[Cause]

I wonder how holograms are not considered synthetic life.

But vain to model them all in yourself but it’s amusing. Given how successful the emh was it does make sense to populate the whole ship with them as crew

[Serenity]

Spoiler

"You owe me a ship, Picard"

Made me laugh

What I want to know is, is Rios the first QPR fan ever to captain a starship?

[Lady Bliss]

Wow. I just binge watched the first 4 episodes and that is this is the best show I’ve seen in a long time. I am so hooked.

[Serenity]

Ep 5 was my favourite yet. Some nice development for Rios, Raffi and Aggie.

Spoiler

and that shot of Seven blasting her way out of the club was very silly and very epic

Rios is fast becoming my favourite character, especially the scene where

Spoiler

he'd forgotten Picard had been Borg

[Serenity]

Spoiler

https://media.giphy....viHkn/giphy.gif

[Cause]

Not such a fan of this episode. Bit exposition heavy. I feel bad for the borg kid. Was that the originals actor? Imagine being called up for that!

Also Picard doing that weird French accent!

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Cause, on 24 February 2020 - 11:27 PM, said:

Not such a fan of this episode. Bit exposition heavy. I feel bad for the borg kid. Was that the originals actor? Imagine being called up for that!

Also Picard doing that weird French accent!

Same.

I plan to give it a watch again - I wasn't feeling that great on Friday and I tend to sit down to Trek to chill out, so that opening with the Borg kid was a bit much! Thought Jerri Ryan in particular played it all superbly but just not my bag as an episode overall.

Spoiler

Anyone else think Dr Aggie is an earlier android used to perfect Dahj and Soji? What with the "essential contribution" and all?

[Primateus]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 25 February 2020 - 07:36 AM, said:

Spoiler

Anyone else think Dr Aggie is an earlier android used to perfect Dahj and Soji? What with the "essential contribution" and all?

The thought did occur to me.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Also - not that I'm suggesting people shouldn't say when they don't like something - but it's always nice to come and discuss Trek here with a bunch of people who are positive about it.

Trek FB groups are just hellish. Everyone hates everything that isn't TOS, the show runners are the devil etc. I've been half waiting for another echo chamber attempt on SE's page about how he knows much better than anyone else how to write Trek...

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 25 February 2020 - 09:46 AM

[Serenity]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 25 February 2020 - 09:46 AM, said:

Also - not that I'm suggesting people shouldn't say when they don't like something - but it's always nice to come and discuss Trek here with a bunch of people who are positive about it.

Trek FB groups are just hellish. Everyone hates everything that isn't TOS, the show runners are the devil etc. I've been half waiting for another echo chamber attempt on SE's page about how he knows much better than anyone else how to write Trek...

It's the same on the SF forum I'm on - lots of dislike for the show in general.

Shame you guys didn't like this episode so much, I loved it. Picard's French accent made me laugh. It reminded me of the sort of scam Kirk would've tried to pull off - before getting into a fight and getting his shirt ripped

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

I liked the OTT French accent too! I do intend to give ep 5 another go though, possibly tonight. I do think my mood didn't do it any favours on first viewing

[Primateus]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 25 February 2020 - 09:46 AM, said:

Also - not that I'm suggesting people shouldn't say when they don't like something - but it's always nice to come and discuss Trek here with a bunch of people who are positive about it.

Trek FB groups are just hellish. Everyone hates everything that isn't TOS, the show runners are the devil etc. I've been half waiting for another echo chamber attempt on SE's page about how he knows much better than anyone else how to write Trek...

It's not even as if TOS is especially good, like at all.

[Abyss]

I enjoyed it. The whole heist/scam thing defied credulity but i try not to overthink any show that features a character named Vygazzle. And the combo of Rios' pimp outfit with Picard's eyepatch and accent was priceless.

7of9 was great to see again and i hope they make her a regular eventually. The storyline with Ischeb was DARK. The Fenris Rangers c-plot is interesting,,,, LOTS of potential to bring back Trek characters there. Could have an entire coterie of Voyager and DS9 alumni show up.

Agnes as an early model android... interesting theory i hadn't thought of.... plausible, heavily ironic too given how that played out w Maddox.


Really the only thing bugging me right now is Soji and Narek's relationship. Am not finding either of them particularly good characters or performances, and this whole 'Destroyer' thing has an underlying 'chosen one' magic vibe that is rarely my favorite part of Trek.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Episode 6 - all of the yes!

[Cause]

Am I picking up weird sexual tension between the romulan brother and sister? Why do shows keep doing this.

Looks like the next episode will be a good one. Though I felt like this episode especially with lnor forced some tension that otherwise didn’t make sense

[Serenity]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 28 February 2020 - 04:26 PM, said:

Episode 6 - all of the yes!

Yeah, great episode. 10 or 15 minutes longer than usual and yet it seemed to go by faster than usual.

Spoiler

Why do I get the feeling Rios is going to regret that liaison?

How did Elnor manager to beam in to exactly where Picard and Hugh were when the Romulans opened a very specific transport window for Picard? Did I miss something?

Had to laugh at him picking up on the tension between Rios and Aggie

ETA: Also, loved

Spoiler

the shot of Picard's face merging with Locutus

This post has been edited by Serenity: 29 February 2020 - 02:37 PM

[Cause]

Spoiler

Also if Elnor can beam in why couldn’t Picard beam out. That’s what I meant by fake tension. Than elnor has to stay behind to hold of the romulans chasing them? Why couldn’t they all go through the gate?

My best guess was to keep their destination secret. Maybe Hugh had to stay behind to shut it down, delete the data and hide the room but surely if they are caught just outside the room the romulans will find it. Also now they will torture Hugh.

Also the romulans can just track the ship when it goes to meet them. So might as well have transported back and escapes on the ship.

That entire sequence seemed odd. When Picard tried to release elnor and he chose not to be my only thought was that elnor had a death wish. No other reason I could see to have that make sense. Also we recruited this character 2 episodes ago. It’s too soon for something like this.

Again though I think next episode will be pretty hectic and hopefully explain all this a bit

[Primateus]

So, across the internet I'm seeing a lot of complaints about ST: Picard. Let's face it, a lot of whining and moaning.

Some of it, I'll grant, is somewhat legitimate (I would say understandable, but I feel that's the wrong phrase). Like, how is Picard paying Rios when in First Contact he explicitly said the federation had moved beyond the acquisition of wealth, presuming they'd moved beyond things like money.

Okay, my thinking is that Picard has a bunch of gold-pressed Latinum stashed away somewhere, or maybe it's something like STO's Energy credits used to power the replicator tech. I don't know, and I've also wondered about it myself. But it also kind of seem like a minor thing.

Okay, so, I'll be moving into actual spoiler territory here, so I guess I'll use the spoiler thingie.

Spoiler

Okay, so a lot of people are complaining about how Admiral Clancy told Picard off. How could that be that she'd do something so controversial yet so brave? Because we all know that Picard is "The Big Man" of the Federation. The big hero, face on the pamphlet and all that. Hell, he even has his own day. How could it be that Picard got told off in such a manner by some almost noname Admiral?
Well, he did just call Starfleet's integrity into question on live, presumably Federartion wide, TV moments before. And 14 years before that, he basically told them all that if they didn't do as he said, they could fuck off. Maybe not in so many words, but they assuredly got the point. Hell, maybe they were already then happy to get rid of him.
Maybe, just maybe Starfleet was never as perfect as he claimed it was. (But that may just be wishful thinking on my part)

So, Picard pissed them off, and people are surprised they don't really like him all that much anymore? This is bullshit by all the whiners and moaners. And it'll lead into my final point, stay tuned.

Okay, so the next thing people are complaining about not making sense is the whole Romulan evacuation. I get where they're coming from here, but I also think that the show just might have given us the answer already.

The question is, how come the Romulan Star Empire couldn't evacuate itself? They must have had thousands of ships. Fair point. But are we sure they had ships actually suitable for this purpose? Mmm, maybe? But the show has underlined something very specific about the Romulans. They're all about secrets and deception. Maybe they never had that big a fleet to begin with? Hell, even if they did, there's still time left to demonstrate why maybe they didn't?

In any case, all we've ever really seen of Romulan spaceships have been warships. And they're just not suited for evacuating millions of people.

Then people have been complaining about the Romulans themselves. That they're supposed to be warriors, soldiers, secretive, paranoid, etc. And not gardeners and housekeepers. This the show has already shown is wrong, as did TNG. The Romulan Star Empire is all that, yes, especially the Tal Shiar. But these are made up of PEOPLE. And like TNG did, ST: Picard has shown that the Romulans are all that, and also they're really just people. What? The Romulans are not allowed to be shown as people now?

Also, if the resistance towards this is some ant-immigrant thing, then you can go and fuck right off because you have failed to understand what Star Trek has always been about.

Then, there's Seven of Nine, Voyager's resident Robot Babe. Super smart and super-duper hot. A lot of people are wondering (and complaining, whining and moaning) why she isn't at Daystrom or some shit. I actually agree, that would have been in line with her character in Voyager. But, it would also have been character stagnation, and not development. What? So she's just supposed to have continued doing the same effing thing she did during her ENTIRE stint on Voyager?
Yeah, the whole Fenris Ranger mercenary killer thing? I didn't see that coming either and I'll agree it's maybe a little weird. But it's still development. She did say someone had to do something, because the Federation sure as hell wasn't doing anything. No, the Federation had made it clear they weren't interested in doing anything for the Romulan refugees. They don't care.


And Icheb being killed off in the first seconds of the episode? Eh, it's not like he was ever anything more than an alien and male version of Seven. Superfluous and completely unnecessary. Now, he wasn't exactly a bad character, no. But he was never really important to the show and Voyager wouldn't have changed all that much if he hadn't been introduced.

But he made an excellent, and expendable, foil to show off the fucked up nature of people wanting to capitalize on Borg technology. Because why wouldn't they? There is NO reason why a black market for Borg tech wouldn't pop up. And Icheb being a former Borg, a reclaimed Borg, makes sense as the sacrifice. Seven loved him like some sort of surrogate mother, so it makes sense for her to go all gung-ho on the bandits on Freecloud. Was it violent? Yes, is that traditional eighties and nineties Trek? No. But that's okay, because it again serves to show that the future isn't as perfect as we've been led to believe.


And the cursing? Okay, so people still curse in the future, so what? The only reason they didn't do so in TNG and DS9 was because you couldn't do that on TV back then. Well, maybe, but it's unrealistic that people would stop cursing just because society is supposed to be better. It's not like the Federation has some sort of Verbal Morality Clause like they do in Demolition Man.

Okay, so, here's my thinking about why Jean-Luc Picard seems like he maybe lost faith in Starfleet and the Federation. It was certainly spurred by their refusal to help a people in need. But I think it might have been deeper than that. So, while the shows have always had different viewpoints, the main pov characters have always been the Captains. Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer.
So, the portrayal of the Federation and Starfleet has been through their eyes and their beliefs.

Picard was always shown as a strong-willed Captain, the great man, the diplomat, the natural leader. And people followed. We know he was the big man of Starfleet, so a lot of Starfleet followed as well. His crew certainly did.

ST: Picard shows that Starfleet isn't perfect, and that it might not ever have been so, but we've only have been led to believe so because Picard thought Starfleet was better than it actually was. Which leads me to conclude that while Picard did lose faith in Starfleet, it was more that he realized his own perception of Starfleet, and by extension the Federation, was deeply flawed. He simply expected too much of an organization that really never had more to give.

So anyway, why are a lot of fans whining and moaning? Well, lots of reasons, but I think Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron can sum it up pretty nicely. And I'm paraphrasing here to make it fit just a tiny bit better; You want to save Star Trek, but you don't want it to change.

It changed, and people are pissed.

[Serenity]

Cause, on 01 March 2020 - 05:08 AM, said:

Spoiler

Also if Elnor can beam in why couldn't Picard beam out. That's what I meant by fake tension. Than elnor has to stay behind to hold of the romulans chasing them? Why couldn't they all go through the gate?

My best guess was to keep their destination secret. Maybe Hugh had to stay behind to shut it down, delete the data and hide the room but surely if they are caught just outside the room the romulans will find it. Also now they will torture Hugh.

Also the romulans can just track the ship when it goes to meet them. So might as well have transported back and escapes on the ship.

That entire sequence seemed odd. When Picard tried to release elnor and he chose not to be my only thought was that elnor had a death wish. No other reason I could see to have that make sense. Also we recruited this character 2 episodes ago. It's too soon for something like this.

Again though I think next episode will be pretty hectic and hopefully explain all this a bit

Yeah, all good points. That sequence did have elements of the Doctor Who 'Let's run around and shout a lot' daftness.

[Macros]

Enjoyed ep6.

I'm fairly sure he will survive and pop up again later somehow