Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x02 - "Disengage"

[Romulan_spy]

After the title card ("two weeks ago") we saw how he got intercepted by the Fenris Rangers.
He said, "First it was Fenris Rangers, then Klingons".

Yes but I still think the sequence was:
1) Other Fenris rangers
2) Klingons
3) the Fenris rangers again from "2 weeks".

So months passed with them being chased by other entities. The "2 weeks" scene was simply the last one. So I think it can be explained. The "2 weeks" scene was not the first or only time they were being chased. That was clearly established.

 

[Spike730]

So far I'm not conviced that this is really going to be the best season of Trek. For once, I absolutely hate the lighting. Everything is just so dark. Makes watching a chore. The comic book villain Vadic and the son-reveal don't help either.

So, last episode Shaw refused Picard's orders because he was retired but now he accepts Picard's superiority? Or did he simply have a change of heart because Jack is his son?

Again with the small-universe syndrome. Of course, Raffi's handler is Worf and of course her ex knows the Ferengi.

 

[Spike730]

So months passed with them being chased by other entities.

Except he was going about his usual business and not somebody on the run.

 

[Roald]

Loved the episode, but I do have a serious complaint regarding the color correction… the contrast and dark levels are off the chart, it makes no sense, especially with Matalas making genuine efforts to achieve the tone of Trek… sometimes it felt as if the color correction effects were mistakenly re-applied, doubling their levels… I really hope this is changed for a future blu ray release…

 

[Ralph O Ward III]

Why would having a son with JLP damage Beverly's character?


Let's go with Ed Speleers real age, 34 y/o.
Let's say he wasn't born right after Nemesis, but during that 1 year that Beverly was away and head of StarFleet Medical.
That should be close enough to account for the age of Jack/Ed.

He should be in his late 20's / early 30's.


Because she's not afraid of the USS Titan.

It's a "Puny little ship" in comparison of size / fire power / etc compared to her ship.

She's confident enough to lower the shields to make let StarFleet scan them and not take a trick shot during that vulnerable moment.


Maybe Beverly & JLP hooked up during the events of "The Naked Now"
That was S1 Ep 3.
Beverly was gone for S2, and back for S3.
ST:TNG S2 took place in 2365
ST:PIC S3 takes place in 2401
That's a 36 year time gap.
Assuming Beverly gave birth near the early part of S2 or later part of S2.
The age of Jack Crusher could be 35/36 y/o.
That should match with 34 y/o Ed Speleers who portrays Jack Crusher.


+ Ensign LaForge gets huge kudos for spot on location for emerging from Warp.
+ I definitely love the part where they flung the Eleos at the Titan.
More proof that with enough Kinetic energy damage, you can over power shields through brute force alone. Quite the move by Captain Vadic. Also loved Ensign LaForge having to explain that to Captain Shaw.
+ Worf finally getting to be super badass and chop off some heads, all those years of him being a meme and the "Worf Effect" trope gets named after him. Now he gets a measure of awesomeness by saving raffi.
+ I don't think JLP expected somebody to fling an entire StarShip so precisely with a tractor beam that it skids by and tears a chunk of the Titan's hull. That's new to JLP and most people.
+ Maybe deep down, Shaw also has the same problem as JLP and wanted a wife & kid. So he can relate.
+ Also, I love the fact that Seven had to lecture Shaw on how he wanted to be remembered by history: as the Captain who let two legends die, or the one who saved them. That finally opened his eyes and stop being so "By the Book".
+ I don't think Vadic really cares about JLP, she seems to be the modern day equivalent of a hybrid of "Space Pirate" & "Bounty Hunter". She has no loyalty to any government, she's her own boss.

Or lost his family at wolf 359 like Sisco did. Back in the days when starship had families on board

 

[Quinton]

I had qualms with this one that weren't present last week. I made peace with Jack being Picard's son long before the season premiered, so it is what it is - at least I enjoy the actor. But Raffi's ex-husband being on M'Talas Prime feels... really contrived.

Still a good episode overall, but it's unfortunate that mental gymnastics are required. I caught the "two weeks"/"we've been running for months" discrepancy as well; I'd just as soon believe that's a con man exaggerating things in the heat of the moment, but without context it feels odd.

Worf decapitated a Ferengi, so this is one for the history books regardless.

 

[Ralph O Ward III]

Betcha Worf wanted to do the same to Quark

 

[Tuskin38]

I'm glad it's not just on my end that the blacks are crushed and the colors way over saturated. I know some people have complained about the lack of color, but it honestly looked better last week.

looked fine here in Canada, same as last week. Must be a paramount issue

 

[KennyB]

The rejuvenating effects on Ba'ku planet might've had something to do with it. But yes, that's pretty cruel of her. They better have a very good explanation or it's character assassination in my book.

I’m not completely sure JLP was completely in the dark about young Jack……

 

[Tuskin38]

As revealed in The Ready Room with Will Wheaton after show, there are Mugato horns in Sneed's office, which was a direct reference to Lower Decks.

Ready Room is up already? Wow, normally it’s not until like 10am

edit: I guess it’s on P+, it’s not on Facebook or the official website yet

 

[NCC-73515]

I seem to have switched universes
My memory, 2 weeks old, is that Picard's big line "Because he is my son!" was much stronger, with force, almost yelling across the bridge. Here it is much softer. Either I was so impressed with the scene that it formed an exaggerated memory, or they used a different take for the final release

 

[DaveyNY]

Vadic is Fuk'n nuts.
Obviously there's something more than just the bounty on Jack Jr.'s head she wants.

Does she already have the Transporter weapon or does she want it and Jack is somehow necessary in her plan to get it?

I like Raffi, but boy she's dumb as a brick at times.
Her life of drug use has screwed her up almost beyond help at this point.

I gave this episode another 9.

 

[Campe]

Does she already have the Transporter weapon or does she want it and Jack is somehow necessary in her plan to get it?

I still think there’s a second threat we’re not fully aware of.

 

[eschaton]

The leaked son character casting call thingy from a few years ago said the son was "in his early 20s". Going by this I'm guessing people are simply supposed to believe that he is just that, despite the actor looking a bit older.

Makes me wonder if they have long-term plans for Jack or not.

I mean, in some ways, casting Mary Wiseman as Tilly in DIS was a misfire, insofar as they made her play a cadet at age 32...a character around ten years younger than she is. This wasn't a big deal the first few seasons, but by Season 3 Wiseman pretty clearly didn't look like a woman in her early 20s.

I mean, I'm glad she got the role - DIS would have been worse without her - but they should have aged up her character.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

And the repulsing tractor beam is from TNG Naked Now, invented by Jack's brother

' The Andromedans (Star Fleet Battles) have very powerful variants of tractor beams, called "Tractor-repulsor beams", as their primary weapons; they use them to shake their target to pieces '

Not sure if I am remembering it right but I think Brunt had those pulled back ears too - clearly a sign of Ferengi who are dickheads

Brunt definitely suffered from lobe-envy. A classic overcompensator.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Okay, Vadic's not Khan...she's the Joker.

 

[Xerxus]

re: Jack Crusher's age/casting
For all we know he fell into a Molly time hole, or some spacial phenomenon that aged him up.

 

[eschaton]

I have somewhat mixed feelings here. On the whole I get the same general vibe I got from last week - a well-paced outing of Trek, but certainly not one with the highest IQ.

There's a fair amount here in the plus column. Shaw's characterization deepens over the course of the episode, revealing someone with nuance and hints of past trauma. Worf's entry was a crowning moment of badass. I liked the Ferengi redesign (glad to see the lower face is free, allowing for more face acting) and the character left an impression of some level of menace, not just a buffoon (which already puts it above basically any live-action Ferengi depictions not on DS9).

I'm resigned to the whole Picard has a son thing - though I am still hoping for some sort of strange twist to come. I thought it was a bit of a strange choice to have Bev out of commission until the final 10 mins, but I guess they wanted to floor us with that nonverbal scene the episode ended with. I warmed to Ed Speeler's take on Jack Crusher over the course of this episode - they made him seem at least somewhat intriguing as a character - but I was really wishing the mid-episode drop regarding his many aliases meant he was just some rando con man who happened to be pretending to be Beverly's son.

Vadic is incredibly campy - I cannot take her seriously - but Trek has often been campy in the past, so this is one thing I'll let slide. I do think it's a good choice to have her someone who is enjoying herself, rather than just another stoic badass. Makes her scenes far more dynamic.

The negative column is basically everything with Raffi. Honestly I feel like Michelle Hurd's acting gets worse and worse with every season of Picard. She really only seems to have one mode, which is reading her lines in an overwrought fashion. Her middle scene with her ex-husband (who somehow just happened to live on the planet she was on) in particular was cringe inducing. I actually liked her final scene with the Ferengi, though that wasn't on her.

More generally, I'm getting nervous regarding the quality of the show's writing overall at this point. I understand that Matalas wasn't really showrunner last time around, but we have the writer's credits for much of the last season out already and it's the same people who wrote season 2 - people who he brought over from 12 Monkeys for the most part. The overall narrative seems to be more cohesive, but I'm already seeing signs of sloppy, plot-focused writing - characters getting "hunches" which prove to be correct, amazing coincidences which happen because they need to, etc.

The advance reviewers seemed to suggest a major jump in quality in episodes 3-4. Let's hope that's what they were giving rave reviews to.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Yeah, the Raffi family drama was cringily played and shoehorned into a highly unlikely situation.

 

[DarKush]

I thought this was not as good as the first episode, however it pushed the story along and I was glad they brought in Worf, woke up Crusher, and seemingly answered the mystery of Jack's parentage. Though Picard might have been lying or in denial about it, I would like to believe that when he saw Crusher and they had that silent connection that that's when he knew. Though I have a feeling Jack is Picard's son, and it's not a misdirect, but it would be neat if there was a swerve here (and Jack is the son of Riker or Barclay or someone else to do some of that old subverting expectations).

I liked Shaw more in this episode. I liked that he wasn't willing to fight at first. It went against the grain of the Trek captains we've seen over the years, both good and bad, and it also felt logical, but at the same time, perhaps driven by his personal animus for Picard and Riker. It was a good stew of motivations with Shaw. Though I am questioning why Shaw, with his personal baggage which even Vadic knows something about, was given command of the Titan.

I thought this episode was playing fast and loose with rank here. After Shaw relieved Seven of duty, why was she still out commanding a security team? Also, how can a retired admiral belay Shaw's orders?

I also liked the Raffi storyline. I was surprised that her ex-husband was in the episode (they could've given him a better outfit though than a tattered acid-washed jeans look from the 80s or 90s), though it did make me question if Jae (and I suppose Raffi as well) had underworld ties while she was in Starfleet? I was assuming Raffi's drug use started after she was kicked out of Starfleet over Picard, but I wonder if it was something she's struggled with even longer. If they had to have Raffi fall off the wagon I am glad they did it this way than having her already back to using before the season started, and like over relationship troubles with Seven. I liked the Ferengi Sneed. His makeup looked more up-to-date befitting the 21st century makeup compared to the 80s/90s, but not so overdone as the DISCO style. I also liked Worf's reintroduction.

I liked the few lines that Ensign La Forge got here, and it was a nice mention of her dad too.

The weaker parts of the episode were Jack and Vadic. Jack seems to be a cross between Han Solo (more Ehrenreich than Ford) and TNG's Jason Vigo. Not quite buying that he caused all that trouble. He doesn't seem rakish enough. And Vadic is just too hammy. She's more Nero than Khan 2.0, absent that one harrowing scream of rage Nero gave when he impaled Robau. I did like how Vadic lowered her shields so that Titan could see all that her ship was packing. That was a nice, intimidation move. I also liked that she doesn't seem fixated on Picard, which I was assuming she would be another person out to get him personally. Vadic's starship looks pretty cool, though it also reminds me of how they overdid it with the Scimitar, Narada, and Vengeance to make sure they looked super, uber badass.

Forgot to mention it last week, but I think it applies this week as well. Why does this series keep shelving Laris? She's former Tal Shiar. She would come in handy a lot right now with either the Raffi or Picard/Riker storylines, though her presence would doubtlessly set Shaw off even more.