Topic: Star Trek Picard Series

[Blake00]

So what does everyone think now that the show has started?

My thoughts (SPOILER ALERT):

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I loved the opening shot with the camera closing in on the Enterprise D (which had some interesting design modifications) and going through the window into to the room.. the kind of shot you always wanted to see as a kid watching TNG but knew they couldn't really do effectively (well not without spending some heavy money lol, which is kind of ironic considering the 60s failed trek pilot sort of has a camera through bridge window shot)..

I enjoyed the whole episode but I feel like I can't quite give judgement yet. I need to know more about what's going on and need to see how things pan out story wise.

Also the zero mention of Lal and Lore seems a bit strange in a world where the daystrom institute desperately wanted to replicate Data. I mean what happened to their parts after they were disassembled? B4 was in a drawer so where's the Lal and Lore drawers haha?

First thought was.. did the writers forget them?.. but that seems unlikely consider they brought Hugh back which means they clearly remember Descent 1 & 2 which Lore was in. The whole Daughter 2.0 storyline suggests the Lal episode is something they know too. Plus Frakes directed that one and he's involved in Picard.

[Blake00]

Episode 2 of Picard just seen. Glad it explains some of the mysteries & fan complaints about the first episode.

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A few fans complained about the weird Starfleet HQ 'rooftop cleanup' job & leave Picard on his couch with no questions asked scene jump moment in ep 1 but now we see the Commodore reviewing the battle cleanup footage (questioning it's effectiveness) and discover this fascinating Starfleet conspiracy with secret Romulan sect plot. I remember people in the past getting so upset about the English writing in the Romulan Borg research post but there are a lots of humans there which explains that one.

We see that the Androids that destroyed Utopia planitia were 'hacked' presumably by this secret synthetic hating Romulan faction. And holy moly they actually acknowledged Picard's Irumodic syndrome that afflicted him around now in the alternate future seen in TNG finale All Good Things. I'm impressed with their attention to detail (regarding old Trek events), which makes me hope the writers haven't forgotten Lore & Lal after all.

The only real gaff I saw was Laris saying Romulans never had a cybernetic program which contradicts the awesome TNG S3 ep the defector where Admiral Jarok tells Data that he knows a number of Romulan cyberneticists that would love to get their hands on him. Although then again maybe its not a gaff as we saw Romulan experts pulling apart dead Borg. You cant really study Borgs without some good cyberneticists lol. Probably just more Romulan secrets lol.

[Jack]

the alternate future seen in TNG finale All Good Things

This show is rubbish, like the series before it. Pop tripe whipped up by mercenaries looking to make a quick buck.

[LimpingFish]

the alternate future seen in TNG finale All Good Things

This show is rubbish, like the series before it.

You mean Discovery? I'm not a Trek fan myself, so I don't have strong feelings either way. But, it does seem that Trek fans (especially TNG fans) generally dislike the creative direction taken by both shows.

Myself, I gave up on television a long time ago. I think the last series I watched with any enthusiasm was Fargo. Oh, and I watched The Mandalorian. It was...fine. Nothing that couldn't have been achieved in a two-hour move with a little trimming, though.

[Jack]

STD, yeah. Like so many films these days they seem to be put together by a focus group from whatever was popular the previous year.

[Danvzare]

STD, yeah. Like so many films these days they seem to be put together by a focus group from whatever was popular the previous year.

You've just described 90% of popular media, ranging from music and films, to TV shows and video games.

There is plenty of good stuff out there, it's just that you're likely to only ever hear about the focus group crap, because it makes the most money. You need to actually look for the good stuff. But it is there, and there is plenty of it. 

[Jack]

I know, that's what I do. It's just that Star Trek used to be one of those rare good things.

Sign of the times, I guess.

[VampireWombat]

I only saw the first episode of Picard. Despite any negatives, I still thought it was better than any episode of Enterprise I've seen. Or most season 1 episodes of TNG...

[ManicMatt]

I'm curious VampireWombat, did you see Enterprise's third season? For me it was up there with DS9's dominion war.

I'm enjoying Picard somewhat, I'll probably like it more once the show moves along this beginning stuff. Digging the references.

[Retro Wolf]

I've not seen the new Picard series as I don't have Prime.

I kind of enjoyed the first of the two of the recent trilogy of films but they didn't feel like Star Trek, I think JJ Abrams wasn't really a trekkie and wanted to make more of a Star Wars film. Karl Urban nailed McCoy in my opinion.

The Discovery series also didn't have that Star Trek feel, apart from that one episode where the day kept repeating itself. The show is also full of terrible, annoying, and asshole characters like Tillie and Stamets(he did get better in the 2nd series), Jett Reno who came in on the 2nd is so annoying and can't seem to act. Compared to TNG you have fantastic characters like Tasha Yar, Troi, Data, you can't beat them. Sure you have a weak episode now and again, Tasha Yar had so much potential as a character and she get's killed by a dude in a black bin bag, the makeup team put a cartoony red splat on her face using what looks like lipstick!
Fantastic TV I'm watching TNG series 3 as I type this.

[ManicMatt]

I enjoyed discovery season 2 a lot more than the first one. For me it added at least two star trek feeling things. That's optimism, and trustworthy crew members. Oh and the Klingon hair was a step in the right direction. I could almost accept them as Klingons now.

I think Jett is a deadpan character, and the performance is as it should be. I really like Saru.

I always found Tasha Yar to be cheesy and forced. For strong women I prefer Jadzia Dax and Kira. But in Tasha's defence, she wasn't given time to grow or improve. Just look at Brent Spiner's early Data performance and how he was written.

I had nightmares as a kid knowing that tar monster was still alive haha.

[Blake00]

I enjoyed discovery season 2 a lot more than the first one. For me it added at least two star trek feeling things. That's optimism, and trustworthy crew members. Oh and the Klingon hair was a step in the right direction. I could almost accept them as Klingons now.

Yeah that's exactly how I felt about STD (  ) season 2. WAY better than the first and I loved all the Pike, Spock and Enterprise stuff. Wish they'd make a Pike on Enterprise show. Not that excited about STD season 3 as I know my favourite things from S2 will be gone.

As for Picard I'm liking it more than STD. My thoughts on what's led to some peoples frustrations with ep 1 & ep2 (once again has spoilers):

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It's funny. Am involved in a number of Picard forum discussions around the net and I see some people complaining about too much exposition yet I see others complaining about being confused due to not enough info lol. Makes me think they probably should have just done Ep 1 & 2 together as a pilot movie (that would have avoided some of the anger about confusing things in ep1 that were explained in ep 2) then they could have had the big trailer at the end of the 2hrs showing that the adventure kicks off next episode. Instead we got a ep1 that confused people and an exciting trailer at the end of it that implied the adventure was about to begin when in reality the next ep was still farting around on earth lol. So yeah I reckon a combined double ep pilot would have pissed off/confused far less people.

Anyway I'm still enjoying the show but am still unsure as to whether I actually really really like it or not. Still need to see how story pans out lol.

Episode 3 seen: (spoiler alert)

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Not thrilled about how they continue to make Picard look slow, weak & frail. You watch him on talk shows and he zips around just fine lol! But I love the fact that in ep 3 it appears writers are trying to address one of those funny never explained issues from old trek.

When I was young it always annoyed me how in TNG supposedly a Borg who got his individuality somehow broke a friggin cube and caused a rebellion on it of sorts when assimilating individuals is what the Borg do lol. Voyager & FC ended up adding a lot of info on how the borg worked, how they connect, and made it pretty obvious that assimilating ex borgs (eg 7 of 9, the borg kids, locutus etc) back into the fold wasn't going to break anything lol, in fact they wanted them. Yes Hugh was a Borg test tube baby and not a previous individual unlike those others I mention but it shouldn't really matter HOW they became an individual when you're grabbing someone and pumping nanites into their blood and connecting them to the hive lol.

However it looks like the new trek writers are carving a story where in reality, Hugh went back to the Borg they reassimilated him no probs but then a few hours later on the trip back to delta they found a nice little yummy Romulan intelligence vessel on the way to assimilate, they start 'processing them' and then 'something' goes wrong (Romulan virus? weapon? racial nanite rejection like the Denobulans?). Hugh presumably wakes up and pops out of his alcove again thinking its somehow caused by him (hence why he later tells Picard in Descent that it was his fault), all the other borgs who don't know how to be individuals start goin nuts and they kick off a nice little rebellion which then at some point Lore arrives on the scene and takes control of them and they escape on the light cruiser which we see in Descent (small borg ships inside big borg ships is nothing new). In fact this new obvious Romulan ex-borg fears of Dahj's sister (ie synthetics) could very well be relating to trauma from what Lore did to many of them when he took over things which once again gives me hope Lore will somehow come into this new story at some point. Probably a long shot though haha..

Am I way off.. we shall see haha.

[ManicMatt]

Yeah it still, after 3 episodes, feels like we haven't got to the main flow of the show, so it's hard to tell how much I like it right now, but I do like it more than STD too.

[Danvzare]

I kind of enjoyed the first of the two of the recent trilogy of films but they didn't feel like Star Trek, I think JJ Abrams wasn't really a trekkie and wanted to make more of a Star Wars film. Karl Urban nailed McCoy in my opinion.

Speaking of that trilogy of films, is it just me or did all three kind of blend together?
I honestly can not remember what the third film was about! 

[Blake00]

I kind of enjoyed the first of the two of the recent trilogy of films but they didn't feel like Star Trek, I think JJ Abrams wasn't really a trekkie and wanted to make more of a Star Wars film. Karl Urban nailed McCoy in my opinion.

Speaking of that trilogy of films, is it just me or did all three kind of blend together?
I honestly can not remember what the third film was about! 

Yeah 3rd film star trek beyond felt like an episode of the week with movie length and effects haha.. as for the story.. it was about... ummm.. stuff.. you know.. and things.. and they were all angry about those guys n stuff..

Anyway Picard episode 4 seen (belated).. WE'RE OFF!:

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Well things have finally taken off! Enjoying the fact we're back in space.. loved the look of the Romulan refugee colony (particularly in the flashback sequences) with the giant 'world tree' background, although in the opening planet shot I wish we'd seen the Enterprise E approaching (considering they made some interesting modifications to the D I'd be interested to see what they do with the E). Backstory of the Romulan Samurai dude & his history with Picard was interesting, although Picard now walking around with a Elf looking dude that slices off heads feels a bit weird lol, but no doubt they'll be some big fun action bits with him down the track (which will aggravate oldschool trek purists to no end I'm sure haha).

Enjoyed the space battle, sure enough it was a classic 22nd century Romulan Bird of Prey (nice tip of hat to old Trek), retrofitted for lawless system warlord related activities lol. Interesting to see all these different hologram crew member variants captain Chris has. 7 of 9 has arrived! Will be very interesting to see how much they delve into her past and backstory post Voyager return. Also the holodeck stuff explains why she's in Patrick's 'home' in the trailers. I know people were complaining/making fun of the Picard sword scene in the original trailer, but it was fine, they even made him took kinda tough before he did the expected 'I'm not fighting you/playing your games' thing. Although his comment about having bad knees annoyed me, I don't care if you're 95yrs old, it's 24th century, people aren't gonna have 'bad knees' lol (we're already getting into 3D printing/replicating joints & cartilage now so it's only a matter of time), would rather they just continue to try and hide any difficulties RL Patrick might have, although I still maintain he seems to zip around just fine in real life on talk shows and stuff though lol.

Anyway we're already off to another planet in the teaser for the next ep so things are definitely moving along now lol! Although I'm a little worried about all that silly dress up stuff.. I swear to god if the next ep is like the Casino planet sequence in Ryan Johnson's cr*ptastic Star Wars film and black eye patch gangsta Picard is throwing dice with cheesy overly excited cgi aliens I'm gonna throw my Tv lol.

Oh and I'm probably off the mark with the Lore theory previously posted.. sounds like they're going for something bigger.. harbinger of doom stuff lol!

Guess I better hurry up and watch Ep 5 now instead of reading comments as that's just asking for spoilers haha.

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[Blake00]

Yeah.. episode 5.. wow.. If people here disliked it you don't have to worry about me arguing with you on this one guys. As this episode broke me too, or more precisely it broke my enjoyment of the show. I didn't enjoy that at all. I thought maybe if I sleep on it I'd feel better but nope, today I'm even grumpier about it haha. Up until now I've only had little nitpicks and have really enjoyed show and have defended it when people have complained about it "not feeling like star trek" but there was next to nothing Star Trek feeling about Ep 5. Those people who complained about past eps not being star trek are gonna looooooove this one lol. I don't wanna walk away from a Star Trek episode feeling frustrated and miserable. When they played the exciting trailer for the next ep and all the cool Borg stuff at the end I didn't even give s***. I was like.. whatever. They're gonna have to work hard in the next few eps to undo the damage that one just did. I can only hope that they had to go that dark and callous to setup the audience to be brought back to the light and happy ending lol. But I can't help but think that if it turned me off that badly then all those people out there who's really not been that into the new show and were barely holding on will probably be like "stuff this!" and be done with it after seeing that ep lol.

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For starters the acting felt a bit weird and wooden in this ep. Picard & 7 scenes felt weird, felt more like the actors were catching up more than the characters haha. 7 felt a little too different and Patrick didn't feel very 'Picardy'. His french gangster over acting rouse was funny but just didn't feel like something Picard would do, felt like I was watching one of Patrick's stage plays lol. For a French born character his french accent was pretty bad haha!

Can't remember what forum I was talking in but there was a guy who was all annoyed about how upset Raffi was about loosing her security clearance lol, well he's gonna love this ep and it pretty much says she turned into a alco & drug addict and messed up her family after that incident lol. Messed up drug addicts and alcoholics on earth, I'm sure Gene would love that lol. But hey I'm sure she'll have her recovering addict redemption story a happy ending with her dr son at some point and people will wonder if they're watching an episode of Chicago Med & not Star Trek lol.

But lets get to the real jewel of the episode.. I liked Voyager a lot but its not my favourite old trek show, probably more 3rd fav behind TNG & DS9. So considering how much this ep annoyed me I feel bad for all the super Voyager fans out there. You're NOT in for a good time here guys, I REALLY do feel bad for you guys and say sorry. Pretty much straight off the bat poor old (now grown up) Borg kid Icheb is utterly and brutally tortured/dissected and then murdered. Obviously the former was by the 'bad guys' but the later was by his Borg mum 7 of 9! Yes that's right, die hard voyager fans who love 7 of 9 and have been waiting for her return will literally get to see her shoot her own adopted son in the first 20 seconds of seeing her lol. He does the whole "im too far gone, put me out of my misery" thing everyone's seen a million times and she obliges. Get f****** mate! I get it, he's probably missing a few vital cybernetic organs but if he bleeds out or dies on route so be it, but at least try to throw him over your shoulder and carry your sons ass out of there. I mean I'm sure she didn't exactly have a nice state of the art medical bay next door ready to go or a big starship to beam up to but still it.. just.. felt.. wrong. Oh and apparently she just left him there too giving the black market guys EXACTLY what they wanted anyway as the crime lord chick brags later in the ep about dissecting him. Wtf??

But don't worry Voyager fans there's more character assassination coming for your enjoyment haha. 7 of 9 is definitely not the one you know anymore lol.. now she's PTSD Aragorn ranger'ing around the galaxy shooting lots of people vigilante style.. in fact I think they even call her a vigilante in one scene lol. You know all those boring episodes of Voyager where we got endless Janeway and 7 of 9 scenes (funny now considering how much the actors disliked each other) handcrafting her into a civilized 24th century human being? Well say goodbye to that folks cause now she's a messed up Bourbon drinking badass assassin for hire! She's helping those in need who can't help themselves and is more than happy to kill a few hundred people in the process if they get in her way *cue dramatic 80s action music* lol!

So what now then.. I mean in her final scene she lies to Picard, beams back down and offs the crime lord chick and then starts mowing down the place and it cuts away. The end! So that's answers the question of will she be a regular.. nope.. she's gooone. Maybe she'll come back later? Maybe she's return in a future season? Maybe they'll even be a nice happy ending redemption story for her down the track too (although that doesn't bring poor Icheb back does it lol)? Or maybe not lol and that'll be the end of her story and every time Voyager fans re-watch the old show they'll be like "oh look there's Icheb, when voyager gets home he joins starfleet and gets brutally tortured and murdered for spare parts.. and oh look there's 7 of 9, she's the one that kills him and leaves him there to be dissected for said parts lol, and spends the rest of her life miserable and shooting up half the galaxy in revenge." It's like the new Star Wars films.. I don't enjoy seeing my favourite childhood characters being brutally murdered in front of me. Because now when I re-watch the original stuff I just see their cheap deaths. Data's death in Nemesis had a similar effect on me so that's why I was so happy about this show as it gave me hope that they'd "do a star trek 3" and find a way to resurrect him. But now I find myself wondering how many other beloved characters are gonna get killed or messed up on the road to that happy ending, assuming thats even what happens, we may not even get that lol.

Anyway sorry.. back to the slaughter.. Bruce maddox.. they found him.. and he was all a messed up stressed alcoholic too of course.. cause everyone's messed up these days.. aaaaaaand then he was dead. All he bloody did was tell them her name and that shes at the cube and next thing we know he's getting offed by his own girlfriend (20 or so years younger than him I might add, yeeeaaahhh way to go on office romance bro! pulling those youngers chicks aint easy bro.. high 5!) giving us our innocent clumsy girl is actually working for bad guys shock moment at the end of the episode.. fake gasp.. yeah.. like I said before I was already completely disconnected by that stage and just didn't even care.

Urgh.. end of rant. Breath Daniel.. Just breath... lol

Like I said.. they're gonna need to work hard to undo the damage this episode did. I think I'd rather rewatch most of the episodes in discovery season 1 than ever watch that episode again lol.

Everywhere I go so far I've seem pretty horrified responses to ep5. I've seen a couple of dudes say they loved ep5 though, I was like WAAAT lol.

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I will pay the episode one compliment though.. their attention to detail on past Trek events once again is impressive. Eg they acknowledged Picard's Borg past which I was worried they wouldn't. They mentioned Quark in the bar sequence. And the biggest one would be during the horrible Icheb torture surgery scene where the lady callously says "where's your cortical node buddy?" as shes ripping stuff out of him. In season 7 of Voyager Icheb risked his life and gave his to 7 of 9 when her failed and they realised she couldn't survive without one while he might, which of course he did.

Meanwhile some self appointed comedian just thew this hand grenade into a Voyager facebook group. I'm sure you can image how well that went down with them lol. Too soon? Yeah just a bit lol.

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[ManicMatt]

Overall I really enjoyed the fifth episode! Sorry!

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I was horrified to see Icheb killed off just like that, although I didn't realise it WAS Icheb until later on because it wasn't the same actor. I did wonder if it was supposed to be what with the ridge on his nose and so on.

Speaking of not the same actor, I was really disappointed to finally see Bruce Maddox and.. not the same actor as in seen TNG. Sigh.

So why did I like it? Well, it was great to see Seven again, and interacting with Picard. The whole episode was less slow than the previous episodes.

I was hoping Seven would stick around, and although it left her fate uncertain, I'm pretty sure she'll get out unscathed. Great to see her being badass.