It's starting to feel really disjointed - like two different showrunners wanting two different things and the final output not linking up. Let's stop all momentum we've set up in a short season - stop the arcs about the borg queen, Q, the Soongs, and go inside Picard's mind for an episode.
Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x07 - "Monsters"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
It's starting to feel really disjointed - like two different showrunners wanting two different things and the final output not linking up. Let's stop all momentum we've set up in a short season - stop the arcs about the borg queen, Q, the Soongs, and go inside Picard's mind for an episode.
Yvette probably doesn't have schizophrenia but some new sci-fi disease that can't be cured (Trek has tons of these). Heck it's probably early onset irumodic syndrome.
Rios doesn't even seem bothered his ex-girlfriend is missing.
Confirmed on the ready room, and they say he's not a typical FBI agent and it seems to be personal for him...
A
Amaris
Guest
Picard, S02E07
Ups:
* "I'm from Chile, I only work in outer space."
Downs:
* A little slow in the middle.
Ruminations:
I rather enjoyed the dive into Picard's past trauma, and the man clearly carries a great many of them but this one is the most fundamental, the most foundational. The one upon which all other traumas perch themselves. How we see ourselves, how we perceive the family with whom we are close, guides our beliefs, our choices, our actions. The catalyst for Picard was for him to escape all of this, to run for the stars rather than stay down in the dungeons.
Unfortunately, his trauma kept a piece of him there, and he stayed there hoping that some day that trauma would be healed. The whole segment of this episode was about waiting for healing to come while still being stuck where we are, not moving away from it, not addressing it, just hoping for change, and hiding away all of the memories that keep us from realizing the truth. Sometimes I think I would rather believe that the people who left me really loved me, and that they would return to make amends, and heal the rift between us, but that isn't always how it works, and sometimes the ending is a little boy or girl lost forever in the labyrinth of their own mind.
We are such fascinating creatures, sentient, sapient, capable of creating amazing works, changing our own world around us, and yet being enslaved by the neurons in our heads that try to whisper to us what is real and what isn't, and what's most frustrating is that the same neurons are the ones we rely upon to divine the truth from those whispers. That, too, is part of the human condition.
I still think Tallinn is Laris, and she just doesn't know it yet, or she does know it, and has been watching over Picard, who knows? We'll hopefully find out in the next couple of episodes. I'm also curious to see how this all works out with Jurati, the Borg Queen, Soong, Kore, and all of the other wildly loose threads that will need to be tied up before season's end. So I'm wanting more, which is a good sign, and I was thoroughly entertained by this episode because of everything it showed and didn't show but let you work it out in your own head. It got a little slow in the middle, they lingered on things they could have moved past a little more quickly, but that's a minor quibble in the scheme of things.
This one gets an 8/10.
Ups:
* "I'm from Chile, I only work in outer space."
Downs:
* A little slow in the middle.
Ruminations:
I rather enjoyed the dive into Picard's past trauma, and the man clearly carries a great many of them but this one is the most fundamental, the most foundational. The one upon which all other traumas perch themselves. How we see ourselves, how we perceive the family with whom we are close, guides our beliefs, our choices, our actions. The catalyst for Picard was for him to escape all of this, to run for the stars rather than stay down in the dungeons.
Unfortunately, his trauma kept a piece of him there, and he stayed there hoping that some day that trauma would be healed. The whole segment of this episode was about waiting for healing to come while still being stuck where we are, not moving away from it, not addressing it, just hoping for change, and hiding away all of the memories that keep us from realizing the truth. Sometimes I think I would rather believe that the people who left me really loved me, and that they would return to make amends, and heal the rift between us, but that isn't always how it works, and sometimes the ending is a little boy or girl lost forever in the labyrinth of their own mind.
We are such fascinating creatures, sentient, sapient, capable of creating amazing works, changing our own world around us, and yet being enslaved by the neurons in our heads that try to whisper to us what is real and what isn't, and what's most frustrating is that the same neurons are the ones we rely upon to divine the truth from those whispers. That, too, is part of the human condition.
I still think Tallinn is Laris, and she just doesn't know it yet, or she does know it, and has been watching over Picard, who knows? We'll hopefully find out in the next couple of episodes. I'm also curious to see how this all works out with Jurati, the Borg Queen, Soong, Kore, and all of the other wildly loose threads that will need to be tied up before season's end. So I'm wanting more, which is a good sign, and I was thoroughly entertained by this episode because of everything it showed and didn't show but let you work it out in your own head. It got a little slow in the middle, they lingered on things they could have moved past a little more quickly, but that's a minor quibble in the scheme of things.
This one gets an 8/10.
I know the jokes about Callis and Sid looking a lot alike go back to the first season of BSG. But the scene begins with him speaking, and their voices are nothing alike.
I knew who it was right away. All I heard was Alucard.
I knew who it was right away. All I heard was Alucard.
The show IS about Jean-Luc, ultimately. It’s not called Star Trek: Borg Queen or Star Trek: Rios or something. Goldsman has said that season 2 is “an intimate story”. I guess this sort of thing (exploring Jean-Luc’s trauma and his mind at great length) is what he meant. Not saying I don’t understand the criticism towards it all, of course, I can see why people are getting impatient… but it IS a show about Jean-Luc.
Sure, but that doesn't mean you can't give other main characters meaningful content (which can also call back to the themes of the protagonist). I'm not calling for more screentime for either of them, but when their stories feel like "uh... lets have this or that thrown at them so we fill the time," that's not a good thing. This is about the overall product. Great if it works for other people, it just doesn't for me.
I think that after this season, I might just give live-action Trek a bit of a break.
PS: I do like your idea about repressed anger for Picard btw.
I decided on a 6.
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The whole Laris/Talinn is starting to get annoying. He meet's Tallin, she say she's not Laris, everyone around him says she's not Laris. But they keep dropping all this hints that she's totally Laris or at least in her family line. Which seems even more forced and unsettling. So now it's gonna turn out that Laris got the hots for Picard from talking to her Grandmother or something like that. Or she Is Tallin and sought Picard out over the years? It's weird.
I'm betting on a have their cake and eat it too ending, wherein she both is and isn't Laris. She IS Laris, but when she quits her job as a Supervisor (or gets fired, because Picard) they erase her memories and put her into a normal, Romulan life. Where she just happens to eventually bump into Picard again many years later. Imply that their meeting when she was Talinn has left some kind of indelible impression upon Laris and that's why she is drawn to JL.
He’s pissed they messed up the timeline. Its not Barry’s fault this time.Confirmed on the ready room, and they say he's not a typical FBI agent and it seems to be personal for him...
Take this as you will, but the instant I saw that exchange I thought of you.
If that's what they end up doing, which honestly given the writing so far seem very likely, I'm going to throw my computer through a window.
After thinking about it some, I have to give this episode a 6. I don't dislike it, but the FBI ending was corny. I thought, "Oh no! Not again... "
The idea of a Romulan as a Watcher explains Not-Laris, but it was more like "Ehh... "
Seven and Raffi got more to do, so that's good.
Then we have James Callis. Playing Picard's father is the last thing I was expecting. Not bad, but I would've preferred something else
Nothing with the Soongs either.
Rios and the Doctor are great, though. Loved seeing her on La Sirena.
I'm not sure about where they're going with Picard's mother.
So, yeah, a 6. It's got some good stuff here, but not enough to rate it higher
The idea of a Romulan as a Watcher explains Not-Laris, but it was more like "Ehh... "
Seven and Raffi got more to do, so that's good.
Then we have James Callis. Playing Picard's father is the last thing I was expecting. Not bad, but I would've preferred something else
Nothing with the Soongs either.
Rios and the Doctor are great, though. Loved seeing her on La Sirena.
I'm not sure about where they're going with Picard's mother.
So, yeah, a 6. It's got some good stuff here, but not enough to rate it higher
I totally understand that this isn’t for everyone, I get the legit criticism (the hateful trolling from certain other parties, not so much), it’s entirely valid. If I wasn’t here strictly for Jean-Luc and no one else (I’d be entirely satisfied with ten episodes of just Jean-Luc walking through his vineyard whistling French chansons) I’d probably be a little annoyed as well.
And thanks for liking my “anger” idea. It’s entirely speculative of course and I could be very wrong, but it does fit in with what has been revealed so far and it also fits in exactly with a lot of things that de Lancie and Sir Patrick have said about the P/Q dynamic in season 2 (like Q needing Jean-Luc’s help and neeeding for Jean-Luc to do something and the two of them being one of the “pairs” the season comes up with like Jurati and the Borg Queen, Raffi and Seven, etc). I really, really, really wish they had more scenes together tho. That’s one of MY criticisms - yes, I have them, lol - and I’m not just saying this because I’m a casual P/Q shipper. I get why they’re being kept apart for now tho, things have to develop before we get the big final confrontation, but it IS still somewhat frustrating.
I'm not really liking the use of Laris/Talinn in this to be honest. I like the actress, but they could have found a better way to have her in the story I think. Why not bring her along to the past and have the real Laris and Picard explore his grief/trauma together? They have a long relationship as friends...it seems like that would be better than someone Picard just met (who looks like Laris) going into his mind.
But the previous instances of Picard's mother and father gave nothing definitive that would make these appearances retcons.
Man, it's a shame we can't have any more Young Guinan after this season, because I was really sold on the actor this time.
I just put this up on YT in case anyone wants to revisit the scene.
If they do an Assignment TNG series, with Rios staying behind, and Laris and young Guinan......
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Yvette Picard was a strange, smiling woman in any decade.