#Picard is more than just a Borg victim

[silveragelovechild]

A couple of entertainment websites I visit are calling the cancelation “Prodigy” on Paramount+ the start of demise of the Trek franchise.

I think the problem is more complicated than that.

I saw the first episode of Prodegy and except for the last minute appearance of Janeway, it didn’t look or feel like a Trek show. I never went back.

Sure I like “Rick & Morty” but do I want to see a mashup with Star Trek? Again, after one episode my answer was “No”.

Discovery? It tries so hard to be different that it’s Trek in name only. Burnham is a Mary Sue with everything centered around her (she started the Klingon war, SHE was the Red-McGuffin, etc. and by the way, the non-Captain lead character became a Captain.)

Season 1&2 of Picard had some good performance but I felt the plots were muddled. Season 3 undid the events of Season 2 to become a season long fan service and it centered on the Borg - AGAIN! There is more to Picard’s legacy than the Borg!

SNW has a good cast and a promising 1st season but so far season 2 seems to be walking back the improvements over Discovery and Picard. I hope it gets better.

https://gizmodo.com/paramount-plus-star-trek-prodigy-streaming-netflix-rant-1850578048

https://www.slashfilm.com/1323531/why-star-trek-prodigy-was-canceled/

[stardate44002point3]

Shaw's Quint speech

Shaw's Quint speech was exactly what we needed to understand where he's been coming from all season. The man was deeply traumatized by the Battle of Wolf 359; not just the terror of all that death and destruction but also the guilt at the sheer capriciousness (and, in his mind, injustice) of his own survival.

It's clear from the comments in the first episode, that he's had a successful career since, he might be a little more conservative in his captaincy style than Picard or Riker would be, but he's obviously a good Captain. He's been in command of the Titan for five years, he has a lot of successful missions under his belt. He has obviously worked hard to put his trauma behind him and move on with his life.

He even selected an ex-Borg XO; recognizing that she has strengths to bring to his command, that he doesn't have. He might have to compartmentalize a little by referring to Seven by her human, not Borg name, but that's a) possibly because that's the name on file for her with Starfleet and b) if she truly had a problem with it (I've seen it described as "abuse" on reddit) then she could request, and almost certainly get, a transfer. There is no indication anywhere that Starfleet would permit a hostile work environment if the victim protested.

All that being said, Shaw has probably spent the last 34 years secretly praying to whatever gods he has that he would never come across Picard in person. If anything qualifies as a trauma trigger, seeing Locutus in the flesh, hearing that voice in person, would qualify.

And, with Picard retired, probably thought he'd succeeded.

And then the fucker shows up on his ship, unannounced, with some bullshit story to get him to ignore his actual orders and head off to the edge of Federation space.

Can you even imagine the kind of trauma response that would generate? No matter how well he has recovered from Wolf 359; no matter how much work he has done on himself - that has to be massively triggering. Hearing that voice, seeing that persona, walking and talking on his ship, even 34 years later.

And does he get time to work through it? Does he fuck.

He gets thrown into a life or death situation, for him and his crew, that he clearly tries very hard to protect; gets injured, drugged and then has to wait for his ship and everyone on it to die.

No wonder he goes off on Picard. And it's not relevant at this point that Picard was a victim too, trauma triggers aren't rational, they are visceral. And Picard is the direct cause of his current predicament (and the incipient death of his crew of 500).

I liked Shaw when we first saw him because he was right; Riker and Picard tried to bullshit him into risking his crew, and he wasn't having any of it (just as they wouldn't have if a retired Admiral and paid-off captain had shown up on the Enterprise 30 years earlier and pulled the same shit on them).

I'm not a fan of protagonist-centered morality (which is something that has always been far too common in ST) and I really liked seeing Picard up against someone who wasn't going to be intimidated by the legend.

The Quint speech just makes him all the more sympathetic.

[trekwiz]

We just finished watching Picard. And my honest feeling is: I would be disappointed if I had actually paid for Paramount Plus instead of us getting it free from another service. Spoilers below.

The last 3 episodes were just. Really bad.

I've spoken my piece about the injustice Vadic got in the story. (I mean. Come on. They also say that she went out of her way not to kill the people whose faces they were using. It's literally a noble fight!) But everything from that point forward is just. Nonsense.

The Borg were already destroyed. The writers didn't need to beat that dead horse again. We got the closure we needed in season 2. (Same with Q!) The absence of Jurati's Borg was very glaring--it happened just last year, despite their claim of not seeing any Borg in 10 years. 🙃

And these Borg were not capable of being the kind of terrifying threat to compel Vadic to serve them. As a story, it just doesn't work.

Either the show should have ended in season 2, or they should have spent more time thinking through the last 3 episodes to make them work with what came before.

They could have even retooled some of the concepts that were intended for the Borg. The Changelings are all about fluidity: the fleet working as one, automatically, could absolutely work as a Changeling concept. It could still have pushed them to take the Enterprise-D.

The "transporters are suspicious" thing could have gone a different route. Maybe that's how they were abducting people to replace?

The "phasers converted to transporters" was just ridiculous. That should have been scrapped. I laughed at how dumb it was.

And just. Not even recognizing that they victimized these particular Changelings and it's back to the status quo of military enforcement against them? Not even one moment to dwell on what they've done at the end? That feels seriously out of character.

If they really needed to keep the concept of Changelings as the victim of a fascist Federation, it would have been a more satisfying end if they captured the fleet on Frontier Day and used it to broadcast the message about how the Federation tortured them, forcing the citizens of the Federation to morally confront what they had done; to bring the destruction of their values into the light.

Especially as that would leave Picard and crew embarrassed to acknowledge their own part in that atrocity.

Picard deserved a much better end than this.

[greenleaf4stuff]

Okay so I watched Picard s3e9 and- honestly this makes me question even more why Hugh was handled as he was in s1. Or, rather, I think having him in this season and this episode specifically would have added *so much* to the plot. (TNG and Picard spoilers ahead!)

(- generally, every season of Picard has involved the borg somehow, so the choice to have xB characters like Icheb and Hugh die in s1 (and not using the Jurati!Borg from s2) makes even less sense to me)

- Wasn’t Hugh the (ex-)borg whose individuality ‘infected’ a whole cube? If anyone would have been a perfect ‘antidote’ to the current borg threat, aside from Seven of Nine and Picard, it would have been Hugh imo

- The borg returning and finding a way to infect the whole of Starfleet would have been Hugh’s worst nightmare most likely, but also a chance for him to face his past and help against the threat; there are whole character arcs hidden in this situation (and the aftermath - like his work on helping xBs would have to be used for a *lot* of people)

- If he still worked on the Artifact, it could either be another ship not connected to the fleet or the borg could try to ‘reclaim’ it, both of which would be interesting; either Picard and friends would have xBs working alongside them in a rogue borg cube, or there could be a storyline about how much Hugh’s influence and work helped to give xBs individuality, hope, resilience etc. After all, ‘resistance is never futile’.

- Him being (another) enemy of the borg queen would also have been a very cool thing; he has to face the entity who took his individuality and hurt so many people he has come to care about, so facing off against her would be terrifying but also bring a potential catharsis for him, and could show how much he has grown between TNG and PIC.

- I feel like he could have had a much better chance at talking down Jack than Picard; Picard saw Hugh as a potential weapon as well for some time, back when the Enterprise found him. He would understand some of Jack’s fears and be able to relate to him, make him understand that the ‘belonging’ Jack seeks is not in the hivemind and how to resist it (again, ‘resistence is never futile’ etc)

(- honestly I am so, so sad these two characters never got to interact tbh)

- Hugh, being an xB, helping Picard and the others save the fleet would likely do a lot to help people accept xBs much more, and since Hugh’s research in helping xBs might apply to victims of the mass assimilation, he and his work would become a very integral part of Starfleet and the Federation, which would also be cool to see - how does Hugh handle the increased interest in his work etc?

- him helping the likes of Jack and Sydney to overcome their experiences as borg and helping them in their recovery would just be awesome to watch honestly; he is such a kind and caring guy, he knows what these people went through and what they need to trust themselves and each other again; the scenes would be so wonderful to watch and the relationships built would be so interesting

- also, if the borg queen knew about him and his previous ‘disruption’ of a whole cube as well as his current work, she would likely try and have him dead; which would be an opportunity for the other xBs to protect him and show him that others care about him deeply

- Maybe Hugh has to voluntarily use the queen cell on the Artifact? And once more, his individuality mitigates *some* of the assimilation at least? (Also a battle of the minds/individuality vs the collective between Hugh and the borg would be pretty cool as well)

- Because I like Elnor’s and Hugh’s interactions in s1; would Elnor have been assimilated as well, or not? Would he fight the assimilation? If possible, he would for sure try and protect Hugh at the very least, and in turn Hugh would also want to protect him from the borg, spurning them both on to do their best to help Picard etc.

- tl;dr: Hugh could have added a lot to this season of PIC and the last episode specifically, and I feel it is a shame the character didn’t get the opportunity to do so. I only hope if they make more ST series around that time frame that one of them ends up bringing Hugh back and letting him do his awesome work with the survivors of the mass assimilation from ep9.

[weepylucifer]

Hey I’m really sorry if this is a really weird thing to find in your Ask box, but I saw that you tagged a really nice gif of Hugh hugging Picard (and I’ll admit I haven’t seen the show because I can’t watch Hugh die), and you said that Picard let him die and that he said “He got what was coming to him.” Is that true? Please tell me it isn’t. I’m really sorry. I’ve been really attached to Hugh ever since I discovered him, and if Picard said that about a person who died trying to protect his whereabouts I don’t know what I’m going to do.

Well it was all very sloppily written, and not really doing Picard's characterization any favors, which is why I'm pretty confident in saying that I consider the writing throughout the Picard show to be largely incompetent. Like, the Hugh arc in season one was not intentionally written to make Picard look like someone who lets his friends die and then shrugs it off, this was all just a result of an uncoordinated writers room rushing through tying plot threads together with little deep thought about them.

What happened is this:

Picard teleported out of the Hugh situation to Riker and Troi's home, knowingly leaving Hugh and Elnor stranded with a bunch of dangerous Romulan cultists who want to kill them. Picard then spends the rest of the episode eating pizza and reminiscing with Riker and Troi and never even mentioning the two people he just left in a life-threatening situation (especially weird since such a big deal was made about Picard caring about Elnor earlier in the season). Hugh has to watch some of the former Borg he tried to rehabilitate from the Collective die because he refuses to reveal, indeed, Picard's whereabouts. Hugh gets angry about this and attempts to activate the dormant Borg cube they're on to fight the Romulan cultists, who by the by have been treating him and the other former Borg as subhuman scum for years. He gets stabbed and dies before he can do so.

Later, in the season finale, Picard hears about this. He says, "Poor Hugh, it must have taken appalling brutality to turn such a gentle soul to violence" and moves on with his day. So, he doesn't say "He had it coming", verbatim, but to me it kind of sounded like the implication was "Well, Hugh got violent, and so he was killed for lashing out. Eh. Too bad. Moving on,"

It unintentionally leaves us with this kinda gross messaging that if you stand up to systemic oppression, and your oppressors kill you, you were in the wrong for "turning to violence" and it's obvious that you can expect to be killed. Earlier in the season, Hugh and the former Borg were used to represent people who are ostracized, marginalized, looked down on, and even systematically slaughtered by everyone else in the galaxy for things they couldn't help (seeing as no one chooses to get assimilated by the Borg, the crimes of the Borg are no individual former drone's fault, they are victims, not monsters). This concept of Borg rehabilitation was huge and felt like an amazing step forward in the Star Trek universe! My favorite part of the show by far! But the writers had no idea what to do with this sideplot and clearly had bitten off more than they could chew. This is such a huge concept with so much potential that it could well be the focus of a whole show, but they burned the idea on a side-plot in a season that was actually about androids. So they had no idea how to tie this plot up and therefore ended it in the worst way possible: with everyone involved dying for no reason and none of the main characters caring about it at all. So yeah

Basically the way he's characterized in this show made Picard go from my favorite captain to "fuck this bald bitch" so... I'm trying my best now to just ignore that the whole show exists

[galactic-pirates]

Ok so it’s a day ending in Y and so I am thinking about Star Trek.

What keeps echoing in my head right now is the “all men are born equal but some are more equal than others.”

I’m newly pissed because at its core Trek is that frustrating, maddening dichotomy of hope for the future vs. the reality and inability to really break away or imagine something truly different.

The thought of a post-scarcity sort of utopia especially given the current political hellscape is such a comfort. The future can be better if we let it.

Where the maddening dichotomy comes in is something that has always threaded through Trek. In that people are people, they are imperfect and so while they always try, they sometimes fail. But the characters we root for, they are ultimately supposed to be the good guys. The Federation might make a misstep, but our hero, is supposed to call them on it or wryly accept the hypocrisy and that they still have work to do, or something along that lines. That doesn’t always happen obviously because people are writing the show, and those people have biases and prejudices and those blinkers come through. There have been some damn uncomfortable Trek episodes that went wide of the mark.

I’m rambling and I’m not sure I’m making my point. Narrative framing. Once Upon a Time was absolutely awful for this. The objective facts of the events said one thing like a certain character was a bad guy, but the writers made the characters say what a hero he was. Evidence didn’t match. There was a real dissonance. It made for bizarre viewing.

Picard has the same kind of shit going on. Jack Crusher got upset, and threw one hell of a tantrum. Hours went by in which he stole a shuttle and of his own free will went to the Borg cube. Yes he was then assimilated, and yes I would usually argue that the assimilated are the Borgs first victims and are not responsible for what they do as drones. They aren’t in control of their own actions. Except Jack broke his own link to the collective so how deeply assimilated was he? Seems like a lot of free choice here. And his “fire fire fire, kill the unassimilated” killed a lot of people. They aren’t specific how many but with 50 ships, and space dock, and planetary defense etc. I’m thinking a few hundred bare minimum, probably more like a few thousand.

What happened next? Was there any justice? No. Daddy is a human Admiral. So fast-tracked through StarFleet, assigned to the Flagship as a special officer.

Brings back an old sore point of Picard and his legacy vineyard estate. The events of Romulus happened, Picard was on the right side of history in terms of wanting to help the Romulans but when he failed to convince StarFleet he just fucked off to his large country estate, and what was sad? 15 years, nice comfortable life, staff to take care of everything. Raffi had a small broken down trailer in the desert. Maybe that was partly her choice, maybe she could have had an apartment in the city or whatever, but not everyone can have huge legacy country estates.

So much privilege and yeah that’s the unfortunate nature of reality. But it makes me so damn frustrated. The Federation is an ideal, principles and hope, and the best of Trek shows how they try but people are flawed, so they make their best effort. Power corrupts and institutions can be rotten but our heroes are supposed to be better. To try.

The changelings might have infiltrated StarFleet but they wouldn’t have replaced all the top brass. Some but not all. Which even if I am generous and say the changelings suggested some things, the rest of them agreed. It’s like The Winter Soldier where Hydra won because Shield sleep walked down the road to trading freedom for security. Our heroes are supposed to call that out but Picard at least is leveraging his position of privilege and benefiting from it. If the narrative framed that as a mistake, I would find it compelling, but that’s not what’s happening, and it feels bad.

I’m all for the struggle that Trek embodies of reality vs dreams of something better but the narrative needs to frame it that way. And it’s not.

[fictionkinfessions]

the early days were very difficult for me.

i say “days,” it was likely closer to a terran year. i was just… lonely. terribly, debilitatingly lonely. i didn’t fit in, even at a small school specially for those who needed further support in their educational and social/emotional development, even well into their adolescence and early adulthood. it was a good school. they did their best. but i was not understood. my classmates tended to avoid me. teachers either didn’t trust me (though they did not say so explicitly. but i could tell. my implants made sure i always knew.) or were unable to mask their pity for the still mostly-mechanical boy brought in like a sick stray from the rain. i was languishing. quiet. withdrawn. depressed, i think. i believe it was noticeable enough to warrant diagnosis, but my memories are a bit hazy regarding the specifics.

my family fought for me, of course. they did everything in their power and eventually brought me back home to the stars. and things got better as time passed. but… even so, being a physically fifteen year old victim of the borg with only a few short weeks’ experience as a person, practically a former prisoner of war and victim of what i can only equate to a brainwashing cult, seeking asylum and care and love, which i had not known since i was too small to form proper memories… it was very difficult to be separated from the enterprise and her crew in the first place. it hurt to be in a place where i was constantly under cold, clinical surveillance, knowing that any misstep might be interpreted as a betrayal of the federation and i might be thrown to the metaphorical wolves. the gnashing mechanical teeth of the collective that would no doubt chew me up and either destroy all that i was, reincorporating my body to be used by their singular mind, or simply spit me out and destroy me. the swarm of the hive that would seek to snuff out the spark of individuality i was carefully cultivating into an identity by whatever means necessary.

i was very glad when i was allowed to stop going to school and return to the familiar hum of that ship. the electrical buzzing of buildings on earth wasn’t the same — i needed to feel the thrum of the warp core and the deep, constant rumble of the engines. and i needed the people it carried, too. geordi and beverly and guinan and picard and data. riker and worf and troi. my family. my home. i love you all so dearly, my friends. you mean more to me than i can ever put to words.

-hugh

🚋

[ssaalexblake]

i almost never wish i could write (it’s just not my talent. I also don’t enjoy it enough to develop it. It’s fine) but stp s3 is the type of thing that has Just enough legs to it conceptually that i want to gut it, take what i like, take some of what i didn’t and do it better so it’s good, and outright change some more to write my own, better, version. I want to write foe fiction. 

bc okay, on the face of it there are some interesting concepts! the borg high jacking federation transporter tech to assimilate people because they adapt and realise that invasions aren’t working, just ditch the Entire plot around Jack and think of some other way to make it spread/activate and it’s actually a plot within the realms of possibility to work with. 

The idea of Picard loving somebody enough that he’d Willingly go and be assimilated is FASCINATING. I am so enthralled by this concept on so many levels. But like, in the kind of way where it didn’t happen like it did in the show. Ideally Jack is not involved at all tbh. Mostly because i’m sick and annoyed of the blood family over all notions in this season. But we could easily develop Picard’s relationship with somebody else to achieve this. Since Soji is not assimilate-able it’d end up Elnor really. 

The idea of a secret baby can stay if it Has to but in the kind of way where their mother who may or may not be beverly gets to actually be a character with an outside life for more than one episode. Also, the reasons for keeping this a secret will be grounded in material that the audience actually Knows about and not something made up that happened off screen as a weak justification. One of the reasons for it will also be that Picard has an issue with treating kids like people and no kid deserves that. 

If this happens then Worf and Picard Will be discussing not being filled in about the existence of their first borns. 

Will and Deanna will be petrified for Kestra. Geordi will be allowed to be terrified for his daughters for more than 60 seconds before he forgets them. Raffi is also freaking out about Elnor. 

Raffi and Seven do not break up. There was literally zero reason for this at all tbh? ofc they’d not be able to interact once Raff went undercover, it wouldn’t change anything if they were together even IN the show, but in my version, for the record, their relationship is a plot point that gets screen time. 

Borgati would be called in as reinforcements. The question is really who would call her. Would it be Seven? Picard? Raffi, even? Queen vs Queen stand off. 

The reaction to finding out what happened with the changelings will Not be having zero introspection and then going on to commit more violations of the space geneva convention with no critical thought on the matter. I feel like the moment when Vadic tells her story about being the victim of such horrifying things at the hands of the federation was a Bad moment to show that picard and beverly are Serious parents who will do anything for their son. We can still have them have their amoral hour, just not Here jeez. Read the room guys. 

Data is dead. It was what he wanted. Leave him be. 

And look okay for all I was mad at them going through background characters to kill like a lottery, ‘we found almost everybody alive in a basement’ was an absolute travesty, like, really? At least say they were kept alive in case they needed to be interrogated for personal information to assist with the changeling’s cover stories. 

Just have Laris be in the damn season. My whole ‘so they’re side lining her for the Other ship, huh?’ thing turned out to be incorrect which, somehow??? makes ditching her even more absurd. For however crap that reason would have been, there being No reason apparent in the show is somehow more infuriating. 

Elnor is assigned to the titan. It was not Seven who did this. It was Raffi being overprotective after the scare in S2. She wants him with somebody she trusts. 

If Shaw dies then it Has to be AFTER he owns up to his own shit and apologises genuinely to Seven. And maybe Picard but i feel like he’d need more therapy for that one than the Seven one. He doesn’t have to die though, bc if Seven ends up captain at the end of this all it will not be the titan in a different dress. 

Seven’s actions involved in saving Picard’s spawn are canonically informed by losing Icheb the way she did. 

no borg sperm like i kind of said that already but Please no borg sperm 

I would do something more interesting with Raffi’s family. Like, okay sure she got a happy ending there but meeting her ex gave me food for thought that the only time we’ve seen them they’ve been on scummy capitalist hellhole planets or areas, with her ex having associations with some really bad people. I think it’d be an interesting angle to play where Raffi trying to help people and do good even when it’s unpopular is something that alienates her from her family bc they kind of actually suck and her trying to do the right thing is uh, inconvenient. 

Would love to know her daughter in law’s opinion of her though. Raffi fought tooth and nail for romulan refugees. But the people she knows don’t trust Raffi and just think she’s a mess. Could be fascinating. 

ok gonna cut myself off and some of these things are contradictory but it was more a loose idea thing than an actual list. Some of the nostalgic quips can stay. Spot can show up bc Elnor gets a cat and names it Spot to honour Data. But yeah. Stopping. 

[sodiumlamp]

Picard

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck this show.

I already knew it would be the damn Borg again. That's part of why I wanted to watch this show all the way through, because everytime I looked something up on Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki, there would be all these references to Picard continuity, and I was getting tired of trying to dodge spoilers. You'd look up something like "tribble poop" and there'd be a whole section about how Booter Soong ate some while he reprogrammed the Emergency Dork Hologram on La Sirena.

Another reason I wanted to watch this show was because I had heard about all of this nonsense where the Borg put secret DNA in Picard's body, which was then added to the transporter system in order to covertly add it to every Starfleet officer in the service. But the whole thing sounded so nonsensical that I had to see it for myself. And I guess I went through episodes 1-8 hoping against hope that maybe I'd misunderstood somehow, and it would turn out to be something else. After all, this show already used the damn Borg in Seasons 1 and 2.

But here we are! The big twist this season is: more Borg. Again.

The only difference this time is that it's the "classic" Borg. Season 1 featured a derelict cube full of offline Borg who were either in stasis or being de-assimilated by Hugh's "Reclamation Project". Season 2 featured a Borg Queen who merged with Jurati and went back in time to start a kinder, gentler collective. This version of the Borg returned in Season 2 to assist Starfleet in sealing up a space anomaly and as far as I know, they're still monitoring it. I'm curious to see if the Jurati-Borg are mentioned at all in the Season 3 finale.

So this time it's the main version of the Borg, who I suppose are still reeling from the events of the Voyager finale, and their big idea is to activate all this "stealth assimilation DNA" that's been passed through everybody via the transporters. I think Jack Crusher's role in all of this is to function as the "transmitter" that activates the affected victims and links them all together in a new collective. That's why the Borg's allies, the rogue Changelings, we're so determined to capture him alive.

What I don't understand is why Vadic and her group were so cooperative with the Borg. In several scenes, Vadic would cut off her left hand and it would morph into this weird face and speak with its own voice. Clearly this was how Vadic received communications from the Borg Queen, but how did they even set that up? Was Vadic assimilated? Was she even remotely worried about the Borg turning against the Dominion after they finished taking over the Federation?

I also don't understand how the Borg altered Picard's DNA and no one noticed all this secret stuff until now. Did they not have records of Picard's genome before his assimilation? Could they not compare the two and eliminate any differences? Did the altered DNA have a cloaking device? That's stupid. That's really stupid.

This whole show is stupid. Picard's a damn robot. Androids can be made out of flesh and blood, but also have super powers. The Romulan Empire is either dead or stronger than ever. The Federation is a dystopia except when it's not, and Rios is just going to stay in 2024 because it's only slightly worse than 2410 and it's easier to find cigars. Picard's father locked her mother in her room to keep her from killing herself, but he didn't use a computer lock, it's just a 500 year old skeleton key behind a loose stone in the wall where a child could get at it. The Borg Queen exists in multiple timelines simultaneously unless Jurati combines with her in which case there are just two versions of the Borg Queen now. I guess.

So the only way to stop the Borg now is to take all the old people on the show who haven't been affected by the Borg-Changeling plot, and put them on an older ship that pre-dates all of the tech that connects all the modern ships together. And that's why the TNG seven are on a rebuilt Enterprise-D. Geordi recovered the saucer section, repaired it, then connected it to the drive section of the Syracuse, another Galaxy Class ship.

This is probably supposed to be a feel-good moment. They finally got the whole gang back on the original ship, or a reasonable facsimile, and they're going to go on one last ride to save everyone from their signature enemy. It sucks. That's all I can say about it.

I don't like how we got here. Years ago, I was excited to see the TNG movies, because the show was a success and they could just jump straight to the movies instead of how it went for the original series, where it took ten years for Star Trek to get that kind of support. I was expecting the Enterprise-D to get destroyed, because that would pave the way for a new movie ship, which was one of the things I looked forward to in First Contact.

The problem was that it never quite measured up to my own imagination. The Enterprise-E never got to do anything cool, at least not cool enough to justify introducing a new ship. I always liked the design, but it never had a big hero moment, where it did something that only a Sovereign-class could do. And Insurection and Nemesis sucked, so maybe it never had a chance. This episode of Picard treats E with some contempt. Worf apparently liked it, but everyone else thought it sucked, and apparently they all blame him for whatever happened to it.

This whole series has been about looking backwards. There's an Enterprise-F now, and I'm not sure how long it's been in service, but it's part of the Borg now so it's up to the old guys in the old ship to take care of things. This feels wrong. I think I understand why fans are so excited about that "Star Trek Legacy" show, because it promises to do what TNG did decades ago, which is to carry the concept forward. TNG was never about this navel-gazing callback festival. Picard is all about that, but it's a hollow pursuit. I guess I was hoping for a look at what happens next, with an elderly Picard there to experience it with me, but instead it's just Soong, Romulans, Q, 21st Century, Changelings, Borg, Borg, Borg.

Oh, Shaw dies and he finally addresses Seven of Nine by "Seven of Nine" and bequeaths her the Titan. It took nine episodes to get here, and most of that was spent with Shaw just reminding us that he doesn't respect her. No real change was made until the very end, because this is his last chance to wrap up that subplot. It's dumb. They went out of their way to crowbar this guy into the show, and this is all he does. It's a shame there were no other Chicagoans around when he died. They would have howled into the sky as a warning to the dead: Beware, there is a dipshit among you.

I keep saying it, but I want to be as clear as possible. So there's no misunderstanding: This show is terrible. Watching it is a miserable experience. It's Sunday and I'm actually looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. That's how un-entertaining this has been.

[petalsmooth]

Changelings are back in Trek!

I just wish Rene Auberjonois were still here so he could appear.

Not really concerned about Riker and Picard’s argument. Will be resolved, too close of friends who know each other too well though I suspect that line about playing it safe will play a larger role. The Riker I remember was defined by his willingness to not play it safe. It made him a legend. Linking this change to the death of his son is an interesting way to show how this person evolved.

The note from Picard during the argument with Beverly after she said their relationship had run it’s course (not convincing) and he added...for the fifth time...suggests may be a sixth time. TBH when the show was on I almost went back and forth on the idea of them together. There were time’s it felt it would be too awkward and I wasn’t sure I wanted a more intimate day to day soapy relationship on screen. Other time’s as when they were mind linked when you did. Now? I’m hoping end together primarily because I really don’t have an interest in seeing them paired with anyone else who does not have their year’s (30 plus) together. It just doesn’t hold up next to the chemistry between two actor’s who have spent a generation and half together. You just can’t manufacture that.

I adore Michael Dorn back onscreen. Pairing him with Raffi has redeemed her character. I really didn’t care about her before but he’s given her an anchor in the Trek universe now. I know they tried with Patrick Stewart and then with Jeri Ryan but it didn’t work. Patrick was trying to re-define his place in the Trek universe and Seven’s character was a victim of Voyager’s bad writing and was never fully realized. Putting Picard back with his old crew isn’t just nostalgic but it’s helping to settle his character in a way I think they tried and failed with newer cast. Raffi has really good chemistry with Worf (not talking about romantic) and Seven finally seems to be coming into her own by mingling a little with everyone rather than just one person. Although I’m kind of liking her scenes with Jack (again not talking romance). It’s just you have two characters here with legacies (hers with Voyager/Borg) coming into their own together...somewhat similiar personalities too. Feels appropriate.

For the record I don’t ship anybody in nuTrek except my established couples. I haven’t liked a lot of nuTrek storytelling to get invested in anyone let alone a relationship. I watch Star Trek for the tech, the adventure, the stories, the history and at times the hope/idealism (which nuTrek has lost sight of but hoping will see a bit of return by end of this saga). When the Next Generation started I never really even expected would get my couples. Star Trek famously removed Janice from the original show to keep Kirk single. So it’s never been about that for me even if eventually I got a few. I’m open to shipping new couples but not going to do that based on 3 episodes of an 8 episode season when these characters only NOW seem to be finding their footing. Seven joined Voyager in 1997 and it’s only the past few weeks I FINALLY feel like they have discovered her voice after all. Hard to ship characters when they don’t know who the characters actually are.

This is rambling but I don’t care. I am just happy to have 8 episodes I never thought I would have. I really don’t care about anything else right now. lol

[trekwiz]

I mean. Voyager did more than just waste the potential of its premise. The series is heavily defined by its bad writing. Its wasted premise was that B&B saw Star Trek as a cash cow, and wanted to bleed it dry-- they did so by treating it like any other generic show and tossed the defining characteristics of Star Trek, and reduced it to principles (like, "sex sells") that worked on lower quality scifi. The ideas were shallow and were rarely allowed to reach their conclusion.

The flaw with Picard is that they seemed to understand the source material well though-- they mined the right things for nostalgia--but they didn't know how to write around it very convincingly.

The Borg just didn't work as the big bad. They were weak. Starving. Falling apart. A lot must have happened that they're completely incapable of in that state.

They must have hobbled to Jupiter undetected somehow. How? Where did they come from, and how did they setup base there without being caught? Plenty of academy training flights pass by there: how did they hide? If it was just the transwarp conduit, Starfleet would have found it: they were studying those for warp advancements and knew to scan their home system for it because of Janeway.

If you want to rationalize it and say they were thrown there in Janeway's attack, then with their normal compulsion, why didn't they try assimilating passing trade ships years ago? Why did they just allow themselves to starve before they even knew Jack existed? It's out of character for them.

They must have met the Changelings somehow. This suggests they were sending out scouts. Right in Starfleet's backyard. But they didn't have the resources to scout. And doing so would have resulted in them being discovered. Plus, if they could scout, they'd have gathered enough resources that the queen wouldn't have needed to cannibalize drones. So how did they meet the Changelings?

They must have some kind of power over the Changelings. Vadic was afraid of them. She feared for her life. Why? The Borg we saw are too atrophied to be a threat. They can't pursue her: they would be caught. They have no reasonable hold over her to compel her to do their bidding. And barring that, why wouldn't they have demanded resource deliveries from Vadic so they didn't have to literally starve?

They just weren't a convincing enemy. Because the writers didn't really know what to do with them; to make them weak and dying, yet powerful and commanding. It just didn't make sense.

They introduced an interesting idea, with the experiments Vadic was subjected to. They had a real opportunity to question Starfleet's slide into fascism with the Dominion War. To really come to terms with what they did abroad and at home, and to look at how nostalgia can be weaponized to do bad things.

But the writers chose to cheapen that victim into a villain, and never really explore the necessary implications of what Starfleet did to her, and how this crew re-victimized her. They didn't know how to address Crusher's leap to supporting genocide just because the victim was angry and unsympathetic to her oppressor.

They wasted the whole season 1 ex-Borg arc; Shaw was a microcosm of that season, but it feels like they retread that ground instead of building on it.

The Titan itself was a missed opportunity. Ok, Picard is connected to 7. But. Half of that crew should have served under Riker. There was real potential for conflict with officers who prefer Riker's style of command. They came so close to teasing the idea of a mutiny.

That could have delivered some incredible conflict if we saw factions form in real time. Imagine, a few insubordinate officers refusing to follow an order? There could have been a real sting to Shaw's, "fine, you got us into this mess, so you can get us out of it." It came off as him being lazy; like he just didn't want to bother coming up with a solution. With the tension of a whole crew with split loyalties? That could have been dripping in resentment.

I feel like the writers focused too much on cramming in references, and didn't focus enough on keeping the plot tight and coherent. They swung too heavily in the opposite direction of Voyager's writing.

Voyager: "I wasted more potential than any Star Trek!"

Picard: "Hold my tea, earl grey, hot."

[artloveharmony]

Star Trek Picard EP 2.9 SPOILERS

Here are my thought after 1st viewing of the episode Hide and Seek, s2e9...

No one said a word about Teresa & the boy being there as they ran into the house! WTH!

Seven as Captain in Starfleet? Feels like a setup for a spinoff to me. I'm down with that. Institution's need to evolve. Her experience outside would shake things up in many great ways. But she doesn't need to be in Starfleet to be valid as a hero or of help in the universe. As we have seen in this season, Seven will always be Seven. She will be her kickass, independent self wherever she lands. I just need her landing in close proximity to Raffi!

My thoughts Re: Seven being rejected & not Icheb... He was more human than Seven. She had lived as a working, functioning Borg. Icheb had not yet matured to an active drone yet. He was just a victim.  Seven had assimilated others etc. She was fully what the Federation had been fighting against in the Borg. They couldn't move past her past in their prejudice. Very sad, but not surprising.

NO KISS ?!?!?!?!?!? I am still processing this fact. It is upsetting me on a deep level. Any het couple would have kissed at least once in this ep, and there were obvious moments to have them too. I loved all the Saffi content we got in this ep, but there should have been at least one kiss. Representation still needs to be there in all aspects of queer relationships, esp when there are legit moments when physical affection was appropriate. The lack of it speaks loudly. And not in a good way.

I love the Borgnes conclusion. It works for me and I hope my preduction continues to progress where we get some followup with the BQ/Borg/Federation in s3. I especially loved Agnes bringing Seven into her argument. We need a Universe of Sevens! As a 'Seven' myself, I felt this deeply.

2nd pass assessment incoming...

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek Villains Who Actually Had a Point

https://ift.tt/3t8D3MQ

This article contains spoilers for various parts of the Star Trek franchise.

Last fall, airing just a few weeks apart, both Star Trek and Star Wars debuted season premieres of new streaming TV episodes in which the heroes of each show had to fight a giant, legless worm-monster. In Star Trek: Discovery’s “That Hope Is You Part 1,” it was the deadly Tranceworm, while The Mandalorian’s “Chapter 9: The Marshall” had the murderous Krayt Dragon. The differences between the Final Frontier and the Faraway Galaxy could not have been made clearer by these dueling beasts: in Mando, the plot involved killing the monster by blowing up its guts from the inside, while in Disco, Book taught Michael Burnham how to make friends with it.

The Trek universe deals with the concept of evil a little differently than many of its famous genre competitors. There is no Lex Luthor of the Federation. Palpatine doesn’t haunt the planet Vulcan. The Klingons have no concept of “the devil.” (At least in The Original Series.) This isn’t to say Trek doesn’t have some very memorable Big Bads, it’s just that most of the time those villains tend to have some kind of sympathetic backstory. Even in the J.J. Abrams films! 

So, with that in mind, here’s a look at seven Star Trek villains who maybe weren’t all bad, and kind of, even in a twisted way, had a point…

Harry Mudd

In Star Trek: The Original Series, Harry Mudd was presented as a straight-up con-man, a dude who seemed to be okay with profiting from prostitution (in “Mudd’s Women”) and was also down with marooning the entire crew of the Enterprise on a random planet (in “I, Mudd”). He’s not a good person. Not even close. But, he does make a pretty could case against Starfleet’s lack of planning. In the Discovery episode “Choose Your Pain,” Mudd accuses Starfleet of starting the war with the Klingons, and, as a result, putting the larger population of the galaxy at risk. “I sure as hell understand why the Klingons pushed back,” Mudd tells Ash Tyler. “Starfleet arrogance. Have you ever bothered to look out of your spaceships down at the little guys below? If you had, you’d realize that there’s a lot more of us down there than there are you up here, and we’re sick and tired of getting caught in your crossfire.”

Seska

At a glance, Seska seems pretty irredeemable. She joins the idealistic Maquis but is secretly a Cardassian spy. Once in the Delta Quadrant, she tries to screw Voyager as much as possible, mostly by hooking up with the Kazon. That said, Seska is also someone caught up in hopelessly sexist, male-dominated power structures and does what she has to do to gain freedom and power. The Cardassian military isn’t exactly enlightened nor kind, so the fact that Seska was recruited into the Obsidian Order in the first place certainly explains her deceptive conditioning. You could argue that Seska could have become a better person once she had Captain Janeway as an ally, but, the truth is, she was still a spy caught behind enemy lines, but suddenly without a government to report back to. So, Seska did what she had to do to survive, even lying to Chakotay about having his child. The thing is, again, outside of Starfleet, Seska is at the mercy of the sexist machinations of the Kazon, so again, she’s kind of using all the tools at her disposal to gain freedom. Had Voyager not gone to the Delta Quadrant, and Seska’s villainy may have been more clear-cut. But, once the reason for her espionage becomes moot, her situation gets more desperate, and, on some level, more understandable. 

Charlie Evans

In The Original Series, Kirk loves telling humans with god-like powers where to shove it. In “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” he phasers Gary Mitchell and buries him under a rock. But, in “Charlie X,” when teenager Charlie Evans also gets psionic powers, Kirk does a less-than-a-great job of being a good role model. For most of the episode, Kirk tries to avoid become Charlies’ surrogate parent, and when he does try, it results in an embarrassing overly macho wrestling match featuring those famous pink tights.

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Charlie was a deeply troubled human being, and there was no justification for him harassing the crew and Janice Rand in specific. But, angry, kids like Charlie have to be helped before it gets to this point. Kirk mostly tried to dodge the adult responsibility of teaching Charlie the ropes, and only when some friendly aliens arrived, did everyone breathe a sigh of relief. But, don’t get it twisted, those aliens are basically just social workers, doing the hard work Starfleet is incapable of.

The Borg Queen

Because the origin of the Borg Queen has dubious canonical origins, all we were told in Voyager is that she was assimilated as a child, just like Seven of Nine. As Hugh and Jean-Luc discuss in the Picard episode “The Impossible Box,” basically, everyone assimilated by the Borg, is, on some level, a victim. The Queen was never presented this way in either First Contact or Voyager, but, at one point, writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens had pitched a story for Enterprise which would have featured Alice Krige as a Starfleet medical technician who made contact with the Borg.

Because both Alice Krige and Susanna Thompson played the Borg Queen, it’s possible the backstories of each Queen is different and that maybe they aren’t the same character. Either way, assuming the Borg Queen retains some level of autonomy relative to other drones (likely?) then she’s pretty much making the best of a bad situation. In fact, at the point at which you concede the Borg are unstoppable, the Queen’s desire to let Picard retain some degree of his independence as Locutus could scan as a kind of mercy. The Borg Queen actually thinks she and the Borg are making things simpler for everyone. And with both Data and Picard, she tried to make that transition easier and, in her own perverse way, fun too.

Ossyra

Yes, we saw Ossyra feed her nephew to a Trance worm, and we also saw her try to kill literally everyone on the USS Discovery, including Michael Burnham. However, in the middle of all of that, Ossyra did try to actively make peace between the Emerald Chain and the Federation. And, most tellingly, it was her idea. Ossyra also pointed out one of the most hypocritical things about the United Federation of Planets: the fact that Starfleet and its government rely on capitalism without actively acknowledging it. Essentially, Ossyra was saying that the ideals of the Federation are great, but the Federation has all kinds of dirty little secrets it doesn’t want to talk about. In her meeting with Admiral Vance, pretty much everything she said about the Federation was true—and her treaty proposal was fair. 

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The only snag: she wouldn’t turn herself over as a war criminal. Considering the fact that the Federation made Mirror Georgiou into a Section 31 agent, despite her war crimes in another universe, this also seems hypocritical.  Why not just do the same thing with Ossyra? Tell everyone she’s going to prison for war crimes, but make her a Section 31 agent instead? Missed opportunity! 

Khan

Khan was genetically engineered by wacko-a-doodle scientists at the end of the 21st Century. At some point on Earth, he became a “prince” with “power over millions.” But, as Kirk notes in “Space Seed,” there were “no massacres” under Khan’s rule, and described him as the “best of the tyrants.” Kirk’s take on Khan in “Space Seed” is basically that Khan was an ethical megalomaniac. Most of what we see in “Space Seed” backs this up. Khan doesn’t actually want to kill the crew, and stops short of doing it when he thinks he can coerce them instead. His only focus is to gain freedom for himself and his exiled fellow-Augments. In the Kelvin Universe timeline, Khan’s motivations are similar. Into Darkness shows us a version of Khan who, again, is only cooperating with Section 31 because he wants freedom for his people. Sure, he’ll crush some skulls and crash some starships to get to that point, but in his dueling origin stories, Khan is, in both cases interested in freedom for his people, who, are by any definition, totally persecuted by the Federation.

Khan is still a criminal in any century. But, we only really think of him as a villain because he goes insane in between the “Space Seed” and The Wrath of Khan. The Khan of The Wrath is not the same person we met in “Space Seed.” As he tells Chekov, “Admiral Kirk never bothered to check on our progress.” Had Kirk sent a Starfleet ship to drop in on Khan and his “family” every once in awhile this whole thing could have been avoided. In the prime timeline, Khan goes nuts because Ceti Alpha VI explodes and nobody cares. In the Kelvin timeline, Admiral Marcus blackmails him. Considering that Khan is Star Trek’s most famous villain, it’s fascinating that there are a million different ways you can imagine him never getting as bad as he became. In “Space Seed,” he and Kirk basically part as friends. 

Q

In “Encounter at Farpoint,” Q accuses humanity of being “a savage child race.” And walks Jean-Luc Picard through the various atrocities committed by humanity, through the 21st Century. Picard kind of shrugs his shoulders and says, “we are what we are and we’re doing the best that we can.” When we talk about the philosophy of Star Trek, we tend to give more weight to Picard’s argument: the idea that by the 24th century, humanity has become much better, in general than it is now. But, the other side of the argument; that there’s a history of unspeakable violence and cruelty baked into the existence of humanity, is given less weight. We don’t really listen to Q when he’s putting humanity on trial, because we can’t see his point of view.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

But, because Q wasn’t a one-off character, and because he said “the trial never ends” in the TNG finale, he’s actually not really a villain at all. Q exists post-morality, as we can imagine it. His notions of ethics are far more complex (or less complex) than we can perceive. Q is one of those great Star Trek characters who is actually beyond reproach simply because we have no frame of reference for his experiences or point of view. In Voyager, we also learned that even among other members of the Q Continuum, Q was kinder, with a more humanitarian approach to what he might call “lesser” lifeforms. If Q is villainous, it’s because of our definitions of villainy. Of every Star Trek antagonist, Q is the best one, for the simple fact that he’s not a a villain at all. 

Which Star Trek villains do you think had a point? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Star Trek Villains Who Actually Had a Point appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3eIGmoq

[categoricalglitches]

You know, it’s been three weeks and I’m still so fucking mad about this. What the fuck is going on with the morality of Star Trek: Picard? I don’t just mean the show, although that’s fucked up enough in its own right. I mean reactions across fandom, and it’s those that really fuck me off.

 Let’s review, shall we?

 Sutra convinced Soji and the other synths to build a beacon to call in the Reapers to kill literally everyone else alive in the galaxy to save their own skins, having rejected the alternative option to take all, what, thirty is probably pushing it of them and flee because, supposedly, then they would be refugees forever (oh hey, remember earlier in the season when the show established there was a Romulan refugee crisis?). Instead, in episode 9 Soji rambles at Picard about the calculus of sacrifice or whatever as if the handful of them are somehow comparable to—again—the entire rest of the galaxy. And whines about how their existence is against the law, which sucks for them, but uh… that’s only because a pair of mad scientist assholes decided their mad science was more important than the law or the existence as illegal beings their creations had to look forward to (oh hey, remember genetic engineering is also banned in the Federation and how there was a whole storyline about that once and this clear and obvious inspiration parallel was literally never even brought up once in Picard?). 

And not a one of them is even the slightest bit conflicted about this course of action! 

And, reminder: they build the beacon, then they activate the beacon, then the Reapers poke a few tentacles through, Picard makes a terrible speech that still somehow convinces Soji (who, let’s be real, is the only synth left that actually matters anyway) that maybe killing everyone else is not the way to go after all, and then she smashes a console and that works to end the threat somehow. Conclusion: the synths did nothing wrong! In fact, reward them for pressing cancel on killing the galaxy by unbanning them. What a beautiful story.

 Agnes murdered one of the aforementioned mad scientists and was in obvious emotional distress over it. Consequence: was going to turn herself in for it, still might be. And everyone’s either really mad about this or claiming that the mind meld made her do it (curiously, the Admonition ‘breaking minds’ is never brought up as an extenuating circumstance for the Zhat Vash…).

 Narek manipulated and tried to murder Soji—and was in tears doing it—and then for some reason killed Saga with Sutra (seriously that looked so dumb). And any number of bullshit discourse takes followed. (Consequence, for however little it’s worth: he fell into a plothole and was never seen again.)

 And the less said about Elnor and the fact that I’m pretty sure he’s only killed other Romulans in service of the man who abandoned him and his people, the better. (I love Elnor. But this is a problem.)

 Now, I want to make this clear. I’m not saying the Zhat Vash, collectively, aren’t a bunch of vicious thugs. Or that it’s bad that the synths felt cornered and desperate. What I’m saying is that there’s a ridiculously skewed sense of morality pervading both the show and discourse surrounding it, and it pisses me the fuck off. But everyone’s acting like the denizens of Synthsville never actually activated the Reaper Alarm Clock, so they didn’t actually end up doing anything wrong. 

Well, they did activate that fucking thing, and the fact that they decided to change her mind just as well might not have mattered. It’s not like they knew going in there was a grace period during which they could cancel the summoning, or that destroying that one console would stop the Reapers coming through. That’s all fine, but Agnes’ one single solitary murder is so heinous half the viewership is out of for her blood, and Narek’s somehow so “evil” he’s beyond redemption?

 Yeah, pass.

 Also, it bothers me that they spent an episode re-emphasizing that individual Borg drones are victims and worth fighting for, only to have them die tragically but pointlessly in massive numbers, and then for Seven to establish a local collective like it’s no big deal and even sort of cool, maybe (hey wasn’t there an entire episode of Voyager about how she did that once and it turned out to have very serious consequences for the other drones?) and then, surprise, nothing came of it again. And let’s not forget that for all its episode 1 bluster of “no, lives!” Romulan lives are worth jack shit in this show.

 I mean, fuck, I’m still willing to pretend this whole summoning the Reapers bullshit never happened so that I could, maybe, enjoy season 2 and Seven/Raffi and… yeah, okay. I just realized that, for now, Seven and Seven/Raffi is all that I have to look forward to in season 2. I don’t understand. I was loving this show so much the first 8 episodes.

[coco-little-rose]

I’m feeling a bit guilty but I really need to write what I didn’t like about Star Trek Picard. I really love this show, I think it have the potential and very interesting characters but I have a big problem with the narration.

But I need to tell you something.. or more like I need to yell something: I’M DONE WITH WEIRD INCEST PLOT!! Since Game of Thrones, american shows are going wild with incest. Star Trek Picard and now HGAWM (I stopped watching this show years ago but I still follow some blog and I didn’t know if it was a joke or not).

The writers of Star Trek Picard want a more darker show, something for adult. They think incest and unecessary death make a story darker. In my opinion, it depend on the execution of the plot.

Killing off characters can be necessary to move the plot or to grow an another character but:

- Dahj’s death was barely mentionned and mostly it was to full Picard’s pain.

- Icheb’s death was supposed to have a big impact on Seven... I saw it in one episode and the rest of the season we forget him.

- Hugh’s death was supposed to... well I don’t know. I guess it was to show us how evil Narissa was.

- The carnage of the xBs was supposed to show us... it did nothing to Seven or Picard. At the end of the season we don’t even know what hapened to the Borg cube.

- The destruction of Romulus was badly handle. The “good” Romulans are friends with Picard, more like they are at his service (Laris, Zhaban, Elnor). The “bad” Romulan are against Picard and are very cartoonish (Narek, Narissa, Commodore Oh) they also have some weird incestuous subplot because we need to know how evil and without moral they are. 

- The only useful death was Bruce Maddox, because Agnes deals with the psycholical consequences (and I don’t think it will be over anytime soon) and it allow the plot to move forward with the revelation about Commodore Oh. I hope to see the legal consequences in season 2.

None of those elements were used. When I saw all the Romulans characters in this show, it didn’t feel like they lost their worlds, their home, their culture. Even Picard seemed more sadder about it than most of Romulan characters. This show let me with a lot of questions:

- Why the Romulans needed Starfleet’s help to evacuate their own homeworld ? In Voyager, they managed to build some kind of wormhole but they can’t rescue their own people ?

- I didn’t like the picture of Picard as the “savior of Romulans”. I don’t know, it felt wrong.

- Elnor spend most of his time killing his own people for Picard. We’re talking about someone who lost his homeworld. The destruction Of Romulus made billions victims. Elnor doesn’t seem to think his people are near extinction ?! There isn’t any reflexions about it.

- Commodore Oh sabotaged the rescue fleet for Romulus, Narek and Narissa are agree with it. Ok... but what about the billions dead Roumulans. was it worth ?

The destruction of Romulus is for nothing. The Romulans onscreen are still similar to the one we saw in other Star Trek shows like TNG, DS9 and VOY. There isn’t a word about the lost of Romulus. Not even from Laris and Zhaban. They just said, there is a Romulans refugees crisis and never talk about it again

An another problem I find is how they deal with the drug issue.

- Raffi, the only black woman, has drug issues and she’s shamed and rejected by her own family because of that. I thought Starfleet know how to deal with drug addiction. It’s the 24th century, humanity is supposed to have a cure for this kind of problem. They are supposed to be more tolerant. I don’t understand how Raffi’s plot can exist. I agree, the part in which she believes in some conspiracy theories could lead her to be isolated. But the drug addiction ? It shouldn’t be like this. Medical care is an achievement in Star Trek.

The romantic relationship between characters are not very well written.

- I didn’t have any interest in Agnes/Cris, maybe it’s just me but I don’t feel any emotionnal connexion between them. Every time they were onscreen I felt like Elnor.

- In retrospect, I understand Soji/Narek. From the beginning, I thought Narek was a creep, he even admitted to Soji to spy her communication with her mother. For me it was a big red flag and at the time I didn’t understand why Soji wasn’t shock. But, we find later she’s basically a 4 years old synth. She probably didn’t have the experience to deal with Narek’s behaviour. She didn’t have any support, not even from her fake mother. But I wish we could have more suspense about it... like I wasn’t surprise, i didn’t even care... They could have make an effort in term of storytelling. They show us Narek had genuine feelings for her but it didn’t really work.

- Narek/Soji has some parallel with Agnes/Bruce Maddox. Ok, she didn’t seduce him to kill him. He was an old flame, she probably still have feelings for him. But despite her feelings she killed him. Yes she was under the influence of a mind-meld with horrific pictures of organic life dying. Narek was raised in the hate of people like Soji. His behaviour is terrible but don’t forget Agnes could have become like him. She has a potential to be a good spy actually. So I don’t understand why the narration is so against Narek but give Agnes a free pass. I’m surprise with the writers, they wanted a dark show but the end of the season was almost really positive for the character. If they want to be dark, they should have put Agnes on a cell next to Narek, waiting for a trial; it should have been one of the last scene of the season 1. Instead we get a weird happy end.

- Seven/Raffi looks like queerbaiting. most of the het ship had a decent screentime even the abusive one (Narek/Soji). But Seven and Raffi only got the last second of the final and we don’t even know if they will have the development they deserve. i wouldn’t be surprise if the next season they are like “well it’s was a one shot, now we decided to stay friend”... At last, the show took some time to mention they weren’t heterosexual but some people didn’t even understand the message.

I didn’t feel like the show was more mature than any other Star Trek. They don’t deal well with genocide or any other sensitive topic. In this season 1, I feel like it was impossible to question Picard’s goodness. Picard is show as a hero who save the galaxy and is always right. Yes, some people were piss off with him but:

- The Romulan guy who was angry at him was killed by Elnor.

- Raffi had every reasons to be angry at Picard but she forgives him because... because I don’t know why. In my opinion, Picard didn’t work to have her forgiveness or to prove he was a good friend. He was mostly obsessed with his “Data quest”. Raffi “forgives” him because he was dying.

The last negative element was the banned of Synthetic.

- So, the Federation with Rikker’s help discovered the existence of a Romulan conspiracy against synthetic people and the fact they were manipulated to forbidd synth. At the the end of season 1, the Federation erased the laws banned against Synth and ... that is all ? The Federation did exactly the same thing with Augment people, they never allow them to be normal citizens or in Starfleet. Several episodes show us this dark side of the Federation. But with Data and Dahj’s death, with Soji out of Earth we didn’t get to see how badly it was for Synth people to live under the Federation.

The writers had several option to picture Star Trek more darker by showing ushow bad the Romulan refugees crisis is or how bad it is for Synth people. The only Romulans refugees we got are Laris and Zhaban, they seemed happy with Picard, maybe they are victim of prejudices, but they were writing off.

Despite this flaws, I enjoyed Star Trek Picard. I hope it’ll be better in season 2, the casting is perfect and all the characters have a lot of potential. It will be a waste to kill some of them. What is interesting is to make them face the consequences of their act and to make them grow up or to make them fall at the end of the story (like Dukhat and Kai Winn in DS9).

I watch TV shows for entertainment, so I don’t care if a show is more adult. I don’t think Star Trek writers should dismiss teens stories. Some of them are really dark after all. And I don’t think the death of a character should be a means to an end.

[random-thoughts-collection]

Star Trek Picard: Like coming home

“If you are who I think you are you are dear to me in ways that you can't understand.”

I have been looking forward to Star Trek Picard ever since it was announced by Sir Patrick Stewart, and I was both happy about and afraid of the prospect of seeing Jean-Luc Picard on screen again.

For me the last products made bearing the name Star Trek did not really work. Not Star Trek Enterprise with its cluelessness to what to do with its characters. Not the Star Trek AU movies that drowned any possible meaningful storylines in lens flares and action sequences. Not Star Trek Discovery with its desperate attempt to be dark and edgy while jumping through space thanks to the power of spores, referencing The Original Series as much as possible while ignoring not only parts of the previous Trek shows’ plots and technologies but also their spirit.

In short: all of them felt like a letdown. The first episode of Star Trek Picard felt like the complete opposite. I really enjoyed watching this first episode.

[Spoiler warning]

Remembrance

“The dreams are lovely. It's the waking up that I'm beginning to resent.”

Of course it helps that the center of the show is the man after whom the series is named: Jean-Luc Picard. He was the soul of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Sir Patrick Stewart has the talent and skill to be the center of this new show as well. There is something very moving in watching him at the age of 79 playing Picard again. There is something very moving in watching Picard at the age of 92 struggle with his past and everything he has experienced in his long life.

There is nostalgia in this episode, and it’s well placed. It would be even wrong if it wasn’t there, because it makes sense that it is an essential part of Picard’s life.  But the episode doesn’t rely on it.

The end of a century

“I haven't been living. I've been waiting to die.”

There are plenty of new events and storylines to consider in this episode that had not been a part of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The destruction of Romulus about ten years ago marks a major change in the order of the Alpha and Beta quadrant. The attack of the Synth resulted in a ban on the creation of new synthetic beings. There are many new technological developments that finally don’t feel out of place anymore but are justified because the show is smart enough to not be set before the older shows.

“He named the painting ‘Daughter’.”

And after several years of retirement the event that brings Picard back into the action is the appearance of a young woman called Dajh, who seems to be no other than Data’s daughter. In many stories I would have probably rolled my eyes about the appearance of a “daughter” character in a sequel – for an android no less – but for Data it makes sense. Dajh is not his first daughter after all, and everyone who has seen Star Trek: The Next Generation would remember Lal, Data’s first daughter. Back then Data had painted her as well. And there is a similarity...

The 24th century is coming to an end. One of Data’s daughters has found Picard in France after being attacked by Romulan assassins while the other one, Soji, is currently at the Romulan Reclamation Site which is build out of the wreckage of a Borg cube. (Personally, I think Dajh could be good friends with Rommie from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, but that’s just me.)

The spirit of Star Trek

“Well, it's not so easy for those who died. And it was not so easy for those who were left behind.”

Aside from memory and storyline, this episode also beautifully shows how to capture the spirit of Star Trek to incorporate essential themes and motives.

In the light of the US closing borders to its south, of the EU not being able to come to terms with their asylum policy and of the United Kingdom leaving the EU in order to avoid more immigration (and taxes), the probably most obvious theme can be found in the Federation calling off the rescue of the victims of the supernova and the attack on Mars, which led to Picard’s resignation. It is mainly focused on in the interview Picard gives at the beginning of the episode – in which these actions are set opposite to the Dunkirk evacuation – an operation in which Patrick Stewart’s father had been a part of. Sir Patrick Stewart supports the International Rescue Committee, and it’s obvious that it’s a matter close to his heart. He is also a supporter of charities for veterans like Combat Stress, and we see in Picard’s dream the of the attack on Mars – indicating that Picard most likely suffers from PTSD.  

“If you had Data's neural net, perfecting a flesh-and-blood host body would be relatively simple.”

Another more technical is the ban on creating synthetic life forms – with Data the discussion of artificially created life has always been a part of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but with our own humanoid robots becoming more and more sophisticated the issue is more relevant than ever.

I’m sure there is more, but it’s too early for me to go into a deep analysis of the show after just one episode.

I just know that Star Trek Picard is the first Star Trek in a while that feels like coming home.