I’m not sure when “Broken Pieces” lost me, exactly. I went in with an open mind. “Nepenthe” was excellent, and if that excellence also served to underline all the ways in which Star Trek: Picard is failing its audience, it still gave some cause to hope. At the very least, it proved that the writers were capable of expressing what made us all so excited about the series in the first place: a connection with history, a sense of meaningful relationships, and characters who behaved in believable, grounded ways. But “Broken Pieces” seems to forget just about all of this. From the cold open on, it’s an hour built largely on unsatisfying spectacle, full of dramatic moments that exist in a vacuum and answers that make questions no longer worth asking. If last week was the show’s zenith, this week is, at least for now, its nadir; the point at which all its weakest elements combine together to create something substantially less than the sum of its parts.
The problems start early. The cold open begins on Aia, “the Grief World,” where we watch a group of Romulan women getting inducted to the Zhat Vash by Commodore Oh. The ceremony involves receiving a vision much like the one that Oh gave Agnes Jurati in an earlier episode, although this appears to be a more intense version; a vision of accumulated information left behind by a civilization that was destroyed hundreds of thousands of years ago. The vision drives many of the women mad, but Narissa, and Ramdha (the Romulan Soji talked with on the Borg cube) both survive; Narissa, in fact, is the only member of the group who isn’t devastated by the news. She’s upset enough to weep over what she saw, however, and she asks Oh where they can begin to prevent the horrors they’ve both seen. “Mars,” Oh tells her.
So now we know that the Zhat Vash orchestrated the attack on Mars which led to the Federation banning all synthetic life. As reveals go, it’s not the worst the episode has in store for us; the biggest problem is that it’s entirely unsurprising. It doesn’t even feel precisely like a reveal. One of the major problems of “Broken Pieces” is how so many of its choices serve to make the show’s universe feel smaller. Elements which don’t need to be connected become intimately involved with one another, as though the creepy incest vibes between Narek and Narissa weren’t just ill-advised camp but an overall mission statement. We only have one villain in the season, and they turn out to be responsible for, well, basically everything. Why bother even making that a mystery?
Take Ramdha. As an individual who, in her madness, revealed the Romulans’ secret beliefs about synthetic life, she was shallow but effective foreshadowing. But now we learn that she’s a member of the Zhat Vash—and not just a member, but the woman who raised Narek and Narissa after their parents died. This doesn’t contradict anything we already know, but it also doesn’t enhance our understanding of anything. Ramdha remains in a coma, with minimal impact on the story, and if Narissa’s visit to her (and the cold open) is supposed to make Narissa more sympathetic or nuanced, it fails. It really just serves to give the impression that there are about ten people running around doing things and they all know each other.
It’s even worse on La Sirena. Picard and Soji return to the ship, and Rios gets one look at the latter and immediately runs to his cabin to drink himself into a stupor. Raffi wants answers, and when she can’t find Rios, she interrogates the ship’s various holograms, in a sequence which is sort of funny, but mostly just infuriating for the way it exists for no other reason than to be sort of funny. She learns that Rios is heartbroken about something to do with his former captain, and when she confronts him about it, we discover that Rios, too, has a connection to the synthetics; his old ship met two ambassadors from Soji’s home planet, and his old captain murdered them both on orders from Starfleet. Which means that Raffi somehow managed to put Picard on the ship of a man who has a completely unrelated connection to the main plot, without knowing about that connection, and without Rios himself even realizing what was going on until he actually sees Soji for himself.
That’s terrible writing. It’s useless terrible writing. The whole season has been hinting at some dark secret in Rios’s past, but this is a reveal that stretches credibility while failing to deepen our understanding of the character much beyond the most obvious of cliches—the charming rogue with the tragic backstory. And the effort the script goes to in order to try and make that tragedy land borders on self-parody. It’s not just that Rios lost a captain; the captain, who Rios loved like a father, kills himself when Rios confronts him. Rios even keeps a sketched drawing of the synthetics on hand and remembers what the female liked to eat, despite having known them both for less than a day. (He also assumes that Soji will automatically like the same thing, which is a weird assumption for both him to make and the show to confirm.)
So much of this episode is like this, leaning on emotion to make connections where basic narrative logic and pacing fail. Elnor contacts Seven to come to the Borg cube to help him fight off the Romulans, and sure, it seems pretty inevitable that Seven, like Picard, would find herself on that cube at some point. But while Picard needed to negotiate his entrance (including an extended scene of Raffi conning an old frenemy into doing her a solid), Seven just magically appears in the middle of a fight scene, seizes control, and then explains to Elnor why it would be a bad idea to reactivate the Collective to fight the Romulans before doing just that. There’s literally a scene in which a character willingly reinserts herself into the greatest nightmare of her entire life, and it’s over in about five minutes with no apparent ill effect.
Or hey, about how Agnes waking up and confessing everything to a very disappointed Picard, including the fact that she had a psychic block that prevented her from talking about her visions—said block apparently just disappearing because she tried to kill herself? She then meets Soji and asks her a few questions, and now she’s fully back on board with Team Let’s Protect The Fleshy Androids, apologizing to everyone about the whole murder thing and promising to turn herself over to Starfleet at the next opportunity.
It’s not that the acting is bad, or even that all of these ideas are inherently terrible. Taken in isolation, Agnes and Soji’s conversation is deeply felt, and it’s possible to imagine a better constructed series where it could’ve been both heartbreaking and cathartic. I want to care about all of this, and I can’t think of an actor on the show who isn’t giving it their all. But without the proper context, without doing the work to build the relationships and sense of place—work that is one of television’s primary strengths as a medium—it’s all just weightless ideas, bits and pieces we’ve seen before on other, better shows, thrown into the void in the hopes that enough of them will distract us to keep us watching. We’re supposed to care about the people on board La Sirena like they’re a crew, but that affection needs to be earned. You can’t simply put people in a room and say they’re a family.
It doesn’t help that Picard seems to be getting lost in his own show. I’m not sure if it’s an intentional choice, or if Stewart isn’t up to the demands of filming a series (I feel guilty even saying that), but while he’s still nominally in the lead, giving orders and expecting people to follow them, he feels diminished, and not just because of his age. His connection to this story is as sketched in as everything else, and while he makes some smart choices this week, those choices end up essentially irrelevant to what actually happens. The show insists on having characters we barely know yell at a beloved figure, turning up the drama instead of allowing the audience to come to its own conclusions. In the pilot, it looks like the writers had something new to say about an old friend. But it turns out they just keep saying it, over and over and over again.
Stray observations
- I won’t judge anyone for enjoying the moment, but Elnor impulsively hugging Seven felt like the worst kind of pandering to me.
- Narissa suggests that the reason the Borg cube failed to successively assimilate Ramdha and her ship was because Ramdha’s horror at her vision somehow broke them. I’m going to assume that this is just creative license on Narissa’s part, because the idea that the the Borg could bring someone into the Collective and then just have to dump them because they were too intense is a profound misread of how the Borg works
- Very glad that we had to wait this long to find out the reason the Romulans are terrified is basically the plot of the Mass Effect trilogy.
- If anyone’s wondering, I’m pretty sure what broke me was Admiral Clancy telling Picard to “Shut the fuck up.” Yes, Picard was being demanding and yes he still has a bizarre lack of tact, but boy did I not need a repeat of that bit. Especially not from Starfleet of all goddamn places.
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These reviews read like jaded-fan rants fantasizing about how they coulda done it better.This is an issue dating back to Handlen’s Discovery reviews.If Handlen isn’t up to the demands of reviewing Star Trek (I feel guilty even saying that), perhaps there’s someone else who should do the job.
No, he’s done all the Trek reviews here going back to TOS retro-reviews. That means one can calibrate for his variance with one’s own tastes based on that background, and that totally outweighs the importance of having a perfectly congruent reaction to his response to specific episodes.
Having the baseline compensates somewhat for his idiosyncratic dislikes. “Totally outweighs” is a bit of an overreach.
It really feels like something happened in his Trek-view since that last pre-Discovery series he reviewed and now. In those classic Trek reviews he was willing and eager to embrace how each series was different. But with Picard he just seems to want to tell us that this isn’t TNG or Jean-Luc Picard and how bad it is if we like it.Even when his reviews have a good grade, the review reads like his letter grade is actually lesser.A new set of eyes is needed on this series starting next season.
The thing is, all his review for the older series were already established franchise in the fandom. Not saying he can’t be objective about them, but was it really unbiased?
I’m mixed. He’s in the best position for understanding the legacy, but conversely, I think that’s heavily tarnishing the quality of his reviews for new series. I think it’s probably time for a fresh-face.
On the plus side, we got the perfect statement encapsulating Picard’s fondness for Data:“Data’s capacity for expressing and processing emotion was limited. I suppose we had that in common.”
And also not true but whatever this show needs to do to make sense I guess
Barring the rare moments when he was recovering from cyborg assimilation induced PTSD, processing a lifetime of experiences over the course of fifteen minutes, or holding together the collective shit of a emotionally senile Vulcan elder stateman, Picard is a pretty bottled up guy in TNG. He even laments this aloud in the series finale when joining the crew poker game for the first time.
He just doesn’t feel as if he should display emotions in front of his crew, not that he doesn’t have them. There’s plenty of episodes where Picard shows emotion, just only in private settings. The finale was him realizing he doesn’t need to put that mask on for the crew and can be a person around them instead of just privately.
Even away from his crew, Picard’s emotional display range seemed to go from curiosity/fascination (anything archaeological), to annoyance (Q/anyone younger than 20), to friendship (Guinan). In public he does performative righteous indignation (every patented Patrick Stewart speech in the show). You don’t see him even shed a tear outside of the aforementioned PTSD, alien mind whammy, or actively being tortured by Cardassians until Generations.Besides the performative speechmaking bit, this is damn close to Spock or Data’s normal range.Which tracks, at least, with my personal experience. Habitually suppressing emotional affect can have really weird psychological consequences, one of which is that the habit can burrow much deeper than when you need it, and it becomes much harder in real terms to access the emotional state. See also: James-Lange theory of emotion.
Most of the crew doesn’t cry, but when Dathon dies, Picard does look moved and he quietly salutes him in his ready room. That’s showing emotion, even if it’s not emotional. Or when Picard and Wesley are trapped in the mind and he tells him he’s proud of him. Or when he’s making out with Vash.He’s not bawling but he’s showing emotion. He’s a character who is controlled in his displays but that doesn’t make him repressed except because that’s what this show requires, or because the examples listed are what people remember.
And the line doesn’t say “Cannot show emotion” it says his “expressing and processing emotion was limited.” Those things described, those are limitations. I think all the line is supposed to reflect is that those things don’t come easy, or naturally to him. Which is reflective of his time on TNG, it’s not that he’s emotionless, but dealing with that stuff was kind of a hassle, and he tends to not prioritize it. That was 90% of his issue with kids, dealing with their needs was trying, and he had a very important job to do that he was far more comfortable with. And I mean the big thing with Data was he was always doing stuff that seemed at least in some way emotionally motivated, even his entire yearning for understanding seemed based in that. But I don’t think it’s meant to be a binary meaning Picard also has no emotions. It seems more like a self deprecating statement more than anything else. Picard may feel his skill at dealing with emotions is lacking, and find it a deficit.
Dude he doesn’t process emotion well. First Contact was pretty much a 2 hour long episode explaining just that.
I mean I think Picard was cracking a self-deprecating joke rather than giving a laser-accurate diagnosis of his personality in toto
It might not be true, but canonically he does believe it.
I loved that whole conversation, and it highlights exactly why Picard is special and beloved as a character.
Agreed. Great scene. Worth the whole episode even if I did think it was as bad as Zack made it out to be, which I didn’t.
children who didn’t grow up READING BOOKS can’t be expected to KNOW HOW TO FUCKING WRITE you have to read BEFORE you writeeverything is a “scene”“well, this scene is good” THERE’S TEN MINUTES now work on an hour
Huh? The guy who wrote this episode writes books, you know.
Berating people for “not being able to write” might look better if you used a few basic writing rules yourself, like punctuation and proper capitalization (not just using it for YELLING).
i’m ee cummings bastard childbut then you’d have to have read a BOOK to know who ee cummings ISdumbass childe
What an odd accusation to raise against Michael Chabon. I’d wager he’s read more and better books than you have.
Dude has written more books than a lot of people have read.
yer throwing Chabon at me?are you fucking kidding?it’s a joke, right?you’re being IRONICfuck, just tell me Berman and Braga have read more books than I, also(not true, i’m old and i come from the Before Timei’ve read hundreds of books, front to back, and REMEMBER them)you did know books have a front and back, right?i know, tell me Roddenberry was a great writer, too so i can point you in the direction of DC Fontanayou don’t know SHIT, kidbut this IS very entertaining
Apparently you have no idea who Michael Chabon is.Excellent job sinking your own battleship here.
i know who he is, hipsterand i put him in the same boat with David Wallace Foster KILLED HIMSELF ever heard of Vonnegut or Dostoevsky?Solzhenitsyn? fuck your hipster booksand by the fucking way: we were discussing BAD SCIENCE FICTIONI stayed in CONTEXT, with STAR TREK writers and you went straight to douche-hipster novels
We’re shaming people for suicide now?
as a CHRISTIAN, i get to do thathe’s in gehenna, with his shit book stay on topic in a debate remember: suicide is a one way ticket!!!!don’t like it?take it up with YHWH, he makes the Rules….yeah, RIGHT.hahahahahahaha…………………again: hilarious
Ha…ha?
all i’m doing with youis what i do with a drunk 20-something at the bar i’m picking at you until you swing on me…go on, you CAN kick this old man’s ass, you KNOW you can…swing, motherfucker
I think you will find it is you who is drunk guy at bar
yawn. i can’t even tell the difference between ANY of youare there THREE people letting me riff on them?this is a four way? this set is donego home.
DC Fontana is a great writer; but while re-watching Encounter at Farpoint with the wife, her dialogue came off more preachy and stilted than it ever did in TOS. That being said, Roddenberry does share a co-writing credit..
Ok it doesn’t really show what happens to Seven after she disconnects from the Collective because of the cut-away, so the next time we see her will probably be more indicative of what fallout this event will have on her. That said she’s a character that compartmentalises trauma well until she has time to process it (or her body forces her too). Also her dramatic entrance mid-battle showcases the difference between her & Picard both in personality & how they interact with borg tech (Seven’s probably been on more Borg cubes than Picard since being unassimilated too). & when character’s with open personalities (reminding me of Discovery’s Tilly) want to hug Seven when she saves them from death & loneliness & abandonment issues, pander away. I do agree with most of the other aspects in the article though (i liked the different EMH’s subplot even if they weren’t THE EMH i am looking for).
Yeah, I read the scene completely differently than Zack. I think Seven was afraid to reconnect to the collective, but for a different reason than it being “the worst nightmare of her life”—she said it herself: she was worried she wouldn’t want to disconnect from the collective. That is far more interesting than the alternatives, and it makes sense.I also read shades of an “I’m always angry” kinda Bruce Banner determination. Like, “yeah, fuck it, let’s use my powers for good for once” kinda thing.
It’s calling back to her conversation with Picard about regaining her humanity from a couple of episodes back. Reinstating the collective on the cube is explicitly going against what she’s been fighting for “every damn day”
Yes, but also that is very tempting. She’s like an addict. She has to fight it every day and she knows it’s bad but if she succumbs to it again she knows that, just like all the drones, she won’t want to leave.
It’s astounding to me that Voyager, of all shows, handled that aspect of a character not just in a much more interesting way, but in a more realistic way, in the sense that realism has to ground suspension of disbelief for something like Star Trek. A metaphor has to connect to work. Picard’s only works if the audience imagines something not present in its story, where being part of an emotionless, personality-free hive-mind is somehow like killing for personal vengeance or dropping out of society to indulge in an addiction, instead of somewhere close to those concepts’ antipode.On Voyager, Seven of Nine understands the cosmic evil of the monsters that abducted and violated her, the vast and personal horror of it, but the show understands that the monsters raised her, that they shaped her point of view on everything and everyone. It’s less often a metaphor for addiction, more often one for escaping long-term abuse with a family or cult, where someone can’t just roll back every aspect of the only person they’ve ever been. And it mostly works, because that’s what we see in the story.So: Seven still calls herself Borg sometimes. Seven doesn’t hesitate to point out where and when she thinks the Borg approach would get better results. When Seven’s angry enough to threaten someone, she does it through enraged rewrites of the monsters’ passionless, hive-mind catchphrases, versions the monsters wouldn’t and couldn’t say themselves. “Logic is irrelevant,” she snaps. She tells the man pointing a gun at her that someday soon, the monsters—her family, for whom there is no “me”—will devour him and his entire species, and when that moment arrives? “Remember me.”The audience knows the character doesn’t really want that to happen to anyone, but it’s what she has to work with when she’s pushed to her limit. It’s not something exterior to her, but something built into the core of her being that she’s torn out, reconstructed and put back into herself, to serve other, better ends. It’s a lot more hopeful, I think, than presenting her fighting a constant, guilty struggle against something that’s literally part of her.
“even if they weren’t THE EMH i am looking for”Well, there are some rumours that Picardo was in talks for S2 so hopefully that ends up happening.
I had heard about those. Really hope Seven is alive & present if Picardo does appear as The EMH Doctor. At the moment I can’t tell if they’re gonna axe her (Jeri ryan has a season-long arc on MacGyver ahead) & are burning through the suggestion box, or if they’re priming the pump for a Star Trek Seven of Nine spin-off.
You’re pretty much just writing the story you’d rather watch into this one.
There is an interesting juxtaposition between Seven and Picard as far as the Borg are concerned. Picard was forced to join the Borg as an adult, and was actively used to kill people who knew, some who he knew well. Picard is still haunted by his time in the Collective.On the other hand, Annika Hansen (i.e. Seven of Nine), became a Borg at a very young age, grew up as a Borg, and didn’t really know any other life. There’s a reason why she struggled so much to rejoin humanity – she barely new what it was like to be human.As such, while for Picard rejoining the Collective would be reliving his worst nightmare, for Seven it would almost be like going back home. That aspect of Seven was even explored in Voyager, when she wished to rejoin the Collective shortly after being released, and when she willingly rejoined in the Dark Frontier two parter.In other words, when she essentially took over the Borg Cube in this episode, she wasn’t reliving her worst nightmare, she was essentially becoming the Borg Queen for this small Collective – a feeling of power that was intoxicating.
It was a Gary Mitchell moment when she connected to the cube. When you become a God, you likely won’t want to go back. I think things would have turned out differently had Narissa not spaced all the Borg drones. Seven was feeling the rush of being Queen and then suddenly the vast majority of the Collective was snuffed out. Who knows if she’d have been able to leave the Collective? We don’t get to find out because the Collective left her. I would not be surprised if that comes back to haunt her.
I dunno, becoming ‘helpful’ Borg Queen Seven would be a good arc for her.
‘Resistance is not necessary as assimilation is entirely optional… for now.”
Surprise! It turns out they never mention Seven joining with the Borg again!
I still wish they’d done a low key series about Picard as a xeno-archaeologist wandering around having scholarly adventures and solving puzzles and mysteries.Which is really my problem with this whole show. I came in hoping for more quiet, thoughtful stories like the Inner Light, and Star Trek: Picard showed up guns blazing, trying to be the sequel to a blockbuster movie. Patrick Stewart would be far less wasted on the show I wanted than he is right now on the show I got.
Reminds me of the movies where they tried to make Picard into an action hero.
Picard is actually a much better show now that I realized it takes place in the TNG movie-verse, and not the TNG TV-verse.
Except he really hasn’t been much of an “action” hero in this series. Really, the one scene (way back in the first episode) in which we was running around in any sort of actiony heroey way he was shown to be completely winded. I actually really liked that bit – felt like a statement that this ISN’T your movie action hero Picard.
I was hoping that as well for Picard. It seems to me that even Patrick Stewart is forgetting what character he’s playing, probably because he feels like he’s filming a broody X-Men and so wanders into Prof. X territory.
Yep. Instead of a sequel to next gen, it plays like a sequel to Nemesis. I half expect another dune buggy chase.
Well, if i recall, i think i read story during Nemesis filming about how much Stewart (and Spiner) really loved the action-heavy route they were taking. And Stewart didn’t want to come back to do more of the same Next Gen stuff.Also, in 2020, you’re definitely not getting a low-key Star Trek show. I mean, you weren’t even getting that in 2001.
Yeah that’s the vibe ive been getting for the last couple of episodes. I loved the first two when it looked like the show was going in a gumshoe detective Picard kinda direction, 3rd episode was average then it kinda went downhill from there.
I came in hoping for more quiet, thoughtful stories like the Inner Light, and Star Trek: Picard showed up guns blazing, trying to be the sequel to a blockbuster movieAfter two seasons of disjointed storytelling, frenzied action with a heaping pile of unnecessary fan service and forced emotional drama from characters we never really get to know or care about on Discovery, I expected nothing more from Picard than what we have now.
Agree.
I can’t even comprehend it’s narrative structure. It’s like a series of emotionally overwrought shorts haphazardly strung together. It’s nonsensical half the time.
This would have been amazing.
They should have gone with your idea and took the risk that some might not find it exciting enough. Instead it’s all about the pew pew pew.
Totally agree. Sadly, no one is going to make a thoughtful character piece out of Star Trek.
It was a bad idea from the start to involve Picard at all, but anything
is better than the SJW dumpster fire called Discovery. I want Picard to
fall into the Guian role of old wise person doling out the occational bit of advice, while Rio
, Soji and the new crew get a real ship from StarFleet and fight off
the Romulans and event get back to exploring new worlds and characters. Seems like there hasn’t been one original idea or characters in Star Trek in a long time.
Call me reactionary, but whenever I see someone use the term SJW unironically I kind of assume they’re an asshole.
I stopped reading that comment right there.
And now I see it’s the Dr. Emilio Lizardo imitator/troll.
Discovery haters tend to fall into the ‘waaaah I want more TNG!’ or ‘eww girls and gays’ camp. In this case, I’m guessing the latter.
This entire series is boring, and drags out needlessly while trying to follow the serialized path of the Game of Thrones but without the writing of a powerful story and book. This Picard is but a shadow of his past self, a small, little frail man that has no charisma or presence. The other characters have no depth except for 7 of 9 , I could care if any or all of them are killed. It tarnishes STNG. I told my son that Picard was the greatest captain to ever command a starship and he sees this garbage! I hope the Tal Shiar puts them all out of their misery.
Agreed. He could have uncovered some mystery left over from TNG/DS9, maybe Iconian, and let the story go from there as Picard tries to solve the mystery in an intellectual fashion using his knowledge, diplomatic skills and his humanity. Q shows up in the last episode asking “What have you gotten yourself into now Jean Luc.?”
Instead Picad is an old guy along for an action ride.
A 200,000 year old message from a wiped out civilization drove some Romulans to hack androids on Mars to instigate a ban on them (and incidentially result in the death of millions of Romulan lives) and Picard’s out right rejects their absolutist view that Sytnhs will bring lead to destruction of all life. think the bread crumbs are there for his Xeno-Archaeology to figure out who left the message, who attacked them and why they wait for synthetic life to reach a certain point before showing up. It’s setting things up for the very premsie you want. Solving a 200,000 year old mystery threat.
The Rios bit was pat and convenient, though given Raffi’s pursuit of this exact conspiracy possibly being how she crossed paths with him I can accept it, but otherwise I enjoyed the episode.Yes the mystery is not surprising and is all neat and tidy but did we really expect anything else? This is Star Trek after all plots have never been especially deep or complicated. Yes, Deep Space Nine feels like an exception but that was over *seven* 20+ episode seasons, had plenty of cruft and forgettable episodes, and didn’t really get rolling until a few seasons in. Not to mention we’ve since had Voyager and Enterprise that did not hold up to that standard either. (Not dissing them, other than that damn theme song, they had their moments but they weren’t big, deep, sweeping sagas).
Not to mention, there’s plenty of room left in the season for a good twist or three.
It is implausible to me that anyone would not want a hug from Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, if that is at all an option
Indeed. Especially not a scared young man raised by strong women in a subculture where transparency, and thus emotional displays, are not just encouraged but expected.
Plus she saved his life when he was literally about to be murdered.
I don’t blame Elnor at all for going for the long hug.
The motorboat pushed it over the line tho
Seven is definitely built for speed
How else does one escape from the scene of a massacre?
That whole Vic Fontaine holodeck subplot in the final season(s) was something I could’ve done without.
Did anyone figure out the purpose of the fifth holodeck program? The surly, hungover looking one? They had navigation, engineering, medical and hospitality there. Not sure what the fifth one did.
‘Emmett’ is the tactical hologram. He was working the phasers back in episode 4.
Security. It had a tactical vest on anyway.
I groaned when we suddenly learned that Rios also was going to have a connection to Soji and the show’s overall “mystery”, but by the time it was finished and all revealed, I didn’t end up minding all that much.As awful and clumsy as the plotting has been on this show so far, I think they did a decent job of pulling together all the assorted mystery threads. Granted, most of us predicted almost exactly how it was going to unfold, but whatever….
With the Rios thing, I feel like if there’s a whole planet of Sojis out there it stands to reason that someone else would have run into them at some point. Yeah it’s a coincidence that it was Rios, but Star Trek is pretty much “fly around space and run into weird shit: the show.” Nobody complained when Terrell and Chekov just happened to land on the planet where Khan was marooned years before.
There are subtle hints that Rios may be a synth himself. His ship the Ibn Majid was stricken from the record, he has a little keepsake box like Soji did, Dahj and Soji were sent out to find the true answer to the ban so if he is a synth than his friendship with Raffi could be explained by trying to get to the bottom of it too.
The prevailing theory for most of this season has been that Rios is a hologram, not a synth. But this episode seems to put an end to that theory.
Yeah I figured it would be a nice twist if he was a hologram. His story doesn’t add up though. If the mission was successful and he covered up the murder why was the Ibn Majid struck from the record? It’s possible it never existed and that’s why there is no record of it. His past is constructed like Soji’s. I mean he could still be a hologram with a mobile emitter or something, if he was a ECH (Emergency command hologram) that Starfleet used to commandeer the Ibn Majid when Captain Vandemeer refused the orders to kill the visitors, Rios was ordered to kill his captain and the visitors by Starfleet Command Overrides. It’s possible he had to kill then entire crew to cover it up and the Ibn Majid was struck from the record to hide everything.
Ibn Majid being struck from the record was Starfleet/Commodore Oh covering up that a Starfleet captain had killed 2 synths. Leaving any record of it on file would just lead others to follow up on it, when the Romulans want keep the idea of synths existing a secret.
“a whole planet of Sojis”
At least the “twins” thing seems to be over. That didn’t make any sense to me.
DS9 was deep from day 1 based on the Bajoran-Cardassian conflict which started to see on TNG. The Dominion War wasn’t really the start of that depth.
Does Admiral Clancy exist for any other reason than to say “fuck”? The conversation between her and Picard literally goes like this:CLANCY: You were right about everything.PICARD: And?CLANCY: You’re not senile.PICARD: And?CLANCY: I’ll send a squadron of ships to that starbase you won’t end up going to.PICARD: AND?CLANCY: Seriously? What are you, 12?PICARD: It’s your one job in this show.CLANCY: Fine: fuck. Fuck fuck fuckitty fuck-fuck-fuck. Happy now?PICARD: Ah, that’s the stuff. Like Earl Grey for the ears.CLANCY: What?PICARD: Michael Chabon made me say that. (whispers) He’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer.
In a better show, someone would have said “Planet Android will keep, let’s turn the ship around, because everybody here needs some time with The Only therapist In The Galaxy.”
I can’t wait for the next Red Letter Media Re:View videos after this.
I watch those INSTEAD of Picard. They are delightful.
I would rather watch those instead of Picard. As it is I’m forced to watch Picard each week, but it helps to watch them afterwards and to know I’m not alone in my opinions.
Mike, to Rich: ‘Remember when Star Trek used to be about something?’
It will be just Mike talking to a beer bottle.
I would rather watch a million mediocre Star Trek episodes (and I don’t even think this was in that category) then listen to that Mr. Plinkett voice make “funny” jokes about kidnapping and dismembering women ever again.
Your loss. Re:View and Best of The Worst are the best things on the Internet besides Contrapoints and Philosophy Tube.
I just watched 2 minutes of a Re:View video and had to tap out. Two of the most annoying humans I’ve ever encountered in any medium, never mind how wrong all their opinions are.
Great decade-out-of-date reference, brah.
Yeah, you never get those on the AV Club. Abortions for some, etc.
I’ll pass. I love them, but they’ve lost the ability to enjoy anything at all related to Star Trek. I don’t mind criticism, but they’ve gotten so bitter and impossible to please that it’s just basically fury masturbation for those already angry going into it. 😛
That’s too bad for you, ‘cause there’s still plenty of good old Star Trek out there to enjoy. Just, you know, no good NEW Star Trek.
I personally feel they make really cogent (and hilarious) points about Picard as true hard core Trekkies, but I’m still enjoying the show.You should consider giving them a watch.
Very glad that we had to wait this long to find out the reason the Romulans are terrified is basically the plot of the Mass Effect trilogy.Not to be rude, but wasn’t this pretty obvious from the start? As other skeptics of the show have pointed out, barring time travel shenanigans the Romulans can’t know the future, and so their prejudice against synthetics must be historical and yet so completely compelling they are willing to sacrifice their empire (not to mention billions of their own citizens) to halt their production. The only scenario that vaguely works is the Mass Effect one, where regardless of intentions the development of artificial life always leads to a disastrous end for its creators for vaguely singularity-type reasons.Not to mention, a lot of the art and production design seems pretty heavily, eh, accented by the ME Trilogy’s aesthetics, especially La Sirena and the updated Borg Cube interior. But that could easily be coincidence; artists draw from lots of prior sources when creating their own work.
I’m really hoping that all the destroyer stuff is a red herring and that the alien device implants a telepathic command into the minds of people who view it, compelling them to destroy synths.Synthetics are not destined to destroy life, there’s no Reaper type creature coming to destroy anyone who creates AI. An AI uprising happened to that one civilization but they were arrogant enough to think that because it happened to them, it will happen to everyone else. And the Zhat Vash are unfortunate victims of the false beliefs of that dead civilization.
Or conflict is inevitable, but always the organics’ fault, like with the Quarians and the Geth in ME. Either way, the story is likely to be a bit more textured than some version of ‘the Zhat Vash were right all along’.
They better not resolve this by having a starchild appear out of nowhere and give Picard 3 color coded choices.But the thing is that we know that conflict is not inevitable because there are tons of super advanced races in Trek. Some of those races, like the Organians, Metrons, and Q have outright said that humanity will probably evolve to their level eons into the future. In fact, we know for a fact that conflict with AI can be avoided. That was what the very first Star Trek movie was about. V’Ger, who was given godlike powers by a race of machines, came back to earth and threatened the human race. But instead of fighting it, the Enterprise learned about its purpose and helped it achieve a higher level of existence.
Vger never threatened the human race, there was no hostile intent, it was simply so advanced it didnt realise the damage it was doing.
The fact that V’Ger wasn’t intentionally hostile is irrelevant. Being a threat to human life does not require intent. Natural disasters are a threat, diseases are a threat, asteroids are a threat, etc.
That’s what I’ve been thinking too, that the civilization freaked out about how advanced their AI was getting, tried to kill Them, and the AI fought back. Then the survivors set up the warning to deceive future civilizations.
That seems to be what Picard was getting at when he was talking about having powerful tools to prevent the ancient civilisation’s warning from coming to pass.
Hmm, where have I heard that story before. I seem to recall a lot of black, skintight leather was involved.
It’s all very battlestar galactica.
All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.
I think most our fiction about Robot Uprising makes it understendable – it’s either slavery or someone tries to pull the plug. But the one I like the irony of the most was the time loop one. Terminator Genisys was not great but it set up the humans try to kill Skynet because it tries to kill them in the past and Skynet sends agents to kill humans because they tried to kill it before it comes online. It’s a “you started it” loop without end.I’m starting to wonder if that will end up being the case with the whole Destroyer thing and Zhat Vash attempts to kill all synthetics creating the exact kind they are so afraid of – the one who can survive that extreme selection. The one so deadly and adaptive it’ll kill them first. And all the organic life just to be safe (Orville really is Star Trek in all but the name, isn’t it?).
I’m trying to remember if Isaac’s robopeople wanted to kill all organics because the species that created them tried to kill them, or if they were just randomly genocidal. I’m pretty sure it’s the former, but I’m not 100 percent sure.
It is the former. Isaac mission was to determine if other organics were more trustworthy and Kaylons where not satisfied with them and decided it’ll be safer to just kill them all. Trust is not their strong suit.
Right! Now it’s all coming back. It’s been so long since The Orville was on that it all kinda faded.
Yes, it’s been a while and soon I’ll need to decide if it’s worth getting hulu back
“It turns out that the Zhat Vash stumbled on the complete Battlestar Galactica box set.”
It was a bad idea from the start to involve Picard at all, but anything
is better than the SJW dumpster fire called Discovery. I want Picard to
fall into the Guian role of old wise person doling out the occational
bit of advice, while Rio
, Soji and the new crew get a real ship from StarFleet and fight off
the Romulans and event get back to exploring new worlds and characters.
Seems like there hasn’t been one original idea or characters in Star
Trek in a long time.
If you pay attention to the dialog from Dr. Jurati she’s not saying that Synths destroy all life but “something” shows up to destroy life. The implication that there is an outside threat that is triggered by sythetic life reaching a certain point.
Yes, that’s what they figure out in this episode. That just like the Vulcans showed to invite humans to space faring society after they discovered warp engine (same as Federation does to other cultures now) there is something that shows up once synthetic life reaches a certain threshold. But instead of welcoming them to higher level of galactic society it destroys everything.
I’m sure that we see Data’s face during the “vision” they saw on the grief planet.
Yes, I noticed. It made me suspect the artefact really comes from the future not past and is showing the same thing happening that we saw on Discovery.
I hope you’re right about the Destroyer stuff, but when a TV show makes a big deal out of something like that they usually don’t let it go without a lot of stuff exploding and people getting killed.
My god… Congratulations. No joke: You just wrote a treatise on what’s wrong with pretty much all the worst genre material of the last 15 years.
“from the cold open on, it’s an hour built largely on unsatisfying spectacle, full of dramatic moments that exist in a vacuum and answers that make questions no longer worth asking.”Hi Steven Moffat!
“so many of its choices serve to make the show’s universe feel smaller. Elements which don’t need to be connected become intimately involved with one another- It really just serves to give the impression that there are about ten people running around doing things and they all know each other.”“So much …is like this, leaning on emotion to make connections where basic narrative logic and pacing fail.”
Ooof! Pretty much everything on television.“It’s not that the acting is bad, or even that all of these ideas are inherently terrible… I want to care about all of this, and I can’t think of an actor on the show who isn’t giving it their all. But without the proper context, without doing the work to build the relationships and sense of place…it’s all just weightless ideas, bits and pieces we’ve seen before on other, better shows…”“We’re supposed to care about the people… but that affection needs to be earned. You can’t simply put people in a room and say they’re a family.”Hi JJ Abrams!“turning up the drama instead of allowing the audience to come to its own conclusions”Hi Orci and Kurtzmann!
Can you edit this and send it to these clowns running Star Wars and Trek into the ground?
Ha! This is great. But I gotta admit for me personally, Moffat’s storytelling seems genius compared to Chibnall. And I say that as really loving the new Doctor, having no problem she’s a woman and generally enjoying this past season and look forward to the next. I tuned out of their first season though.
7of9 just activated a Borg cube, practically making herself Queen and forcefully re-assimilated Ex-Borg drones into the collective.Seven. Of. Nine. I’m glad you showed her struggling with that decision for a whole 20 seconds, show. Very considerate of you.After her revenge murder spree, I’m beginning to think the writers of the show have a very different 7of9 in their head from the one in the actual show.
It was this or let Romulans murder them all. At least keeping them alive gives them chance to be free one day. She already lost so many and we’ve seen her becoming more radical about protecting them over the years. It’s no wonder present Seven is different from the one all those years ago on the Voyager.
Right. She was against it until the Romulans were killing the drone en masse.
Indeed. How about fewer funny scenes and more badassery (meaing 7of9 and Elnor, of course)…? The whole “let’s get clues from ALL the holograms” was a waste of time. Rios hiding at the first sight of Soji…oh, c’mon!
He was literally confronted by the cause of his former captain’s (and father figure) suicide. That is more than enough to get you to run off and be by yourself.
“I’m glad you showed her struggling with that decision for a whole 20 seconds, show. Very considerate of you.”Seven realized that if she didn’t make a decision quickly then the Romulans were going to kill all the XBs. Would you have preferred she sat and thought about whether to do this for a couple of hours, all the while every XB was being killed?
It’s also worth noting that the vast majority were NOT XBs – they were in stasis in Borg alcoves. Those were the ones who were jettisoned into space.
Right. The Romulans had killed most of the XBs by shooting them with disruptors. The ones jettisoned into space were either sleeping Borg just awakened by Seven or ones still in their alcoves.But there were still probably some XBs walking around that the Romulans hadn’t shot yet that Seven was thinking about. An army of awakened Borg drones might be able to stop the Romulans from killing the remaining XBs.
“Shut the fuck up”That’s some goooooood Edgelord shit right there, Star Trek. You really upped the ante from Data saying “Oh Shit” that one time. Sheesh.
I think that’s more a CBS All Access thing – proving they’re more than television by saying some variant of “fuck” in every episode.
There’s a nicely allegorical story that could be told about a Starfleet that is corrupt to its core: captains recieve kill orders following first contact, admirals tell octagenarians to shut the fuck up, etc.But I don’t think that’s what this show is doing? I think it just wants to be kewl?
You’re so right. There’s potential for allegory there. Why a leadership that constantly disrespects each other and allows corruption to thrive is doomed to fail. It seems like the show will only briefly touch on it.. just like how they are just briefly touching on what it means to be human when the main character is an android who didn’t know they were an android. What even is the show about, now that I think about it? It can’t JUST be a vessel for old references and characters… Or… maybe it can…
Like sharpened knives through chicken mcnuggets
Yes, this series has hardly been compelling. I’ve already dropped my CBS subscription so I can renew HBONow. Since next week is the season finale, I guess I’ll finish watching after WestWorld has finished its season.
I’m calling it. It jumped the shark when Hugh died. That is my position.
Worst episode YET. There’s the positivity I’ve come to expect from here
I agree with nearly all of this, save one point.I actually bought the hug. Elnor saw the introduction of Picard to Hugh, and that was a genuinely warm feeling. I loved that little moment. When we saw Hugh last, at the end of Descent, he’d taken command of the individualized collective that Lore had exploited. But he had strong things to say to the crew of the Enterprise — that his freedom spread like a malevolent virus, and left nothing but chaos in its wake. While their intent had been noble, the end result was a fracturing.of everything for those people, and the nobility did not outweigh the result. No doubt, he knew that the being he’d known as Locutus had the option of making him a more insidious weapon, but chose not to. So the two of them finding each other, once Hugh has had 20 years to reflect on those events as quite sweet.Elnor has had very specific contact with Picard, and seeing this side of him, the elated and heartwarmed Picard, was probably a new experience. This Borg was probably the only one other than this “Seven” that Picard saw past the implants for the people beneath them. And Elnor failed to protect Picard’s friend. We see in TNG that the Romulans, even by human (not Klingon) standards are relatively “dishonorable.” But this group of protectors and guardians, the Qowat Milat, seems to fall outside of this. His entire purpose is protection – a purpose he failed. Seeing Seven is a chance to redeem himself. If he can keep her safe, if he can not fail her as he failed Hugh, he can live with himself.That’s how I take it, at least.The rest of this episode, Jesus Christ.
I know mileage varies, and I have nothing but respect for differing opinions. But for the reasons Zack has been raising and some others, here is the basic truth for me:This show just isn’t very good.It is a real shame. Jean Luc Picard is one of the best television characters in my lifetime, so this feels like it should have been an absolute lay up to build a show around him. But the show has just made bad decisions at every single turn after a very good pilot episode. I am going to keep watching at least until the end of this season because I am deep in the tank for TNG. But this has been an absolute face plant, as far as I am concerned. Not because of the acting, which is good. It is because the story and character building choices have been boring, poorly thought out, or simply ridiculous.
A thing that came to me while walking the dog the other day, is that if we had gotten this show back in 2000 or so, we would have called it the best Star Trek show ever. However with 20 years of serialised storytelling between the end of Star Trek on tv and now, Picard just pales in comparison to what’s possible in the format.
I’m waiting for serialization to swing back a bit more to the ~2005ish writing style. In something like bsg (or ds9, or Buffy, or…) there were season long arcs, but each episode also stood on its own, and had a beginning, middle, and end.What we get here and in Disco is the writers coming up with 1 idea. “Homeworld of synthetic biological beings” is a fine Trek idea, but stretching that 1 idea over 10 episodes means there’s really not a lot of content, and there is a lot of filler.
I have no problem with what is essentially a TNG 2-parter amount of story becoming a whole season, if they do it right. If they use it to dive deeply into the characters, give us multiple angles, fill the whole thing out, so it doesn’t feel as thin and stretched out as this does.
Unlike Zack I didn’t hate this week’s installment, because at least finally we’re getting some answers, something for the characters to react to.
A problem I’ve had with Picard is that it wants to say something about the state of the world, and about the state of its world, but it hasn’t really done anything with that. Picard and Rios talking about what happened to the Federation was the first time since the pilot that this was brought up.
Similarly the idea that these people are all broken and in need of a ‘crew’ has been developed so incrementally that it’s been almost worthless.
If they were committed to actually writing episodes as stories with a beginning and an end, and to giving those stories some moral weight, then they would have actually been forced to address these things. Kurtzman’s model for Star Trek is a crutch for lazy storytelling and it’s disappointing to see that a skilled novelist like Chabon isn’t capable of overcoming it.
The beginning-middle-end thing was something I thought about in the Seven/Icheb/pimpsuit episode. It was pretty self-contained, in that it introduced the idea of borg-harvesting, sortof discussed why it was bad, and then sortof addressed the issue by having Seven act as an executioner. (although it still didn’t have much to say about the world in general).
Right before that was the Romulan refugee nuns episode, which was just half a story. Although you can sortof imagine how it might have been written if it had been done in a different era.But I tend to blame Lost for the current approach to serialization, where everything is about momentum and big moments.I agree with Zack complaint that Rios’ coincidental connection to Soji is just bad writing (and unearned big moments). But I think the show overall has been 1000% better since Jean-Luc’s story caught up with Soji’s.
The Qowat Milat episode annoyed me, because there was the foundation there for a proper Star Trek story about responsibility and what you owe people. Instead it was just some (pointless) worldbuilding and introductions.
Which is why this serialised format is holding the show back, because it allows for these half-baked installments that just give you breadcrumbs until you get the big picture at the end of the season and you go ‘that’s it?’
The show is another version of Discovery, that is to say, everything about it is excellent (production, FX, acting) except the writing, which is garbage. I had hopes with Chabon and the Voyager author on board, but those were quickly dashed. While Ep 1 was fun, the flaws were already obvious (break the hero to build him back up, set up everyone to be in conflict with him, undermine everything we saw before, have everyone act the opposite of how you expect, be new and edgy, etc.), and we’re just watching that inevitability play out.
Another problem it shares with Discovery is that the stakes are way too big to be interesting. Last night revealed yet another “end of all life as we know” problem, which is not good drama. Of course the series isn’t going to end with androids taking over and killing all life in the galaxy. If it were about the destruction of a planet or the takeover of Starfleet, something smaller scale, there could be a chance for the writers to surprise us with an unexpected outcome.
Totally agreed. It’s a lazy way to try to add dramatic tension by having HUGE stakes, but it has the opposite effect. Stop threatening the planet/galaxy/universe/multiverse! A threat to a person or group of people or even a political or personal relationship, is more than enough if you have faith in what you’re writing (and are actually good).
It was a bad idea from the start to involve Picard at all, but anything
is better than the SJW dumpster fire called Discovery. I want Picard to
fall into the Guian role of old wise person doling out the occational
bit of advice, while Rio
, Soji and the new crew get a real ship from StarFleet and fight off
the Romulans and event get back to exploring new worlds and characters.
Seems like there hasn’t been one original idea or characters in Star
Trek in a long time.
You need to die in a fire, seriously.
LOL! He Mad!
Not at all, I’m just stating irrefutable fact that you serve zero purpose alive and that we would ALL be better off if you were fucking dead. Do one correct thing in your miserable life and just fucking kill yourself. I’m quite happy saying this actually. 🙂
I agree. It hasn’t been as terrible as it could be, either…I think Picard’s amount of jumping back and forth between the A- and B- plots really gets in the way. Especially in this episode where they would reveal something interesting, and the moment you would want to let it sink in it’s back to the cube where something else is going on, some totally different thread. It’s like the show has ADHD.
Here’s to the finest crew in Starfleet!*Picard chugs a beer and starts singing to the crew*
This is a fantastic and apt reference, and I salute you!
Any idea if there’s a green-lighted second season, and will this season end in a silly cliffhanger?
The second season was confirmed weeks (?) ago. It may have even been before the first episode aired.
Right. I remember that now. Something about Whoopi Goldberg returning as Guinan.
I think the second season had already been announced at least a week before Whoopi was asked to return when Stewart was on The View.
I reckon its the same as how us Star Wars hardcore Geeks felt about how they did Han, Luke and Leia.
I’ve wholesale given up on this show (as I commented on last week’s episode) and have found The Expanse to be a much better TV show to fill my current binging needs.
Unrelated to this episode, but the heart reference in the last episode inspired me to go back and watch the Tapestry episode of TNG. Man, while there is a certain clumsiness to it showing its age, man does the central story still hold up so well. It was also even more nuanced than I remembered, which was surprising.
for me it’s still the best episode of TNG.
I just read that Marta Batanides, the mutual acquaintance that Picard mentioned as being friends with Vandermeer, was Picard’s old friend from that episode, the one that he slept with and regretted it.
Completely unrelated, but if Admiral Clancy were actually Admiral Marta Clancy (née Batanides) that would be something I could totally get behind.I know we are meant to just fill in the blanks that Admiral Picard obviously has a bunch of history with a bunch of Admirals. But everytime Clancy acts totally unprofessionally I’m wondering what is supposed to be going on with that character.
I mean, she doesn’t like him. And she knows she can get away with being a dick to him because he’s on the outs with Starfleet. Have we never known a powerful person to be a dick to people just because they know they can get away with it in real life? Also, let’s face it, from her perspective Picard has got to be kind of annoying.
I just don’t think the show earns it.We’ve seen people get chewed-out plenty of times before. But whether Nechayev, or Jellico, or Pressman, or whomever, they always do it officiously. They’re never polite, but they’re so, so, so officious.
I need a scene with all of the starfleet brass sitting around, playing poker or whatever, and being foulmouthed to one another. Or at least a better reason for why this specific Admiral doesn’t even try to pretend to hide behind a veneer the way everyone else in Starfleet has always done.
Yeah, I guess. It’s a small enough part of the show that I can overlook it.
I think part of it is also that the actress/directing isn’t very good?Rios swore in this episode, and it was fine. Swearing in trek is weird, but ultimately fine.But every time Clancy swears there’s this “Look at meeeee! I’m sweeeeeearing!!! I’m swearing at space-dad!!!!!”
Tapestry. A great episode..
It’s just like Discovery, in that every piece is in place but the writing. Great actors, great production, great effects, pisspoor writing.
I’d agree and argue the production is slightly off too. Most episodes feel like a couple of key scenes or reaction shots were straight up cut, while other scenes go on too long. I think this might partly be because of the freedom of streaming allowing for varied episode times, which (IMO anyway) also hurt a show like Disenchantment.
I have no idea what Zach is on. This is easily one of the show’s better episodes. It’s not great. Everything on the borg cube is pretty awful.And all the twee humor with the holograms is getting to be more than a little much.But I’d probably put this as the second best episode. Then again, IMO, almost every episode of this show is bad, bad, bad, so YMMV.
Mass Effect is probably the best-written Star Trek game.
I genuinely think Mass Effect has just about the best-realised Sci Fi universe out there. All the races, how they fit together, the citadel, council and relays and all that good stuff. Even without the reaper cycles I think it would be a really compelling place to visit in games or even other media.Except for fucking Kai Leng. He’s an amalgam of so many bad science fiction clichés its untrue.
Hey I get the internet is the place where fan rage is cool, but I can’t be the only one who is enjoying this show and enjoyed this episode considerably, can I?Only Space Pirate Picard has struck me as a very, very bad idea regarding the show to date. I’m bought into this little package. Hope it pays off.
I thought this episode was quite entertaining as well. There are some real WTF moments throughout the entire series and in this episode. None of them have really bothered me enough to care past a minute or two though.
There are some real WTF moments throughout the entire series and in this episode.It’s Star Trek. Par for the course 😀
Exactly. The “reviewer” strikes me as someone who all their life mommy told them how good their creations were, then when they reached the adult world and found out they offered nothing but shit, decided that tearing down things that real producers delivered.
I’m loving the show (haven’t watched this week yet). The annoyance with this show baffles me.
Yeah, Handlen’s hate is baffling.
Even this week’s episode. I get that it’s a little trite that everyone is related but you could also say that about the fact that Q seems to only fuck with Picard out of all the people in the known universe. Star Trek, ideally, is about hope, optimism, curiosity, and improving yourself. It’s never been about intricate plotting and to gripe about it in this show is just REALLY WEIRD.
Q seems to only fuck with Picard out of all the people in the known universeWell…no. Every TNG episode without Q, of which there are many, can be assumed to coincide with Q fucking with someone else. We just don’t see it ‘cos we follow the Enterprise, not Q.
It’s like people complaining about Ghostbusters. People hold these things in such high esteem, forgetting that large swaths of the existing products (like half of the Ghostbusters movies) are just pretty terrible.
Picard isn’t a perfect show, but jesus, it’s by leaps and bounds better than any TNG eps from the entirety of season 1 or 2, better than all of Enterprise, and let’s be honest more enjoyable than a lot of the original series (and at least half the movies).
Did you like TNG? As an adult? What is it about this show, relative to TNG, that you enjoy?
I’m genuinely asking – not trying to be a jerk/troll. I do not get the appeal of this show at all as a pretty hardcore fan of TNG (and Star Trek in general – minus nuTrek), so I’m sincerely curious what so many find good about it.
While I saw a few episodes as a kid, I’ve only watched TNG as an adult. And I generally enjoy it, although I think I overall prefer TOS.I like it because it’s more Jean-Luc Picard in my life. I like it because it takes the idea seeded in the new movies about the destruction of Romulus and examines the Federation’s response. And I think it’s pretty true to the Federation displayed in TNG and DS9 where, even though the main characters upheld the stated goals of the Federation, those in power did not on a consistent basis. It makes sense then that Picard would have absolutely believed in helping the Romulans and absolutely would have lost his shit if the Federation backed out of the deal.So I find Patrick Stewart eminently watchable and find the plot intriguing (although I was hoping that the Borg and Romulans actually had more connection). I think the show is breezy and enjoyable, like TNG was most of the time while also having some great meditative moments exploring aging and what effect that would have on a man like Picard.Could I nitpick the show? Sure. How did Seven get on the Borg cube? How could the Romulans hack every synthetic life form on Mars? Why even bother having Maddox in the show if you’re going to do him dirty like that?Ultimately though, none of those ruin the show for me and I got to see Picard, Riker, and Troi together again. It’s all been well worth it for me and I hope it’s back next year.
Thanks for responding. I have a …different… take on it, but, like I said, I’m not here to troll you!
Either way, you’re in luck. It’s been renewed for season 2. Enjoy!
The review and comments on io9 are more positive and upbeat.
Probably because Briken is just a contributor now, otherwise he’d have made sure it got trashed.
That’s not a recommendation even if you like the show, that people should head on over to someplace where everyone will tell them things they already think and won’t challenge them in any way
Yeah no I loved this ep
Agreed, I went into this episode with low expectations because I saw the AV Club headline before I watched it, but I ended up thinking it was just fine. Things are happening, the plot is advancing, and just maybe Picard is getting Starfleet back on board. It is far from perfect, but then again most Star Trek (and TV in general) shows flaws when you really dissect an episode.
Iactually held off on watching the episode until this weekend because I saw the headline and was preemptively disappointed. I watched it and it was perfectly fine. I think our standards in the Golden age of television have escalated to expect everything to be Breaking Bad. Nonsensical plot is kind of par for the course with Star Trek, no? I kind of dug Seven going full Borg Queen. She is not the same person as she was on Voyager.
I guess that’s part of the issue though, is that while Picard has been mostly somewhere between “okay” and “good”….I just really wish it had blown me away out of the gates. I do realize that even some of the best TV shows need one season to get going, so maybe there is still hope Picard will reach the heights of TNG or DS9 in their hey-day. But this all makes me wonder if Star Trek is simply best suited for mostly episodic television, with some broad story arcs dropped in there (like DS9 did). The whole “10 part movie” strategy didn’t do much for Discovery and I don’t think it does Picard any favors. Also, I miss the structure of Starfleet. I think Picard would be best served in season 2 if Jean-Luc gets back to being either a captain or admiral, and potentially brings Rios and Raffi (ugh, J-L) along as re-instated crew. Lets see some new starship designs and interiors!!
This is headache-inducing. “Most things are bad when you talk about them[?!], so I don’t get why this article about the show is discussing story and pacing and so on. Why’s the review of the show talking about the show? Can’t it just call it awesome or badass and praise me for watching it?”From the moment Kinja started purging those of us willing to discuss, and capable of discussing, critical opinions on article topics, it’s taken what, one or two years? for the entire concept of “a TV critic” to disappear from the minds of commenters here. From a site called “The A.V. Club”.You are baffled here, completely unable to engage with the idea or even to understand the comment I’ve written about it, let alone respond to it.And Zack Handlen plugs away, still writing as a competent TV critic, in front of an audience as confused by balanced, level-headed engagement with a TV show as they’d be if he’d responded to this episode with pastoral poetry in Ancient Greek. Absurd praise or absurd rage, that’s all that anyone can parse on here anymore. Don’t consider what you consume, just pick a team as designated by the marketing department of the IP owner.
It was a bad idea from the start to involve Picard at all, but anything
is better than the SJW dumpster fire called Discovery. I want Picard to
fall into the Guian role of old wise person doling out the occational
bit of advice, while Rio
, Soji and the new crew get a real ship from StarFleet and fight off
the Romulans and event get back to exploring new worlds and characters.
Seems like there hasn’t been one original idea or characters in Star
Trek in a long time.
I’m kinda frustrated with the idea that Picard basically turned his back on all his friends and allies until he needed them again that the show seems to be running with. It didn’t really seem in character for him.
Not to mention that resentment for his lack of contact was had been frequently used during the ‘gather a crew’ phase of the show for pointless drama. The worst part for me is how Picard comes off as someone who’s just a grumpy old man who always wants his way unless you automatically revere him or are one of his BFFs from the Enterprise. Guy’s on a high horse while everyone around him is risking everything and dealing with their own demons and he doesn’t even seem to pay attention to issues that aren’t part of his immediate goals.
Though, I will say how I’m a bit frustrated by most Sci-fi tv franchises going for more of a NuBSG feel when it comes to characterization and storylines. Everyone just feels… broken and damaged and that eats up so much of the storyline that it’s hard to enjoy the setting.
The last time I truly enjoyed something Star Trek that wasn’t just nostalgia wrapped around a barely passable plot was Star Trek: Beyond, a film that had plenty of flaws but at least tried to have fun.
You gotta admit it’s kind of funny that in one paragraph you’re criticizing Picard for not being the same character as he was on the old show and then dismiss this show as a nostalgia exercise. For better or worse, the show has pretty much committed to the idea that Picard is not the same man he was 3 decades ago, and asking how he can go on to be better. Obviously that choice is controversial, but it certainly isn’t “just nostalgia”
His central critical theme throughout the entire series is some vague “it’s not Trek”. Handlen is usually pretty good and he nailed the TNG/DS9 reviews, but his work on this series is very 100-level, almost high school
He seems to be better reviewing a series that was over than a series that’s ongoing, at least with Star Trek.
Oh I’m not saying it’s “just nostalgia” so much as the nostalgia is the draw and the rest is a show that doesn’t really feel like a Star Trek show (compared to any other Star Trek show before). It feels like some other type of sci-fi show that is just using TNG and Voyager characters to get people to watch.
I think this one is one of the best so far.
Sometimes people just need to watch the damned show for what it is, not what their expectations are.For instance:
Rafi and Rios makes a certain kind of sense on why they know each other. Rafi would be well known, in certain circles, for her belief that something is off about the Mars attack. Rios, based on what we learn this episode, would likely be drawn to her because of his experiences and desire to see if there was a connection.Handlen seems far to interested in dismissing the relationship because he’s looking for reasons to criticize the show, rather than thinking about how the past might be explaining how these people are all in the [Picard] here and now.
This show could have benefitted from double coverage like Game of Thrones: one review for people who know Star Trek, and have seen other series, and a second for newbies. I think a newbie review written by someone who isn’t familiar wither wider canon could have given you the reviews you’re looking for. It wouldn’t even have to be someone totally unaware of Star Trek, just a casual viewer who watched TNG when it was on.I think Zack’s criticisms have been fair for the most part. I think he harps on the fact that this is a “different” Picard a bit too much, but everything else is reasonable.
Remember: rageclicks are still clicks! That’s the first rule of online marketing!
This is insane, paranoid reasoning on your part. How can you not see that? Do you not understand what the fuck a TV critic does? Zack’s saying the show is middling! He doesn’t hate it! He’s pointing out why it’s neither abysmal nor great! He’s just. Fucking. Talking about the show on the level of a normal TV review on this site as it has existed for years.
And your response is to cook up fan fiction on the fly to preserve your unhealthy emotional investment in a product to which you neither contributed nor are even able to consider in a reasoned way!
While I watched the episode I was like, “ok, we’re finally moving the plot along here, and hey, nobody got brutally mutilated or otherwise killed to give another character motivation, I guess we’re getting somewhere.” But…this review brings up some fair points. Mainly about the all-too-convenient links between all these characters’ backstories and present-day events.
It’s always weird to follow the reviews on a show where I 100% disagree with the reviewer. I’ve loved this since episode 1 and thought this episode might have been the best of the series so far. Compared to the breathless plot-whipping stupidity of Discovery, this actually seems to be building out the Star Trek world in a thoughtful, coherent way. I can feel the Chabon influence — someone who actually cares about character and story.Like… I don’t agree with every choice they make (space vape and space cigars, for example), but damn are they hitting more than they miss. And Picard’s speech (They have only fear… we have kindness and hope…) was classic Trek.
All the other Treks were following people who were at the apogee of their game: respected Starfleet commanders who had the full backing of the besty-best positive system behind them, where the Federation is a golden utopia and everyone is perfect and LALALALALALALALALAICAN’THEARYOULALALALALALALALALALA.This is characters at the bottom of their game. A disgraced, hermit Starfleet captain who left out of failure. A paranoid, snakeweed-addicted ex-intel officer. A smuggler who was drummed out of Starfleet for political reasons (most likely). A scientist whose entire field of study that she dedicated her life to had it banned and taken away from her. The only male space ninja in an exiled order of female-only space ninjas who has an Australian accent. People are butthurt that it’s not Star Trek: The Simple, Uncomplicated, and Easy-To-Understand Adventures of Captain Straightback Moraliser and the USS Righteous Buttkicking But Also Diplomacy and the Friends They Make Along The Way. Compared to the breathless plot-whipping stupidity of Discovery, this actually seems to be building out the Star Trek world in a thoughtful, coherent way. I can feel the Chabon influence — someone who actually cares about character and story. There are people who rail against Picard and love STD, and that just explains a whole helluva lot, does it not? STD is a show made entirely of the cheapest, scraped-fresh-from-tumblr-stan-fic-pages generic stock characters. There’s the Mummy and Daddy figures (Georgiou and Lorka). There’s the Fat Awkward Best Friend that gives the main character something to show just how awesome main character is by being Super-Supportive. Same goes for Suitably Non-Threatening Gay Guy. There’s the Angsty Man Crush – who has been, no shit, put through the Star Trek equivalent of whitewashing he’s a Klingon, but it’s ok! He’s been surgically altered to look like a real human! He passes whatever the equivalent Human/Klingon Apartheid-grade pencil test is (as long as you don’t stick it in that godawful manbun)! (He just needs to get laid by the protagonist to be made all better.)Oh, and the Slut-Coded Femme-Fatale (Bizarro Georgiou). Careful, ladies: you better defer to her or she’ll seduce your boyfriend and send you and all your friends the snapchat of her riding him reverse-cowgirl in the holosuite and then wiping his spaceman-gravy off her thighs afterwards. Also thinks stilletto heels are practical spacewear.And finally: we have Mary Sue Burnham. And she is a fucking Mary Sue. Her only flaws are that She Cares Too Much, is a Perfectionist, and is Always Right While Others Who Have The Authority Are Wrong. Oh, and she’s half-human, half-Vulcan, so she’s both super-empathetic and emotionally intelligent as well as cool under pressure and completely logical and rational (and not, as one might believe otherwise, a psychological mess). Pretty much every ep’s plot can be summed up as “Some arsehat refused to listen to Mickey B, and of course they should have.”
Why is that “weird”? It’s fucking normal. TV critics do not exist to advertise a TV show or to agree with you on it. Their job is supposed to draw eyes to ads through skilled expression of an opinion of interest whether or not you agree!
I think the reviewer is very grumpy about all other forms of public entertainment being cancelled by COVID-19
Zach makes some fair points on a technical front but no, you aren’t alone. I feel like it keeps getting better after a couple real snoozers early on.
Same here. I really liked this episode, thought it was one of the strongest yet (admittedly, Rios’ connection to the main plot is stupid), so I was really surprised to read this review. Thought the middle part of the series was really bad (especially the episode in the faux Las Vegas / Blade Runner city), but the last episode with Riker and this one were much better.
This was my favorite episode thus far, I loved Raffi’s antics with the EMH’s, and of course it all goes back to Oh. Raffi picked this captain, Raffi and Picard’s rescue was derailed by the Mars attack, why would you expect the various threads not to keep concerning synths? Why shouldn’t the doctor apologize for the murder? She could literally plead temporary insanity thanks to the aggressive mind meld. I’m seeing the same events but reacting very differently.
I agree with literally everything in this review and I still love this show and will take it, warts and all. It’s OK to like a show and think an episode kind of sucks in the grand scale.Would the show work if they were all this bad? No. Would it work if they were all as good as Nepenthe? Also no, Hollywood would have canceled it because shows that good can’t be allowed to exist.
You aren’t the only one by a long way.
Did you like TNG? As an adult? What is it about this show, relative to TNG, that you enjoy?
I’m genuinely asking – not trying to be a jerk/troll. I do not get the appeal of this show at all as a pretty hardcore fan of TNG (and Star Trek in general – minus nuTrek), so I’m sincerely curious what so many find good about it.
I don’t think it’s as strong as it could be, but I’m really enjoying this show.
I rarely say this, but check out Reddit, i.e. r/startrek. It’s widely beloved there.
Dude, I remember your comments from this site, years of them. So I remember that you used to understand that a TV critic’s job was not to provide a place for everyone to parrot everything they already thought about a show, to self-segregate into “RAGE” vs. “AWESOMESAUCE” self-perpetuating publicity machines. I remember when you would have read an article like this one, one that takes neither extreme, performative position but instead treats the TV show as comprising elements that can be analyzed and discussed, and understood instinctively what it was and how to discuss it without sending people to the Internet’s biggest shit-hole so they don’t have to think about the topic of the article where you’re making the comment.What the fuck happened here? I’m serious. It’s disturbing.
It’s two random sentences about another place to talk about a TV show. I’m sure that person took all the valid criticisms in this review to heart before they went off to have a fan chat or whatever. It’s not that big a deal. Take a breath.
I also like the show. Honestly, I feel about the same way about the reviews as Handlen feels about the show: he makes some good points here and there but I’m very disappointed overall. When he says “I went in with an open mind”, it sounds as if he’s trying to convince himself as much as he’s trying to convince us. He had expectations of what the show would be before the first episode even aired and he’s been fighting his disappointment ever since.Ironically, I do agree that this is the worst episode of the season so far, and that it had too many plot contrivances. It’s the constant whining that is piling up week after week that is getting much. If the A.V. Club can find reviewers that like CW superhero shows despite the weak plots, inconsistent characterization and so-so acting, can’t they find someone excited about this much better show?
I’m enjoying it, too. I feel like a lot of people seem to want to find problems with the shows they watch and find it entertaining to pick them apart. Nothing short of perfection will be good enough and even that, after a second watching or more thought, isn’t good enough.
I thought this was the best episode yet. I loved the stuff with the 5 EMHs and the origin of the Zhat Vash.
It is an age/generational thing? I’m old enough to have seen STAR TREK:TOS when it first aired (I didn’t — The Balok gave me nightmares, so I didn’t watch the entire series in reruns until High School about six years later), and I’m pretty much on-board with Handlen’s reviews. Picard does seem like an old tired man getting lost in his own show — and that’s the writing, because when Picard has something to do Stewart knocks it out of the park! But there’s way too much of him as a old man on his last hurrah here, and because He’s A Classically-Trained Actor, For God’s Sake! he’s playing that.His crew doesn’t feel like they’ve gelled yet, and we’re expected to act like they’re already a team. Yes, I know it’s only episode seven and it took over two years for the TNG crew to completely set (again, thanks to bad writing), but I feel like I get a lot of character tics but no real character from any of them:
Is Raffi meant to be a recovering snakeleaf addict who backslid, or was she lying to her son when she claimed to be “clean”? (And WTF doesn’t anybody call her on toking up with driving a starship, anyway? I’m all down with legalizing pot — but I still won’t get in any car my middle-aged stoner brother is driving!)What is Agnes, besides a Cyberneticist terrified by a Romulan vision into helping them (unconsciously — we’re back to “Taken Over By An Evil Alien Entity”, I see) who had shagged Maddox and is currently shagging Rios, when not feeling suicidal? I know we get Rios’ backstory in this episode — but c’mon, he’s not much more than Space Rogue With a Ethics Code at this point!The only one who fits to me is Elnor, and that’s mainly because we have a half-century of martial arts movies to color in his backstory — highly-trained young swordsman with zero idea of life outside the Warrior Monastery he trained at.And — the Zhat Vash’s plot? Does it even make any sense in sketchy outline? By now, we should be getting a feeling of dread as we realize just what the ultimate agenda of all this anti-synth but By All Means Work Inside a Borg Cube Reclaiming Borg Drones business is going.
Most of what you have raised here seems like a feature and not a bug to me. The degeneration of the Star Trek universe seems …soothing to me. ..in this time of turmoil, and Stewart seems to be striking a good balance between very-old guard and doing what he can in this new world. The “I don’t know how to work this” line had me in stitches.But we still have strong stripes of Star Trek in it – the time spent with the Riker/Troi family, the person Agnes wishes she could be, and the contrivance of Rios’ backstory. All rang very true for me. I skipped Voyager so I have no idea how disconnected this all is with that, but what Seven is doing with the Borg to me feels like it directly tackles the unspoken/unaddressed anxieties that come out of what the Borg did and did not do on TNG, as well as the “uh, what?” components of First Contact. I can totally get that people bought in to the Roddenberry idealism baked in to Star Trek might be very disquieted by things I find comforting. I was a teen for most of TNG, skipped most of the post-TNG Trek universe entirely, and have opted out of social media entirely as it seems to be nothing but harmful. I’m, in a word, weird.But this weirdo is quite pleased with Picard. It ain’t perfect, but its fun.Edit: also wanted to say I assume Raffi is still using a much safer/normal substance than whatever she used in the past, that her vaping is not a contradiction of statements to her son. Its clear to me that for a time she was a space junkie, and she remains in recovery on her worst vices. I lost a brother to the opioid crisis of the late 90s (back when we didn’t call it that) and am still on nicotine replacement therapy to avoid my worse vices. She works for me.
The degradation of the Trek universe is entirely unsurprising to me! At the beginning of TOS and TNG we were introduced to a Federation that had been effectively breezing its way to success, having a few minor spats with the Klingons and Romulans, and a hinted at nasty but localised war with the Cardassians.Q introduced Picard to the Borg so the Feds would know that it’s not all pleasure planets and space hotels, for crying out loud!Since then we’ve had a massive galaxy spanning war with the Dominion that killed millions, a full scale Borg invasion of the Alpha and Beta quadrants that may have killed billions and the complete destruction of one of the Galaxy’s main powers, the Romulans.It’s been the Star Trek equivalent of the first half of the 20th century, with two world wars and a great depression, and now we’re in the cynical reflective period afterwards.
GameDevBurnout — I’m a recovering alcoholic/smoker myself. I just wish they’d be a bit more explicit about Raffi’s addiction and recovery — I know what a drunk, an addicted smoker and a junkie looks like (the first two were me at various points in my life!), but I don’t know what a snakeleaf addict looks or acts like. We know the Federation is going to collapse sooner or later — Picard told us as much in ST: Insurrection, so he’s aware it’s happening too. I guess that even so, he can’t help but try and save the Universe, once again.NB: I once write a spec script that pretty much turned out to be Q and Picard arguing about the Fall of the Federation, and why Q kept having awful things happen to Jean-Luc — to prevent him from becoming Head Admiral of Starfleet, keeping the Fleet out of the political infighting that was occurring the rest of the Federation…which meant Starfleet fell so much harder and further after he finally died! I had Q say, “The Federation will fall, Jean-Luc — the question is how far, and how long will it take to climb back to a new and better Galactic Government. If you were Head Admiral, it would take centuries longer, because every Captain would have a highly advanced, potentially everlasting pirate ship to smash all progress with…” (Yeah, I know it’s basically the main theme of Asimov’s FOUNDATION Universe.)
It’s because you still remember the idea of a TV critic, of critically engaging with something in a mode that’s not the new A.V. Club commenter mode of “here for it, as the kids are saying recently” vs. “FAN RAGE”.You remember how there’s an entire world of ground to cover outside of that when discussing a TV show: where this element works, and that one doesn’t, and so on. You remember that the show’s context in the history of a decades-long franchise can be talked about without it turning into a collective Climax-style mind-war between the feral and confused.So, on your question about the age thing… sort of? It doesn’t have to be.
I’m not a Trekkie.And I like the show.Which is probably why I like it – no, not because I have no frame of reference against which to compare it, but because, not being a Trekkie, I am not legally obligated to whinge about it lest I be kicked out of the subculture I have based my entire identity on. I tried watching some of the older shows, and while they’re…not bad…they’ve not aged as well as, say, Stargate SG-1 or The X-Files. They’re very cheesy, and twee, and often saccharine. If that’s what floats ones boat, hey, I’m all for it, go nuts. But I vaguely recall people whinging about Voyager, TNG, and DS9, so maybe if it angries up ones blood so much it’s time to ditch the whole franchise. I mostly put this down to the socially awkward and emotionally immature being unable to process anything done by someone else or that does anything other than make them 110% happy. Hell, I loved Nepenthe, and I’ve no stake on Riker or Troi’s character. But watching Picard and Riker and Troi and Kestra all meet, I could tell they were very great, respected friends, and it was done with such warmth and love. When both Troi and Riker know that Picard’s in trouble, and Riker immediately raises the defences, without question, that was pretty damn good. And they’re handling the question of “can a human robot that’s indistinguishable from a free-range human be considered human?” a whole helluva lot better than oh…Westworld, whose answer seems to be the contradictory “Robots are humans” and also “Shut the fuck up, meatbag, they’re better than humans” as the plot requires. Watching Kestra’s childlike fascination and wonder and just not giving a good goddamn whether Soji came from a uterus or an e-uterus was a more elegant way of handling this. I was always led to believe Star Trek is there to show humanity (or alienity) at its finest. Picard still does this. In fact, it could well be argued that it does this better than any other show so far, since the humanity in it is under far greater pressure, has more to overcome, is reaching further out under more dire circumstances, not the softball situations the other shows were kinda infamous for. Picard has been cast out, betrayed on a cosmic scale, is old and ageing, yet still nutted up when he couldn’t still stand idly by. Was it guilt? Selfishness? Narcissism?Whatever. All this is humanity.
I thought this was the closest the show’s gotten to TNG so far. Despite everything, there was still an element of hope and wonder. Picard even got a Picard Speech! Maybe I should be reading the io9 reviews.
You aren’t, i loved this episode in particulair because it took time to breathe and get us to know the characters better. I do however concur on the whole ‘everybody seems to know each other and about 10 people run around and do stuff’ critique, it’s one i have had about DISCO as well, but it also shows up on shows like NCIS (all of them) in which an entire country/state/city/region seems to have one of each: lawyer, DA, FBI, CIA, DEA, Russian Spy. And every season this one person representing the agency shows up.Law and Order does a much better job on this, lawyers, judges and other DA’s show up but in rotation (and also, just in Manhattan).In Star Trek, everybody is family or has a connection like that. Why couldn’t Rios have some other backstory? Just the details be different. Or, if this Rios back story is important, why not have a different reason for him being the captain of this particulair ship? Have Starfleet suggest him and implicate that it was Oh who was behind the suggestion?
You’re not the only one, but you’re still enjoying dumb stuff. That’s okay. Doesn’t make it good.We all hate dumb stuff.
Seems to me that people are losing the capcity to engage with TV (or any other cultural media) with curiosity and explore it with an open mind. Instead a lot of people appear to be comparing shows with their own head-canon/internal fanfic, and if the show does not deliver that it’s thumbs down.
I laughed out loud at Picard playing with the ship’s controls dramatically and then saying “I don’t actually know how this works”
Yes, you are literally the only person on this site, indeed, the only person on Earth, who likes this show. It is tailored to you, in a you-centered universe where everyone behind the show (who themselves despise it) monitors your every move, as your vast fortune and influence feed their children daily.
By the way, 76 upvotes for a top-upvoted comment that can’t even comprehend what a TV critic is supposed to do means the entire enterprise is now dead on A.V. Club.None of this is “fan rage”. This is a writer explaining, in terms of their career writing about television, why this show is not terrible, but not great. But that’s not tuned to the extreme dentist drill of love/hate, fight/flight opinion. If someone doesn’t think something is “badass” and “awesome”, well, then, they must descend into hysteria: only “rage” is left.This is honestly nausea-inducing. This site was never a well-heeled salon for the finest discussion about pop culture, but you people, some of whom have been commenters for years, have literally forgotten what this site does, as it still does it in articles like the above. That’s how they sell the ads! Because you used to read Zack’s articles and have some vague idea of what a critic does! You’re like the damn Dawn of the Dead zombies coming back to the damn mall! Is that reference low and slow over the plate enough for you to see it?
So now we know that the Zhat Vash orchestrated the attack on Mars which
led to the Federation banning all synthetic life. As reveals go, it’s
not the worst the episode has in store for us; the biggest problem is
that it’s entirely unsurprising.
I know different people like different thing and you can dislike the any show just because but holding the fact that the show confirms what it was hinting in foreshadowing as some big issue is kind of weird. Yes, they gave us all those puzzle pieces so we figured out much of this before and the AI threat vision and Zhat Vash belief in Soji being the Destroyer and the attack on Mars were all obviously connected but it was still nice to see how it all fits together.It’s nice to see the puzzle pieces come together. Thisgs we knew like Commander Oh working for Zhat Vash, the synthetics being hacked to stage Attack on Mars, the visions of disastrous events that Ramdah calls news that drive Zhat Vash to destroy all synthetic life. Raffi’s, Jurati’s and Rios stories let us know the extent to which Zhat Vash is willing to go (they doomed Romulus rescue only to get rid of Federation synthetics) and the influence they hold in Federation (how deep their infiltration of Starfleet is). I think this nicely sets up the final confrontation and Seven reawakening the Borg just adds another side to this conflict (I suspect Borg might save their asses when Clancy’s fleet turns out to be helping Romulans).
And we already know that Zhat Vash membership runs in families – since both Narissa and Narek are part of it – so Ramdha being connected to them isn’t as shocking as you make it out to be. That the siblings work together also hints why they work on the Cube where their aunt is – Zhat Vash keeps families together.
Her assimilation also wasn’t an accident – they were clearly trying to get Zhat Vash on the cube and Narissa says she wishes her ship was assimilated. This is all part of their plan. They either wanted to see how Borg would react to the knowledge Zhat Vash carry or even knew it would get the Cube ejected from collective and did it to get Borg technology for the fight with synthetics. But the most interesting take out from Seven’s creating the new Collective is that it has job for Annika. Since it know what Ramdah knows, and I bet also what Soji knew since I bet that knowledge transfer was two-way, it seems pretty certain it’s sending Seven to Soji’s planet.
We also had a Jurati’s big breakdown over becoming a murderer last episode. Some people can kill for the cause like Zhat Vash without remorse but she is devastated by guilt. And realising she carries the tracker that Romulans use to follow them which means she worked for Zhat Vash not Starfleet just made it unbearable – enough she almost died to get rid of it. So I’m not sure what is shocking about her confessing to all of it.And it’s easy to plan killing some faceless monster who you think will bring the end of the worlds but it’s a different thing when Soji – the personification of everything Agnes dreamed of for years – sits there and is just so human. Jurati isn’t a fanatic who dedicated her life to the eradicating synthetics like Zhat Vash and it’s no wonder she prefers Picards view on this – it doesn’t have to be the same as it was hundreds of thousands of years ago. And she certainly doesn’t want to kill again.
I’ll give you Rios since he was kind of outside of that
Data-Soji-synthetics-attack on Mars-Borg-Zhat Vash circle that connected
all the other characters. Still like someone said below he and Raffi
were both people affected by actual conspiracy and Starfleet conspiracy
theories circles might be small enough for this coincidence to be less ridiculously unlikely.
I suspect Borg might save their asses when Clancy’s fleet turns out to be helping RomulansI’m surprised neither Zack nor anyone else seems to have landed on this idea. As soon as Clancy seemed to acquiesce to Picard, and Picard got so naively happy it seemed like a gimme that anyone being sent to DS12 was there to arrest the Motley Crew or blow them from the sky.
Yes, I was like Commander Oh, head of Starfleet Security, works for Zhat Vash and Starfleet in general, along with the whole Federation, is super anti-synthetic so Picard’s belief that what Clancy sends is help seems overly-optimistic. I think at best she would left them hanging hoping they would wait for reinforcements until Romulans destroyed Soji’s homeworld. But most likely they would’ve been met by some more death squads like you say.
The idea of the Borg/XBs becoming heroes is intriguing.
I wish Frakes was directing that space fight. No one can stage Trek fleet battles like Frakes.
I mentioned upstream that Rafi and Rios knowing each other made a certain kind of sense, particularly after this episode.Rio’s experiences would have likely drawn him to Rafi, initially for her belief in there being something more to the Mars attacks. He may have not found out about the specific connection they have until this episode, but he certainly would have almost immediately recognized the kinship of them both being broken by their experiences with Starfleet.
Yes,you’re right. They both have been affected by conspiracies within Starfleet and that’s not that big group of people so it’s not that surprising they’ve met. Of course they didn’t know it was the same conspiracy (Zhat Vash quest to destroy all synthetics) but it’s a really big one (they control Starfleet security) so it’s not that improbable.
we discover that Rios, too, has a connection to the synthetics; his old ship met two ambassadors from Soji’s home planet, and his old captain murdered them both on orders from Starfleet.I don’t care much about what’s “really Star Trek”, but after three TV shows, a movie and over twenty years of Star Trek offering a hidden paranoid evil lurking behind the franchise good guys as some sort of story-propelling shock twist, this is just tired.That’s the biggest problem with electro-shocking this series back to semi-life to justify ownership of the rights. Star Trek’s early-adopter ultra-fans are jealously neurotic about the status quo. You can have heroes who aren’t in the show’s pseudo-military service, but they have to be veterans of that service, or on the road to friendship with the other heroes who are in Starfleet, and so on. You can’t shake it up very much or your word-of-mouth will tank; it’s “not real Star Trek”, shrieks a Star Trek show’s core audience, people who define themselves by the merchandise they purchase and would, if they were forced to choose, prefer a bad TV show that repeats what they’ve seen already.But contemporary TV thrives on constant shock reveals to extend binge watching, and Picard didn’t even go through the motions to establish Starfleet as anything but cynical and evil. So the same ultra-fans turn around and howl, “Starfleet’s evil? That’s not Star Trek!” while people who approach this like any other TV show say to themselves “How is this a pay-off? What’s the surprise here?” Again, I don’t relate much to the first group of people, but this approach makes for crappy TV for the rest of us, too.The answer is, it’s not, and there isn’t one, because Star Trek already shot its shot with paranoid evil on the homefront back in the ‘90s, and while it was a lot better than this show, the ratings weren’t hot back then either. At this point, Picard’s like Batman v Superman, relying completely on pop-culture knowledge about its keystone concepts as trustworthy or admirable while failing to establish the versions actually existing in the story as anything of the sort.
The show is much better on fast forward – try watching it at warp speed and time just flies by.
We’re supposed to care about the people on board La Sirena like they’re a crew, but that affection needs to be earned. Discovery has also had this same problem. Yeah, Tilly, Saru and Stamets are likable now but it took two years. But the writers wrote like that had already been earned.It doesn’t help that Picard seems to be getting lost in his own show. I’m not sure if it’s an intentional choice, or if Stewart isn’t up to the demands of filming a series (I feel guilty even saying that)I love Sir Patrick like every other nerd but don’t feel bad about this. He’s a very old man now and it shows in his voice whenever he speaks.
This. About the voice. It’s hard to hear in Harrison Ford’s voice too (and my Dad’s)
I know this is a lame cliche but assuming your dad is a good guy: Appreciate him while you still got him. By the time I was able to show my dad how I felt he was already on his way out. Big regrets on that.
What f-ing show were you watching? This episode was fantastic. It drew me ever deeper into this remarkable unfolding story.
Summarily dismissing this brilliant epic of our time is the act of a grunting savage
I don’t think I disliked this as much as Zack did, but it’s definitely not great. The characters are basically reciting exposition to each other, and the slow motion doling out of the plot “twists” is getting pretty tiresome. I’ve seen the argument that because TNG and DS9 weren’t great in their first seasons, we shouldn’t judge shows like Picard and Discovery too harshly. But, at least the mostly episodic format of the older shows gave the characters room to breathe. I guess Agnes’s “I’m done murdering people” was supposed to be funny? Can’t help thinking she will either die or be exonerated before going to jail.
I’m glad someone else drew the Mass Effect Trilogy connection. In old TNG this story would have made a solid 3-parter.
In Picard we have to slog our way through the ‘mystery’ – finding people’s first guesses in eps 2 come to fruition in eps. 8.
That’s the spirit Zack! Your “C” grade is still too high, but your criticisms and emotional reaction are right on the money! This show is, at best, a mediocre pile of cliches and echoes of better shows that we’re all only watching because it calls itself “Star Trek”.
Wow, I couldn’t possibly disagree with Zack any more strongly. It’s funny, because I forgot to watch the episode last night, saw the headline this morning, went “welp,” and sat down after work braced for the worst. And the episode kept going, and I kept waiting for it to get bad, and instead I found myself more and more drawn in, more tense, more caught up in the moment.
For one thing, this is the first episode where all the characters on the La Sirena feel like real people who I could actually invest in. Raffi trying to get information out of the holograms was adorable (although Santiago Cabrera’s Scottish accent was so bad that I thought for sure it was Rios trolling Raffi at first, which would have been hilarious), Jurati taking one look at Soji and falling instantly in love was beautiful (and I don’t think we’re supposed to think she’s over her PTSD so much as not letting it dominate her now that she’s been confronted with the reality of Soji), someone already explained why Narissa’s aunt was assimilated and I think it adds, finally, some real depth to her character, something you’ve been complaining about for a while, Zack. Also I just wanna point out again that Narissa is a) Roger Sterling’s second wife and b) Captain Cold’s sister, both of which tickle me no end and demonstrate how versatile Peyton List is. And I don’t know how you got through this whole review without mentioning that wonderful conversation about Data that Picard and Soji had. Along with the Riker and Troi scenes from last week, these are the moments that most strongly resurrect the spirit of TNG, and yet this show is very much its own thing. And while, yeah, you could say that the Rios-Jana connection was a bit of a contrivance, I don’t mind contrivances if they strengthen the story, and I don’t know how anyone thinks this one didn’t. Rios has obviously had something in his past bothering him; this draws it out, ties it directly into the main story, and gives him an arc to follow. What more could you want?
Whatever you want to say about the show’s writing—and I’m happy to acknowledge that there have been some odd choices and dead spots here and there—the one thing that reassures me about it, and that this episode makes clear, is that it gets Star Trek. It gets the guts of it right, the essentials of the property; what is good and what is evil, what is human and what isn’t, when do we hope and when do we fear. It’s not afraid to ask the big questions and balance optimism with realism. And the best thing about this episode was the tightness, the pacing. No weird incest scenes, no reiteration of what we already knew, even the exposition scenes felt taut and full of character moments that ultimately drove the story forward. For a while there, I was really wondering where they were gonna get a second season out of this story; now I can’t wait for it. This show really feels like it’s coming into its own to me, and I’m excited to see where it goes. Although it would be nice if they stopped killing all the black characters.
Co-signed in complete agreement
Add my signature as well!
Exactly this.
the Romulan lady broke the Borg cube because she was sad? Erm, okay, I can buy it, sorta, if you take into consideration that she had been plugged into a robo uber consciousness that drove people mad.
And the Borg did finally wake up! And then got shot out into space. But they totally woke up. And we know from First Contact that the vacuum of space isn’t deadly to Borg drones so maybe Seven could have told them to swing back, or she can beam them back. she is already disconnected though. But I did like Seven being plugged into the Cube, if only because Ryan sold how difficult it would be for Seven. I guess she temporarily assimilated the xBs and then unplugged them so they were only kinda assimilated. (even though they were not connected to the hive but I thought it was kinda neat now Seven explained making a mini-hive instead of connecting to the larger collective). Great bit of Seven being annoyed “Is this where the Queen lived?” “No.” “She visited?” “It’s complicated.”
Speaking of being annoyed, the freeze frame image for the episode is Seven being hooked back up to the Borg which is a wee bit of a spoiler.
So the Borg rebuilt the transwarp conduit system, it has been over 20 years at this point so it’s not impossible, and maybe it’s still fidgety after Voyager blew it up.
Now I know why Rios hate the hospitality hologram, that guy is overbearing as hell, sheesh! And I actually liked Raffi in this episode, aside from the whole wanting to Murder Soji right off the jump. Good to know that the EMH actually was aware of Agnes’ actions with Maddox, he couldn’t see proof but was certain but he was deactivated at a critical moment which is something that happened to the Voyager EMH a lot.
I saw Soji do a Data head tilt which was referenced last episode, so either she only started doing it last episode which could be when she was “activated” or has been doing it the whole run and nobody noticed. I feel for her, poor little synth who has no idea what’s going on. I like Pill as Agnes too but that’s more to liking Pill do anything than the writing for Agnes where it kinda bounces all over the place. Only Picard moment that I felt was out of character for him was Picard saying “Hey!” Twice to Rios to snap him out of it! Has Picard ever said “Hey!” like ever?
What a load of BS this review is.
Do you expect every episode of every show you watch to be the most prestigious of prestige TV? Or can you not just, say, enjoy an episode that fills in some plot points in the overall narrative?
‘it was funny for the sake of being funny’. Yeah, let me tell you about the concept of ‘jokes’.
What could possibly be complicated about Ramdha being in the Zhat Vash, raising her niece and nephew, introducing them to the order, then not passing the ceremony herself?Sometimes an episode is part of a larger series, not the standalone masterpiece you seem to be expecting.
That’s terrible writing. It’s useless terrible writing. The whole season has been hinting at some dark secret in Rios’s past, but this is a reveal that stretches credibility…I totally agree that linking Rios to the main story is a really bad, and really unnecessary idea.And so my fanwank is that Soji’s people are kindof like rats or insects or tribbles, constantly flooding out into the federation all the time, while Starfleet is trying to keep it under control.Rios and his Captain thought they were making first contact, but when the report got back to HQ the folks at Starfleet were all “Another envoy from those synthetics? That’s the 3rd one this week. Send the kill order again, just like with all of the others.”And so rather than accept the incredibly unlikely coincidence that Rios just so happened to also have a history with Maddoxdroids, I prefer to believe that pretty much everybody in Starfleet has that same deep, dark secret.
…last week I was saying that it wouldn’t surprise me if Riker and Troi ended up with a brandnew posotronic son by the end of this story.Nonsensically tying Rios into the main story just so that he can have a “Big. Emotional. Moment!” makes me more suspicious that the writers will be unable to resist the temptation to do the same thing for Riker, Troi and Kestra.
Riker and Troi’s dead son, or his disease, had nothing to do with synthetics. The cure to his disease had to be incubated in a positronic matrix (or whatever). If he has been cured he would still be 100% human/Betazoid – he wouldn’t be any part android. So the idea that their son will be reborn as an android makes no sense.It’s like saying someone has a form of cancer and the only cure has to be incubated in bird DNA, but that doesn’t mean this cancer has anything to do with birds, or that when they’re cured they’re part bird. It’s just where the cure has to be incubated.
Cool.Did you actually read anything I wrote?Because Discovery is all about “Big. Emotional. Moments!” that make absolutely no sense.
And maybe Picard’s writers are better than that, but maybe they’re not. But if this show were Discovery, then there would be 100% certainty that someone would be getting a replacement posotronic kid at the end of the season. It doesn’t make any sense, and that’s the point.
Yes, I read your comment.Discovery is full of moments that make sense and those that don’t make sense, no more or less than your average show.Nothing about Riker and Troi’s son has anything to do with him being positronic, or his disease having anything to do with synths, or a cure turning him into a synth. Your theory that he would be brought back to life and replaced with a synth just because a cure to his disease required a positronic matrix to incubate in makes no sense. One has nothing to do with the other.
Thoughts:-What if Vince Gilligan did this show (or a new Star Trek show)?-I remember in TNG Season 3 episode “The Defector” the Romulan defecting Admiral told Data that plenty of Romulan cyberneticists would love to get their hands on him. Data did not find that appealing. That rings more true now than ever. -I wouldn’t mind if the TNG crew could get another movie as long as it had great writing and directing to make up for Nemesis so they can end on a positive note. Like TOS crew got with Undiscovered country.-I guess I’m easy to please because I liked this episode, and the series overall. The problem was they took to like to set the table.
This had me cracking up:Raffi: Why would someone want to move 8 suns into one system?Rios Hollow guy: To say ‘Look what I can do!’
The funny thing about this show, and I think I realized it in the last episode, is that it smells a lot like Mass Effect. The styling, the design, the universe, the Synthetic Life bans…
Its like they took Mass Effect elements and put a veneer of Trek on top. Anyone else see it or just me?
“Star Trek: Picard is failing its audience.”That line really stuck out at me. Perhaps “Picard” is falling for you, and that’s fine, but to have the arrogance to claim that it is darling for everyone is just beyond the pale. I thought this was an excellent episode. After weeks of character development and unanswered questions, we finally got the necessary info dump to lead us through the final two episodes. If certain character moments or emotional beats fell short, in a show like Picard they can hovers easily be picked back up in the next episode. 7 of 9 is a great example, as I’m sure we will be dealing with the fallout from her brief stint as essentially the Borg Queen, there just was t enough time to stuff it in to an already stuffed episode.
“Star Trek: Picard is failing its audience.”That line really stuck out at me. Perhaps “Picard” is falling for you, and that’s fine, but to have the arrogance to claim that it is failing for everyone is just beyond the pale. I thought this was an excellent episode. After weeks of character development and unanswered questions, we finally got the necessary info dump to lead us through the final two episodes. If certain character moments or emotional beats fell short, in a show like Picard they can hovers easily be picked back up in the next episode. 7 of 9 is a great example, as I’m sure we will be dealing with the fallout from her brief stint as essentially the Borg Queen, there just wasn’t enough time to stuff it in to an already stuffed episode.
We must agree, Zack, to disagree here. However:1) Rios having encountered synths before, and this being his tragic backstory is a bit pat. However, it goes a long way to explaining his holograms. It’s Rios facing his guilt and despair. His dislike of the Hospitality hologram is understandable — that’s his unctuous creep side unleashed.2) Raffi and the holograms is silly, yeah, but it has a point. Raffi puts things together, finds connections, develops paths to get shit done. She’s a born investigator and an absolute bulldog — she does *not* quit until she has the picture assembled. Every time she tries she has to self-medicate to stay stopped — and any recovery dumps her right back on the crazy train, chasing what everyone else thinks are lunatic fringe ideas. She’s a bloody superhero. It’s cost her everything, though, and that hurts. Picard having faith in her will be healing.3) I’m surprised you didn’t note either Narissa getting zombie horded or Narek’s ship following La Sirena at the end.
“Star Trek: Picard is failing its audience.”That line really stuck out at me. Perhaps “Picard” is falling for you, and that’s fine, but to have the arrogance to claim that it is failing for everyone is just beyond the pale.I thought this was an excellent episode. After weeks of character development and unanswered questions, we finally got the necessary info dump to lead us through the final two episodes. If certain character moments or emotional beats fell short, in a show like Picard they can hovers easily be picked back up in the next episode. 7 of 9 is a great example, as I’m sure we will be dealing with the fallout from her brief stint as essentially the Borg Queen, there just wasn’t enough time to stuff it in to an already stuffed episode.
It was a bad idea from the start to involve Picard at all, but anything is better than the SJW dumpster fire called Discovery. I want Picard to fall into the Guian role of old wise person doling out theoccational bit of advice, while Rio , Soji and the new crew get a real ship from StarFleet and fight off the Romuland and event get back to exploring new worlds and characters. Seems like there hasn’t been one original idea or characters in Star Trek in a long time.
I can’t believe I’m saying this: But I’d much rather see what Discovery has in store for its 3rd season than this mess of a show.
I too would rather be punched in the face than stabbed in the face.
A few observations.I think people need to be reminded that Patrick Stewart had a lot of input into how this story unfolds. So, all the commentary about how this Picard doesn’t behave like TNG Picard lies at the foot of the occupant of the character.The other thing I’ve come to accept is that Season One of Star Trek: Picard is nothing more than exposition for Season Two, not unlike how X-Men (2000) was setup for what came afterward. I do not expect any resolution to the “mystery” of Soji and the Synths (©2020 by me) this season beyond a giant action-packed cliffhanger in Episode 10.Admittedly, the slow pace of this season really bugs the crap out of me but I’ve come to realize that there’s a lot of heavy lifting this season has to do explaining what has happened in the years since we last saw Picard and the TNG crew. The complaints about the series being a sequel to Nemesis seem unfounded. What else would it be? It’s the last time we saw the character and the death of Data would certainly have an effect on Picard.So, I’m sitting back and trying to enjoy Picard for the limited time we have left before a one year hiatus to Season Two. I expect a tie-in to Star Trek: Section 31 as well as watching for how Discovery handles things since they are now joining, presumably, the Prime Timeline 700 years beyond Picard.
Relax, people.
It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
People forget that Patrick Stewart wanted the nonsensical buggy scene in the movies simply because he wanted to ride a buggy. He’s not actually Captain Picard.
Unpopular opinion: the show has finally come into it’s own and this was the best, most satisfying episode yet.
Zach, I’ve been a fan of your reviews of TNG and Deep Space Nine. But I’m dumping you on Picard. I, and many other Star trek fans, love this. All I get when I come here is a bunch of people dumping on it.
As far as the romulan women’s vision overwhelming the (local) collective, that’s interesting. Keep in mind it was something she got from a mysterious alien race about their artificial life and some threshold point (which sounds like what people refer to as the singulrity). Cinsidering it was likely a cube that wasn’t in touch with the general collective, I could buy the absorption of trauma via this weird psychic messahe somehow temporarily shorted out the local collective.
I can’t think of any reason why the borg cube has a door that opens into space. They often just teleport things from place to place (so no to cargo) and if the queen wanted to kill off drones she would just self destruct the cube as in voyager.
We should have a “What broke me about Picard was…” and then the moment where we realized this show had shit the bed.
What broke me was the Elnor hug. The character made me nervous from the very first trailer. Star Trek needs a “mopey teenager with daddy issues but also katana The Matrix kung fu bad ass!” because FUCKING WHY??????????????????????????????
Christ, just give him sunglasses, a fedora, and a nu-metal T-shirt why don’t you?
“To boldly go where Batman and shitty anime has gone before…”
spaced the shark?
Some of the greatest rock songs of all time are regulated to 3-4 chords. Sometimes the art isn’t found in the composition, but the execution.That’s in reference to your Batman and shitty anime references as I feel Batman and the anime I like have executed this character archetype really well.As for your feelings about that on this show, carry on. I like the character but I can see how the “execution” compared to other material may not work for some.
Zack, this show has been terrible long before episode 8. I like the fact you hold episode 7 up as a good episode – isn’t that the one where Dr Blondie and Soji spend large chunks of it angsting and crying, presenting us with an old-fashioned stereotypical insulting portrayal of women rather than the usual misandry Picard and Discovery have delivered thus far?The show has bigger problems than “woke” (fast becoming a dirty word) crybullying misandry exemplified by the pussywhipped and spineless Narek character though. And the fact I can even write that sentence is troubling. The cinematography is terrible – all dimly lit gray palette nonsense to hide the cheapness. Characterisation is poor to non-existent, and plenty of characters have nothing to do, or have traits raised and then forgotten about because padding as the writers choose (Rios and Romulan ninja Legolas guy spring to mind). Patrick Stewart dressed as an insulting and clichéd Frenchman in episode 6, yeah that’s so forward thinking. Importing 21st century problems in a 24th century environment is depressing, gone is the utopian vision of Gene Roddenberry. The story is a disparate mess of too much groundwork plotting and not enough actual pace to the tales built clumsily on top of them. Seven of Nines guest episode derailing seasons worth of character development from Voyager was just ridiculous. No hyperbole, Picard is one of the worst TV shows I’ve ever seen. It’s like a comprehensive “how NOT to make a TV show” guide. It may only be 10 episodes long (I thought it was 8) and I’m not the only Trek fan who may give up on it before that. It feels hopeless and depressing and the whole tone is complete anti-thesis of what pre-millenial Trek used to be about. For heavens sake The Orville is closer to the spirit of that and is light-hearted and fun rather than darkness, spiteful selfish characters and crappy sub-fan-fiction level writing.
Very glad that we had to wait this long to find out the reason the Romulans are terrified is basically the plot of the Mass Effect trilogy.I’ve been getting heavy Mass Effect vibes since the first episode, and this episode kinda cemented that (hell, the vision the Zhat Vash see in the beginning literally made me say “embrace eternity” as I watched it lol).In a vacuum that wouldn’t have been a bad thing per se, the problem is the tension and notion that if synthetic beings are allowed to exist something bad will happen is kind of absurd in a world where the borg exist. Also, when they mention that if synthetics evolve to a certain point “something” comes (the reapers?) , again is ridiculous because that basically just sounds like the assimilation green light for the borg which is something that’s already been on the board for decades.I also feel like they’re leading towards a tie-in to Control (I’m half expecting it to be “the thing” that shows up…except it already showed up ~150 years prior to Picard) and Star Trek Discovery, which will eventually inform the new setting for Season 3 since it’ll take place ~600 years into the Picard’s future. I guess we’ll find out within the next couple of weeks.
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I’m going to assume that this is just creative license on Narissa’s part, because the idea that the the Borg could bring someone into the Collective and then just have to dump them because they were too intense is a profound misread of how the Borg worksNot that I disagree this was profoundly silly and stupid of a development, but isn’t that essentially what happened with Hugh? His intense individuality after his experience on the Enterprise essentially broke the local Borg node he was a part of, and they were separated from the collective to protect the greater whole.
Huh. I think is the best episode yet. I’m intrigued by how disparate the opinions on this one have been.
I saw the headline to this review, then heard my mate complain about the episode, before I saw it. My expectations were therefore lowered.I actually like a lot of it, though. Some of it didn’t come off – Agnes’ mea culpa and subsequent apparent exoneration by her crewmates felt *very* pat – but I enjoyed it. I actually really liked Seven Of Nine’s cavalry act and I even found the hug she received for it pretty endearing – hey, that would have been my reaction!Part of the reason I might enjoy this more than most is that I’m approaching it as a Sc Fi guy rather than specifically a Trek guy. My Star Trek knowledge is actually more gaps that knowledge. I’ve started working my way through TNG on Netflix, and I’m nearly into the sainted ‘collars’ era of the show. Starting TNG (and I’m planning to watch DS9 at the very least afterwards) was a very prescient move on my part, cos what could be better for weeks in quarantine, and no Premier League til April, than a daunting amount of Sci Fi to consume?I certainly see therefore the argument that this isn’t very Star Trek like, and I appreciate that. But I’m still enjoying it as an adventure story, even if it cribs heavily from Mass Effect, as Zack says, as well as Battlestar Galactica (‘all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again’).By the way, working through TNG means I’m also working through your recaps, Zack. Terrific work a decade ago, good on yer.
Prepare for disappointment. TNG was my favorite show growing up but, being grown up, that show is now more cringeworthy and has not aged well. As for DS9? Prepare to be assimilated by sheer boredom, as DS9 does not have any sort of pace until season 5, maybe 6; I cant remember because it was all so tedious to watch…
I don’t think you watched the same episode the rest of us did. Most of what you dismiss as bad writing is…not.
Handsome rogue doing different accents is appealing but in story terms I’m not sold on the bit unless it turns out Rios is also a hologram. (Which would be terrible).
I’m enjoying this show. It’s a lot more coherent than S2 Discovery. I do think Picard needs to put on his daddy pants though. He’s a broken version of his old self and hasn’t really come around. They really should do a Mass Effect show. This creative team (and cast, honestly) would be a good fit for that operatic melodrama and the action would fit better.
Yea, something doesn’t add up. So if I get the narrative straight, the Romulans are so fearful of synths and their potential to wipe out the Romulan empire, they form a super secret group who’s plan is to sabotage the Federation project THAT IS TRYING TO SAVE THE ROMULANS IN THE FACE OF A ASTRONOMIC CALAMITY??!! Couldn’t they have created the Synth uprising AFTER the Federation saved as many Romulans as possible?Who is running the risk/reward on those decisions?
I give this review a C-FFS – not sure what you are looking for in an episode, but I think this is way over-the-top undergraduate level critical.
I didn’t read the review, its apparent the reviewer didn’t like the episode and probably the series.
I, on the other hand, love both this episode and the series so far.
Not sure I can explain well in English, but I will try.
ST Picard is like ST growing up by using gained wisdom from all the series. I don’t know how much possible is for the franchise to evolve more, but I see Picard going towards the right direction, cause it’s core is based on what made ST beloved, of course it helps that is based on the main character of the most popular series.
I really like that Picard himself has changed, cause this is life, we grow up and we change. I do not see a completely different Picard, but an older Picard.
And the best part of this series is that they try more to tell a story than to make impressive (but hollow) TV.Imho, this is something Disco failed to do. They tried to connect with ST by using or even re-imagining old characters, well this is the trap of making prequels. And they did it in a very shallow way, trying way too hard to impress aesthetically, create a style without substance.
I don’t get distracted by style on ST Picard, they didn’t try to impress me with “shiny objects” like lens flare or tilting space ships, they managed to make me care about the story and all the characters, even Jurati. On Disco I don’t even give a damn about the lead, one of the worst written lead characters on TV (ever??)And most of all, after many years, with STP I keep getting this warm feeling of watching a series about a universe that I love and care about.
I hope I made sense 🙂
Elves have no business in Star Trek. #killoffelnor
I’ve been calling him Legulus
Stopped watching. Vulgarity and blasphemy – not the bad story line – sent me packing.
The cabal of haters around this show is an odd dichotomy. You all appear hellbent on proving Picard is a loathsome experiment, and yet continue to watch, and even praise an episode like Nepenthe. All that does is reinforces my belief haters hate it because it is not Star Trek: The Next Generation. The series will never be TNG. The sooner you get that, the sooner you can either enjoy it for what it is or move onto another series.
Cutting between the Picard scenes and what’s happening on the Borg cube didn’t work. Neither of these two halves of the episode are given enough breathing room, and the tonal shifts between the two are jarring.
Perhaps your panties are just a little too tight here?
Anyone else feel that this ep absolutely squandered the potential dramatic impact of Seven reviving the Cube? The cross-cutting of storylines this week seemed particularly unmotivated.
Based upon how you’ve described this episode I’m assuming you watched it in the background while you were doing something else? Narissa is intentionally unsympathetic, her talking with a comatose Ramada points show’s how disdainful she is of her and only would take her with the rest of the Romulans if she work up. It was not supposed to humanize her but show her how disconnected from others and dedicated to her cause of wiping out synthetic life.The whole Rios reaction to Soji might seem a bit out there at first but when he starts digging through his little box of keepsakes it’s very reminiscent of when Soji when through her box of keepsakes. The fact his ship the Ibn Majid was stricken from the record (as mentioned in previous episodes) combined with the threat to self destruct it, and other elements of Rios’ mysterious past point to the fact that he is likely a synth too.
If Rios is a synth, that’s not actually good writing.Partly, because “EVERYone is a robot” isn’t inherently interesting anymore. Westworld does it. BSG did it. Not to mention Bladerunner and a million other things. There are new ways that it could be made interesting, but as a plot device it’s beyond-tired.More importantly though, “Character X isn’t who they think they are!!!” is something that trek *just* did with Ash in Discovery. Disco didn’t do a particularly good job of it over there, but after 15 years off the air trek shouldn’t be so desperate for ideas that it needs to rip itself off like that. (I already think this show’s AI-boogeyman plot is too close to Disco Season 2’s AI-boogeyman plot) The recent Star Warses have shown how lazily a massive franchise can be handled. But if we get yet another secret character origin right after the last one, then Trek needs to be tossed on that pile too.
The prevailing theory for most of this season has been that Rios was a hologram, not a synth. But this episode seems to prove that he’s an actual human.
Maybe because we’re in a time of crossovers , but when they showed a planet with an ancient memorial/warning about technology overtaking and destroying humanity , I started thinking …holy shit they’ve just made my Battlestar Galactica/Star Trek fanfiction canon!
I said on Instagram (and got hounded for it) — The Zhat Vash are the Bene Gessert, the Adminition is the Butlerian Jihad. And Soji is the Kwisatz Haderach.
AS ALWAYS, WATCH IT YOURSELF! I just did and found it one of the better episodes (I have found the series innovative and engaging) . Actually, the labeling as “worst episode yet” seems to me a ploy to get traffic for the writer’s site (or the writer them self). So my posting here may actually give them more gravitas. WATCH IT YOURSELF AND BE YOUR OWN JUDGE.
Unlike many rose-colored glasses fanboys/fangirls who long for a TNG 2.0, I’ve been thorough enjoying this series. That said, although I didn’t “hate” this episode my problem stems from the fact that 80% of this episode was pure exposition through direct dialogue. It’d have been nice of this was done visually instead of the dialogue exposition dump that we frequently got in this episode.Other that, with the way folks “hate” this Picard series, I just have to say:If the internets had been prominent during Season 1 of TNG, we’d have never gotten Season 2 and beyond.So many TNG fans who want something that doesn’t exist anymore. Also, (i saw this comment below): someone wants an entire series of just “Inner Light” like episodes?
Really? Come on. Love Inner light, but an ENTIRE SERIES? Talk about one note boringness.Fanboys/fangirls, maybe take off your rose-colored glasses and rewatch Season 1 of TNG, seriously some terrible trash and so glad it made it out of that dreck.
Il feel like this is unadulterated and needy nerd rage. It reads as insufferable and pedantic and a sheldon-like mania towards TNG. 20 years…people change, stories change . No on expected the Berlin Wall to fall when it did, but it did. A whole bunch of horrible shit happened since the end of TNG and its movies. It’s an old man, an admiral that looks like he may be the only honorable admiral ever in ST. It’s a good show, with a good plot, that needs some polishing, but what 1st season show doesn’t? Calm your basement Cheeto tits, and see where it goes. Picard is back, don’t fuck this up
“You locked yourself out of override… and out of ‘Meta-Override’”At this point I realized the writers are so far up their own asses that they just don’t care anymore about the plot or characters.I also didn’t need another appearance from the “Fuck U’ admiral.BTW, am I the only one who thinks that the more that whole hand wavy holographic interface shows up in Movies and TV shows the more awkward it seems? (besides very specific tasks, how is it any more convenient than a keyboard you can physically touch?)
The only time I have ever liked it is in Babylon 5 when the Minbari did it. Criminally underrated show because TNT insisted they use Turner’s CGI which aged poorly.
The navigator holo’s Irish accent isn’t very bad, but it’s not good. It’s sort of inner-city Dublinese via Tom Cruise in Far and Away.
the idea that the the Borg could bring someone into the Collective and then just have to dump them because they were too intense is a profound misread of how the Borg works My take on this reveal was that assimilating Ramdha was like swallowing a (literal) poison pill. What she experienced in Oh’s reveal on the planet was telegraphed to every Borg on the cube, thus they cut the cube off before it could hit the Collective.
What the fuck is this shit?? These reviews make no sense anymore – this was one of the best episodes so far in a season that’s progressively gotten better. I have a feeling the AV Club is screwing with people just to increase readership. I don’t think I’m gonna visit this site anymore…Vulture is more interesting, and better written.
I think it started off pretty decently, but now it’s really showing how badly put together it is.What really threw me off about that scene with the admiral telling Picard to STFU, was it felt like the writers had forgotten how to curse properly or were trying to be “edgy”. A lot of the fucks seem so forced (though the one Rios said felt appropriate). Even just telling him “to shut the hell up for one goddamn moment” would’ve sounded 10 times more natural.
The only part I’m interested in, is the stuff happening on the cube. Everything else has some bad pacing issues among the other problems.
So…spoilers and a theory for the finale…Anyone else think that the Borg are going to be the synthetic life everyone is afraid of? The one from a thousand years ago? Like the organics that created them feared what would happen, attacked them and were assimilated.Frankly the most interesting part of this episode was the Borg releasing Seven. I reckon we might be on the way to a more nuanced take on the collective that is revealed in the finale. I don’t think this show is as strong as it could be, but on the whole I am really enjoying it. I’m disappointed that the two Romulan housekeepers were left behind though. Best characters in the show as far as I’m concerned.
“…and if that excellence also served to underline all the ways in which Star Trek: Picard is failing its audience”The difference between real reviews and these little blog posts is that actual critics never pretend that they are speaking for anyone other than themselves.
I liked this episode much more than Zack. Yes, the thing with the coma Romulan being the aunt and step mother of the sexy-fighting Romulan and her creepy brother was not necessary. I also hate that they are swearing just because they can, and the admiral swearing at Picard was dumb. The rest of it I liked. It was undercooked, and it took until all the holograms were in the study for me to get on board with the Raffi and holograms thing. But this was mostly about putting together the pieces of the plot, and I thought they did a decent job of it. I wasn’t as bothered that Rios was related to the synth story. How may first-officers drop out of Starfleet to become pirates? It isn’t a stretch to see that it would be related to something really bad Stafleet had done. The doctor giving up on her quest to destroy synths was more of a stretch, and could have come after the reveal. But mostly this was about revealing the personal and plot points necessary to get to the finale, and for that I thought it did pretty well. And the story is better than I thought. I figured it was going to be a Terminator thing, if synths become sentient, they are going to kill us all, but the reveal is that it is much worse than that.
This episode was infuriating. How long was Picard in it? Is there any badassery in the remaining ones?
My take? This was a necessary information dump. I cannot figure, considering how this story is structured, where else or how else it might have been delivered. One of the purposes of this series is to bring us a version of Star Trek fitting current times. It’s not, as many claim, a grimdark refutation of Gene Roddenberry. It’s more of a correction. TOS was reacting to the Vietnam war, the civil and women’s rights movements. The cold war was at its peak. The struggle to advance our thinking and change our ways or perish felt very real and immediate. If there’s a theme to the show, it’s that mankind will survive. Will manage our problems of the time and survive. It was never a perfect society. The principals didn’t always agree. There were murderers and psychotics and slave women. Rape fantasy and racism replaced by a struggle with speciesism. But it extended hope. Picard wants to say that too. To us. Reacting to the issues of our time. And most of what’s passed was building up the surround. The darkness. Now, we’re going to the hope. My guess, btw? The message isn’t an admonishment. The Romulans got it wrong because it wasn’t meant for them. It was meant for synthetics. It’s a celebration of how these people evolved together, organic and synthetic. Our friend isn’t the destroyer. She’s the avatar of this needed change.
People are…oddly defensive about the swearing on this show (and Discovery). It’s not like I’m itching to argue with people about it, but some people get really upset if you criticize characters saying ‘fuck’ (particularly Admiral Clancy, i.e. the worst actress in the multiverse).
The only problem I really had with the episode is Agnes overcoming Oh’s brainwashing without any clear reason. It was pretty heady stuff, with some Romulans killing themselves over it. Agnes killing someone she cared about over it. What turned her around?
Most everything else here is just opinionated nitpicking. Lighten tf up.
This show is pretty good and I wish these reviews tried to focus on what’s working. I agree it isn’t perfect, but every one of these I read confirms that this is about the show not meeting your specific hopes as opposed to the show actually being bad. I felt like this episode delivered a lot and I’m looking forward to the next one.
I enjoy coming here every week to read Zack writing the completely opposite experience I have with the show.
“Rios even keeps a sketched drawing of the synthetics on hand and remembers what the female liked to eat, despite having known them both for less than a day. (He also assumes that Soji will automatically like the same thing, which is a weird assumption for both him to make and the show to confirm.)“These 2 synthetics were the cause of Rios’ captain’s suicide, who was a father figure to him. It’s pretty understandable that he would remember the details of this incident as it was one of the most traumatic events of his life, and that he would keep items related to the incident. Seriously, how is this confusing?
“There’s literally a scene in which a character willingly reinserts herself into the greatest nightmare of her entire life, and it’s over in about five minutes with no apparent ill effect”We literally see Seven say that this is their best chance of defeating the Romulans but that there are risks, especially to her. Then she realizes that if she doesn’t do this now the Romulans are going to kill the XBs. And I guess you missed the part where all the Borg are jettisoned into space, meaning that the re-Borgified Seven is a collective of just herself, meaning there is no reason for her to remain Borgified, so she disconnects herself.
“She then meets Soji and asks her a few questions, and now she’s fully back on board with Team Let’s Protect The Fleshy Androids, apologizing to everyone about the whole murder thing and promising to turn herself over to Starfleet at the next opportunity.”Before Agnes met Soji she was just an unknown synthetic, a thing, so it was easy for Agnes to think that she had to die. But once she met Soji, saw her, talked to her, she realized how special she was and that she wasn’t just “a thing” to be killed.
I’m really hoping that this show gets a new reviewer next season. I thoroughly enjoyed Zack’s reviews of the previous Trek series, and with each new series he reviewed he seemed to understand that each new series was different than the previous ones, and enjoy those differences. But something seems to have changed since those previous Trek reviews and this show. Now it’s all “This isn’t Star Trek, this isn’t TNG, this isn’t Jean-Luc Picard.” Even when episode reviews have had a high grade, the review reads like the grade should be 1-2 letters less. I don’t know what it is, and each time it surprises me that this is the same guy that wrote those previous Trek series’ reviews – the gold standard for Trek episode reviews IMO.I don’t want a reviewer that is going to gush over every episode and call everything great when it’s not. I want someone that will give an objective review and not just complain that the show is not TNG and that this character of Jean-Luc Picard is not the same person we last saw 18 years ago (spoiler: people change when you haven’t seen them in 18 years!).
Another deep cut that shows that, despite what the reviewer and some commenters say, the writers on this show know their Trek.It’s revealed that the tracking chip in Agnes was viridium, which is also the type of chip Spock put on Kirk’s back before he went on trial in ST VI so he’d be able to find him later.
I meant to ask in my previous post why it was Agnes tending to Picard in sickbay? Where was the EMH?
The cold open is another fine example of trekkian “We live in a hypertechnological society but still we behave like we live in a backwards corner of a very fashionable Middle Ages”.
Does a culture that developed faster than light space travel need all the robes, the chantings, the trite pseudomasonic rituals, the Lovecraftianish admonition?
And, alledgedly, the energy Stonehenge was supersecret, hidden in an impossible star system nobody knows about, with a knowledge that can you drive you mad mad mad, but then, in the mandatory “mess table tag team exposition segment”, everybody knows everything about the “Warning Of The Ancients about Synts Uh Uh Uh”, making all the Shazbat Secret Society pointless of extreme pointlessness.
C is a high degree. Z, being generous.
And, yes, Shazbat was on purpose.
How do the Romulans know the vision the Admonition showed them was true? I could have been bigoted anti-synth propaganda. Or some alien’s idea of a prank.