Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x02 - "Maps and Legends"

At least you can skip them on Prime.

 

About Commodore Oh (very strange name). I really hope she is neither Vulcan nor Romulan. Maybe some other Vulcanoid, Debrune, Mintakan or whatever.

 

She had an IDIC symbol and a Kir'Shara on her desk.

 

The "Temporal Tricorder note 5" if she only had upgraded to the note 10, they could of seen the deleted history scenes.

 

The Tal Shiar is not very secret, people seem to generally know about it and actually fear its agents. The Zhat Vash being a much better hidden and probably more powerful secret organization parallels Section 31 being a hidden branch of the otherwise well known Starfleet Intelligence (except in Disco).

His first officer on the Verity in Countdown

I imagine a drunk German... Vell, Zhat Vash Voman Vas Reely Hot... XD

We've seen several publicity photos

Another one had the time to become an ambassador... she could also have replaced the real Oh like they planned to replace Picard with Shinzon.

She might not be available because she already is on a mission

Would explain why the Romulan heart is gray (unless that was another lie)

I hope she's working for the V'Shar!

Why are the Borg on the opposite side in STO?

I was hoping we'd see more ever since we saw pretty little in CoM, and I loved it!

Disco writers did. They were written much better in DS9, I think.

I also liked it. She kinda had a point, he of course had a point, but he actually was pompous and of course she was pissed about the interview. It all made sense to me.

 

She's clearly the Master in disguise

 

Yeah, I mean, what, does Picard think he's saved the planet and the Federation itself several times or something?

Erm, you realize that in AGT Picard wasn't suffering from the disease and he actually was traveling through time.

 

I also wanna see more Borg morgue gore.
More Borg Morgue Gore!

 

The Commodore isn't a Romulan - what would be the point? Her underling is a disguised Romulan already. Commodore Oh is just acting like a security officer. If there's a conspiracy, she's the Colonel West.

What we don't know is whether she knows Rizzo is a Romulan or not...

Loved the rest of the episode. Much talkier than last week, clearly a middle chapter of this thee-part pilot. Laris is a really nice character, and Orla Brady does a good job with an incredibly lengthy exposition scene.

Nice references to Worf and Geordi - at least we know they're alive and active. Bev conspicuously not mentioned...

The scene with Dr Benayoun was the stand out for me. Beautifully acted and smartly written - they didn't need to say 'Irrumodic syndrome', the intent was clear for everyone.

And then there's Raffi at last. So she's living off-grid on the planet where Kirk fought the Gorn! And also Vulcan! And also Veridian III! And pretty much everywhere in Star Trek ever!

 

The point is everyone else thought he was crazy and it was the effects of Irrumodic Syndrome, which he was suffering in the future.

 

Wasn't it both? He traveled through time and they didn't believe him specifically because he had Irumodic Syndrome. They dismissed his claims as yet another delusion caused by the illness he already had.

 

It's not and specifically stated as such. Someone in Star Fleet twisted the words of that section as their justification for Section 31. Section 31 refers to, oddly enough, Article 14 section 31, of the Star Fleet charter. It sees a little dim to create a super secret intelligence/assassination organization in a public document that all members of the Federation presumably sign off on.

 

What the Doctor was referring to was the defect Crusher found in AGT which could lead to him getting any multiple of neural disorders.

 

Yeah, but he didn't actually have it! His post says "it's not to the point it was in AGT yet." But it was at no point in the episode.

 

you forgot:
*page "Admiral Gurney" over the loudspeakers as soon as he enters the building


I've read most of this thread, and I don't think I've seen a single person mention it. Surely an intentional easter egg.

 

When Geordi first met him in the vineyard, he specifically mentioned the Irumodic Syndrome and how it would take a few years to run its course. He had already been diagnosed with it before he started talking about the time jumps.

 

Anyone in Australia having issues with Amazon for the second ep? Every time I go on, the episode is up but says “unavailable”

I am out of the country though. Perhaps it won’t let me view it cause my internet is not coming from in Aus.

 

Just watched it, another solid episode, cant say I had any problems with the dialogue in it.

Good to see exactly what happened on Mars, no doubt someone took them over or corrupted their programming.

Liking Laris more and more, Zhaban was very quick to say the Zhat Vash was a myth, is he a member perhaps.

That Commodore could be Romulan or Vulcan, her subordinate who failed with Dahj is going to end up being killed by Sonj's new boyfriend when the time comes for him to have to make a choice.

As usual the Starfleet Admiral is bloody useless, not only did she blow Picard off she warned the enemy as well.

Like I said yesterday, the Romulan zealots may have a very very good reason for acting as they do, did they have something to do with creating the Borg or does it have something to do with the schism between them and the Vulcans.

Another setup episode but we were told at the start that the first three would be just that, ship and crew next week.

 

The second episode was not as, ahem, engaging as the first, but it was still pretty good. There were a couple of moments where they almost seemed to poke fun at the idea the kind of sequel most TNG fans actually want to see. First, Picard goes to this year's token crabby Admiral and requests to be reinstated and given a ship-- and is promptly accused of fucking hubris and sent packing. Then later, one of his Romulan caretakers suggests that he contact members of his old Enterprise crew and he soundly rejects that notion on the grounds that they would be loyal and want to help. Okay. Personally, I would have preferred that scenario, but this is the scenario we got and so far it's doing okay.

This is also the second episode in a row with some Earl Grey genuflection.

Moving the story along, Picard and his other Romulan caretaker visit Dhaj's apartment to investigate the scene of the crime-- shades of Dixon Hill-- only to find that it has been scrubbed of all evidence. Not quite all, because Picard's caretakers are former Tal Shiar, so she's able to find something. This leads to the revelation that the Tal Shiar is just the front for a far older and far darker shadow group that nobody knows about except to the extent that they can drop vague hints about their sinister purpose. Yeah, that does sound boring. Especially since their sinister purpose seems to be exclusively to destroy all artificial intelligence for no apparent reason. And seeing as how Picard's ex-Tal Shiar caretakers know about this, I think we can be pretty much guaranteed that at least one of them will turn out to be a sleeper agent for this shadow group and be shockingly activated around episode eight.

It was also implied that it was this shadow group that took control of the synths and made them destroy Utopia Planitia and set Mars ablaze. Writing that sentence makes me wonder if it was a deliberate move by the writers to destroy something named Utopia. Anyway, those synths were pretty low-rent androids, nowhere near Data level. Even Alexa has a better sense of humor than those guys.

The scene between Picard and Admiral Crabby was pretty interesting, because they discussed the Federation pullback of aid to Romulus. Apparently fourteen Federation member worlds threatened to secede from the union if aid was given. So the situation is not so simplistic as it first appeared-- apparently not all member worlds are as on board with Federation values as others, and internal politics can be a bit fraught. I'm guessing these troublesome worlds have names like Texas Centauri and Gamma Alabama.

And, hey, we have a Commodore for the first time in ages. I always loved Commodores. That would have been my preferred rank if I was in Starfleet. Too bad this one is a Romulan mole.

Anyway, instead of gathering up his old beloved crew from the Enterprise, Picard has begun to gather up some less-beloved acquaintances from the untold years between then and now, which we will probably learn more about starting next week. He has been medically approved to return to space, however there was a mention of his Irumodic Syndrome, and I have a bad feeling that that's more foreshadowing than a nod to continuity. In any case, the hunt for Bruce Maddox has begun.

Zhat Vash, huh? I thought it was Jack Flash. That would have been a gas, gas, gas.