I’ve been waiting for this one. I’d guess most of Picard’s audience was. When we started getting preview material for the series, there were photos of Picard reconnecting with his former Number One—images of Riker, looking older but cheerful, living the good life. For all that the show has nodded towards events in the original series, it’s been reluctant to bring back familiar faces. We’ve had Hugh, and Seven of Nine showed up for a bit, and I think that’s more or less it? Oh sure, Data was in a couple of dream sequences, and it worked in the pilot, but that doesn’t really count. I admire the choice to avoid diving too fully into nostalgia, to try and make the series into its own thing before bringing out the big guns, but watching Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis back on screen, seeing the real depth and history they bring to a story which is noticeably lacking it, I wonder if that was a mistake.
Two-thirds of “Nepenthe” is very good. Like, not even with caveats or me building up to a sudden rhetorical swerve; two-thirds of this 58 minute episode is wonderful, and made me happy and invested in a way I haven’t usually been able to find with the show. There are a few missteps on Nepenthe, the planet where Picard takes Soji to temporarily escape the Romulans, but for the most part, it’s a deeply satisfying visit to old friends. The other third of the episode, which deals with events back on the Borg cube and the Sirena, are more hit or miss. The show hasn’t suddenly fixed all of its problems, and given the way the hour ends, it’s doubtful that bringing in a happily married Riker and Troi is going to save us long term. But if this is the best we get from the show existing, it’s almost worth it. Hell, just the smile on Frakes face counts for a lot.
Before we get there, though, we have an extended cold open to get through. First we cut back to three weeks ago, to Agnes’s meeting with Commodore Oh; the last time we saw this scene, we cut away before we saw any meaningful conversation between the two. This time, we stay long enough to watch Oh mind meld with Agnes, giving her a vision of the horror that lies in wait for the universe if synthetic life is allowed to continue unchecked. Agnes immediately agrees to do whatever she can to help, and Oh gives her a tracking device, which is arguably the main reason this scene exists here—so we have a throughline for how Narek is following the ship, and to create some tension over whether or not anyone will figure out the truth (or if Agnes will take steps herself) before it’s too late.
Agnes spends most of her scenes in “Nepenthe” begging to go home. It’s a turn that mostly works, largely because of Pill’s desperation; writing-wise, we still don’t really know the character that well, and her decision to try and kill herself (or at the very least, put herself in a coma to destroy the tracker) is one that’s possible to justify without actually being particularly well constructed. An on-going problem with the series is its intermittent success with character-building, and given that we’re in the back-half, where dramatic turns and reveals depend on our investment, that problem is only going to get worse. The actors are charming, and the main ensemble has all been given a clear archetype to follow, but when Riker asks Picard to describe his “crew,” it drove home for me how little this feels like a crew, or even a coherent ensemble. The writers know that a Trek series lives or dies on its cast, so it goes through the motions of acting like this motley bunch of weirdos is slowly bonding. Yet it has no idea how to show us the actual steps of those connections—you get glimpses, but there’s nothing here to suggest anything beyond a gloss of sci-fi cliche.
This is thrown sharply into contrast by Picard and Soji’s visit to the Riker-Troi household. Soji is still confused and suspicious, and it sort of works, sort of doesn’t; Picard completely misreading her and trying to mock her out of her paranoia lands flat, but her friendship with Kestra, Riker and Troi’s daughter, is sweet and fun and probably could’ve used more time. Really, though, the draw is Frakes and Sirtis themselves. It’s impossible to understand the value of the history they both bring to their roles and to their relationship with Picard. For the first time since the pilot (hell, maybe the first time at all), the show feels like what it always promised to be: a visit with old friends, and maybe some adventure on the side.
There’s some abrupt exposition: the family had a son who died of a disease which could’ve been cured with a culture grown in a positronic matrix, which is a forced, clumsy way to both tug on the heartstrings and provide a connection with the main plot. But honestly, it’s not really relevant. It’s just such a relief to see two people from the old series who are legitimately happy and doing well—especially in an episode that decides to kill off one of the other few remaining friendly faces. Just seeing Frakes and Patrick Stewart hanging out had more life in it than pretty much anything else the show has done, and there’s a lived in reality to the interactions here that makes the show’s shoddy efforts at characterization all the more painful. Both Deanna and Will lecture Picard about his arrogance, and while I stand by my problems with the show’s characterization of Picard, those lectures sound so much saner and more reasonable coming from people who actually know him.
A smarter series would’ve given this entire hour over to the scenes on the Riker-Troi farm, but this is Picard, and since modern TV demands we can’t let an hour go by without checking in on everyone, we get the aforementioned conflict on the Sirena, and tragedy on the Borg cube. The tragedy is by the far the weakest part. Narissa (whose name I keep forgetting) does her sneering thing, Hugh tries to stand up for his people and watches them all get slaughtered before taking a knife dart in the throat, and Elnor finds a new lost cause to fight for.
Narissa is just very boring—Narek isn’t much better, but at least “angst and really desperate to prove himself” is a little more compelling then “what if lady but villain.” (It’s like the writers ran up on a deadline while watching the Baroness in a G.I. Joe cartoon.) Hugh’s death is another waste, a character with a complex and rich past relegated to a few highlight moments before being taken out for pathos. This all should have been shocking, but it’s all by the numbers stuff, as the sneering baddies start killing innocents and mocking the survivors before killing them too. If the Romulans really are legitimately concerned about a catastrophe brought on by the synthetics, wouldn’t it have been more interesting if Narissa was a decent person fighting against what she believed to be imaginable evil? Not this stupid hack bad gal shtick.
I’m glad Elnor is still alive, although having him split up with Picard seems like the worst possible way to use the character. Hugh tells him to find another ex-Borg to use the power in the Queen’s chambers, which couldn’t possibly go wrong. (I’m wondering if activating that Power, whatever it is, is what leads to the future the Romulans are so worried about) As with so much of the show, the pieces of an actual meaningful conflict are here, but spread out over multiple episodes in such a way as to render the interesting but ultimately shallow. We haven’t spent enough time on the Borg cube to really get a grasp of what life is like for the reclaimed, and most of the emotional investment we do have is in Hugh, and he’s dead now, which makes the whole thing feel pretty empty.
I almost wonder if I would’ve enjoyed all of this more without the scenes on Nepenthe. Because however shallow it all is, it moves at a good clip; and while Agnes’s decision to go to extremes to deal with her fear isn’t as smartly motivated as I would’ve liked, it at least means that she’s not going to spend another episode looking guilty while everyone acts like they don’t get it. (Actually, Elnor and Raffi both seemed to get it, but Rios has a private conversation with her only so he can say how much he suspects Raffi.) Mediocre storytelling is easier to roll with when it’s moving fast.
But hanging out with Riker and Troi just reminded me of how much hope I had at the start of the run, and how excited I was about the chance to return to these characters. While I understand the reluctance to just bring all the same old faces back—it smacks of fan service—I actually think it would’ve been a smarter call than just surrounding Picard with a bunch of thinly sketched ideas. As much as Picard was the center of Next Gen, the strength of that ensemble can’t really be overstated, and getting just a taste of what it might have been like to see them working together again hurts as much as it helps. I’m glad we got this much. But I want more.
Stray observations
- Kestra was presumably named after Deanna’s older sister, who drowned when she was six years old.
- For a group that’s supposedly prized for their ruthless efficiency, the Romulans are absolutely fucking terrible at whatever the hell it is they’re trying to do.
- I got a little teared up when Frakes gave Stewart a big hug, I don’t mind admitting. The rest of the cast is talented, but there’s such a natural, easy-going chemistry between the two, and that’s not something you can force or manufacture. I understand that part of the idea of the series pushing Picard into new, uncomfortable situations. I’m just not sure it’s working that well.
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I’ve been dreading seeing Riker and Troi because everyone Jean-Luc interacts with from his past ends up dead an episode later.
I guess part of the reason I’m enjoying this more than most is I didn’t go into it feeling like I was promised ‘a visit with old friends’. I knew there would be nostalgia and fan service, yes, and it is very effective as this episode shows. But what I was expecting, and wanting, was a new story in the Trek universe – and that’s what I’m getting. It’s not perfect by far, I’m not arguing that, but I’m enjoying the ride so far.
Yeah, it’s been very different, and it’s strange to see Picard as such a fish out of water, but it works for me.The Artifact stuff is unquestionably the weak link, but I like Soji a lot – it’s Narek and Narissa that I find pretty uninteresting, but I can live with that.
Trying to think when it was ever promised that it was going to be a victory lap, old-friends visit series – it was always about how Picard changed, and the effect that had on him and those closest to him, as well as adding a new chapter to the world of TNG. I feel like Zach here keeps expecting this show is something it isn’t, won’t be and never promised it would be.
I’m with you on this completely, it seems Zack just wanted to see Picard potter about chatting to the old crew and maybe having the odd adventure, and claims that’s what the series promised to be, but I don’t think that’s true at all and the trailer made it out to be a very different beast.
I can’t say I’m surprised I didn’t get on with his review though, he has a long history of reviews which I’ve always found to be quite poor, going on and on about what he wanted a show to be about rather than reviewing what it actually was.
I think you guys are being a little unfair to Zack. He didn’t say he wanted a nostalgia trip; my reading is that he’s happy to have a new story but he doesn’t think it’s being told well, or with interesting enough characters. Although to be fair, it took TNG the better part of two years to get its sea legs under it, and everyone seems to want Picard the Show to be nothing less than a masterpiece right out of the gate. It’s imperfect and there’s been a few choices that I groaned at, but I do think it’s trying to do a juggling act of reminding us what once was while confronting us with what the present has become, and it’s doing it well enough to keep me watching.
Picard the Show should definitely be expected to be a smash out of the gate. TNG succeded despite being underfunded and underappreciated the first two seasons with a revolving door of writers struggling to work under Roddenberry’s restrictions of ‘no conflict’. Nobody expected it to really get out from under TOS’ shadow and TV was not the strong story and character focused thing it is nowadays. With Patrick Stewart on board as a living legend Picard, money for production and the knowhow the industry has today to produce good TV, Picard the Show should be (and needed to be) superstrong from the word go, they know how to do it these days (watching documentaries on how they made TNG way back when, it’s amazing it survived the first two seasons). Unfortunately, as someone else pointed out here, it feels slightly like homework. I want it to be good and will watch the whole thing, but can’t help feeling that they’re missing out a bit.
Agreed. I’m wondering if anybody heard anything about Dorn, Burton, or McFadden showing up in this season?I’d love to see some Worf. Maybe he can show up in a modern Defiant.
No Worf or Crusher this series unless they’re keeping an appearance well under wraps – though Micahel Dorn and LeVar Burton visited the set during the filming of this episode
As cliched and predictable as it would be, having Worf show up in the Defiant to save the day would make my day.
I was listening to a podcast interview with Stewart this week. He said by the end of season 2 we should’ve seen all of the TNG crew. He also listed some of the strict conditions he put on the developers before he agreed to be a part of it – no uniform etc.
Also, in several pieces about how SirPatStew almost didn’t come back as Picard, one of his objections was that whole that Picard’s sense of probity was absolute during TNG, and he didn’t want to be That Guy again. So he’s partly responsible for everybody telling Picard he’s full of it, he didn’t finish what he started making matters worse, he turned his back on Starfleet and the Alpha Quadrant which caused a lot of suffering, etc.
According to the tie-in comic book Worf is now captain of the Enterprise-E
Exactly. I don’t remember being promised that at all — in fact, just the opposite. Yes, it was delightful to see Will and Deanna and meet their amazing Kestra (let’s give her a spin-off!), but times change. People change. Situations change. I wish we could quit whining about everything this show isn’t and give it a chance to be wondrous all on its own. Remember, TNG was hardly great its first season either. I love this show!
I don’t know what is it about Zack’s expectations that were so different than mine but I’m also very much enjoying the show without reservations. In fact, I would argue that it’s more consistently good than ST:TNG ever was. The peaks of TNG were very high but there were a few clunkers in the mix as well (the first season in pretty much its entirety, and I’m not missing Troi’s mom or Worf’s son either…) I don’t like Picard’s crew as much as his Enterprise’s crew yet but they’re well played, and their motivations are clear.
I’m not sure why you think “most” aren’t enjoying it? It’s probably because the writer of these reviews acts like he’s making objective observations about the show rather than just his own personal opinion. He clearly doesn’t like it – I’d say he doesn’t get it.
On a side note, there’s a lot of production decisions that are amusing me every time I notice them – like Picard’s jacket having a similar cut to the First Contact-era uniforms, and that they’re using 3D printers as replicator props.
I think it predates Nemesis even. Remember when Patrick Stewart wanted Picard to seem more energetic and so they changed his uniform to a polo shirt and a jacket? The jacket was very similar. Stewart said in an interview this week that “no uniform” was a strict condition he placed on the producers, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they went back to those jackets (Nemesis and season 6 TNG) for inspiration.
Yeah, I loved that velvet jacket and grey tunic too.
You killed HUGH ….YOU BASTARDS !!
You killed Riker’s kid you BASTARDS !
Why didn’t the Rikers move with their sick kid to the Planet from Insurrection ?the one that has the radiation that heals EVERYTHING !
No one would ever go back to that planet, not even to save themselves or their dearest family. It is just too painfully silly and boring there.
He was young right ?
How attached to him could they have really been ?
Hugh’s death was such a downer, especially since Jonathan Del Arco has been so fantastic as Hugh in just a few scenes and I really wanted him to join the crew. It just felt mean-spirited to kill him off in that way, especially after Icheb and all those poor Xbs and Dahj. There’s been enough death, and he was really a favorite of mine. There was lots of potential for story there.
I agree. That character deserved better. I feel like killing him was just for cheap spectacle, or to give Elnor, and evidently Seven, more to angst over.
Exactly. There has been enough death, and Hugh’s death closed off a number of potential wonderful stories and as near as I can see did not open up any. Game of Thrones Syndrome “Hey we’re edgy we’re going to kill your faves” has become a scourge. No disrespect to Del Arco’s amazing performance but it was not necessary.
I think Zack is being a little tough especially for an A- review. A Star Trek show can’t survive on nostalgia alone. I loved TNG but there are very good reasons why this show can’t and shouldn’t be trying to “bring the old band back together”. I dispute that it “promised to be a visit with old friends, and maybe some adventure on the side” — that formulation is backwards, for starters. This was a wonderful episode and I loved every moment spent with the Troi-Riker family, but it can’t be anything more than a rest stop.What I did love about it, and wanted to read more about in the recap, was the caring depiction of what’s happened to Riker and Troi in the last 20 years. They have found peace and happiness but not without cost. Like Picard and the others, they also have been touched by tragedy which haunts them still. While the positronic matrix cure might have been a bit much detail, the chief point was to not to tug on heartstrings, but to show that death affects us all, and to give us the wonderful creation of Kestra Troi-Riker who, lacking an older brother to play with, has to create her own worlds (like her brother did) as a Wild Girl of the Woods of Nepenthe. It’s easy to overstate how strong the original TNG ensemble was, but think back to around episode 7 of THAT series — we didn’t really know those characters at all at that point yet, not nearly to the extent that we now know the crew of the La Sirena, which is one advantage of the new show’s character-focused storytelling style. It took years to build those characterizations up in TNG, and even with the new show’s more intensive focus, I don’t think you can expect to feel the same kind of connection with the new characters yet. If this show continues for multiple seasons, that should hopefully happen naturally.
I agree completely and I think that while the review is critical of the random dead son, it also kind of misses the larger point.Will and Deanna also met with something devastating, but they didn’t shatter. They have clearly been affected by it, Riker and Deanna both expressing their deep need to protect Kestra, but they also have a certain joy for life that Picard had lost. Just like Hugh, who in his moment of loss decided to fight back.They are different people with varying reactions to loss and having to face the at times cruelty of life, which in turn the show a lot more humanity.
Lulu Wilson was phenomenal as Kestra. TNG never had a great track record when it came to child actors, but Wilson was phenomenal here — selling the family chemistry with Riker and Troi, capturing wild exuberance of a free range child with a rural upbringing playing in the woods, conveying the loss of Kestra’s older brother that she carries with her, portraying the character’s enthusiastic curiosity.
i thought so too. she was the rarest of things – i good child actor on Trek!
I thought the main 2 child actors in DS9 did a good job. Nog telling his dad he doesn’t want to be like Rom elicited the most emotionally pained gasps in response that a show has ever pulled out of me without it involving a cherished character perishing soon after.
Agreed- as much as I enjoyed seeing Troi and Riker again, their kid really was the standout of this episode.
I’d like to say that while I’ve never considered Frakes to be much of an actor, he does have some ridiculously good chemistry with Stewart. Great scenes.On another note, I must admit that I loved how they put “Special Guest Star Jonathan Frakes” in the opening credits, but surprised us with Troi appearing.
I also never thought much of Frakes as an actor. He absolutely grew into the character of Riker over many seasons of TNG and I had affection for that character, but on this episode he was absolutely fantastic.
Riker & Troi (unless it involved her mother) were my least favourite characters in Next Gen. Admittedly I only bit the bullet and watched the Next Gen iteration of Trek after thoroughly enjoying Wil Wheaton in Eureka, so i was coming at the show from all the opposite angles to what the Trekkies did. They were well-acted & emotionally-impactful here though.
Except the trailers and press advertised both of them leading up to this…so its probably more a union thing than an orchestrated surprise.
I didn’t see either of those—actually up until this week, my CBS AA stream didn’t even include a “next week on Picard” teaser after the episode.
Troi gets as much character development in this episode as she did over the entire run of TNG. I’d definitely say this series is ahead of the TNG curve on that front.
i 99% agree with you but Troi did get a little bit to do eventually. she was pretty awesome in Face of the Enemy, and eventually started wearing a uniform (thanks, Jellico) and taking courses on becoming a commander.
#4ShiftRotations
THERE ARE 4 SHIFT ROTATIONS!
Before she got her Starfleet uniform I always groaned when I realized the episode was going to be a Troi episode (like Family Guy when they tell the audience “That’s right, it’s a Meg episode. Please don’t change the channel.”).But after she started wearing her official uniform, it’s like Sirtis had told the writers “Look I want more to do than just getting into silly romances or talking about emotions.” The Troi episodes were suddenly interesting and (gasp) pretty good. I enjoyed her mini-arc of taking the bridge officer exams.
Yes! And she actually gave a detailed and accurate diagnosis of Soji’s emotional state, using only her skills as a counselor.Rather than: *Yelling alien* “I sense anger.”
Oh dear, so true. When Troi said she wasn’t as brave as she used to be I had to try and remember enough about Troi’s character to verify that statement.
I remember how bad S1 &2 of TNG was and how much everyone hated on the first half of Disco. Shows need time to get their footing, especially serialized shows. Not everything can be an Emmy winner right out of the gate.Yes, Picard can be better. But it’s still better than most sci-fi shows. I think part of that is our memory of who Picard was when we left him does some of the heavy lifting.
“Hey – remember when you wanted to go saving all those Romulans’ lives and I told not to?”Will Riker, everybody.
And of course they have a dead kid. That died because of the Anti android law. Because he apparently — caught a computer virus?
Because nobody – NObody can be unspoiled happy in this future. Oh hi, Hugh. Bye Hugh. You served your role as a nostalgic plot device well. Say hello to Icheb from the writers.
BTW – you have an anti Romulan energy shield in your little cabin in the woods, cottage but no indoor shower?
The outdoor shower thing is probably a Betazoid thing.
I guess it could make sense 🙂 but then again, Riker grew up in Alaska . Troi is more the bubble bath type… 😀
Maybe in the future Valdez, Alaska is a balmy 70 degrees year round due to all the Eugenics wars and climate change.
Guinan better watch the fuck out in season 2. Not a series regular? You gonna die.
Or go an a bloody revenge murder spree that’s totally in character.Oh shit.I just now remembered that the Borg killed her people…. She probably WILL be out for revenge with this writing team…
I think Whoopi would unleash a can of Whoop-ass on the writers before letting that happen to Guinan. Also being the last character EuGene Roddenberry created for Trek affords one some protection.
The disease was described as a neural sclerosis (hardening or overgrowth of tissue), the cure was described as regrowing those nerves over an artificial network. He didn’t “catch a computer virus.” And in perfect Star Trek fashion, I think it was a great metaphor for the unintended consequences of blanket laws (like how the US and UK are kicking themselves in the face over immigration).
I was being hyperbolic, obviously. It IS a bit on the nose, though. We get it, the anti Android law is fear mongering and unfair, I really don’t think it was necessary to come up such a technobabble disease and death for Troi’s and Riker’s son to prove the point.
This show is such fucking garbage.
you’re fucking garbage.
“BTW – you have an anti Romulan energy shield in your little cabin in the woods, cottage but no indoor shower?”I didn’t really find that to be that odd—there were plenty of things in that rustic cabin that were old school. Riker was cooking over flame, not replicating things for example.My uncle owned an old fashioned late 1800s farmhouse that has a flat screen LED TV and high speed internet—-but up until a couple of years ago had no running water. Just sayin….
Well, Trek always had thing for food snobs who prefer real food to replicated stuff.. 🙂 I can buy that.
I don’t really see how an outdoor shower is better than in indoor one in any way shape or form.
And I particularly don’t see TROI adhering to that idea… 🙂
Sex. They are better for sex.
I’m not as critical as you are of this episode, but this is well articulated and funny.
Riker didn’t tell him not to go — he just asked if he wanted to be up to his ass in Romulans. Which I guess he did.
“No good deed remains unpunished”.
Not the moto any ANY Enterprise show I’ve ever heard. And rarely a phrase uttered by a Star Trek officer.
This isn’t an Enterprise show. And they aren’t Starfleet officers anymore.
Ah, Riker explicitly said he’s still in the reserve roster.And he was still on duty when he advised Picard not to do it.But that’s not really the point. Being a Starfleet officer is about ideals, you don’t just drop them when you take off the uniform. And Riker surely never seemed the type of officer – or man – to advise against humanitarian aid because it might get difficult.
When did he advise against the aid? Riker never said he advised against it, only that he told Picard he would be “ass-deep in Romulans.” You are assuming things that were never stated.And Starfleet can do suck it. Go watch “The Drumhead” and see their ideals.
“No good deed remains unpunished”is not usually what you say as support. and the good guys won in the Drumehead, because they outnumbered the one bigot. The opposite of what happened before Picard quit, apparently.
“No good deed remains unpunished” is just the truth. He was saying don’t do it (because, again, Riker would never try to dissuade Picard from doing anything), he was saying that doing it would get Picard into a lot of trouble, which it did.The good guys one on “The Drumhead” not because they “outnumbered the bigot,” it was because one admiral saw that she was a bigot and left, removing his support. The bigot was also a retired rear admiral of Starfleet.Everything from Picard has happened before in Star Trek, we’re just seeing it in a more realistic way.
It’s often said as a bittersweet joke by people who do a lot of good
“No good deed remains unpunished”.It’s also the 285th rule of acquisition.
Riker, Quark – practically the same character… 🙂
Similar to their appreciation of real food over replicator-produced fare, the Riker-Trois seem to prefer “high touch” over “high tech” for their creature comforts.
It’s one thing to have an actual shower over, say the sonic showers that Voyager introduces, but there’s no need to have it outside the building, unless the planet they live on has permanent 25°C+ and no rain, ever. (In which case they wouldn’t need an “indoors” anything…)
Who’s to say they don’t have any indoor shower. We didn’t see every inch of the house and you’re assuming that because they have an outdoor shower they must not have an indoor one. It’s more likely that Soji just chose to shower outdoors instead of indoors.I would also argue that an outdoor shower is useful when you come back to the house so caked in mud that whomever you’re living with wants you to wash the dirt off before coming in the house.
Outdoor showers aren’t some weird old-timey thing, as long as you’ve got a climate for it. My father-in-law built one for his retirement house in Hawaii. Like, two years ago.I’m shocked that this is what people are focusing on.
I bet Geordi shows up later with a missing arm and leg raving about the giant space whale he has to catch.Sorry, Cyborg giant space whale (we need to keep with the theme somehow)
They haven’t mentioned that book yet… And ST LOVES that book, indeed… 🙂
To be fair, If I lived my entire adult life on a starship, my retirement home would have an Alexa powered security system, a wood burning pizza oven and an outdoor shower.
“Hey – remember when you wanted to go saving all those Romulans’ lives and I told not to?”So, Riker’s last on-screen appearance before this, in Star Trek Nemesis, he was off to command the Titan and leading a task force to Romulus to presumably hammer out a new peace treaty while perhaps also providing some assistance to the Romulans in rebuilding their government after the Shinzon coup that wiped out the Senate.
Under that context, it seems that Riker would have been right next to Picard in helping the evacuation. Yet in this episode it seems he has no idea who Raffi is, since Picard makes no effort to tell her she’s on his “new crew.”“Well, Raffi’s along too.”“Oh, how is she?”Yada yada. But we get none of that. Nor any mention of his time leading that task force, or what might have happened.To me, those rebuilding years following the Dominion War would have been much more interesting stories to tell than this rehashed Terminator/Blade Runner/Battlestar Galactica/Discovery Season 2 take on AI.What did happen with Riker’s task force? Was there a subsequent incident that further soured Federation-Romulan relations, or at least Riker’s opinion of them (assuming this was before his son got sick)?Instead, we get writers who refuse to address any of these potential areas of fan curiosity over concerns that the small minority of viewers watching “Picard” and no other “Star Trek” shows would be confused by the continuity rush (since Chabon has basically said as much already).
That’s pretty much a key feature of CBS Access Star Trek – an overload of superficial nostalgia for the fans of the show, while at the same time completely refusing to make an actual Star Trek show.
Riker doesn’t have the best experience with Romulans.As many others have explained, Tad’s disease was not caused by “a computer virus”. It was a natural medical disease. It was clearly explained that the only cure for it required positronic technology.“NObody can be unspoiled happy in this future.” How many people do you know that are 100% happy with no pain or heartache in their past?Riker is from Alaska. This type of rustic cabin with an outdoor shower is right up his alley.
A-
riker wasn’t always my favorite tng character, but goddamn did jonathan frakes bring it this episode. those scenes he had with picard were by far the best the show has done so far. he even made patrick stewart, who all series has seemed to be mostly phoning it in, step up his game.
Small sample size for sure…but Frakes played a much more convincing 20+ year older Riker than Stewart has done so far with Picard. It was a pleasant surprise as Frakes had talked about having to shake the rust off as an actor….I’d love to see Riker get some kind of recurring role, if Frakes was willing
Frakes has a recurring role — as episode director.Still, means he’s hanging around, so Riker’s available on a day’s notice…
what an awful show. so moronic and boring and loud and stupid. I love TNG and I’m happy these actors are getting to play these roles again, but I can’t watch. star trek is truly dead.
That “terrible secret” crap is getting so played out. Unless the whole thing is a lie used to justify the existence of the Zhat Vash or some kind of telepathic madness, there’s just no way it could be good.The idea of a Skynet/Terminator scenario just isn’t that impressive in a universe where there are already a bunch of super advanced aliens, not to mention aliens with godlike powers that can destroy entire species with a thought. They already live with the knowledge that at any moment, a being of unimaginable power like the Prophets or Q or Nagilum can erase humanity from existence and change all of history so that humans have never existed. The idea of some AI revolt is nothing compared to that.Not to mention the fact that the Federation has already dealt with a super AI with godlike powers, V’Ger. V’Ger was actually given immense powers by a race of machines. It was a massive energy cloud that could easily wipe out entire fleets and planets. But its goal was to find its creator and when it merged with Decker, it achieved a new level of existence.
Wow, that V’Ger story sounds cool.It’d be nice if we could get something like that, but in the Star Trek universe.Instead, everyone is racist and dumb and then not dumb, and addicted to drugs and then not, and then all of a sudden there’s a gay kiss in the hopes someone will tweet about it.
Everybody come quick! A straight man’s masculinity is threatened!
My point was that the gay kiss (in Discovery) came out of nowhere. We had no indication before the kiss that the characters were gay.
It was pandering garbage. We should show gay relationships and gay people on TV, not just gay kisses that come out of nowhere and last 3 seconds.This is the IP that was the basis of amazing episodes like The Outcast. KurtzTrek is embarrassing, hackneyed, incompetent loud shiny slop.
Have you ever objected to a straight kiss with no indication before that the characters were straightDoes every character need to wear a big neon sign stating their sexuality so you don’t get taken by surprise
Instead, everyone is racist and dumb and then not dumb, and addicted to drugs and then not, and then all of a sudden there’s a gay kiss in the hopes someone will tweet about it.Yes because not addressing racism, stupidity, addiction, and homophobia will certainly make it go away. Oh wait, you’re still here.
They’re not addressing shit.These pieces are thrown in there at random and given no significance.
These pieces are thrown in there at random and given no significance.Right. Because in a real utopia, we don’t see gays kissing each other without context. The reality is people who complain that they shouldn’t show gays kissing without context need an excuse not to see it all, and would rather not see it real life either where context shouldn’t be needed but it still offends their senses.
“Wow, that V’Ger story sounds cool.It’d be nice if we could get something like that, but in the Star Trek universe.”I can’t tell if this is sarcasm.
“I can’t tell if this is sarcasm.”Sure you can, and it is.
I’m going with it being sarcasm — at least today, I am.Given it’s the whole point of STAR TREK: THE MOTIONLESS PICTURE, even nonfans of TREK know about it….
As well as it being a bad story, it (the synth-panic) feels antithetical to Star Trek.Isaac Asimov once realised that almost all stories about robots involve them becoming a terrible threat to humanity (a realisation aided by finding almost the only story where that wasn’t true, Eando Binder’s “I, Robot”, in which a robot is unjustly assumed to be a threat). This, Asimov realised, had not only become the oldest, clunkiest, most predictable cliché in the book, but was also fundamentally anti-scientific and reactionary (just one more instantiation of ‘progress is bad’), and a thin disguise for a pervasive culture of bigotry (just one more instantiation of ‘people not from round here are bad’). He was inspired to write one of the first stories in which a synthetic lifeform is entirely sympathetic (“Robbie”), and went on to make a career out of arguing that synthetic life-forms could be sympathetic and non-threateing, and that bigotry against them was close-minded. Indeed, both he himself and the enlightened characters in his stories went on to continually fight against the reactionary “Frankenstein Complex”, as he called it.
…and that all happened in 1939.If you took the apparent Frankenstein Complex plot of Picard (notwithstanding the sympathetic role of Soji herself, and the possibility that Picard will find some Third Way to avoid having to kill her in the end), and showed it to Gene Roddenberry in 1966, he would likely already recognise it as a hoary old reactionnary cliché from an earlier generation. The idea that we would be back to this territory again in 2020, albeit it in cuddlier, more faux-empathetic form, is frankly rather frustrating.
Hanging over all of this is that Disco season 2 just did their terrible borg-origin-story-that-wasnt.I thought that was a mess when it looked like Starfleet/Section 31 were going to inadvertently create the Borg. And then somehow it became an even bigger mess when it turned out that it wasn’t actually the Borg (phew), but instead the writers really just had no idea what they were doing (bah).And right now there’s no reason to assume that these writers know what they’re doing either.
I half think Burnham has an accidental temporal detour to the past and crash lands on a planet with ancient migrating Vulcans who would become Romulans and the Mind-meld with her to find out where she comes from only to see a vision of Control’s future and the form a secret society to stop it. It would explain why Romulans were so reclusive as they didn’t want to disrupt the timeline up until the point that Discovery would depart.
I hate that idea because it worms the nonsensical plotting and worldbuilding of Discovery even more into the timeline, but on the other hand Picard isn’t doing much better of a job, so might as well tie them up in a bow together, really.
I am watching Picard in a non-nitpicking frame of mind, just going where it takes me, and enjoying it very much as I leave the clunky parts along the wayside. I watched this ep this morning and it was a lovely way to wake up. The thing that stood out most to me is how Picard is FINALLY not the frail old man he’s been in the previous episodes. His voice is stronger as is his physicality, and it’s a joy. (As someone who’s seen Patrick Stewart in more recent times as a McFarlane character, it has been troubling me that I might have been seeing the actor as he is now) This episode confirms to me that the plan is to show Picard becoming “himself” again, through this mission and the new, and old, people in his life now. Discovery is very much not for me; whatever flaws Picard the show has I’m just damned glad I haven’t had to work to enjoy and accept it. I’ve been a Trek fan since infancy (TOS is my home base) so I know from flaws. The ones here are a cakewalk and nothing worse than an average TNG ep ;-)Also, wild woman Kestra is marvelous. I hope we see more of The Rikers.
It seems like Kestra might rope ol’ Captain Crandall into these shenanigans, so you may get your wish.
This. I felt the usual Picard for the first time today. I hope this is true.
Honestly, “The Rikers” (with a different title) could be a fun show. Husband, wife and teenage daughter (at least 1/3 if not 2/3rds of whom are somewhat telepathic) trying to live the primitivist life in the woods, dealing with weirdo neighbours, the slowly-processed trauma of losing their son, occasional violent raids by insectoid Xinti space-aliens, and the moral quandary of whether they should prepare their daughter for a life in the woods or a life in a high-tech interstellar society…I would also accept “Kestra goes to university”, in which Kestra, the Wild Girl of the Woods, who has met about half a dozen people in her life, tries to adapt to star fleet academy, where everything is overcrowded and everyone uses replicators and holodecks all the time. And occasionally, she gets embarrassing visits from her overly-friendly war-hero dad, plus her mom, who can read her (and her boy/girl/slugmonster-friend’s) mind…
*The Troi-Rikers
So much hugging in this episode— it made me want a hug too! Also enjoyed that Troi’s counseling and empathic skills were actually useful for once. I’m just sad that we didn’t get a scene of Riker playing the trombone. I think the scene with Agnes and the Vulcan commander would have worked better in the earlier episode. Knowing Agnes was carrying a secret early on would have given her actions since then more weight/context. We’ve known that something was fishy about her since she killed Maddox, so the reveal doesn’t have much of an impact at this point. Narissa— bleh! The female villain who makes everything sexual trope just needs to die.
“Also enjoyed that Troi’s counseling and empathic skills were actually useful for once.” I liked how when they first me Sirtis and Stewart were able to let the audience know that Troi sensed that Picard was dying without saying a word about it. “I think the scene with Agnes and the Vulcan commander would have worked better in the earlier episode. Knowing Agnes was carrying a secret early on would have given her actions since then more weight/context.” I mean, it was pretty obvious to everyone that when the Agnes/Oh conversation was cut off and then Agnes showed up at Picard’s wanting to come along, her conversation with Oh contained a lot more that we would find out about later, specifically why she wanted to join Picard’s mission and if she was in fact a double-agent for Oh.
I too enjoy shows that star men that look like my grandfather and uncle.
I certainly hope you do. That would be being a good nephew/niece/grandchild.
Yeah, older Riker is pretty much me in twenty years, as he looks like the men in my mom’s side of the family, particularly the uncle I most resemble.
On the plus side, Red Velvet Regurgitation is my new speed metal band name.
They should have made the show with an entirely new ensemble. As much as I love memberberries, the way Picard acts and gets lectured to is nothing like the character from TNG. He is getting the Luke Skywalker treatment. I wouldnt be surprised if in the next episode, Riker will introduce Picard to some green milk from his sea cows. Now waiting for “deconstructing beloved characters “ trope to show up in the Harry Potter franchise, and we get to see Harry Potter has as an alchoholic, divorced middle aged dad that is nursing a grudge against the Ministry of Magic.
I think you and many people expected just more of the same TNG. Patrick Stewart has stated many times before the show aired that the only reason he agreed to step into Picard’s uniform again was to explore new developments and changes for the character, and expressly not more of the same Picard.
If he’s changed, the onus is on the show to do a proper job at least showing a bit of the transition. One scene where he figures Starfleet will grant him a ship for one more mission does not equal “new Picard = arrogant”, no matter how loud the Starfleet admiral says “FUCKING”.
But they are, episode by episode, showing how he assumes that people will do what he says because he’s “Jean-Luc Picard” and he gets rebuffed along the way. It wasn’t until now, getting a come-to-Jesus moment with his two closest friends, that he’s getting that dose of reality.
This just in – when we haven’t seen a character in 18 years, chances are they are not the same character. People gain new knowledge and have new experiences that change them.
You expect to recognize the original character, even if he’s changed. When the character is nothing like he was before, you have basically created an entirely new character. If the next Harry Potter movie showed a 45 year old Harry doing lines of coke off a hookers ass, you wouldn’t say, “Oh he just had new knowledge and experience.” It is disrespectful to the original character and just a bunch of hack writers that dont respect the canon. The most recent episode of Picard supports that hack writer theory- the finale of Voyager saw the transwarp conduits to the alpha quadrant destroyed. Now the conduits are back. What happened? The writers ignored the history because it doesn’t suit the plot. It’s bad writing.
I fail to see how the Picard we see here is “nothing like he was before” and is “an entirely new character”. Again, 18 years have passed. It was highly unlikely that a 70-80 year old Picard would still be in Starfleet, even if he had retired as his own decision. Even without being kicked out of Starfleet and this Romulan rescue disaster, he would still be someone outside of Starfleet, retired, being dragged back into another mission.Disagree about writers not respecting the canon and ignoring the history. This series is full of references to TNG, VOY, even Nemesis. They know their Trek. Picard is an EP of this series – he would not agree to anything he didn’t think was true to the character.No one is the same person as they were 18 years ago. People evolve. They have new experiences. They have setbacks. They change. Anyone expecting the exact same Picard from the end of TNG (or the movies) in this series doesn’t understand that.
The Picard we saw at the end of TNG had changed greatly from the Picard we saw in S1E1. Does that mean that those TNG writers didn’t respect history or know what they were doing? Of course not, and the same is true here.
“Agnes Must Vomit” is the new “Miles Must Suffer.” Three times in one episode, Jesus.
Sigh. And, after a brief respite last week, we’re back into nonsense territory with this episode.Seriously, TNG was not always the greatest show in the world (to put it mildly). It has a staggering number of pure garbage episodes. The writers on that show were wildly inconsistent.And yet…how does Picard struggle so much to make its legacy characters feel like…themselves? Not only is Picard problematic at times and inconsistent with the character we know and love, but now they’re getting Riker’s voice wrong, too? How hard does it have to be?
I’m not sure what you were expecting. Riker and Troi were exactly what most of us expected after 18 years of marriage and parenthood.
Good writing…?
Well then you should be happy because you got it.
People complained about my complaints about Raffi last week when I said her sudden switch from hypercompetent to drunken mess was poorly handled and I was upbraided for not remembering that, gee, her son just told her to fuck off, of course she’d be upset!But, in this episode, we get the hyper-competent Raffi again, with no apparent issues whatsoever.Her addiction and emotional fragility moves at the speed of plot. She’s perfectly fine whenever the story requires her to do something and then only breaks down between act breaks when the story doesn’t require her. The writing on the show remains consistently lazy and thoughtless. Ugh.
People with addiction and emotional issues often use competence in other areas as a coping tool (and is a reason a lot of people around them never notice there’s a problem). They thrive when there are problems put in front of them that don’t involve themselves. Raffi is an intentional depiction of that personality—notice how she immediately slides into helping Agnes as a distraction from her own pain.
I’d like to register a complaint about your complaining about people complaining about your complaints.
So noted! I’ll forward your complaint to the chief complainer.
That’s two doors down. This is Abuse.
“her son just told her to fuck off”In the most random and out of place scene ever, as is tradition in KurtzTrek shows.
It seemed like Raffi was still at least half in the bag, if not 2 sheets to the wind. She had her space-vape with her the whole time and was puffing away. I don’t think she was competent, I think she was bombed.
Competently bombed?
As a recovering alcoholic? I’d say that’s accurate to a lot of addicts, using their skills to prove they “don’t really have a problem”. I know I showed off for work numerous times hungover or still drunk, and managed the day perfectly (or so I thought — turns out everybody I worked with knew). It’s one of the issues I had with LEVERAGE, that they treated Nate Ford as a (mostly) functional alcoholic, and seemed bored with his periods of sobriety (at one point, Jeri Ryan’s Tara tells Nate “I’m not Sophie — I don’t care how much you drink”). But the fact is it’s not uncommon among addicts.
My father went to work every day, often drunk, for decades and nobody could even tell he had a problem. He also got DUIIs and wrecked his car when he was particularly bad, and managed to ruin 4 marriages. Not everybody is a sloppy drunken mess 100% of the time.
“But, in this episode, we get the hyper-competent Raffi again, with no apparent issues whatsoever.”You do realize that last week when Raffi was depressed and drunk Picard was on the ship and in no danger. But once Picard was separated from them and in danger, and now on some planet far away and (as far as she knows) still in danger, she sobers up and does her job to help rescue him.People that are spiraling when they feel sorry for themselves often pull it together when they realize that they have to help a friend.
I’m not watching, but what happened to Worf???
According to a tie-in book he became Captain of the Enterprise. The series hasn’t mentioned him.
He took over as captain of the Enterprise when Picard went to lead the evacuation fleet. Fully expect him and the ship to show up at some point.
He’s at least confirmed to be alive. We don’t much else than that.
According to the tie-in comics and novels (which for DISCO and Picard are considered canon unless the shows contradict them), he was promoted to captain and given command of the Enterprise when Picard was promoted to Admiral
I think it’s such a shame they retconned his redemption arc in DS9 just to shoehorn him into the TNG movies. He was finally going ‘home’ to Kronos to usher in the new Klingon Empire, led by a competent and beloved Chancellor, to tear up the stangant and corrupt Great House system – and then suddenly he’s back at tactical on the Enterprise again like none of that ever happened.
God dammit, stop reintroducing bit characters to kill them!What is the Borg Hughbe without Hugh?!
I like that Riker has gone full Orsen Welles with that look. kinda hot tbh
THIS!!! I always thought he looked like Welles, now it’s uncanny.
While I overall loved the episode and how it continued to examine Picard’s character, although I continue to be confounded by the seeming insistance that he wasn’t portrayed as someone arrogant in TNG as wlel, I was really bummed out by the fight between Elnor and Narissa. When they set it up, I was expecting now some epic fighting about to happen, but instead we got a punch, a kick and a thrown blade.Reflecting on it, I realize that one of the shows minor flaws is that they don’t seem to have a proper fight scene coreographer. Because of that, a lot of the drawn out action sequences end up feeling somewhat clumsy.
counterpoint: fight scenes are boring as hell, and don’t really enhance Star Trek. There are any number of shows out there where you can watch trained actors dance around each other for 10 minutes at a time pretendinf to fight. Trek has never been a show like that. and i’m glad, because scenes like that just make me roll my eyes. real-life fights rarely last more than a couple of punches or kicks. not every type of tv program needs to have hyper-unrealistic drawn out hand to hand dance-combat (which straight up never happens in any kind of real life confrontation, not in the military, or among criminals, or anything. real fights are short and brutal.)
I don’t really know what this is a counterargument to.I’m not claiming that the show needs more fight scenes, I’m arguing that it isn’t doing a good job with the fight scenes it has.
I would agree, and add that the show isn’t doing a good job with a lot of the fast-paced directorial choices. When Picard and his chateau crew are surprise-attacked, it’s an incredibly jarring transition for viewers that takes time to actually process. Even watching it back again it was done poorly, like the proper reaction scene was cut or something. When Picard is on the Borg ship and has his moment before Hugh yells out “they don’t want you to fall!” the directing is awful, and you can’t even tell who Hugh is talking about (and you didn’t even realize as a viewer at that point that there were actual Borg around Picard as it was all portrayed as memories he was facing). ONE shot of the camera slow zooming out from Picard with the Borg around him would have properly established what had happened. The directing doesn’t seem to be properly setting up lines of sight and proper transitions for fast-paced scenes. I can’t really explain it better than that, but it’s super noticeable.
I’m really torn on Kestra, or rather her treatment in the episode. As a character I liked her and I thought the actress did a fantastic job in preventing her to feel annoyingly precious which was a clear danger with that character. Also they really managed to make the bond between her and Soji work even in such a brief time.However, she felt like a walking plot device at several points, especially the ability to pinpoint the planet was kind of wil. Additionally, man the adults have no filter what they talk about around her, do they?
Was that captain who she mentioned a bunch and ultimately told her where the plant was someone from a past series? Crandall maybe?
The “you can have Picard” speech was kind of clunky and obvious. And a little more fucky than the writers meant it to come across.
A little more fucky than we HOPE they meant it to come across.Maybe the latter part of the season has a twist…
The show makes her life seem kindof miserable, too. Her parents are cool and all (if also a little bit doomsday-prepper), and she gets to play dressup in the woods. But is that it? She latches onto Soji because she must be bored out of her mind.
I head-canon’d that as being a weekend/vacation from school. I don’t think they said there wasn’t a town with other youngsters nearby… But, yeah, I had the same thought.Also: jet lag is really just not a thing in Trek, is it?! 😛
“especially the ability to pinpoint the planet was kind of wil.”Actually I found that part completely believable and relatable. The adults are all discussing how to find the planet, and the kid pulls out her smartphone and uses Google Maps (aka Captain Crandall) to find the info.
She’s part Betazoid, which if she’s like her mother means she can sense the emotions going on around her far more precisely than even the most precocious human child can. She might even be telepathic with Deanna, who’s both Betazoid and her mother — but when she tries to read Dad’s mind, she finds him grinning at the border of his brain/mind interface, saying “Off you go, young lady — no poking your nose in what Daddy’s thinking.”
As much as Picard was the center of Next Gen, the strength of that ensemble can’t really be overstated…This, as much as more advanced effects and (after about season 2) superior scripts, is why TNG was such a better show than TOS. The latter was, on a structural level, more or less a standard 60’s action series. Sure, there were some big ideas lurking beneath the scripts, but from a plot perspective we never strayed far from the K-S-M triad. Every now and again a regular player would feature prominently for plot purposes, and they all got fleshed out in the films.
But you would probably never see a whole TOS episode that was, say, 90% Uhura with maybe a couple of brief scenes of Kirk or Spock. In fact, individual scenes that don’t feature the “big three” at all are quite brief, and mostly limited to the monster of the week attacking some poor redshirt. By comparison, you could go through the length between commercial breaks on some TNG episodes without a glimpse of Picard.This was also one of the major reasons why the TNG movies never really found their groove. It’s easy to, say, focus intensely on one or a handful of the major characters for an episode or two of television, because you can always bring the spotlight back to the Captain or Number One next week. But in a movie, everybody has to divy-up the same 120 minutes, give or take 30-40. Plus, they also tried to turn the Picard/Data mentor-mentee relationship into almost a Kirk and Spock friendship thing, which felt rather forced.
TNG had a run of 7 seasons and over 170 episodes to explore it’s supporting cast. TOS has 3 and 79 episodes.You need to be reminded that TNG didn’t really hit it’s stride until the end of the 3rd season when the show-runners decided to finally stop trying to shove Wesley Crusher down our collective throats and concentrate on the rest of the supporting cast.
Long runs can help to round out characters, but it’s hardly determinative. Mad Men, which ran for about 92 episodes, featured characters so multidimensional that they practically seemed like real, living people by the end of the series. The original Hawaii Five-O ran for 279 episodes, and despite being very well written and produced for much of that run, featured characters that were hardly more than cardboard cutouts throughout.
I always felt that the start of season 3 was where it picked up. For me, it’s “Q Who?” In season 2, the introduction of The Borg.
I would have been happy with either a more nostalgic trip with plenty of TNG fan service or a story of a changed, traumatized Picard struggling to get his life back with the help of richly drawn characters and story arcs.I think the second one of those options is clearly what the series is aiming for, but instead we are getting pretty thin plot and characters so it isn’t really working for me. In the review Zack talks about things like how boring the antagonists are, how little the new crew registers, that the death of characters like Hugh is a waste (much like Maddox a couple of weeks ago). I agree with all of that, among many problems with the choices made in the series so far. It isn’t that I am against a darker, more mournful Picard in theory. I just think the execution of this show has been pretty poor so far. I am glad it is working for others-it is not really working for me. It is a shame, because I think some of the broad ideas here could be really good.
It’s a definite shame that the opportunity to create a different kind of Star Trek show has been wasted on a show that mostly feels like Discovery, instead of something more sophisticated and introspective. Picard has the best of intentions in wanting to explore life at the edges of a Federation that has turned inwards. It was a chance to rediscover the values of Star Trek at a time when we need them the most.
Instead it’s mostly just a lot of shallow scifi. I love Chabon as a novelist, and I do think he’s capable of bringing a lot of things to the franchise, but I’m beginning to suspect it’s impossible to actually make something good as long as Kurtzman is in charge of Star Trek.
(One wonders what the show would be like if Joe Weisburg of The Americans had been given the job)
(One wonders what the show would be like if Joe Weisburg of The Americans had been given the job)Combining the tone and character work of The Americans with a Star Trek story would be amazing. Now I’m sad this we’ll never see this!
Imagine Narek and Narissa getting the same treatment as the officers at the Rezidentura, or Rafi being as believably worldweary and paranoid as Stan.
Basically, what if the characters on Picard were treated like ‘human’ beings instead of cardboard cutouts.
Oh well.
It’s the perennial frustration of Star Trek (at least, since the end of DS9, and frankly even a lot of the time during the DS9/TNG heyday): just imagine how great this world, these characters, could be if someone decided to make the show be good.[the same is even more true of Star Wars, frankly. So, so much potential. So, so many active decisions to make it not be good.]It’s a problem with most SF&F on screen, to be honest. They take a genre built around ideas, imagination and weirdness, and they say “let’s ignore the ideas, and let’s stick to something comfortable and familiar”.
Star Wars was always a fairy tale in space, it’s at its best when it tries to be that. Star Trek was conceived basically as ‘take the most popular genre there is and put it in space’. It’s more malleable as a concept.
It can be good as just fun, but there’s nothing preventing it from being more than that.
There are plenty of models for how to build a successful Star Trek show, Kurtzman’s model is basically comic books. But that’s not the only option.
I’d really like to hear from our old friend Frakes on this one. Can he pour himself a scotch, and regale us with some behind the scenes tales of debauchery?
Gimmick Frakes was one of the best things to ever happen to the AVClub. Hell, the internet.
A pretty great episode, but it kind of glosses over the fact that Picard is putting the Troi-Rickers in grave danger.
Geez, I didn’t even really think of that. The plot waves it away by having the tracker be deactivated, but Picard himself was to-the-point demanding in the first episode that he doesn’t want to go back to the old crew and have them put themselves in danger for him. And then he chooses to go straight from imminent danger, directly to visit Riker/Troi… just so that, well, he can say hi, but they literally provide absolutely no help for him whatsoever except for the happenstance of their daughter somehow finding out the location of the one planet in the whole galaxy that has thunderstorms and two moons. Huh.
From what I’ve gathered from behind-the-scenes details, the decision to do a Picard-Riker-Troi episode came very late in the production cycle. Frakes talks about having already directed an episode (he directed 4-5) before they even asked him to be a guest star. So what likely happened is that as they were rewriting and reshooting the back half of the season, they decided to stick this episode in there as the respite Picard needed while on the run. And as later episodes wouldn’t have Troi and Riker helping him (and it will be interesting to see if they are even mentioned), the writers needed an excuse as to why Riker and Troi wouldn’t become more involved. Their solution apparently was to say that Riker and Troi’s first child died, so they were overprotective of their second child, and didn’t want to put her in danger or to piss off anyone who might try attacking them (though letting her run off into the woods by herself where there are literally venomous rabbits and looming Kzinti raiders is perfectly fine I guess).Another question that arises from this is why Riker and Troi aren’t contacting Starfleet on behalf of Picard (though we already know Starfleet security is compromised and perhaps Picard suspects it too). Some reviewers are also speculating that Riker’s line about being in active reserve means he’s going to swoop in at the end of episode 10 on the Titan or some ship to save the day. Which would be great if they hadn’t already used that trope with Seven at the end of episode 4. And that would require Riker’s active involvement in the story beyond being seemingly shoehorned into this episode.
“he chooses to go straight from imminent danger, directly to visit Riker/Troi… just so that, well, he can say hi”Picard and Soji are seconds away from being killed by Romulans. He had to transport somewhere that he knew was safe, someplace he could take a moment and talk to Soji and tell her what’s going on with her.
Not really. He says in one of the early episodes that he doesn’t want to involve his Enterprise crew because he doesn’t want to put them into danger. The only reason he goes to Nepenthe is because he and Soji literally have Romulans on the other side of the door and they have to transport somewhere. He knows he has to transport someplace with a friendly face that will help him. He’s learned over this series that list is not as long as he thought, so he had to choose Riker and Troi.Plus once he gets there he tells Riker that helping him might put them in danger, at which point Riker puts up the shields and cloaking device detectors.
I very much do not want to see a “visit with old friends with some adventure on the side”. That sounds kind of derivative.
What I love about this show is that it is telling an actual story, giving its characters real lives – there’s something wonderful about the bittersweet nature of Riker and Troi’s married life, about Troi’s admission that she’s not as brave as she used to be; for me, an old Next Gen fan, I remember that one time Troi took over a Romulan ship pretending to be its commander and bluffed her way home, if I’m remembering that story correctly. She was *crazy* brave. It would kill a person like that to admit she didn’t have that type of strength anymore, and that’s exactly how Sirtis delivers the line. Oof. So good.
I agree, however, that the bad guys on this show are one-dimensional to the point of self-parody. It would be nice if at some point I had a reason to like or care about the stakes for one of them. Maybe Narek will become interesting (?)
I had a serious moment of hell yeah when full Riker command voice was engaged for “SHIELDS UP!” First time hearing that in nearly twenty years. Now, I am not amused by the show continuing to kill off recurring ex-Borg. First Icheb, and now Hugh?! I am going to be MOST cross if Death shows up to assimilate Seven of Nine, especially since things don’t look particularly great for her in the preview for next week. Death: ANNIKA, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.Seven: “Shit!”Us: “Motherfucker!”
I got a little teared up when Frakes gave Stewart a big hug, I don’t mind admitting. The rest of the cast is talented, but there’s such a natural, easy-going chemistry between the two, and that’s not something you can force or manufacture. I understand that part of the idea of the series pushing Picard into new, uncomfortable situations. I’m just not sure it’s working that well. man, you can’t even let this show give you what you want without complaining about it.
I gave up on this series two episodes ago. Reading this article makes me feel even better about it because so far is going down exactly the way I called it two weeks ago. Why this series feels the need to destroy everything that was good about Trek is beyond me. The world is shit enough around us already… do we really need to pay another subscription to watch our fictional heroes fall as well, or rewatch philosophical debates that DS9 already tackled much more adeptly over two decades ago? Sure wish the Prophets would bring Sisko back already just so he could tell everyone in this show to just grow the F up.
I hope Seven is careful out there. The fridge has two former drones in it now.
When will we see my old Weyoun-slaying friend Worf again?
well, HELLO!!! *chuckles*
I’d watch a series that was just him travelling the galaxy killing Weyoun clones like Mossad and the Nazis
I liked how Picard straight up admitted this crew he’s with was no shakes compared to the crew on the Enterprise.
Picard suddenly playing a mean trick on Soji that it was all a simulation seemed a wee bit out of character but sometimes Picard’s humour can be a bit dry.
One thing I loved was that Troi’s empathic capabilities were used for plot and character stuff. When was the last time Troi’s powers were actually used in a decent way? I mean, closest you get is Nemesis which is…. kinda yikes comparatively.
I actually thought Riker’s family was going to die horribly for angst purposes but they made it through fine. Only killed the son off screen before we knew he existed years ago. :/ but does reinforce how awful the sythn ban was and how it affected non-synths.
longest episode ever of the show so far but I guess it was they wanted to keep in every frame of the Riker/Troi stuff and also all the plot stuff. Dad Riker having Security Immediately implemented with a classic “SHIELD’S UP!” holler was very in-character for him, can take Number One off the bridge but you can’t remove those instincts. And even before that, him just telling his kid “Stop yelling!” I thought was kind of hilarious.
I miss Hugh already, his return was so great, fantastic performance actually, great build upon his first intro and a much better use/farewell to the character (even though he was brutally murdered) than in Descent. interesting thought in the review, Romulan Legolas being stuck in a Queen chamber on a Borg Cube could be a be potential no-no and maybe cause the synth disaster. I’m assuming he will straight up activate the Borg Queen and things will properly promptly go to hell in a handbasket (but the Borg blowing up Earth seems a wee bit out of bounds of their usual assimilation jag) Cool action bit when the Romulan Legolas threw the star at Evil Romulan lady but she transported away, however, wouldn’t the dagger transport with her ala when that lady jumped into Kirk’s transporter beam?
So 3 weeks ago when Commodore Evil talked to Agnes which was I believe 3 weeks ago we saw the scene so apparently it’s been a hellova long trip. Also I was convinced the Commodore was a Romulan but unless they’ve figured out how to mind meld I guess she’s a true Vulcan. Conspiracy!
I was wondering about that. Pretty sure it’s canon that Romulans have lost, or deliberately allowed to atrophy, Vulcan’s telepathic powers. But if Commodore Oh is a Vulcan, why on earth is she helping the Romulans? And if she’s a Romulan deep cover agent, how could she have hidden that from Jurati in the mind meld? A mind meld is a sharing of your entire consciousness. I do like that Commodore Oh wears Ray-Bans. They suit her. Some things don’t need to change.
“When was the last time Troi’s powers were actually used in a decent way?”Face of the Enemy, when she was disguised as a Romulan. She could sense that the captain of the other Romulan ship was lying when it wasn’t obvious to anyone, so her conspirator Romulan blew the ship up.
Christ Zack, it’s your favourite episode of the season, you gave it the best grade, and your review reads like an Uber review for Hitler. I know it’s a critic’s job to be critical, but articulating praise for the things done right is part of the job, too. (personally I thought the last episode was objectively better, and had steadier plot momentum, but this episode hit the nostalgia button in a lot of very satisfying ways).
“an uber review for hitler”… okay, that made me laugh out loud.
Funny thing is, I think a lot of the anger people have with this show, the show kind of agrees with them.Why can’t this be more like old Star Trek? The theme of the show seems to be the characters trying to get back to that place, even if their world now isn’t.
I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. This episode had the same bad dialogue, plot-holes, lazy writing, over-sentimentality that’s never earned, and extreme pandering (especially this episode, obviously) that’s plagued every episode before it.
I’ve given up on this show. If ya’ll think this is the BEST it’s been, then I’m tapping out. I just will never see the good in it. The franchise ended after ST: ENT as far as I’m concerned, going forward, and I’ll just watch those.
Picard has had some bright spots, but far too often it just feels clunky. Picard’s rag-tag crew gets less interesting with each passing episode. Extremely minor TNG characters like Maddox and Hugh are brought back, built up, and then awkwardly killed. Picard himself is uncharacteristicly incompetent. The Romulan villains are more cliche than scary. Of course I am going to keep watching…..but I really hope CBS takes a step back after season 1 and makes some tweaks behind the scenes so that Picard can live up to its full potential
Completely agree. So far its been all about deconstructing the idea of Picard with allegations of hubris, arrogance, and Space Alzheimer’s. I’ve enjoyed the spectacle but the execution seems so botched, and killing Hugh for shock value was just so dumb. And Narissa is so cardboard-cut-out-evil chick. Tight pants suit? Check. Random unnecessary killings? Check. Incestuous? FTW, check. The idea that the Shat Vag or whatever are actually the good guys is such an interesting idea that the writers and actors somehow crap on while also lamely promoting it. It’s so badly handled. I like this show but my frustration with it is threatening to overwhelm my enjoyment.
Just read on another website that Kestra was named after Deanna’s sister who died when she was little (we found out back in TNG’s seventh season, which is why you probably don’t remember). Also, Martina Sirtis’ wig was the exact same one she’d worn in Nemesis.
It’s in the Stray Observations.
I could have sworn that wasn’t there before. This is Q’s doing.
I like how the show somehow figured a way for Riker to yell “SHEILDS UP!”
honestly, Frakes’ presence is almost as comforting as Stewart’s. Over TNG’s run, he evolved from smarmy womanizing upstart to a seasoned, grinning warmth that really upped his likability, and now in old age he’s basically completed the transformation into a giant walking teddy bear stuffed with hugs. it’s great.Sirtis, Frakes, and Stewart share an onscreen chemistry that takes years of real-life familiarity and camaraderie that i have yet to see convincingly faked by anyone. i understand being so reluctant to bow to “fan service” but what if the fans are right, and more adventures with the old crew really would be wonderful?
I don’t really want more adventures with the old crew, but if the show gets another season, I would love to see more reunions. I’m especially curious about Beverly and what happened with her and Picard’s relationship.But the reason I don’t want more adventures is one of the reasons I loved this reunion with Riker and Troi. These people are old enough that most of them should be retired. They’ve earned it. And getting to see Riker and Troi genuinely get to grow and enjoy their lives together and their family—even with the loss—was really heartwarming stuff, as was their ability to speak candidly with Picard. I would love to see similar stuff with Worf (probably still active Starfleet, right?) and Geordi (maybe still active?) as well.
Also, “Cancel red alert!… it’s a burnt tomato.”
I’ve been watching TNG concurrently with Picard and it’s amazing how despite not having played the character for 18 years he said it with the same energy and cadence he did prior.
To be fair, he’s probably been saying it a dozen times every year since TNG went off the air between cons and other public appearances.
If only we could’ve gotten a “What the hell?” from him.
Zack, while I agree fully that this group of amateur 9/11 truthers at CBS wouldn’t know character development if it smacked them in the face with a cold mackerel – I mean, just LOOK at the forced effort to make us care about that bridge full of shadows in Discovery – and while I further agree that community theater Cersei Pointy-ears brings down her every damn scene – I think you are a little hard on this show. I don’t hate this, and I couldn’t get through Voyager or Enterprise. And i am not going back for more Discovery. Maybe it’s the presence of Patrick Stewart. Maybe it’s the history built into the show’s DNA. Maybe stopped clocks are right twice a day. But whatever it is, there is just enough here for me to care about in (almost) all of these people.
No mention of the episodes best CGI sequences? Clearly no expense was spared in trying to hide how fat No.1 has gotten over the years -the apron and strategically placed coffee cup were special effects indeed.
Picard: But things!Troi: You’re being kind of an asshole.And that really made the episode.
“it’s been reluctant to bring back familiar faces. We’ve had Hugh, and Seven of Nine showed up for a bit, and I think that’s more or less it?”also Bruce Maddox and Icheb (seriously one of my favorite Voyager characters, i know, i’m weird). I am really, really disappointed they killed off Hugh. I wasn’t even sad. Just annoyed and frustrated, which is certainly not what they were going for there.
It certainly doesn’t enhance my hatred for Narissa – my hatred for her is already maxed out, but not for the reasons the writers want. Look, let’s make a deal. Get rid of Narissa, like SOON. Next-episode-soon. And i’ll gladly tolerate all the Narek being mopey about trying to kill Soji you want to dish out. it’s fine. but Narissa has to go.
and once more in case i’m being misunderstood … i dont hate her for being an evil villian or killing characters i like. i hate her for being a hacky, hammy cliche that is way beneath what should be this show’s standards.
other than that, i loved this episode. agree with the A-, but i think the tone of the review was a tad harsh. i like Zack and his reviews, but i think he kinda overthinks things sometimes, and is maybe a little rigid with his expectations. but he’s always thoughtful and always trying to be fair.
Yup- Narissa needs to go, in such a way that’d actually surprise me. It would’ve surprised me if she’d taken that dart to the throat instead of smirking and beaming out.
I wish I could be frustrated by them killing off Hugh (as they did Maddox, and Icheb…). But frustration would require at least some small glimmer of surprise…
Yeah, I’m stunned they didn’t make Narissa a Predatory Lesbian to make her Extra-Super Evil! And have her in a hatesex affair with Evil Kira….
“it’s been reluctant to bring back familiar faces … also Bruce Maddox and Icheb”Ironically (for your comment), both of these characters were played by different actors than the actors that portrayed them in TNG/VOY.
Which was actually why I was fine that they killed them off. Getting back the original actor for Hugh, having him do such a great job in such constrained circumstances, and then killing off his character just when it looked like he’d really get time to shine . . . what a waste.
I mean, Hugh was not a hugely beloved TNG character. He only appeared in 2 episodes (according to Memory Alpha he was only “on display” in Descent Part 1). If they had never brought him back in any Trek show I think most fans would have been ok with it. It’s not like people were clamoring to find out what happened to him after TNG. So if they wanted to bring him back to help Picard and give his life to help him, what’s wrong with that?I did like the symmetry of Hugh sacrificing his life to save Picard, who he owes his entire post-Borg life to.
Except he didn’t give his life to save Picard; if he’d died holding off the Romulans so that Picard could use the teleporter that’d have been one thing.And he was one of the most actually compelling characters on the show so far, both plot and acting wise. And with the “XBs” so important, he was also the only one we’ve spent any time with unless you count Picard or Seven, so now there’s a lot less emotional investment in that saga.
Hugh (and Elron) could’ve left with Picard and Soji in the transporter. But he stayed behind because he needed to hide the transporter, otherwise the Romulans would find and follow them to Nepenthe. Hugh knew that he was putting his life in danger to do this with the Romulans bearing down on them. But he owed his entire post-Borg life to Picard so he was willing to take this chance. It cost him his life.Hugh was good on this series, but he wasn’t great. His first episode spent with Soji talking to the mad XB Romulans – you could’ve replaced him with any other generic new character and it wouldn’t have made any difference. I literally didn’t know it was Hugh until I saw his name in the end credits. Soji called him “Hugh” once in that episode but it went by so quick you could easily miss it – I did. Nothing in that episode required that character to be Hugh.
Maybe the XBs saga is now missing Hugh, but I feel that Picard is going to be much more important to their story then Hugh could’ve been.
Jesse I hope this lifts it’s game – the opening is god damn stupid
“Allow me to mindscrew you with some messed up imagery that’ll show you what will happen if synths survive. How could I possibly know that? Shut up how dare you question the brilliance of the writers.”
“Convinced? Excellent, now abandon your life’s work, eat a tracking device and kill your boyfriend.”This is a new trick in the ‘let production cover our lack of writing’ toolbox – Disco tells us when we’re supposed to be feeling something for characters they never bother to introduce by turning the score up to 11. Picard glosses over complete character reversals with quick cuts of messed up stuff. Why write stuff when you can fix it in post?
A couple of questions from the not entirely initiated:Do (half) Betazoid’s stay fertile longer? I’m not sure a woman in her mid 60s is likely to have a kid so young.Shouldn’t Picard have addressed Riker as ‘Captain’ rather than ‘Commander’, as that’s the rank he would have been at retirement? I get that Riker was his Commander on the Enterprise, but I thought Picard was, or at least was in the past, a stickler for these things.
Riker also called Picard “Captain” when they were talking one-on-(number-)one. I think it’s just an “old habits” thing.
If Kestra is as old as the actress playing her, she’s 14, so she was born around 2385, which would have made Deanna 49 when she had her.
Betazoids may indeed have a longer fertility period, as Lwaxana Troi was pregnant in the DS9 episode “The Muse,” taking place in 2372 when she would have presumably been in her 60s (while Lwaxana’s birthdate hasn’t been established in the timeline, it’s probably around 2310, and Majel Barrett was 64 when the episode aired).
I’d also suggest that maybe Deanna got a few years back from her time on the Ba’ku planet in ‘Insurrection’ but the new Trek writers probably forgot that movie existed, since the first question would have to be why Troi and Riker didn’t take their sick son there. And why Picard seems so ancient now despite saying he was going to be hanging out on that planet a lot.
That, friend, is exactly the sort of answer I was hoping for, cheers!
There’s hope for this site yet, isn’t there?
I love this show. While people are entitled to their own opinions, my fear is that the critical voices talk more, thus creating a misrepresentative image of the show’s popularity. And if the CBS network sees that, it could mean less shows like this and another by the book trek clone.
I’ve always though the universe of star trek had incredible potential to tell all sorts of interesting stories. It seems that are some fans who want the “federation ship visits planet, has problems that are parrallels to our culture, resolve problem in hour, rinse and repeat’ done over and over again. You already have three shows with that premise, two of which are good.
I think looking at things through a hypercritical eye can actually make shows less enjoyable.
I’m not saying the show is perfect. The melodrama with the lesser cast members has not been compelling (reminds me of the romance scenes on Discovery, the weakest aspect) The crew are potentially interesting but not enough on their own without Picard as the anchor.
I do like the deaths, I really feel like anyone on this show could die at any moment, which makes it more interesting. I honestly thought there was a chance Soji might die in the previous episode, and the show then becomes about Picard uncovering the conspiracy.
As far as people taking issue with Picard’s charcterization, in “Tapestry” we saw that he was a bit reckless and arrogant. It makes some sense that without the support of starfleet and a person who is in imminent danger, (and the fact the character is 96 with a friggin brain tumor) plus generally rusty and somewhat embittered, he would revert to his more rash arrogant younger approach. His comment to Soji was definitely a clear lapse in judgement that was obvious when he said it, and Troi rightfully called him out on it.
To him, Soji is still something of an abstraction- I’m sure they will eventually connect on a personal level.
As far as the “bad guys” being motivated by the greater good- This is a VERY big part of it if you’ve been paying attention. There has clearly been something huge, something so bad that starfleet would stage a false flag attack on Mars Colony, the Tal’shiar has a secret section devoted solely to it, and a girl who was a lover of Maxwell would be wiling to kill him after learning about it.
The underlying theme of Picard’s utopian morality versus a more practical “choose the least bad of shitty options” he keeps coming up against is a major theme of the show, and we’re clearly heading in a direction where Picard will learn about the Danger Soji potentially poses and may have to make a huge moral decision.
However that plays out, it’s clearly leading up to that and it’s also clear what Picard decides will impact the fate of the universe in possibly the most dramatic way ever. More on that but first…
I loved Handlen’s TNG and DS9 reviews. But he keeps saying “I guess the only point of this scene was” and missing stuff.
This show is structured as a mystery where flashbacks to the past and visions of the future unravel the mystery slowly.
It wasn’t just that we got clairification for how the ship was being tracked. The scene in question was showing us what happened in an earlier episode when the Vulcan Admiral came up to (forgetting her name, science girl). We know that after that conversation she volunteered to join Picard’s crew, and Zach even speculated this might mean she was a spy. This is the first time we saw what she was specifically shown, and we have a clear sense what’s potentially at stake.
The two Tal’shiart agents are ruthless, because that’s the way the tal’shiar operates, but they almost certainly believe they’re acting in the greater good, as do the admirals who are co-operating. As far as them being bad at their jobs, not really, they sucessfully extracted the location.
However, we haven’t gotten into the complexities of the post romulan government (I don’t think they plan to go into it, but since I think it isnt supposed to violate STO canon, the Romulan government has broken up into three fations, and the Republic which was lead by Spock’s underground is in charge of the Reclamation project, but the Tal’Shiar are still behind the scenes. Even if that’s not the case, you’re talking about a secret subgroup inside a secret agency that is almost certainly stretched to their limit with the romulan empire in complete disarray.
Since we know they are working with starfleet at the highest levels, there would be even more need for secrecy so as not to expose starfleet’s role, hence the two agents versus an ship load.
I feel like Zach is generally saying things are telegraphed because hes analyzing the show at a very superficial level as opposed to paying attention to the subtext. I feel like the show is sort of designed that way so people who just want adventure and picard can follow, but there’s also a lot more going on in between the lines.
Another thing I don’t think anybody noted. When Hugh mentioned the Borg Queen tech that allowed Picard to escape, he mentioned it was a relatively recent thing the Borg assimilated, and mentioned the race they got it from, The Sikarians.
That race was the one from an Early Voyager episode, “Prime Factors”. They had these portals that lead them travel instantly to other worlds, but they had their own prime directive. They are hedonists, and a group agrees to illegally trade the tech for a library of voyager’s stories. Tuvok actually goes behind Janeway’s back and make the exchange, but of course it turns out that the tech cant be adapted to voyager.
Those pleasure loving Sikarians are now part of the one that is many.
Zack didn’t catch this, because if he did, I think he would realize it’s unlikely that tech is going to feature prominently as the reason this all happens.
What COULD be possible and would be very trek, is that the synth armageddon thing is circular. Like, Soji somehow leads to a race of synths who the federation, Romulans and others are trying to destroy for fear of this future outcome (how they got that and were convinced it was real, we don’t know- someone came back in time to warn them? The synth race the concludes that the only was to survive is to wage war on those trying to destroy them, which leads to the armageddon in the vision where trillions die and the populated worlds of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant Powers are mostly destroyed.
He’s played by a different actor in Picard, so maybe it’s not the strict definition of a “familiar face,” but Dr. Bruce Maddox was the dude who argued that Data was Starfleet property so he could disassemble and analyze him in the season 2 episode “Measure of a Man.”
So that’s why we kept getting recaps from the Lets Fuck Twins. They’re so insanely boring by themselves.
I thought (but maybe I’m giving him too much credit) that when Captain Rios was trying to get Agnes’ input on how sketchy Raffi’s behavior was, he was really trying to get Agnes to come clean with her obvious complicity in something, whatever it was. His connection with Raffi goes back too far for him to suddenly doubt her now.
Don’t forget that in the previous episode Raffi told Rios that she had a son, which was a surprise to him. Proving that he doesn’t know Raffi as well as he thinks he does.
So great to see Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis back, and they were terrific in their scenes with Patrick Stewart. I’m not terribly engaged at all with the Romulus storyline and Picard’s former crew. I’m am SOOO sick of cocky flyboy captains! Han Solo, Peter Quill… this guy and his cigar can just go away!Poor Hugh! Why bring him and Icheb back just to kill them?
“For the first time since the pilot (hell, maybe the first time at all), the show feels like what it always promised to be: a visit with old friends, and maybe some adventure on the side.”Except such a show was never promised. In fact, such as a show was actively NOT promised. Patrick Stewart stated multiple times that this wasn’t going to be a retread of TNG, nor would it be a nostalgia fest. Riker and Troi appearing in one of the shows promos was a big surprise to a lot of people, because up until then, no TNG characters were set to reappear.Thus, I’m not sure where you got that impression from – that this show would be about “a visit with old friend” – beyond something you just made up in your own head?
Maybe I’m stupid or I missed something but what exactly were the Romulans trying to accomplish with the La Sirena?did they release them in order to track them to find Picard and Soji?If so, why were to so obvious about it?Is the magic tracker that Agnes injected and stayed in her system for days (weeks?) powerful enough to send a signal only for a few light years?and if it’s that powerful how can only the Romulans track it and Rios doesn’t notice it?Oh, and another one for the road, why is Kestra the one telling Soji about Data when she’s the only one of the group there who hasn’t met him?
On the first point, yes Commodore Oh is in cahoots with the Romulan siblings so they held Picard ship until Narek could get into position and then used Agnes to track La Sirena back to Picard and Soji.On the second point, Kestra explains Data and the Enterprise D to Soji in a way of describing a legend worked for me. She only knows that Data was a wonderful friend of their parents and Picard was the best captain ever, which is info Soji can use to determine their trustworthiness.
The Romulans let Rios/Agnes/Raffi go because they are working with Starfleet/Commander Oh, who have a tracker in Agnes. So they know they’ll be able to track Agnes. And they have to let them go so they’ll lead them to Picard and Soji, because they currently have no idea where they are.The male Romulan (can’t remember his name) wasn’t being obvious about following Rios. Rios said that the ship following them was hanging back, out of range.The fact that Agnes had to chew the tracker makes me think that it’s not just a pill-like object to be swallowed and remain in your stomach. Once chewed it probably breaks down and spreads throughout your body so it’s not just a single object that can be removed.It’s a Romulan tracker, or a secret Starfleet tracker, used by people doing covert things. It wouldn’t use a signal that anyone could detect. A tracker is pretty worthless if anyone can detect that you have one on your person.Kestra was bonding with Soji because she was closer to her age than her parents. As far as we know Captain Crandall is her only friend besides her parents. No word of other kids she plays with. As far as her telling Soji about Data, her parents are Riker and Troi. She was brought up being told about all the adventures of the Enterprise. She would know so much about Data from hearing stories from her parents.
I wasn’t a huge TNG fan by any measure, but oh boy, did I start tearing up once Troi came out and then the waterworks came on once I heard Riker! The feels!
As someone who has never eaten a tomato and never will, I found it difficult that there was more tomato in this episode than I had hoped (which is none, or maybe a little less than none).
I think we should have less tomato, and more money for public schools in the Federation. But that’s just me.Thanks. I’ll show myself out.
Are we all just going to ignore how their meeting Kestra was deeply reminiscent of Picard encountering his nephew on the road while returning to his family home after getting Borg’d? Hands up and everything.
There’s some abrupt exposition: the family had a son who died of a disease which could’ve been cured with a culture grown in a positronic matrix, which is a forced, clumsy way to both tug on the heartstrings and provide a connection with the main plot. By the time this story is over I would say there’s a 50/50 chance that Kestra ends up with a new positronic~ish little brother.If this were Discovery I would be 100% certain that’s where the story is going. Because Discovery loooooves big, incredibly dumb, mostly unearned, emotional plot beats.The only reason I’m 50/50 here is because I hope that the writers realize that this show hasn’t earned the goodwill to goof around with Troi & Riker like that. But I could also see the writers thinking its a really kewl idea and going for it anyway.
British people do not pronounce asinine as “arse-a-nine”. Romulans might, but British people don’t.
I got chills when Riker barked “Shields up!” and did that little head move up-look thing he always seem to do. 🙂
“wouldn’t it have been more interesting if Narissa was a decent person fighting against what she believed to be imaginable evil?”Isn’t this what she is? The Romulans believe that synthetic life will bring about some universal armageddon. We saw Oh’s vision of it. This is what the Romulans are doing. She’s a member of the Romulan secret police, or whatever the Jhat Viash (?) is (I think “Romulan secret police” is the definition of the Tal Shiar). She’s working with members of Starfleet to prevent death and destruction. She’s against our heroes so we think of her as the villain, but based on what Oh showed Agnes in this episode, they think they’re the good guys.
I’m upset that we didn’t get the line “I named the dog ‘Number One’.”
The death toll of returning characters is getting a bit silly; this show seems determined to write out every interesting character. At least it hasn’t outright killed off the Romulan siblings who’ve been taking care of Picard, even if it had to give one of the most handwavy and unconvincing explanations ever for leaving behind two former Tal Shiar operatives on a mission against Romulan spies.I was less annoyed with Maddox and Icheb dying if only because I never had much attachment to either character and they weren’t being played by the same actors anyways, but killing off Hugh . . . there goes my last chance at being actually invested in this show.
So, I wonder what beloved minor TNG characters Picard can kill off next season?
Maybe you should just rewatch ST:NG…..
I’m watching this long after everyone else, so I’m sure no one is reading this post, but I just wanted to chime in and say how smart it was to throw in a slower moving, more laid back episode in the back half of the season. When each season of a show was something like twenty-two episodes, it was common to throw in a comedy episode or something with lower stakes. But now that ten episode seasons are more common there’s a tendency to run through as much plot as possible, and I honestly think that’s a mistake. So many shows that move quickly run out of gas before they hit the ten episode mark. More shows should take a breather and let the characters hang out for forty-five minutes before getting back to the big threat.
I like the meta-circle tossed in here. Riker and Troi used to explore new worlds. They settled down, but their son created new ones in his head. Which is what the writers of Star Trek did to create Riker and Troi. Alison Pill also did a good job portraying someone who is slowly being crushed by a too-large burden. And Narissa is hot and needs no excuse.