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Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x01 - "The Next Generation"

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It’s 8am EST on Thursday morning and there are already 9 pages worth of posts on this show.


Wow

I was thinking the same thing. I wonder what the page count will be when I finally watch the episode this evening.
 
The TNG/TNG theme musical cue used when the Titan is revealed in Spacedock appears to be based on the cue used when the Enterprise-E first appears in Nemesis. Bit random, but enjoying spotting the musical references.
 
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So how does the inspection notification work? Did Picard and Riker just contact the Titan and tell them they were doing a surprise inspection? No notification from Starfleet expected. No one from the Titan mentions it to Starfleet command?
 
In my days working on a TV franchise, something like this actually became one of my rules of thumb for measuring a new showrunner. If that first script shows up, and he has written a shout-out to himself into it -- RED ALERT. I knew then my new boss was an arrogant nightmare and I was in for a world of shit.

So I felt so sad when I saw M'Talas Prime! Heavy sigh and "he comes off so well in the press..."

There was a Matalas Prime on Enterprise (named after him sine he was Braga's assistant).
 
There was a Matalas Prime on Enterprise
There was an Alien Skull in Confederation Picard's Study also called M'talas
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/M'Talas

I didn't feel like the Titan deserved the TMP/TNG fanfare upon its reveal. I've always felt that should be reserved for the Enterprise. Should have had its own theme.
It does have its own theme, it's tacked on at the end. Like how each star wars movie opens with the same fanfare but then transitions into a new theme. I think some of the star trek movies did that as well with their end credits.

Some of those shots looked like something out of 2002's Bridge Commander.
I think you need to go re-watch bridge commander, because that is wrong.
 
I thought it was a good, but not great season premier. I'm going to be optimistic and say the reason why the first six episodes were dropped to the media is because the season improves over time, rather than the sharp drop in quality we saw last season.

There was a lot to like here. The pacing and direction were spot-on, IMHO, and left me itching for more. You always know that a show has done its job when you get to the last scene and are disappointed it hasn't continued. The dynamic between Picard and Riker basically carried the episode for me. I didn't find the memberberries to be all that distracting (other than the showrunner introducing a planet named after him), and I thought the dim lighting both worked well in scene (I wasn't struggling to see what the hell was going on like some recent HBO series) and was appropriate for the TOS movie vibe they're going for with this production. I watched on my tablet with headphones, so I didn't notice the low-res ship shots which others complained about.

But it wasn't a perfect episode, far from it. The main issue I have here is the script is...rough. The story beats all work well, but the dialogue is really stilted and artificial in spots, with "as you know" style of exposition which just felt unnatural, and in places overwritten. Pretty much no character gets off scot free here unfortunately, but some of Raffi and Seven's lines in particular just struck me as things normal human beings don't say. Captain Shaw is a bit overdone as a secondary antagonist as well. It's not intolerable by any means, but comparing back to the best of Season 1, you can tell not a great deal of effort has gone into establishing things like character voice with the dialogue choices - that they're just meant to go from point A to point B.

Can someone explain to me how Crusher's son has a British accent? Please tell me it's not just because they want us to think he's Picard's child.
 
So the museum isn't around earth
Athan Prime is a new planet.
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Because his parents were british. But they must have dissapeared or died. So Beverly "adopted" him. That's my hypothesis. I can be totally wrong.

Accents don't work that way...at least not unless she adopted him when he was 16 or something.

Generally speaking, your accent is based upon where you are socialized in your childhood/young teen years. You don't necessarily have your parents accent, but you do sound like the other kids you grow up around. So unless Crusher's son actually grew up on some colony planet where most people have British accents, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Of course, the real-world reason is likely Ed Speelers couldn't fake a neutral North American accent, but still.
 
I was thinking that it's a bit funny how Seven and Raffi's relationship effectively "reset" a second time between seasons. This means that you could almost forget Season 2 happened entirely, and things make just as much sense.

The only thing you'd really need to watch Season 2 to understand is what the hell happened to Zaban, and why was Picard with Laris. Otherwise it seems to have fallen down a memory hole.
 
There was a Matalas Prime on Enterprise (named after him sine he was Braga's assistant).

There was an Alien Skull in Confederation Picard's Study also called M'talas
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/M'Talas

So, ahead of season three, Terry had the following things already named after him in the Trek universe:

  1. The planet Matalas - ENT - “Dear Doctor”
  2. The planet Matalas Prime - ENT - “Dawn”
  3. T. Matalas - ENT - listed on the dedication plaque of the NX-02
  4. Not to mention his Enterprise-D cameo in “These Are the Voyages”
  5. The M’Talas skull mentioned above
I mean, I suppose M’Talas Prime could be the same Matalas Prime listed above but still, just a bridge too far for me.

Yeah, it really should have been.

While there were some clunkers in both seasons, I disagree. I like the idea of what they were trying to do with seasons one and two of Picard. I honestly think you had to earn doing this season. But that’s just me.
 
OK... first, the good:

I liked the interactions between Picard/ Riker and Picard/ (Riker)/ Seven.

The JL-Riker interaction is funny and slightly self-ironic. "Excellent recovery admiral!" - "Shut it, Will!"
"So long as we dont have to move or shoot well be fine."

Seven rocks! Loved how she threatened to throw them out an airlock. (It actually gave me fond Babylon 5 callback vibes, where Ivanova frequently threatened to do this to people.) But girl, don't blame Picard for your career change, it was your decision.

Captain Shaw. I already suspected he was a goner after the trailers. Now he's deadnaming Seven and being a general d-bag, so yeah, he's toast and good riddance. But I found him entertaining at the table, so he goes on the 'good' pile.

Loved that Laris/ Orla was back. Nice surprise.

Janeway name drop.

I'm intrigued for Raffi's side plot.

The not-so-good:

For me, it has the feel of a particularly tropey Trek movie. Which I'm sure many fans will love, so... No doubt our heroes will reunite to save their friend in peril and the universe, yadda yadda.

The worst offender of tropes, for me, would be if Bevs son (?) really was Picard's son, too. I don't care how they explain it, this plot belongs to soaps. We had foreshadowing in season 2 (Picard's speech about not having offspring), and in this episode, a big fat anvil: "I don't need a legacy!" And they probably chose an actor with a British accent for a reason. AND Picard hasn't spoken to her in 20 years... There's also the possibility that he is another man's son. Even Jack Crusher's in a timey-wimey way. In any case, wouldn't Riker or other old friends know about him? Did she not see them for 20+ years either?

That said, I'm totally clinging to the hope that "son" is really a shapeshifting alien, the one who attacked Beverly, and who pretends to be her son as long as she's in stasis!

Hated they paired Laris up with Picard after all. I'm not a Pic/ Bev shipper, it just feels like a waste of her character and the actress and, let's be real, it won't last.

Sooo... Riker. I can't say I cared much about him and Troi as a couple during TNG, but I liked them a lot in Nepenthe. So ofc there's trouble in paradise. "Deanna and Kestra will eppreciate the time away from me." Oh-oh. Is it a midlife crisis? "Galaxy class, young lady!" OK boomer. "Hello beautiful!" Seriously, are they going for "sleazy old dude" with him? Not everything on 90s tv was great!

Riker to Picard "Why did you cut everyone off?" He includes himself and Troi. Does he mean 20 years ago? Nepenthe didn't give me that impression, at least with Troi and Riker. Do they mean after season 2?

Some clunky exposition dialog, e.g. with Picard/ young LaForge and with Raffi/ handler. Speaking of which... warrior talk in Trek means Klingons. Is Worf her handler?

I do hope that other anvil will come true: "Youre gonna make it to captain before you know it, Commander Hansen!"

All in all, I didn't hate it.
 
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