Star Trek: Picard - Season One - CBS All Access - starring Patrick Stewart (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

I just saw Picard. Spoilers:

It’s good that the show sucked me in with so many questions and wanting to see more. I did like how it starts with the Enterprise.

Josh, I guess in my mature years, while I was very excited to see the new Picard series, I was able to focus on my job today and knew when I got home, I could enjoy the premiere after having dinner. But I remember what it’s like to have so much anticipation. I was eagerly anticipating this. After all, it’s like for me when Star Trek The Motion Picture came out after all the anticipation. But this is your Enterprise.

I too wonder if Maddox plays a role in the future episodes. What the heck, a Romulan reclamation center? And what are they doing in that cube. I guess it will be explained when we see Seven. And yes, interesting that the Romulans have what sounds like British or Irish accents. I guess they chose actors from that background to portray them with a certain regal quality.

I recently watched Bladrunner. So the whole business of the synthetics revolting on Mars gave me a Bladerunner vibe.

I don’t know what the deal is with the Romulans who are at Picard’s house. Why are they there, I know from the dialogue about Picard’s efforts to help the Romulans before the nova hit. So they are refugees who appreciated his help. Just seemed odd that they were more like servants then maybe healthcare workers.

The reason for Picard’s Starfleet exit is interesting and a painful one for him. I see some people here don’t like that. Yeah, I can understand that. How can such an institution go from such a noble one to loose its principles. It’s like James Bond has to fight with MI6 again because there’s something wrong inside? We shall see what happens.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m guessing they’ll show it in the show, but the prequel comic series introduces the idea that when the Federation was sent to coordinate a Romulan evacuation, that the Romulans lied to Starfleet about how many people needed rescuing. They only gave the Federation the locations and number of Romulans of a certain caste to be rescued, while they kept the Federation from realizing how many millions or billions of other people lived in Romulan territory that weren’t Romulans by species. Imagine a building burning down and the superintendent telling the fire department only about the people in the building who were of the same ethnicity.

The comic had production delays and we don’t know how it ends yet. But I believe he met the Romulans in his house during his rescue mission - they were outcasts who did not support how their government was abandoning people but had no power to stop it. My guess is that Starfleet told Picard to come back home after the attack on Mars, but that Picard was unwilling to leave the people he just met behind, so that he rescued them anyway. Or something like that.

At the very least, it seems clear to me that he went out on a limb to save their lives, that he paid a price for that, and that they weren’t going to abandon him.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

And I do like that the series is using trouble in Starfleet as a major story point. Roddenberry had this vision of humanity outgrowing it’s flaws and that’s a beautiful notion, but I think it’s also probably true that you can never really let your guard down in the eternal march towards truth and justice. And we saw this more perfect Starfleet making increasingly poor decisions by the end of the TNG and in DS9 and a little in Voyager too. The last interactions we had with Starfleet in the 24th century weren’t shining beacons of hope, and I like that they’re incorporating that into the story, rather than insisting that Starfleet is perfect and ignoring all evidence to the contrary.

You could see how hard it was for Picard to say that Starfleet wasn’t Starfleet anymore. And when he said it, it felt almost like being punched in the gut. I’ve always liked the daydream fantasy that whatever is wrong today, somehow we’ll get it right by then. And I like that this series seems to be calling for more than just fantasy and daydreams. It seems to be saying as a subtext that we can’t just hope for a better world to just happen to us one day, but that we’ll have to work to build it, and that that work never ends. I think when the season is over, that the moral will be to not give up, to never surrender your voice, and that all is only lost when you believe that to be the truth.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Josh. I’m not likely to read the comics, so that background is good to know. Like you said, maybe they will show that story in a future episode.

 

[Nelson Au]

My read on this Starfleet is a possible subtle reflection of what is happening today.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

As for what the Romulans are doing with the cube... earlier in the show it’s said that all research on synthetic life and all building of such is forbidden in the whole of the galaxy by treaty.

A Borg cube would be a great resource for a group of people looking to conduct illegal scientific research and production without raising a red flag. Nevermind the weapons capability if you could reverse engineer those. It sounds like a shortcut the deposed militant remnants of a shattered society could use to create something horrifying that could allow them to overpower any adversary they faced.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My read on this Starfleet is a possible subtle reflection of what is happening today.

I think you’re right. Trek has always done that. But what I like about how they’re doing it here is that they’re not doing a thinly veiled parable of our world today. The loss of hope that Picard feels doesn’t seem contrived to directly respond to our times today. It feels like an organic development in his world. Trek does its best real world commentary when it allows you to follow a character as that character works his or her way through a situation, where their feelings and reactions can help us understand our own. The best Trek shows rather than tells. It invites us to think about how something makes us feel and to consider why we feel that way.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Josh, I think you’re right about show rather then tell.

oh yeah, I have not seen any of the Short Treks. I just read something on trekmovie that says one of the Short Treks story relates to the events on Mars. I’ll have to see that.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It’s the one called “Children of Mars” and it runs for about eight minutes. I found it to be very moving in its own right. Without giving too much away, I loved that it focused on people receiving news of the attack rather than portraying the attack itself. In doing so, it’s able to tell a very specific story of how it affects two people, while feeling universally applicable.

 

[Tino]

Loved the premier. Like wrapping myself in a warm blanket on a cold wintry night.

Is there any chance

Spoiler

Daj is still alive? I loved her character.

 

[Sam Favate]

Is there any chance

Spoiler

Daj is still alive? I loved her character.

I agree and

Spoiler

I do think there is a chance. One of the men she's fighting is beamed away, and we see a huge ball of fire erupt in front of Dahj, so it is possible that she was also beamed away. Maybe Briones will play Dahj/Soji the way Spiner played Data/Lore. Maybe there are more of her.

Also, FWIW (and I think not much) IMDb lists her as "Dahj" in episodes 1-8 of Picard.

 

[Jason_V]

I really want to see more of what was talked about in the interview. I want to see Picard stand by his convictions with Starfleet and lose. Watch this man make the decision to leave the world he knows because of his conscience and principles. That would be an amazing story, I think.

Overall, really loved the episode. It takes time to introduce this version of Picard and set the table for what is going to come. Enough call backs and shout outs to be organic without being fan service-y. Fantastic music, especially the credits, and Picard's final scene in the show is THE ONE for me.

I need to watch again this weekend, but dang I can very clearly see this as being the continuation of the events in Insurrection and Nemesis.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I got a chance to watch the premiere this morning. It was fantastic to see good Star Trek again after so many years. I’m excited to see what they do with the series.

 

[Nelson Au]

Guys, I watched The Ready Room segment after the premiere that Wil Wheaton hosts. Got to say it was odd to see him as a host acting like a host. Though he was a semi good surrogate for the fans asking questions to Chabon and episode director Hanelle Culpepper.

The segment ends with a short clip to next week’s episode. There’s a shot they show of Picard entering a Starfleet building. Possible spoiler ahead:

He looks up to see a holographic image of the Enterprise D, but the ship transitions to another Enterprise, the Enterprise we see as Pike’s ship from Discovery. This is a more technical comment. I’m still
A bit confused by the legalities of the use of the Original Series Design’s. There was talk last year that lawyers for CBS said to avoid copyright issues, the Enterprise design has to be 25% different. But CBS owns the rights to the TV Star Trek properties and so I never understood the issue. For the JJ films yes, they had to change the design of the ships and costumes enough to avoid a copyright. But they were pretty darn close with the costumes. I’m sure there’s some aspects I’ve not got right about that rule.

Now that Paramount and CBS has reunified I hope that this copyright mess is cleared up and like in the olden days of DS9 and Enterprise, they can show the actual Constitution class NCC-1701 the way it was.

Anyway, really looking forward to next Thursday. Though I miss the early days of Discovery and seeing new episodes on Sunday.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

Wow. Delighted watching it last night.

I need to rewatch it, we couldn't devote our full time to watching it. Thats on me since I wanted to watch it immediately. We then followed it with Star Trek 2009 and almost all of Into Darkness.

 

[Bryan^H]

To have that much anticipation and not feel let down after is really a tremendous win for the show in my book. I’m so excited for this to continue and also glad it’s coming out one a week, because I would not have the self control to make a Netflix-style dump of episodes last more than a day. And this is something I want to live with and enjoy for as long as possible.

I feel the same way. It isn't that I was really skeptical about the show, I just thought I would be something that would be half hearted about. Ok, but not great. I was more than delighted to see the writers of Picard handled this so perfectly. The writing, performances, and production value are out of this world. I can't tell you the last time I was this excited about a new series....maybe Firefly after about the second, or third episode!

Now THAT was some bloody good television!

 

[Brian Kidd]

I loved the first episode. It's so wonderful to see Star Trek return to being about ideas, rather than focusing purely on plot and action.

Some folks have a problem with Starfleet breaking down, but I think it's logical (pardon the pun) and relevant. Starfleet was always about respecting a series of ideals about how we should treat other living beings. Ideals are great, but they require willingness and effort on the part of everyone in order to uphold them. When you have people who are no longer willing to stick to those ideals because of the difficulty in doing so or because personal wants or needs have become more important that the greater good, the system breaks down. A community and philosophy only exists for as long as people are willing to agree to uphold its tenets. Once enough people aren't willing to commit, it falls apart. We've seen it happen time and time again throughout history. The hope is that, when things break down, people can learn from the mistakes of the past and create something new that builds upon the strengths of the past and try to correct the things that led to the initial collapse. There is precedent for this within Star Trek. Humanity nearly destroyed itself and suffered through a very dark period. Out of that, however, came the Federation.

Sorry if I'm blathering. Last night's episode just reminded me of the reasons I fell in love with Star Trek in the first place. I'm hoping that such thoughtfulness carries through the season. (Not against some cool fights thrown in on occasion for entertainment purposes, though.)

 

[Tino]

Yeah, Darren Franich, ladies and gentlemen. He's been accused several times of not only writing deliberately-contrarian, edgelord reviews which cut against the prevailing critical sentiment, but also of purposely skipping over episodes of various shows prior to writing a final cumulative season-review. As one website puts it (regarding his assessment of Netflix's The Witcher):

And he can’t even get his facts straight.

From his EW “review”.

Picard got promoted — and fired. He was once a Starfleet Admiral plotting a rescue mission to save 900 million Romulans from a supernova. That calamity, witnessed distantly in 2009’s feature reboot,

Huh?? That was Vulcan. Is it that hard to get it right? Not even the same timeline. Sheesh.

Edit. Never mind. I was wrong. Move along. Nothing to see here........

 

[Josh Steinberg]

He’s not wrong there - we see the supernova in the ‘09 movie when Spock Prime mind melds with Kirk. Spock was on a mission to create a black hole to absorb the supernova before it hit Romulus, but it expanded faster than expected and he was unable to arrive in time. He still created the black hole to stop the supernova from doing more damage but Romulus was gone by then. Nero had been Spock’s Romulan partner on that mission, and when it failed, Nero went after Spock, choosing to believe that Spock had intentionally allowed Romulus to be destroyed.

Spock and Nero wind up falling through the black hole, which leads to the creation of the ‘09 movie’s alternate universe. But the movie did actually (briefly) show how this problem in the prime universe in the 24th century led to the creation of a 23rd century alternate universe.

But unlike that review asserts, Picard wasn’t fired. It’s said during the TV interview - he resigned in protest.

 

[Sam Favate]

Stephen Colbert just tweeted a big spoiler:

Baby Worf.

https://twitter.com/StephenAtHome/status/1220728753703309312