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

Scotty: "Aye"

 

Take Voyager's The Q and the Grey; he popped in with Q junior several minutes after conception, from Janeway's perspective. We have no idea how much time passes for Q between visits. This could be Q five minutes after that dreadful Q2, or he may have been dicking around in several dozen parallel universes over the past million years (from his perspective).

 

Yes

We saw one, but he was only on screen for a few seconds, he gave Rios his lighter.

 

Solid start to the season! Although, being in the UK, it didn’t premiere until 24 hours after the UK and I already read far too much in this thread (was too curious!). I’m not sure if that and some of the effusive and slightly hyperbolic praise (best first episode of Trek ever!!) raised my expectations a little too high. It was very good, but not paradigm-shattering. It gave me the feel of the season two premiere of DSC: a definite re-tooling with a greater sense of lightness following a dark and at times bleak first season. Seeing the reaction of people on here has also reinforced what I’d come to see in fans of Lower Decks and Star Wars’ Mandalorian: many fans seem to want and need visual continuity and nostalgia which links in with their preferred era of the franchise (for most these days it seems to be the TNG era). The excitement at seeing familiar classes of starship and old faces is case in point. The writers have clearly listened to fans, as they really do these days, and given the punters more of what they want.

It was good to see Picard in generally a better place and back in Starfleet in a fashion. It’s a big disappointment, however, that there was barely a mention of his new android body. It’s a plot point that begged immediate follow up, and yet gets shoved under the carpet in favour of a possible romance plot with Laris which opens up a dark chapter in Picard’s childhood. I’m not sure how I feel about this; it felt a little awkward and shoehorned in to me. But it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. They really do need to acknowledge season one’s supposedly life-changing climatic twist, though. It’s a wonder neither Guinean or Q brought it up immediately. Well, maybe Guinean was being polite, but Q would have no qualms at quipping “my God, robot or not, you’re looking old, Jean-Luc!” But no doubt we’ll see some reference to come.

I loved seeing Q and Guinan back: John de Lancie nailed it with the two or three lines he had, although Whoopi Goldberg seemed to have forgotten quite how to play Guinan: the pervasive sense of otherworldly calm seemed gone and she just seemed more of a regular person here. Still, I loved the scene.

Not quite sure I bought so many of the characters from season one ending up back in Starfleet so soon, and the way the season one crew (almost) all ended up back together by chance (it’s a small universe, huh) was a tad ludicrous. But what to do? It was nice to see them back, although Jurati kind of bugged me a little. The character really should be in jail and kind of seems like a hanger-on here. But, I’ll reserve judgement and see how things pan out.

Didn’t expect to see the Borg back in adversary mode and they were far scarier than they ever were in VOY. it made for a fantastic cliffhanger. Very strong episode, although not quite a masterpiece for me; a few niggles linger.

 

I went into Season 2 of Picard frankly unsure if I was going to watch, but decided to give yesterday's episode a chance and I liked it. I deeply hope that the Borg mystery is incorporated into the "alternative universe" somehow as I was intrigued as to where they were going with that. I see that the exploding console has also made it's return to Star Trek.

I understand people's reservations about Maurice Picard, but I thought we were always supposed to think of him as not the nicest individual?

 

Wow! This episode was very much like that new hip hop JJ Abrahams style trek but with a spicey TNG remix instead of good old TOS salt and pepper! Didn’t expect this mix to be so good but it kind of works! LOVED seeing 1990’s Q mighty morph with a finger clip in to Picard’s ‘older man’ contemporary (highlight of the episode!)… a very nice touch! Even the flash was spot on! Are the Borg now misunderstood good guys? Why is Rios allowed to smoke a Cuban cigar on the bridge?! Why doesn’t the universal translator translate Spanish?? I have more questions, but I will save them for after my second rewatch…



I

 

The embargo was lifted.

 

I agree Q will not fail to say something about it. As for Guinan, Whoopi seemed to play her more blunt and bawdy, like the proprietress of a speak-easy rather than as the enigmatic El-Aurian bartender/counselor who seems to always be two steps ahead of everyone else ("top shelf or hooch?" made me laugh). I'm okay with it, primarily because Whoopi hasn't been Guinan for 28 years. You kind of lose the edge a bit, I think, but I believe she still did a fine job. It was good seeing her and SirPatStew on screen together again. I hope this isn't her only cameo. It was fun seeing her.

 

It’s explained why in the episode. consistent with most of the previous TV series involving mental manipulation.

It’s never lit in the episode.

 

Guinin's speakeasy was in the "Historical District". I think there are a lot of "Historical Districts" on Earth. Which explains Chandrine's, Siskos, Madam Chang's and Chateu Picard.

I don't like all the talk of money in season one.

Rios was operating as a virtual alien, so that's explainable, but where did Picard get the money to pay him, unless there's a black market for his wine, or he sells it to aliens, which is illegal since Chateu Picard is the property of the United Earth.

Also if original Picard did not write a will handing over the Vineyard to Synthetic Picard, why is everyone just letting his assume control and live in the master bedroom, if he's a "real person" then he is not the original Picard. One would have to expect that Synthetic Picard fraudulently wrote a will for his donor, listing himself as the lone beneficiary, which is a crime.

 

I think synthetic Picard would be considered to be same legal person as human Picard. The authorities would just treat synthetic Picard as a continuation of human Picard. After all, we don't see any indication that Starfleet is treating synthetic Picard as a different person. They seem to be treating him as the same person as original human Picard.

 

I wouldn’t say that this was the best start to a Star Trek show, as I think Voyager had the better start. This episode did feel like TNG but it also gave me Voyager vibes, I don’t know about everyone else.

 

There's nothing in the series that says that.

 

It's Guy. He's being tongue-in-cheek.

 

Elnor was called out as the first fully Romulan cadet. Simon Tarses was 1. Not full Romulan, and 2. Enlisted, so he was never a cadet.

 

And in the 1980s it was heavily implied if not outright said in deleted scenes from TWOK that Saavik was half-Vulcan and half-Romulan, making her the first if we consider that canon.

 

It's a free society. that's a fact from Enterprise.

There's no money. Star trek 4.

If there's no money, then you can't buy and sell property, or pay your taxes.

You can't buy or sell anything.

Between WWIII killing all the lawyers and the creation of the United Earth in 2150, all documentation for property would have been voided, Especially for the dead billionaires who owned too much and the the new governments just assumed all that as communal areas.

It's a united Earth, where everyone owns everything, because at the end of the day, communism won.

Aliens have money.

Humans need money to buy things off aliens.

 

That's... not how it works, actually, but... okay.

 

First of all, we don't know if everyone knows.

Laris seems to know, but does everyone?

The process, creates twins.

Where is the other Picard Synth, and are they both legally Picard?

What if there were a hundred of them?

What if a new personality was put into a Picard Synth who is not Picard, but he still physically registers as Picard?

Did Shinzon have the rights to the Vineyard, and share original Picards authority to command the Enterprise?

Basically it all depends on how much headway Voyager's EMH made on establishing basic rights for artificial lifeforms.

Are we even totally sure that original Picard is dead?

Dude could be in a coma.

The timing of his "death" is suspicious.

If original Picard had died a day earlier or a day later, he would have been useless to the synth agenda to establish basic rights. Either they killed him or he's still alive.

That's if Picard wasn't already a Synth, and everything that happened from the pilot, the dreams about Data, was just a play to to trick the fleshies into handing over basic rights to the synths.