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Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x09 - "Võx"

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it was shocking to see the once-ambitious Commander who wanted nothing more than to captain her own starship act like, well... a glad-handing politician.
Huh? It's pretty realistic. Most of the "Shelbys" I've known in real life, both men and women, are so ambitious and don't care who they step on in the journey to the top BECAUSE they want to be in the limelight, shaking the hands, and satisfying an already bloated ego.

Shelby now is exactly where she envisioned herself being way back in BOBW (minus her staff getting assimilated and shooting her down obviously). She was a good officer, but she was just rushing through it to get to the top and Riker called her out on it (in a rather nasty way which I didn't approve of, but his underlying point remains valid). Starfleet was a stepping stone for her to get the top spot she craved, and she got it. And that hunger for power probably blinded her to things like the stupidity of linking the fleet etc. that guys like Geordi, who don't have much of an ego and are just there to do their job and serve Starfleet, see immediately. And that ambition and hunger for power caused her to miss out on a full fledged Starfleet infiltration and ultimately ended up getting her killed.

If you think about it, it's a very, very fitting end to the character that was seen in BOBW.
 
You can make your point without resorting to insulting the poster you're responding to.
I thought they were being exactly what I said and called it so. If I’d thrown in douche bag or moron, that I think would have been actually insulting. But maybe I’m not showing enough patience or restraint. Jumping the gun myself where they actually thought what they were saying, not being argumentative for its own, twisted self-immolating, sake. Point taken.
 
One thing I don't understand, maybe just forgotten ... the creation of the new friendly borg happened in the Confederation timeline. How come they now exist in the main timeline too?
That was a bit messy, but I think that by the end of the season that timeline had reverted to the federation one.
Ironically, one thing I always thought was wrong with the Borg was that there was no other side to the story. Sharing a connection, understanding other people and working in unison can certainly have its plus side. So where were the "good" networked cyborgs
There was the cooperative on Voy:Unity.
Well they are doing it for a reason.
I don't agree it's a good one.
lol. Indeed, it’s quite a mess. But in universe it must be a good reason!
 
5) Whatever bridge that was that Shelby was sitting on was the cheapest looking set I've seen on Star trek in years. In it's own way it looks like the kind of similar set they'd construct just a little bit of for ship to ship comms in TNG. Gosh though, that's our first look at the bridge of the Enterprise F?
First and likely last!
Lol, the F got a worse deal than all the others. Reused design from a game and bare bridge set. At least the J had an original design or the B had a nice bridge!

If Picard and Crusher end up together, I might scream. Not in a good way. One, Crusher, doesn’t deserve Picard. Two, they’ve made no effort to make that happen. It would be unearned. Three, I like Laris. And it would make me look at JL in a most unflattering light.
I have no idea why so many believe JL and Beverly will get back together: I’m not getting that vibe at all. Just because you have children with someone doesn’t mean you need to still be romantically involved with them. Hell, I even know people with similar situations (someone having children with someone who’s now just a friend while now being involved in another relationship).
 
PIC Season 3 Checklist

[ x ] Following up on loose ends from TNG.
[ x ] Cleaning up the rest of the mess from the TNG Movies.
[ x ] Changing things from PIC Season 1 that Terry didn't like.
[ x ] Nod to ENT.
[ x ] Nod to TOS.
[ x ] Several nods to the TOS Movies.
[ x ] Following up on the end of DS9.
[ _ ] Following up on the end of VOY.
 
Anyone notice at the CGI for the D was much better done than what we got for the Titan? I suspect they put a lot more time into it because they knew that was a ship everybody was going to scrutinize. They did a great job with it honestly and I have absolutely no complaints.
true and I think they reused the model from the season 1 dream: I’m not 100% sure but I seem to see three bussard collectors in each nacelle instead of the usual two.
 
First and likely last!
Lol, the F got a worse deal than all the others. Reused design from a game and bare bridge set. At least the J had an original design or the B had a nice bridge!

I have no idea why so many believe JL and Beverly will get back together: I’m not getting that vibe at all. Just because you have children with someone doesn’t mean you need to still be romantically involved with them. Hell, I even know people with similar situations (someone having children with someone who’s now just a friend while now being involved in another relationship).
Assuming Jack survives it, he's also old enough that his parents not being together won't mess him up more than he already is. The time he needed Picard in his life was as a kid, and Beverly deprived him of that, which I still feel is a horrible place to take her character.

For one thing, someone raised by Picard all his life would NEVER have run off with a phaser delusionally trying to solo a Borg cube like he did in this episode. And no, I don't think that was the Borg acting that was him, as its clear he *does* have some autonomy from the Borg (for example he killed 4 changelings when the Borg would obviously want him to go with the changelings). Being raised in Beverly's new lawless lifestyle affected him negatively in ways that never would've happened if he grew up with Picard on Earth. Heck, Aunt Deanna might have caught the Borg thing a LOT sooner. A Jack raised by Picard would've just gone to Vulcan, and may even have made suggestions that Jean-Luc in his mental prime might have made, such as going to Jurati's Borg for help.
 
I took the Shelby speech and Frontier Day as exhibiting Starfleet's arrogance. At first, I thought the reveal would be her as a Changeling and she would be the main Changeling (beside Vadic) in charge of overseeing the Borg takeover.

But I think overall Shelby and the entire stupidity of the brass being lured into the Frontier Day event is meant to exhibit a sort of arrogance that's set in with Starfleet, to the point that it doesn't see value in older things and the wisdom of older figures, such as Picard, Riker and even the Enterprise-D (e.g., getting called the "fat one").

It reminds me a lot of Search For Spock, where Starfleet is ready to decommission the Enterprise and Captain Styles's arrogance about the Excelsior. And how that's contrasted against the strength of Kirk and his crew as a family ready to do what's necessary to help their friend.
 
First and likely last!
Lol, the F got a worse deal than all the others. Reused design from a game and bare bridge set. At least the J had an original design or the B had a nice bridge!

I have no idea why so many believe JL and Beverly will get back together: I’m not getting that vibe at all. Just because you have children with someone doesn’t mean you need to still be romantically involved with them. Hell, I even know people with similar situations (someone having children with someone who’s now just a friend while now being involved in another relationship).

The design of the F is much more than just ‘from a game’ to be fair.
 
I think they should show Picard and Beverly working on repairing their relationship as friends before they ever show them as a romantic couple. I'm glad the show doesn't seem interested in that relationship like that. After everything that's happened just this season, it'd a reach. I hope it just leaves them with being in each other's lives again because of Jack, as former colleagues, and hopefully friends again at some point.

The only two people who need to end on a romance or couple note are Riker and Deanna and that's because they're already a married couple and because their romance has always been a part of their story.
 
My biggest problem with Shelby's appearance in this episode was her monologue. She delivered it well, as it did what it was designed to do, but it was shocking to see the once-ambitious Commander who wanted nothing more than to captain her own starship act like, well... a glad-handing politician. I get that it was "Frontier Day" and all that - clearly a special occasion that required her appearance at the head of the fleet - but I always saw her as being a FAR better officer and capable of so much more than smiling like a blank-eyed Disney animatronic and rattling off empty platitudes. I guess that's what being a "Fleet Admiral" means. Too much like real life, I guess.

And yes - I, too, was shocked to see her taken down so quickly. Someone said it up-thread, I think. PIC S3 does seem to have a cameo curse. Anyone coming out for a visit is almost certainly going to be vaporized or in some way disappeared by the end of the episode. What's the body count we have so far?
  • Ro Laren
  • Moriarty
  • Tuvok-who-wasn't-Tuvok
  • Shelby
  • Could Tasha's 5-second holo-thing be considered a cameo?

Moriarty wasn’t Moriarty either to be fair.

Interestingly, I wonder if Shelby was giving the speech Picard was supposed to?
 
Kathryn Janeway once destroyed a Borg cube by pointing at it and saying "Bang"
Kathryn Janeway once threw a photon grenade and killed 100 Borg drones. Then the grenade exploded.
Kathryn Janeway was bitten by a Mugato; after five days of agonizing pain the Mugato died.
There are no streets named after Kathryn Janeway because nobody crosses Kathryn Janeway and lives.
When Kathryn Janeway jumps into a pool she doesn't get wet—the water gets Kathryn Janeway.
All things Brian Brophy did first.
 
Maybe I could've been ok with the Borg if the Borg appearances in seasons 1 and 2 actually tied into this. They didn't. I don't think we're going to see Hugh's ex-B from S1 or Jurati's Borg from S2 coming to save the day. Heck, we don't even see any connection between Seven's temporary time as Borg Queen in S1 (and the ominous, "Seven still has work to do" or something to that effect when the Queen releases Seven from her control) and what's going on right now.

Not to mention that the message of Hugh's mission to help ex-Borg is now lost in the chaos of Borg horror stories again.

Which makes it clear that there was no overarching plan in Picard on how to handle the Borg. It just feels like each season the writers really thought the Borg were cool but didn't go further than just repeatedly reusing them without context to other seasons in the same show. It's equivalent to how, say, Rey's and Snoke's origins are handled in each movie of the SW sequel trilogy.
 
Huh? It's pretty realistic. Most of the "Shelbys" I've known in real life, both men and women, are so ambitious and don't care who they step on in the journey to the top BECAUSE they want to be in the limelight, shaking the hands, and satisfying an already bloated ego.

Shelby now is exactly where she envisioned herself being way back in BOBW (minus her staff getting assimilated and shooting her down obviously). She was a good officer, but she was just rushing through it to get to the top and Riker called her out on it (in a rather nasty way which I didn't approve of, but his underlying point remains valid). Starfleet was a stepping stone for her to get the top spot she craved, and she got it. And that hunger for power probably blinded her to things like the stupidity of linking the fleet etc. that guys like Geordi, who don't have much of an ego and are just there to do their job and serve Starfleet, see immediately. And that ambition and hunger for power caused her to miss out on a full fledged Starfleet infiltration and ultimately ended up getting her killed.

If you think about it, it's a very, very fitting end to the character that was seen in BOBW.
You forgot to quote the part where I said, "Too much like real life, I guess."

And you kind of proved my point where her ambition evolved into thirst for power and prestige (which it doesn't need to in all cases), making her someone who was reduced to simply looking for the next rung on the ladder to climb, ultimately leading to her own demise and that of the fleet and thousands of people who crewed it. The wisdom of age and experience should have been able to keep the demons of ambition in check. She deserved better than that kind of legacy, IMO.
 
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