Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x05 - "Stardust City Rag"

I don't have any children but some of the scenes are a bit graphic to be considered a family show like those that came before.

This is coming from a man who as a kid watched lots of films with my much older brother, stuff like Alien, Nightmare on Elm Street and Jaws to name just a few when I was only around 5-7 years old.

In the UK the show has a 12 rating which is fair enough but I can appreciate how some would like to watch the show with their younger children to mirror how they watched it back in the day with their parents, its really not an option though as the show has certainly earned its US-TV-MA rating.

I guess its just not being made with a young audience in mind.

As for the Mandalorian you don't need to worry, its Disney.

 

I was wondering how long it would take to reveal that Agnes is working with the villains.

I wonder if the EMH will tell everyone what it saw?

 

Agnes is a cybernetics expert. She'll do better than that.

EMH: Picard here just murdered Maddox. Oh he also has irumodic syndrome.

Rios: Take him away!

Picard:

 

Well, it's definitely for a younger audience than "Game Of Thrones" for example.

 

After my second viewing of the episode, I can't help but feel disappointed. I still feel the acting is great, and Frakes did a wonderful job behind the camera. There were good character moments. However, I am struggling to see how the A-plot was more than a diversion. We were taken all this way only to learn that Soji is on the cube. Oh, yes, there were Maddox vague suspicions. Writing Maddox death at such an early stage means that any effort to deepen our understanding of the relationship between Data and the twins is lost, and it makes Picard's dedication to finding and protecting Soji to be more difficult to maintain. Maybe I might have felt different if Picard showed some understanding of the pain Raffi felt not being able to connect with her family.

 

Poor Icheb. Took his eye off the game apparently.

 

Raffi's plot is kinda out of place. I didn't like it there. There are only five episodes left to solve this whole mess.

 

Good chemistry between Stewart and Ryan. Especially that last scene.

 

Can't wait for next week's episode and the brutal vivisection of Naomi Wildman.

Maybe they can say Harry Kim's parents died on Mars, too.

 

This isn't the same thing, but some of the complaints on here reminded me of a letter I read in some magazine when Worf joined DS9. It was an outraged parent complaining that DS9 is a filthy, immoral show that he won't let his kids watch, and that they're going to ruin the noble character of Worf.

 

To be fair, all the EMH saw was Maddox' dying while Agnes was in the room. Which Picard would know since Maddox died right after he left the room leaving Jurati alone with Maddox.

 

True but all that is missing is nudity and sex some of which was fully clothed which could perhaps be explained away.

Child: Why is that man bumping into that woman from behind?

Parent: Its because she has swallowed something she shouldn't and he is trying to make her spit it out.

Cersei and Jamie in the tower I am looking at you.

 

Considering how he acted on the show at times, a fair argument was made his character was damaged.

 

I think if Picard can be accused of anything its that he is clueless, he only sees what he wants to see unless it slaps him around the face.

Plus a big dose of ignorance in places but that can be attributed to the plot needing it to be so.

 

Not pretending it's new, but it is unexpected (for the reasons I outlined before), and that's my issue.

It's up to everyone to set their standards for what they and their family will watch. If a family is comfortable setting their kids in front of an R-rated film like Alien, that's their business, not mine.

But if you can't at least empathize with the frustration we feel when we do prefer to avoid these things and get mixed messages as to what to expect, I don't know what else to say.

 

Seven's eye implant is definitely different from before:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url...ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCNi_zfab4ecCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

 

Tom, Belanna, and Miral Paris all died in a shuttle accident when Tom was doing stunt flying.

Tuvok killed his wife and himself in a brutal murder/suicide after he lost his mind due to that neurological disease he was developing.

Harry died in a freak accident after finally being promoted. His rank pip pierced his carotid artery and he bled to death.

The Doctor was accidentally deleted when getting a software update.

Chakotay was accidentally poisoned when getting his face tattoo expanded.

Naomi Wildman fell into a black hole on her way to an interstellar kadis kot tournament.

Janeway was chased down and murdered by bounty hunters sent by one of the many people she pissed off in the Delta Quadrant.

 

Certainly does have the feel Of the darkest timeline this show.

 

Now that I've complained enough about the gore, let me sum up my feelings on the rest of the episode:

• I really liked "freecloud". That place was bonkers, retro-futurist b-movie trashy in a way I absolutely appreciate. Space casino. I don't care so much for the logic behind it, because I was absolutely entertained by it
• The entire A-plot - Seven's revenge story - left me kinda' cold and felt uninspired. Seven's actions were apprpriate, but I have seen this exact plot a thousand times already

Sadly, this is everything I can say about the main plot. That was really a bit disappointing.
I absolutely DID like the hints for the larger narrative though.

Speculation time:

• No idea what the secret is, but the Federation and Tal'Shiar work together to "protect" it. If we have bad luck, it's connected to DIS' "Control"-story, and these cultists fight Skynet/Control, which is also the origin of the Borg or something
• Personal theory: "Oh" is actually NOT a ROmulan in disguise, but a proper VULCAN - who's in on the conspiracy and thus working together with the Zhat Vash (and not the Tal'Shiar).
• Possibility: If "Oh" is a Vulcan, she mind-controlled Agnes Jurati into doing those things

Minor musings:

• I liked the scene of Jurati murdering Maddow. That was audience appropriate - a pretty graphic depiction, of a very graphic thing (cold murder). But still within the realms of being watchable in a family show
• I like how "the artifact" is common knowledge - like, in this universe, so many crazy ship is lying around, from abandonded Dyson-spheres to defeated Doomsday machines - that the Romulans having a derelict Borg cube is common knowledge - because it's such a wild thing every one would know about - and yet not a total shocker to the people living in this universe

Final words:
Really, overall not impressed with this particular story. Absolutely interested in the season's main plotline though. But goddamn do I hate the fucking gore of this episode...
6/10