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

[Francois Caron]

Definitely better than last week's episode. A lot more happened here in just the first few minutes than had happened in last week's entire hour!

 

[Jeff Flugel]

I loved the exchange between Picard and Seven last night when she asked about recovering his humanity after the Borg, and he said he had. Then she asked if he had gotten it all back, and he very quietly said, no. I’ve never seen Picard admit that and it was almost shattering to hear. Here’s this character that’s been a paragon of decency and a beacon of hope and strength and to see that even he’s not immune is sobering. But it’s also hopeful in a way...it makes him like us, and if he can feel that way and still be a great person and challenge himself to do better, then so can we.

And I think that’s a feeling the current showrunners really want to convey to us.

I liked that scene a lot, too, Josh - the dramatic high point of the episode for me.

 

[joshEH]

I suspect/hope that Picard will bring all of the secrets and conspiracies to light, which will force those who so easily traded away their principles to face a reckoning of sorts.

I get why TNG and the idea of humanity evolving past conflict is such a winning formula. I understand why Roddenberry wanted to believe we’d reach a time that we could permanently set aside these battles, the war finally won for all of time. But I think there’s also something to be said for this iteration of Trek, which seems to be building toward a thesis of, “we can have a great world and achieve great things, but it’s not a problem to solve once and then move past, but rather, something that we must always be working to achieve and preserve.”

And also, given all that the Federation went through with the Borg and the Dominion, it would be implausible if the UFP were unchanged from its TNG-era outlook. It makes perfect sense that the Dominion War left scars and undermined the UFP's optimism and idealism, that there would be an isolationist reaction in its wake, as well as perhaps conspiracies to take safeguarding-steps well beyond what would've been considered beforehand.

It would be pretty implausible if everything just got reset to the way it was before, and I can see one of the goals of this series to be an eventual restoration of that prior TNG-era mindset through Picard's actions here after acknowledging and dealing with those new, in-universe realities first.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Really interesting to see what commercialism looks like outside the socialist utopia of the Federation. The collapse of the Neutral Zone into anarchy also this show to play with some of the Old West tropes that the original series delighted in but TNG had largely evolved beyond.

Another winner for the show. Lots of good character development for Seven and Raffi, and plenty of action too.

The show definitely feels like it's steadily ramping up the pace.

My biggest problem with the show remains the fact that it's weekly.

I honestly don't know if I would have gotten around to it if it had dropped all at once like Netflix. I don't have 10 hours to devote to any show in a condensed amount of time. But one hour a week, I can manage.

And the weekly model allows so much discussion and speculation. I highly doubt we'd be on page 43 of this thread if the entire season had dropped at once.

This show is in no way set up like a weekly show that has complete episodes. We're just seeing 45 minute snatches of a story. The "episodes" are essentially the acts of one long episode between commercials.

It's definitely way more serialized than TNG was, but I think it's less serialized than a lot of streaming shows. Each episode has had an A plot with a beginning middle and end:

1. "Remembrance" - Picard meets Dahj Asha, gets sucked into the conspiracy that is hunting her, and watches as she is killed in front of him.
2. "Maps and Legends" - Picard tries and fails to enlist Starfleet in his quest.
3. "The End is the Beginning" - Picard assembles a crew and returns to space.
4. "Absolute Candor" - Picard recruits a bodyguard.
5. "Stardust City Rag" - Picard rescues Bruce Maddox, and then loses Bruce Maddox.

Jurati is up to no good. I've seen speculation that she is acting on her own, rather than from influence from Starfleet, but I don't believe that. This has to be tied to her visit from Starfleet Intelligence/ Tal Shiar/ whoever Commodore O is.

I agree. Based on the holo videos, her relationship with Bruce Maddox was genuine. I believe her initial conversation with Picard at the Daystrom Institute was genuine, even if she withheld the extent of her involvement in the twins' creation. The turning point was Commodore O's vision. Whatever Commander O showed her convinced her to switch sides.

Poor Icheb. Absolutely brutal.[/SPOILER]

It especially shocking because I'm not used to that level of gore and violence from televised Trek. And the actor who played him looked like a plausible in-between when compared to the actor who played teenage Icheb and the actor who played adult Icheb from the alternate year 2394.

Well, even though we didn't see her quit or hear her say she had quit, apparently she was on the wagon during their little jaunt if the scene in the Reproduction place is to be believed.

One gets the sense that Picard brings out a different side of her, and she has an easier time staying on the straight and narrow when he's around. But her conversation with her son had all of the unwarranted confidence of a newly sober addict. Her son was right to be skeptical.

Speaking of that scene, I also quite liked Seven's suggestion that Rios literally wear "a feather" in his pimp-hat; evidently some of Tom Paris and Harry Kim's more-outlandish Voyager holodeck-escapades must've rubbed off on her at some point.

Picard's disguise as an eye patch-wearing Frenchman was hilariously bad, too.

Didn't really care for this episode, the weakest for me so far, by far. I hate to say this, as it is a tired fanboy cliche, but the show is feeling less and less like Star Trek to me. Very dark and bleak (which I know is the intention, but still...) I don't mind dark and bleak if it fits, lots of sci-fi is dark and bleak...but it just doesn't quite sit right in the Trek universe for me, somehow.

On the other hand, when Seven of Nine has her hand around the mob boss's throat, and Picard's talking her down and appealing to her morality and reason, that's classic Star Trek.

The difference is that this show is revealing to us some of the nastier stuff that happens when the noble captain beams back to his ship.

I suspect/hope that Picard will bring all of the secrets and conspiracies to light, which will force those who so easily traded away their principles to face a reckoning of sorts.

I need Picard to continue to be Jefferson Smith in Washington, holding steadfast to his ideals and morality even as the institutions that underpine those ideals and morality are revealed to be rotten and corrupted.

Whether Picard suceeds or fails, I need him to be the person we believe him to be.

But I think there’s also something to be said for this iteration of Trek, which seems to be building toward a thesis of, “we can have a great world and achieve great things, but it’s not a problem to solve once and then move past, but rather, something that we must always be working to achieve and preserve.”

I agree, and will add that storytelling is driven by conflict and struggle, and a flawless Federation removes a lot of storytelling opportunities.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I feel I should warn everyone now, I will never not call the villain of this episode "Vajazzle", unless I happen to reference her as "Season 1 Troi knock-off".

 

[Nelson Au]

Just saw this week’s installment of Picard. That was heavy and dark!

I think there was a level of levity that was played up as they prepare to go to Freecloud, Picard’s over the top Frenchman was for fun, but as things turned on them, I found it a harsh change and back to reality. So I didn’t find the over the top Frenchman bad. It was a great way to fool you and pull you in and then wow.

Spoiler: About the turn of events

I kept thinking there is something up with Jurati and I was thinking she was going to kill Maddox. At first I wasn’t sure what was her motivation. And then I do think she was turned by Commodore Oh and is her mole. As Maddox said, there is a conspiracy and it involves the Federation.

As far as Seven, what a big change for her. They contrived the situation with Icheb as her driver in life now, not saying it’s contrived. But it wasn’t anything I expected! Too bad Icheb had to suffer like that and then die.

Raffi’ s story wasn’t working for me in this installment, maybe it will be further explored later.

freecloud was pretty cool. I thought it was funny when all the ads started to pop up on the ship. And I marveled at the high level of production. I’m re-watching TNG and in the second season now. Such a contrast. For the better. Nice to see the upgrade in a modern Star Trek.

I agree, the sequence between Picard and Seven was strong, did he fully regain his humanity. It makes sense it’s much harder for Seven. But it’s still hard on Picard after his short tenure as Locutis. I hope it’s not the last of her appearances in the show and we learn more about her Rangers.

 

[Nelson Au]

By the way, I have the $6.99 CBS All Access plan, so I see commercials. Since Josh has brought up his interest in the Picard wine, thought this might amuse you, as one of the commercials was for Josh Cellars wine: ( assuming you’ve not seen or heard of this)

http://joshcellars.com/

 

[Josh Steinberg]

There’s always someone new each holiday and birthday season who brings me one and thinks they’re gonna be the first to ever tell me about it

My birthday is on Saturday, let’s see if I have one by Monday morning. If someone buys me a red, I’m using it to make braised beef short ribs

 

[Greg.K]

You would think the EMH would have some sort of safeguard against being easily shut off if, say, someone was in distress, or being murdered in front of them.

 

[Francois Caron]

Unless the captain modified the holograms so that he can override them willingly.

 

[Nelson Au]

Ha, ha! I should have known you’d know about the Josh Cellars wine!

 

[Greg.K]

Unless the captain modified the holograms so that he can override them willingly.

Even more importantly, if I were the captain I'd only allow myself to do that...

 

[Philip Verdieck]

I feel I should warn everyone now, I will never not call the villain of this episode "Vajazzle", unless I happen to reference her as "Season 1 Troi knock-off".

This, or at least the Troi part.
Almost everytime I saw her, her face reminded me of TNG era Sirtis.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

You would think the EMH would have some sort of safeguard against being easily shut off if, say, someone was in distress, or being murdered in front of them.

Yeah, that's crappy design. If an emergency is in progress then it should not be able to be shut down.

Of all the ST, I am the least versed in Voyager. Where there ever discussions regarding the parameters of EMH is situations?

OTOH, more AI fear generated by the Synth attack might lead to absolute conditions where an AI could always be overridden.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Yeah, that's crappy design. If an emergency is in progress then it should not be able to be shut down.

Of all the ST, I am the least versed in Voyager. Where there ever discussions regarding the parameters of EMH is situations?

OTOH, more AI fear generated by the Synth attack might lead to absolute conditions where an AI could always be overridden.

Voyager's EMH usually received upgrades and what should have been basic important security protocols only after someone messed with him.

Shut him off in the middle of important research or leave him running for days with nothing to do? Give him the ability to control his off switch the next day. Delete his ethical subroutines with a simple command so he becomes Emergency Mengele Hologram? Give him subroutines to prevent that the next day. Alter his programming so he'll perform unnecessary surgery on a fetus to make it genetically pure? Install subroutines preventing that the next day. (Yes, those all happened).

So, the fact that Emergency Rios Hologram can be shut off while a guy is dying isn't a stretch at all.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I’m out

did a reaction after watching ep 5

 

[Josh Steinberg]

And also, since this is serialized television that ended mid-scene rather than episodic television where the story is absolutely concluded at the end of the episode, we simply don’t know enough about what happens next to start poking holes in what we did see.

For all we know, the EMH immediately popped upstairs and told the rest of the gang what was going on, and next week could begin with them all rushing into the room. Or it could not.

But that’s the point I want to stress about this method of storytelling - we haven’t yet seen enough about that incident to declare that what happened was implausible or impossible.

 

[Sam Favate]

Jurati will surely just say that he died from his injuries, and she's tech savvy enough to rewire the EMH or the ship's computers to erase evidence of what she did.

 

[Francois Caron]

I just realised where Patrick Stewart's "houtrageous Franch haccant" comes from!

It's a cross between Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau and John Cleese's French taunter!

 

[joshEH]

^ According to Wil Wheaton on this week's aftershow, Stewart would spend hours and hours doing that particular voice and cracking up the crew in between takes on the TNG set.