Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x03 - "Assimilation"

[jackoverfull]

The coordinates on his console point to a farm between Palmdale and LA.
But the actual crash in the episode looked like a forest, so the coordinates might just be an easter egg or something.

interesting, but I don’t see how a random forest near LA would qualify as “home” or why Rios couldn’t think of that himself.

Hm there is a big building outside La Sirena's window that could be Chateau Picard, maybe he did crash them in France? That would explain the 'Home' line. Though that means La Sirena is able to beam people half way across the planet.

Also explain why it's night when they crash but day in LA.

In universe it’s been decades since we’ve had information on the range of transporters and this is a transporter from a parallel timeline anyway, so it’s not really an issue. And I won’t mention transwarp beaming, which unfortunately is canon *in the prime timeline* (but no one wants to address it, preferring to have it forgotten).

On the slingshot thing, the only aspect I didn't like was that it showed it actually disappearing "then" and appearing "now" by going through an actual tunnel or something, and that's not how I ever thought of it working or looking.

I thought of it being more like how you could theoretically time-travel to the future by going around a black hole (well, really, any object with high mass but a black hole would make the change more significant) and you wouldn't even need to be going the speed of light or any major speed to do it, just fast enough to stay out of the black hole's event horizon. Time moves faster closer to a massive object so if you spent a few minutes around a black hole days, months or years could pass outside of it, you wouldn't disappear around the hole and show up in the future you'd just spend time around the hole, come out and it'd be the future. Relativity 101.

With the slingshot around the sun thing, that's how I thought of it working, only because they're going warp speeds, subspace and all that nonsense they're able to control whether they're going to the future or past and at least with ST:IV there was a "breakaway from orbit" moment that was apparently critical to getting you to arrive when you wanted to.

But, again, I'm thinking about it more than Kurtzman and Co. did and I guess make the ship disappear and reappear through an actual portal hand-feeds things to audiences watching this on their phones better.

travelling to the future using relativity is easy and you’d see the ship the whole time, travelling to the past (or to the future using the slingshot) is another thing and it’s clear that the ship at a certain point would vanish, be it trough a portal, with a fade or with a PowerPoint transition.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but The Watchers could be who Gary Seven works for. He'd be old, but he could still be alive in 2024.

nice idea! I don’t think they’ll go there, but could be interesting.

I agree. I think we will get a scene before the end of the season where Seven will remove her last Borg implants in order to complete her de-borgification and finally be completely human.

half of her brain is borg, so not happening. She could try to hide the remaining implants, but I don’t think they’ll do this.

 

[Trekker4747]

The butterfly symbol used for the clinic also appeared on a Starfleet medical crate in Episode 1. It's a stock image, but it can't be a coincidence, right? A medical clinic and a medical crate. The sticker is even the same colour.
https://twitter.com/gaghyogi49/status/1504536198869622787

Also all the talk about the butterfly effect.


I looked it up, and the maximum distance we've seen in previous shows i 40k KM. La Barre to LA is only 10k, so I guess it isn't unreasonable for La Sirena even at low power to make that distance with a transporter.

I guess it's just the question if a transporter xan transport "through" a planet in such a manner? If they we're standing on one side of the planet can they vesm through the crust, mantle, outer core, inner core, more outer core, more mantle and more crust to get to the other side? (Granted going from Paris to California isn't all of this) Plenty of times in Trek it's been said how they can't beam into a cave because it's too deep so we're just talking about the crust.

There's no line-of-sight from Paris to LA, so how do you get there? Do transporter signals/beams curve?

 

[Quinton]

I keep thinking about how Sisko and Bashir are a mere seven counties away at some point in the same year, haha.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Covid filmmaking. The alternative was not getting any Picard at all right now, so I'm fine with it.

This was especially noticeable on Discovery this season, particularly the scenes with Tig Notaro. She filmed all of her scenes for the entire season over a 3-day period, which were later inserted into their proper episodes.

 

[jackoverfull]

I guess it's just the question if a transporter xan transport "through" a planet in such a manner? If they we're standing on one side of the planet can they vesm through the crust, mantle, outer core, inner core, more outer core, more mantle and more crust to get to the other side? (Granted going from Paris to California isn't all of this) Plenty of times in Trek it's been said how they can't beam into a cave because it's too deep so we're just talking about the crust.

There's no line-of-sight from Paris to LA, so how do you get there? Do transporter signals/beams curve?

the last time they mentioned this would have been in the 2370s at most, we’re in the early 2400s now, technology evolves. In fact by the 2380s they knew how to beam someone solar systems away. Not to mention that we know nothing of confederation transporter technology.

 

[Lucky]

Easily at least an 8/10. Loved the stuff with Jurati and the Borg Queen.

 

[Trekker4747]

Annie Wersching really is doing a great job as the Borg Queen.

 

[cooleddie74]

Rios materializing in 2024 Los Angeles made me laugh and I don't care who knows.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

I keep thinking about how Sisko and Bashir are a mere seven counties away at some point in the same year, haha.

Unless Picard's group traveled to the original timeline.

 

[Vale]

 

[thribs]

So I'm assuming the Doctor is the Sarah Silverman character for this story.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I was thinking Picard took them to the vineyard too at first, but something in the episode tipped me off otherwise. Rewatching a portion, I think it was this, from after the crash and before the parties beam out:

Picard: The Queen says that there is someone who can help us. In this time, here in Los Angeles.​

Now it's kinda meta, but could he have crashed them at the nearby winery where they're filming the Chateau Picard scenes...?

 

[Uhura's Song]

Meh.

Wait, apparently no shields in the Confederation timeline? Borg Queen in control makes torpedoes more effective?

Did not really get the assimilation bit.

Elnor died (maybe).

 

[thribs]

Yeah. The assimilation scene was weird. I didn't quite get that.

 

[cooleddie74]

A soft 10. There was very little I didn't like, my biggest complaint being that the episode wasn't a few minutes longer.

 

[Tuskin38]

TrekCore pointed this out, the Immigration officer notes that Rios doesn't have a 'UHC card'.
That is another reference to DS9: Past Tense.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/UHC_card

 

[Amaris]

A good, strong episode, IMO. Poor Elnor. Poor sweet, absurdly attractive Elnor. Poor sweet, absurdly attractive, blunt, attractive Elnor. Hopefully we get him back.

I absolutely feel Raffi's pain. I absolutely do, and I completely understand her rage.

Alison Pill is just awesome. I love her to pieces as Agnes Jurati. Not to jinx things, but I hope she's around on the show a long time.

Everyone else did wonderfully, especially Annie Wersching, who can simultaneously broadcast menace and cattiness, keeping me off balance on how much of a threat she is at any moment (answer: huge threat, and always).

Picard's going to social commentary the shit out of the 21st century, and the early to mid 2020s, and I am here for it. The idea that we already have the seeds of a racist, insular, xenophobic fascist empire should not slide by anyone's awareness, so I'm more curious as to how they're going to depict it. So far, just showing things as they are, and where they're heading in the immediate short term is doing a terrific job.

This episode gets an 8/10 from me. I laughed my ass off when Rios was immediately bonked in the head, because if it was going to happen to anyone, it was going to happen to him. Can't wait for next week!

TrekCore pointed this out, the Immigration officer notes that Rios doesn't have a 'UHC card'.
That is another reference to DS9: Past Tense.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/UHC_card

Believe it or not, homeless ID cards exist here and now.
https://www.govtech.com/gov-experience/municipal-id-card-programs-take-hold-in-us-cities.html

 

[thribs]

Hollywood sure love making Immigration officers the bad guys

 

[Amaris]

Hollywood sure love making Immigration officers the bad guys

There's a good reason for that. Star Trek Picard doesn't have to reach very far for this kind of portrayal, either. It is quite accurate.

 

[The Habs Fan]

Good episode but a step down from the previous two. However, you can’t have major plot points occur every episode, you need some set up along the way.

I have a theory that World War III will come into play at some point. I looked at Memory Alpha and it’s supposed to start in 2026. Maybe the divergence happens and World War III never happens and to save the future they must ensure that the apocalyptic WWIII still happens. Could be an interesting ethical question.