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

[Sam Favate]

The character of Picard is written so well. Perfect in fact.
I hope that this is released on Blu-Ray, or even better 4K disc! I plan to re-watch this series a lot. To be honest I haven't felt this good about Star Trek since watching TNG first run.

I'm counting on a blu-ray release this year. Both seasons of Discovery have been released on blu-ray, as was the first season of the new CBS Twilight Zone. BTW, I find the sound on CBS AA to be not very good (I have to turn the sound on my TV way up to hear it; by contrast, The Ready Room is plenty loud). So I want to have blu-ray sound.

BTW, I had a thought: In the first episode, Jurati said B-4 was an inferior copy of Data, and she says Data uploaded the contents of his neural net to B-4 before he died, but most of it was lost. She says neither B-4 nor any other synth has been like Data.

First of all, after last week, we know she is lying. Her conversation with Maddox showed that she was a big part of developing Dahj and Soji. Second, knowing that she is lying, why should we believe anything she says about Data or B-4? What if Data's neural net wasn't lost? What if B-4 wasn't an inferior copy? Obviously Dahj and Soji are like Data. Food for thought.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

After Seven of Nine's dark turn the week before, it was really nice seeing Hugh be exactly who we'd have hoped he'd become. Jonathan Del Arco brings such warmth and humanity to that role.

Nice to see some new technology that didn't exist in the TNG era.

Really excited to see where this goes next.

 

[Greg.K]

Great episode. It was good to finally get to the meat of the story.

 

[Francois Caron]

Seeing Picard and Hugh hugging each other was very uplifting. Finally, Picard has met an old acquaintance who's actually happy to see him!

I'm also happy that Hugh's backstory was partially filled. Now we know what his job really is on that cube.

It's too bad that the ghosts from Picard's past have never completely left him. But, then again, being a Borg would inflict possibly the worst case of PTSD in just about anyone.

But, most importantly, and as Greg.K had said, we're finally seeing the story move ahead! Seriously, the first half of the season could have been shortened by at least one episode. There was way too much filler to dredge through, slowing the pacing down to a crawl.

 

[joshEH]

Liked seeing Soji's "Incredible Adventures of Flotter" plastic lunchbox, and what happened to the Sikarians...ouch. Poor Harry Kim's gonna be rather distraught when he finds out about this one, LOL.

And "The Impossible Box" just canonized the Romulan-secret-names-for-loved-ones cultural-thing from Diane Duane's Rihannsu novels, to boot.

Nice to see some new technology that didn't exist in the TNG era.

Technically, the spatial-trajector that Hugh reveals aboard the cube (which lets a person travel 40,000 light-years) first appeared way back in 1995, in the first-season VOY episode "Prime Factors."

 

[Josh Dial]

That ExB at the end was like, "Locutus?!" as though he saw a friend at work who just returned from a 2-week vacation. Loved it.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I just find all the sojii / cube stuff so dull. The Hugh stuff was the Highlight but it can’t fix the terrible writing.

does no one check ship logs on this ship, Maddox is murdered , everyone just accepts that he died.

The borg have a device that can transport 40000 light years so the queen can escape? Then why not transport borg to earth and instant takeover? The queens program can just be transferred to another cube that’s why they are a hive collective.

if Elnor can beam exactly to where Picard is why don’t they just beam Picard up? Why did he beam down to protect Picard and stay when more than likely the need to protect is greater where Picard is going? Because the story requires it not that it makes sense.

it seems as long as they drop Easter eggs and such in the show everyone overlooks all the stuff that makes no sense.

I’m astounded by the people that feel this stuff is as good as they proclaim it is I feel like I’m in the upside down

 

[Edwin-S]

I've only watched the first and the most recent episode. The first episode was dull. The last episode made the show seem a bit more interesting, but I just don't like elements of it. It is too Twentieth-Century. Seriously, beds haven't improved in what.....300 years? Alcoholism still exists? Give me a break. It is cheap "dramatic" short cuts like the alcoholic that make me roll my eyes. Shit like that is the future? Why bother making it science fiction? Just make it the present day soap opera that it is.

 

[TJPC]

Again and again I say, “This is just a fun TV show”... Analysis of it is not part of a university thesis!
Whisper this to your selves as you watch. !

 

[joshEH]

I just find all the sojii / cube stuff so dull. The Hugh stuff was the Highlight but it can’t fix the terrible writing.

...OK, LOL.

does no one check ship logs on this ship, Maddox is murdered , everyone just accepts that he died.

This will undoubtedly get addressed coming up very shortly -- remember that the EMH witnessed almost the entire incident. Ain't no way they're leaving that plot-point unresolved.

The borg have a device that can transport 40000 light years so the queen can escape? Then why not transport borg to earth and instant takeover? The queens program can just be transferred to another cube that’s why they are a hive collective.

Because it was something only recently assimilated from the Sikarians, which significantly postdates all of the Borg's other known efforts to destroy the Federation ("The Best of Both Worlds," Star Trek: First Contact, etc.). Therefore it simply hasn't been used yet in whatever future plans the Collective might have up its sleeve (in addition to possibly only being optimized for very small numbers of individuals as a portal, as VOY: "Prime Factors" seemed to indicate). When the starship Voyager attempted to use it back in 2371, it was basically another version of what the Borg already possess for mass ship-scale use -- i.e., a transwarp-conduit, so it would already be extremely redundant for the Collective in that operational capacity.

if Elnor can beam exactly to where Picard is why don’t they just beam Picard up? Why did he beam down to protect Picard and stay when more than likely the need to protect is greater where Picard is going? Because the story requires it not that it makes sense.

it seems as long as they drop Easter eggs and such in the show everyone overlooks all the stuff that makes no sense.

I’m astounded by the people that feel this stuff is as good as they proclaim it is I feel like I’m in the upside down

Because Picard hadn't actually requested a beam-out yet? Musiker says he wasn't responding to comms, so it seemed to be deliberate due to Elnor's own later beam-in, and, as Picard points out, if they'd simply beamed back to the La Sirena with Soji, she would almost certainly get recaptured. Hence why Hugh took them to the queencell and the Sikarian spatial-trajector -- he tells Picard that all traces of their destination-coordinates would be erased, should the Romulans break through (unlike what would happen if they'd beamed back to their ship, and left a warp-trail while escaping).

(...I swear, probably 95% of folks' unnecessary continuity-gripes wouldn't happen if they simply paid closer attention to the onscreen evidence in the actual show.)

 

[Josh Steinberg]

There seems to be some handwringing in regards to the serialized format too, @joshEH

I think some people are coming to this exactly as Stewart and the showrunners advised against coming into this, that is, expecting TNG Season 8. This was never meant to be that and I don’t believe it’s a useful exercise to judge the show on how well it hits targets it’s not trying to hit.

And perhaps as part of that first point, it seems some people are coming into it as if it was episodic and not serialized, and are criticizing plot points and storylines that are still in progress for not being completed. I don’t see how, for instance, you could call Seven’s appearance a waste that led nowhere when, at just halfway through the season, it’s impossible to know where it is going. At the end of the season we can look back and discuss what worked and what didn’t, but it’s premature to criticize a storyline as being unfulfilling when the storyline is still in progress.

They’re taking ten episodes to tell a story that previously would have been told in one episode, or maybe two episodes or a movie. That by definition means that we’re going to spend more time with the characters and that plot points will be dispersed at a slower rate. The plot is important here but character is playing a more vital role than it ever has on Trek before. This isn’t just a show about things that happen. This is also a show about an older man in crisis, feeling that his life’s work didn’t amount to anything, at last wanting to right a wrong from his past.

When we last left the Federation in the 24th century, things were not going well. Old alliances were falling apart. The Dominion War ate at the Federation’s soul. The Federation was already engaging in morally dubious acts, and Picard was already becoming disillusioned and had already threatened to quit onscreen when Starfleet showed itself as willing to put selfish interest above long-standing principle. (Remember “Insurrection” anyone?)

“Picard” honors all of those shows and films that came before by not ignoring the creeping sense of amorality and disillusion that was starting to bubble up below the surface when the Berman-era Trek finished its run on screens big and small. It’s not a leap to imagine that they’d push Picard’s buttons again. It’s not a leap to imagine that he’d threaten to quit again in the hope of nudging them back on the path. And it’s not a leap to imagine them deciding not to be held hostage in their decision making by one officer and accepting his resignation. And it’s not a leap for me to imagine Picard not being able to anticipate that or knowing how to react to it.

The trailer for the season included a voiceover line asking, “Have you ever been a stranger to yourself?” That’s the story. The plot is the Borg and Romulan stuff. The story is that Picard has been hiding from himself and is ready to wake up.

 

[Sam Favate]

I had another eureka moment, realizing that Jurati has been playing Picard the whole time. When she comes to his house for the first time, she asks for Earl Grey tea? (And he says something like "I knew I liked you.") Not a coincidence.

 

[joshEH]

I found the Picard-and-Hugh scenes absolutely riveting. I loved Picard's journey from fear and revulsion to being back aboard a Borg cube, to wonder and admiration towards Hugh for saving lives like his own. And the shot of Picard with Locutus overlaid via hologram was simply a terrific (and chilling) visual touch.

I'm just really digging the focus on lore (not Lore!) and building up the universe that Picard lives in. This show feels like the most real the Star Trek setting has ever been (along with the peaks of DS9). It's not bouncing to new disconnected planets; it's drawing connective tissue between Picard and his past, and fleshing out stories and characters that never had a chance to breathe before.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I found the Picard-and-Hugh scenes absolutely riveting. I loved Picard's journey from fear and revulsion to being back aboard a Borg-cube, to wonder and admiration towards Hugh for saving lives like his own. And the shot of Picard with Locutus overlaid via hologram was simply a terrific visual touch.

Those dumb floaty midair hologram displays finally justified their existence with that scene.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

They might not be all hologram. On Discovery, those are actually clear flat panels with translucent displays you see on the bridge, they look so futuristic that you’d think it was a CGI thing but it’s a practical effect with a real object. May be a version of the same tech on Picard.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I had another eureka moment, realizing that Jurati has been playing Picard the whole time. When she comes to his house for the first time, she asks for Earl Grey tea? (And he says something like "I knew I liked you.") Not a coincidence.

I still think she wasn't playing Picard until after Commodore Oh's visit. Her relationship with Maddox was genuine. Her interest in her field of study was genuine. Whatever Commodore Oh showed her somehow convinced her of the rightness of the Zhat Vash's cause.

 

[Nelson Au]

Agreed with you post 911 Josh. We’re watching 10 segments of a long movie.

I watched this weeks episode a second time tonight. I have a guess of Soji’s dream. I was thinking her dream is real, as Soji is a real girl, perhaps Maddox actual daughter. And Maddox used her memories to implant into Soji and she really does see the pieces of the android version of her.

 

[Greg.K]

They might not be all hologram. On Discovery, those are actually clear flat panels with translucent displays you see on the bridge, they look so futuristic that you’d think it was a CGI thing but it’s a practical effect with a real object. May be a version of the same tech on Picard.

His entire quarters is a hologram...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I meant that the “hologram screen” at his desk may actually be a real, practical piece of tech and not a post-production special effect.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Again and again I say, “This is just a fun TV show”... Analysis of it is not part of a university thesis!
Whisper this to your selves as you watch. !

Stupid is still stupid