Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x09 - "Võx"

[ToddCam]

I was thinking about how, when hints of the changelings started popping up, and the Borg Queen caption happened, I was thinking I might fangasm out from the Borg vs. the Dominion. Here we have something close... some changelings teaming up with the classic Borg Queen, and I find myself completely underwhelmed. I can't afford to go to therapy anymore (currently unemployed college student in my 40s) so I'll just put that out here. I think my cynicism has weakened as I've aged (is that opposite of most people) so I wonder why I found myself so blah about it.

 

[jaime]

TNG did not have a single two-parter where the second part surpassed the first other than Chain of Command. They all had promising setups, but whiffed the conclusion.

I have half a recollection that Times Arrow was alright, and Gambit, but (a) part one wasn’t a high bar to start off with and (b) not always season end/start cliffhangers. Unification wasn’t so bad either, for similar reasons, in that part one wasn’t exactly a fun roller coaster anyway. Not that I find rollercoasters fun, you understand.

 

[thribs]

I'm guessing we're not going to see much of the Enterprise-F at all. That shot on the bridge was extremely tight, like they were trying to avoid showing too much. And the more I look at it, the more it looks like they just repainted that portion of the Discovery bridge and switched out the Captain's chair.

Yeah the Enterprise F bridge is very elaborate. No way they would spend money for that for a few minutes of screen time

 

[DaveyNY]

I'll bet Admiral Shelby's last thought was...

"Fuck..., Nechayev was right about Picard"

 

[jaime]

Yeah the Enterprise F bridge is very elaborate. No way they would spend money for that for a few minutes of screen time

Anyone who plays STO knows there’s no budget for that. I think it has its own coffee shop, down at the front, under the main screen. About thirty or forty feet from the captains chair…

 

[Jax]

Where the hell are the friendly Borg? and B/S all of Starfleet is around Earth? A few thousand at most but the fleet must be tens of thousands. I wish writers would choose there dialogue more carefully.

 

[DaveyNY]

Anyone who plays STO knows there’s no budget for that. I think it has its own coffee shop, down at the front, under the main screen. About thirty or forty feet from the captains chair…

Yeah, that was a running joke in the STO Forums when it hit the TRIBBLE server back then.

 

[Tuskin38]

Anyone who plays STO knows there’s no budget for that. I think it has its own coffee shop, down at the front, under the main screen. About thirty or forty feet from the captains chair…

They did shrink it a bit in the revamp, but not by much.

The reason some of the interiors are so big is for NPC movement during combat.

 

[James Cole]

I think this season has been pretty openly trying to pretend the previous two never happened, apart from some lip service.

I have to say they actually managed to make an interesting plot point out of the Picard-is-now-in-a-Replicant/skinjob Cylon-body thing. They could have just said consciousness transferred to a new body once, then ran away from ever referencing it again.

It would be nice if this wasn't a qualifier. It appeals to all people rather than those others of the (other political part that I don't agree with those evil people!). Shouldn't fun Trek appeal to many people, not just one stripe?

Oh wow, I think we're actually agreeing on something for once!

At least Star Wars has the advantage of being a Disney brand now and is on D+ so already more accesible to kids

True, plus I always forget about the cartoons.

I do kind of wish they had waited another few years beyond 2002 until Star Wars had completed the prequel trilogy and then done the last TNG film, but cest la vie

They tried to bring in new blood with John Logan and Stuart Baird, and it didn't work. I received NEM on 4K last week... first time I'd watched that one in over ten years. Surreal experience to watch it with almost fresh eyes after having watched the prior three TNG films 20+ times each.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Once we learned it's the Borg--and I am personally happy that I went in spoiled--the episode was cracking. I wish we had spent my time trying to discover the mechanism by which the takeover was going to occur and less time nerfing the Changelings.

 

[eschaton]

I have half a recollection that Times Arrow was alright, and Gambit, but (a) part one wasn’t a high bar to start off with and (b) not always season end/start cliffhangers. Unification wasn’t so bad either, for similar reasons, in that part one wasn’t exactly a fun roller coaster anyway. Not that I find rollercoasters fun, you understand.

IIRC not a single TNG season cliffhanger had Part 2 written when Part 1 was filmed. They were always just winging it, and figured the writer's room would figure out some way to get out of the crisis in a few months which paid off.

 

[DaveyNY]

IIRC not a single TNG season cliffhanger had Part 2 written when Part 1 was filmed. They were always just winging it, and figured the writer's room would figure out some way to get out of the crisis in a few months which paid off.

They weren't even positive there was going to be another season when BoBW-Part 1 aired.
Even Stewart was thinking about moving on.

 

[jaime]

IIRC not a single TNG season cliffhanger had Part 2 written when Part 1 was filmed. They were always just winging it, and figured the writer's room would figure out some way to get out of the crisis in a few months which paid off.

Yup. Though… maybe not gambit, as that was a mid season jobbie. Was Unification the one with a spot of DS9 and Worf off on one to seduce the Romulan Guard Commanders daughter? That always felt more planned, in so far as they sort of stretched another episode between the two as a b plot. I am a bit rusty on recollection. Shockingly, I haven’t even rewatched all of TNG since before the remaster.

 

[jaime]

They weren't even positive there was going to be another season when BoBW-Part 1 aired.
Even Stewart was thinking about moving on.

I think it was *just* Stewart, and everyone else was still on contract.

 

[DaveyNY]

I think it was *just* Stewart, and everyone else was still on contract.

Yeah, I worded that funny.
I meant just him.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

Forget politics, this is clearly an allegory to the obsession (mostly) under 25s have with Tiktok and how the oldies are trying to rescue them from their imminent demise.

It could also be the case that the u25's are the good guys trying to kill off all the oldies so someone new can finally star in a Star Trek show

It was. And threat to the existence of the federation has been the threat of many of the recent Disco and Picard seasons and were called out as such but for some reason people have been ok with it this season.

Matalas gave them the D. People love getting the D

Did Nemesis happen? Yes
Has the problems it introduced been bypassed? Yes

What problems ?

They might as well go full fangasm and get seven to command voyager and Raffi to command defiant... worf can then lecture her on how she isnt handling the ship properly

The carpet joke really annoyed me. It's far too 4th wall.

 

[jaime]

I have to say they actually managed to make an interesting plot point out of the Picard-is-now-in-a-Replicant/skinjob Cylon-body thing. They could have just said consciousness transferred to a new body once, then ran away from ever referencing it again.


Oh wow, I think we're actually agreeing on something for once!


True, plus I always forget about the cartoons.


They tried to bring in new blood with John Logan and Stuart Baird, and it didn't work. I received NEM on 4K last week... first time I'd watched that one in over ten years. Surreal experience to watch it with almost fresh eyes after having watched the prior three TNG films 20+ times each.

Logan *might* have been alright, but Baird on Nemesis (and much as I like Tomb Raider, it wasn’t worth it Paramount) was probably the thing that cemented to me that Directors can sometimes have no bloody clue about story. Especially if they are a bit of a dick to their cast.This helped no end with processing everything Ridley Scott has sent our way since the turn of the millennium.

 

[eschaton]

Yup. Though… maybe not gambit, as that was a mid season jobbie. Was Unification the one with a spot of DS9 and Worf off on one to seduce the Romulan Guard Commanders daughter? That always felt more planned, in so far as they sort of stretched another episode between the two as a b plot. I am a bit rusty on recollection. Shockingly, I haven’t even rewatched all of TNG since before the remaster.

Unification was the Spock one. Part II was IMHO worse than Part 1 since it focused on Sela and her hairbrained plot. You may be confusing it with Birthright, from Season 6, which was indeed fairly consistent.

Aside from that, Gambit and Chain of Command were the only two-parters which weren't season closers/openers.

 

[jaime]

Unification was the Spock one. Part II was IMHO worse than Part 1 since it focused on Sela and her hairbrained plot. You may be confusing it with Birthright, from Season 6, which was indeed fairly consistent.

Aside from that, Gambit and Chain of Command were the only two-parters which weren't season closers/openers.

Thank! Yes. Birthright. I had one of those brain farts thinking about it, and suddenly found myself thinking the whole thing was a B plot in Unification. I wasn’t sure, and hate googling xD Glad to know I was wrong.

 

[eschaton]

Thank! Yes. Birthright. I had one of those brain farts thinking about it, and suddenly found myself thinking the whole thing was a B plot in Unification. I wasn’t sure, and hate googling xD Glad to know I was wrong.

I actually have a spreadsheet on Google Drive with every episode of Trek and my personal ratings to keep things straight when I have to look something up.