Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x02 - "Penance"

[Unimatrix Q]

A really disturbing episode with the new altered timeline, which actually reminded me a lot more on "Seeds of Dissent" from one one of the Myriad Universes Anthologies than the Mirror Universe, and Q's hostility against Picard.

Considering the similarity to the story i mentioned above, could it be that Khan has something to do with the change that apparently happened in 2024?

10 of 10 Skull Dukats for me

 

[Bad Thoughts]

So Capain Chakotay is a nicer bloke because he didn't remind the Borg that he put them in a large room with massive doors that open into space?

Seven didn't unilaterally change the deal in the third act.

The deal was to work together, Cube and Star Ship together. The Borg Cube, and the 20 thousand drones on that Cube rammed a bio ship that was threatening Voyager, to death.

8472 changed the deal, by allowing 20 thousand drones to commit suicide to save Voyager and her crew from certain death.

The Borg needed a replacement cube for its science resources, to live up to its obligations to protect Voyager, and build the new weapon, which was only 5 days away.

By 7s unspoken estimates, it seemed like the Borg would be defeated in 7 days.

This is when Chakotay punked out of the alliance. He wanted to maroon his Borg, withe half a secret weapon, 9 days travel from the nearest cube if the planet they're standing on isn't going to meet the Cube half way.

This is all bullshit by the way.

It should take years to cross all of Borg space at Warp speed and minutes to cross all of borg space at Transwarp speed, but the people writing this show were not paying attention to the new accumulated lore since TNG well.

1. Chakotay learned that the Borg entered the agreement fraudulently.
2. The Borg clearly used threats on their dealings with him.

Those are both legitimate reasons to break an agreement.

 

[Markonian]

The Confederation magistrate is called Mr Hansen, I presume.
Is he 'the' or 'a' magistrate of the Confederation?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Is he 'the' or 'a' magistrate of the Confederation?

Jon-Jon seems to defer to Annika, so I'm guessing she outranks him. Perhaps Annika (as the President) is head of state, and Jon-Jon is the head of government. Sort of a parliamentary republic kind of thing.

ironic, really, since prime timeline United Earth is also a parliamentary republic, with a President as head of state, and a Prime Minister as head of government.

 

[Romulan_spy]

^ It is rather telling that we never actually see the Queen's face in the regular timeline...only a masked figure.

Yes. I imagine the Borg Queen being masked will be very important. Maybe the Borg Queen knows she needs to be masked the first time to maintain the mystery so that the time loop will play out like it is supposed to. Maybe if Picard knew her identity, it would adversely affect the time loop. For example, if The Borg Queen is Jurati, Picard might try to warn Jurati not to get assimilated and thus alter the time loop from the way it is supposed to happen. Or maybe if she revealed her true identity now, Picard would trust her and not set the auto destruct and therefore Q would not send him to the alt timeline. But I imagine after Picard restores the proper timeline, he will get a do-over on the Stargazer. This time, he will learn the right lesson and trust the Borg and in this new timeline, the Borg Queen will reveal her true identity.

 

[Guy Gardener]

1. Chakotay learned that the Borg entered the agreement fraudulently.
2. The Borg clearly used threats on their dealings with him.

Those are both legitimate reasons to break an agreement.

Did the Borg lie?

Nope.

Janeway stole a database from a downed Cube.

They had the opportunity to read up on every thing the Borg knew about 8472, but they got lazy, and didn't. There's no reason to believe that the Borg compartmentalized information, not telling itself what itself did to deserve a 5 month long ass kicking from a group of extra-universal genocidal xenophobes.

JANEWAY: B'Elanna, it's clear from the Borg database that they know practically nothing about Species 8472.
TORRES: That's right. The Borg gain knowledge through assimilation. What they can't assimilate, they can't understand.

Moreso, Janeway and Chakotay are not Geniuses. It wasn't a complex puzzle that they unwrapped. Taking Voyager to Fluidic Space wasn't a calculated risk that Janeway is too dumb to figure out the Borg struck first. Taking Voyager to fluidic space, was the admission. Seven wanted them to figure it out.

Also, haven't you met Annika Hansen?

As a representative of the Borg, like Locutus she communicates as an individual, to make the unassimilated comfortable, before assimilation.

She is a violent, belligerent, egotistical asshole.

Unhook her from the Borg and that's who she is for most of season 4, which is a very different personality than the slinky sexy kitten huffing on Data's arm hair, in First contact, or HUgh being a clueless hippy in I, Borg.

The Borg have many ways one communicating, and Annika has one.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Did the Borg lie?

Nope.

Janeway stole a database from a downed Cube.

They had the opportunity to read up on every thing the Borg knew about 8472, but they got lazy, and didn't. There's no reason to believe that the Borg compartmentalized information, not telling itself what itself did to deserve a 5 month long ass kicking from a group of extra-universal genocidal xenophobes.



Moreso, Janeway and Chakotay are not Geniuses. It wasn't a complex puzzle that they unwrapped. Taking Voyager to Fluidic Space wasn't a calculated risk that Janeway is too dumb to figure out the Borg struck first. Taking Voyager to fluidic space, was the admission. Seven wanted them to figure it out.

Also, haven't you met Annika Hansen?

As a representative of the Borg, like Locutus she communicates as an individual, to make the unassimilated comfortable, before assimilation.

She is a violent, belligerent, egotistical asshole.

Unhook her from the Borg and that's who she is for most of season 4, which is a very different personality than the slinky sexy kitten huffing on Data's arm hair, in First contact, or HUgh being a clueless hippy in I, Borg.

The Borg have many ways one communicating, and Annika has one.

They lied.

SEVEN: Our entry into fluidic space has created a compression wave. They know we're here. A fleet of bioships is already converging on our position. Time to intercept, three hours, seventeen minutes.
CHAKOTAY: You've been here before. How else could you know about fluidic space?
SEVEN: We must prepare this ship for the altercation. We will construct a complement of biomolecular warheads.
CHAKOTAY: Why? Why were you here? You started this war, didn't you? What's the matter, our galaxy wasn't big enough for you? You had to conquer new territory? But this race fought back. A species as malevolent as your own.

 

[Yistaan]

I thought his performance was excellent! Acting is never a pure meritocracy; somehow I am not surprised to learn that there are some so-called "fans" who decided to throw shade at an Asian dude by de-legitimizing his right to be hired in the first place.

I'm Asian and I think I can see where some of this criticism is coming from. As an Asian man, I've found out the hard way that we have it the hardest in dating, have to fight unmasculine stereotypes, etc. Confed President Hansen is a beautiful woman on top of the galaxy and can have any man she wants. And, as an Asian myself, I've seen frequently enough that usually "any man she wants" probably isn't going to be me or any male of my race, in fact we're not even in consideration.

That having been said, Prime Seven has shown herself to be open-minded to various races etc. (she was dating Raffi last season, and even very briefly contemplated experimenting with romance with Harry Kim in Voyager), so it's not improbable that her evil counterpart would be the same. And honestly if we don't see Asian men "getting the girl" and being in masculine roles on tv, stereotypes about us will never change. So I definitely was glad to see Briones in the role, yet at the same time based on my own real world experiences it did pull me out of the story and I can see why it did so to others. It's a mixed feeling.

 

[Guy Gardener]

They lied.

Often an omission is not a lie.

The Borg never said 8472 struck first, and Janeway never asked the Borg who struck first.

The Borg had lost every encounter for the last 5 months.

After the Borg fell, everyone else was next until there was no one else.

"Your universe will be purged."

America provoked the strike on Pearl Harbour by refusing to sell Japan fuel they needed for their war in IndoChina. Roosevelt then acted surprised to the America public, cried innocence, as 10 million people joined the armed forces over the next year, walking straight into a meat grinder.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

We never got an exact date of when the Botany Bay left Earth and two directly contradicting facts about Khan in "Space Seed":

Apparently the Botany Bay was supposed to have left Earth in the early 90s, while Khan apparently was defeated in or after 1996

Maybe the Botany Bay was built in the 90s but only left Earth with Khan and his people in 2024...

 

[Gov Kodos]

America provoked the strike on Pearl Harbour by refusing to sell Japan fuel they needed for their war in IndoChina. Roosevelt then acted surprised to the America public, cried innocence, as 10 million people joined the armed forces over the next year, walking straight into a meat grinder.

Grant warned them not to trust whitey when he was on vacation there.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Or maybe it's a "Look here, I'm definitely from Earth. A superior species, check out my DNA profile!" thing.

With all the human looking aliens, it's a must,.

 

[Yistaan]

I wonder if the Confederate troops are genetically engineered in some way. The name tags on their combat outfits did include a DNA sequence. Though it was also next to their blood type, it could just be for advanced medical treatment

I'm still waiting for the reveal that evil Picard's synth body has powers and he singlehandedly plows through an army with a wave of his hand, or something.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I'm still waiting for the reveal that evil Picard's synth body has powers and he singlehandedly plows through an army with a wave of his hand, or something.

Please no! I really hope they don't go there. That would make Star Trek into the MCU. That would be super cheesy.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

I wonder if the Confederate troops are genetically engineered in some way. The name tags on their combat outfits did include a DNA sequence. Though it was also next to their blood type, it could just be for advanced medical treatment

Hmm. Another hint for my theory based on Khan and/or his Augments being the reason for the change

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm still waiting for the reveal that evil Picard's synth body has powers and he singlehandedly plows through an army with a wave of his hand, or something.

Not gonna happen.

 

[Yistaan]

Not gonna happen.

Please no! I really hope they don't go there. That would make Star Trek into the MCU.

It isn't already with Q? And besides, it's completely in character for evil Picard to have powers built into his synth body. He doesn't have Prime Picard's humility.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It isn't already with Q? And besides, it's completely in character for evil Picard to have powers built into his synth body. He doesn't have Prime Picard's humility.

Nah, not gonna make Picard (Evil or otherwise) into Captain Confederation.
Q is part of a long line of overpowered aliens in Trek.

 

[jackoverfull]

You'd think that if the Confederation is Super happy about their time line, that they'd send a strike force back to 2024 to kill Picard before he derails time.

they can’t: the confederation hasn’t discovered time travel.

I'm still waiting for the reveal that evil Picard's synth body has powers and he singlehandedly plows through an army with a wave of his hand, or something.

I don’t think they thought of this, but I can imagine general Picard trying to get all the advantages he can if he has a saying in his new body. On the other hand, he probably didn’t have a saying at all, or he would have asked for a much younger looking body.

 

[Romulan_spy]

It isn't already with Q?

Q is a godlike being from another plane of existence. Star Trek has had lots of godlike beings. Having our main character get a synth body that gives him superpowers would be over the top IMO.