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Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x04 - "Absolute Candor"

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FWIW, I still am not getting the "Game of Thrones" vibe from Narek and Narissa. Narissa is clearly "flirting" with her brother, but he seems totally disgusted by her doing so. Still not sure what is going on, but I'm pretty sure it's not that he no longer has the hots for his sister after falling for Soji.

For all, we know incest could be tolerated in Romulan culture.
 
Also worth noting Chabon had sole writing credit this week. And the writing was much, much better than the past two weeks. Suggesting the clunky infodump stuff is coming from the other writers.

Being the showrunner, Chabon would likely have final polish on any episode. Premieres notoriously have to have a ton of exposition, particularly in those that are franchise-related. As I stated in another thread, we have to remember that there are people out there who may not have casually watched Star Trek more than once but had an interest in the return of Picard. They don't have this encyclopedic knowledge you and I as superfans do. You have to catch them up on the world they are entering. It may be "clunky" for us. But it is important. And honestly, for the most part, I thought it was handled fairly well, all things considering.

At the same time, yes, this writing was better.

Sounds like this has veered out of my comfort zone...

Is it just implied/off-screen? Or is it graphically portrayed? If it's the latter, I'm going to have to pass on this one. Makes me uncomfortable when violence gets out of the PG-13 zone... (And occasionally even in that zone.)

I think it depends on your comfort level. It was quick and it was not particularly graphic. If you could deal with "Conspiracy," you can most certainly deal with this.
 
They are asking where she comes from. What if in that place there were thousands of androids and they all looked like Data's daughter?;)
 
The twins may be quintuplets...

I don't think there's anything to suggest that. Narek and Narissa believe there is a "nest" with more synths out there, but there's no reason to think they are more Dahj/Soji clones. The prophecy Ramda talked about in particular was about two sisters, after all - one who lives, and one who dies.

There was a poetry to the best moments of this episode, I thought. But I'm guessing even Chabon, if he were the show's sole writer, wouldn't be able to escape the need for the periodic infodump.

Almost every Trek episode has infodumps, but there are ways to do them which are less obtrusive - such as numerous "staff meetings" that took place on all Trek shows (but particularly on TNG and VOY). Those are RL situations where someone gives you an infodump, so they're good places for info to be dumped on the viewer.
 
I don't think there's anything to suggest that. Narek and Narissa believe there is a "nest" with more synths out there, but there's no reason to think they are more Dahj/Soji clones. The prophecy Ramda talked about in particular was about two sisters, after all - one who lives, and one who dies.
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Well, I don't know about you but I am not a big fan of Tarot cards in Sci. Fi... Somehow the two don't mix well. I'd hate for Picard to become something between TNG and Harry Potter...
 
Well, I don't know about you but I am not a big fan of Tarot cards in Sci. Fi... Somehow the two don't mix well. I'd hate for Picard to become something between TNG and Harry Potter...

I don't think the Romulans use them as Tarot normally. This episode we saw some of the refugees playing what appeared to be a normal card game with the same set.

I do think cards will ultimately mean something to the series though - even if only allegorically - given Picard's opening dream sequence involved a card game.
 
FWIW, I still am not getting the "Game of Thrones" vibe from Narek and Narissa. Narissa is clearly "flirting" with her brother, but he seems totally disgusted by her doing so. Still not sure what is going on, but I'm pretty sure it's not that he no longer has the hots for his sister after falling for Soji.

I’m not sure what’s going on there either. His sister Narissa is also his handler and the Tal Shiar is a family business. Laris’s handler was Zhaban’s father and he was presumably also his son’s handler. Maybe that twisted intimacy is part of that whole dynamic. Narissa and Narek act like siblings, albeit with a bit of a creep factor.
 
I don't think the Romulans use them as Tarot normally. This episode we saw some of the refugees playing what appeared to be a normal card game with the same set.

I do think cards will ultimately mean something to the series though - even if only allegorically - given Picard's opening dream sequence involved a card game.

I think I saw some kind of Rubik's cube too.
 
I’m not sure what’s going on there either. His sister Narissa is also his handler and the Tal Shiar is a family business. Laris’s handler was Zhaban’s father and he was presumably also his son’s handler. Maybe that twisted intimacy is part of that whole dynamic. Narissa and Narek act like siblings, albeit with a bit of a creep factor.

Then again we don't know the Romulan take on sibling's sex. Maybe they've developed a fondness for recessive genes...
 
I'm finding the little tidbits of the socio-political situation in the former Romulan Empire to be fascinating. I like that as expected, the power vacuum has resulted is fracturing, factionalism and an influx of criminals and warlords. Still plenty of questions though.
One assumes the neutral zone is no more. Indeed that may have been where most of the refugees were resettled. Is the Romulan Free State the major recognised government, or just one of several? What happened to the Remans? Did they get a free state of their own? Or are they still a lower cast within the larger Romulan societies? What of the reunification movement? Did Vulcan opt to take in some refugees on their own initiative? How did the Klingon Empire react to all of this (besides laughter)?

Picard’s gift is rather boring. At least give him the Star Wars novel or something.
Lord of the Rings would have been hilarious. :)
I'm more concerned that his choice would be so anachronistic as to require a whole other book full of cliffnotes explaining the historical context of all of the *really* misogynistic parts of 'The Three Musketeers', less the lad get a very skewed and outdated view of human culture.
 
I gave it a 12. I have the ability to vote for poll options beyond the poll.

I agree! This one gave us more essential backstory on the aborted Romulan rescue attempt and showed what's happened to at least one of the post-Supernova communities. I also loved seeing the 3rd and 4th of the "Emergency" Holograms ("Mr. Hospitality" and the co=pilot/gunner). One wonders how many there will eventually be. Ha!
 
I agree! This one gave us more essential backstory on the aborted Romulan rescue attempt and showed what's happened to at least one of the post-Supernova communities. I also loved seeing the 3rd and 4th of the "Emergency" Holograms ("Mr. Hospitality" and the co=pilot/gunner). One wonders how many there will eventually be. Ha!

I'm starting to wonder if Rios himself is real or if it's just a whole ship of holograms.
 
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I loved the 23rd century Bird-of-Prey and the fact that the warp trails aren't the undulating, distorted ones we saw in DSC.
 
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I'm more concerned that his choice would be so anachronistic as to require a whole other book full of cliffnotes explaining the historical context of all of the *really* misogynistic parts of 'The Three Musketeers', less the lad get a very skewed and outdated view of human culture.

I don't know if it's so misogynistic. One of the main villains is a woman and she very cunning while for a long time and much later hollywood cast women as damsels in distress whose main role was to cry in fear and faint.
 
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