#i have zero hope of us actually seeing janeway on picard

[revolutionsoftheheart]

Trust - A Star Trek: Picard drabble

“Commander Seven of Nine to Admiral Janeway.”

A spread of photon torpedoes hits the Titan. Seven grasps onto the armrests of the Captain’s chair as she’s jolted around.

“Hold position!” she orders. They need an ally on the inside, someone with the power to disable the compromised fleet. “Seven to Janeway. Please respond.”

Finally, the Admiral’s face lights up the broken viewscreen.

Alive. Uninjured.

Seven catches her breath. Hope swells inside her chest.

Their eyes lock over subspace. Janeway remains stern as she takes in the damage on the bridge of the Titan. Seven stands, walking towards the viewscreen.

“Scorpion.”

[annakie]

Okay so I just finished season 2 of Prodigy.

I woke up early this morning and got a few episodes in.

I WFH so I worked all morning getting shit done, and then watched at lunch, and then my normal Monday afternoon work is work that can easily be done while multitasking watching things, so I actually got a ton of work done while watching straight through the afternoon and finished the last 5 or so episodes after work/dinner.

I posted a few posts today with some thoughts but hey let's make it more coherent.

Heavy spoilers!

I loved this season so, so much from start to finish. It somehow never felt like there was a lull. Every episode either did something interesting or pushed the story forward in an important way.

So many shows do that "one story in a long season" thing and the show really suffers for it in the middle, especially. But I, personally, never felt that, even when they were taking diversions like getting Zero a body, that and the Tribble episodes might have been the "slowest" and still, I really enjoyed those.

Digging deep into the tropes and finding something new.

And the arc actually came together so well and nothing felt forced. It was a complex arc, too. So many moving parts, and it would have been easy to lose some threads and let things drop, but it actually felt like every element was important and it all tied together nicely.

They did a great job giving recaps where needed to reinforce what was going on in the storyline and why they were doing what they were doing, which was appreciated. I never felt lost. No arc felt like it dragged on too long.

Everyone got their moments to shine. Some of the characters had more of an arc in the season, like Zero, and some had less, like Jankum, but no one felt left behind from the main cast. I think it would have been easy, especially with adding in a new major character to the group, Ma'jel, but they really made her fit in. I especially love that they used Wesley to help cement her part in the group.

And yeah, the cast was huge. Seven main "kids" now. Janeway, Chakotay, Wesley, and the Doctor all felt like main cast throughout the season, plus Ascencia, Dreadnok, Ilthuran, Tysess and Noum... the cast is huge but everyone had a place. With 20 episodes they had some time to breathe, and I loved that.

The kids each had a lesson to learn, something to contribute. Gwyn was at the center of it all even more than last year, but she's such a fantastic character that holds the story up so well.

Of course there's a contrivance in things like... them not getting thrown in the brig in the first couple of episodes, and the fact that the ending was something allowed at all when they literally just said because of the Synth attack on Mars ships were in short supply but I mean, all easy to overlook in the name of the Story needs to happen. None of it really bothered me.

But as much as I love the kids, what they did with the legacy adult characters this season meant the most to me.

The Doctor fit right into this show, and was such a great inclusion. Still the same egotistical but loveable hologram. It was so good to have him back. And that scene with him and Holo-Janeway was adorable. I was glad to see that their rights weren't affected in the Synth attack -- at least not yet!?

I don't know if ANYONE would expect Wesley Crusher. That hit me in the face like a ton of bricks, seeing Wes again, and it was amazing. He's now been in Picard, Lower Decks and now Prodigy and every time I'm just delighted to see him.

But this was definitely his best re-appearance so far. A Wesley Crusher at his full Traveler powers. He was so smart, and funny, and a little manic with his big brain running at a thousand miles an hour. It really felt like this was what Wesley always had the potential to be, a real logical progression in the best way from the Wes we saw at the end of TNG. Space, Time and Thought all coming together and he had awesome magical powers to go along with it.

I was hoping after his initial two episodes that he'd be back! They dropped some decent hints about it, and they mentioned him almost every episode while he was gone, so having him in the final handful of episodes was amazing. And it seems like he might have a place in the future of the show, if we get that future! (and GOD I hope so.)

But my absolute favorite part was the MOST unexpected. I was hoping we'd get to see a bit of him calling Beverly. But then the hug, he went and saw her and Wil's voice breaking when he said Hi to her and gave her the hug broke me, and I cried.

Then, holy shit, they closed the loop on that burning question so many of us had at the end of Picard S3, if Wesley ever met Jack. Wes met his brother, and spent time with Beverly, and that meant so much to me.

It's crazy that the ending of this season tied up loose ends from other shows, and integrated those shows into the universe with fewer seams. It was amazing.

---

And as great as all of everything else was... I just want to be more coherent about Janeway and Chakotay.

Not going to lie -- the fact that there wasn't a kiss, or an obvious love confession did sting a little, but what we got was so, so good, and it was enough.

I do get it -- this is a kid's show and as much as we love them and how important they were to the season, this show is about the kids and not J/C as much as some of us are watching for J/C reasons. I'm not mad about it.

We got fed. More than Voyager.

You'd have to be blind to not admit that there was love there, on both sides. They never gave up on each other, they both looked forward to that reunion, they were terrified of losing each other again but did their duty. There was a little tiny bit of hand holding and quite a bit of touching. It's enough, it's canon enough for those of us who have been shipping it since Season 1 of Voyager.

And like I said in that previous post, they did so much more for Chakotay than Voyager did. This post summed it up better than I could. This season took two of the most maligned and neglected characters from their initial iterations -- Wesley and Chakotay -- and not only did them justice but made them the best versions of themselves. I felt like I was seeing the Chakotay from the Beyer novels on screen, the character he always should have been.

His relationship with Dal was an unexpected delight and I very much hope that in season 3 that mentorship continues.

I need more of that Chakotay. I need more of Janeway and Chakotay together. I just need so much more of this show.

---

I love every Trek. Yes, even that one that isn't that popular, or that other one that people forget exists. But this was without a doubt one of my favorite seasons of any Trek ever.

I'm so mad at Paramount's treatment of this show.

I'm so glad that Netflix stepped in and let us get this one.

I need at least one more season, y'all.