Bumping this back up. I did some redecorating in my living room, and set up my video projector on a tripod instead of putting it on a stand. I love the way the entire setup is, and I did a bunch of spring-cleaning. So, to top everything off, I wanted to sit down and watch something... ... but I didn't want to watch something old. So I changed my re-watch plans. I'm not going to go through TNG Season 1. But I didn't feel like going back to the beginning of the PIC yet with Season 1 either. So I decided to pick up where I left off instead with "Fly Me to the Moon". Yeah, I know I promised @cal888 I'd watch The 12 Monkeys first before circling back to PIC Season 2, but this isn't the last time I'm ever going to watch it. And technically this isn't "circling back to", it's "picking up where I left off." So screw it. I'll watch The 12 Monkeys the next go-around. Promise. Anyway, on with the show. I forgot that Episode 5 was the episode where Picard & Co. tried to infiltrate Renee Picard's party. I thought it was Episode 6. Then the credits rolled. So it turns out I was mostly right and only partly wrong. It starts towards the end of Episode 5, then continues into Episode 6. I loved how Picard introduced Tallin to La Sirena's crew at the worst possible time, like dragging an unconscious police officer. "I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation!" The Watchers are faithful to what was established in "Assignment: Earth". Q was diabolical while negotiating with Soong. Brent Spiner was very good at playing I guess you could call a brilliant scientist trying to make his way in the Real World with a lot of red-tape, colleagues with empty promises, crazies who approach him, and, as he tells Kore, "You'll get to see idiots up close!" if she's cured. Onto Season 2, Episode 6! How I re-rate the episodes, so far: Episode 1 --> 8 Episode 2 --> 10 Episode 3 --> 7 Episode 4 --> 7 Episode 5 --> 8 Average (so far) --> 8.0
One advantage Season 2 has over Season 3 is all the location shooting. It makes S2 feel a lot larger and more open.
Ahh hello! Are you watching the Blu-ray version or on P+? 205 or 206 has a really nice deleted scene with Q. It might be interesting to give it several months and watch seasons 2 and 3 back to back, and see if there are any similarities in hindsight beyond the production design. Meanwhile I just finished my 12 MONKEYS rewatch. So many musical parallels between the 12M finale and "The Last Generation". Haha... at least they weren't trying to pass off one part of Los Angeles for another. The street signs always give it away.
"Two of One" felt like a Mission: Impossible (the TV series, not the movies) meets Star Trek. Some nice awkwardness like when Jurati kisses Rios. I'm surprised people weren't paying more attention to Jurati looking like she was talking to herself while she was talking to the Borg Queen. I just looked up the song "Shadows of the Night" to see if it came out in 1987 (as a nod to when TNG started), but it's actually from 1982. <-- Me looking for an Easter Egg where there wasn't one. Regardless, Alisson Pill has a very good singing voice, and I liked this jazz version of the song. Soong is a super-asshole, and I don't think that's all because he's been manipulated by Q. Kore's arc also starts here where she finds out that her father was hiding that she was an experiment. Mirroring when Dahj and Soji found out they weren't what they thought they were. "Monsters" is an introspective episode. I'd say it's underrated. It really gets inside of Picard's head and into his childhood. It's long been said that James Callis looks like Alexander Siddig. The fact that he's wearing what looks like a 2370s-era Starfleet Uniform doesn't help. But it's interesting seeing Picard's father issues in light of knowing what comes next the following season. Episode 6 --> 8 Episode 7 --> 7.5 Average (so far) --> 7.93
Heh, I thought it was Siddig at first, followed by about five minutes of “where do I know this actor from?”.
I was way too harsh on "Mercy" last year. Wells is definitely like Agent Mulder, but the point Picard got to is what really ties into the themes of the season. Wells had to face what he feared and didn't understand as a child, the same way Picard has to face what he feared and didn't understand as a child. All the plots move forward: Kore asks Adam Soong point-blank if he cares more about her or his legacy. Kore leaves she realizes it isn't her he cares more about. Then the Jurati Borg Queen approaches Adam Soong and offers him the chance to be the Godfather of a new society and she takes advantage of his connections to assimilate ex-soldiers as her new drones. Which brings us to "Hide and Seek". Picard and Tallin hiding under Château Picard are like children hiding from intruders, tying back into the theme of childhood. Manipulation is another theme. Picard's mother manipulating him into unlocking herself from her room, which led to her committing suicide. Less extreme, Raffi emotionally manipulated Elnor into staying in Starfleet. They're opposites in that in one, the mother dies and, in the other, the "son" dies. Picard regrets helping his mother, who he didn't know was going to kill herself. Raffi regrets not letting Elnor follow his own path since she didn't want to lose him and ended up losing him anyway. There's a lot there. Finally, Jurati reasons with the Borg Queen, and it makes the Borg Queen consider an alternate path: one where people want to be part of the Borg by choice and where they aren't ultimately defeated. As opposed to what we'll see with the Alice Kridge Borg Queen in Season 3. "Monsters" --> 7 (up from a 6) "Hide and Seek" --> 9 Average (so far) --> 7.94
End of the Season 2, just finished "Farewell". I think a lot of people went into the second season with the wrong idea. I did too. I blame the teasers for the season on this. We thought it would be a sequel of "All Good Things" and it really wasn't. It's a separate story. It's about Q facing regrets at the end of his life and his wanting to make sure Picard wouldn't have similar regrets at the end of his. In there somewhere are the two different paths humanity could've taken and how important the Picard family was. So it wasn't just about Picard coming to terms with his own past, it was showing his family's past. That's the message I think they were trying to convey. There was some foreshadowing here in this episode and the few episodes before this about how Picard as a whole would end. Raffi tells Seven she would've made a good Captain. Seven tells her that Janeway tried to bat for her, but she gave up too early and went in full Fenris Ranger. Then, back in the 25th Century, Picard gives Seven a field-commission and she temporarily takes command of the Stargazer, sitting in the Captain's chair, giving us a glimpse of what would happen at the end of Season 3, when she's in command of the Enterprise-G. Nice little Easter Egg when Adam Soong pulls out the Project Khan file. It's dated July 1996. I'm going to guess that "Future's End" took place when it first aired, Fall 1996, so the Eugenics Wars were already over, by the time Janeway and her crew arrived. Giving the episode a 9. I'm a sucker for goodbye scenes. And I can see the foreshadowing and the points they were trying to make. Picard Season 2 Average --> 8.05 Was it as good as the first or third season? No. But it's better than its reputation. PIC Season 2 plays better on a binge than one episode every week.
I have a strong suspicion that Wells was intended to play a much larger role in the season 2 plot, only to have it cut down based on Matalas leaving and Covid restrictions. Rain Robinson did have a Botany Bay model in her office
I had that impression too, even last year. I'm pretty sure I posted something back then where I thought he was going to come back in the season finale. Thinking about it now, I can see something like maybe Wells would arrest Adam Soong. Maybe, maybe not, but Adam Soong was such a villain in the season. The type who only sees how things benefit them and don't think about how it could hurt the future. Wells, by the way, has to be a tribute to HG Wells. And a nod the Relatively, which I think was Wells Class, and where the actor played the First Officer.
Ooooh. I've only seen a still from it. Guess he talks with the waitress who leaves him in the official airing when Soong shows up? Shame they didn't keep it in as the episode was barely over 40 minutes as is. More Q is always a great thing. He was only in, like, 25 minutes of Season 2.
I personally thought season 2 was the weakest. It had some ok moments but it was just all over the place to me. Season 1 was ok, season 3 was by far the best IMO.