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

And they probably didn't want a one of the shows' main characters to be that antagonistic towards Picard.

 

Janeway isn't close to Picard though. She had one tiny scene with him in Nemesis.

I agree that the script felt like it was written for Janeway.

 

My thoughts on episode two:

The scenes with the Commodore made me shake my head. Please don't tell me we're going to do more Section 31/shady spy BS in Star Trek. I can accept Starfleet Intelligence existing, but in this future where humanity is always portrayed as wanting for nothing and wanting peace over conflict, what is the impetus for having an organization that is doing more than intelligence gathering? Also, Section 31 has always been lazy writing with base level shadowy characters that are portrayed as doing "whatever it takes" and the main characters having to save the day with ideals. This worked once, maybe because William Sadler is such an awesome actor, but each with use subsequent use, the returns have diminished. I will be frustrated if we go down this route.

Why did the Commodore have to be a Vulcan? If we are having characters doing shady things that doesn't jive with Vulcan ideals, especially the IDIC on her desk. I don't think any series has done the Vulcans right outside of Spock and Tuvok.

The whole Lieutenant Rizzo storyline has tipped their hand too early in my opinion. We weren't sure what Narek was up to. Most of us figured it was no good, but to lock that in so early could be an unfortunate misstep depending on where they go with it. In the meantime, it kills any mystery of his story line.

The use of swearing seems to have a lot of people on social media wound up with some declaring this "wasn't their Trek." First off, "isn't my" is the most overused and tiresome BS on social media today. Secondly, I was fine with it. Trek has always promoted humanity as being perfect or as close to perfect as one can get, but people also get frustrated and angry. The new mediums that bring us Trek have allowed this kind of language to be used and frankly it makes them seem more human.

The scenes of Picard and Laris piecing together the scene of the crime could've been better served with lighter technobabble. Another kernel of lazy writing is layering on words that don't mean anything to the viewer. Using a metaphor to explain what is going on would be helpful.

One thing I was happy to see in this episode was the continued strong universe-building. Having seen where Discovery season three is going with a future where the Federation has fallen, you can theoretically begin to see the cracks here when Clancy comments that eighteen members almost left over helping the Romulans. All empires fall and it is amazing to see the two series in a kind of lock step to grow the universe.

 

If anything, I think you can imagine Janeway dropping an f-bomb fairly easily.

 

Seems legit

 

Many humans on the planet aren’t armed.

 

I think they'll want Janeway to be on Picard's side, if she appears. They don't want to pit TNG against VOY. It had to be an outsider (i.e. someone who didn't star in a previous series).

 

But 100% of those who are armed are human. And I do not think AI's will accept that.

 

There are others out there who don't hold the same ideals. Are utopian ideals enough to protect utopia from non-utopians?

 

If Janeway shows up we know that canonically she looks like Barbara Bush during the 2390's. It will be a canon violation if she doesn't look like barbara bush.

 

I blame the universal translator. The crew were cussing nonstop, but the translator was just bowdlerizing the heck out of everything.

 

Jammer's review is up. I agreed with him most of the time in the late-'90s and early-'00s. But nowadays, I agree with him less and less.

 

I enjoyed it, great to see Picard again, and I can't wait for the next ep.

But.

Still feels like there's a lot of set up, and I'm not convinced all of it is paying off. I liked Dahj. I'm not automatically transferring that to Soji, but I think the show expects/needs us to. And I think it was a mistake to introduce Soji with her meeting and getting involved with an obvious (to the audience, not her, but still) spy. We should have first seen something like we did later in this episode with her helping a newbie.

 

Also, the Beastie Boys used the word in the song Sabotage, heard uncensored in the film by young Jim Kirk when he's joyriding in Iowa.

 

Interestingly, many of the posters there see Picard having similarities with Disco, although unlike myself, they aren't pleased about that being so and complaints about CSI styling does seem to be rampant. And there's also a lot of dislike over at IGN. Looks like it's going to take some continued heavy lifting for even Patrick Stewart to carry fandom into the 2020s.

 

I'm glad they hate it.

 

I LOVE how the "present day" Starfleet combadges are the same ones from the future sequences of "All Good Things..."!

Also, I know people will criticize me for this point of view, but I think it is in poor taste to be dropping F-bombs in Star Trek. It just doesn't seem to fit. And believe me, I'm no prude (I'm far from it) but it just seems out of place to me. It was strange to hear in Discovery and it's hear even weirder to hear it in Picard. I think Star Trek is a lot classier than that. Hearing the S-word is one thing but the F-word? It's just bizarre hearing it in Trek.

 

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