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

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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

Addendum:
  • The whole "Rafi's son" stuff came out of nowhere and went there really fast again. I felt having that conversation in person was a cheap trick to have more crying faces/drama happening on screen. A more somber scene (her drinking with Picard reminiscing about how she grew apart from her son) would have been much more appropriate.
 
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.
I wouldn't be surprised if this happened. I'm still in shock that it seems like yesterday as a kid watching All Good Things and their "bad" future back in 1994, and now we're actually over 25 years later and watching TNG's actual bad future, which was worse than we could possibly have believed back then.

Coming from the comic book world, we know characters won't die so long running characters are made to suffer as much as possible to create drama (X-Men comics are a good example, old Star Wars expanded universe). And then, maybe they'll kill them off too (see Star Wars sequels)
 
The Raffi son stuff was quite out of the blue and while it went according to a template; it was well acted. I dunno how they are going to quite do justice to this subplot though. Presumably at some stage Romulan agents will catch up with her son and their family and Raffi, Picard will have to save them..
 
Was Raffi's son's pregnant wife Pel a vulcan or a romulan? She had the forehead ridge, but Pel sounds like a vulcan name and she didn't show much emotion.
She looked Romulan to me but I’ve read elsewhere she’s Vulcan. And you’re right about her name.
 
Addendum:
  • The whole "Rafi's son" stuff came out of nowhere and went there really fast again. I felt having that conversation in person was a cheap trick to have more crying faces/drama happening on screen. A more somber scene (her drinking with Picard reminiscing about how she grew apart from her son) would have been much more appropriate.

You would've preferred that they tell instead of show?
 
The Raffi son stuff was quite out of the blue and while it went according to a template; it was well acted. I dunno how they are going to quite do justice to this subplot though. Presumably at some stage Romulan agents will catch up with her son and their family and Raffi, Picard will have to save them..

I can see it being used as a reason to give her motivation to actually be more involved in Picard's mission. She may not be a to save her relationship with her son, but she can save Data's daughter.
 
You would've preferred that they tell instead of show?

In this case, yes. Either really focus on that (then start back on Earth with that), or just put it in as background.
Don't half-ass it, and go straight into the dramatic-tension-scene (tm) without proper backstory or context..

I did like how her son's girlfriend/wife was Romulan though. A neat little bit of worldbuilding, as in, when a people (in this case Romulans) are displaced and have to find refugee among other people in large numbers - there's going to be intermixing.
 
I'm getting annoyed with not knowing why the Zhat Vash are afraid of/hate synthetics. How/why is Soji "the destroyer." I hope that gets fully revealed to us sooner rather than later.

If Soji turns into a giant marshmallow man it'll all make sense to me.
 
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. :biggrin:

My youngest brother during some disaster movie involving a blizzard or avalanche or something:

"If it's so cold, why are they taking their clothes off?"
 
(EDIT: There are HUGE SPOILERS in this reply. Skip if you haven't seen the episode yet are reading this thread for some ungodly reason.)

I don't understand the reaction to the gore. What do you think happens to the people off-camera that we play so fast and loose with on-camera? Oh, a planet was assimilated? So cool. The Borg are so chilling; I love them.

I think it was there to establish the plight of the Ex-B's and context to Seven's descent to murder.

What did strike me as disturbing was that it was Icheb. I wasn't a huge VOY fan, but he was, for lack of a better term, part of the family. That said, why shouldn't it be him instead of a nameless or short-lived redshirt?

Some qualms with the episode:
1. Picard should have never beemed down looking as he did -- his face would have been recognized.
2. It kind of annoyed me that Raffi's son's wife Pel(?) was the exact same shade as he was. She's a Romulan at least, but even more of a mixed-race couple would have been statistically more likely. Sisko and Jake also had wives, girlfriends, and romantic interests who were also almost always black.
3. I get that it was comic relief, but Rios in 1970's pimp outfit and Picard unusually flamboyant didn't work for me. Picard isn't the actor Stewart. Maybe it's part of Picard's growth over his long life, or maybe it's just out of character for him.
4. Maybe Manu declined the part given how brief it would have been, but it might have been really great if they got both he and the actor who played Maddox to reprise their roles. Maybe if it were the both of them, it would have been less awkward?

Things I liked about the episode:
1. The actor who played Raffi's son did a great job.
2. It was kind of heartbreaking and great seeing the additional collateral damage of the Synth attack in it destroying Raffi's family despite her probably being right. Life's complex that way.
3. I knew Jurati was a plant, but I didn't think she was that deep on the other side.
4. I feel like we're now really getting into the series. I'm curious to see where they'll take in in the next episode or two.
 
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Is it the first time they showed that Borg implants are considered so valuable? Or is it something that they already established in past series/movies?
 
Mot's Hair Emporium is one particular vault of hell reserved for the most evil people in the galaxy. Just thinking aloud.
 
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