#which saved hugh and elnor

[lonely-night]

rewriting st picard in my head is super fun :)

[greenleaf4stuff]

Incorrect Star Trek Picard #13

Elnor: I don’t like this.

Hugh: Me taking a risk, or me using logic against you?

Elnor: Both.

(Source: https://incorrect-quote-templates.tumblr.com/post/714253315296411648/person-1-i-dont-like-this-person-2-me-taking-a / @incorrect-quote-templates)

[ailendolin]

1917 and also Star Trek! :3

Thank you, dear! 💙This was fun!

1917

OTP Blakefield

Favourite canon pairing There isn't really one, is there? The first time I saw Will's "wife" I thought that was his sister and I'm staying true to that headcanon.

Worst pairing ever Probably Erinmore/Mackenzie? 😂

Guilty pleasure pairing I don't think I have one.

A pairing you want to see more Joeslie

That pairing everyone likes but you’re like “lol no” The convoy lads, I guess. I never got attached to them and barely remember their faces lol.

Favorite non-romantic pair Will & Lauri

Star Trek (since you didn't specify which Trek I'm going to jump all over the franchise here)

OTP Janeway/Chakotay, Kirk/Spock, Prime!Lorca/Cornwell, Hugh/Elnor

Favourite canon pairing Since Janeway/Chakotay is book!canon they count, right? If not, Prime!Lorca/Cornwell since they were definitely a thing.

Worst pairing ever Chakotay/Seven. It's been 20 years and I'm still seething over Endgame.

Guilty pleasure pairing Janeway/Paris for the sole reason that Threshold is an iconic episode and I love their lizard babies 😂

A pairing you want to see more Prime!Lorca/Cornwell. After season 1 of Disco I was so hopeful we'd go to the Mirror Universe and save our Gabriel and he and Katrina would be reunited. That obviously didn't happen but I think it would have made for a great storyline.

That pairing everyone likes but you’re like “lol no” Janeway/Seven

Favorite non-romantic pair Saru & Tilly

[cristobalrios]

Rios had been standing over Agnes's unconscious form, pale-faced and completely unsure of why this happened or what to do next, but Emil told him that she drank something, on purpose, and that didn't sit well with him at all. Her vitals were stable and she was surviving within a (hopefully temporary) coma. It's quite possible she tried to commit suicide. But when she did whatever the hell it was that she did, it just so happened to correspond with them losing their tail, and Emil suspects it's not a coincidence, a thought which he explicitly stated to the captain, but more importantly to Raffi, who was very excited about this despite the literal hell going on around them.

"Captain? Captain, did you hear us?" Emil's voice was finally able to pierce through his daze, and he looked up from Agnes's body, startled.

"What? Oh, uh... Right. I... Didn't get any of that."

"Emmet said we received a distress call from the Fenris Rangers. Elnor called Seven to the Artifact. Hugh is severely injured, he's stabilized, but they're under attack by the Zhat Vash and they need us to pick them up," Emil explained.

"Shit. Hugh, that's the... The director of the stuff with the xBs, the.. Reclamation Project, right? Picard's contact on the cube." Emil nodded. "Alright, I'm on it."

He ran up the steps to the bridge, and Enoch turned from nav/com as Cris sat in the captain's chair. "Change course, we're heading back to the cube," Cris instructed. "And hail Picard, we need to tell him we'll take a little longer getting to Nepenthe."

"Aye, sir," Enoch said, and he did as instructed.

"Bad news, jefe. Elnor needs backup at the cube, we need to take a quick detour back, it'll take us a bit longer to get to you. Will you two be alright there for a while?" he asked. After Picard informed him that Soji is having a difficult time adjusting but that they're with trusted friends and they're in good hands, he ended the call as they went to warp.

"Rios to Emil," Cris said after hitting his combadge. "How's Agnes doing?"

"Still stable, Captain."

"Alright, be prepared for a new patient. Elnor's message said he's in critical condition. Be prepared for the worst, but make sure he'll make it. Our sickbay is filling up fast but I'm not losing anyone else on my goddamn ship. My sickbay is not meant to be a morgue. We already have one dead and one coma, our quota is full."

"Understood, sir."

In their earlier attempt to lose their tail, they hadn't actually gotten that far from the Artifact at maximum warp, so it wasn't long before they made it back. He received a hail from Seven immediately, who had gotten to the Queencell on her own. Elnor and Hugh were in one of the medlabs meant for the xBs and Seven was able to open a quick gap in their shields to allow Rios to transport them aboard (well, Ian handled the actual transporting), directly to Sickbay. Seven said she needed to stay on the cube, someone has to look after the rest of the xBs and save them from the Tal Shiar. So they set a course for Nepenthe, making sure they didn't pick up any more tails again, but they seemed to be in the clear.

Emil started to work on Hugh immediately, and he activated Steward to check Elnor out, just run scans. Despite his 'I'm a Hospitality Hologram, not a nurse' comment, it really was just a simple use of the tools before Emil could confidently clear him.

Raffi looked at Rios as she sat at tactical, relieving Emmet. "You look like shit, Cris."

"Ella tiene razón, Capitán," Emmet stated. Cris shot him a look and he deactivated with a "No es asunto mío."

Cris looked at Enoch. "Is the course laid in?"

"Yes sir," he said.

"Activate autopilot,"

Enoch hit some buttons. "Autopilot activated, si--"

"Deactivate ENH." Enoch flickered away before he could finish the word.

"You didn't have to bite his head off." Raffi commented. "Maybe you should take a break."

"I'm fine. Update Picard on our ETA, I'm sure he'll appreciate that. I'm going to check on the kid and our latest guest," he said, muttering something about 'too many goddamn people on my ship' as he slid down the steps using the rails to get to sickbay on the lower deck.

"Is Elnor injured?" He asked, seeing Steward scan him.

"He's just been cleared," Steward responded.

"Excellent. Deactivate EHH."

"Sir, wai--" He flickered away and the tool he was holding fell as Emil protested. Elnor caught it before it hit the ground. Emil shot him a grateful look as he placed it down on a counter. Cris didn't seem to care. Emil is the only hologram necessary at the moment.

"That wasn't nice, Captain," Emil scolded.

"I don't have time for this."

"You do seem a bit snippy," Elnor commented. Cris shot him a look. "Sorry. I'll out-butt," he said, looking away.

"How's he doing?" Cris asked, indicating Hugh on the biobed next to Agnes.

"Vitals are stabilized. Wound is healed, for the most part. He'll be sore for a while, he'll have to take it easy, but he'll be alright," Emil said. "He should regain consciousness within the next several hours. Likely before we reach Nepenthe."

Cris nodded. "Is there anyway we can get something set up in Agnes's quarters for her? I mean, she's stable. Can you get a monitoring system in there? Just temporarily. I don't want someone in a coma to be the first thing he sees. This will already be jarring enough."

"I'll set something up, sir," Emil told him.

Elnor wanted to stay to check on Hugh, but one look at Rios indicated he wasn't in the mood to deal with more than one person at a time, if even that. "I'll help you," Elnor said, "I don't think Captain Rios can handle much company right now."

He carefully picked Agnes up off the biobed as the two left. Cris's eyes followed them before they fell back onto Hugh's unconscious form, waiting for him to wake up.

___________

Translation:

"Ella tiene razón, Capitán," = "She's right, Captain," (Spanish)

"No es asunto mío." = "It's none of my business." (Spanish)

[ @iamselfmade ]

[squireofgeekdom]

picard s 2 ep 1 spoilers under the cut :[

‘hey you know all of your many deep friendships & family & found family relationships? you know all of your profound accomplishments? you know your personal development and recovery from trauma? well you’re still inadequate because you aren’t married and your previous romantic relationships haven’t met arbitrary standard for romantic depth’ fuck you fuck this i hate it fuck killing off a female character’s husband off screen so she can profess romantic interest in picard out of nowhere fuck setting it up that the most important facts to remind you about a brilliant scientist are the drama of her past romantic relationships fuck implying that saving lives is inadequate if you’re not doing romance ‘right’ fuck all of this fuck amatonormativity i want off this fucking ride fuck you

ELNOR ELNOR MY BOY ELNOR DARLING CHILD FIRST ROMULAN CADET IN STARFLEET I AM SO PROUD OF YOU AND PICARD GAVE YOU A MEMOIR OF SPOCK ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCES AS ONE OF THE FIRST VULCANS IN STARFLEET IM GONNA CRY

are you fucking kidding me. i know we knew this from casting and trailers but are you seriously fucking telling me that we’re doing a season in which the borg are going to be a major part right fucking after you ignominiously killed off hugh last season. are you fucking for real right now. once again i say fuck you.

[expectedbehavior]

“I was like, ‘This is Hugh’s last moment and I'm going to make some personal choices, and so I'll make them personal choices about how I want them to be,’” says Del Arco. “And I think there were a lot of things about Elnor that for me resonated as a gay man.”

There certainly is a spark between the two characters in that moment. And while reps for CBS say that Hugh has not been identified as gay, Del Arco took his own experience as a gay man into consideration when playing that scene.

“You know, I think he loved him,” he says. “I think in essence he might've been in love with him in the time that he was there. I think that the hope was really someone loves him. Someone who was idealistic. I think he saw a lot of himself in Elnor. Hugh used to have that sense of innocence, of righteousness. And all those things were hopeful to him, because he hadn't been in a space of hope for all this time. And I think for a minute he thought, ‘You know, I think me and the kid can go all the way with this. We could take the cube. We could save it.’ And there you go. It didn't work out.”

I love Jonathan’s take on all of this, and how he incorporated his own life experiences into his characterization. I personally see Hugh as a romantic asexual individual who forms attachments (when he forms them, which is rare due to his status as an xB and the trauma he’s endured) without desiring a sexual component to the relationship. I don’t think this classification would apply to all xBs, but it is how I see Hugh specifically. I love that Jonathan specifically and personally imbued his performance of Hugh to have such a profound connection with Elnor, however brief.

I am a bleeding heart for doomed ships, and god knows this qualifies T_T I vote for a ship name of “Hughnor”, “El-Ex” (Elnor and ExB) <3 I was trying to come up with one that used swords, or Absolute Candor (Absolute Cinnamon Rolls, was the best I could do lol), but wasn’t having any luck...

[trek-tracks]

Thoughts on Picard S1

I’m glad to have been able to watch Picard. Stewart’s great. I’m happy the show exists. The Troi-Rikers, Hugh, and Seven were wonderful to see. As a caveat, a) my expectations were sky-high, and b) I wound up watching it online with people who liked to snark, and two or three of them were serious haters, so this perhaps coloured my watching experience.

I just...I wanted to care more.

I like the new characters enough, and Elnor in particular is very sweet, but I still don't know enough about them because the show had no room to breathe.  We needed more silly/serious, in-between episodes to develop the characters, when it's not just trying to serve an overarching giant plot. A lot of the character development (Jurati and Maddox, Rios and his captain) felt like it existed mainly because it could move the plot along, which leads to a tighter season, but a somewhat emptier one. We did get “filler,” but it was filler where characters repeated things we already knew to other characters, so the filler was mostly plot-based, not character-based.

The problem with doing that, especially when we have a small number of characters that are known quantities, is that we SO disproportionately care about the TNG/VOY characters that the others seem like...not filler, but distractions from those we really care about. I’ve talked about this before in my review of a TOS book, which had a one-off romance character attached to one of the Triumvirate. We tend not to care about those romances much, focusing on the friendships that have been built up over years. This isn’t because the new character is bad, but because of the Character Fondness Power Differential (a term I made up).

(serious spoilers below the cut)

That’s why the scene with Picard agreeing to shut Data off hits right in the gut, because we care about these characters equally, and we care about their pain equally.

It’s not that we don’t care about Raffi, Rios, Agnes…it’s that we care SO much about Picard, that when he dies (and we pretty much know that, with Picard Season 2 greenlit, we can’t fully give over to grief because something’s going to happen to cause him to be able to participate) we’re focusing on our own grief, not the grief of these characters who are still pretty new in our hearts. (Okay, Babey Elnor crying was pretty sad.) Why do they get to have the grief, we wonder, since we feel we’ve known him longer than they have? It’s like having the UberEats guy give your aunt’s eulogy because she ordered in a lot in her last month.

I did feel those big feelings I was looking for in the episode with the Troi-Rikers, and when Picard and "Data" were interacting (I really enjoyed Nepenthe, and Kestra, and I’ve made my peace with all that added semi-necessary angst). Seeing Riker in the Captain’s chair was awesome, though we really could have used a “Riker sit” of him getting into it. 

Despite the beauty of Picard and Data’s final conversation, though, I really don't think we needed to experience Data's death again, "but for real this time." It's like, it already hurts! He was already dead! It was emotional, and sweet, and fine, but ouch. I know Spiner doesn't want to play him anymore, which I absolutely get and appreciate, but it sort of felt like stomping on the fans so nobody would ask him to do it again. I still love Data forever. I kind of wish he’d gotten to talk to Hugh or Elnor. There was no scene of Elnor getting to meet Spot II. I wanted to riot.

I’m glad they didn’t fridge her, but it was less than impressive that nobody even mentions Bev, Picard's best friend and confidante on the Enterprise - not even Troi, Bev’s other best friend. Yes, that could have easily changed over decades, but I’d like to know why - I can’t tell if they’re saving her for next season, or if they just really don’t care about her, and I’m scared it’s the latter. I did, for a moment, think that if they really were going to kill Picard, technically in at least one future there’s a Captain Beverly Picard…so she could have taken over and the title would still work.

I do like what they did with Seven, and I’m thankful they gave her a complex role and are letting her be happy enough. Her grief over Icheb felt real; it hurt less for me, due to his actor’s phenomenal crappiness, but man, did it have to be so graphic? The brief second of a budding Seven and Raffi romance was cool - wlw Seven! To build up to that, they could really have showed them together grieving first, rather than splitting them up for those scenes. That way, they could have at least one more interaction that would support a flirtation. (It still makes more fucking sense than Seven and Chakotay.) It’s great that we got such a range of female characters, and (almost) none of them died to create manpain. (Sorry, Dahj. Alas.) 

However, killing Hugh, the show’s ray of hope, was a really cheap shot for shock value; I spent at least two episodes hoping that he would be brought back, somehow. They seem to have developed something potentially meaningful between him and Elnor, both patron saints of lost causes, but it seems like 90% of those scenes hit the cutting room floor, so it was unclear what was going on in the finished product, and how and why they bonded. Hugh was the hope of rebuilding, and I feel like he was meaninglessly sacrificed for evil when he could have been used symbolically for good. Even if his story in relation to Picard ends in Season 1 - let him continue his work. Because that’s what Star Trek is all about, right? Continuing the Great Work. Seven, Hugh and Elnor could have been the most adorable family. Raffi could come too. 

The Romulans seemed to backslide into more cartoonish villains, when the show could have been used for development and depth. The Romulannister incest overtones were unpleasant. What the hell happened to Narek at the end of the last episode? The writers just seemed to forget about him. Is he still on Coppelius (I still can’t get over that symbolic name, and “A.I” Soong)? Did they let him go on a ship? Is he in jail? Did they let him wander off, because they forgot he existed? Did he start a new career as a Disco Spock impersonator? We also didn’t see Narissa’s body, so who knows if she’ll be back again. If she comes back instead of Hugh…sigh.

It will be interesting to see how they deal with Picard as a synth. I hope that they don’t just totally let it fade into the background, treating it as a “first season problem” solution, and actually give it practical or philosophical implications. (Someone in my chat, seeing Picard and Data in the “quantum simulation,” said that it looked like we were about to get a Trek version of The Good Place, and I was so into that idea I almost gasped.) 

In short, I had a bunch of issues with the season, I’m still feeling warm overall, and looking forward to boldly going into season two - but maybe at a slower pace. Warp 2 instead of Warp 9?

[iwritesometimes]

i'm deeply avoiding the last little bit of work i have to do for the day, so it's high meme hours, folks

Rules: tag nine people you want to get to know better or catch up with, then answer these questions.

tagged by @shih-coulda-had-it the magnificent!!

tagging: @northstarfan @poemsingreenink @lazaefair @keycchan @hellolittleogre @refraindrops @theactualvatican @tramstrams @look-and-wonder

THREE SHIPS

* Hugh/Elnor, my current black hole of agony and joy. a little May-September, a little xenobiology, a little battle couple/bodyguard trope, an AWFUL LOT of fraught close-proximity touching in the like five minutes of screentime they share...one is a young, idealistic martial arts master looking for a place to belong, the other a hurt, jaded freedom fighter working for a better life for people like him. i will be obsessing over this ship for the rest of my natural life.

* Tidus/Yuna, a pet ship since I was 16 and a Good Het Couple, Actually. epitome of the Wildly Competent Woman/Respect-Women-Juice-Drinking Himbo trope: all-star jock with daddy issues becomes bodyguard to a woman trying to save the world. when he finds out this means she'll have to sacrifice her life, he IMMEDIATELY commits to finding alternatives, all of which are "hack the Big Bad to pieces with my kickass sword." and when he finds out saving the world will mean sacrificing his OWN life, he doesn't so much as flinch.

* Billy/Goody, a ship i know i will always have a soft spot for, and which has literally improved my life through the friendship of the other people who love these nerds and adopted me into the Cool Kids Club. my world would be dull and grey without these friends, one of whom even wants to, like, date me for some reason, and it's all thanks to these cowboy battle husbands who combine one part damaged psyche hurt/comfort, one part unwavering loyalty by choice, and several dozen parts knives.

LAST SONG

i'm cheating a LITTLE bit because i heard this song on the radio yesterday and i want everyone to know about it: Aimee Mann covering Leonard Cohen's "Avalanche."

LAST MOVIE

Lupin III: The Fuma Conspiracy, with my gorgeous gf who is introducing me to this franchise for the first time as she has introduced me to so many things. i can already feel myself sinking into the pit of obsession with the Idiot Heist Crew. send help.

CURRENTLY CRAVING

the chicken my mom is grilling right behind me, oh my god this is literally torture. also: mochimochimochimochimochi. always. constantly.

CURRENTLY READING

HUGH/ELNOR!!!! mini-rec list GO!!!! (this is not to exclude anybody, it's literally just the first few people whose work i thought of off the top of my head!!!)

More Alive to Tenderness

The Softest Candor

The Art of Scraping Through

The Important Things

Out of Joint

[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.

[venndaai]

here’s my pitch for rewriting star trek picard

Two plot threads.

First one: a young student, Dahj, discovers she’s being hunted by Romulan assassins. Something in her subconscious pushes her to seek out Jean-Luc Picard, and together they go on a journey to rescue Dahj’s twin sister and discover her origins, bringing along Picard’s Romulan ex-assassin spouses and his friend Raffi. (I’d probably have to cut Agnes and Rios sadly just so things didn’t get too unwieldy.) They traverse the quadrant, checking in with old friends who help Dahj build a sense of self and Picard recover from depression. Picard is also given advice on how to be responsible for a young person. There’s a subplot about the increasing tension between Picard and the Romulans re: his paternalism and savior complex that leads to some meta commentary on TNG and the Prime Directive issue. They meet Geordi who cries over Dahj and takes her on a Holmes-themed holosuite adventure, because this is also a twenty-episode series now that has time for fun bottle episodes. Raffi meets the Troi-Rikers and is welcomed into their family after saving Dahj and Kestra from a ridiculous technobabble threat of the week. 

Plot thread two: Seven of Nine, badass Fenris Ranger, is on a mission to help her friend Hugh, who is concerned that the mystery around a young Federation researcher on the Artifact may put the reclaimed Borg in danger. As she travels towards the Artifact she accidentally finds herself saddled with a young Romulan monk who has chosen her as his lost cause, and she has to reconcile herself to being responsible for someone in a parallel to Picard and Dahj’s journey. (Include tragic Icheb backstory or not, to taste, but if it is in there have it done better.) There’s the confrontation with Bjayzl (which is now explicitly an evil ex situation) but this time no one is moralizing at Seven; she just has to consider what Elnor, who is completely unfamiliar with toxic relationships, will take away from the encounter. Seven and Elnor travel through the parts of the quadrant abandoned by the Federation and face tough situations and moral dilemmas. Seven explores her identity and her values and maybe also bangs some hot alien chicks in fine Star Trek tradition idk? But like, in a deep way. 

There’s like, a couple of scenes of Hugh on the artifact interacting with Soji, making a connection with her but his scenes become increasingly tense and claustrophobic as the reality of the xb’s vulnerability is revealed to the audience; Narek appears a couple of times but only from Hugh’s perspective and is a clear villain. 

The plotlines collide on the Artifact, Soji and Dahj reunite and find comfort in each others support, Elnor and Picard reunite and have tension, Hugh and Elnor fall in love, Seven and Picard clash but find a way to work together, Seven and Raffi fall in love. They all steal a big Romulan ship (or rather, Laris and Zhaban do), rescue the xbs, and take off towards the synth homeworld. Finale time! (Will rewrite the finale once I’ve watched that.)

[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.

[thelaithlyworm]

Just finished my Picard fix.

Non-spoilery thoughts. The sequences on Nepenthe were v. gentle, in contrast with everything else going on. Fitting for a word that refers to an antidote for sorrow. The talk around Ardani was just lovely for Soji.

I HAVE A THEORY ABOUT KESTRA. (Who is just lovely, however you play it.)

Some of the non-Nepenthe sequences had me gripping the edge of my seat - not just the actiony bits but... conversations where the actions take place in people’s hearts. Argh!

All the time Rios and Raffi were talking with Agnes, I kept thinking, “Is this the moment where they figure it out? Have they figured it out and they’re gently playing her for more infor? Oh no, they haven’t? Or... Talk about winding up the nerves. And Agnes was hinting so very strongly by the end.

I loved Raffi so much, from her tatterdemalion robe and her cake, to her talk about being a wreck of a good person managing to patch up a facsimile of functional in an emergency. Speaking as a wreck of a human being, sometimes I need my inspiring figures to be wrecks, also, because they know the ground I’m walking. I love Raffi so much.

I’m on the fence as to whether Agnes was trying to kill herself at the end. Yes, she injected herself with something “toxic to some species” but... she’s a doctor. She might have been trying to neutralise the tracker she’d swallowed with a kill-or-cure purgative. So... we’ll see. Oh, Agnes.

Those bastards killed Hugh! You bastards, you bastards, you bastards. Please let his work not have been in vain. And, Elnor can indeed dodge disruptor bolts because he’s a Romulan ninja and Romulan ninjas do that. (There had to be somthing that made the Qowat Milat a credible threat against effing Tal Shiar. I have a theory that the Qowat Milat training is accessing latent psychic powers - Romulans are related to a race of telepaths, after all. In any case, he can dodge disruptor bolts. Good for him!)

Oh right. MY THEORY. Kestra is blonde, and her parents are dark-haired, which doesn’t really happen with human genetics. True, it might run different for Betazoids, but I suspect it’s visual code for: “this kid was adopted”. And, Kestra says near the end that something bad happened to her and her mum and dad saved her, which could be referring to how she got adopted. And, it fits in with the themes of “what makes something real” that Soji was talking about with Kestra all through the ep. The made up languages and Ardani the homeworld, that Kestra read from Thad’s books and made real. Etc.

However, if we want a mildly out-there theory that digs a bit into the extended lore of Star Trek (and as this is Star Trek I rather think I do), apparently Thomas Riker (that is, Will Riker’s transporter clone), had a fling with Sela, Tasha Yar’s evil Romulan daughter. Who was blonde. So... I’m saying those two had a kid and Will and Deanna are now looking after said kid. Look, being raised by Sela would probably be pretty traumatic, am I right? (And it’s not like we get a good look at Kestra’s ears, either.)

This theory continues established Next Gen practice of making Tasha Yar relevant, relevant dammit, she was some writer’s favourite character who got killed off too soon and she bloody well is going to stay relevant until the world cracks open. Therefore this theory is beautiful.

[boundswordasqalankhkai]

"so what now? i... think we'll be alright here. are you going to go find picard?" (from hugh in the obviously very canonical non-au situation where he's perfectly fine and elnor was able to save him)

“I am not going to leave until I know your people are safe. I know the Tal Shiar are after the girl, but there must be a reason she was here, and I’m sure they realize that, which means they’ll probably be back.”

[v-e-l-v-e-t-g-o-l-d-m-i-n-e]

So, Star Trek: Picard - here is my late review of this season as a whole. Spoilers for the whole season under the cut.

   When this show was announced, i remember feeling pretty excited. Not for the expected reason. I mean, I was excited to get to see Picard again because he is a favorite character, but what I was most excited for was to finally see a Star Trek show going to the future again after so long.

   Don’t get me wrong, I do love Enterprise and Discovery, and I don’t even mind the AOS films too much. I truly do. I think they’re very much Star Trek at heart, they’re good shows full of lovable characters and I do adore them, but for ages now I have been wanting to see something set in the Trek universe going to the future, and Star Trek: Picard finally did it.

    Certainly not the way I imagined it going, but I have no problems of the direction it went.

    The last tidbit of information that we had about the Trek universe in the future came from the AOS films saying that Romulus was destroyed. I never particulary enjoyed the idea of having Romulus destroyed in Primeverse and I especially dislike the notion of Vulcan destroyed in the Kelvin Timeline, but tbh? I’m glad Picard made a Big Deal of it. That Romulus being destroyed was something huge and that it had an impact not only for Romulans, but for whole quadrant, for the Federation.

    I think the Federation becoming something more corrupt is quite in character for what we have seen in the previous season. The Federation always had the... potential to do so, and despite what many people say, all Trek shows, even TOS, flirted with this idea.

   it makes a lot of sense and it always did, because the Federation is an institution, and like all institutions it needs to be constantly checked to see it it hasn’t become a parody of itself along the way.

    After the Borg invasion, after the Dominion war, I think is quite in character for the Federation to be wary, to not be eager to offer help to someone who was more often than not an enemy. Even more in character of Picard to be incensed by the idea of not helping a people losing their entire planet.

    Even more in character of Picard to, seeing this and seeing the synth ban, leave the Federation in a failed bluff to get his way, but still being stubborn enough and loyal enough  to his principles to not return to them after the bluff failed, and to say, decades later, that they were indeed wrong.

     so, this is the background of the action - a future where Romulans are essentially refugees, unwanted refugees, not unlike the xBS in Hugh’s cube, where the Federation is very cinical and cold, unwilling to trust so easily, and Picard is an old man, haunted by the loss of a dear friend, and that’s where the heart of this shows lives.

    Emotionally speaking, the heart of Star Trek: Picard is all about Data. All about Data and Picard, how much Picard loved Data, treasured him as a friend, never voiced it and spent twenty years mourning Data without properly dealing with it.

    Picard was always quite emotionally constipated, after all.

    I always thought that Data dying to save Picard would be something that would weight on Picard, but I was surprised to learn in this show how much it hurts him. I dream about you all the time, Picard tells Data in the last episode of the season; You don’t remember your death and I can’t forget it, he also tells him, and these first episodes tells us this. He really dreams about Data, small, little things, and his death is so clearly something he never got over, which is more easily seen when Dahj Asha comes to the picture.

    When Picard learns about who Dahj is, it’s clearly something that deeply affects him. Very clearly that, since he could not save Data, he would do anything to save his daughter, even a daughter Data never met. He’s crushed when Dahj is killed, and once again so determined to save Soji when he learns about her existence.

    I talked about this before - at the end, is all very much about Data, about how Picard never had closure over his death. We, the audience, at least got to hear Data say goodbye in Star Trek: Nemesis. Picard didn’t. All he saw was data transporting him, and then the ship Data was one blowing up. I rewatched Nemesis a short while ago and Picard seems shellshocked in that scene; he can’t hardly speak. I doubted he ever sat down and dealt, properly, with the trauma of this loss and what it meant to him and as a result, he never /quite/ got over Data’s death the way that he perhaps would otherwise.

    This is the emotional heart ot this show, where the heart strings are pulled. Is not the only important thing, ofc, and I should speak a little about the new characters as well.

    Chris Rios, Agnes Juratti, Raffi Musiker, Elnor, Soji Asha, Seven of Nine, Narek, Narissa.

    Chris Rios might be my favorite of the new bunch. Wants to be broody and suave, but it’s actually a sweetheart with a heart on his sleeve. Claims to care about business and getting paid but I don’t think anyone believes him. Santiago Cabrera is doing a wonderful job with him and his many, many holograms.

    Agnes is a character a bit all over the place for me. I like the potential of her and Alison Pill plays her in a very ~adorkable~ kind of way, but I don’t like very much what was done with her so far. I do like that she was able to win over the mindfuck done to her, but overall I don’t think she was used very well so far. I do hope they get  around to it on s2 and give her a better arc.

    Raffi is someone I love dearly. She’s a great character, very smart, with a lot of determination, very sharp, and she’s such a mess. The scene where she’s with her son is very touching, because you can see the hurt on both of them - on Raffi, wanting to do better, on her son, tired of being hurt and not willing to risk getting burned again. She’s cross with Picard at first but once she’s in, she’s so fierce and loyal. An amazing friend to have, and Michelle Hurd plays her really well.

    I talked quite a bit about Soji Asha already, but she’s a character I love dearly. She barely knows herself at this point, but she’s curious, and friendly, clever and so clearly full of emotions. She’s angry and she’s confused, but she has such potential to be a kind, good being, just like her father was. Isa Briones is a wonder with her.

    Elnor is lovely and I absolutely love the idea behind his character, but so far he’s a bit all over the place as well, like Agnes. The show doesn’t seem to know very well what to do with him but I hope they find out yet, because I sure hope he sticks around!

    Narek and Narissa are some of the show’s weakness for me. Not a failure on the actors playing them, but in the narrative itself - they are not compelling characters that you can feel for. I think the last episode gave us a bit more with Narek, but still doesn’t make me feel much for him, and indifference is never a good thing to feel for a character, because it means the plot failed them.

     Is not secret for anyone in this blog that my least favorite Trek show is Voyager. I just think Voyager wasted so many, many many MANY opportunities of being an amazing show and it became just mediocre, but despite my complicated feelings for it, I do love its characters, and it’s no different with Seven of Nine. She’s an amazing character despite everything. despite the objectification and the catsuits, and sexist writers. I also do hate the C/7 end on Voyager (who doesn’t?) so it was a pleasant surprise to see Seven on Picard. It’s really so freaking good to see her out of a catsuit. I was surprised to see her in a role as a ranger, but tbh I like it quite a bit? I wish the show had show us more about how she ended up in this position and if she’s still in touch with her Voyager mates, so I’m hoping s2 will touch on that eventually.

    also Seven/Raffi? Lots of potential here. I love this idea, but tbh I will need more than just tender hand holding between them. Again, hoping season two will step up on it!

     Star Trek: Picard is also very much about this crew of mismatched crew slowly becoming friends, maybe even family eventually. Is about Picard becoming more vulnerable, emotionally, and dealing with his grief over his dear friend, who died protecting him. It’s about the xBs’s lack of place in the galaxy, about the rage of Romulans who lost so much, about the Federation learning to be less ruthless again, maybe.

    Is very much about hope even in the bleakest of the situations, of doing the right thing against all the odds, of being willing to help a friend in need, and I, for one, can’t consider this anything but pure Star Trek, tbh.

   Was it a perfect first season? Like any other Star Trek show, no, of course not, but it has more strong points than weaknesses, and it did deliver a beautiful first season.

[reflectingiridescent]

I've been thinking about this moment for months. This scene is so jarringly lit (a lot of Picard is), so this shot of Seven watching Picard walking away stands out because it's so...bright? We know everyone thinks Picard is going to die at this point, and this scene is constructed to look like Picard going off into the light. But I'm just thinking about the amount of emotion on Seven's face. Seven and Picard don't connect that much in person, but the show makes a point of showing us how she loses so many people who can relate to her very specific life experience: Icheb, Hugh, and - at least it looks like it in this moment - Picard. And even then, we're reminded that Seven's rare because she was assimilated so young and was able to get out (thanks to Voyager). I am Seven of Nine. I am alone, but I will adapt, Seven says in Voyager. She says this very early in her arc, but it's applicable to her at any point in time. The theme of being alone is one very core to Voyager but is also very central to who Seven is and how she develops. We don't have many other examples, because again being severed from the Borg and being functional is so rare (notable that Seven is able to do it the best out of anyone, though it comes with a clear cost), but both Icheb and Hugh have an easier time connecting with people than she does. And that's what we get here again, her alone. Her reflection on being alone. Elnor is set up to be like a son to Picard (in this season, anyway), and Elnor's left with Seven. The xBs are left with Seven. In this moment, she's left with the legacies of all these people who share a life experience with her. But Icheb, the closest thing Seven has to a legacy, is gone. Yet there's such a sense of a "passing of the torch" here. We get this callback to "saving the galaxy", which Seven brings up when she and Picard have their talk. We learn later that Seven's completely lost her faith in that kind of thing (and by extension, the Starfleet kind of thing) because of her experience with Bjayzl and some of the things she's seen the Federation neglect as a Fenris Ranger. But she still very much believes in going to help where there is a need for it.

Picard says that whatever happens now is all on her, which is so interesting. Honestly this plus the fact that they give her Kirk's line with the punk on a bus has me saying Seven spinoff when???

Symbolic of a shift in mindset and methods, maybe, even if that exists just for this particular Trek show. A set up for a generational passing of the torch (because Seven was comparatively so young the first time we see her in Star Trek), perhaps. A move away from looking to institutions to point us toward "the right thing" and toward people's individual critical thinking to figure that out for themselves.

Either way, it just kills me, this look on her face she has while she sees him walk away. Picard, though someone she's known for a short time and known of longer, is yet another loss. But he also saddles her with a bit of a burden - and that's not really new to Seven, who's already put quite a large burden of care on herself. Annika still has more to do. The picture we're painted of Seven in s1 is that of a person who is flawed, conflicted, well-meaning - and unapolegetically an individual. No one else is doing what she does the way she does it! She's so lonely (though it seems she's a little less lonely by the time s2 rolls around), but she can't stop trying to help people. And Picard suggests that that's what the galaxy needs.

[wildishmazz]

Picard, S01 E07