I had mixed feelings about it. There were things I liked and things I didn't, but nothing so far that I can't live with, and I am overall optimistic that this may turn out well.
I was very worried that they would corrupt the Federation or Starfleet, and they kind of did that-- and yet, I found myself okay with it, because I could really sympathize with Picard's position. He resigned from Starfleet because they abandoned their principles by letting the Romulans twist in the wind. When I was young, when TOS was on the air, we had a widespread humanitarian social movement that changed the world more than it had ever been changed before-- then those who came after us abandoned those principles in favor of fundamentalist identity politics and political correctness, alienating and dividing people, and bringing us to our current dark times. So I am in somewhat the same state of disgust as Picard is now. And the Federation isn't being portrayed as some dark nuBSG dystopia-- it's still a high civilization-- but it's lost its moral high ground. So I can accept this as Star Trek dealing with contemporary issues as it always has, as long this is fixed in the end.
The other thing that I was worried about was whether they would reference the Romulan supernova, and they did. I don't really want any acknowledgement of JJ Trek, but there are mitigating factors here, too. The focus is really more on the Mars attack by rogue "Synths," the purpose of which seems to have been to prevent saving Romulans. Plus, there was no mention of Spock. Hopefully there won't be, so that we can just assume that in the original timeline our Spock did not end his life in colossal failure as he did in JJ World.
The setup and premise seem decent so far, although I would have preferred an Admiral Picard on the bridge of an Enterprise. There were a lot of nice touches, like him speaking French at home and keeping all of his relics from his days on the 1701-D in a stasis storage chamber. I like that he has two Romulan caretakers who adore him, but aren't afraid to poke fun at him. I like his dog. I like the attention to so many details of TNG, like Data's painting and his run-in with Maddox.
The interview at the start of the episode on the occasion of the Martian attack anniversary was perfectly done to both unload a lot of needed exposition and also to present the reduced character of the Federation in the person of the vapid and self righteous interviewer. We're presented with a mystery that will be central to the plot: Why did a fleet of rogue Androids (now called "Synths" for no apparent reason) destroy the fleet intended to evacuate Romulans? Do Synths hate Romulans? Was there another motive? In any case, Androids have now been outlawed-- although the rogues are presumably still out there-- and are apparently viewed as "soulless killing machines" by the common people. I wonder if this law (and prejudice) is being applied to holograms like the Doctor.
I was very surprised that the character of Dahj was killed off so quickly, and I'm not entirely convinced it was a real death. The first group of attackers seemed to want to abduct her, so the second attack was either conducted by a different group or her death was a red herring of some kind. We'll see. It seems odd that they would kill off Data's daughter just as she came to Picard for help, even if she has a twin out there. And we still have to find out who her mother is and if Maddox was involved in her creation.
I'm not entirely surprised that Data remained dead and that B4 could not handle his memories. I'm a little more surprised that they explicitly said that it's still impossible to replicate Dr Soong's technology, and I wonder what that means, since we know that other AIs, such as the Doctor, exist. Plus, those rogues are presumably sentient. I hope they don't retcon the Doctor as a mere simulation.
One thing that really felt like a rip off was that the story was only 43 minutes long. Come on, people, this is streaming!
On a technical level, the sound was really bad. I had my laptop cranked up to the max and had to turn on the subtitles. I hope that goes better with future episodes.
But anyway, I was pretty relieved that this episode was not a disaster and was actually pretty good. It was really nice to see a cranky old Picard get a little bit of his fire back, and I wonder where this will take us. I'm still a little worried, but more optimistic now.
