#qowat milat

[sirellas]

STP || Absolute Candor

[letoutthecrazy]

[pilcrowtudinous]

building on the semi-shared HC that raffi and michael are related...

Familial inclination towards archangel names. Michael. Gabrielle. Gabriel. Raffaela.

That bit I feel like has been covered.

Possibly also covered but new to my brain:

The Qowat Milat connection.

Like, of all the corners of the galaxy for humans to end up, both Raffi and Gabrielle end up involved with (in different ways/levels) not just Romulans in general but members of the Qowat Milat?!

So anyway, my HC is that Gabrielle's mother (Michael's grandmother) is also Raffi's great-great-great-grandmother.

AND I also like the idea that while Gabrielle is being tended to by QM sisters in the 3200s, storytelling and discussion brings up Raffi, another human with ties to them. She investigates more, has her mind blown just a little bit, ends up sticking around with the QM.

So that's what my brain's been building this evening.

[stereogeekspodcast]

Transcript] Season 3, Episode 7. Star Trek: Picard Series Review

Rewatching Star Trek: Picard changed how the Stereo Geeks felt about the show. We reviewed the series and shared our thoughts on it.

Listen to the episode on Spotify.

Hello and welcome to a new episode of Stereo Geeks, and the very first of 2024.

This time, we've been rewatching Star Trek Picard.

I'm Ron.

And I'm Mon.

As big fans of Star Trek, the announcement that Picard was going to get his own little spinoff was exciting, but also a little bit worrying for us.

Well, there's definitely a spate of reprisals, revivals of old stuff, especially 80s, 90s things.

A lot of people who grew up at the time are currently executives and producers of Hollywood.

So obviously, they want to bring back the nostalgia factor.

And let's be honest, nostalgia sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, but it definitely sells.

Let's dig into that a little bit because season one of Picard doesn't actually work with nostalgia as much.

That's true.

There are, of course, moments.

There are cameos, reprisals, et cetera.

There is a through line, however, of Picard and his relationship with Data, his need to get closure for what happened to Data.

So that's the nostalgia factor.

The main storyline, however, even though it is tied to that, doesn't have that nostalgia feeling.

Because when you look at the main storyline, it's actually several different stories.

So we start off with the fact that Picard misses Data.

That's literally the first scene.

And you get the feeling that this is what the season is going to be about.

But then it turns out that Data has android children who are unmistakable from humans, but they don't know their true identity.

Also, we find out the Romulan sun went supernova, leading to a refugee crisis that Picard and Raffi Musiker had to fix.

Then Utopia Planitia and all of Mars was blown up by synths, leading to not only a synth ban, but the end of the refugee resettlement.

And then the Tal Shiar made it into Starfleet somehow.

But also there's a hidden sect of the Tal Shiar called the Zhat Vash and they are trying to fight the return of the synths.

Also, Raffi is now plagued by Romulan conspiracies, but nobody believes her.

Everything that went down on the Ibn Majid never got explained.

Also, who even is Soji and who is Narek?

Oh, and did we mention that Picard misses Data?

When you put it like that, that seems like a lot, but I'm gonna say something very controversial here. Well, at least it's controversial on this podcast.

From the three seasons of Star Trek Picard, I have to say season one is the most cohesive and best made.

Season two is a mess.

Season three is a nostalgia fest that is not always well-written, but that doesn't mean that I don't love season two, adore season three and still can't stand season one.

The first time I watched season one, I didn't like it. Straight up didn't like it.

First time I watched season two, I loved it except for the last episode.

First time I watched season three, I adored everything.

When we rewatched it, I liked what season one was doing. I liked the concepts. I liked all the lore that it had.

It was really digging into the Star Trek universe, but it was not long enough.

10 episodes and all that was there.

And I'm not even touching on all the interconnected parts.

Like there was a whole thing about Agnes Jurati, Bruce Maddox, Seven of Nine and her history.

All that was in there.

It should have been at least 15-16 episodes.

That would have given us enough time to actually understand how all these things are interconnected.

And it would have given the characters a bit more time to shine.

Season 2, perfectly compact.

10 episodes, every episode mattered.

It gave the characters their spotlight.

Picard got an entire wonderful arc that honestly has been waiting for quite a while to be resolved.

And season 3, 10 episodes, nostalgia.

That's it.

But yes, I agree that season 1 was the most cohesive because it felt like real science fiction.

But it was just too muddled and way too many plot points just got dropped at the end.

I think my biggest issue with season 1, and I feel like this even on the rewatch, is that there are a bunch of characters who are just so annoying that you hate it whenever they're on screen.

And every time it cut away to their stories, if you would call it that, I would just be switching off.

Mostly the Romulans.

Narek, Narissa, Commodore Oh.

I agree with you that that was the part which was muddled.

Who are they?

What are their motivations?

Because it's not signposted or elucidated at the beginning, they just seem like these very caricatured old school baddies who don't make any sense.

There's also a sort of old fashioned way of how they're presented, how they interact and the things that they do.

So that really annoyed me.

The crew of La Sirena themselves, they were great.

They were really interesting.

But yeah, it was just every time they had to interact.

And there was that entire plot line with Narek, for example, which sort of we never came back to that.

He sort of disappears in the final episode.

And then it's like, oh, okay, what happened with this guy?

That's a really good point, because Soji and Narek, that whole relationship, if you can call it that, it just felt shoehorned in, like, we have to make these characters interact.

So let them just have a love affair.

Soji just felt so very born sexy yesterday, that kind of thing.

It didn't do her any justice.

The biggest mistake the first season made was making Soji and Picard's meeting happen only in episode seven.

That's way too late.

These are the two main characters of this season.

They should be meeting way earlier.

I feel like Soji as a character, she really became more of a catalyst and a plot point.

Well, she gets dropped first episode of season two.

So she was never really supposed to be, I guess, part of the actual crew, which is sad because, I mean, Issa Briones is really good.

I mean, you reminded me that she was like 19 or 20 when she did this.

She holds her own and she plays so many different characters in the first season as well.

But I agree because there are so many fleshed out points for the other characters, especially, with Cristobal Rios, the captain of La Sirena.

I know there's an entire book, so we've read that book, but I just felt like they had a plan or a hope or something that this character who is so complicated and so emotionally needy, there was just so much that we could have explored with this person, especially in his capacity as someone who knows Picard, who looks up to Picard, who becomes trapped in Picard's spell, if you would.

I really felt like there was a lot going on there.

So there's a character like him where you know so much about his background.

You know, with Raffi, there is so much that we are learning about her and we continue to learn about her throughout the three seasons.

And then there's Soji who is signposted as this very important character.

We don't really know much about her.

Her importance is really her connection to Data and how Picard deals with that.

She's just a plot point.

It's really disappointing.

And in the end, it's not even about Soji's heritage.

Bruce Maddox apparently used a painting that Data made as the blueprint to make these androids with Alton Soong.

Data wasn't even involved at all, so that through line doesn't even work, which is a bit unfair on the character of Soji.

I think one of the problems with the entire show has been it keeps leaning on these historical moments which don't take place on screen.

The Romulan Supernova, for example.

I think the show about that would have been far more interesting.

We do get a lot of that in the books.

So I highly recommend reading The Last Best Hope, Second Self, et cetera, that entire series.

I'm okay with that being off the screen, but stuff like Data's painting of his daughters.

I'm sorry, we never saw him paint that.

There's a lot of stuff in the third season especially, where they talk about this happened and Beverly's talking about Myriad and this and that.

And we're Googling to see, did we miss something from the original TNG series, from the movies, et cetera?

It's all made up.

I mean, I get it, it's all made up.

But not having that sort of through line, that connection, it just doesn't make sense because it's so important.

These people know about it.

And at the same time, we never saw it.

So I really did worry about the writing in a lot of the show, especially on the rewatch when you realize, yeah, it wasn't you forgetting stuff, it just doesn't exist.

Because what is the point of referencing something that hasn't happened in a previous show or any of the tie-in books, comics, whatever, when you know that nobody is really coming into Star Trek Picard as a non-Star Trek watcher?

You can't get into this series without some prior knowledge.

The first season and the extreme focus on Data, it won't make sense to you.

If you already know that people are coming in, having seen TNG and all the TNG related movies, just reference things that have already been in TNG.

People are gonna know it or they are going to Google it.

So the first season, though complicated and overly convoluted with the focus on a lot of weird Romulan people, I really loved the Picard and data connection.

What I missed about the first season, aside from the Picard and Data part, was feeling some emotional connection or just being totally emotional about it.

I got that in season two.

The return of Q, who is unhinged and scary, but the season, the way it ends with Picard and Q, it was surprisingly emotional, wasn't it?

I really liked season two.

It's about time travel, so obviously I'm gonna like it.

And I think it was really compact, not just the storyline, but also the setting.

They went back to 2024 LA and they stayed there for quite a long time.

I love watching fish out of water, Rios, Raffi and Seven trying to interact with the world in the past.

Hilarious.

That whole scene where Seven and Raffi are driving and trying to escape the police, one of the best of the entire show, not just that season.

I really loved it.

And also speaking of the 2024 timeline, the best part of it was season two deals with the real problem of ICE raids and how several communities, especially in the US, well, they live in fear and they don't have access to simple human benefits, like medicines, et cetera.

And it really worked the way they included that, how Rios, who happens to be played by a Chilean actor and he speaks a lot of Spanish, so how that works into it, he doesn't have papers, so what does that mean?

That's probably why, when we first watched the second season, it just blew us away because it went back to the roots of Star Trek.

It's talking about the real world in this fictional, majestic, futuristic world through this lens of utopia.

Well, you go back and it wasn't always utopia and one tiny change in our history could make it worse or better, which is something that is explored in that season.

I really, really like that.

I didn't understand the Borg stuff.

Even on my third rewatch of this series, I don't necessarily think the whole Borg angle needed to be there.

That's really interesting because I like the fact that Picard leans into his experience as Locutus.

I felt like in TNG, they didn't really handle that very well.

This man was taken, assimilated.

He was the mouthpiece of the Borg as they slaughtered so many Starfleet officers at Wolf 359.

We see the impact of that in DS9.

It's the reason why Sisko can't stand Picard.

Starfleet just moves on.

But the show coming back to that over and over again, not just about the impact that it had on the people who died or survived, but on Picard himself.

No, I agree with you.

I like the through line of the Borg being there in all three seasons.

I just don't know if it was handled as well, especially on the third rewatch.

I can have a little bit more distance and a bit more critical thinking.

And I do think it was confused.

Because what does it all mean?

We now have a new faction of the Borg who are good guys, who assimilate after consent.

What are they doing?

Where are they?

How have we not met them in all these years?

I feel like that was a plotline that padded up the story.

This goes back to what I was saying about how season one was the most cohesive.

When you're watching the recaps of season two, and it's so long, it's like two, three minutes long, because they have to pack in all this information.

And it's simply because there are disparate storylines.

They're not interconnected.

So that's my biggest issue.

The Borg stuff, while there is the through line, in hindsight, I just feel like it was too much.

And I think the reason for that is that each season has a different type of Borg.

If it had just been one kind, it would have made a bit more sense.

It would have flowed better from what we've seen before in TNG, in First Contact, but nothing that happens in season one affects season two or season three.

And I feel like the events in season two were primarily a way to phase out the new characters.

So Rios stays back in 2024.

Jurati becomes this other Borg Queen.

Elnor, after being killed, Q brings him back.

So now he's part of Starfleet.

Raffi's the only one who stays on and comes back in season three.

Yeah, and that's also an issue which we talked about probably because we just really love these new characters.

It's not like Rios and Elnor, even Dr. Jurati, who I didn't like in the beginning, but honestly on the rewatch, she was a lot of fun.

They're compelling characters and there's a lot of complicated feelings which we didn't actually get to discuss on the show.

How Picard treats them, how they feel about him.

It's a squandered opportunity.

I say that a lot about this show.

I get it because of what season three becomes.

And when you're watching season three, you don't actually feel the absence because we'll get to that in a moment.

But I do feel like if you introduce these characters and there's so much rich history alluded to, I would have loved to see a little bit more of them.

There was something else that you had written about and that's Picard's very bad attempts at being a father figure to people.

And there is a throughline in each season of Picard just thinking that Starfleet is the answer to everybody's problems.

He gets Raffi back into Starfleet.

He gets Seven back into Starfleet.

He gets Rios back into Starfleet.

He gets Elnor into Starfleet.

He gets Jack into Starfleet.

That's a lot of people.

That's his answer for everything.

Try being a dad for once.

That was something that you pointed out and I was like, surely you're not right.

And then at the end of season three, when Jack Crusher, Picard's unknown long lost son, he turns up and he's suddenly part of the Enterprise.

I was like, oh, okay, you have a point, Ron.

But it's true.

Picard says often, Starfleet was his life, Starfleet was his family.

His best friends, his family, literally are from Starfleet.

So I get why he's sort of mesmerized and he feels like, well, Starfleet fixed his life, gave him what he wanted, which was a family.

And that's what he thinks the people he loves most will also get.

And in a way we find that, well, Starfleet is different for different people.

Starfleet is also different at this time.

And it's something that is somewhat explored in the third season.

Seven, for example, Seven of Nine, she was a Borg, she was rescued, if you could say, by Voyager.

Voyager became her family, her collective.

And the one goal for Voyager, a ship that was stranded in the Delta Quadrant, was to get back to the Alpha Quadrant.

But Seven had no connection to the Alpha Quadrant.

And what happens when she comes back?

Well, that's what we find out.

We find out that she tried to get into Starfleet, but because she's an ex-B, a former Borg, they refused to include her.

I mean, Picard obviously has a lot of influence because in season three, she's the first officer of the Titan, which was Riker's previous ship, but she's not happy because the Starfleet ship that she was on was Voyager, which had nothing to do with Starfleet.

In fact, there are moments in Voyager when Starfleet is able to connect to them once again.

And Captain Janeway does struggle a little bit with the way they speak about some of her crew, with some of the decisions that they make.

It's not fully there because we are talking about 90s TV shows which were a little bit more utopian in their outlook about authority, et cetera.

But we do see that the struggle is real in the newer shows.

Even on Star Trek Prodigy, Vice Admiral Janeway has problems with Starfleet.

They have rules that really don't make sense sometimes.

So we see that with Seven as well.

Picard and Captain Janeway, or rather Admiral Janeway in this timeline, they've convinced her to join Starfleet.

And she's got this chance, but she hates it.

She absolutely hates it.

And I did write about it after the first episode, I think.

She doesn't belong.

She's not doing what she wants.

She's stuck using protocols and rules that don't make sense to her.

And I'm almost a little bit disappointed that in the end, she still has a commission, she's still with Starfleet, and it's supposed to be a big, yay, you know, all our favorite characters are still with Starfleet.

It's like Picard is on a recruitment drive.

He's very good at recruiting people, but is that really the right thing for them?

I find it interesting that the show doesn't hold back from criticizing Picard because his experiences are wildly different from everyone else's.

Raffi especially takes him to task when Elnor is killed.

But the show is still reluctant to call Starfleet out on their nonsense, which is kind of weird, because as you said, the ending is very much a rah-rah happiness.

Seven and Raffi and Jack are now leading the new enterprise, and that's a good thing.

Is it though?

Like Seven was literally resigning until Tuvok showed her Captain Shaw's last message.

One message and that's enough for all the xenophobia that she received from that man?

That doesn't make any sense.

It's funny because one of the last things that Raffi says is, it's weird to her that Starfleet has given a thief, a pirate and a spy a ship of their own, and not just any ship, the Enterprise is still the flagship of Starfleet.

And I do wonder if something like that heralds a change in Starfleet.

Even Captain Liam Shaw, in his recommendation for Seven to become captain, says that she doesn't follow protocols, but she has ideas and she has methods which are different and which do suggest a change, a new way of leading.

And also Gates McFadden, who plays Dr. Beverly Crusher.

Now, I can't remember if she wrote this in a tweet or she talked about this at Fan Expo Canada at the panel that you and I went to.

She talked about how Beverly and her son Jack, they're part of Mariposa, which was the organization that was created by Rios and his partner, Teresa, back in 2024.

They are sort of the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders in the galactic sense.

Now, Beverly and Jack being part of that, helping worlds and peoples who have been forgotten by the Federation and Starfleet.

Gates McFadden mentioned that she wants to explore how Beverly can do that work, even though now she is head of Starfleet Medical.

So it seems to me, behind the scenes and also perhaps through the writing, they're trying to suggest that these people are in Starfleet, but that doesn't mean that Starfleet stays the same.

Considering the sort of world ending stuff that happened, I would like to think that Starfleet will not be the same forever.

That being said, when you read the books about the supernova, it doesn't really show Starfleet and the Federation in very good light.

So I don't know, I just do wonder that are the writers trying to say that, yes, Picard is on a recruitment drive, but maybe for the better?

Well, that's an interesting point.

I hadn't really thought of it like that because the final season, it does seem to be about change, even though it's primarily about the TNG crew who we've seen for many, many years.

That's honestly one of the best parts of it, just seeing that entire group together, the chemistry is just, it's just there.

I remember when we saw Jonathan Frakes at Toronto Comic Con and he was talking about how worried he was when he was coming back and he was like, Sir Patrick Stewart is just on his game, such high quality acting and Frakes was so worried that he wouldn't be able to match up.

And I was like, what is this guy talking about?

He was the best part of that show.

He's so funny, he's so sweet, he's just effortlessly Riker, no matter how many years have passed by.

Yeah, I have to say these characters, you don't even realize you miss them till you see them and you're like, oh wow, I really miss these people.

And we don't even have that kind of connection with TNG, the way we do with Voyager.

And despite that, seeing these actors step back into these roles and the kind of love that they seem to have for these characters, absolutely seamless.

It's brilliant.

And I understand why a lot of people, they can't see beyond how wonderful it is to see these people together.

And that's why it's like the best season ever, this is the best Trek.

Well, we have to be measured in how we approach our entertainment media.

Something can be exactly what we want and it also can have its flaws.

Watching season three, especially we just finished watching it, honestly, I'm like, are there any flaws?

I love this so much.

I'm like tearing up at the TNG theme every time.

Every time these people interact with each other, I'm like, oh my goodness, this is like the best thing.

Geordie telling Data exactly how he feels about him, I'm like tearing up just thinking about it.

And it's so sweet.

And at the same time, I'm like, okay, do we lose a lot because we focus so much on this reunion?

Is that a bad thing?

Is that a good thing?

I don't know.

I just know that, well, the show ends on a high because you're watching this poker game between this family of characters and these actors who have also become a family.

And you can't argue with that.

You can't argue with that feeling.

In so many ways, I just think that this season, I really, really did forget that there were issues with it.

Especially in the beginning part when they're not all together, you're like, oh, okay, I can nitpick a little bit here and there and then buy this penultimate episode when they're all standing on the old enterprise deck.

You're like, this is what I've wanted on my life apparently.

Yeah, and the other thing is that you still got those moments where like, Worf and Raffi, their bond.

There is no preamble to it.

It just happened so quickly, but organically, like that last scene with the two of them together when she's got that message from her family.

And I'm just like, oh my gosh, like the father-daughter bond is just so strong.

I would have loved to see that with other people.

Like there was that scene earlier on when Liam Shaw first meets Geordi and he's like struggling to speak because he's like such a fanboy and he's just like stuttering.

He can't, and Geordi's just standing there like, oh, I'm so used to this.

And you just love those moments, you know?

I would have loved to see more of that with Rios, with Jurati.

I mean, imagine Jurati meeting Data, Jurati meeting Beverly.

Oh my God, those would have been amazing moments.

Like Rios and Riker together.

Why didn't we get that?

I really wish we had, because then that would have made the show feel like it was one continuous story.

I think you've hit upon a very good note, which is that all three seasons feel like three different stories.

And there's a reason for that, because all three seasons had three different showrunners.

Even though Terry Matalas took over for season two, he inherited the previous creators' stories and storylines.

It's like watching an anthology series.

When you have that caliber of acting on your screen, honestly, nothing else matters.

Some things just transcend writing and cohesiveness, honestly.

But the show ends, like the final ending, is a bit of a cliffhanger.

Like it seems like the Enterprise crew is going to go off on these new adventures while their previous Enterprise crew goes off on their old adventures.

And now nothing.

What is that all about?

So the final scene of the show is Q apparently returning, but as he reminds us all, humans think so linearly.

That's not how the continuum works.

He might be dead, but this is another version or a previous version of him.

And he's come to torment Picard's son, Jack Crusher.

I do think that the showrunners, Paramount Plus, whoever is behind these things, included that to gauge if there was any interest in continuing the stories of these characters.

So one has to ask, are we interested in seeing Captain Seven of Nine, Commander Raffi Musiker, consultant to the captain, Ensign Jack Crusher, as well as the LaForge sisters and the rest of the Enterprise crew, maybe some new characters, Admiral Beverly Crusher?

Are we interested in seeing all these people continue in a new show?

Well, for me, the answer is yes, because I want to see more of Seven, I want to see more of Raffi, I want to see their relationship actually on screen instead of, you know, they've broken up, they're together, they're very far apart from each other.

Don't give us two amazing bisexual characters and then be like, yeah, they're not together.

What?

That's the only reason why I need this show.

True, but we need to talk about Jack Crusher.

We can't not talk about this man.

He's sort of the catalyst and the reason all of season three happens.

Unlike Soji, this man is very fleshed out.

He is a personality, a character, a human being, and he evokes complicated feelings in a lot of us.

I just don't know how I feel about this person who creates so much damage, chaos, most likely death.

And at the same time, well, he is Beverly and Picard's son.

And I'm like, you know, he's really cool and he can do all these things and he knows all these things and he has this sort of avant-garde experience and knowledge.

He would be very interesting to follow, alongside, of course, the most important people, Seven and Raffi.

Well, I'm not 100% sold on Ed Speelers as the son of Beverly Crusher and Picard.

I mean, he has the hair.

He has Beverly's hair.

Listen, when I first saw him, I thought, oh, wow, somehow Beverly had another child with Jack Crusher.

And she obviously named him Jack.

But I was like, oh, he's Picard's son?

I don't see the connection, like physically or anything.

He's got the accent, which the bizarre explanation for his accent.

He went to England for a little bit and he came back with the accent.

Really?

Really?

Considering I still say presentation instead of presentation, because I heard Tom Paris say it the one time on Voyager, I forgive him.

But like, he's not supposed to be like Picard.

He has no connection to this man.

He's more like Beverly if she hadn't been stuck on Starfleet, if she hadn't faced loss so early on in her life, if she wasn't a mom who had to keep taking care of her son.

I think, you know, that sort of effervescent, ne'er-do-well, nonchalant sort of personality that he has is very much like how Beverly may have been.

So I feel that.

I just don't understand how we are supposed to like root for a character who's caused all this untold loss and suffering for a lot of people.

In a way, I keep thinking back to Captain Michael Burnham and how she wanted to make something better and ended up causing the Klingon War.

So many people's lives were changed, not just death.

People's lives were changed and she has to reckon with that when she comes back to Starfleet.

And I'm like, how do I feel about that?

We've forgotten about it because she has redeemed herself in so many ways.

She suffered herself as well, but people have made a lot of sacrifices to make sure that she keeps saving the world, basically.

Does Jack deserve that?

I don't know.

If we get a show about the new Enterprise G, we would have to contend with Jack being there.

But also, I think if Jack wasn't Beverly and Picard's son, I don't think that many people would have been allowed to die for him.

That's something to reckon with as well.

He actually says the only reason why he got fast-tracked to Ensign level at Starfleet was because of nepotism.

His parents aren't going to believe that, but Beverly has always had a blind spot for her kids.

When Wesley was part of the team, the Nova Squad, and their teammate died, she refused to believe that Wesley had done anything wrong.

Obviously, she's going to be the same way with Jack, and Picard, he can't see anything wrong with people he loves.

So this kid is going to have to have other people call him out on his nonsense because his parents are not going to do it.

Yeah, I completely agree with you on that because the only way this is going to work if they were to have a show, and I do really want one because I think we just need more Star Trek.

Especially now that Star Trek Discovery is coming to an end, we're going to have the animated properties, Lower Decks is still doing well, Prodigy, I don't know what's going to happen after season two, and we have Strange New Worlds as the only live action.

So yeah, Star Trek Legacy would be great.

Especially a show which brings in the Deep Space Nine characters, characters from other Star Trek properties, their descendants, et cetera.

That would be awesome.

Listen, I need a show where Jake Sisko is a journalist. I need this. It's very important to me.

Very true.

So yeah, I mean, I think we've been really critical about Star Trek Picard, but honestly, on rewatching it, I just fell back in love with the show, even the first season, which I did not like.

I love these characters, the new ones, the old ones.

Love the world that they've created.

I love being back in the Star Trek universe.

And I just wanted to continue.

In a way, I am trying to continue it by reading the books so that I can just hang out with these characters and this world, because we didn't have Star Trek for a really, really long time.

And we tried to fill that void with other stuff.

And now that we do, it's really hard to let go.

I'm currently listening to the entire score of Picard, all three seasons in a playlist.

I can't get out of this mode.

Yeah, I'm not even gonna think about what'll happen once Discovery finishes.

I just don't wanna deal with that right now.

You know, that's a problem for future me.

But yeah, I surprisingly really enjoyed rewatching Star Trek Picard.

I loved it a lot more this time.

I'm going to just feel like it's an anthology series and not like a show that's three consecutive seasons because that might help the enjoyment a little bit more.

But you know what?

It ends on a really happy note.

All our beloved characters are safe.

Some of them are in 2024, but it's okay.

But yeah, it was really fun.

And I really like Star Trek.

Yeah, I mean, you know what?

I would honestly probably make this an annual rewatch.

I'm not even ashamed to say it.

All three seasons annually rewatched.

So that's us talking about our very complicated, sometimes disparate views on Star Trek Picard.

Let us know how you felt about the show.

We are Stereo Geeks and we'll see you at the next episode.

[diver5ion]

[the-qalankhais-sweetheart]

Late self-DXed AuDHD realization no. I lost count:

Now I understand why I loved the Thermians so much.

I could relate.

It's not that didn't lie or couldn't lie, it's that in most cases I didn't understand the reason why one would lie. I didn't see the point.

The Thermians were honest, sometimes angry and aggressive (per their history), awkward, earnest, and caring. Open with their emotions, didn't catch onto certain social cues or deceptive tells or concepts, vulnerable to people like Sarris, justice-oriented.

Just like me.

Also makes sense how I came to love the Qo'wat Milat and Elnor in particular.

[trillscienceofficer]

I'm sorry Star Trek: Picard has never been the kind of show that would contrast Elnor saying 'the tension between you two makes me uncomfortable' to Rios and Jurati with him specifically being cool and unbothered by Raffi and Seven because that is simply obvious to him (many such couples in the Qowat Milat)

[curator-on-ao3]

🚨 Warning: I’m about to take @spockandstars’ excellent post way too seriously. Also note that the following is mostly about SNW and PIC. I haven’t seen the most recent season of Disco, and I haven’t seen any of Prodigy. Lower Decks, you’re an angel and I love you.

•

So, here’s the thing. We all know fanfic writing and actual canon writing call for different skills in terms of production needs, as well as writing a script versus narrative-style writing.

I also am probably in the minority in saying that a fanfic writer who did make the leap to the shows has written episodes that are fine and episodes that I can’t stand. So employing Trekkies/fanfic writers wouldn’t necessarily cure Trek’s problems and could, in fact, worsen them by limiting fresh perspectives. (Reminder: I’m taking the excellent post too seriously and the post’s insinuation that too many Trek show writers lack actual Trek knowledge is valid.)

However, what fanfic writers famously do is care. We care about characters, we care about coherence of plot and story. We care about the universe. And that care isn’t necessarily from a place of love. It can be. But fanfic writing also can come from a place of frustration, of wishing characters could have the plotline/attention/realization/etc. that the writer wants for them.

And, sometimes, it feels like modern Trek doesn’t care. Simple fixes to plot holes that would require a line or two of dialogue don’t happen. Characters are shunted to the side or have their characterization change with the season. It feels as if no one in the writers’ room says or is heard if they say, “That plot is repetitive, what about X or Y?” or, “Why would a character do that when they could do W or Z, which would be more in keeping with their established traits?” or even, “That doesn’t make sense. We have to find another way.”

So, yeah, I’ve always said fanfic writers have the luxury of caring about a show or characters without concern for the financial side of the property. But it would be nice to feel as if people who do control the financial and production sides cared, too.

[atonalginger]

Dr. Biamuk

Reman. Freed by brave souls as a youth and raised among the Qowat Milat. Went into medicine because she wanted to heal more than fight. Joined a crew of abolitionists to free more Reman until a raid...the fate of her crew is unknown but she has been freed and finds herself in...interesting company. Much to learn with this new crew.

[obessivedork]

I really think that if the writers of Picard had cared about the new characters they would’ve continued Elnor’s character progression from wanting to help the xB’s to specializing in medicine or law. The xB’s don’t need someone to defend them with a sword in Federation territory, they need someone who can advocate for them and help them heal! So did people on Vashti! I really think medic or psychologist or defender of the defenceless legal advocate Elnor all make a lot of sense!

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

#382

"I love all of the things that are different about Discovery. I love that characters change and mature in the background instead of the favoured few getting B-arcs in slow episodes. I love that they had a rotating door of captains for so long. I love that there's crying. I love that the themes are wide and grand and strange, that any given season might meditate on radicalisation or authority or grief or martyrdom or protagonism. I love that they actually managed to find the balance between gorgeous visual and meaningful stories. I love that they handled the Qowat Milat so much better than Picard did. I think Season 4 might be the best Trek I've ever seen."

[knightotoc]

Season 1: 23rd century, mutiny, Federation-Klingon War, T'Kuvma, Ash/Voq, L'Rell, Captain Lorca, giant tardigrade, Sarek, logic extremists, Vulcan Expeditionary Group applications, Admiral Cornwell, time loop Harry Mudd, Pahvo, Mirror Universe, Captain Killy, Culber dies, Emperor Georgiou

Themes: betrayal, trust, good vs evil

Season 2: Captain Pike, Red Angel, seven signals, Spock's nightmares, Jett Reno, Terralysium, Amanda Grayson, L'Rell and Ashvoq's baby, Section 31, Leland, the ghost of May, the Sphere's data, Culber gets better, Kamina, Talos IV, Control, Airiam dies, Klingon monastery, time crystals, Queen Po, jump to the future

Themes: motherhood, secrets, corruption

Season 3: 32nd century, the Burn, Book, trance worm, Aditya Sahil, Zareh, Captain Saru, Tal, Adira, Gray, Trill, Admiral Vance, seed archive, Nhan, Ni'Var, Qowat Milat, T'Rina, Kwejian, the Emerald Chain, Osyraa, Carl, goodbye Georgiou!, Su'Kal and the holograms, Burnham demoted then promoted, dilithium deliveries

Themes: grief, scarcity, transphobia?

Season 4: Captain Burnham, President Rillak, the DMA (cough covid cough), Kwejian destroyed, Gray resurrected, J'Vini, cadets stranded on the moon, Ruon Tarka and Oros's parallel universe, Felix and the orb, Gray and Zora play a Trill board game, Species 10-C, Book's betrayal, hydrocarbon emotion math language

Themes: misunderstanding, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" references

Season 5: Progenitors, Moll and L'ak, solving riddles to make a map, Q'Mau, Fred, Rayner, Lyrek, Adira and Gray break up, Jinaal possesses Culber, time bug, the Breen, atheism on Halem'no, racer Tilly, Ravah, Ruhn, Eternal Gallery and Archive, Hy'Rell, Tahal, wedding and finale

Themes: romances, religion, power

[thehollowprince]

I've been on a bit of a Star Trek kick lately, and I've come up with a crew for a Federation ship using Teen Wolf characters and what species I would have them be.

Scott McCall - captain - Kwejian

Derek Hale - first officer - Romulan

Allison Argeant - security chief - human

Stiles Stilinski - chief engineer - human

Lydia Martin - science officer - Ocampa

Danny Mahealani - ops officer - human

Vernon Boyd - comms officer - Xahean

Isaac Lahey - tactical officer - Bajoran

Kira Yukimura - navigator - Trill

Malia Tate - helm officer - Romulan

Alan Deaton - chief medical officer - El-Aurian

Matin Morrell - counselor - El-Aurian

I have no idea what kind of story I'd write for this, but I had fun coming up with what position each character would have on a Federation ship and what species to make certain members (everyone who was a shapeshifter on TW was automatically an alien).

The easiest to assign were Deaton and Morrell, including them being El-Aurian like Guinan. An Immortal race of "listeners"? Sounds like those two.

Scott I struggled with until I remembered the character of Book from Discovery and the Kwejian, who have empathic abilities, which fed right into Scott's compassion. Of course, since I made him Kwejian, this would have to take place in the 32nd century or later - I'm thinking a century after Discovery.

Lydia I made an Ocampa from Voyager, because of their untapped psychic abilities, but because I'm placing this at a later century, I'm saying they've evolved psst the 9 year life span.

Isaac I went with Bajoran because of Kira Nerys and her more upfront approach on Deep Space 9, and it just made me think of him. Plus, picture Isaac with the Bajoran earring.

I chose for Derek to be a Romulan because of how secretive the Hale family was, relying on sabotage and subterfuge. I'm actually picturing that Peter was the original captain of the ship before he was overthrown in a mutiny because of his "un-Federation like conduct" with Derek as acting captain until he stepped down, realizing he wasn't leadership material, thus mirroring how on TW he usurped Peter as Alpha before giving it up and Scott sort of rising in his place.

I also think it would be cool to have Scott and Derek on the bridge in their red shirts to match their Alpha eyes.

Same with Malia, since she's technically a Hale, I made her a Romulan, specifically a former adept of the Qowat Milat, thus explaining her upfront and blunt demeanor. Though she never actually became a full sister of the Order, and instead joined Star Fleet.

I originally had Kira in mind to be a nun for the Qowat Milat, because of her sword skills, but then I thought a little more about it and made her a Trill, specifically a host for a symbiot. So, in one of her symbiot's other lives, it was trained by the Qowat Milat, thus giving a credible excuse for her martial prowess.

And Boyd... Boyd was the hardest for me. I wanted to include him because of how dirty his character was done on Teen Wolf, but because his character was hardly used, I didn't have much to base this on. In the end, I went with Xahean, because they're an obscure and barely used species from Discovery and then Picard, who have fangs and claws (similar to his werewolf form on TW) and the ability to turn partially invisible.

As for the humans, given how StarFleet is mostly human, I left them the way they were and just used their attributes from the show to influence their positions on the ship. Allison wanting to protect those who can't protect themselves? Security. Stiles being able to hold his jeep together with duct tape? Engineering. Danny, the hacker? Operations.

Like I said above, I still have no idea what story I would write with this, but I had fun getting here.

[annikasevenshots]

rewatching picard s3 (ep 2 rn) and i have thoughts

i actually sympathise with shaw a lot more this time around. just playing by the rules and getting through the day with the lives of 500 in your hands. like, he's not a hero and that is okay!!! god knows it takes so much energy to go all out and rebel and live with the consequences aand bro does not have that. and that is FINE. he's doing his best.

deadnaming aside ofc

not to diagnose him with Like Me but i'm thinking thoughts about shaw having me/cfs. just thoughts.

conversely i hate jack crusher even more this time round lmao. like wow he really is a cringe mary sue oc and we just allowed that.

i'm ambivalent about holo engineer shaw in legacy but can we boot jack crusher out the airlock at earliest convenience

like the picard's son plotline is so uncreative and cringey. there's nothing his character brings that cannot be filled by soji and elnor combined. elnor could have been working with beverly as Qowat Milat!! or even soji!

or beverly could have gone solo i literally dgaf

and if you're going to be uncreative and fuck around with the borg again, SOJI HAS LITERALLY BEEN WORKING WITH THEM IN S1. like if anyone is set up for a dormant borg virus it's her.

and lord knows you aren't going to pay either of them equal to what you pay a cis white man so there literally was no reason to boot the two of them to introduce jack

i just??? he is so useless???

sorry gang i am feeling feelings and the feeling is salt

[coco-little-rose]

So I was reading the Alidar Jarok page on memory alpha and look what I found:

I WAS ROBBED OF A HEALTHY ROMULAN/HUMAN PAIRING.

Damn you the writers. And the season 3 of STP would have make more sense, like Beverly hidde her half Romulan child for his own security.

We could have good parallel between Beverly and JL, like both of them date Romulan. Also, this plot would allow the show to keep several character of the main cast like Elnor and focus a bit on the Qowat Milat.

Instead, you have borg semen dude. I suppose we'll all have to live with it.