Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x03 - "The End is the Beginning"

[Amos]

I enjoyed the episode for the most part, but Raffi annoyed me... particularly these things:

In 2385, while they were both active duty members of Starfleet, Commander Raffi should not have been calling Admiral Picard JL. It should have been "Admiral" or "sir". Now I know from previous incarnations we'd see Kirk or Picard or Sisko addressing flag officers by their first names, but it seemed in those instances that there was a rapport that went back many years when both were lower in rank (as an example in Homefront and Paradise Lost, Sisko was Leyton's XO on Okinawa). I can't imagine this rapport between Picard and Raffi would have been possible considering the age difference and vast divide in rank. Furthermore, Picard always seemed like a stickler when it came to military bearing.

The whole materialism thing. I mean I get that Raffi's pissed at Picard for not bothering to check in on her for 15 years; But her whole rant about him living in a beautiful chateau in France while she's living in a box out in the desert. I thought money didn't exist in the 24th century. I thought that the accumulation of wealth and material possessions wasn't the driving factor in their lives. Why all of a sudden is this a thing?

And why is Raffi living in a box out in the desert? So she he got booted out of Starfleet and lost her security clearance; Okay yeah, that's not ideal, but she, at least in-theory, had 10-20 years as a Starfleet officer (presumably in security, engineering or operations, judging by her uniform color). She never thought about using her experience in the civilian sector. I suspect she could have had a pretty good and fulfilling life outside of Starfleet. Certainly there's civilian ships out charting the unknown regions of space or desolate worlds that need terraforming or teams working on new technologies that need an experienced engineer or manager or whatever.

As far as positives, I liked Rios and I'm glad they finally got to space. I wish Picard was bringing Laris and Zhaban with him. Those two can really handle themselves. In fact, Picard should bring Laris and Zhaban with him and leave Raffi back on Earth. Picard maybe could ask her to house sit for a few weeks, seeing as she was so jangry about the chateau... Soji and the Borg stuff is interesting and I can't wait to see where that goes.

 

[137th Gebirg]

My criteria? One that feels too recent a development to have passed the test of time.

We've been saying "hang up" meaning to end a call for over a century now, so it's plausible it will still be in use 300 years from now. Blue jeans have been around for about 150 years, so I imagine we'll see those in the far future too.

The thing that really jumped out at me was actually the vaping. Of course people will smoke in the 24th century, but the very specific thing that is vaping is so recent that its inclusion in Picard feels like pandering to a fad. Maybe vaping will stand the test of time too, but it could also look as silly 20 years from now as the space hippies in "Way to Eden" have for decades.

We still refer to digitally recording media as “taping” or “filming”, neither of which are widely used anymore.

And every so once in a while I hear someone at work needs to “Xerox” something.

 

[thribs]

Raffi and Rios obviously don't know about the Nyberrite Alliance. I hear they are always looking for good officers.

 

[Alan Roi]

Raffi and Rios obviously don't know about the Nyberrite Alliance. I hear they are always looking for good officers.

If either of them were 'good officers' at this juncture in their lives, they'd still be in Starfleet.

 

[Skipper]

I love how, after all the phantasmagoric weapons they've shown us in Star Trek these years, they tried to kill Picard as if they were twentieth century commandos

 

[thribs]

If either of them were 'good officers' at this juncture in their lives, they'd still be in Starfleet.

I got the impression they were let go unrelated to that. More of a polictical thing.

 

[Gepard]

I love how, after all the phantasmagoric weapons they've shown us in Star Trek these years, they tried to kill Picard as if they were twentieth century commandos

That's because they weren't supposed to succeed.

 

[Discofan]

These Romulan commandos keep getting their asses kicked. Unless they turn that around soon, so higher-up heads will roll...

 

[Kor]

I give this an 8. Quite entertaining, and moved along nicely.

I was thinking of the one on the cube.

If all Romulan speech was consistently translated to the same accent it’d make sense. It’s different Romulans having different accents that doesn’t.

STVI did it with the Klingons; Gorkon's British accent and Chang's affected "mid-Atlantic" stage accent from the 1930s.

But I do notice a certain consistency with these Romulans, when it comes to who has which accents. I just went back and watched several scenes over the first three episodes to confirm this. The smooth-headed Romulans, of whom there are fewer, are the ones with British accents (and at least one Irish accent in Laris's case), whereas the bumpy-headed "stubborn northerners" sound American (though the one in the preview for the next episode seems to have another accent which I don't immediately recognize. Nigerian?). This must be an intentional production choice to give some flavor of regional culture/language differences among Romulans besides their appearance.

On a different matter that has been brought up in this thread... Rios's sophisticated holograms as an indicator that holographic AI is allowed while physical synths are banned. Maybe both types actually are illegal now. The only hologram we've seen on Earth was a dumb interactive library interface. We've only seen the advanced type aboard La Sirena. Rios seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't let a little thing like an official ban prevent him from keeping them around anyway. Just a thought.

Kor

 

[Crewman6]

I enjoyed the episode for the most part, but Raffi annoyed me... particularly these things:

In 2385, while they were both active duty members of Starfleet, Commander Raffi should not have been calling Admiral Picard JL. It should have been "Admiral" or "sir". Now I know from previous incarnations we'd see Kirk or Picard or Sisko addressing flag officers by their first names, but it seemed in those instances that there was a rapport that went back many years when both were lower in rank (as an example in Homefront and Paradise Lost, Sisko was Leyton's XO on Okinawa). I can't imagine this rapport between Picard and Raffi would have been possible considering the age difference and vast divide in rank. Furthermore, Picard always seemed like a stickler when it came to military bearing.

The whole materialism thing. I mean I get that Raffi's pissed at Picard for not bothering to check in on her for 15 years; But her whole rant about him living in a beautiful chateau in France while she's living in a box out in the desert. I thought money didn't exist in the 24th century. I thought that the accumulation of wealth and material possessions wasn't the driving factor in their lives. Why all of a sudden is this a thing?

And why is Raffi living in a box out in the desert? So she he got booted out of Starfleet and lost her security clearance; Okay yeah, that's not ideal, but she, at least in-theory, had 10-20 years as a Starfleet officer (presumably in security, engineering or operations, judging by her uniform color). She never thought about using her experience in the civilian sector. I suspect she could have had a pretty good and fulfilling life outside of Starfleet. Certainly there's civilian ships out charting the unknown regions of space or desolate worlds that need terraforming or teams working on new technologies that need an experienced engineer or manager or whatever.

Agreed. So much about Raffi's backstory doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Why would she have been kicked out of Starfleet? Just for supporting Picard? I know the show is positioning Starfleet as a quasi-antagonist who had "lost its way", but I can't believe they would "fire" an experienced officer just because her CO resigned in protest.

That feels ridiculously petty and vindictive and I wouldn't buy that as being realistic in a 21st Century organization (without additional justification), let alone Starfleet of the 24th.

Nor do I buy that Jean-Luc would be so callous as to completely cut Raffi out of his life and quite literally never speak to her for all those intervening years. That's just....some really bad writing there and wildly out of character.

And speaking of out of character, also agree that Picard wouldn't like anyone calling him "JL", let alone a subordinate with a professional relationship, no matter how close their friendship.

Why is Raffi bitching about money? What money? As you point out, she should have had countless career options even if you buy the unrealistic dismissal from Starfleet (which I don't.) given her experience. And what's with the class warfare in the 24th Century? Besides, the Vasquez rocks are a very lovely location and would be a perfectly nice place to live....assuming you could just squat in a public park with your massive trailer. How did a public park become a private residence in the socialist, egalitarian future?

Some of the writing here is just really, really off base.

 

[Crewman6]

Rank doesn't always equate to importance or visibility. Raffi was an attaché to a senior Starfleet Admiral who openly opposed a highly charged political stance. She was essentially the XO of the Romulan Rescue Project. That project was just torpedoed and had resulted in a damaging resignation that would likely be a PR nightmare. There was no way Raffi was going to keep her job and there was no way anyone but the chagrined CinC was going to handle it.

She would just get reassigned, not drummed out of the service. It's b.s.

 

[Lord Hobbers]

It lowkey bothers me that Starfleet HQ in this show looks completely different from Starfleet HQ as seen in the past shows.

I felt the same way about Picard's home in France for a time, but then I remembered that the house burnt down in Generations so it makes sense that it looks different since they rebuilt it.

Ooh good point! But didn't they show it after the Breen attack in the VOY episode Pathfinder?

If memory serves wasn't that the Starfleet Communications Research Centre rather than the HQ

 

[thribs]

I just bought a tier 6 Vizier heavy cruiser in STO and called it the USS Ahmad ibn Majid in honour of this episode.

 

[Tarek71]

Agree on alot of that. Every episode is worse after I rewatch them. She would not have been out of Starfleet involuntarily. She would not call him "JL". JL would not have cut her off for no reason. If she was out of Starfleet, a trained officer would have lots of career opportunities. If latinum is what she wanted more of, I assume a SF commander has a sale-able skill and experience set to lots of interested parties.

The Romulan hit teams are more like the keystone cops than a serious special ops force. They wouldnt cut it as Red Shirts, let alone Super Secret Agents.

 

[BorgTheory]

It’s obvious Starfleet is allowing these kill squads to do whatever the hell they want. Commodore Sunglasses seems to have a large supply of these disposable troops.

 

[NCC-73515]

Ugh, 500 new posts in 24 h
I can only glance at them and have to skip everything that's too long, or just about black holes or Trump...

In The Last Best Hope, which has been written to be consistent with the Trek canon, Raffi is described as a Romulan intelligence officer who Picard recruited to help with his mission. They served together only on the Verity.

Raffi doesn't look Romulan at all, are you sure?

This episode did highlight an interesting connection between the Romulans and the Borg. is there something about Romulans—perhaps specifically ridged Romulans—that makes them immune to assimilation, or that might even disrupt the Borg?

The speculation that I have seen in a couple of places suggesting that the Vulcans, the Romulans, both popjlations, or some subset thereof are descended from experiments with synthetic life is starting to feel real.

I found out that Jarok's comment about Romulan cyberneticists wanting to be close to Data actually doesn't fully contradict the Zhad Vash and its hate for synths, cause the scene continues like this:

SETAL: You're the android. I know a host of Romulan cyberneticists that would love to be this close to you.
DATA: I do not find that concept particularly appealing.
SETAL: Nor should you.

Next episode he'll say: "Make it so!". Wait for it.

I bet he'll also order his tea hot again, not decaf, just like Admiral Janeway ditched her tea and revived her old coffee habit

Freecloud sounds like an app that sells discount vacation hotel prices.

They should get Shatner to appear in a holo ad as the Freecloud Negotiator!

Ooh good point! But didn't they show it after the Breen attack in the VOY episode Pathfinder?

I think we only saw the Communications tower in Pathfinder, which seemed to be in downtown SF itself.

 

[BorgTheory]

The ex Borg woman with the cards - there was a card with two women on it, light and dark. It has dual meaning - as the twins, and more importantly it represents Vulcan and Romulus.

Pause it on the card scenes - you can form good guesses about the plot

 

[Timo]

I enjoyed the episode for the most part, but Raffi annoyed me... particularly these things:

Nods of agreement in general. Some specifics, though:

In 2385, while they were both active duty members of Starfleet, Commander Raffi should not have been calling Admiral Picard JL. It should have been "Admiral" or "sir". Now I know from previous incarnations we'd see Kirk or Picard or Sisko addressing flag officers by their first names, but it seemed in those instances that there was a rapport that went back many years when both were lower in rank (as an example in Homefront and Paradise Lost, Sisko was Leyton's XO on Okinawa). I can't imagine this rapport between Picard and Raffi would have been possible considering the age difference and vast divide in rank. Furthermore, Picard always seemed like a stickler when it came to military bearing.

Raffi's backstory as a spook of some sort, even if only from the tie-in comics, might explain her attitude. A degree of irreverence would be built-in, and part of the package that Picard was willing to buy when accepting her as his right hand for the project - not a thing that developed along with their working relationship as part of a growing rapport.

The whole materialism thing. I mean I get that Raffi's pissed at Picard for not bothering to check in on her for 15 years; But her whole rant about him living in a beautiful chateau in France while she's living in a box out in the desert. I thought money didn't exist in the 24th century. I thought that the accumulation of wealth and material possessions wasn't the driving factor in their lives. Why all of a sudden is this a thing?

I guess it's more a life management issue. Picard has remained composed despite hardship and disappointment, while Musiker has let her life slip from her hands. Sure, she could have possessions, a position, goals. But she hasn't had the motivation to go get them. Living in a cardboard box is her life choice, and it's at this moment that she first comes to regret it, and to contrast it with the path Picard chose.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BorgTheory]

Raffle CHOSE to live in Vasquez slums and vape snakeweed all day. She’s pissed Picard had more fortitude than her. Hence the antiques. And the very wine he chooses to bring her.

Raffi is unlikeable right now

 

[Maurice]

Raffi has as much said she's got substance abuse issues.