Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x08 - "Mercy"

[Mr Awe]

Well, that was another episode. I gave it a 7. A step up from last week, but nothing great.

The plot about the washed-up FBI agent working out his childhood issues was just plain dull. Literally lots of sitting around and waiting. Well, I suppose it was appropriately symbolic for filler material! So, that was all wrapped up nice and neat and Picard is back on his way.

There wasn't much else. It was marginally interesting to see how the Borg Queen was using local resources. We got to see Kore react to learning she's an experiment. Those portions are what prompted me to give this episode a 7 rather than the 6 I gave last week's.

But in reality, nothing really moved forward. We do know that the BQ now wants to prevent the Europa mission and why. That's about it. But that was all through exposition. Telling. Not showing. Not particularly exciting.

 

[fireproof78]

The healing blood was a silly JJVerse thing.

It's still canon to the Prime Timeline, as Khan had that blood before Nero caused the timeline split.

Yup, and dialog from Space Seed supports such an idea. There is something about Khan that refuses to die. Blood based therapies for faster rejuvenation are a thing.

And is healing blood any less silly than duplicate android bodies? Maybe they'll make one for Q too.

No, it's not. It's actually closer to real world science than warp drive, Q, android body duplicates of transporters. Somehow, one is denounced while the others wholly embraced.

 

[captainmkb]

It's still canon to the Prime Timeline, as Khan had that blood before Nero caused the timeline split.

Picard's destruction of Romulus further cemented that everything in JJ's films were tied to the Prime Timeline.

sorry, but there are a host of difference's in the Kelvin timeline's 20th century created by the Nero split
• In the Kelvin timeline, Kirk and Spock's history changed and they never went back in time to intervene in the Gary Seven rocket .. uh.. intervention (or if they did, it was in a different manner)
• In the Kelvin timeline, Kirk and crew's history changed and they never went back in time to 1986 for whales (or if they did, it was in a different manner)
• In the Kelvin timeline, Picard and crew mightn't have gone back to 1893 (or if they did, it was in a different manner as we have no idea how much of TNG's history was aborted/altered by Nero's changes)
• In the Kelvin timeline, Janeway and crew mightn't have gone back to 1996 (or if they did, it was in a different manner as we have no idea how much of VOY's history was aborted/altered by Nero's changes)

 

[Yistaan]

sorry, but there are a host of difference's in the Kelvin timeline's 20th century created by the Nero split
• In the Kelvin timeline, Kirk and Spock's history changed and they never went back in time to intervene in the Gary Seven rocket .. uh.. intervention (or if they did, it was in a different manner)
• In the Kelvin timeline, Kirk and crew's history changed and they never went back in time to 1986 for whales (or if they did, it was in a different manner)
• In the Kelvin timeline, Picard and crew mightn't have gone back to 1893 (or if they did, it was in a different manner as we have no idea how much of TNG's history was aborted/altered by Nero's changes)
• In the Kelvin timeline, Janeway and crew mightn't have gone back to 1996 (or if they did, it was in a different manner as we have no idea how much of VOY's history was aborted/altered by Nero's changes)

Nero's split isn't the "we erased the Prime timeline" version of time travel that picard uses. Keep in mind Enterprise, the Xindi (which Krall mentions) and its Regeneration episode leftover from First Contact still happen in Kelvin.

The new approach is severely problematic. For example we now have to assume that Enterprise and its Temporal War lasting seasons didn't happen every time there's a time travel episode. That's absurd.

Furthemore, Discovery confirms a Kelvin Timeline resident outright fought in Enterprise's Temporal Wars.

 

[fireproof78]

Nero's split isn't the "we erased the Prime timeline" version of time travel that picard uses. Keep in mind Enterprise, the Xindi (which Krall mentions) and its Regeneration episode leftover from First Contact still happen in Kelvin.

It's more like Parallels with a fork in the time stream.

 

[Mr Awe]

That was a good episode...it came close to great, but it was held back by some really odd choices. It is nice to have some genuine forward movement in the plot.

I guess I was a bit less impressed.

A lot of the questions of the season were answered here, more or less, such as what actually causes the Confederation timeline to come into being, and what the hell is going on with Q. I'm not sure how an entity which was formerly immortal can die at a set time when they can travel through time at will, but I will just presume that the Q Continuum has its own flow of time he normally "lives" in. Alison Pill is incredible now that she's in Borg Queen mode.

No, not really much plot movement of there. Just a few new details, that's all.

We already knew that Soong was connected to the Confederation (remember the statues?) and that it involved Renee not going on the mission. We just learned through dull exposition, telling rather than showing, from the Borg Queen the reason why.

We already knew that Q was having serious problems, both from Picard's observations but also the scene where Q tried to control Renee but failed, and the whole magic bottle scene to summon him. We just learned a little more about that. He's slowly fading away.

Alison Pill has been in "BQ mode" for multiple episodes now. More of the same. It was interesting seeing how she used some basic raw ingredients that were available. But it didn't really tell us anything substantially new. We did get the exposition details I mentioned earlier, but that's it.

So, when you really look at it, there wasn't really that much plot development going on. Window dressing really.

 

[Yistaan]

The plot about the washed-up FBI agent working out his childhood issues

Now Wells just has to wait 40 years, survive WW3, until he's 90+ to be vindicated.

I think Jurati should just assimilate human Q while she has the chance. Even without powers there's a wealth of knowledge he has that the collective could use.

 

[Mr Awe]

Sooooo as Jurati is walking away Raffi's phaser is lying close by Seven. You would think Seven -- given her ability to take hard hits in combat -- like when she was on the Borg cube -- would scramble over to the Phaser and shoot Jurati in the back.

And also Jurati just walks away from Raffi and Seven without taking any evasive action -- and in clear line of sight. But nooooooooooo. Man, even with the stiff reactions of the TOS Animated series -- the reactions were faster than this

I noticed that too!

 

[Mr Awe]

Overall I think I would give this one a 7. It feels like some of this should have happened earlier in the season instead of 2.8

I also gave it a 7. Not bad but not really good either.

I agree that this should've happened earlier. In fact, when you look at it all together, and if you assume the final two episodes will be fully packed ones, then there was clearly only enough story to fill 4 episodes at most. The first two and the final two. The rest has been mostly filler and reconfirmations of things we learned earlier.

 

[Mr Awe]

I haven't been able to watch this yet. I was too tired to watch it overnight (long story) and I have an electrician over right now. Then I've got work. So it's going to be over 12 hours before I'm able to watch this.

But, based on the reactions, this sounds like the uptick I was hoping for.

Well, it's a slight uptick. I gave last week's episode a 6, like you. I gave this one a 7. So, an improvement, but it wasn't amazing by any means.

 

[Saul]

No, it's not. It's actually closer to real world science than warp drive, Q, android body duplicates of transporters. Somehow, one is denounced while the others wholly embraced.

Real world science to transfer the entire human consciousness into an android body?

 

[Yistaan]

Sooooo as Jurati is walking away Raffi's phaser is lying close by Seven. You would think Seven -- given her ability to take hard hits in combat -- like when she was on the Borg cube -- would scramble over to the Phaser and shoot Jurati in the back.

And also Jurati just walks away from Raffi and Seven without taking any evasive action -- and in clear line of sight. But nooooooooooo. Man, even with the stiff reactions of the TOS Animated series -- the reactions were faster than this

That Robert Rodriguez and his budget style, slow and clunky fight scenes. How he get so big directing scenes of this kind?--oh wait, wrong Star franchise.

 

[fireproof78]

Real world science to transfer the entire human consciousness into an android body?

Blood based therapies are closer to real world science than android consciousness transfer.

That Robert Rodriguez and his budget style, slow and clunky fight scenes. How he get so big directing scenes of this kind?--oh wait, wrong Star franchise.

Who?

 

[Captrek]

But in reality, nothing really moved forward. We do know that the BQ now wants to prevent the Europa mission and why. That's about it. But that was all through exposition. Telling. Not showing. Not particularly exciting.

What’s Q’s involvement? Was he trying to stop the Europa mission, or was he just trying to get Renee off it because he knew it was doomed and has a soft spot for Picards?

 

[Quinton]

I'll talk more about the episode tomorrow (I liked it!) but one thing I really hope to see is for Wells to help out in some fashion before the end. Enough time was given in the script for him to say he was canned, I guess, but he ushers Picard and Guinan out so swiftly with that line about trying to see Guinan's POV on his destiny.

Picard says they need his help, and basically, I'm just hoping that means more than "open the door me plzkthx" if possible.

 

[Mr Awe]

Why is the Borg Queen helping Soong create the very timeline where the Borg were eradicated and she herself was slated for execution?

Very good questions! I don't know the answers. It's either a huge writing blunder or she's lying to manipulate Soong. However, we did see Soong's statues in the Confederation. I guess we'll have to see how that plays out.

It's also interesting how quickly Soong totally buys into her extraordinary tale about an alternate future!

 

[eschaton]

What’s Q’s involvement? Was he trying to stop the Europa mission, or was he just trying to get Renee off it because he knew it was doomed and has a soft spot for Picards?

I don't think Q wants to stop the Europa mission at all. He wants to get Picard to ensure the Europa mission goes forward in order for him to learn something important about humanity and himself.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

It’s a shame he wasn’t Ducane.

He could be Ducane's ancestor.

If Brent Spiner can play multiple versions of a Soong related character, why can't Ducane play multiple versions of ancestors related to Ducane?

Vulcans were using transporters for themselves but probably did not share the tech with humans. So transporters were new to humans. So it would make sense that humans would be afraid since it was a new tech for them. And Erikson's transporter may work a bit differently than Vulcan transporters. And Erikson's tech was new. So there could be concerns whether Erikson's prototype would work correctly.

Vulcans refused to share ALOT of things with humanity.

Not sharing Transporters with Humans wouldn't be surprising, the Vulcans of that era would want humanity to develop the tech on their own. Ergo the long trek to Warp 5 and beyond.

 

[Mr Awe]

It's also rather fun to have Trek be a little unpredictable as this episode had a couple of twists I was not expecting.

The final two episodes should be interesting.

There really weren't any twists in it. Just minor elaborations on what we already knew. But I do hope you're right about the final two episodes!

 

[Captrek]

I don't think Q wants to stop the Europa mission at all. He wants to get Picard to ensure the Europa mission goes forward in order for him to learn something important about humanity and himself.

But he did try to get Renee to opt out of the mission. Why?