it to the cusp of the 25th century; Queen Po would eat ice cream in approval.
- The interview was probably the best few minutes of television I have seen in a few years, and great commentary on contemporary media's inherent bias.
- Nice callback to Bruce Maddox. He was almost forgotten in Trek, basically getting one episode and a few mentions later on.
- Also, kudos for showing B-4.
- Seriously, why'd they kill Dahj? I was just starting to like her when she was blown up.
- I know it's the same actress, and the whole twin duality thing is central to the positronic brain creation, but geez, was it jarring to see two different takes.
- The Borg cube reclamation site is interesting, and I would like to see more.

Only real change to canon is that they don't mention Hobus at all, the star that was identified in the reboot movies as being destroyed. They sort of retconned it to be the Romulan star.

[Nate the Great]

I won't be watching Picard, free or not. It has to stand in line behind B5, ENT, and I'm considering a project where I rewrite each episode of Voyager to be less stupid (no more Janeway hypocrisy, transfer screentime from Janeway and Seven to the other characters, no destroying shuttles unless it's absolutely essential, etc.)

[Flying Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

I won't be watching Picard, free or not. It has to stand in line behind B5, ENT, and I'm considering a project where I rewrite each episode of Voyager to be less stupid (no more Janeway hypocrisy, transfer screentime from Janeway and Seven to the other characters, no destroying shuttles unless it's absolutely essential, etc.)

B5 is worthwhile.

ENT... for varying degree of worthwhile. S4 hard yes, S3 soft yes, S1 and S2 you can skip a few episodes.

And that last one will drive you insane. Also, please don't give Chakotay more screen time. Harry and Tom, yes.

[Nate the Great]

In this project we don't need to worry about the ability of the actor to DO these scenes, it's just text. Do you not like Chakotay's general personality as established, Beltran's performance thereof, or just the stupid plotlines he was stuck in? There is a difference.

[Nate the Great]

Picard uses assets from Discovery


Okay, I'm never watching the show. The creators Just Don't Care about continuity. It was easier to borrow assets from Discovery than make new ones, so they did. It didn't matter if the Discovery assets are over a hundred years old by this point, it was easier so they did it.

[Flying Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Do you not like Chakotay's general personality as established, Beltran's performance thereof, or just the stupid plotlines he was stuck in? There is a difference.

The first and the third one. Beltran as an actor is pretty decent.

[Flying Gremlin]

Second episode down.

So they do use the Discovery shuttles a lot, but their use has become clearer - unless there's a branch of Starfleet we are unaware of called "TAXI", seems that quite a few are in civilian use - and we got to see new ships at Utopia Planetia before it got 'sploded. One that stood out looked like it was derived from one of the Ships of the Line calendars, the one with the Ent-E shuttlebay.

Also, space transports actually built as space transports. That made me happy.

Seeing Utopia Planetia before the attack, and how the synthetic attack took place, was a real treat. F8's smile was creepy as all Hell, though. TrekCore has a screen grab, first picture embedded in the article.

You guys know that I used to do a lot of RPG type stuff in the Star Trek universe. Kind of a common trope with these guys, other than something to do with Section 31, is an organized group of Romulans the Tal'Shiar feared, because everyone needed to be bigger and badder. By introducing this group, the Zhat Vash, made the episode seem a little too familiar.

Romulan agents embedded at Starfleet Command., one of which is a Commodore (actually said Commodore, which is the first time since TOS that word was used). No wonder Picard isn't Starfleet anymore.

Kudos to the cameo of Picard's old comm badge from the movies, and Vasquez Rocks. Expected a Gorn to poke his head over a rock at any time there.

Overall, I would call the episode not bad. Can't wait for #3.

[NAHTMMM]

Liked the first episode well enough, but I just don't have time. I'm still on the previous season of Doctor Who.

[Flying Gremlin]

Originally Posted by NAHTMMM

I'm still on the previous season of Doctor Who.

Don't ask how far back I am on Doctor Who. Trying to watch it with someone whom only liked Tennant is a pain in the lower aft region, still in the Smith era.

[Zeke]

I went in skeptical, but so far I love this show. I should've had more faith in Patrick Stewart. He showed heavy signs of age in the first episode -- most notably very slow, deliberate speech -- and I was worried that it would just be depressing to see him like this. As of episode two, though, it's clear that Stewart was playing that up on purpose so we could see this new adventure bring Picard back to life. Can't wait to see where they're going with this story, too. (And I was a hard sell on that, because I hate several major elements they're using here, mainly the destruction of Romulus and no followup to the hope in Nemesis's ending re: Data/B4.)

[Flying Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Zeke

I should've had more faith in Patrick Stewart.

Faith of the heart?

...I'll see myself out.

Originally Posted by Zeke

(And I was a hard sell on that, because I hate several major elements they're using here, mainly the destruction of Romulus and no followup to the hope in Nemesis's ending re: Data/B4.)

They did mention this in a couple of lines, how B4 couldn't handle the strain and just wasn't sophisticated enough. Crushing hope for the future seems to be a recurring theme of the current line of spin-offs.

[Flying Gremlin]

Third episode down.

- Picard's line in the sand moment, when Starfleet accepted his resignation rather than support the modified rescue plan, was heartbreaking.
- Commodore Oh might want to learn that black Ray Bans basically scream, "I'm with a secret organization! Look at meeeeeee!"
- Also, fix your pips, Oh. So annoying.
- Ugh, vaping in the 24th century.
- Does anyone else want to hug Alison Pill's character? Just me? Damn.
- The Romulans still don't believe in a stun setting. They may be overdramatic, but they're consistent.
- Hi, Hugh.
- Sad to see what former drones look like when they are not brought out of the Collective in a safe and secure environment.
- Well, Picard has his crew together now, save a few. I thought his Romulan farm hands were coming along too, but I guess not. Pity, I like the female one.
- "Engage!"

[Flying Gremlin]

Fourth episode down. It wasn't anything to lose your head over, like that Romulan did.

This is a lot more humbling of a show than I thought it would be.

And hi, Seven.

I have other notes - Soji's head twitch was a really nice touch, for example - but I want to have more context as the series progresses.

[Flying Gremlin]

So the biggest thing from this latest episode I got was that...

C/7 is not a thing!!!!!!!

Icheb is dead, as is Bruce Maddox. The former was killed by the person Seven killed, and the latter was Dr. Juroti (who seemed to be influenced to do it, I will put money down that it was Oh).

[Flying Gremlin]

...am I the only one watching this show?

In any case, some nice continuity nods on this one, like the Borg assimilating technology from a planet that Voyager visited in season 1 (link to the fiver because life is long and this is short).

It also seems weird to say about a Star Trek show that it was refreshing to see someone actually happy to see Picard, after so many that weren't. Hugh and Picard meeting face to face was a real treat.

[Nate the Great]

Probably, yeah.

[Flying Gremlin]

Pity. You would have liked the episode. Riker and Troi show up, mention the Kzinti, and show off their daughter and dead son.

...except them killing Hugh. That was wrong.

[Nate the Great]

They blew up Utopia Planitia? That's just stupid. As much as I hate blowing up Vulcan, I could see why they did it, even if the reasons are stupid. But Utopia Planitia falls in the category of "we are doing this to be petty and rile up the old-school Trekkies that we are being forced to appeal to."

[Flying Gremlin]

They have plenty of reasons to do it, the biggest one being the Romulans are playing Batman Gambit with the galaxy because they think they are preventing the robopocalypse.

Okay, so I took a break from writing here, and the final episode premiered. If you do not want to pay for it, CBS All Access opened up their free portal for a 30-day trial or something like that in the States, so go nuts and watch. Otherwise, bugger off, I'm gonna be spoilering the entire season in this little review here. You hath been warned.






I may be ever the optimist about Trek, not gonna lie, and I really liked Picard. It's definitely not the Trek we were used to - modern Trek appears very serialized and not episodic at all, and you have to examine the seasons as wholes in order to get the Big Picture(™). Would certain details be done differently if I was in charge? To quote F8, Hell yeah. Do I think it was perfect? No, but it was entertaining, which is what I ask of anything.

The fact that they were operating under fear and, as Picard had mentioned, without a guiding hand seemed to be a central theme, or as close to a central theme as we could get in this series. Looks like Admiral Picard was indeed the father figure they needed.

The true death of Data was handled very, very respectfully and was a touching moment. I cried. Many a person I have spoken to has reported the same feeling. I am glad this arc is complete.

So for the problems that were present:

• The Borg cube/Artifact hitting the planet, unless it was falling like a feather would have made sufficient seismic issues for the people living on the planet. Seriously, why wasn't this mentioned or addressed? The giant space orchid defenses (no, seriously, more on this later) couldn't have softened that blow so delicately for that big of an object.
• Speaking of, giant orchid orbital defense system? Granted, they're pretty, but they seem unnecessarily complex.
• A synth can mind meld. I repeat, a synth, or an artificial being like Data, can mind meld. I'll let Nate rage about that one for me, I still don't like it.
• ANOTHER Soong that looks exactly like the others. That is not how genetics works (though I have an excellent fan theory on this one, if you ever want to hear about it).
• Narissa, seriously, stop avoiding death so easil- oh, right, you were Sparta kicked down a deep hole at the end. Unless they end up reversing this and she uses an escape transporter again, which is quite possible considering if she was falling from a height of about 500 meters down the middle of that Borg cube it would have taken her a little over 7 seconds to reach the bottom give or take for local gravity PLEASE DON'T MAKE THIS HAPPEN MICHAEL CHABON I WILL PAY YOU TO NOT MAKE THIS HAPPEN
• Speaking of hard to kill Romulans, where did Narek go at the end?
• Why did the super-synth race (BTW, Word of God says they were created by the T'kon Empire) look like a combination of CONTROL and that Insecurity virus from Ralph Breaks the Internet?
• Picard's death and resurrection, they might as well have just called the golem Soong asked Juroti to work on "Chekov's Gun".
• They should have made Riker a Fleet Captain or a Commodore. Okay, this one is minor, but come on.
• Okay, so I am going to bring up the biggest criticism of the show, in that there was only one class of Starfleet ship in the showdown at the synth planet. This was actually due to a time crunch for the VFX artists - they didn't have the time to do any more models, and honestly with how complex some of the models are I understand, but it makes it look like Starfleet only has one class of ship to field. Put an old Galaxy on the front lines, you definitely had one of those models built.
• So now Picard is a synth. This raises so many questions, I could make a thread just discussing those questions.

I think that about sums it up for the last few episodes. There's plenty of 'shipping to do in this series - Juroti/Rios, Seven/Raffi, Hugh/Elnor - so I fully expect any Fivers to have abbreviations.