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

[JoseNoodles]

8/10, much better start to the season than the Season 1 premiere.

Zhaban died off screen...are you kidding me?

Picard effed it up with Laris in like 5 seconds...a new record!

El-Auriens don't age unless they want to. What are El-Auriens exactly, and why do they seem more powerful than a species made refugees by the Borg would be?

Soji is working as an Federation emissary/ambassador along with Dr. Agnes "I'm still looking for my boyfriend's murderer" Jurati. Jurati is now hitting the sauce pretty hard.

Raffi and Seven's relationship seems to be going nowhere. On brand for most Voyager characters besides Tom and B'Elanna.

Well, if you can drink and have meals on the bridge, I guess you can smoke too. Rios might be a shit captain though. He told his crew to stand down and they kept firing like if he hadn't said anything at all.

Nice to see an Akira class. But what ultimately happened to the Avalon? Was it destroyed by the anomaly?

Nice to see a fleet with a more diverse range of ship classes. The "Sovereign class for movies only" rule is finally dead. We also see refits of the Nebula and Galaxy class, what I think is the Obena class, the Luna class, and some other First Contact ships. Any screenies to see what I missed?

We see the most dreaded Borg ship of all...the Borg Snowflake!

Picard's early life shares the same problem as Kelvinverse Kirk. It's like they were always destined to be great figures, contrary to Star Trek's push-back against the concept of predestination (well outside of Sisko anyways). So now Picard is just like Luke Skywalker.

Unfortunately, the episodes ends just as things were getting good. Q appears and it's over. They should have made the second episode available.

Wildly misinformed speculations:
The "Queen" who beamed aboard is Seven of Nine.
She was there to save the fleet from some Borg malware that is present in the Borg technology installed in this new generation of starships. Picard will get a second chance to not detonate the Stargazer and de-escalate the situation. He'll also get a second chance to avoid being sent into the Romulan Friend Zone.

 

[fireproof78]

Picard's early life shares the same problem as Kelvinverse Kirk. It's like they were always destined to be great figures, contrary to Star Trek's push-back against the concept of predestination (well outside of Sisko anyways). So now Picard is just like Luke Skywalker

This has been a part of Trek since TUC and in large part more so with Q. In TUC, Spock tells Kirk that command is his first best destiny. Q added to that flavor with Tapestry, that Picard had to be reckless to become a better man, what he was destined to be.

 

[NCC-73515]

Hm, I'm not really recognizing any of the music there.

27:16-17:23 (on P+) is the same as 0:42-0:48 here:

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(3 notes, pause, 3 notes)

While it totally doesn't fit Roddenberry's ideal world, Papa Picard being abusive really does explain a lot and is one of those things that makes sense with what we know of the character. We know he was a general butthead from Robert and Jean Luc's reactions to him. Neither of them have any good memories of the man even with Robert following in his footsteps.

IIRC, his biography (yeah, not canon, we all know) also mentioned an abusive dad. After his death, Picard finds out that he himself applied to SFA and was rejected. He was never good enough for many things, while Picard was always the best. That drew his dad's anger.

Actually neuroscientists generally believe that "free will" as we understand it doesn't exist at all. If all thought processes reside in the brain, than external stimulus results in action. There is nowhere for independent decision making, just stimulus and response. Hence we don't actively "choose" anything - we instinctively make choices we later rationalize. Meaning all punishment is arbitrary.

Apparently that particular position may have rested on a faulty premise.

The readiness potential seems to be real, since it appears when you average out the noise. That's why people have to do it hundreds of times, only then will the slow rise appear (I was a test subject in this type of experiment). The whole free will debate in my view comes down to a simple problem: Why shouldn't our brain activity reflect our actions? Brain function is not separate from us. We are our brains. Our will is reflected in our brains. Awareness, subconscious planning and processing, that's the issue, but not that our brains decide against our will.

Everyone being back in Starfleet rankles. Picard I can understand since the signal asked for him specifically. But Raffi was fucked over royally and left to rot in a trailer for over a decade. Rios left to rot following trauma because of Starfleet's screwy policies at the time. And all is forgiven? In their placed I'd never go back, they fucked them over once and they'll fuck them over again.

They never wanted to leave SF, why wouldn't they be happy to be reinstated after SF was proven wrong and they were proven right?

 

[Sci]

Zhaban died off screen...are you kidding me?

Yeah, that bugged me a bit.

Picard effed it up with Laris in like 5 seconds...a new record!

Nah. He's definitely fucked it up with women faster than he did with Laris.

El-Auriens don't age unless they want to. What are El-Auriens exactly, and why do they seem more powerful than a species made refugees by the Borg would be?

I don't think control of superficial indications of aging makes them all that powerful.

Soji is working as an Federation emissary/ambassador

No. She's working as a Coppelius diplomat to the Federation, not a Federation ambassador. In other words, she's representing Coppelius to the UFP, not the UFP to Coppelius.

along with Dr. Agnes "I'm still looking for my boyfriend's murderer" Jurati.

I have no idea what the fuck this is supposed to mean. Agnes was very clear in saying that she was cleared of legal responsibility for Bruce's murder owing to temporary alien mind control. She has not been hiding what she did.

Jurati is now hitting the sauce pretty hard.

One drunk scene does not mean it's a pattern.

Raffi and Seven's relationship seems to be going nowhere.

I think that's a weirdly dismissive way of characterizing what we actually saw, which was that they're in a relationship but Raffi wants Seven to make their relationship more of a priority than Seven is willing to. Which is, I might add, a pretty obvious parallel to Picard's arc -- both Seven and Picard seem to have a major fear of commitment as a result of early trauma.

Well, if you can drink and have meals on the bridge, I guess you can smoke too.

We never saw him smoke.

Rios might be a shit captain though. He told his crew to stand down and they kept firing like if he hadn't said anything at all.

Insubordination makes them bad crew members, not him a bad captain.

Nice to see an Akira class. But what ultimately happened to the Avalon? Was it destroyed by the anomaly?

No. It just sent the distress signal and then was not the ship assigned to investigate.

Picard's early life shares the same problem as Kelvinverse Kirk. It's like they were always destined to be great figures, contrary to Star Trek's push-back against the concept of predestination (well outside of Sisko anyways). So now Picard is just like Luke Skywalker.

... what? Nothing in "The Star Gazer" suggests that Picard had any sort of "destiny." All it establishes is that his love of space travel was in part the result of his mother's encouragement and his desire to escape his abusive father.

Unfortunately, the episodes ends just as things were getting good. Q appears and it's over. They should have made the second episode available.

Why would they do that when they can leave you wanting more?

 

[1001001]

Strong start.

Guinan! *squee*

That Borg Queen was a fucking nightmare.



9

 

[Tuskin38]

Nice to see a fleet with a more diverse range of ship classes. The "Sovereign class for movies only" rule is finally dead. We also see refits of the Nebula and Galaxy class, what I think is the Obena class, the Luna class, and some other First Contact ships. Any screenies to see what I missed?

That isn't am Obena class, it has completely different nacelles and pylons.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/t5sfp6/picard_season_2_ships_with_labels/

 

[fireproof78]

That Gagarin and Inquiry class are sexy ships. They compliment the Stargazer quite well.

 

[JoseNoodles]

This has been a part of Trek since TUC and in large part more so with Q. In TUC, Spock tells Kirk that command is his first best destiny. Q added to that flavor with Tapestry, that Picard had to be reckless to become a better man, what he was destined to be.

Spock was trying to make Kirk feel better and acknowledging that Kirk was at his best when commanding a starship. Sure he uses the word destiny, but its more like he knew Kirk had devoted his life to becoming a starship captain and worked hard to become the man he is. It's not like the universe twisted itself to make Kirk a captain. In Tapestry, Picard was acting as if there was some sort of "perfect path" he had missed out on through the choices he made in his life. Q taught him that no such thing exists, and that trying to play it safe only ensured Picard would live an uneventful life. At the end, Picard was reminded that our lives are shaped by the choices we make, for better and for worse. There are no "perfect choices".

 

[fireproof78]

Spock was trying to make Kirk feel better and acknowledging that Kirk was at his best when commanding a starship. Sure he uses the word destiny, but its more like he knew Kirk had devoted his life to becoming a starship captain and worked hard to become the man he is. It's not like the universe twisted itself to make Kirk a captain. In Tapestry, Picard was acting as if there was some sort of "perfect path" he had missed out on through the choices he made in his life. Q taught him that no such thing exists, and that trying to play it safe only ensured Picard would live an uneventful life. At the end, Picard was reminded that our lives are shaped by the choices we make, for better and for worse. There are no "perfect choices".

Perhaps, but the idea was cast from those lines. At least to me. Basically, Kirk is destined, and he tells Picard similarly in Generations.

 

[JoseNoodles]

That isn't am Obena class, it has completely different nacelles and pylons.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/t5sfp6/picard_season_2_ships_with_labels/

Fascinating. I thought some of those ships look Star Trek Online-ish.

 

[Nerys Myk]

My mind went to Simon Tarses from "The Drumhead." I think he went to the Academy but didn't stay long enough to get a commission.

That's not how it works.

Young Spock needs to work on his emotional control.

 

[fireproof78]

Young Spock need to work on his emotional control.

They should make a movie about that.

 

[Nerys Myk]

They should make a movie about that.

Spock: The Wonder Years.

 

[Bay17]

Good Lord, what a change a new show runner makes.

Look up “reboot” in the dictionary and you find this episode.

Fans don’t want to watch a disrespected Picard with a “ragtag” crew on an empty looking ship…

A click of the fingers…suddenly everyone’s in a Starfleet uniform, Rios is a captain, everyone stands to attention when Admiral Picard walks by, and there’s closeups of classic-but-modern ships everywhere (something that Discovery could well adopt)

Forget season 1. Star Trek Picard starts now

 

[Nerys Myk]

Look up “reboot” in the dictionary and you find this episode.

Nope. But you might find it under "retooled"

 

[Bay17]

Which tells me that he went on to even bigger things after captaining the Excelsior of his day.
I wonder what those things will turn out to be?

I’m hoping he turns up in the season somewhere. My one and only prediction.

 

[JoseNoodles]

Perhaps, but the idea was cast from those lines. At least to me. Basically, Kirk is destined, and he tells Picard similarly in Generations.

Perhaps, but I think of it more along the lines of "if you shoot for greatness, you will achieve it" not "you're destined for greatness no matter what".

 

[fireproof78]

Perhaps, but I think of it more along the lines of "if you shoot for greatness, you will achieve it" not "you're destined for greatness no matter what".

I will respectfully disagree. I believe it has been set up and taken forward as destiny in Trek.

 

[fireproof78]

Look up “reboot” in the dictionary and you find this episode.

No, not really.

 

[JoseNoodles]

I will respectfully disagree. I believe it has been set up and taken forward as destiny in Trek.

Hey, no problem. IDIC and all that.