Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x07 - "Dominion"

[David cgc]

Can Borg assimilation cause something that resembles irumodic syndrome?

We know something remained in Picard's body, because he could still listen in to the Borg in First Contact. I feel like there was a line in BoBW about the Borg altering Picard's DNA...

CRUSHER: There is extensive infiltration of microcircuit fibers into the surrounding tissue. His DNA is being rewritten.

She has a line after the Borg ship is destroyed that his DNA is returning to normal, but like I said, we know not every physical change was undone, and altering DNA introduces the idea that something the Borg did could be heritable.

(That reminds me, I wonder if there was an idea for a Wheaton cameo when Vadic turned into Jack and taunted Beverly about losing another son. Seeing Wesley would've been a more effective mind-game.)

 

[Tiberius Jim]

The entire thread had a spoiler tag when it went up Tuesday night.

The entire thread from end to end should have been expected to be spoiler territory. Your reasoning doesn't make a damn bit of sense and comes off both as petulant but also dishonest.

Dishonest? What about any of this is dishonest? Episodes had been going up at midnight PST. Then the last few had gone up around 11:30. Not once had they gone up around 11:00. Not having any reason to expect it had, I click on the thread expecting what I had seen for the previous 6 episodes: pre-episode discussion. Unbeknownst to me, the episode was already up and the very first thing I see upon opening the thread is a huge unavoidable spoiler. What exactly is "dishonest" about that?

I'm not the only person who had a problem with it, either.

 

[Yistaan]

We know something remained in Picard's body, because he could still listen in to the Borg in First Contact. I feel like there was a line in BoBW about the Borg altering Picard's DNA...

CRUSHER: There is extensive infiltration of microcircuit fibers into the surrounding tissue. His DNA is being rewritten.

She has a line after the Borg ship is destroyed that his DNA is returning to normal, but like I said, we know not every physical change was undone, and altering DNA introduces the idea that something the Borg did could be heritable.

(That reminds me, I wonder if there was an idea for a Wheaton cameo when Vadic turned into Jack and taunted Beverly about losing another son. Seeing Wesley would've been a more effective mind-game.)

Tuvok's an ex-Borg, and we know they very much have him now. What would Picard have in said Borg DNA that Tuvok wouldn't?

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Scrapyard? Hardly reverent. Horrible losses were incurred here.

"Thee Blind Mice" didn't pan out so well for Strangways and his secretary, either.

 

[Racefuel]

Dishonest? What about any of this is dishonest? Episodes had been going up at midnight PST. Then the last few had gone up around 11:30. Not once had they gone up around 11:00. Not having any reason to expect it had, I click on the thread expecting what I had seen for the previous 6 episodes: pre-episode discussion. Unbeknownst to me, the episode was already up and the very first thing I see upon opening the thread is a huge unavoidable spoiler. What exactly is "dishonest" about that?

I'm not the only person who had a problem with it, either.

Because the thread is marked as spoiler territory, there's reason to think you might encounter spoilers in a spoiler thread even before the episode dropped (leaks, rumors, etc). Episodes sometimes drop early, so its best to avoid anything marked as spoiler the night before.

If the thread had been not clearly marked as spoiler territory and you had randomly come across screenshots, I'd see the reason for being upset.

As for otherst being upset about it, well, maybe they also weren't understanding what was going on.

 

[Racefuel]

View attachment 33475

Scrapyard? Hardly reverent. Horrible losses were incurred here.

"Thee Blind Mice" didn't pan out so well for Strangways and his secretary, either.

We do not know if its the Chin'toka "battlefield" or merely a scrapyard in the system where the destroyed ships or unidentified remnants were taken.

 

[Yistaan]

We do not know if its the Chin'toka "battlefield" or merely a scrapyard in the system where the destroyed ships or unidentified remnants were taken.

the Chin'toka system was located approximately twenty-five light years from Ferenginar, thirty-five light years from Starbase 375, forty light years from the Badlands, forty-five light years from the Bajoran system, and fifty light years from the Cardassian system.

Couldn't the Titan flee to Ferenginar and ask for asylum? If Grand Nagus Rom is still in power and having himself been personally affected by the Dominion War as well as acquainted with Odo, he might be inclined to believe the Titan's story. Unless Nog was replaced and fake Nog got to Rom first.

 

[ToddCam]

It would be funny if this ended up being a Xanatos Gambit where they intended to lose as a distraction for Worf and Raffi to take the Shrike and rescue Will.

That would be brilliant. I would like this dialogue:

RIKER: Thanks for the save, Worf. It was quite the gambit you pulled off there.

WORF: One you are all too familiar with, Captain Riker.

Close up on Riker to show his Illuminati membership ring.

I was underwhelmed and I find myself not giving a shit about legacy characters showing up for cameos. I thought maybe my perspective is exhausted by late night viewing but I see others have similar responses. Further, I vote No to Terry Matalas being the savior god of the franchise. This is too much fanwank even for me.

Not enough fanwank for me. I'm hoping that when they rescue Riker, Troi, and Tuvok, they're in a room with O'Brien, Bashir, Dax, Torres, Paris, Kim, Naomi Wildman, Shelby, and Dawnn Lewis in the first live-action appearance of Carol Freeman. Oh, and Neelix.

 

[Deks]

The implication was that what was seen as Irumodic Syndrome was a planned event and either "a long game" by the Borg or early infiltration by the Dominion.

Well, the wormhole was opened on stardate 46379.1. TNG ended on stardate 47988 (this is when Picard was basically diagnosed with I.S.)... that's about a year and a half difference.

We know the Dominion infiltrated the A.Q. in the first 2 years of the wormhole opening... they captured ships and people in the G.Q., studied their databases with technology, cultures, and had time to adjust their weapons to bypass Federation shields, etc.

Its possible the Dominion didn't start infiltrating the A.Q until just after the first 6 months or 1 year tops... this would certainly give the Changelings time to give Picard I.S.
As for the Borg premise... eh, its a possibility.... but we witnessed Jack having telepathic capabilities, and was able to transmit his movements to LaForge's daughter, along with his thoughts... something more akin to the Great Link and Borg consciousness (whatever that may be)... but how we was able to initiate such contact with another human who doesn't have the syndrome is puzzling.
Yes, we saw telepaths transmit their thoughts to humans in Trek (and on VOY, the Inarans were able to share memories and experiences) but on the whole, this was very rare.

Troi at one point mentioned that the Cairn couldn't read human thoughts and could only communicate with other telepaths because human brains weren't sophisticated enough... but we saw that other telepathic species CAN read human thoughts... so this seemed like the Cairn's telepathy not necessarily being strong enough to connect with (usually) non-telepathic species (though in Trek, humans seem to have the potential for that).

The Changelings did initiate a telepathic connection for the purpose of sharing information, experienced and to exist in the great Link... thing is they never demonstrated telepathic abilities with other species, nor did they engage in mind reading (otherwise they wouldn't need to spy on the Federation and other species to learn about them).

 

[Yistaan]

I'm trying to think where the tension in this from the Titan's side is. They know that Vadic is planning something horrible for Frontier Day but ALSO that Vadic needs Jack for this Frontier Day horror to work.

Why set a trap for her then? Yes, Frontier Day is hours away. But that's Vadic's problem to worry about, not Picard's. They know Vadic needs Jack for her Frontier Day terrorism. So why trap her? Just flee to a non-Federation aligned system and stay hidden until Frontier Day is over. Yes the changelings will cause other havoc on Frontier Day but the Titan already warned that and were ignored or met with more impostors. At the beginning of the season, the Titan easily warped to a system so far out that "Federation help was days away" per Shaw's own words. We know the ship is fast. Can't they just do that again?

Or as Miles Straume once said on Lost, "Don't you think that maybe we're going to cause the incident we're trying to prevent? So the best thing to do would be do to nothing."

 

[Reanok]

I give this show a 9 I was really suprised about Tuvok appearing in this show was nice to see him and Seven talking and exposing him as a changeling . I wasn't suprised about Vadic's Backstory about Section 31 and genetic experiments. I was kind of expecting that because of what happened on ds9 with the virus made that the changelings sick. Brent hit it out of the park with switching roles between Lore and Data.I liked the scenes with Geordi and his daughter and Data. The scenes with Vadic and Picard and Beverley were well done. The super abilities of Jack was really interesting reveal and Vadic mentioning clues about him not being totally human. Like others have said I wonder what's going to happen to Riker and Deanna Toi in future shows .I just wish the show wasn't so dark and had more lighting in several scenes. Poor Shaw has really taken a beating in this show.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

I'm still hoping this is all an immaculately researched holonovel Laris has written for Jean-Luc, and when it's over all their wedding guests will have arrived from near and far like some espisode of This Is Your Life to celebrate the happy couple on Frontier Day. I say this because I'm a terrible romantic at heart.

 

[Tuskin38]

Scrapyard? Hardly reverent. Horrible losses were incurred here.

and?

 

[daedalus5]

A 9 for me. Bit of a filler episode.

1. Loved seeing Tuvok again. Thank you Tim Russ for coming back!
2. No way would moral crusaders Crusher and Picard just shoot and kill a prisoner….. they wouldn’t even infect the Borg with the virus….. Maybe Crushers a Changeling?
3. We really need to see a creepy Bashir, who was behind the original torture….
4. Great rationale on why these Changelings hate the Feds… boiled, burned etc, but their volume is in a tiny test tube and not a bucket?
5. It’s like Jack is a Borg, but that doesn’t make any sense and I have no idea what’s happening with him at all.
6. Brilliant acting from Levar B….. I’m so pleased to be getting Mr Data back again.
7. Janeway better show up. Ditto more cameos.
8. The makeup artist who did Tuvok needs to be fired.

 

[Search4]

Hmmm. 10 shape shifters experimented on. Lots more on various ships. Where did they get the numbers? How did they escape and not get caught? And where did they live to reproduce?

 

[IMC Headquarters]

and?

Replacing "scrapyard" with "Memorial" would have been a more meaningful and poignant easter egg. Just my opinion.

 

[Tuskin38]

Maybe Crushers a Changeling?

No.

No way would moral crusaders Crusher and Picard just shoot and kill a prisoner….

Watch the scenes again. It was clearly bothering them.

, but their volume is in a tiny test tube and not a bucket?

We've seen changelings as tiny as a mouse before. They can probably be any volume they're forced into.

5. It’s like Jack is a Borg, but that doesn’t make any sense and I have no idea what’s happening with him at all.

No one does, that's intentional.

 

[Amaris]

I was just thinking about it, but the music is incredibly jarring, both the entrance music, and especially the exit music, because it is just slapped on regardless of how the episode ends, and the music from the episode and then the closing music is just wholly incompatible with one another.

 

[gvn2fly]

I'm trying to think where the tension in this from the Titan's side is. They know that Vadic is planning something horrible for Frontier Day but ALSO that Vadic needs Jack for this Frontier Day horror to work.

Why set a trap for her then? Yes, Frontier Day is hours away. But that's Vadic's problem to worry about, not Picard's. They know Vadic needs Jack for her Frontier Day terrorism

Because they want to know what she is planning so they can prevent it. They also know the entire fleet will be there, which would effectively severely cripple starfleet and lead to loss of life. Running away while all that is going on isn't really their style.

 

[El Maestro]

I was underwhelmed and I find myself not giving a shit about legacy characters showing up for cameos. I thought maybe my perspective is exhausted by late night viewing but I see others have similar responses. Further, I vote No to Terry Matalas being the savior god of the franchise. This is too much fanwank even for me.

Too much Star Trek in your Star Trek!