Yeah, fair, if you don’t care for those instances of old Trek, you’re not going to like when new Trek embraces similar stuff. I actually like all the episodes I listed (also a fan of the novel The Wounded Sky, which the first one was based on), but that’s just me.
Compare this to all the places that newer shows paid lip service to science being cool and then went back to teleporting around instantly with mushrooms or causing all of the dilithium in the galaxy to explode with emotions or whatever.
100% fair not to like it, but I’ve got to say nonsense science and goofy premises are also very old school Trek. Consider Where No One Has Gone Before’s emotion drive, and its follow up episodes with warp bubble fantasy worlds and Wesley pausing time like some kinda child god.
Romance wasn’t a big part of season one, apart from the intentionally messy Caleb/Tarima, so you may just be watching for the wrong thing. I’d say there was chemistry to spare, but not a lot of follow through on it yet. Sounds like season 2 will see more, though.
Give a number if you prefer a number. Batista will not care if you say “just write ‘123’”
I don’t expect it to swing dramatically conservative; just to stay safely middle-of-the-road and say very little. But I do really hope to be proven wrong.
They only said it’s darker than the other films this pair has written… which is the likes of Spider-Man Homecoming. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Yeah, they only said it’s “sort of a different timeline” in reference to the Kelvin films. Fact is, for a good portion of the movie going public the prime timeline is a different timeline than the one they’re used to.
Kirk’s reaction to La’an’s name was strong enough that I feel like it’s a misdirect. They want us to think she dies to maximise the drama when she narrowly escapes whatever they have planned for her.
SNW was going to be cancelled at the end of this season, until the showrunner argued for another half-season to wrap things up. Which makes too much sense, since this was in many ways a shorter, breezier version of All Good Things. It even ends with a captain joining a poker game! And focussing on Uhura also works well for a pseudo-finale, since she was our focal character early in season 1 as well.
Which makes me wonder how the next season will feel. It reminds me of the Babylon 5 season 4 finale, which was written to function as the series finale when they thought they wouldn’t get renewed. And then the actual season 5 felt a little redundant. Not unwelcome, but kind of like a long addendum to the “main show”.
Regardless, an enjoyable episode. Celia Rose Gooding carried it well. They had fun with the time travel mechanics in a way that worked well enough. I think Trek relies too much on fan service, but I have to say the '60s hair tickled me, and I was delighted to see M’Ress. The Black / White Holes didn’t feel scary enough by far, but it seems like they weren’t exactly the real thing, so maybe that’s okay.
I enjoy SNW, but can’t argue the point. It often feels more like a teen drama than the actual teen drama Star Trek show.
I think you’re under-selling the level of depth Picard goes into here. You’re limiting your analysis to what happened in that isolated episode, when Picard is a serialized narrative that is making a much larger statement when taken as a whole. It confronts the theme of how we deal with an overwhelming threat through different facets of a number of different scenarios, only one of which is Soji’s decision in the last episode.
We see the Federation’s isolationist response to the loss of their shipyards, the neglect it leaves the Romulan refugees in, and the anti-synth sentiment it breeds. We see how that hardline attitude impacts even Federation citizens caught up in it, like Rafi and the Rikers. We also see the Federation’s response of the perceived threat of the Ex-Borg, and the effect that has on Hugh and Seven. And we see the Zhat Vash’s response to the knowledge of the “super-synths” and the terrible price the Romulan people pay for that.
All of these are maladaptive, fear-based reactions to the same sort of existential threat the synth colony faces in the final episode, and they’re all contrasted to the choice the synths make there. It’s all part of the same theme being dealt with through the entire season. The answer given to the question of “do the ends justify the means” in the last episode may just be one sentence long, but it’s the final sentence of an essay that started in episode one.
You said in your initial post that when a character crossed the line, Star Trek stopped and examined what that meant, and that’s exactly what’s happening throughout Picard. That’s why the tone is so grim for most of the season. As Picard said right up front, crossing that line means you’re “no longer Starfleet” – you lose something of yourself. And the entire season is driving home that point, but also showing the process of recovering from a mistake like that, and setting a better example for the next generation.
In that regard, I’d also push back against your comment about the synths. Star Trek has a long history of showing that technological advancement is not always accompanied by commensurate wisdom. The synths are like Data was in much of TNG: remarkably intelligent in some ways, childlike in others. A key difference being that they have pronounced emotions, so instead of child-like wonder and curiosity, they’re prone to emotional over-reaction. So maybe V’Ger is a better comparison than Data – an enormous super-intelligence, prone to child-like tantrums.
I’ve appreciated this talk because, like I said, I do think Picard really failed narratively in a lot of ways, so I’d usually not bother to take the time to defend the things that do work. But it’s nice to take a moment to do so, lets me appreciate it a little more myself.
I’ll definitely agree that they could have developed the ethical conflict more. The biggest problem with Picard’s first season was that they really dragged their feet in the first half and then rushed through the climax, throwing up problems and solutions that could have actually been interesting if they’d taken the time to really develop them. It was clear they didn’t have things mapped out and it really hurt them.
But I do think the dilemma as it stands speaks directly against “ends justify the means” thinking. Both sides face an existential threat that could easily justify using destructive means to survive. The synthetics face being wiped out by a Romulan armada short term, and Federation policy long term. Their self-interest says they should call in the organic-destroying super-synths. The Federation (and the rest of the galaxy) face destruction if the synthetics make that call. Their self-interest says they should let the Romulans wipe out the synth colony first.
Neither of those happen, though. Instead Picard fights off the Romulans until Riker arrives, putting his faith in the hope that the synths wont make the call. And the synths stand down, putting their faith in an institution that has up until now been working to legislate them out of existence. And it turns out to be the right decision for both.
They’re all pretty bad in their own ways, but they’re also all a better send off to the TNG era than Nemesis was. So, personally, I’m glad they exist.
I found Picard to be the most poorly written of the modern Trek series, with some great ideas wasted by haphazard and shoddy execution, but:
Season one ends with Picard convincing Soji that the safety and freedom of synthetic life is not worth welcoming entities that would destroy organic life. Instead she’s working towards peace and understanding in season 2.
Season two charts a redemption arc for no less than the Borg Collective, very much following up on the themes of I, Borg.
Season three shows the result of Section 31’s “ends justify the means” thinking during the Dominion War: enduring hatred leading to the infiltration of Starfleet and near destruction of the Federation.
It’s not well executed, and there is certainly plenty I disagree with, but I think for the most part Picard aligns with the principles you’re talking about.
I am pissed that we’re entering the final stretch of the series, and only now getting Runa as a regular cast member. We’ve been robbed.
Ethan Peck and Anson Mount are hilarious in this episode, the costuming really was fabulous, and it was nice to get a little more Pelia than usual. The resolution to La’an’s arc was kind of a let down, though. This episode in itself worked fine, but I was expecting circumstances to really tempt her to lean into her darkness at some point in the season. The closest we got was her situation on the Griffen, and she never dipped below “grumpy” since. I felt like the build up promised a little more.
It’s not the size, it’s how you use it.
Anson Mount doing some top tier mugging here.
Picard’s torturer engaging in a “take your child to work day” exercise like it’s a normal 9 to 5 is so chilling.
Disagree. TOS is best.