Spoilers Picard News & Reviews from Outside Sources

Well, Geordi said he had issued at least three complaints/warnings against gathering so much of the fleet together at one planet, but they were being ignored. My suspicion is that the Changelings were probably impersonating both the Starfleet C-in-C and the Chief of Starfleet Operations.

 

Of course not. We're all one big happy fleet.

 

It's Starfleet. Red flags are routinely deemed "inconvenient" and ignored accordingly.

 

A rave review from them is a pretty big deal as far as these things go - 1.5 million subscribers, and industry folk watch them to get a sense of fan perspective (and no, I am not saying they speak for all fans).

YUM YUM.

 

The half in the bag reference from "The Star Gazer" finally paid off

 

One part of the review that I absolutely agree with is Mike's dislike of the Enterprise-E, how the Enterprise-D and the Enterprise-E are symbolic of the eras in which they were introduced, and the tone of Star Trek they portray.

As a teen, when the first trailers of First Contact came out I thought the Enterprise-E looked amazing. But over time I just find the Sovereign Class really ugly both inside and out. And I think I just dislike the John Eaves design style for Star Trek too (i.e., the saucer becomes more of an arrowhead, ships are flattened to have no neck, etc.).

Also, over time, my love of the Galaxy Class has grown, and I think both styles represent where the zeitgeist was and the vision for Star Trek was at. Galaxy Class debuts with TNG in the late 80s with Roddenberry showing a Federation that had been in an extended era of peace, fits more with the idea of Starfleet as not having military concerns as a priority, and more representative of a Picard character that's cerebral, contemplative, and wants to discuss issues. The Sovereign Class debuts during the "X-Treme" 1990s with the TNG films which shifts Picard to being an action hero. He's in fist fights. He has a love interest.

 

At least two characters say this was a terrible idea.

 

Great observation. Another point I picked up from RLM is that season 3 not only tries to unfuck the mess from seasons 1 and 2, but also the TNG movies. My dilemma going into season 3 was it being tied to the toxic (for me and others, anyway) season 1. Although it ignores or glosses over some points it just can't fix, it does leave Picard in the best place he's been since AGT, finally gets Data back (NEM was a bad death, and had the TNG films continued, he would have come back), plus gives the other TNG characters their best chance to shine since TNG itself.

Ultimately the main theme for PICARD the series is don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. All nitpicks are relative, especially considering what could have otherwise been. RLM's counterfactual to what season 3 could have been in their review of 301 alone shows that.

 

This Sunday on Youtube on the Shuttlepod show Connor and Dominic will be interviewing Jonathan Frakes about being in Picard Season 3.

 

The problem I have is - since the Borg and Changelings KNEW ESD was Earths Prime defense; if they had infiltrated Starfleet to the point they did, you'd think they'd have Infiltrators assigned TO ESD so they could take the Dock's Shields and weapons offline to make the final victory all that much easier/assured...so why was it able to last so long? (Yes, I know, the answer is: Needs of the Plot); but that was pretty ridiculous.

(And don't get me started on how, even in her desiccated state; the Borg Queen should have been able to handle any attack from the 1701-D as Borg had already adapted to Federation phasers and photon torpedoes from the 1701-D era; and Geordi fully restored her to her original specs - so yeah, the Borg Broadcast system should have been able to shrug off the 1701-D phasers and photon torpedoes fired at it. I honestly thought they were going to do an Antimatter Core ship explosion (Maybe even another Geordi: "Coolant leak! I've got a coolant leak and I can't shut it down..." scene - with Picard sacrificing himself, but yeah, that would go against Picard's established characteristic of mournfully sacrificing everyone else around him, which he'll lament with a glass of Chateau Picard later. )

 

Maybe they did, but the Starfleet command crew was just successful at retaining control of the station's command center where so many ships' crews weren't. Shit happens.

That relies on the assumption that the degraded Borg Queen would still have access to whatever file system that information was stored on.

 

Trek did away with the Borgs ability to nearly instantly adapt to shipboard weapons in First Contact. Individual Borg were shown to still retain their ability to adapt, however by the time the Cube reached Earth in FC it should have fully adapted if that ability was intact.

 

I really enjoyed this review by @KRAD, which articulates a lot of my feelings about this season, both good and not so good.

https://www.tor.com/2023/04/27/i-want-a-new-adventure-star-trek-picard-third-season-overview/

 

That was a good read

 

Decent read. I disagree with some points, but the overall sentiment I agree with, that it's a fun snack.

 

Season 3 almost a week later feels like I ate cotton candy every day for 10 weeks. It tasted good but it rapidly dissolved in my mouth and didn’t fill be up.

 

Good read, and some good commentary in the comments, too. While I might quibble on a few points of critique that I do think the season in fact addressed, DeCandido's read is well-thought-out and I find myself overwhelmingly agreeing.

 

Keith review made for interesting reading. I thought it was strange that Laris was in the first show an then in the finale she's never mentioned again.I read in an about the finale article Orla brady returned to Ireland and that's one of the reasons why she wasn't in the finale and the budget limits some characters like Soji weren't in it either.I agree with what he says about it's too bad the Picard Laris relationship is ignored.

 

Yes it's interesting, I didn't really miss Laris as I thought the subtext of their scene was that she was saying goodbye to him, but letting him know that her door was always open for him.

I never expected her to reappear, and appreciated that it was a mature and well-written scene.

Having said that, I would have loved if they made room for both Laris and a Soji scene to bring the series full circle and reward Picard fans, but clearly that was not essential for the story they were telling in season 3.

 

I think in an ideal world, they could have filmed scenes like for season 3 at the tail end of season 2. Those actors plus Brent Spiner were around. But considering they didn't know if they'd pull off the E-D bridge until the last minute, they probably had to keep their plans loose in case circumstances changed. Did they want to lock in how the revival of Data would go that early?

Whereas they were able to get John de Lancie months later again, so that was easy to do. Even then, he went uncredited.