#ro laren was barely even MENTIONED

[handlewithcharacter]

The way I’ve only gone through four stages of grief in the last twenty hours because I’m stuck on bargaining in that I have become 100% convinced that Ro Laren is still alive...

[homewrecking-lore]

Putting this rant under a cut because it is just me banging my head against the wall over season 3 and how much I despise this show lol, I PROMISE this is my last Picard post.

I don't know if it's because I didn't really know or care about TNG until like...a couple of years ago, and so don't have any nostalgia connected to it, but even the scenes that should get me emotional in Picard season 3 just...don't.

Like seeing Data with his pipe and the Tasha holo statue and Spot...okay, I recognize all those things...now what? Why should this strike a chord with me right now, in this story? "Spot taught me how to love." And not...your daughter? Your daughter didn't play a role in that too?

But the worse thing besides the pure amount of nostalgia bait is that everything happens without literally ANY weight or consequence. 8 hours in and nothing feels like it's really moved.

Ro Laren returned!! And then BLEW UP right in front of Riker and Picard's eyes. Remember when that happened??? And that's it. That's that. She barely spoke to Riker, never spoke to Beverly. You could cut her entire appearance and really the show would remain the same. Which is a shame cause her performance is incredible, but her death was stupidly cheap, and it kind of dilutes any emotional depth her appearance should have.

Picard tells Geordi about Data's SECOND DEATH completely off-hand and Geordi's reaction? Not even to acknowledge it. He's just learned of this. Did the rest of the crew not know as well? Wouldn't this be...fairly big news? You know...besides the fact that he is back AGAIN?

Beverly disappeared for TWENTY YEARS. Then she's suddenly alive and well, in front of them, with a grown ass man for a child, and the most we get is one argument between Picard and Bev, and then it's pretty much settled. What about their romantic relationship? Their friendship? Their professional respect and trust? So much more was lost than just a secret love child for two decades!! Show us!!!!

And almost all of the dialogue around Jack being their kid is also solely WITH PICARD. Riker doesn't talk to Bev about it onscreen, nor does Geordi or Worf. Deanna mentions her disappearance almost...casually. Which would work if it hadn't been for TWENTY YEARS. You just found out she was hiding a child she had with your captain/friend. Talk to her!!! Why couldn't she trust Picard with this? Why couldn't she trust all of you? ASK HER! I AM BEGGING! Yes the show is called Picard, but the whole selling point this season is that it's the rightful TNG crew send-off. Then just...do that!

Almost everything is solved with a single conversation, except for whatever is happening with Jack. Geordi's fractured relationship with his daughter because...*checks notes* she's a pilot like he was, but not an engineer like he...later was? One big blow-up and then it's solved. Cool. Jack approaches Picard as a stranger in a restaurant and asks if he wants a real family...buddy, why would this man tell you his innermost thoughts? And yet this one conversation is the reason he doesn't connect with him? Really? For a show that's supposed to be serialized instead of episodic like TNG, it really doesn't carry most of its plot or character development forward.

Apparently Kestra is a Starfleet cadet ('cause...what else would legacy off-spring do). Wouldn't Riker and Troi be especially worried about her since Starfleet is completely infiltrated with changelings? They've already lost a child. Wouldn't this be at the forefront of their thoughts?

Why is this a better ending for Data? Because he has a really, really human-like body this time? He's died twice. Commit to that. Give the other characters the chance to properly mourn. He's already had the emotion chip (which is a plot device I don't even like but it effectively does the exact same as this new body does). I just...this doesn't feel like growth for this character. Honestly it feels more like Brent Spiner's acting exercise. Same with Geordi and Data - I love them, I'm a sucker for Daforge - but I watched their scenes completely dry eyed. I just couldn't get pass the amount of awful story decisions that got us to this point.

What was the point of bringing in Moriarty, Lore, and Vadic? You could almost cut them out entirely and barely anything would change. The main cast didn't really spare them a second thought. Besides a backstory flashback, Vadic didn't really up the stakes. The conflict in episode 8 was the same as episode 2. Moriarty might as well not have been there. Lore could've been an example of the struggle of morality ("do we sacrifice our belief in android sentience to gain back our friend") but then we're given the most embarassing hokey scene in the show so far where they...merge. Okay. Plus they openly discuss how they would just erase Lore from existence if they could RIGHT IN THE OPEN and then are SHOCKED that he'd take control and kill them. What did you expect??? What happened to exploring androids as individuals with rights? Where is the narrative weight of "losing your compass" (ugh) when it comes with no consequences or is promptly forgotten about? Why isn't all this taking a greater toll on Data, losing out on two decades of changing and aging and life moving on without him?

Weren't B-4 and Lal and Altan also memories (although in their first scene they are all full-on separate entities)? Why didn't absorbing those memories change Lore and Data's personalities? How come only Lore gave Data...contractions and sass? (The dumbest sentence I've had to type.)

As for Seven and Raffi....seeing people FREAK on twitter about the mere implication of Geordi and Data, who are explicitly straight and platonic on the show and don't even bother to hug when they reunite...you just know the showrunners were playing it safe by sidelining the only actual queer relationship in the show so they don't get accused of being 'woke'. 8 whole episodes and they barely look at each other. It's weird...and again, never said why.

(And that's not even touching on how awkward Wesley's absence has been this whole time. That's a whole other post honestly.)

In the end, I just feel like I'm watching the cast reunite rather than the characters. They're a great cast and insanely talented (Levar and Gates and Michelle especially shine when they have an emotional beat), but when scenes come off as just the actors hanging out - it makes me wonder why they didn't just film a two hour round table of discussion instead of...this. No send-off is going to be universally perfect or touch on everything it's supposed to, but this is probably one of the mishandled seasons of television I've ever watched. I really wanted to like this season as I've only recently gotten into TNG, and it sucks to just...hate it.

Anyway. Picard and the 300 spin-offs you're trying to set up stay away from these characters and do something original

[mollyencrypted]

As promised, here's the second part of Basics!

I perhaps should have mentioned this in Part I, but by the end of that the original senior staff have been set adrift in a disabled shuttle and the holoimaging systems are taken out.

This part would pick up two days later. Denara Pel has been made the new CMO and has restored Madra's true appearance in spite of her own protestations that she barely even knows what a Cardassian looks like. Meanwhile, Simon Tarses is working on repairing the holoimaging systems.

It turns out that a small section of the crew, led by Ro Laren (driven both by her desire for revenge on the woman she thought was her friend and by the fact that she'd rather die in the Delta Quadrant than get home on a Cardassian ship) is planning yet another mutiny. The group includes Ro, Neelix, the remaining sickbay staff, probably Tuvix, and Hogan (who deeply regrets backing a Cardassian). (Suder is still in his quarters with his plants and he's very happy there thank you very much.)

The group made contact with the Talaxians, who managed to pick up the shuttle and aid in the retaking of Voyager much like in canon. There's a bit more than that but I would actually like to write this someday and it would probably come across better in actual story format than this.

Seska still dies. Suder does not because he's staying the hell away from all this. Leave him alone with his hydroponics project.

Also the episode is probably not a two-parter.