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

[Sci]

I’m undecided about captain Shaw: he really doesn’t like our heroes for some reason, being hostile from the get go. And doesn’t seem to like Seven either…Lost someone at Wolf 359 maybe?

Possibly. But he could also just be a bit of an asshole. Sometimes people are jerks without a traumatic backstory.

Plus... y'know, he's not wrong. He has his orders on where to bring his ship, and Picard and Riker are very clearly trying to trick him.

Speaking of 7, she really just sacrificed her career to help Picard before even understanding the gravity of the situation?! Wow.

Seven knows Picard well enough at this point to know that he wouldn't do something like this if the stakes weren't high enough to be worth it. Plus, Starfleet is turning out not to be the career she thought it would be.

Who in Starfleet thought building a giant 'Portal' gun would be a good idea?

Who thinks building weapons of mass destruction is ever a good idea? Weapon-makers gonna weapon-make.

It really isn't. No more than the TNG movies are Season 8.

Okay, TNG Season 9 then. Whatever -- the point is that Star Trek: Picard's unique identity, cast, and thematic concerns have been lost and replaced with an identity, thematic concerns, and cast that were ported over from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Instead of it being about Picard and the crew of La Sirena, it's about Picard reuniting with the Next Generation cast. Instead of it being about thematic concerns that arose from Picard having new relationships, it's about thematic concerns relating to Beverly, Will, and the rest of his old crew. PIC S3 is fundamentally a show about TNG characters rather than a show about Picard and new characters.

Agree, the writing in general on Star Trek lately feels like it gets tacked on right before filming, so everyone talks in either a remarkably boring, contemporary style or like they're just reading plot beats.

Like it or not, modern Star Trek has abandoned the Berman-era creative conceit of all dialogue being written in formal, prescriptivist English because the writers today recognize that real people do not and will never speak like that, and that it's better to just use a vernacular the audience can empathize with because your dialogue will be dated eventually no matter what stylization you use.

 

[DaveyNY]

Who in Starfleet thought building a giant 'Portal' gun would be a good idea?

It's gonna be one of the Soongs, isn't it?

Why would it be someone in StarFleet?
Transporter Tech by this time probably has developed throughout the inhabited worlds of the four known quadrants.
The key in this instance would be figuring out how to contain that massive amount of material and the enormous amount of power to do it.

 

[cooleddie74]

So Raffi would have entered the Academy around the time of "All Good Things...(TNG)" and GEN.

 

[jackoverfull]

We'll see how Crusher's kid goes. Doesn't seem young enough for a post-NEM hookup that Beverly ran off after

nemesis is almost 25 years in the past, so he’s the right age imho.
I doubt they brought up (twice) Crusher and Picard “trying” to be lovers without a reason, so I wonder if this kid may be his son. Keep in mind that this was a plot point in the series that seemed mostly forgotten in the movies.

Maybe Picard's BOBW log playing (what was the point of that?)

I think it makes sense in retrospect: Beverly was setting up the encoding and had thus been reviewing the relevant logs on hellbird.
Speaking of the encoding…It has nothing to do with codecs.

and the Garrett statue.

that was a nice Easter egg.

Am I the only one that was brought back to the old 20000 leagues under the sea music by the Titan’s theme?

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On a personal note, this is a second time an important plot point of the fan film I wrote back in 2020 comes up in “real” Trek. Damn!

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

Nothing terribly exciting or bad about it for me.
A decent way to spend an hour but that's about it.

 

[James Cole]

This season is definitely not just one year after the last season. It's probably 2 or 3. Riker was rounding off. As for Chabon. I am so thankful they dropped him. The first season was so bad. His characters thankfully only lasted 2 seasons. Too bad we still have Raffi thought. I hope her character dies this season. She is the worst starfleet officer we've seen in the TNG era.

I'd give Raffi a chance. The actress wasn't given the best material to work with in the beginning.

Chabon wise?

Season 1 went through many iterations. You have whatever the original pitch was. Then you have the original story and teleplay for 101, that was then extensively rewritten by James Duff. Everyone jokes that a Secret Hideout Star Trek production has like 20 executive producers. But when I IMDBed the names I didn't recognize from season 1, several of them turned out to be past collaborators of James Duff from THE CLOSER and MAJOR CRIMES. If the guy was bringing in his own people as writers, that's a fairly strong signal that at one point he was supposed to be at least the de facto showrunner. Something must not have worked out, as while he and his people have production credits on all ten episodes, it doesn't look like their influence made it past episode 4 or 5. Then you have the rumor that Bruce Maddox was supposed to villain of the season (and the character's recasting as someone that looks a lot like Canadian political figure Jordan Pederson raises its own questions...). With episode 106, Michael Chabon's wife comes in as a co-executive producer. Riker and Troi were apparently never in the original plan, and "Nepenthe" was filmed out of order. And you have the reshoots for episode 110 where Adm Clancey was replaced by Riker, and Picard gets the android body. Despite all the sets built for it, the Borg cube story is just cut mid stream. It would be interesting to see what all the plans for the season were compared to what we ultimately got.

But yeah, I'm glad Chabon is gone.

 

[J. Frank Doobie]

our dialogue will be dated eventually no matter what stylization you use

Yeah, I think your analysis is correct, but if the writing will seem dated either way, personally, I'd go ahead and use it to build, rather than detract, from the world-build.

 

[Paterson]

Lost someone at Wolf 359 maybe?

Between BoBW and Emissary it was about a year or two, so it makes sense that Sisko would hold a grudge, but it's been over 30 years in universe here, that would be stretching it.

 

[Sci]

Excellent, I wonder if he knew, as in he was officially hired, or it’s just a nod to his brilliant Twitter posts and work on EAS. Well deserved either way.

I'm pretty sure that to get a billing in the end credits for anything other than "Special Thanks," you have to actually be hired and fill out legal forms as either an independent contractor or an employee. So he probably knew and had to sign an NDA.

So Raffi would have entered the Academy around the time of "All Good Things...(TNG)" and GEN.

If she was born in 2353, she would be... 11 in TNG S1. Assuming she enters the Academy at age 18, that would be 2371 -- same time as Generations and Voyager Season One, yeah. ("All Good Things..." would have been the end of the prior year.) She would have been 46 in S1 and 48 in S2.

Yeah, I think your analysis is correct, but if the writing will seem dated either way, personally, I'd go ahead and use it to build, rather than detract, from the world-build.

Well, they did that for twenty years, and the end result was characters who felt emotionally stunted, audiences who had trouble connecting with most of the characters, and a completely unrealistic way of talking that nobody in real life has ever done or will ever do. I would much rather they go with a style of dialogue that better captures emotion, reflects real life, and enables most of the audience who are not obsessive sci-fi nerds like me to connect with the characters.

 

[DaveyNY]

Between BoBW and Emissary it was about a year or two, so it makes sense that Sisko would hold a grudge, but it's been over 30 years in universe here, that would be stretching it.

Well, Captain Shaw probably did pretty much "get over it", until an Admiral forced a Number One upon him that brought the old memories back right into his face.
Not so much carrying a grudge, as a terrible reminder of what ever the loss was.
Many folks can bury their emotional hardships quite well for years, till something comes along and smacks them in the face.

 

[eschaton]

I'd give Raffi a chance. The actress wasn't given the best material to work with in the beginning.

Chabon wise?

Season 1 went through many iterations. You have whatever the original pitch was. Then you have the original story and teleplay for 101, that was then extensively rewritten by James Duff. Everyone jokes that a Secret Hideout Star Trek production has like 20 executive producers. But when I IMDBed the names I didn't recognize from season 1, several of them turned out to be past collaborators of James Duff from THE CLOSER and MAJOR CRIMES. If the guy was bringing in his own people as writers, that's a fairly strong signal that at one point he was supposed to be at least the de facto showrunner. Something must not have worked out, as while he and his people have production credits on all ten episodes, it doesn't look like their influence made it past episode 4 or 5. Then you have the rumor that Bruce Maddox was supposed to villain of the season (and the character's recasting as someone that looks a lot like Canadian political figure Jordan Pederson raises its own questions...). With episode 106, Michael Chabon's wife comes in as a co-executive producer. Riker and Troi were apparently never in the original plan, and "Nepenthe" was filmed out of order. And you have the reshoots for episode 110 where Adm Clancey was replaced by Riker, and Picard gets the android body. Despite all the sets built for it, the Borg cube story is just cut mid stream. It would be interesting to see what all the plans for the season were compared to what we ultimately got.

But yeah, I'm glad Chabon is gone.

To me the weirdest aspect by far is Elnor. He had an entire episode dedicated to his introduction, and then had essentially no use in the rest of Season 1. And when they did use him, he just made no sense! Like Picard explicitly told him not to kill again without his permission, and he kills again without his permission, and suffers no consequence from it. Then gets shunted off into the B-movie schlock sideplot involving Seven and Hugh.

My guess is after casting Elnor they realized the actor didn't have the chops for whatever they intended, because just having him sit around and look pretty for two seasons just made no effin sense.

 

[Sci]

Well, Captain Shaw probably did pretty much "get over it" until an Admiral forced a Number One upon him that brought the old memories back right into his face.
Not so much carrying a grudge, as a terrible reminder of what ever the loss was.

I really don't think there's some terrible loss. The man looks like he's in his mid-40s and it's probably the 2400s, so he would have had to have been a child during the Battle of Worlf 359. Not everyone needs a traumatic backstory to be an asshole -- and, again, he's not wrong. He has his orders, and Picard and Riker are very transparently trying to get him to violate his orders illegally.

 

[Paterson]

Humans gonna human. There was concern that during the initial test of the atomic bomb, US scientists felt that it was entirely possible that using the bomb might ignite the earth's atmosphere.

They went ahead with the test anyway.

Why would it be someone in StarFleet?
Transporter Tech by this time probably has developed throughout the inhabited worlds of the four known quadrants.
The key in this instance would be figuring out how to contain that massive amount of material and the enormous amount of power to do it.

Who thinks building weapons of mass destruction is ever a good idea? Weapon-makers gonna weapon-make.

It was a tongue in cheek question, i just found it funny that the weapon Raffi was looking for turned out to be a Portal gun, especially in combination with her handler seeming like she might be GLaDOS.

 

[DaveyNY]

Elnor was a character that suffered the fate of multiple writers being replaced.

 

[cooleddie74]

"I beg you...choose character development."

 

[DaveyNY]

I really don't think there's some terrible loss. The man looks like he's in his mid-40s and it's probably the 2400s, so he would have had to have been a child during the Battle of Worlf 359.

Perhaps losing both parents to that battle is the cause.
We don't really know yet, so all I can do is use what's already given to speculate.
He's very obviously not a Borg fan and disdainfully lays some of the blame on Picard and Seven.

Emotional reactions like that don't come from just being a child when the battle took place.
There has to be some personal connection.
It might even have been their loss that prompted him to join Star Fleet.

 

[J. Frank Doobie]

they did that for twenty years, and the end result was characters who felt emotionally stunted, audiences who had trouble connecting with most of the characters, and a completely unrealistic way of talking that nobody in real life has ever done or will ever do.

Not sure I know what 20-year stretch you're referring to, here, but I actually read the current style of dialogue as considerably more stilted and unrealistic. I think most people, especially those in military-like command and control situations speak rather formally for the express reason of clear communication.

I'll just say that, for me, people speaking like walking script notes makes them considerably less realistic --- but I suspect this is a subjective, interpretive thing, so I should say that I don't think you're wrong, per se.

But I also think that, even in our world today, most of the time people leave things unsaid rather than spell them out.

 

[Sci]

To me the weirdest aspect by far is Elnor. He had an entire episode dedicated to his introduction, and then had essentially no use in the rest of Season 1. And when they did use him, he just made no sense! Like Picard explicitly told him not to kill again without his permission, and he kills again without his permission, and suffers no consequence from it. Then gets shunted off into the B-movie schlock sideplot involving Seven and Hugh.

My guess is after casting Elnor they realized the actor didn't have the chops for whatever they intended, because just having him sit around and look pretty for two seasons just made no effin sense.

I think they were going to do more with Elnor's relationship with Seven aboard the Artifact, but it got cut for time. The fate of the Artifact was the weakest part of S1.

I was really looking forward to seeing Elnor get more development in S2. Particularly I was looking forward to seeing him relate to Soji -- how would they see each other? Rivals? Friends? Romantic partners? I do like the idea that Elnor becomes the first Romulan in Starfleet, but I get the strong impression Terry Matalas and Akiva Goldsmith just didn't know what to do with him in S2 but needed to include him in a certain number of episodes because they signed a contract with Evan. Evan's been getting steady work so I don't think it's a matter of his acting talent.

 

[Quantum21]

Nah, it's still basically TNG S8. The driving plot is about the TNG characters re-entering Picard's life, and almost every original character from the previous seasons has been ditched.



That seems very creatively arbitrary to me. Like, if you're going to do Picard, use the paratext developed by Picard. Or, if you're going to turn Picard into TNG S8, use the paratext of TNG (which admittedly he did by using the TNG end credits graphics). But just using the paratext of a completely different corner of the Star Trek universe with no plot or thematic connection to this one seems... unmotivated. It makes about as much sense as using the paratext of Deep Space Nine or Lower Decks.



They didn't drop him. He left the series to develop a television adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Chabon is one of the greatest American writers of his generation, and the bad reaction so many fans had to his work speaks more to their bad taste than to his talent as a writer.



His season was excellent with one element that didn't quite stick the landing, and his characters were vibrant, three-dimensional, and compelling. They deserved better than to be unceremoniously shoved off the show, and the audience deserved better than to be told that their relationships would be important only for them to be ignored.



Give me a million Raffis over a single Harry Kim or Travis Mayweather or Tom Paris or Malcolm Reed.



Honestly, the only real problem with S1 is that the XB/Hijacked Cube subplot didn't integrate well with the finale of the season. It was his first time as a showrunner, and other than that it stuck the landing. The climax with Picard and Soji is amazing, and the Picard-as-Orpheus coda was heartfelt and moving. "Et in Arcadia Ego, Parts I & II" really spoke to me when I was coping with my grandmother's death and then with my mother's a year and a half later; I adore those episodes and his work.



Jurati is absolutely one of my favorite characters -- this 24th Century nerd who's super accomplished and put together in the office, but pull her out of her comfort zone and she's a neurotic trashfire who's learning how to believe in herself. I really wanted to see her arc develop more than it did in S2, though I did like that she basically brings peace to the Federation-Borg conflict.

It's easy to see the multi-layered depth that Chabon brought to season 1, and he actually helped season 2 going too, so he had a big impact on modern Trek. I'm still sorry he had to leave to produce his own novel's series. So far after 1 episode (I know, low sample size) season 1 is still superior.

 

[gvn2fly]

I'd give Raffi a chance. The actress wasn't given the best material to work with in the beginning.

Chabon wise?

Season 1 went through many iterations. You have whatever the original pitch was. Then you have the original story and teleplay for 101, that was then extensively rewritten by James Duff. Everyone jokes that a Secret Hideout Star Trek production has like 20 executive producers. But when I IMDBed the names I didn't recognize from season 1, several of them turned out to be past collaborators of James Duff from THE CLOSER and MAJOR CRIMES. If the guy was bringing in his own people as writers, that's a fairly strong signal that at one point he was supposed to be at least the de facto showrunner. Something must not have worked out, as while he and his people have production credits on all ten episodes, it doesn't look like their influence made it past episode 4 or 5. Then you have the rumor that Bruce Maddox was supposed to villain of the season (and the character's recasting as someone that looks a lot like Canadian political figure Jordan Pederson raises its own questions...). With episode 106, Michael Chabon's wife comes in as a co-executive producer. Riker and Troi were apparently never in the original plan, and "Nepenthe" was filmed out of order. And you have the reshoots for episode 110 where Adm Clancey was replaced by Riker, and Picard gets the android body. Despite all the sets built for it, the Borg cube story is just cut mid stream. It would be interesting to see what all the plans for the season were compared to what we ultimately got.

But yeah, I'm glad Chabon is gone.

Yes, season 1 seems to have had more BTS issues than we've really heard about. I feel like I already read the content in episodes 102 and 103 were originally going to be one story then they filmed more scenes and broke it up. I thought I read the flashback to Picard resigning was also added later. Jeri Ryan has also said the original pitch for Seven's character in season 1 that she was on board with was completely different from what they ended up doing.