So, I have seen one or just two other people post about the sudden about-face Shaw did regarding whether Picard has the authority to give orders. This was my biggest single gripe about this episode. Does no one else really see this as a major problem? It felt like the whole episode was turning on the idea that Picard couldn't order his way to his solution, so he was supposed to find some other justification/solution, but in the end they just say "what the heck?" and toss it out the window, giving Picard his way. It undercut the drama of the situation, directly contravened the major plot obstacle of the previous episode, and undercuts a major part of Seven's arc.
According to Robert Meyer Burnett who has seen the entire season, S3 is structured like a 10 hour movie. Episodes 1-4 are "act 1", eps 5-8 are "act 2" and eps 9-10 are the big finale. So that might explain the perceived pacing issues. If true then it is good pacing for the length of story.
That might be true, and while that pacing might be good for an actual 10-hour movie, I don't think it worked out as well as it should for this 1-hour episode. Each hour should be correctly paced, with enough story to fill the run time, while satisfying the arc of the whole story.
There are no pacing issues, some people just have the attention span of a gnat. I'm perfectly content to see how things play out.
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If perfectly isn't explained immediately it's horrible to some. If the villain is introduced in an episode and we don't immediately know her motivations or story it's horrible to some. I've seen the show runner respond to many complaints on twitter since last week with "keep watching" or "it will be explained"
As Vger23, says (below), I don't have an issue with not revealing everything about characters or their motivations in the first episode. I am content to let that play out as it will. I just don't like the spinning of the wheels feeling from this episode.
What did Riker or Seven or Shaw even do in the hour's time they had? Seven shows up to find Jack, Riker talks to Picard once, and Shaw talks to Vadic once. I would want each of them doing something proactive. Seven and Riker could be examining the scans of the Shrike to try to find tactical weaknesses; Shaw could be searching for anything in the Starfleet database about Vadic. They could have been doing these things, but weren't (as far as we were told). Even if they came together at the end to report that they didn't find anything to solve the problem, that would just put more pressure on Picard and Shaw to come to a decision on the final course of action - tension! Instead, the whole hour is wasted and results in Picard just calling an audible and running because he realizes Jack is his son? Now, calling an audible can be an interesting turn-of-events if, for example, it throws a monkey wrench into the carefully-developed-but-unfortunately-low-probability-of-success Plan A. It can come off as a very heroic, man-of-action decision, but not without a proper set up. Which I just didn't feel like they accomplished in this episode.
A lot of people are confusing motivations for displeasure with the villain here, I think.
I don't expect to know this person's motivations or deep character issues right now. And, the lack of those details aren't (at least, in my particular case) what's making me say "this villain is shit."
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I absolutely agree and understand that there is potentially more to come. But right now, I couldn't be any more turned off on this one than I am right now...
I agree that Vadic isn't compelling to me right now either. I am trusting what the show creators have said that more will be revealed to her character later and she isn't what we think she is. I am willing to wait. But right now, she feels like a standard revenge-seeking Star Trek villain. At least she is a happy one. But I am not impressed yet.
I'm getting the impression there is someone else pulling Vadic's strings. This all seems a little drastic for just a run-of-the-mill criminal with a bounty.
Could this be a grand intricate manipulation by Moriarty?
Now that would be a nice turn about: Moriarty programs a flashy revenge-seeking holographic villain, because that is what Starfleet has come to expect from it's opponents? That would be a nice revenge for trapping him in that memory cube all these years!
But the swiss-army knife approach would probably fit 25th Century Starfleet better, considering that during the era of conflict with the Borg and Dominion, Starfleet began producing starships that were more combat oriented. It might be better to have a jack of all trades starship that could deal with unforseen threats during peacetime, and survive long enough to warn Starfleet.
Seems like the capabilities of Starfleet ships are always plot-driven. they are only as fast or durable or strong as the plot needs them to be. Hero ships like the original Enterprise or the D are as capable as any ship out there, but all the rest are only as advanced as the episode (or season) needs them to be. I personally agree that every mainline ship (outside of transports or custom-built warships like the Defiant) should be be swiss-army-knife capable, outclassing any enemy out there (or even two or three). Particularly given how capable Starfleet is overall in terms of technology and engineering, and how they have practically unliimited resources; why shouldn't every main-line ship be as capable as cutting edge tech would allow?
I guess this a little bit like the classic Superman problem. Some writers feel they have to weaken the hero to face a challenge, when what they could be doing is making the villain better. In the past Starfleet has been shown to be extraordinarily good at building starships that, though general-purpose built, can stand up to enemy battleships; that makes it a little silly that the writers suddenly say "oh, but this Starfleet ship is weak, because, um, we couldn't afford top-of-the-line components for just, um, an exploratory ship (yeah, that's the ticket)".
I understand Matalas wanted the Titan to be the underdog (like the Ent-E was in Nemesis?) but instead of having it be "just an underpowered exploratory vessel" why not have it be a top-of-the-line ship that just happens to come across the Shrike that (for reasons to be explained later) is itself composed of cutting edge technologies and armaments? Same result dramatically, but doesn't require unnecessarily weakening the hero ship. I guess the same could be said for the California class in LDS...there is no real in-universe reason that that class has to be weaker than any other. I guess I haven't found it to be as much of a problem in that series because it was a purposeful, thematic decision to make the Cali-class underdogs just like the lower deckers are the underdogs. So, maybe there will be a thematic reason that the Titan is underpowered (but I bet not)?
