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Spoilers Episode 7 "Nepenthe"

Rate 1x07 Nepenthe

  • 10 - Wild Beard Riker

    Votes: 110 36.9%
  • 9

    Votes: 95 31.9%
  • 8

    Votes: 53 17.8%
  • 7

    Votes: 22 7.4%
  • 6

    Votes: 7 2.3%
  • 5 - Full Beard Riker

    Votes: 2 0.7%
  • 4

    Votes: 4 1.3%
  • 3

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • 2

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • 1 - Season 1 Riker

    Votes: 3 1.0%

  • Total voters
    298
I like this interpretation too, but I think he was eyeing Raffi quite suspiciously when she called him back to the bridge after Narek found them again. I might be thinking too much into his expression though.
Yeah, I was considering both interpretations when watching that scene. It was ambiguous.
 
"I'm not as brave as I used to be." (sorry if I got this wrong)

I can't say how much I love this line for the amount of truth is says about parenting.

The way Marina and Jonathan played an aged, also somewhat broken, Troi and Riker was honestly probably one of the highlights for the series for me.

You get the real impression that there is a tremendous amount of grief that is still slowly burning. It's a bit more obvious with Troi, but Riker subtly expressing his anger towards Picard that he doesn't get to play the secrets game with their safety, is really quite remarkable.
 
I like this interpretation too, but I think he was eyeing Raffi quite suspiciously when she called him back to the bridge after Narek found them again. I might be thinking too much into his expression though.
He saw Raffi give Agnes the cake and then she threw up, next thing he knows Juarti is in a coma.
Raffi being responsible is the most logical conclusion based on the facts Chris is aware of.
Even though it is incorrect.

Agnes wasn't trying to indicate that Raffi was to blame, but she was so distraught while talking to Rios that she didn't know how to get him away from that line of thought.
You could see in her face that she was trying to indicate herself, but Chris went in a completely different direction than Agnes intended.

The lies are piling up and she hasn't found the courage yet to come right out and tell everybody what she going through and why she's doing it.
 
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Except it was quite obvious Dahj was specifically programmed to trust Picard. Dahj even said she never saw him before.

Why didn't Soji get this programming?

Maddox sent Dahj to Earth. he probably knew (as gig most everyone else) that Picard retired on Earth (in France) - so yeah, sending an Android to Earth with a 'safety protocol' of seeking Picard makes sense.

Soji was SPECIFICALLY sent to the Artifact/Cube. Since Picard isn't there at all (and is Light Years away); putting a safety protocol to seek him out from there makes zero sense.
 
Just to be puckish, isn't "Because Roddenberry said so" kinda a religious attitude, and a fundamentalist one at that?

Star Trek is not a religion and Roddenberry is not the Pope or a prophet, let alone infallible.

Roddenberry also wasn't very consistent with many of these ideas, and was as likely as not to pull a "Do as I say not as I do" when it came to the franchise.
 
She's a doctorate of cybernetics, not medicine. The MD's only in the noncanon novel, which is about as canon as say, Star Trek Countdown is now.

If Jurati's a medical doctor in Picard due to a non-canon novel, then the supernova that destroyed Romulus was Hobus due to a non canon comic. You can't pick and choose your noncanon.
It's true that the novel is not canon, and at any time it's continuity could be overwritten by the show. But the novel was also written in concert with the creators of the show, and reflects the thinking of the shows writers as recently. Jurati can be assumed to have medical training based on what we saw in episodes 5 and 7, and based on what Chabon said, as well as this novel.
 
Narissa & Narek are such cardboard villains that their scenes took me right out of this episode whenever they appeared. Narissa is bad for the sake of being bad, just like the addition of the Zhat Vash just to have this big baddie for Picard to face off against. The show has already shown Romulans who felt betrayed when Starfleet abandoned the rescue plan. How about writing them to have lost someone or having to claw for their very lives when Starfleet abandoning them and they have anger against Picard, who of course is seen as the person abandoning them, and the synths, the reason that they were abandoned. They would be broken as Picard is broken and the crew is broken. It would be an internal struggle instead of a moustache twirling villain moment and I feel a much more interesting angle.

Another part of the storyline I've hated is Commodore Oh, who shows up just to essentially mind rape Juratti to blackmail her into doing what she needed, to abandon her life's dream. There is no way a Vulcan does that or mind melds without permission. Either Oh isn't a Vulcan, which seems not to be the case since she can mind meld, or she has been otherwise compromised.

What was the point of Hugh, the cube and the ex drones if they were essentially going to be killed off to show how bad Narissa is? It seems like the cube was there for a "moment" to end the pilot episode and Hugh there to make us angry at Narissa when she mocks and eventually kills him. What was the point of the Rhomba storyline either? It seems like the whole Borg subplot could've been exorcised and the show would be any worse for it.

What was the point of leaving Elnor, the person least likely to be able to work any kind of technology, on the cube except to have him there for the final three episodes? He has bound his sword to Picard and has spent all of five minutes with him.

Riker & Troi were perfectly written and acted. These are people who served together for twenty years and have now been friends for thirty five and it showed. I began to wonder how many missions the Enterprise and the Titan went on together with Picard and Riker in command. Troi was more useful in this episode than she had been in all her previous experiences. The dead son who could have been cured by some technobabble wasn't needed and ate up time that could've been used to develop Soji and Picard's relationship. This has redeemed them from being involved in the Enterprise finale.

I thought the young actress who played Kestra did a good job, but the tradition of badly written Trek children continues. Are we supposed to believe that her parents just let her run off to the spaceport and hang out with this Captain Crandall, especially if Riker has such a horrible opinion of the captain. And she can just text him?

The scenes with Rios, Raffi and Juratti were once again entertaining for me. They are so well acted. Alison Pill absolutely nails every scene in this episode as she slowly falls apart. Santiago Cabrera as Rios trying to figure out how he is being tracked is good, but his best moment was as the EMH activating with his hands in his pockets, rocking and saying "What is the nature...oh bloody hell!" when he rushes to Juratti.

I had a chuckle over the Picard line about aiming for his head instead of his prosthetic heart.

I swear that is the first time Soji did the head cock like Data had. Is this because she's now been activated.

Who okayed the makeup on Peyton List and Tamlyn Tomita? Their ears are giant and in the case of the former, the eyebrows do not fit her at all. The ear problem is also seen on some of the Vulcans in Discovery.

I am interested to see where the Picard/Soji storyline is going with the two red planets and lighting, but I'm unable to shake the feeling that Elnor and Seven on the cube against Narissa is going to bog the episodes down.
 
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