Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x01 - "The Star Gazer"

[Lord Garth]

Technically true but:

• Season 1 of DIS did ultimately threaten Earth and the Federation with total destruction (and Stamets offhandedly said that the entire multiverse could have been destroyed by Georgiou's ship, which I have to consider to be histrionics on his part for headcanon to make any sense).
• Season 2 of PIC ended with a threat that the advanced AI life forms would at least wipe out humanity in order to "save" the planet of synthetics (and possibly the whole Federation? It wasn't very clear).

So I'd argue that Season 3 has been the only season lacking absurdly high stakes that Trek generally in the past only dabbled with in movies (and even then, only like half the time).

Given that DSC was still a prequel during S1, I figured at the time that whatever happened could either be undone through time travel, wouldn't actually happen, or would be recovered from through a hand wave.

 

[eschaton]

Given that DSC was still a prequel during S1, I figured at the time that whatever happened could either be undone through time travel, wouldn't actually happen, or would be recovered from through a hand wave.

Well yeah. Same issue ENT had with the Xindi war.

I would like a bit of a lower-stakes, personal story though. Even the movies weren't all high stakes. Going through them:

TMP - Earth is in danger
TWOK - Personal story, Khan isn't that big of a danger to the wider federation.
TSFS - Personal story. Genesis device would be a bad weapon in the hands of the Klingons, but that's really the B plot.
TVH - Earth is in danger - though ironically the plot of the movie itself is much lower stakes
TFF - Low-stakes personal story (looking for god)
TUC - Stakes are keeping the Federation-Klingon peace process going. Pretty high stakes, but if Kirk failed, it would basically be the status quo. A rare movie where the heroes improve things.
GEN - Planet in danger somewhere we never heard of, so comparably low stakes
FC - High-stakes, as they need to fix the timeline to stop the Borg
INS - Low-stakes - save a few thousand NIMBY hippies on a single planet
NEM - High-stakes (Earth is in danger)
ST09 - High-stakes (Vulcan destroyed, Earth directly threatened)
STID - Stakes are...war with the Klingons? Maybe Starfleet HQ. Medium-stakes movie, not absurd levels.
BEY - A big space station we never head of.

 

[Phil123]

@eschaton here here on lower stakes. Makes the movie more personal and easy to connect to. Especially now that we have Marvel films with their stakes.

Good breakdown too - but on BEY - initially a space station but he’d have gone after all the federation if he’d won.

 

[NCC-73515]

What happened to stuff like political conspiracies and a buildup to potential conflict or alliances?

you mean like in PIC S1?

 

[StarMan]

Looking forward to this. Been a big fan of John de Lancie since I first got into Trek.

 

[starfleettanner]

you mean like in PIC S1?

Yeah...BEFORE they suddenly shifted to a galaxy wide threat near the end...it was more intriguing with the mystery of why things were happening the way they were...then suddenly...they bring Control back into the whole thing...and yes, it IS Control...they just didn't call it that.

 

[KennyB]

Anyone else attending the virtual premiere in 30 minutes?

 

[JoseNoodles]

Anyone else attending the virtual premiere in 30 minutes?

Care to drop some deets? What is a "virtual premiere'?

 

[Orac]

No. I'm not.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Well we know they sort out the "galaxy wide threat" since the galaxy is still there in Discovery seasons 3 and 4.

There. Saved you 10 hours of watching.

 

[KennyB]

Care to drop some deets? What is a "virtual premiere'?

Just an advance screening that starts in 15 minutes.

 

[JoseNoodles]

Where, any links?

 

[KennyB]

Invite only. Set up a few weeks ago.

 

[JoseNoodles]

Oh...okey doke.

 

[Lord Garth]

Well yeah. Same issue ENT had with the Xindi war.

I would like a bit of a lower-stakes, personal story though. Even the movies weren't all high stakes. Going through them:

TMP - Earth is in danger
TWOK - Personal story, Khan isn't that big of a danger to the wider federation.
TSFS - Personal story. Genesis device would be a bad weapon in the hands of the Klingons, but that's really the B plot.
TVH - Earth is in danger - though ironically the plot of the movie itself is much lower stakes
TFF - Low-stakes personal story (looking for god)
TUC - Stakes are keeping the Federation-Klingon peace process going. Pretty high stakes, but if Kirk failed, it would basically be the status quo. A rare movie where the heroes improve things.
GEN - Planet in danger somewhere we never heard of, so comparably low stakes
FC - High-stakes, as they need to fix the timeline to stop the Borg
INS - Low-stakes - save a few thousand NIMBY hippies on a single planet
NEM - High-stakes (Earth is in danger)
ST09 - High-stakes (Vulcan destroyed, Earth directly threatened)
STID - Stakes are...war with the Klingons? Maybe Starfleet HQ. Medium-stakes movie, not absurd levels.
BEY - A big space station we never head of.

You know I like all the first six...

... But outside of those, my two favorite ones after that are FC and 2009. What do they have in common? High Stakes. The low stakes films are pretty forgettable.

 

[Markonian]

Invite only. Set up a few weeks ago.

Please share anything we learn about Starfleet ships!

 

[KennyB]

One new one so far. USS Avalon oddly enough.

 

[KennyB]

It looks and sounds amazing so far. Main theme reworked with a full orchestra is great too.

 

[KennyB]

Holy shit. This is a whole new level.

 

[StarMan]

Holy shit. This is a whole new level.