#fuck you matalas

[tuttle-did-it]

Remember they brought on Riker and Deanna in the last episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, and how offensive it was that Enterprise wasn't even allowed to finish their own show?

That's exactly what Star Trek: Next Generation has done to Star Trek: Picard. Except instead of displacing the Picard cast for the last four minutes, they displace the Picard cast for an entire season. For 1/3 of the entire show's run.

All of the Picard characters, except Picard himself, have been shunted to the side and are no more than wallpaper on the set- *IF* they are in the season at all. ONLY the Legacy TNG characters men matter. All of the Legacy TNG women do nothing but give the men someone to talk to or someone to rescue. They are furnishings that come with the ship. They are ghosts with no identity, no purpose.

Seven, who is one of the most dynamic Legacy Trek characters ever, and who was, for the first two seasons, integral to the story whilst simultaneously having her own thing going on, is diminished to taking abuse ad being dead-named from Shaw for most of the show, not being able to even be in the same room as her lover, and sitting in the shadows existing entirely so that Picard and his son can have someone to talk to.

Raffi, Ro Laren, Shelby- it's like they don't exist. Juratti and Laris are rarely acknowledged as even existing. You could digitally paint Seven out of most of her scenes, and almost nothing would change about the scene itself. You could digitally paint out most of these women and 90% of their scenes would barely change. And they fucking fridged Ro Laren.

How the cast of Star Trek: Enterprise felt about having TNG come in and take over their show at the 11th hour? That is how the Star Trek: Picard cast should feel, but worse because they were brought in at the 7th hour, not the 11th.

Matalas' hard-on for TNG men trauma-dumping and saving the day has done far more damage to Star Trek: Picard than that awful Enterprise ending ever could.

Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Orla Brady, Allison Pill, Evan Evagora, Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera all deserve to be furious, right now. We all do.

Even Jonathan Frakes acknowledges having him on Enterprise 'wasn't a great idea.' And yet he doesn't seem to have a problem with coming on Picard in season 3 and essentially taking over the entire show, pushing aside every one of the original Picard cast members, including Jeri Ryan.

He and Marina Sirtis have done the same thing, twice- coming into a show that was NOT about TNG, and by their mere presence, it becomes about TNG.

[eileenjaneway]

I must stop post rant about Picard and liking rant posts about Picard because is the only Star Trek content I'm seeing and a don't wanna have any contact with it so I can be at peace but it grabs my attention with such force, as it was an horrible bus accident where you can't stop looking but you need because is horrible

[tuttle-did-it]

PROBABLY

...Laris is probably still out there

...Laris is probably still out there

...Laris is PROBABLY still out there?!

...LARIS IS PROBABLY STILL OUT THERE

WHAT DO YOU MEAN PROBABLY YOU ABSOLUTE POTATO

I know you forgot she existed for all of season three but what's with the PROBABLY

I mean you spent all that time building up a romance between Picard and his HOUSEKEEPER awesome former spy lover and you so thoroughly forgot she existed you're not even sure she's alive anymore?!

YOU POTATO

article quote from here

[vaultedthewall]

This is a Picard S3 hater blog

Look I'm all for Let People Like Things and I'm not gonna try to get into it with people but as someone who loved S1 and S2 of picard seeing everyone fawn over the ABSOLUTE GARBAGE TRASHFIRE that is S3 makes me

So I've decided to be an open hater of it so if anyone else out there hates it you can know you aren't alone. There are at least five of us.

[sallytwo]

well its over. good riddance your show fucking sucked

[the-qalankhais-sweetheart]

The Season 3 we deserved.

In my heart, in my mind, this is the one I imagine.

In honour of the first episode of Picard Season 3, I bring you the AU version that lives in my head rent free.

[quasi-normalcy]

It gets even "better" when you consider that the only reference, at all, to the original cast of "Picard" other than Raffi, in the entire season, is Shaw telling everyone to "Forget about all that weird shit on the Titan."

"That weird shit" is, of course, Dr. Agnes P. Jurati, my favourite character.

(It's not even clear what they did with La Sirena after episode 6. Probably just dumped it somewhere on Planet M'talas. I feel like that's a metaphor for something.)

[remholder]

under the cut I'll be explaining why I ship them and some other gay ass nonsense

(also, you CAN reblog this but it's mostly meant for mutuals/followers)

seven/odo:

autism to autism communication. also gender. also the struggle to connect to one's self. and I also feel like they'd just get along??? what's hard to get lmao

seven/jadzia:

that fucking TV guide photoshoot RUINED ME and also they're tall. and gender again. that's gonna be a theme.

mirror!seven/mirror!kira:

'why mirror and not normal?' because the dark passion books is completely full of their toxic yuri faggotry and the power dynamic/imbalance between them is so so sexy (kira literally has seven flaunt around in a Gul uniform just to piss off Dukat it's so funny)

seven/data:

more autism to autism communication. and gender. and their struggles with coming to terms with (or lack thereof) their humanity is something they could bond over. also fuck Terry Matalas, really had seven refer to as data as "the robot", I waited years for them to interact and his pissshit ass did that. FUCK TOU IM GONNA MAKE THEM FUCK NASTY

seven/kirk:

I mean

I wrote the first seven/kirk fic on ao3

I'm the captain

seven/beverly:

seven and her milf kink. do I have to say more? but honestly idk I just like it. I wrote about it kinda in a fic on ao3, about how seven has picards memories, when he became locutus, she remembers his love for Beverly. and that became sevens love of Beverly, yada yada yada

anyways!!!!

[the-qalankhais-sweetheart]

FUCKING THANK YOU.

I never want to hear a peep about Capt. Burnham out of you whiny TrekBros AGAIN after this shit with Jack.

Of course y'all love him. He's the ultimate representative of white cishet male mediocrity bring treated as the pinnacle of achievement.

Shots fired.

[annikasevenshots]

Star Trek Picard: Season 3 Episode 9 Reaction (spoilers)

sorry i missed the previous few i just lowkey did not care i guess

Can't believe I'm watching Troi do FREUDIAN psychoanalysis like that shit would have died out in clinical psychology ages ago

3 guesses as to what Matalas' favourite colour is

Watching Troi on the big screen Deanna you're so pretty

"You will not be alone" me when i lie

Why are they lowkey assassinating Troi's character like this she's stronger than that

"Wait... the Borg have sex?" Raffi Musiker, 1.5 years earlier

Why is Jack awakening so much like Dahj activating bro TM really copied S1's homework but made it white and male

Jack scenes do be taking way too long. Stop monologuing bro no one has time for that

Kind of really don't care about his angst like sir this is literally a wendys you're in space being weird comes with the fucking job now sit down

He literally was never issued the protocols of a father JACK YOU MADE THAT CHOICE FOR HIM WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU

"Futility" jack thought he did something huh 💀💀💀

Jack listen to your mother pls i am begging

Why is Beverly just standing there you people are so lame she can literally do so much more than this

Why are these people just allowed into Shaw's ready room whenever tf

Got distracted trying to figure out why the Borg Cube didn't look like a lone Borg Cube but

MMMMMMMMM ENT-F SHIP P*RN WITH FIREWORKS MY FAVOURITE

My mom casually watching with me: OMG IS THIS DATA? :D why is his face no longer gold? :D

DID THEY FUCKING ASSIMILATE RAFFI LMAOOOOOO IM DOWNING THE BOTTLE

wait hold on lemme watch

Speaking of Raffi where tf is she

Oh hey Seven ❤️

THE BORG 🐸🐸🐸 giggling

Bro wtf is going in at Borg HQ

Can't believe you have a literal xB on board and instead of turning to her for help you just give her a headache

Ngl the youngins being assimilated gives huge boomer energy

Bro I can't w yall stop being so unserious

Doesn't escape my notice that everyone on the Titan bridge who's assimilated is a poc 🐸

meanwhile every sober/unassimilated person is white. sure. nice. wonderful. amazing.

We get it you want to please the Star Trek Discovery haters why tf are you like this

grease monkey activate!!!

Sorry i had a minor breakdown over the fact that gen z and poc are synonymous for hive minded enemies in their eyes

sure the villains can be so diverse that white people aren't the villains but the heroes are majority white

sorry for salty

rip shaw

giggled over Saffi i'm going back to rewatch it later

It's the fact that Raffi never intended to leave in the first place for me

"Not a chance" should i make this the new tag for this dumbass ship because i cry every time

aw enterprise <3

deanna yelling at worf <3

In conclusion, I leave you this review from my dad:

"How the hell are they going to fly that big ship with 7 people?"

[isagrimorie]

A little bit of a soft pushback on this post. re: curatorial fandom etc on Star Trek Picard season 3– I don’t think it's pure nostalgia and fan service.

Because I don’t think the characters we revisited stayed in one place, they weren’t who they were before. Some of them were rougher than others and some have had it done well.

I know most people were happy about Picard having almost nothing to do with the elements of TNG, and I do agree some of it was refreshing but for me, Trek is a starship and a crew -- even DS9 falls on this despite being a station, and it was always a little sad Sir Patrick Stewart was reluctant to include his friends in Picard.

He might have been a big part of the draw in TNG with Brent Spiner's Data as the other big draw but Picard wasn't the only reason why people watched TNG.

I also wanted an update on Beverly, Geordi, and on Worf.

And I know it's unpopular but as a show, Picard felt incomplete without his friends. (Also, knowing Sir Patrick Stewart was riding off the high of Logan for the reasoning behind Picard it made sense now. Logan was an excellent movie!)

But Picard not keeping in touch with the people he served with and considered family, it felt disappointing. Especially since I specifically went into the show expecting Picard to have kept in touch.

Ultimately, after returning to season 1, I did enjoy aspects of Picard s1 with a lot of niggles in between because season 1 had a LOT of big ideas and 10 episodes didn't serve the story well.

There were so many good ideas there that just didn't fly and most of season 1 was spent talking with not a lot of forward momentum on both plot and character.

I think in an ideal world there should have been 16 to 20 episodes per season to round things out. Season 1 had intriguing concepts that went nowhere and the Borg were just— there. They introduced the concept of ex-Borgs and did nothing with them.

Also, it was mentioned how S1 of Picard is very close to the plot of Mass Effect -- which is okay, good sci-fi shows share similar ideas and plots all the time! It's just funny, is all but again goes to how the show should have, at least 16 episodes.

Going on to season 3:

1. I really liked Nepenthe but I was also okay with Will and Deanna professing dislike for the planet where Thad lived and died— because sometimes the place where you spent grieving and healing isn’t and shouldn’t be the same place you should be if you’re going to move on from grief. And I doubly agree that Kestra should have been discussed or shown more. This actually reminds me of a Chibnall quote where RTD taught him: It shouldn’t just be “Don’t show, tell” but it should be “Show and Tell”.

But also, Matalas should have really included a line or a scene showing Kestra was safe in the Academy. I don't care how clunky it would have sounded or the scene would've been!

2. Geordi. I love that we see Geordi with Data, Geordi was someone I missed seeing in season 1 of Picard especially in regards to Data's death because as much as Nemesis and Picard s1 & s2 would like to show it— Geordi and Data were the two best friends in TNG. And for the majority of TNG Picard held Data with a certain distance. I didn’t even realize what a missing ingredient Geordi was in Picard until I saw Geordi with Data. LeVar Burton sold Geordi's grief of losing his best friend and the possibility of getting Data back.

Also, I like that Geordi, who was a little, uh, problematic with women (he had a romantic attraction for) grow up and then learn to become a good dad to two daughters. I love that LeVar Burton specifically requested this because he was also not fond of how Geordi was written with women.

3. Beverly. I love Action Beverly and I love Gates McFadden got that, I love that she basically worked in Doctors without Borders under the Mariposa. The medical emergency organization Teresa and Rios set up in the past. But also finally addressing all the ways losing Wesley fucked her up, losing Wesley the way she did was the straw that broke the camel’s back for her. In TNG, losing Wesley was something that was never brought up again but Wesley was a big part of Beverly’s life. (To be clear, Wesley is alive but by the Time Lord-like rules set by the Traveller, Wesley and Beverly can never meet again or communicate). I love that despite not being in Starfleet Beverly still can’t help but want to help people, especially out in the border worlds outside of the Federation. It’s no wonder Seven has heard of Beverly!

I love that she figured out what was happening in the 'nebula' and how her knowledge helped save them, leading to one of the more wonderous scenes in season 3.

4. Ro Laren. But most of all I love that Ro Laren returned— and it’s such a big thing to get Michelle Forbes back, she has famously demurred a lot of attempts to get her to become a show regular. I love the button to Picard and Laren’s relationship which festered on both sides for almost 30 years. The episode where she appeared is possibly my favorite episode of all Picard.

If only money and time weren’t an issue Picard and Laren’s relationship would have been a great foil to Janeway and Seven’s. Or even Laren and Seven interacting would have been so good.

Also, Janeway is the phantom that haunts Season 3 because it feels like Janeway should have been in Season 3. Again, money and time. But man a lot of the plot stuff in season 3 would have smoothed out with Janeway in the show.

5. WORF!

This brings me to Worf, who I adored in season 3 and I am so glad we see how he is doing after DS9. I mourn the loss of Jadzia, and even though she wasn’t named, I can’t help but feel her presence was felt, even Ezri. I feel like the comment about how Worf shouldn’t be passive-aggressive, felt like a very Ezri thing to say.

But as I’ve said before, Jadzia would adore zen, white-haired Worf. She would be with him through this shenanigans. She would enjoy Worf’s mentorship of Raffi! And she wouldn’t even be fazed with Worf waxing poetic about Deanna’s advice. Jadzia would know what Worf meant.

Worf seeing himself in Raffi and truly enjoying Raffi’s company was also such a boon. I love that he passed the torch on being a Klingon badass to Raffi— a non-Klingon.

But also this heads on to one of the things I disliked -- how Raffi's story went in the first episode. I wasn't into how alone Raffi was in scenes. I wish they could have gotten Elnor as a hologram or even Seven-- just so she could bounce off someone else, and maybe even hit on why they broke up.

I do love Worf burning Raffi’s cover. Raffi hated deep-cover work, and it only made her miserable. This way, Starfleet Intelligence won’t be compelled to use her expertise this way again. He’s seen what it's done to Miles O’Brien. But also, it's the Klingon high-handedness at work and I hope Ezri verbally head-slapped him for it.

I loved the idea of a true Borg collective and community, where one becomes Borg by choice in season 2 but its been so divorced from Seven, who could have interacted more with the idea, and the Borg Queen— who had spent, in another life, a large amount of resources to get Seven back and even indulged Seven on occasion.

Season 3 isn’t exempt from this, while I adored Season 3– I do know it wasn't a perfect season and there are things it could improve on.

One of them is that Seven should be more connected to the main bad guy plot than she was. This is where Janeway should have been in the show more because the Hirogen story? Should have been Janeway's story if we are honest, the final blow to the Borg Queen? should have been Janeway's. In a way, Picard was shafted on his own show because those were all Janeway's achievements and not Picard's.

Also, I know that people are burned by the Borg being ever present but I will be sad if they never bring up the Borg in the form of the Jurati Faction of the Borg, the xBs, and some Delta Quadrant Borgs as both allies and threats in Seven's (possible, please god) show.

The Borg is a big part of Seven’s life more than it was Picard’s. I am always a little side eye when the show tries to tell me Picard has more expertise on the Borg than Seven.

So yeah, I hope Seven gets to tackle the tricksy complicated idea of xBs and Jurati Borg.

(/edited)

[the-qalankhais-sweetheart]

Yup, Matalas wasted the money that could've been spent on this on his damn self-insert.

You know, I’m so sad right now about all the wasted potential in the Picard series, but one thing I keep thinking about is that we never really had any interaction between Data and Soji, huh

And I keep thinking about Lal, about how Data was such a good dad to her, and how sad her death was…

And yet no one tells this android man that he has a daughter that is alive and well??

Star Trek owns me money for that.

[implausiblyjosh]

While I have my own critiques about Picard S3, they do not actually break their own canon re: the borg. Don't forget that the OG Borg Queen took La Sirena at the end of S2, which heavily implied that the Evil Borg still exist alongside Benevolent Borg (led by Borgati).

The existence of two Borg collectives was also confirmed by (showrunner) Terry Matalas on Twitter.

Now that ABSOLUTELY could have and should have been explained in-show. As an audience, we shouldn't have to fill in the gaps or rely on social media for such important information.

But the Borg as the S3 Big Bad is, at least, not contradictory to the events of S2.

i don't care about canon, i care about narrative.

i don't really care that canonically there could be two Borg queens out there. like, it's possible. anything is possible in Star Trek. there are alternate dimensions, there are things hinted at but not shown on-screen. but, they didn't even show us the Borg Queen in S3E9. just the back of their head, so it could be Bad Borg Queen or it could be Good Borg Queen or it could be a new, secret Third Borg Queen. the pastabilities are endless, as they say.

the thing i care about is that this is, once again, another thing that doesn't matter narratively.

last season, one of the themes was "change". it was so important that one lone person made a human connection with the Borg Queen that allowed The Borg to not just be a single-(hive)minded group of bad guys, but ones wanting to no longer force their assimilation on others but also assimilate into The Federation. one of the last moments of Season 2 was a new Borg Queen appearing on the Stargazer as a savior to extend a hand of peace and friendship to The Federation and Picard.

this season, none of that matters. The Borg are a bad guy. the one interesting thing they did narratively that season, making the go-to Bad Guys attempt to make up for eons of destruction, is now meaningless within the fiction. The Borg are the Bad Guys again.

Picard is a fucking robot right now and that barely matters! it was played for a laugh in Season 2 and it's not very important in Season 3. Star Trek: Nemesis was able to do "Picard's DNA matters" better with Shinzon, and that's really the thrust of this whole "what did they steal from The Federation" stuff. The Changelings and The Borg don't need Picard's body, as revealed in this newest episode, they needed his DNA. so, again, the "Picard died and is a robot now" thing is largely meaningless.

if you didn't watch Season 2 you wouldn't miss out. there is no through-line, events in one season don't really matter to the events of the next season.

that there are Good Borg out there, and that they were extremely important last season, takes the wind out of the season-long reveal of Season 3. because i remember the events of last season, i've now lost any reason to care about the reveal of the season-long mystery. if the writers don't care about what happened in their own show, why should the viewer?

i think one of the new characters, whoever the Captain was of the Titan, even says that none of the stuff on the Stargazer matters. How on the nose.

[burnhamandtilly]

Wait who is Terry Matalas and what did he do? I just know that I keep seeing Trek fans complain about him

He was the showrunner for the second and third season of Star Trek: Picard. In short (because I'm not in the mood to get in deep), he really fucked up with the story and characters for the third season, which pissed a lot of fans, myself included.

Some of the more "hardcore purists" Star Trek fans loved him, because he pretty much stands with the worst part of the fandom: doesn't care about the female characters and doesn't bother to write them right (he sidelined the women so much, it made me truly upset. Picard had a girlfriend at the beginning of the season who was NEVER mentioned again after the first episode, and that's not even the worst of it).. He also made the first canon sapphic couple break up off-screen (thus excluding the ONLY queer representation we had on Picard). He pretty much only cares about nostalgia and male pain. Truly awful. I'm sure you can find more if you search his name on tumblr. I'm not the only fan upset with him.

[grissomesque]

On the subject of Terry Matalas,

Man, are you fucking kidding me?

[the-qalankhais-sweetheart]

I second all of this.

And quite frankly, I don't give a fig about Matalas' new characters. We *had* new characters. They were awesome and worthy of further development.

Matalas and his bullshit and his new characters give me vibes of the shitty stepdad who sends his stepchildren off to boarding school to be forgotten so he can make babies that are "his own blood" and spoil them rotten at the expense of the children of the wife he claims to love.

Call me petty, but I'm choosing not to watch his bullshit and I'm choosing not to give a fuck about any of his new characters. First he said he couldn't fit our Motley Crew in with the returning TNG cast and couldn't afford to pay them, then he goes and does this shit? Nah. Fuck that.

He can enjoy his choir of adoring TrekBros...that is, if they don't turn on him just like they always do, because they need everything to be just like the old Trek, but new stories.

Let him FAFO. For me, PIC will have ended with S2, and in my heart I will have alternate universes where it ended in S1.

There are only three things he can do right that will at least make it to where he at least does SOME damage control. Those things are, as follows:

1) leaving Elnor's fate unknown and free for new adventures or giving him a good fate that keeps him alive and free for new adventures

2) keeping Picard and Laris together (I personally ship it since we're clearly not bringing back Anij and he and Bev have had their chance IMO) and not trying to shoehorn a Picard/Crusher ship revival

3) Allowing Saffi to stay together and grow into a healthier, happier relationship, without either one dying and without their relationship being fetishized. I'm not sapphic but I'm too familiar with the gross trope of fetishizing sapphic relationships.

That's it. That's all I care about right now, and because I have zero faith in Matalas, I'm not going to even bother hate-watching to give him revenue or see if he manages to *not* FUBAR everything.