Perfect scene. Right before Data started singing 'Blue Skies,' which is now being used as a callback to him in 'Picard.' And we haven't seen the scene where Soji is singing the song yet (which was heard in some of the series trailers)....
It's simply the truth. Commander Riker served with him on the Enterprise. Captain Riker didn't. Sisko also did that with Jake, and it stood out as something that should be normal in real life.
Cannot lie, I did not wade wade through all 85 pages. Any episode where Hugh died gets seriously marked down in my view. Also, why not call for Seven immediately? Or at least after Rizzo kills the xBs? Pretty good, aside from that and the potential Troi inconsistencies sensing Data/Soji, which I did not note until coming here, and I am a TNG person. The stuff with Riker/Troi/Picard was lovely. And the Soji/Riker's daughter stuff was as well. Less impressed with the stuff on the ship. So Jurati just goes all femme fatale on her lover because of visions in a Vulcan mind meld? I do not buy that. Though she does try to redeem herself by getting rid of the tracker. Sorry if this has been covered upthread.
There’s another TAS reference in the episode, a stuffed Glommer toy. https://twitter.com/gaghyogi49/status/1237836985143787523
Riker was being awful stingy with the pizza. I mean, come on. Guests get ONE PIECE each? And those pieces were not large. Hell, the entire pizza was not that much bigger than one slice like you'd get in NYC or Chicago....
Didn't the guest get two slices? But yes, I was wondering why he couldn't fit 2 or 2 pizzas in that oven.
Not loving this show, except in moments, and the redshirting of every guest brought back is just a cheap tiresome gimmick. If it doesn't stick the landing by episode 10 I'm done.
Really disappointed Hugh died. For a second, I thought he and the Romulan kid/swordsman we’re going to do a really cool team up. I actually thought Hugh was more interesting in PIC than in “I, Borg” and loved the performance. So I liked him and found him more interesting than any of the new characters. Good to see Riker and Troi again. Nothing incredibly interesting happened.
I wouldn't say I liked Hugh better than any of the new crew (I am very invested in Raffi, Rios, and Elnor at this point), but yeah, he was up there for me so far as interest went. He and Elnor had a more interesting interaction in five minutes than any of the non-TNG cast have managed all season, and I'm including the couples in that. And I feel like Chambon & Co just left us hanging. No kick-ass team up, killed off by a worse written (and, sorry, worse-acted) character, no real catharsis for his death, and no sign that it was even all that necessary, except that Seven apparently needed another xB sacrificed to her arc. It's just such an odd stumble that I'm left confused and annoyed trying to puzzle why they went that way.
I enjoy Raffi and ... the captain dude. Sure wish I could remember his name though. I liked her perspective of "Planet Raffi." I'm a little surprised at Jurati's resolve in trying to killer herself. Oh wait, she was willing to take whatever risk it took to stop the tracker. Wonder why she stopped now? If she feels that strongly about whatever she was shown about what the Synths do to her world, she shouldn't be giving up now. Of course I recognized Troi's daughter's name as Troi's sister's. But, about their deceased son: something trivial to cure, as long as you have a positronic brain? Surely, the Federation doesn't occupy the known galaxy (they never made it to Kyrian space even after 700 years). If the Riker-Trois, er, Troi-Rikers, (er, 300-year-old, difficult name conventions still exist?!) really wanted to cure their son, I'm sure there's some space not controlled by the Federation that deals in positronic brains, especially for something so trivial (and useful) as curing a disease. Ferengi make a society based on that sort of thing. So they have a full computer with shields, scanners, etc., on this random planet? How far away from everything is is Nepenthe? If it's in Federation space, wouldn't the Romulan/Federation security team have officers nearby to call, who can do whatever dirty work they're ordered? Why send our lover boy, unless we can't afford any extra cast? Oh, never mind, they didn't know where they were going. Apparently killing Hugh was easier than extracting information (which you'd think a Romulan Tal Shiar or higher would be trained in).
I dunno. So far, season 1 of this show has had too many ups and downs. The non-TNG crew is ok. I thought the Ugnaught in The Mandalorian Gad more characterization in 2 episodes than Rios, Jurarti and Raffi combined. It all feels rather superficial.
"Bunnicorn" also makes Picard feel like a self-parody, if not Trek in general look like a laughingstock.... or might be the reason Stewart returned?