Star Trek Picard Season 1 - Discussion Thread - *SPOILERS*

[Kheren]

Episode 07: Nepenthe... or The Emptiness of Space.

I think this is the first time I see a totally useless TV episode in a series.

Consider this; if Soji and Picard had beamed back to the ship, as in any real Star Trek show, the only thing significant left of this 7th episode is the space chase; which most of it could have taken the thus freed last minutes of episode 6 and a few at the beginning of episode 08 (then becoming 07...)

Now, remember STD season 2 nonsense ending? When they jumped into time to escape an AI they had already destroyed; and here we go again with Elnor staying behind when Soji and Picard are already gone, well before any guard shows up... even if ignoring that ALL of them could have simply beamed back long before that.

And so in this episode, we follow mere snipets of a very un-Trek chase inside the Borg cube to give some empty ''action'' to an hour where nothing happens. I guess they needed to give the Elrond rip-off something to do, as he has been just dead weight since introduced several episodes earlier.

The jarring contrast between the Nepenthe scenes and the rest and the length of the episode evidence the reshoots to shoehorn Troi and Riker. It was initially stated that NO other TNG character would be in this show (at the insistence of Sir Patrick). But disastrous screen tests forced Kurtzman's hand; hence this long, disjointed filler episode.

One particular scene struck me as a clear metaphor of this whole show. We see Kastra and Soji talking while Picard trails silently behind; women in front, talking, leading the way, moving the story... while the man follows meekly behind, silent, out of focus, doing nothing.

This is a Picard show where Picard is but a supporting character to strong women center and true actors of the story; including the ridiculous Vulcan with Shades, mindmelding a recall of STD season 2 and a preview of season 3; official confirmation this show and STD are in the same Abrams/Kurtzman Prime Universe... and that this Picard show will end in disaster for the Federation. Goodbye utopia; goodbye Star Trek.

You could skip this episode and miss nothing at all of this thin, slow, overstretched plot; unfortunately, something you could say of at least half the episodes so far. Yeah, you would have missed Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis, both charming as ever (except when Troi berates Picard; as it must be in every episode; on your knees you privileged straight white man). Alas, their short, nostalgia-exploiting presence only highlights how cliche, superficial and uninteresting all the other characters are; including miserable J.L.

And to turn the knife in the wound; just after this, CTV Sy-Fy showed TNG The Inner Light. The contrast between awful Kurtzmantrek and true-Trek, between J.L. and Captain Picard, was like an eyepoke and a throat chop followed by a kick in the balls.

Here is what you've been missing. And here is what you're left with.

3 episodes left... and not much hope.

[Jeff T]

I have to admit though, it was awesome seeing Riker and Troi again. Their chemistry is still there. 

If there is a next season, I just wish they would refocus the direction towards more a classic Star Trek-like theme in storytelling and allow Picard to be more Jean Luc than JL.

[Kheren]

Me too Jeff. But they can't. And they won't.

TNG is part of CBS license and Kurtzman is working under Abrams/Bad Robot license. Each time they use anything related to Classic Trek, be it a few seconds of a shot of the Ent D or Riker in an full episode, they have to buy that right separately each time they use it as profits, royalties etc goes to CBS and not to Secret Hideout/Bad Robot, including any merchandizing in their likeness.

That's why for example you don't see any Starfleet starship in this Star Trek show. Moreover, none of the other TNG characters were supposed to be in there; not only because of the license and the fact that they can't cash on any action figure of them, but because Sir Patrick himself did not want any of them to be part of the show at all; only him.

He was adamant also that this should not be anything like TNG; and he demanded that his politics be the core of the show. Otherwise he would not be involved at all.

It's disastrous test screenings and because Netflix and the merchandizing licencees walked out on them ''until they made real Star TRek'' that Kurtzman was forced to shoehorn all the Classic Trek stuff/characters in there. Hence why this show looks so disjointed.

At least, nothing prevented them to follow the spirit of Star Trek and have quality stories. The Orville does it perfectly without any licence or reference to Star Trek at all... and even manages to look more like Star TRek than anything in the current ''official'' Trek!

But no; they don't understand Star Trek and they don't care about Star Trek; only about the money and their SJW agenda.

It will take a few years before we get Star Trek back, Jeff; if ever. There will be nothing as long as Secret Hideout and Bad Robot can hold onto their license or until CBS buy it off to put it back in the hands of people who know and love Star Trek.

Hopefully, before it is all utterly destroyed as the BBC did with Dr Who. It took them just one hour to destroy it's 60 years of canon forever. That could happen to Trek too.

[Athos]

                                      ** RED ALERT **
Spoilers are in this post and thread.  If you have not watched the latest episode of Star Trek Picard and wish to be surprised, do not read any further.

Episode 8: Broken Pieces


This episode starts by explaining how Oh and the Zhat Vash came to hate AI so much.  An ancient civilization had left a warning of what happened to their race when they developed AI; death and destruction.  We see a ceremony where, all women for some reason, were going through a ceremony and interacting with the ancient civilization's artifact.  They call the ceremony "the Admonition".  Interestingly, the Romulan woman who was assimilated, then liberated, and was playing with tarot cards when Soji first met her was there at the Admonition along with Narrisa and Oh.  The Admonition drove most of the women insane to the point that they killed themselves.  Only Narrisa and the Romulan ex-Borg (before she was assimilated) survived, but the Romulan ex-Borg was a little insane.  This leads to an explanation of why the Borg cube shut down after assimilating the Romulan woman; the Borg couldn't process the images that the Romulan woman's mind held from the Admonition.  We also learn that the soon to be assimilated Romulan woman is Narrisa's "auntie".  We later learn that the planet that the Admonition occurs on, the planet where the ancient civilization left the artifact/warning, is in a system with 8 stars, the planet being at the gravitational center of them all.  Translation, the ancient civilization constructed this 8-star system.  They moved around 8 stars to build the gravitationally symmetric system. We learn from Raffi that the "enclave of 8" that she previously mentioned is actually this system.

Note: Some of the images that we see during the Admonition are Lt Cmdr Airiam (ST Discovery) and Lt Cmdr Data. 

We then jump to the present day Borg cube where Narrisa is at the bed-side of her auntie.  We learn that Narrisa is a colonel in the Tal Shiar.  The Romulans track down Elnor and then Seven shows up and kills them.  We do find out that the beacon that summoned Seven was given to Hugh, so Picard still has his for future use.  Seven and Elnor then go to the Borg Queen's chamber; Seven activates the Cube which then begins to regenerate.  When Colonel Narrisa starts killing drones, Seven plugs into the cube and becomes the "Queen" of the cube.  This sequence is WAAY COOL.  Unfortunately, the Romulans were ready and blew all of the drones into space.  I mean c'mon; you gotta know that the Romulans would have a fail-safe in place.  We see a Romulan fleet arrive at the Cube, pick up Colonel Narrisa, and head out for Soji's homeworld.  Seven disconnects from the cube. 

Picard and Soji beam up to the La Sirena...and Rios freaks out.  No one knows why until later.  Rios spends most of the episode in his quarters.  Raffi tells Picard about Juratti (about the tracking device and killing Maddox).  At least we know that the EMH isn't entirely useless; he did know what happened after Juratti turned him off. 

Picard updates Starfleet; Fleet Admiral Clancy believes Picard after the report and sends "a squadron" to meet up with them at DS12.  Interesting; the only time "squadron" or "wing" was used in Starfleet was during the Dominion War.  So what is a "squadron" in Starfleet?  I think this was a cheap way to not specifically mention individual starship names.  Picard and Soji are then in the mess hall talking; they have a conversation like Picard should have had with Soji from the get go.  They spoke about Data; Soji states that Data loved Picard and awww, it's a touching moment. 

We finally get some background on Rios.  He pulls out his Starfleet trunk; we see his uniform, his comm badge, the pips that he wore (up to Commander) and the ship that he served on, the USS Ibn Majid.  In 2390 while patrolling the Vayt sector the ibn Majid encountered a small ship of unknown origin, and beamed aboard its two passengers, Ambassador Beautiful Flower (a male android created by Maddox) and Jana (a female android created by Maddox that looked exactly like Soji).  Captain Alonzo Vandermeer received a "black flag order" from Starfleet Security (specifically Commodore Oh) to kill the two beings, otherwise his ship would be destroyed with all hands. Rios confronted Vandermeer, after he murdered the two beings with his phaser, and the Captain shot himself in the mouth. Rios covered everything up, just as Vandermeer was ordered to do. He beamed the bodies into space, deleted the transporter logs, and told the fleet that the Captain had committed suicide for no reason. Six months later, Rios was discharged from Starfleet, officially for post-traumatic dysphoria.  (Ibn Majid was an Arabian navigator and cartographer born in the 1430s.)  And hence the name of the episode because Rios is broken and Raffi had to put the pieces together to figure out what's up with him.  This story also reflects a very dark Starfleet, one willing to destroy its own ships.  But, this is another order by Commodore Oh, so not certain it really comes from Starfleet.  What's scary is that the Captain and Rios went along with the order and didn't try to fight it.  Sisko and Bashir fought against Section 31; why didn't Vandermeer and Rios try to stand up to the obviously corrupt order.

Juratti wakes up to Picard looking over her.  Picard informs Juratti that they are going to DS12 and that she will turn herself over to the authorities for the murder of Maddox.  Juratti explains that Commodore Oh put "poison" into her mind along with the tracker into her body.  Juratti also explains that these images are like hell and that she is suicidal because of it.  This is consistent given the Romulan's actions during the Admonition ceremony.  Soji walks into sickbay, and Juratti acts like a schoolgirl around Soji.  It's an interesting dynamic; Soji is the ultimate culmination of Juratti's professional career but yet Juratti knows that Soji, a synth, is "the destroyer". 

The crew of the La Sirena get together around the dinner table; Juratti apologizes to the crew for her actions.  Rios explains why he freaked out.  Raffi explains what she learned of the 8-star system, the planet, and the Admonition.  Picard and Juratti adds their knowledge of the story.  Raffi fills us in that Commodore Oh is actually half Vulcan, half Romulan which explans why she acts like a Romulan but can mind-meld, and how Oh passes as a Vulcan.  The story leads back to Soji's homeworld.  Soji tries to take over the La Sirena to get back to her home world.  This is like how Data took over the Enterprise in response to a signal from Noonian Soong.  Before Soji can go anywhere, Rios takes back control of his ship by signing a lullibye that his mother used to sing to him.  Obviously this was a pre-programmed override function.  Picard decides that the crew should take Soji back to her home planet and not continue on to Starbase 12 (so much for the Starfleet squadron of reinforcements). 

In a kindof funny moment, Picard tried to pilot the La Sirena and then realizes that he doesn't know how to work the holographic interface. LOL  While they were on their way, Picard stated to Rios in a story that "When I was an ensign on the Reliant..."  Okay, so obviously this isn't the same USS Reliant that Khan took control of and destroyed in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  The ship arrives at the Borg Transwarp Conduit, then goes through, and is immediately followed by a small Romulan ship (Narrek if I had to guess).  And that's the episode. 

Good storytelling, espeically the Picard speech at the end right before going into the transwarp hub.  We get a lot of background and holes in the story are now filled.  It's all coming together.  See below for a completely negative perspective.

[Kheren]

STAR TREK PICARD EPISODE 08: Broken Pieces indeed.

At last not a filler episode. We finally learn things, things finally happen and Picard (finally!) comes to speed with us viewers. There is pretty good acting, especially from Santiago Cabrera. For full uncritical praise, please read above.

To anyone liking this show; you are certainly welcome to it and do enjoy it. I want too so much myself. I'm still watching. Alas, this is what I got:


1- A pseudo-feminist show. Case in point: yet another all female (failed) society, the Foremothers; to add to now confirmed female-led (inefficient) Jath Vash, to all female (do nothing) assassin-nuns and to Starfleet all female (corrupt) military. And this with a female (Mary Sue) main protagonist, a female (incestuous) main villain, female (nagging) support characters, female (ruthless) adversaries...

All the while, men are secondary, evil, idiotic, broken or useless, when not mere props for this propaganda. Case in point: they name a boy... Beautiful Flower. Add this to the Space-Elf called... sister-boy and you see the Michael Burhnam-style heavy handing. Worse still, they take time to show us the so-called main character, a former crack pilot (TNG Booby Trap anyone?), as totally incompetent and outdated like some illiterate grandpa seeing his first smartphone. Now That's the Jean-Luc Picard I remember and wanted to see!

For sure this is not The Mandalorian.


2- One of the worst written TV shows, not even consistent with itself. Case in point: Remember how it was impossible for Picard to get to the cube without permits (and help from a fired drug addict and public humiliation), avoid scans and guards, beam out etc? But here comes Deus-Ex-of-Nine to save the day, in a flash, no problem getting aboard, shooting everyone unopposed, taking her time conversing, easily becoming Minime Borg Queen and escaping, no stargate needed (escape where? Her still undetected ship?).

And on a side note, since when do Borg drones die in space? No one on this writing team watched First Contact?

For sure this is not The Expanse.


3- A plagiarised show. Case in point: the central plot point for the whole series is that, once a civilization gets to create sentient synthetics, ''something'' comes to destroy everything. This is lifted straight out of the Mass Effect game. Just like STD season 01 was heavily plagiarizing the Indy game Tardigrades. Same greedy producers and inept writers after all.

For sure this is not The Orville.


4- A deconstruction of Star Trek. Case in point: the return of Admiral Effing Hubris. Of course Picard is going to get F-bombed again because this is sooo Trek. And now, Evil Starfleet matriarch sends him a squadron when she would not even lend him a shuttle in episode 02. Yes, evil Starfleet, which orders captains to murder women and children and threatens to blow up ship and crew if not covered up, resulting in a suicide and a broken man. And Picard affirms with conviction that it is all Starfleet's doing; not of infiltrators like Oh or even some few rotten apples.

Welcome to generic space show Dark Trek Grim.

For sure this is not Star Trek.


And to think this episode was the best one so far... Worst still, it confirms that this Picard show doesn't need Picard at all. Take him out and this same story can still be fully told, just with Raffi, Rios, Jerati and especially Soji which IS the central character, NOT Picard. He's just there to activate a nostalgia-powered tractor beam.

Dr Who proved it took only one episode to utterly destroy a 60 years old major franchise.

We have two left.

Interestingly enough, CTV Sy-Fy showed TNG Tapestry right after this. Now we know who that JL character really is.

[Redding]

So.. the observation I got here was that the Federation kicked along fine for 300 years while under mostly male control.
But almost as soon as women took control they turned it into a dystopian Society?
Is that the message they were hoping to relay? Because that's what it seems.

[Kheren]

You hit the nail right on the head, Redding. These writers are so bad they don't even realize their woke message is shooting their cause in the foot.

Or possibly... they are mysoginists disguised as woke people (because this is the only way to get a job currently in Hollywood) fooling the woke people the same way Alien in the 80's fooled people into beleiving a woman was the hero of the story.

Yep, Alien was a great example of manipulating feminists. Watch that movie again. They didn't hire any of the hotties of the 80's for this role; they chose Sigourney Weaver to play the heroin; a six foot tall, skinny, flat-chested, short haired woman that, each time she talked and acted like a (stereotyped) male (swearing, bullying, gun-toting) she was on top; but each time she acted like a (stereotyped) female (caring, sensitive, crying) she was about to get killed... until she reverted to act like a (stereotyped) man. All the while, the moment the men started acting like (stereotyped) women (panicking, crying, nagging) they got killed. Even the ship's corporate AI is revealed as evil and it's called... Mother.

So the message was this: if a woman wants to be equal to a man she has to be a man. 

This Picard show might just be the same thing; it is either that, or Kurtzman and Co are so braindead and incompetent, they don't even realize they are themselves utterly destroying the very message they think they are putting forward; their true message is: women in charge is dystopia and will bring about the fall of everything, even a utopia like Star Trek's United Federation of Planets.

Personally, I opt for that second option because the rest of the show is not a fraction as intelligently and skillfully made as Alien was.

[Athos]

                                      ** RED ALERT **
Spoilers are in this post and thread.  If you have not watched the latest episode of Star Trek Picard and wish to be surprised, do not read any further.

Episode 9: Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1


We left episode 8 with the La Sirena entering into the transwarp conduit  and a small Romulan ship (Narrek) following them into the conduit.  This episode picks up immediately where episode 8 left off with the La Sirena arriving at 4th planet of the Ghulion System which we learn is called Coppelius.  And then Narrek begins shooting the La Sirena.  A firefight ensues, and then the Artifact (Borg Cube) comes through the transwarp conduit; it's Seven to the rescue!  But before Seven can begin firing on Narrek's ship, 5 orchids (yes, orchids) envelop the 2 smaller ships and attach to the Borg cube, shutting down all power to those ships and pulling them into the atmosphere of Coppelius.

***Side rant...really!?  Flowers!?  That's your freakin weapon?  I get that Maddox apparently liked orchids as Dahj & Soji talked about a hybrid orchid, but SERIOUSLY!?  Stupid, stupid idea.  Torpedoes or an orbital satellite defense system would make more sense.  If the planet already possessed the ability to dampen on-board power systems (that's what it is called BTW, a power-dampening field), they would not need a F*ing flower to deliver it!  We have seen this occur many times in TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT; they didn't need a flower!  And how do they launch the flowers into orbit?  And why would you want to pull an enemy spacecraft down onto your own planet!?  If that Borg Cube was fully crewed by Borg, they would now have a crap-ton of Borg marching in to take over and assimilate.  Furthermore, something as large as a Borg cube crashing into a planet would cause a massive impact and environmental changes.  Think dinosaur-ending asteroid.  Really stupid.***

Okay, if you get past how the ships were all pulled onto the surface, and the fact that the planet was not cast into an ice age, we continue the story.  On the way through the atmosphere, Picard's condition, the one identified back in a previous episode, the one TNG calls Irumodic Syndrome, rears it's head as Picard appears to be having an episode.  Picard wakes to Juratti attending him, and Jurratti indicating that she found out about Picard's condition.  Picard retains his senses, tags up with the rest of the crew to explain his plan, and announces his condition to the crew.  We see an old-school TNG-style briefing between Picard and the others on the La Sirena.

The crew walk to the Cube and find that Elnor, Seven, and the remaining ex-Borg have survived.  One of the ex-Borg's calls Picard "Locutus" which makes Picard physically back away.  They manage to get the Borg's long-range sensors online and learn that there is a Romulan fleet of 218 warbirds in-bound to the planet.  This is the Zhat Vash fleet.  Picard and Elnor have a father/son-like moment, then Elnor decides to stay with Seven and the Cube as they need protection (this appears to be true as we later see Narrek running towards the cube).  Seven says to Picard, "Keep saving the galaxy Picard" to which Picard replied, "That's all on you now."  That line is very telling; Picard obviously thinks that his time to live is growing short.  It might even be a foreshadow of Picard's death in a future episode.  Can they have a "Star Trek Picard" without Picard?

Okay, so the La Sirena crew goes to the main living area of the androids of Coppelius.  We see a bunch of twin androids (excuse me, synths because we are not allowed to call a rock a rock in this show) which is really cool.  Each pair looks differently from another pair; some are younger, some are older, different colors of hair and skin, different lengths of hair, male, female.  Some androids have the golden skin that we would expect to see of Data; others have more organic-looking skin.  Some have the yellow eyes of Data; others have more organic looking eyes.  All of this indicates a progression of the technology; if Data was the starting point, then Soji represents the most advanced model given that she looks entirely human, and bleeds like one too.  One of them, Arcana, recognizes Captain Jean-Luc Picard, "Data's captain" only reinforcing that they were all "born" from Data's neuron. 

Arcana, appears to be the leader and welcomes them all.  Soji informs them of the Romulan fleet that will arrive in 2 days; Arcana says that they only have 10 more power-dampening orchids (eye-roll) left, but can make more in time.  And then walks in Brent Spiner as Altan Inigo Soong, son of Noonian Soong.  This is the 3rd Soong that Brent Spiner has played; Arik Soong from Enterprise (who created the Augments), Noonian Soong from TNG (Lore, Data, B-4, and Juliana's creator), and now Altan Inigo Soong. 

*** We appear to have a contradiction with established canon in TNG with the presence of Altan Inigo Soong.  While Noonian Soong married Juliana O'Donnell, there was no mention of any son.  In fact, in 2338 when the Crystalline Entity attacked the Omicron Theta colony, Juliana was fatally injured.  Noonian re-created his wife in android form that looks increadibly human, to include tear ducts, which we see in TNG: Inheritance.  In that episode, Juliana establishes that Noonian and her had no biological children.  SO, the only way that Altan Inigo does not break canon is if Noonian got another woman pregnant prior to meeting Juliana which seems out of character as Noonian was very focused on his work.  This episode offers no explanation; most likely the writers were hoping that people wouldn't remember the information that I just provided.***

Altan and the rest of the android colony sit down and listen to Soji recount recent events to bring everyone up to speed.  We then meet Sutra who is the sister of Jana; an earlier (more Data-looking) model of Soji.  Recall that Jana was killed, so Sutra has no twin.  Sutra then performs a mind-meld with Juratti in order to see the Admonition for herself.

*** WHAT!?  Facepalm.  Ummm...how about NO!  Vulcans (or half-Vulcans) perform the Vulcan mind-meld, not synthetics!  Just because Sutra has been studying the mind meld does NOT give her the ability to perform such a thing.  Telepathy is purely an organic trait; a synthetic mind would need to be designed and built to have telepathy and in order to do that, the organic doing so would need to understand how it worked in the organic brain, which they do not know.  Look...I can study telepathy all I want, but that doesn't make me a telepath.  Not a plausible plot twist folks!***

If you can get past an android doing a mind meld, then we find out that the Admonition is actually a message from advanced synthetic life meant for other synthetic life.  We do indeed see Lt Cmdr Ariem and Lt Cmdr Data as I pointed out from last episode inside the message.  The message indicates that an alliance of syntheic life is watching and waiting for other syntheic life to signal them; that the synthetic alliance would protect other synthetic life and would destroy organic life.  Well, I think we know where this series is going.  Ultimately, of course, the Federation will survive.  The question is if the Federation will eliminate the ban and welcome synthetic life again, finding a new ally in the Synthetic Alliance, or not.  Sutra reveals her plan to Soji which is to signal the Syntheic Alliance.

Juratti finds Altan in his lab; Altan chastises her for the death of Maddox, then shows her his work.  Altan appears to be making another snythetic body and mentions a renewed interest in organic to synthetic mind transfer.  This points directly at Dr. Ira Graves (TNG: The Schizoid Man, Season 2) and his work where Dr. Graves transfers his mind into Data.  Altan suggests that his mind transfer work is urgent, indicating that he himself might be dying.  Juratti is next found holding Spot 2, a synthetic cat.  Another homage to Data and TNG.

Arcana provides a tool to Raffi to help fix their ship.  We then have a touching moment between Raffi and Picard where Raffi reveals that she loves him and that he's like a father to her; Picard states that he loves her too.  Picard attempts to contact Starfleet Command, to no avail. 

Narrek is captured by the synths, and they lock him up.  Narrek tries his mind-games on Saga (Arcana's twin) and Soji which was really quite pathetic; even in-character, in-story, it was a pathetic attempt at manipulation.  Soji says it best, "What a sad, twisted thing you are.  You disgust me, Narrek."  In response, Narrek states that "[The Romulans] are going to rain down fire on this world, and kill every so-called living thing on it."  In response, Soji states, "No, you won't."  This is important as it seems to reveal that Soji now agrees with Sutra in her plan to contact the Synthetic Alliance.  Sutra relieves Saga of guard duty, then lowers the forcefield holding Narrek; Sutra then enlists Narrek in her devious plans.  We then hear a scream and find Saga dead, the hummingbird broach stabbed into Saga's eye.  ***Rant...why would shoving a piece of glass through an android's eye kill the android!?  Data still functioned with just his head for crying out loud.  A synthetic life form should still be alive even after being impaled.***

Obviously Sutra freed Narrek and killed Saga to imply that Narrek had escaped on his own.  This was a good plot twist!  Saga is evil, like Lore!  Saga then stirs the pot by preaching against organics, revealing that she plans to contact the higher synthetic life that spans across galaxies to not only save the syntheics, but to eliminate the threat that ALL organics pose to synthetic life.  Picard picks up on this and counter argues that the synthetics would become mass murderers, fulfilling the prophesy that they would become the destroyers of organic life.  Picard offers to become an advocate for synthetic life to the Federation in order to end the ban.  Soong argues that the Federation would not listen to Picard.  Ultimately, the synths lock Picard up; Juratti is allowed to continue helping Soong. 

In the last scene, we see Commodore Oh in full Romulan attire on the bridge of the flagship of the Romulan fleet.  I guess she left her deep-cover in Starfleet?


***Theory...that body that Soong was working on combined with the mind-transfer technique: Picard is going to end up as a synthetic and that is how he is going to survive his illness.***

While this episode certainly continued the story, overall I was disappointed with the break in canon (Soong, mind-meld) and the other things I brought up.  Because of that, this is my least enjoyable episode.  It, of course, had its good moments though.  Sutra was an enjoyable twist and the colony in general with all the synths was great.  And I like the use of Soong, just hate how it breaks with canon.

Next episode is the last for Season 1; it should be quite interesting. 

[Kheren]

Star Trek Picard episode 09: Et In Arcadia Ego or Are We There Yet?


After the opening 5 minutes of badly edited starwarshy action of spaceships fighting like cartoon WWI Fokkers, with one pearl of Trek morality creeping in (to show JL wrong, again, to act like Jean-Luc Picard), we got to the heart of this series: the robot menace, artificial beings eradicating organic life.

That's it? One of the most bland, tired, cliched plot of sci-fi? What The Orville did as a parody last season? And we had to go through 8 boring set up episodes to get to... Star Trek The Motion Picture the Mirror Universe cut?

What has always been the strongest point of Star Trek, the writing, is the most glaring weakness of this Mass Effect III rip-off. Consider how this one 9th episode alone makes everything before it utter nonsense:

Remember episode 1? How did Romulans, down and decimated, get a fleet of 218 warships, when they needed enemy Starfleet to give them mere cargo ships to evacuate one planet when the Empire was in it's prime? That's first draft writing blatantly nullifying the very premise of the show.

Remember episode 2? JL now tells them all about his disease; why? Because Jerati found out? Why tell them only then to tell them not to talk about it? That's bad character interaction for the sake of cheap melodrama.

Remember episode 3? How come now Raffi is all mushy and lovesick over Picard? Didn't she stupidly sulked in a ridiculous mobile home for 14 years with drugs and booze, wasting her life blaming him for being fired, resentful of his privileged status? That's simply inconsitency in character behavior.

Remember episode 4? Why did they lost time to get a Space Elf as a bodyguard, who will do nothing relevant for 4 episodes so just to have him simply leave JL because he magically knows now that this weak, confused old man is going to die? That's definitely a badly written character.

Remember episode 5? Why spend time, effort and risk to get Maddox, only to have him killed, and for what, when the Michael-Burnham-style-out-of-the-blue ''Son of Soong'' was the one doing all the work and Jerati can herself do Maddox' work? That's improvised writing disregarding as much this show's plot points as canon.

Remember episode 6? Where are the constant electric storms of this planet? Where are the 8 suns supposedly around it? All the Federation personnel on the Cube, and Romulans, where are they now? And now they have seatbelts when in combat?That's inconsistencies shoehorned in to serve an obviously bad plot.

Remember episode 7? Narek lost their trail but somehow found it back? Seven-of-Nine disconnected from the Cube emptied of drones nevertheless flew it to follow Picard where she had no clue where he was going? And why? That's amateurish forced plot convenience.

Remember episode 8? Jerati is a confessed murderess and traitor; but instead of bringing her into custody at DS12 (where a squadron comes to help them to boot) they let her go free, even alone with an unconscious Picard, bring her with them because... reasons? That's even worse than plot armor.

The writers even forget that Stewart is playing Picard and have him do Professor X to speak for telepathic giant orchids flying in space. No, I'm not making this up. No it's not X-Men Xavier, it's Star Trek Picard. Well, that's what they say on the credits.

And we add ''lounge lizard'' to the archaic 21st century talk of these people from the 24th century. Guess if these writers made a modern cop show, they would use 18th century London street English.

Of course the massacre of canon continues. Is this the same Picard who had a fit with Dr Pulaski if she ever spoke of his routine heart transplant? Romulans let themselves be captured now? Androids can self-teach mind melds from books? They ''die'' with a stab in the eye and can't be repaired?

Oh and while we're at it, let's steal Spock's ''fascinating'' to hook fanboys who would buy a cheap hat because it has Picard sewed on it.

One final episode. Let's hope they don't go full Dr Who and destroy the battered Trek franchise.

I expect an STD season 2 finale; 45 minutes of empty space action (including Borg Cube and Starfleet squadron cavalry in... and some Fenris Rangers and Assassin nuns while we're at it) and 15 minutes of rushed superficial wrap-up contrived dialog to fail tying so many loose ends in denial of canon. Oh and Q is rumored to cameo in there; hopefully to laugh and say ''oops sorry, my bad, let's start over with episode one shall we?''

I wish.

And as the finale shocker, the Galactic Terminators come... and ''gasp'' Picard dies.

Yep, they set everything up to have Picard's mind transfered to an android body, so next season they will have a brand new super-JL, playable by any cheaper and younger actor than Sir Patrick.

If there is a season 2.

[Kheren]

Don't you wish this would happen to all of it?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eiwj-3115nM