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

[Mygia]

I was expecting the worst after the episode teaser, but luckily it turned out to be pretty okay.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I also don't really like it that they seem to go way too far into the mysticism region with Soji. This whole bit of an ancient prophecy of the Destroyer of everything. That fits better into a fantasy series and not a science fiction one.

Uhhhh, Deep Space 9? The Prophets? The Orb of Prophecy and Change?

 

[SolarisOne]

Uhhhh, Deep Space? The Prophets? The Orb of Prophecy and Change?

Not to mention, Star Trek IS a fantasy series.

 

[Tarek71]

It's possible she prefers Seven and Hugh prefers Hugh to whatever his birth name was. We'll see next week, but she may not associate with that childhood name. She is Seven now. Annika is gone. The Borg ended that life.

 

[Tarek71]

I actually like the Destroyer and Romulan mythology bit. I liked the Bajoran prophets, The Sisko, the Orbs, they arranged his birth, etc. More of that would be better actually.

 

[thribs]

I don’t get why they recreated his house on the ship. He wanted to get away from it.
If anything they should have recreated his ready room.

 

[nutshell]

Pain yes, but not anything in terms of his own redemption. He didnt cause the supernova, he didnt attack Mars, he didnt ban synths, and he didnt halt the Romulan rescue. So while he may feel pain about the consequences of OTHERS actions, they are not something he needs to atone for, since none of this is on him.

So yes, they try in each episode to make it seem like there is something redemptive that he needs to do, but squandered every chance to make it personally redemptive by making it everyone elses fault but his. Who cares about the errors in judgement or betrayal of principles by characters we never see, dont know and are not the focus of the show?

He is already a Moral Mary Sue who always does the right thing, always the champion of the good, and forever the exemplar of all that was upstanding and Just in Starfleet. His vicarious atonement for the sins and moral failings of others only furthers his ethical Mary Sue-ness.

Actually it was stated in this episode very clearly that he “gave up.” Sounds like he has some atoning to do after all.

 

[Tarek71]

Forget his ready room. They should upload Vulcan Love Slave Part 2: The Revenge, and have the EMH whip up some viagra. That might put some pep in his step. Not easy when an already glacial plot progression centers on the oldest, slowest, least energetic characters.

 

[Roboturner913]

This is why the show isn't clicking. There's nothing thematically or emotionally connected with Picard's frustration over the rescue operation and him venturing out into space to find Data's daughter.

Well, sure there is. He says it over and over again, Data was his friend, he saved his life, etc. The androids that attacked Mars were all based on Data, assuming by Dr. Agnes saying that even if they were allowed to build more androids they couldn't do it since Data's not around anymore. And the attack is what caused the Feds to abandon the Romulan rescue efforts. So it's all connected. And Dahj/Soji is a mystery and we know the man likes a mystery.

The emotional consequences he's dealing with aren't related to the attack and the withdrawal, etc. They're personal relationships that he abandoned when everything went to shit; he's called himself out for that at least 3 times.

 

[thribs]

They Synths weren’t based on Data. They were designed to be non sentient machines.

 

[Roboturner913]

They Synths weren’t based on Data. They were designed to be non sentient machines.

The only one we've seen so far sure seemed sentient to me.

 

[thribs]

The only one we've seen so far sure seemed sentient to me.

He was just responding to a input. Like a Alexa.

 

[sevenstars]

The original Romulan BoP was super cool.

I'm sorry, I'm not a ship aficionado, so revile me if you will, but why is an original Romulan Bird of Prey not painted like a giant bird? Because THAT'S super cool.

 

[Alan Roi]

The only one we've seen so far sure seemed sentient to me.

F-8 didn't seem particularly advanced to me.

 

[Tarek71]

Actually it was stated in this episode very clearly that he “gave up.” Sounds like he has some atoning to do after all.

Yes, thats another example of where they try to make it seem like there is some need for his own redemption, but there was nothing more he could do. Yes, he could have been even more selfless and devoted his civilian years to hiring a ship at the Cantina, to slowly trickle out as many people as he could. But that would have been a drop in the bucket compared to 900 million. So he saved 100,000s or millions but thats not good enough? He should have died trying? That's not something you need redemption for.

Make him responsible for SOMETHING that went wrong. The supernova, the synth attack, the synth ban, the cancellation of the rescue mission. SOMETHING. Instead they make everything that went wrong the fault of everyone except him.

 

[Alan Roi]

I'm sorry, I'm not a ship aficionado, so revile me if you will, but why is an original Romulan Bird of Prey not painted like a giant bird? Because THAT'S super cool.

Probably because its 150 years after that sort of thing was a thing.

 

[thribs]

Narek’s line about her being shipped off to the Beta Quadrant was rather odd. The majority of the Federation is in the Beta Quadrant. Not to mention Sol is on the border.
He also refers to humans as Terrans, which is fine but in Star Trek that has a different meaning.

 

[sevenstars]

Probably because its 150 years after that sort of thing was a thing.

Oh.

 

[Alan Roi]

Yes, thats another example of where they try to make it seem like there is some need for his own redemption, but there was nothing more he could do. Yes, he could have been even more selfless and devoted his civilian years to hiring a ship at the Cantina, to slowly trickle out as many people as he could. But that would have been a drop in the bucket compared to 900 million. So he saved 100,000s or millions but thats not good enough? He should have died trying? That's not something you need redemption for.

Make him responsible for SOMETHING that went wrong. The supernova, the synth attack, the synth ban, the cancellation of the rescue mission. SOMETHING. Instead they make everything that went wrong the fault of everyone except him.

He could have not resigned and kept pushing for as much as Starfleet was willing to give him. The line "You couldn't save everyone, so you saved no one" is particularly important to this story.

 

[rahullak]

Hell yeah.