Spoilers Picard Prequel "Children of Mars"

[Awesome Possum]

Also, the amount of time between the Federation's 9/11 analogue and Picard's present is roughly the same as between our 9/11 and the present. Which is appropriate, because where Enterprise - as a post 9/11 show - wanted to explore the immediate aftermath (and had the same disturbing pro-torture turn that a lot of media did after 9/11) Picard seems more interested in exploring how a generation or so after a terrorist attack we find that society has changed irrevocably.

Im in even more interested in how Picard behaves in the show. Based on the trailers, he’s left Starfleet seemingly in despair over what they became and it might be why he’s forgotten. Starfleet is going in another direction due to the attack and peaceful diplomats are what they’re needing right now.

 

[ICW]

I think the complaint is more about the ship talk dominating the discussion to such an extreme, when the story wasn't really about the tech and hardware.

Exactly. I get it but the discussion is just going in circles at this point.

 

[Greg Cox]

For me, focussing on the ship designs to this degree is like going to see a play and spending the whole time scrutinizing the backdrops and set dressing. (Not to minimize the value of good art direction, of course.)

But, as noted, there is no right way to watch Star Trek. Everybody has different priorities. I get that "ship porn" is a thing, and there are apparently continuity issues as well.

 

[Dukhat]

Time is also a factor. So cheaper and time effective.

I doubt that was the case either. I’m pretty sure they just didn’t care.

 

[eschaton]

Im in even more interested in how Picard behaves in the show. Based on the trailers, he’s left Starfleet seemingly in despair over what they became and it might be why he’s forgotten. Starfleet is going in another direction due to the attack and peaceful diplomats are what they’re needing right now.

I could be wrong, but I'm guessing Starfleet isn't so much more heavily militarized as Federation society is edging towards a panopticon in the name of public safety. I mean, militarily speaking the Federation probably still reigns supreme, but asymmetric actions are really hard to deal with via something like starships, causing paranoia to rise

To shift gears, this also makes me realize why Lower Decks decided to set itself only a year after Nemesis. The sort of silly TNG-lite stories they're trying to tell would be entirely out of place in a post-Utopia Planetia setting.

Oh, and I think they probably should have shifted the body count up a bit higher, to be honest. I mean, considering the Federation has a population many orders of magnitude above the U.S., even an initial report of 3,000 dead is more like 30 dead to us. It's a tragedy, but not the defining tragedy of a generation. Hell, there are enough colonies out there I expect at least one is entirely lost every decade or so.

 

[Danja]

Riker and Troi were announced before either of the actors even filmed their scenes.

They may well do it again this year with Seven.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It was a scene-setter. It was okay, but lacked substance. Nice music, but it clearly proves this to be non-canon: 24th century Trek only listens to classical music and jazz

And those ships were visible for around 4 seconds?

Not that I've seen it, of course

 

[Tuskin38]

I’m pretty sure they just didn’t care.

I disagree.

The Short Trek wasn't made by the Picard production team, and was clearly finished before that show was. They probably don't have the same budget as the main show, so they can't make their own assets.

 

[Greg Cox]

It was a scene-setter. It was okay, but lacked substance. Nice music, but it clearly proves this to be non-canon: 24th century Trek only listens to classical music and jazz

Does Klingon opera count as classical music?

 

[Dukhat]

I disagree.

The Short Trek wasn't made by the Picard production team, and was clearly finished before that show was. They probably don't have the same budget as the main show, so they can't make their own assets.

Yet they could show the new models of the kite ships and the Utopia Planitia space station made for STP.

 

[tomalak301]

I think the complaint is more about the ship talk dominating the discussion to such an extreme, when the story wasn't really about the tech and hardware.

It's interesting. I have been reading this thread, off and on, and I haven't seen any mention of the use of the song to tell this story. Considering how controversial Faith of the Heart was, including Peter Gabrial was an unexpected sight in and of itself. It was incredibly haunting and it really did work for me.

 

[cooleddie74]

Let's not forget Klingon metal music. The EMH didn't.

 

[Blooded]

There’s seriously people in this thread trying to pretend that “casual” viewers even have a clue about the different Trek eras, let alone that they use the ships to identify said era(s)...? Come on.

As for who is even watching these shorts, here’s some perspective:

My father has watched Trek since the 60s in first run, has watched all the shows and films, and is up to date on Discovery. He’s even coming to London with me next week for the premiere of Picard. He has not watched a SINGLE episode of Short Treks yet, not this years or last years.

I don’t think we need to worry about casuals getting themselves tied up in knots trying to work out when certain episodes take place.

 

[BillJ]

It would've been nice to see a couple new ships floating around Utopia Planitia.

Can't win them all.

 

[Markonian]

From what I gathered in this thread, this is the list of spacecraft seen in "Children of Mars":
1x Class C shuttle as SCHOOL SHUTTLE at San Francisco, Earth
1x Class C shuttle approaching the Utopia Planitia drydock
2x Magee class escorts inside the drydock, together with
2x Malachowski class (Zimmerman variant) tugs
unspecified number of DSC-era worker bees
1x Federation drydock

Markonian,

++Synth ships and Martian station attacked by synth ships

 

[Tim Thomason]

Maybe that was the floating Starfleet Museum with a special "Ships of the Klingon War" exhibit.

 

[Lakenheath 72]

Markonian,

++Synth ships and Martian station attacked by synth ships

 

[JD]

I really don't see why the ships are such a big deal, we saw them reusing TOS era ships all the time on the other shows.

I could be wrong, but I'm guessing Starfleet isn't so much more heavily militarized as Federation society is edging towards a panopticon in the name of public safety. I mean, militarily speaking the Federation probably still reigns supreme, but asymmetric actions are really hard to deal with via something like starships, causing paranoia to rise

To shift gears, this also makes me realize why Lower Decks decided to set itself only a year after Nemesis. The sort of silly TNG-lite stories they're trying to tell would be entirely out of place in a post-Utopia Planetia setting.

Oh, and I think they probably should have shifted the body count up a bit higher, to be honest. I mean, considering the Federation has a population many orders of magnitude above the U.S., even an initial report of 3,000 dead is more like 30 dead to us. It's a tragedy, but not the defining tragedy of a generation. Hell, there are enough colonies out there I expect at least one is entirely lost every decade or so.

Yeah, I'm a little surprised the body count wasn't a lot higher. They showed massive explosions all over the planet, so unless most of those were over unpopulated areas I would expect the casualties to at least be at least a few times more than what they showed.

 

[Noname Given]

I disagree.

The Short Trek wasn't made by the Picard production team, and was clearly finished before that show was. They probably don't have the same budget as the main show, so they can't make their own assets.

Um, the same companies do the VFX for all the current Star Trek Streaming series.

 

[Vger23]

Precisely. I think some people look for too much from these shorts, to be honest. Not everyone, but definitely a handful of folk.

We typically only ever see the Star Trek Universe through the eyes of our main series heroes. It's great to see some of it through the eyes of minor characters who likely won't ever be seen again, especially when it comes to events like this Mars attack that we will almost certainly see from Picard's own perspective [via flashbacks] on Picard.

My feeligs exactly. The shorts are just little off-beat snippets in my mind. And that's all I ever expected. And as that, they are charming and work well.

This. The only problem with your post was is that I could only give it one like.

The short was advertised as a prequel to Picard. Anyone who's confused is actively going out of their way to be confused on purpose.

I have watched Star Trek since 1977, and I've seen DSC episodes a bunch of times...and I didn't even notice the ships were from DSC.

Ultimately, this was a good short, but it would have been so much better if it was handed over to the Picard production crew rather than retained by the Discovery production crew.

What do you base that on? We have no idea whether that is true or not based on the available information.