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

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I gave it an 8. Was pretty good but I really wasn't a fan of the sudden childhood DV backstory for him. It just seemed so out of the blue and contrary to how he explained his childhood, when he did.
If he's been repressing trauma, he may have created a fantasy he actually began to believe and repeat.
 
It was fine. Had a whiff of soft reboot about it, particularly in the treatment of Soji and Elnor, the two outsider characters. Liked Captain Seven, the new Stargazer, and Raffi. Rolled my eyes at the notion that Elnor would be getting his ass kicked by cadets, and at this show being so kill-happy that it couldn't stop offing characters even in its downtime. After the treatment of the XBs last season and the continued prejudice against ex-Borg, there's something faintly grotesque about the Federation zipping about in shiny new ships based on Borg tech, but that's the kind of messy I like, so more observation than complaint there.

I'd probably be more excited about the Borg cropping up again and the continued nostalgia bait if S1 had been better, but that's a bad taste that lingers. I'm not having a bad time, per se, and we'll see where this goes, but right now I'm in the odd position of kind of wanting Picard to wrap so we can get clear of his greatest hits and go exploring the 25th century in the inevitable spin-off.
 
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Well, they did resolve a question from DS9 - did Bajor join the Federation? I would say yes, as we saw its flag at Starfleet Academy along with the flags of other member nations. (Was there a Ferengi flag there, as well?) It's great that Bajor did join the Federation.

I wanted to have seen more of the ship displays at Starfleet Academy.
 
The neck on that "Excelsior" looks like it's from STO's Resolute-class:

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The neck on the base Excelsior model:

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I loved it.

My only complaint (and I guess it shouldn’t be since we don’t yet know how things are gonna go) is the Picard/Laris set up. And the only reason that’s a complaint is because I want Picard/Beverly dammit!
My hope from last season is that Crusher and Picard did try and have a relationship, and like the anti-Time future, the relationship (if not a marriage) failed, though more amicably.

Not having them be together at some point in the 2380s or 2390s was bad call for Season 1.
 
I'd say this is Patrick Stewart's influence. Sadly Patrick Stewart had an abusive father and was frequent witness to domestic violence.
Yeah that's what I got from that, because I know Patrick always spoke out about his childhood and the abuse he went through...just felt a bit too close to home and crossing the line between fiction and reality.
 
Rios has a fucking cigar on the bridge. :guffaw: I like him even more now. (Also, he looks damn good in uniform.)
The Borg were anxiety-inducing for the first time in a LONG time.
Where the fuck did the Picardis ship come from? That took me completely by surprise. I mean, as the scene went on, I was like "this feels like a romantic setup." IDK. I'd rather have Zahban back.
The ships were :eek::adore:. That bridge was :adore:.
The new uniforms were :adore:.
Is it just me, or was Guinan even more frank with Picard than usual? Damn if it wasn't worth waiting for her appearance. (I wonder if we'll see her again before the end of the season?)
Soji is as stunning as ever. :adore: (I think I have a crush.)
Jurati is as annoying as ever. JFC, I wish she'd step out of an airlock.

And, last but not least, Q.
The Q I loved so much from TNG has returned in spades. And that bit of CGI (probably a proper deepfake this time) showing him young was nearly flawless.
 
Oh, also, how stupid did Starfleet have to be to integrate Borg tech so deeply into their ships?
 
Yeah that's what I got from that, because I know Patrick always spoke out about his childhood and the abuse he went through...just felt a bit too close to home and crossing the line between fiction and reality.

For me it actually deepens Picard's character and explains a lot about his behaviour in TNG. Why Picard rarely communicated with his family, why he seemed to actively avoid relationships, why he avoided children and was uncomfortable around them and also why Picard was so measured and slow to anger, almost as if he wanted to be the polar opposite of his father. Also, while Picard spoke fondly of his mother, he rarely spoke of his father. I can identify with much of this having grown up in a home where DV was front and centre.
 
a very strong start but the beginning is never the problem with stream trek so we'll have to see
 
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While I enjoyed season 1, there were a few things about it that I didn't like at all.

This first episode of season 2, however, I couldn't find anything wrong with. Loved it! You can tell they course corrected a bit. Hopefully the rest of the season will be just as great as this episode was.
 
Exactly my thought and it seems like they heard our input there and not only did so but likely saved money doing so. Just seemed like an unnecessary waste to make a a completely new design that was slightly altered then copy-pasted in the same scene.
The copy and paste nature of the fleet was because they didn’t have time. The FX was only finished a week before airing. According to the Eaglemoss booklet for the inquiry, the fleet was a last minute decision, John Eaves said he only had a couple days to whip up a few designs. Luckily he already had a design from a cut plot line from earlier in the season. They didn’t intentionally set out to make it a copy a paste fleet, they just had no other option.

Speaking of the inquiry, there are 3 or 4 in the fleet in this episode.
 
Wow I'm genuinely surprised at the gushing over this episode because it fell flat from the start to me. Picard S1's saving grace was that it was very much non-Starfleet. Cruising around in La Sirena, doing your own thing. It proved Picard didn't need Starfleet. Patrick himself said he wanted Picard to move forward, not backward, and not be in Starfleet doing Starfleet things.

So, why did S2 do away with all that and literally have Picard back in Starfleet doing Starfleet things (complete with fighting the Borg and issuing yet another autodestruct sequence)? As Chancellor of Starfleet Academy no less. Oh that's not enough, let's put Elnor, Raffi, and Rios all into Starfleet too, the latter 2 of who have serious issues with the organization that I don't think S1 magically erased to be blunt. If I were Rios, I just couldn't imagine abandoning the freewheeling La Sirena life to go back into a starship he doesn't own (Starfleet does) with rules and regulations and all that sort of thing.

Wait, where's Zhaban? He's dead? Wait what? Romulans live a lot longer than humans and he didn't look that old last season. How did he die? Doesn't matter because his death is a plot device for Laris to start banging Picard. Wait what? :shrug: And they were in such a hurry to do so that they torpedoed even the comic Picard Countdown--man, comics named Countdown in Trek never age very well do they-- from "soft" canon to make room for this (the comic said Laris and Zhaban got together in the Tal Shiar, here it says they were arranged from birth so the implication is Laris never really chose Zhaban but now she's choosing Picard. Ok).

No mention of Crusher in all this? You think either Laris or Guinan would be mentioning her immediately.

If Picard had issues with a violent upbringing, you kind of think he'd have dealt with it before he turned 96, or that at least someone would have mentioned it before.
 
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