The only good thing about the last episode was Seven taking revenge. Icheb was just horrible. I comforted myself by telling me that the physician's work on the former Borg is 100% illogical. If they can scan an individual for the implants, why would they search for them that way? Why wouldn't they at least sedate them (also to minimize the risk for themselves)? This makes no sense altogether.
Eh, it's the usual trope of "capitalism is bad, m'kay" that shows love to push, because everyone in TV/movies do it all for the love of it, and LA's endemic homelessness problem is really the entire TV/movie industry who work for nothing. The guy on the bench who smells like the inside of a used coffin? Spielberg. Who knew? Cleans up real good.
I'm enjoying the show, but it seems the writers really like Firefly. I mean, I do too, but I've already got that and was hoping for something a little different.
And the Easter Eggs are fun - anyone spot that Mot now has a hair emporium? - but add to the Small World Syndrome that was Seven riding to the rescue.
I'm fine with the dystopian slant, the Federation has hit an insular phase, so places on the outskirts who may have once felt secure being near the Federation without being members can no longer count on patrol ships keeping the wolves at bay. And you don't have a major power collapse without some consequences, so it could be viewed as a parallel to when the Soviet Union collapsed and for a few years became a sad beacon of gangster capitalism that even now haunts it, with Putin happy to take a cut of oligarch money in exchange for not killing them, and an almost desperate determination to recover their sphere of influence.
But there's a bit of lack of imagination about the whole thing, and I'm hoping the second half of the season remedies that.
The first season's middle act concludes with Picard rescuing Soji from the Artifact, the latter now knowing what she is. That's a single sentence synopsis that makes it sound either like a ho-hum affair or something with wall to wall action, but it isn't. The passages with Picard confronting his history with the Borg were well handled, I thought. This wasn't the time for a therapy couch session, so I'm fine with keeping that stuff to a relative minimum. What we did see and hear from Picard was sufficient. It's remarkable, how much emotional depth Patrick Stewart can imbue in a single facial expression or a terse word. I guess the Locutus we saw in the trailer was just archival footage?
The centerpiece of the episode, though, is Soji's self-discovery. Harry Treadaway and Isa Briones played their scenes wonderfully, especially the climactic revelation and Narek's betrayal. Despite already knowing what neither Narek or Soji knew, I was captivated by watching them learn it together. Knowing that he was going to betray her created a good deal of dramatic tension, too, of course. I felt their anguish.
Or, at least, almost nothing unexpected happens. Hadn't anticipated Rios and Jurati hooking up. Seems sleazy for him to insert himself into her grief like that, even if she is a duplicitous murderer. Also, I don't get why Elnor had to stay behind on the Artifact, except that the next episode requires that he be there.
Also, I don't get why Elnor had to stay behind on the Artifact, except that the next episode requires that he be there.
Though it wasn't made terribly explicit, the way I understood Hugh's comment about it taking some time to shut it all down meant that if the Romulans were to have gotten into that room (or even knew how to get into the room) before the shutting down of the "magic doorway" (since I don't have the actual name for it handy right now) and the closing off of the room itself, they would also be able to determine where Locutus and Soji went — and perhaps even follow them there.
So Elnor had to prevent them from getting into the room/slow them down/offer them the chance to "choose to live".
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing. ~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
Quite slow - but the Picard/Hugh scenes were excellent and thought the end was great.
From the episode 7 trailer it looks like he runs out of options and goes to Riker for help which, in spite of the fact its not meant to be a TNG rerun and that's fine, was always a more likely end point than Raffi who - whilst is fine - was never going to have forged the same bond in a year or two that he and Riker had over 2 decades...
long time trekkie fan but i think the pacing of picard is a real problem i think the show would be viewed best all in one go so you woudlnt notice it as much but it would still be there.
Respectfully, I disagree and think this is already the best Trek since DS9 went off the air. Bold statement one episode in, but unless Picard goes GoT final season, I'm comfortable saying it.
I'm mindful that I felt in 1995 that "Caretaker" was the best Trek pilot, and by 1996 felt VOY was the worst Trek series. I'm more invested in this series than I was in VOY, ENT, or DSC after the pilot, but I'm also mindful that this has more to do with preexisting goodwill for legacy characters. Once we get more into what's new and original about this series, I should be more able to untangle all that.
That's a fair point about pilots and preexisting good will. At this point, I'm feeling pretty good about my pronouncement though.
That aside, I've never been comfortable with the ending to "Caretaker" and as the pilot, it's always been a major point of failure to me. How quickly did Spock and McCoy alter a torpedo in ST:VI? Couldn't Tuvok have likewise modified the tri-cobalt devices to have a timed destruction after Voyager used the Array to return to the Alpha Quadrant? While I've moderated my opinion of VOY over time, it still beggars belief that that ship and crew survived seven years in the Delta Quadrant when they made one of the poorest onscreen choices in canon history in the first ep.
Taking a long view of post-TNG Trek, I am increasingly getting the sense that the producers and writers actually do learn from the mistakes of the previous series when creating a new show. VOY had so much potential, but was almost immediately squandered and became TNG in the Delta Quadrant. BUT it's obvious in hindsight that the producers felt they needed another episodic show due to fan backlash to the serialized and static nature of DS9.
ENT executed the VOY concept of ship alone in deep space much more successfully in a lot of ways. But the prequel concept, largely episodic nature, and terrible acting/characterizations really dragged it down.
DISCO picked up the prequel gauntlet, but it didn't retcon in the greatest captain of all time who we never heard of before. For all the criticism of Burnham, she still pales in comparison to the nonsense Archer routinely pulled out of his pocket. There's a lot of criticism leveled at DISCO, but it doesn't substantively commit prequel sins that ENT hadn't already committed. For better or worse, DISCO at least tries to push the envelope of what a Star Trek series could be, which is more than we can say for VOY or ENT.
And with Picard, we're seeing the most sensible correction yet: fans want to see what happened in the post-TNG/DS9/VOY years. Despite being constructed around a specific character, it's far more of an ensemble show than DISCO has so far managed to be. It's more thoughtful and better paced than DISCO. Picard is not stretching out underwhelming and predictable plot reveals across a full season--substantive developments are happening all along the way. Unlike DISCO's risk taking in storytelling (that have been largely absent from the franchise since TNG/DS9 aired), Picard is making the risks work. It's also much better and drawing analogies to contemporary issues/society than DISCO.
For those that disagree with my view of Picard, having lived through two Trek series I had a deep dislike for I can empathize with the feeling of being disappointed/underwhelmed/bored/alienated/etc. I am heartened that the critical reaction to Picard has been vastly more intelligent than the average DISCO criticism.
For my $0.02, there has yet to be a single episode where I wasn't completely drawn in to the story. Having engaged in more than a few fanfiction efforts in my younger days, Picard is more than meeting my expectations of where I saw the Trek universe going. Could things still go south? Sure. But for now I'm going to enjoy this rare instance of general satisfaction I derive from contemporary film/tv. That it happens to be set in the Trek universe is gravy.
And with Picard, we're seeing the most sensible correction yet: fans want to see what happened in the post-TNG/DS9/VOY years. Despite being constructed around a specific character, it's far more of an ensemble show than DISCO has so far managed to be. It's more thoughtful and better paced than DISCO. Picard is not stretching out underwhelming and predictable plot reveals across a full season--substantive developments are happening all along the way.
I dunno that I agree about PIC not having predictable plot reveals. There are surprises, yes, but it works because there's a Hitchcockian approach to PIC: Letting the audience be one step ahead of the characters. This week's "The Impossible Box", for instance, was built on two dominant plot points: Picard confronting his past with the Borg, and Soji learning what she is. Both were set up all the way back in the first episode, so they were predictable. They were also some of the most compelling story sequences yet, because I knew what the confrontation would mean to Picard, and what awaited Soji, I was invested in their fates enough that watching them have to go through what I knew they would endure tapped into my empathy. I had time to care.
I like Disco, but one of my chief complaints is that it won't let us know anything until the characters find out. They're far too fixated on trying to be cleverer than the audience. Sometimes they get one by me that's exciting, but often I find their surprise plot twists contrived and convoluted. In fairness, that gimmickry has become commonplace in movies and TV series for the last decade or so. I prefer the PIC/Hitchcock approach of trusting me to be affected even if I know important things ahead of time.
And with Picard, we're seeing the most sensible correction yet: fans want to see what happened in the post-TNG/DS9/VOY years. Despite being constructed around a specific character, it's far more of an ensemble show than DISCO has so far managed to be. It's more thoughtful and better paced than DISCO. Picard is not stretching out underwhelming and predictable plot reveals across a full season--substantive developments are happening all along the way.
I dunno that I agree about PIC not having predictable plot reveals. There are surprises, yes, but it works because there's a Hitchcockian approach to PIC: Letting the audience be one step ahead of the characters. This week's "The Impossible Box", for instance, was built on two dominant plot points: Picard confronting his past with the Borg, and Soji learning what she is. Both were set up all the way back in the first episode, so they were predictable. They were also some of the most compelling story sequences yet, because I knew what the confrontation would mean to Picard, and what awaited Soji, I was invested in their fates enough that watching them have to go through what I knew they would endure tapped into my empathy. I had time to care.
I like Disco, but one of my chief complaints is that it won't let us know anything until the characters find out. They're far too fixated on trying to be cleverer than the audience. Sometimes they get one by me that's exciting, but often I find their surprise plot twists contrived and convoluted. In fairness, that gimmickry has become commonplace in movies and TV series for the last decade or so. I prefer the PIC/Hitchcock approach of trusting me to be affected even if I know important things ahead of time.
As an example of the not predictable I'm referring to: Dahj being a synth, and organic one at that, and being murdered in the first ep. DISCO would have stretched out that organic synth reveal for at least half a season and then telegraphed the murder.
Another example was your drawing a line to Seven and Section 31. I personally didn't expect a Section 31 affiliation, but I really didn't expect a non-Federation vigilante affiliation.
For another, Jurati being a plant/turncoat was somewhat predictable, but killing her ex-lover/mentor in the same ep she gets him back?
They also aren't necessarily "big" plot reveals, like Picard taking on a surrogate (grand)parent role with Elnor.
There's nuance and subversion of expectation that's basically a full 180 from what we see on DISCO. And I say this as someone who's mostly a fan of DISCO.
That aside, I think you lay out the narrative differences between Picard and DISCO quite well.
And with Picard, we're seeing the most sensible correction yet: fans want to see what happened in the post-TNG/DS9/VOY years. Despite being constructed around a specific character, it's far more of an ensemble show than DISCO has so far managed to be. It's more thoughtful and better paced than DISCO. Picard is not stretching out underwhelming and predictable plot reveals across a full season--substantive developments are happening all along the way.
I dunno that I agree about PIC not having predictable plot reveals. There are surprises, yes, but it works because there's a Hitchcockian approach to PIC: Letting the audience be one step ahead of the characters. This week's "The Impossible Box", for instance, was built on two dominant plot points: Picard confronting his past with the Borg, and Soji learning what she is. Both were set up all the way back in the first episode, so they were predictable. They were also some of the most compelling story sequences yet, because I knew what the confrontation would mean to Picard, and what awaited Soji, I was invested in their fates enough that watching them have to go through what I knew they would endure tapped into my empathy. I had time to care.
I like Disco, but one of my chief complaints is that it won't let us know anything until the characters find out. They're far too fixated on trying to be cleverer than the audience. Sometimes they get one by me that's exciting, but often I find their surprise plot twists contrived and convoluted. In fairness, that gimmickry has become commonplace in movies and TV series for the last decade or so. I prefer the PIC/Hitchcock approach of trusting me to be affected even if I know important things ahead of time.
As an example of the not predictable I'm referring to: Dahj being a synth, and organic one at that, and being murdered in the first ep. DISCO would have stretched out that organic synth reveal for at least half a season and then telegraphed the murder.
Another example was your drawing a line to Seven and Section 31. I personally didn't expect a Section 31 affiliation, but I really didn't expect a non-Federation vigilante affiliation.
For another, Jurati being a plant/turncoat was somewhat predictable, but killing her ex-lover/mentor in the same ep she gets him back?
They also aren't necessarily "big" plot reveals, like Picard taking on a surrogate (grand)parent role with Elnor.
There's nuance and subversion of expectation that's basically a full 180 from what we see on DISCO. And I say this as someone who's mostly a fan of DISCO.
That aside, I think you lay out the narrative differences between Picard and DISCO quite well.
Ah. I see now how I misread where to place emphasis in your original statement. My bad! We're on the same page.
I was kind of disappointed by this episode, honestly. It was nice to see Riker and Troi, and we knew going in that their roles would be small in this series (or, at least, in this season) so I was content with how they were used here. It would have been nice to them have some kind of response to Soji vis a vis Data, though. Picard has fixated on her because of her connection to Data, but Riker and Troi seem uninterested altogether.
It threw me to hear them address him as "Jean-Luc", though. Partly because that was not how they addressed him even in private on TNG, but also because it's so common for retired military people to continue addressing their former superiors by their rank even if it serves as a nickname as civilians. That aside, I did appreciate both of them call out Picard on his "arrogance" and insensitivity. That's been a key theme, and hearing it from them must resonate with him more personally than hearing it from, say, Raffi.
The scenes with Soji and Kestra were sweet, but also kind of rote. The former was passive and the latter got stuck with all the exposition. Just why does Kestra connect with Soji, except as a novelty? Structurally, that stuff had to happen and there isn't really any more interesting way to do go about it, but it felt too perfunctory.
Dr. Jurati's back story was simpler than I thought it might be, too. She must be exceptionally impressionable to turn into a killer after a single mind meld of things that she already knew happened. I guess it works, but it feels half-baked.
Over on the Artifact, the fake-out with Narissa saying she couldn't kill Hugh in the beginning nicely set up a more effective scene later, though, because 1) I'd kinda forgotten about Hugh and Elnor altogether by that point and 2) I'd had an entire week to anticipate it so it had time to germinate. Knowing it was coming this week gave it more heft than if it had been a "surprise" last week. I'm curious to see just how Elnor goes about hijacking a Borg Cube, though. Also, I'm excited to see Seven will be back!
Nepenthe: Not much to say except that I liked it, for the most part. Also good to know I was right about the reason for Agnes' breaking bad.
And the next episode looks quite interesting.
One thing I really appreciate about Picard so far is that we have already seen quite a few different destinations/locations, which helps the show feel more like the Trek I know and love.
Is it perfect? No, far from it. But I think it's further along than Discovery was at this point in its first season. That show kept getting better, and I have hopes that this one will continue to do so, as well. In addition, I think that sometimes as a viewer it just takes a bit of becoming more comfortable with the concept of a new show (and of course with new characters, too), so that will also likely make my appreciation of it grow over time.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing. ~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
One thing I really appreciate about Picard so far is that we have already seen quite a few different destinations/locations, which helps the show feel more like the Trek I know and love.
It took three episodes to leave Earth, but since then I think there's been almost a Star Wars-ian effort to keep each place from feeling homogeneous as they often were in previous Trek series. I may forget their names later, but I'll still be able to keep them straight.
Vishti is barren where the Romulan town is, but the Qowat Milat have sustained some greenery. It suggests that they've been the only successful custodians of Romulan culture.
Freecloud is a dystopian hybrid of the Las Vegas Strip and Tokyo. It's hyper commercial, bombarding the wanderer everywhere they go. A lot of people there are probably no better off than the Romulan refugees, but surrounded by (nefarious) opportunity that doesn't exist on Vishti.
Nepenthe is Alaska; unspoiled and lush; serene; and isolated.
ep 6 and 7 have been my favorites of the series thus far. however the killing of recurring trek characters in this show is tiresome for me. after icheb i figured hugh was next and, unsurprisingly, he was killed. i dont mind a modern, gritty trek but its a tad too dark imo. red shirts and random xb that we never met... fine lol.
i was looking forward to seven and hugh scenes and was hopeful for hugh and geordi in s2 but alas this wont happen becos it has to be "modern".
i dont mind a modern, gritty trek but its a tad too dark imo. red shirts and random xb that we never met... fine lol.
Counterargument: Maybe it's good that we give a damn rather than lol at the deaths of "red shirts and random xB". Shouldn't we remember that people aren't disposable?
When push comes to shove - we simply don’t care what Raffi and Co think of Picard. They haven’t earned the right to have their view. With Riker and Troi we see a relationship built up over 30 years (and 250+ hours of tv and film) and it’s a meaningful relationship. Really good watch that bit.
Now that Hugh has joined Icheb in the list of “affable former Borg who prove that redemption is all well and good but the Galaxy is full of ****” dead Borg, I am sort of convinced we’re going to see an addition to it. There’s been some small murmurs of discontent about Icheb and Hugh, but I’m convinced they’ll go nuclear and kill off a former full cast. And I don’t think we’ll see Jeri Ryan in series 2...
i hesitated posting what you quoted in fear of it being construed as indifference to life in general. my gripe is the murdering of recurring trek characters happens too frequently in this show. the impression i get is : "ok your scenes are finished. you did what you needed to for the story. now you die. we dont need you anymore." icheb deserved better than a gruesome killing as motivation for revenge. the first half of the story involved finding maddox. onces he rescued hes promptly killed. hugh became a warm character to look forward to with much potential for interaction with geordi when/if he shows up in upcoming seasons. once he helps picard rescue soji (im over her character) he is killed.
i tire of this way of concluding a characters part in this story. it is dark for the sake of being dark.
i hesitated posting what you quoted in fear of it being construed as indifference to life in general. my gripe is the murdering of recurring trek characters happens too frequently in this show. the impression i get is : "ok your scenes are finished. you did what you needed to for the story. now you die. we dont need you anymore." icheb deserved better than a gruesome killing as motivation for revenge. the first half of the story involved finding maddox. onces he rescued hes promptly killed. hugh became a warm character to look forward to. once he helps picard rescue soji (im over her character) he is killed.
i tire of this way of concluding a characters part in this story. it is dark for the sake of being dark.
I do kind of agree here. You could probably count on one hand the number of regulars/semi-regulars characters killed in the previous shows (Yar, Dax, Carey spring to mind). Where people died before it had more meaning (e.g. Damar)
...they’ll go nuclear and kill off a former full cast. And I don’t think we’ll see Jeri Ryan in series 2...
i dont think its plausible that seven will be killed. shes too big of a character to wantonly kill, imo. i mean, given the way rehab borg are getting slaughtered in the show i can see the path to her death but shes too popular.
a friend thinks hugh will be mortal coiled next episode. apparently there is a scene in the trailer of xb's surrounding someone on the ground. after the brouhaha of reviving neelix with nanoprobes i dont think writers would ever do that again. it just leads to the question of "why not do this for every character that dies?"
When push comes to shove - we simply don’t care what Raffi and Co think of Picard. They haven’t earned the right to have their view. With Riker and Troi we see a relationship built up over 30 years (and 250+ hours of tv and film) and it’s a meaningful relationship. Really good watch that bit.
Humility is very clearly one of the key themes for Picard. I think having Riker and Troi corroborate the La Sirena crew's critique of Picard validates them. I'm interested to see how Picard interacts with them once reunited after having some of his dearest friends affirm that he is, in fact, egocentric and impersonal.
Also, where'd you get 250+ hours? There were 178 TNG episodes and 4 movies with a cumulative run time of 142 hours (per their box sets).
i hesitated posting what you quoted in fear of it being construed as indifference to life in general. my gripe is the murdering of recurring trek characters happens too frequently in this show. the impression i get is : "ok your scenes are finished. you did what you needed to for the story. now you die. we dont need you anymore." icheb deserved better than a gruesome killing as motivation for revenge. the first half of the story involved finding maddox. onces he rescued hes promptly killed. hugh became a warm character to look forward to with much potential for interaction with geordi when/if he shows up in upcoming seasons. once he helps picard rescue soji (im over her character) he is killed.
i tire of this way of concluding a characters part in this story. it is dark for the sake of being dark.
I share your disinterest in characters being killed once they've served a story purpose. I dunno why writers have been so focused on tying up loose ends as they go. It's a writing trend I'd like to see die.
When push comes to shove - we simply don’t care what Raffi and Co think of Picard. They haven’t earned the right to have their view. With Riker and Troi we see a relationship built up over 30 years (and 250+ hours of tv and film) and it’s a meaningful relationship. Really good watch that bit.
Humility is very clearly one of the key themes for Picard. I think having Riker and Troi corroborate the La Sirena crew's critique of Picard validates them. I'm interested to see how Picard interacts with them once reunited after having some of his dearest friends affirm that he is, in fact, egocentric and impersonal.
Also, where'd you get 250+ hours? There were 178 TNG episodes and 4 movies with a cumulative run time of 142 hours (per their box sets).[/quoted]
Very good points made there.
As for the 250+ hours, I’m probably basing that on my multiple rewatches of it... so let’s call it 1,000+ hours...
They turned Riker and Troi into tragic characters by killing their son just because. And that stupid nonsense about "something positronic" could have saved him but it was illegal?
How dare these lazy, clearly devoid of any reverence whatsoever to the mythos and characters, frakking writers be allowed to take our COMMANDER RIKER and COUNSELOR TROI and turn them into this. This is a tragedy.
Screw this, this is an insult to everything Star Trek. What a pile of trash.
the dystopia and murders are taxing to watch but i still think the show is pretty good. its the best trek ive seen in many years , since the 90s. tng was not my favorite but i still love having new star trek with tng history.
but ya, the ghoulish tone is getting very tiresome and i hope they relax a bit on that kinda stuff for next season. im not hoping for the happily ever after roddenberry years. i actually like modern , just not so dark. at the current rate i wouldnt be surprised if the voyager emh gets permanently deactivated in season 2.
you d think they could find some other planet for their son.maybe try the ba'ku homeworld where he could live forever?.i dont remember that planet being destroyed or anything? there are always possibilities spock said...oh well ....the nostalgia factor was a draw for me but another episode where senseless murder and foul language use deters me from even tolerating this show.i dont consider it to be star trek . very boring and nonsensical as a tv show in general .
Speaking of the deaths, I was actually more bothered by the death of Maddox than Icheb or Hugh. Hugh at least got to play hero before he checked out, and Icheb's death served as a catalyst for a transformation in Seven's outlook since then.
But with Maddox, I felt like there was a lot more I would have liked to have seen explored in his character and his story. And not only that, killing him felt like throwing the baby away with the bathwater — surely Agnes could have found another way to prevent him from continuing with his research rather than killing a man she loved (not to mention that had he lived, he could have provided her with a lot more intel about where it was he was creating these synths, and if there were more of them out there, etc.).
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing. ~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
I've been thinking about Thad Riker. We now know one consequence of the synth ban is that terminal diseases previously easily managed are back. It seems implicit that the Zhat Vash were behind the ban, which would seem to be a nice two-fer: They get to nullify synths and set up their longtime adversaries for some biological warfare. That makes sense. What I still don't get is why the Zhat Vash, Tal Shiar, or any other Romulan sect would sabotage the evacuation of Romulus.
i have been reading , quite frequently lately, that control from discovery is an element to the doomsday story on picard. apparently the mindmeld vision that is shown to jurati is very similar to the one discovery spock saw. me personally, i hope control is not a part of st:p . i dislike the idea that control was some kind of precursor to the borg
Comments
Eh, it's the usual trope of "capitalism is bad, m'kay" that shows love to push, because everyone in TV/movies do it all for the love of it, and LA's endemic homelessness problem is really the entire TV/movie industry who work for nothing. The guy on the bench who smells like the inside of a used coffin? Spielberg. Who knew? Cleans up real good.
And the Easter Eggs are fun - anyone spot that Mot now has a hair emporium? - but add to the Small World Syndrome that was Seven riding to the rescue.
I'm fine with the dystopian slant, the Federation has hit an insular phase, so places on the outskirts who may have once felt secure being near the Federation without being members can no longer count on patrol ships keeping the wolves at bay. And you don't have a major power collapse without some consequences, so it could be viewed as a parallel to when the Soviet Union collapsed and for a few years became a sad beacon of gangster capitalism that even now haunts it, with Putin happy to take a cut of oligarch money in exchange for not killing them, and an almost desperate determination to recover their sphere of influence.
But there's a bit of lack of imagination about the whole thing, and I'm hoping the second half of the season remedies that.
The first season's middle act concludes with Picard rescuing Soji from the Artifact, the latter now knowing what she is. That's a single sentence synopsis that makes it sound either like a ho-hum affair or something with wall to wall action, but it isn't. The passages with Picard confronting his history with the Borg were well handled, I thought. This wasn't the time for a therapy couch session, so I'm fine with keeping that stuff to a relative minimum. What we did see and hear from Picard was sufficient. It's remarkable, how much emotional depth Patrick Stewart can imbue in a single facial expression or a terse word. I guess the Locutus we saw in the trailer was just archival footage?
The centerpiece of the episode, though, is Soji's self-discovery. Harry Treadaway and Isa Briones played their scenes wonderfully, especially the climactic revelation and Narek's betrayal. Despite already knowing what neither Narek or Soji knew, I was captivated by watching them learn it together. Knowing that he was going to betray her created a good deal of dramatic tension, too, of course. I felt their anguish.
Or, at least, almost nothing unexpected happens. Hadn't anticipated Rios and Jurati hooking up. Seems sleazy for him to insert himself into her grief like that, even if she is a duplicitous murderer. Also, I don't get why Elnor had to stay behind on the Artifact, except that the next episode requires that he be there.
Though it wasn't made terribly explicit, the way I understood Hugh's comment about it taking some time to shut it all down meant that if the Romulans were to have gotten into that room (or even knew how to get into the room) before the shutting down of the "magic doorway" (since I don't have the actual name for it handy right now) and the closing off of the room itself, they would also be able to determine where Locutus and Soji went — and perhaps even follow them there.
So Elnor had to prevent them from getting into the room/slow them down/offer them the chance to "choose to live".
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
From the episode 7 trailer it looks like he runs out of options and goes to Riker for help which, in spite of the fact its not meant to be a TNG rerun and that's fine, was always a more likely end point than Raffi who - whilst is fine - was never going to have forged the same bond in a year or two that he and Riker had over 2 decades...
That's a fair point about pilots and preexisting good will. At this point, I'm feeling pretty good about my pronouncement though.
That aside, I've never been comfortable with the ending to "Caretaker" and as the pilot, it's always been a major point of failure to me. How quickly did Spock and McCoy alter a torpedo in ST:VI? Couldn't Tuvok have likewise modified the tri-cobalt devices to have a timed destruction after Voyager used the Array to return to the Alpha Quadrant? While I've moderated my opinion of VOY over time, it still beggars belief that that ship and crew survived seven years in the Delta Quadrant when they made one of the poorest onscreen choices in canon history in the first ep.
Taking a long view of post-TNG Trek, I am increasingly getting the sense that the producers and writers actually do learn from the mistakes of the previous series when creating a new show. VOY had so much potential, but was almost immediately squandered and became TNG in the Delta Quadrant. BUT it's obvious in hindsight that the producers felt they needed another episodic show due to fan backlash to the serialized and static nature of DS9.
ENT executed the VOY concept of ship alone in deep space much more successfully in a lot of ways. But the prequel concept, largely episodic nature, and terrible acting/characterizations really dragged it down.
DISCO picked up the prequel gauntlet, but it didn't retcon in the greatest captain of all time who we never heard of before. For all the criticism of Burnham, she still pales in comparison to the nonsense Archer routinely pulled out of his pocket. There's a lot of criticism leveled at DISCO, but it doesn't substantively commit prequel sins that ENT hadn't already committed. For better or worse, DISCO at least tries to push the envelope of what a Star Trek series could be, which is more than we can say for VOY or ENT.
And with Picard, we're seeing the most sensible correction yet: fans want to see what happened in the post-TNG/DS9/VOY years. Despite being constructed around a specific character, it's far more of an ensemble show than DISCO has so far managed to be. It's more thoughtful and better paced than DISCO. Picard is not stretching out underwhelming and predictable plot reveals across a full season--substantive developments are happening all along the way. Unlike DISCO's risk taking in storytelling (that have been largely absent from the franchise since TNG/DS9 aired), Picard is making the risks work. It's also much better and drawing analogies to contemporary issues/society than DISCO.
For those that disagree with my view of Picard, having lived through two Trek series I had a deep dislike for I can empathize with the feeling of being disappointed/underwhelmed/bored/alienated/etc. I am heartened that the critical reaction to Picard has been vastly more intelligent than the average DISCO criticism.
For my $0.02, there has yet to be a single episode where I wasn't completely drawn in to the story. Having engaged in more than a few fanfiction efforts in my younger days, Picard is more than meeting my expectations of where I saw the Trek universe going. Could things still go south? Sure. But for now I'm going to enjoy this rare instance of general satisfaction I derive from contemporary film/tv. That it happens to be set in the Trek universe is gravy.
I dunno that I agree about PIC not having predictable plot reveals. There are surprises, yes, but it works because there's a Hitchcockian approach to PIC: Letting the audience be one step ahead of the characters. This week's "The Impossible Box", for instance, was built on two dominant plot points: Picard confronting his past with the Borg, and Soji learning what she is. Both were set up all the way back in the first episode, so they were predictable. They were also some of the most compelling story sequences yet, because I knew what the confrontation would mean to Picard, and what awaited Soji, I was invested in their fates enough that watching them have to go through what I knew they would endure tapped into my empathy. I had time to care.
I like Disco, but one of my chief complaints is that it won't let us know anything until the characters find out. They're far too fixated on trying to be cleverer than the audience. Sometimes they get one by me that's exciting, but often I find their surprise plot twists contrived and convoluted. In fairness, that gimmickry has become commonplace in movies and TV series for the last decade or so. I prefer the PIC/Hitchcock approach of trusting me to be affected even if I know important things ahead of time.
As an example of the not predictable I'm referring to: Dahj being a synth, and organic one at that, and being murdered in the first ep. DISCO would have stretched out that organic synth reveal for at least half a season and then telegraphed the murder.
Another example was your drawing a line to Seven and Section 31. I personally didn't expect a Section 31 affiliation, but I really didn't expect a non-Federation vigilante affiliation.
For another, Jurati being a plant/turncoat was somewhat predictable, but killing her ex-lover/mentor in the same ep she gets him back?
They also aren't necessarily "big" plot reveals, like Picard taking on a surrogate (grand)parent role with Elnor.
There's nuance and subversion of expectation that's basically a full 180 from what we see on DISCO. And I say this as someone who's mostly a fan of DISCO.
That aside, I think you lay out the narrative differences between Picard and DISCO quite well.
Ah. I see now how I misread where to place emphasis in your original statement. My bad! We're on the same page.
I was kind of disappointed by this episode, honestly. It was nice to see Riker and Troi, and we knew going in that their roles would be small in this series (or, at least, in this season) so I was content with how they were used here. It would have been nice to them have some kind of response to Soji vis a vis Data, though. Picard has fixated on her because of her connection to Data, but Riker and Troi seem uninterested altogether.
It threw me to hear them address him as "Jean-Luc", though. Partly because that was not how they addressed him even in private on TNG, but also because it's so common for retired military people to continue addressing their former superiors by their rank even if it serves as a nickname as civilians. That aside, I did appreciate both of them call out Picard on his "arrogance" and insensitivity. That's been a key theme, and hearing it from them must resonate with him more personally than hearing it from, say, Raffi.
The scenes with Soji and Kestra were sweet, but also kind of rote. The former was passive and the latter got stuck with all the exposition. Just why does Kestra connect with Soji, except as a novelty? Structurally, that stuff had to happen and there isn't really any more interesting way to do go about it, but it felt too perfunctory.
Dr. Jurati's back story was simpler than I thought it might be, too. She must be exceptionally impressionable to turn into a killer after a single mind meld of things that she already knew happened. I guess it works, but it feels half-baked.
Over on the Artifact, the fake-out with Narissa saying she couldn't kill Hugh in the beginning nicely set up a more effective scene later, though, because 1) I'd kinda forgotten about Hugh and Elnor altogether by that point and 2) I'd had an entire week to anticipate it so it had time to germinate. Knowing it was coming this week gave it more heft than if it had been a "surprise" last week. I'm curious to see just how Elnor goes about hijacking a Borg Cube, though. Also, I'm excited to see Seven will be back!
And the next episode looks quite interesting.
One thing I really appreciate about Picard so far is that we have already seen quite a few different destinations/locations, which helps the show feel more like the Trek I know and love.
Is it perfect? No, far from it. But I think it's further along than Discovery was at this point in its first season. That show kept getting better, and I have hopes that this one will continue to do so, as well. In addition, I think that sometimes as a viewer it just takes a bit of becoming more comfortable with the concept of a new show (and of course with new characters, too), so that will also likely make my appreciation of it grow over time.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
It took three episodes to leave Earth, but since then I think there's been almost a Star Wars-ian effort to keep each place from feeling homogeneous as they often were in previous Trek series. I may forget their names later, but I'll still be able to keep them straight.
Vishti is barren where the Romulan town is, but the Qowat Milat have sustained some greenery. It suggests that they've been the only successful custodians of Romulan culture.
Freecloud is a dystopian hybrid of the Las Vegas Strip and Tokyo. It's hyper commercial, bombarding the wanderer everywhere they go. A lot of people there are probably no better off than the Romulan refugees, but surrounded by (nefarious) opportunity that doesn't exist on Vishti.
Nepenthe is Alaska; unspoiled and lush; serene; and isolated.
i was looking forward to seven and hugh scenes and was hopeful for hugh and geordi in s2 but alas this wont happen becos it has to be "modern".
Counterargument: Maybe it's good that we give a damn rather than lol at the deaths of "red shirts and random xB". Shouldn't we remember that people aren't disposable?
When push comes to shove - we simply don’t care what Raffi and Co think of Picard. They haven’t earned the right to have their view. With Riker and Troi we see a relationship built up over 30 years (and 250+ hours of tv and film) and it’s a meaningful relationship. Really good watch that bit.
Now that Hugh has joined Icheb in the list of “affable former Borg who prove that redemption is all well and good but the Galaxy is full of ****” dead Borg, I am sort of convinced we’re going to see an addition to it. There’s been some small murmurs of discontent about Icheb and Hugh, but I’m convinced they’ll go nuclear and kill off a former full cast. And I don’t think we’ll see Jeri Ryan in series 2...
i tire of this way of concluding a characters part in this story. it is dark for the sake of being dark.
I do kind of agree here. You could probably count on one hand the number of regulars/semi-regulars characters killed in the previous shows (Yar, Dax, Carey spring to mind). Where people died before it had more meaning (e.g. Damar)
i dont think its plausible that seven will be killed. shes too big of a character to wantonly kill, imo. i mean, given the way rehab borg are getting slaughtered in the show i can see the path to her death but shes too popular.
a friend thinks hugh will be mortal coiled next episode. apparently there is a scene in the trailer of xb's surrounding someone on the ground. after the brouhaha of reviving neelix with nanoprobes i dont think writers would ever do that again. it just leads to the question of "why not do this for every character that dies?"
Humility is very clearly one of the key themes for Picard. I think having Riker and Troi corroborate the La Sirena crew's critique of Picard validates them. I'm interested to see how Picard interacts with them once reunited after having some of his dearest friends affirm that he is, in fact, egocentric and impersonal.
Also, where'd you get 250+ hours? There were 178 TNG episodes and 4 movies with a cumulative run time of 142 hours (per their box sets).
I share your disinterest in characters being killed once they've served a story purpose. I dunno why writers have been so focused on tying up loose ends as they go. It's a writing trend I'd like to see die.
They turned Riker and Troi into tragic characters by killing their son just because. And that stupid nonsense about "something positronic" could have saved him but it was illegal?
How dare these lazy, clearly devoid of any reverence whatsoever to the mythos and characters, frakking writers be allowed to take our COMMANDER RIKER and COUNSELOR TROI and turn them into this. This is a tragedy.
Screw this, this is an insult to everything Star Trek. What a pile of trash.
but ya, the ghoulish tone is getting very tiresome and i hope they relax a bit on that kinda stuff for next season. im not hoping for the happily ever after roddenberry years. i actually like modern , just not so dark. at the current rate i wouldnt be surprised if the voyager emh gets permanently deactivated in season 2.
But with Maddox, I felt like there was a lot more I would have liked to have seen explored in his character and his story. And not only that, killing him felt like throwing the baby away with the bathwater — surely Agnes could have found another way to prevent him from continuing with his research rather than killing a man she loved (not to mention that had he lived, he could have provided her with a lot more intel about where it was he was creating these synths, and if there were more of them out there, etc.).
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
I'm off to build myself a woodfired pizza oven by my greenhouse now 😎