Everything in 2024 so far took place in the span of two days.
During this time Soong got his license revoked, made a donation to NASA to get on the board of the Europa Mission, and now has a private army? And not just any army, all ex SF!
WTF? Where do these mercenaries come from? He just calls a general?
This is absurd. Nobody can take this seriously.
BTW, the mercenaries use Discovery armor vest (budget problems?).
This is what I imagine the plot of one of those CW DC Arrowverse shows looks like.
. While there is certainly an element of getting dropped in at a set of events with near perfect timing, most of them can actually work with the story we have. Really the only issue that bothers me to any degree, is how fast Rios was picked up taken to another location and then transferred on his way to Castiac. For the US that's incredible fast. I would have to assume that at this point all undocumented (which would be Rios) are automatically sent to the nearest Ice facility for processing, and that it happened to happen right before a normal route was being run. Unlikely but utterly not impossible if that is the way that system works.
Soong has been working on a project with the military to enhance soldiers, so I would naturally assume he has direct contracts with those high up in the project, that could very easily be a General. Not at all outside what can and has happened with special research projects of the US military in the last 75 years). Now if said General is working a specialized off the grid project, then getting a team (I assume its the soldiers that were being modified) if stationed near LA would be an hour or two tops. Now if he is using private security forces, money is basically the only limiting factor. Getting private forces boots on the ground is only determined by the means of transport. Area like LA, fastest would be deployed by Helicopter to avoid traffic and is absolutely something that money can manage. Would be done in an hour maybe 2 tops, if you have the financial means. Its done today. Absolutely;utely nothing outside things that could be done today, if you had the resources.
Being worried about repurposing existing props? Sorry this is an extremely common practice for shows and films even those with large budgets. Now Trek doesn't have a massive budget, compared to some of the largest budgets around (currently the Marvel series are running around 15-25 million an episode, and Lord of the Rings is going to be around 40 -50), but the 8-10 is considered to be having an extremely generous budget today, And even with that the productions of both Discovery and Picard have had to reuse props and FX to help get as much bang for their buck.
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
As many people have notice Seven is completely human. And she was tossed through the air with her back slamming hard against a steel structure. Realistically she's not getting up any time quickly. And we do know that even in her weakened state the Queen's assimilation process of Jurati has enhanced her strength enough that she can lift a larger women with one hand. Jurati's walk was completely in character for a Borg. Really the only thing I would want to see different about the scene is them eventually getting the phaser and looking to see her no longer in sight. That is my quibble with that scene.
Interesting that Agnes can shrug off Borg assimilation to stop herself from killing (something many, many others in Trek including Picard were unable to do) while the same Agnes couldn't shrug off a mindmeld to prevent killing Maddox. That must be one very very weak assimilation the Borg Queen did. Except she's back to rampaging a minute later. The strength of the queen's control comes and goes with the plot.
We know the Queen from the get go is seriously a shell of herself. There is no collective, period. Now she manipulates Jurati to help her systems start to restore. In some ways it reminds me of the cut off drones in VOY "Collective" and the not fully assimilated drones weren't able to successfully assimilate or form a collective. Now the Queen was a fully developed Borg, but one that had its collective destroyed, removed, whatever, and and at her own form seriously damaged. So her even after regaining some ability, it seems reasonable that Agnes might be able to fight in brief moments of stress and regain control. Such as how Picard was able to take over from his Locutus personae and I thank he was still technically connected to the hive at the time.
Now another poster and I can't find the post, states it doesn't make sense that Soong could have access or connections to a private (or a military black ops team) since he didn't use it going after Renee. But it makes sense to me. He's in trouble with a government agency about his research. Would you risk putting your enhanced team in a very public setting, that might completely ruin your chance of being able to pursue your science research over something you could accomplish on your own with little indirect risk at further hurting your projects? Now would you do that to help cement yourself as the lynchpin for the creation of a history that sees you as a savior? One is vastly larger motivator and thus you would take risks and steps that you might not necessarily due for lesser goals.
