I went on a hike on a mountain, now I'm back, just had a pizza, and I'm watching "Maps and Legends" (S1E2).
Some Observations (to be added to as I go along):
Laris is a really good detective. None of this is put to use in Seasons 2 and 3. Huge, huge, HUGE missed opportunity later on.
I haven't gotten to the end of the episode yet, but Raffi is upset that Picard hasn't contacted her in 14 years. You know what? She could've always contacted him!
I love how secretive Narek is, even in bed. It's a callback to how secretive the Romulans were in TOS, to the point of not knowing their names. Narek's like, "That's one of my names." It keeps him mysterious. And I'm sure Soji likes him because she thinks he's mysterious.
Picard meeting with his Doctor from the Stargazer works even better now than it did before.
I never had a problem with Clancy's "sheer fucking hubris" line. She can't believe what Picard waltzed in and asked for after badmouthing Starfleet on the news the other day. That line gets all the attention, and I was never bothered by it. The line that doesn't get as much attention (or any) is this one at the end, when Clancy tells Picard: "Do what you do best and go home." The "do what you do best" was harsher than necessary. She must've really pissed him off before, and this had to be the straw that broke the camel's back. That's the way it plays when Picard says that he and Clancy haven't always seen eye-to-eye. I'm guessing this stems from his days as an Admiral, arguing about how to handle the Romulan situation.
Soji says, "Romulans are into drama." Best line of the show.
Narek says Soji's one of those types who pin their hopes on resurrection. Picard as a series turns out to mainly be about resurrection. The resurrection of Picard and, later on in the series, the resurrection of Data and the resurrection of the Enterprise-D.
I like Oh, Rizzo, and Narek better as antagonists than Vadic. Nothing wrong with Vadic, and she's fun, but you know what's all about from the very first frame. And, as a Bounty Hunter, on a ship like the Shrike, there's no hiding anything. Oh operates in plain sight, as do Rizzo and Narek. They're two-faced and look above-board to most people. Kind of like Gus Fring on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, where he blends into both the civilian world and the criminal world with no one in the civilian world ever knowing. I like the sliding scale here as well. Rizzo is definitely worse than Narek.
"Maps and Legends" isn't the knockout that "Remembrance" was but it's still very good, has more layers than I remembered, and works even better knowing how the rest of the series unfolds. I'll give it a 9.
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Onto "The End is the Beginning". Post to be added to as I go along.
Most people are not going to pick up on this: but when Jurati is listening to opera before Oh appears, it's a parallel to when Picard was listening to opera before Riker tells him they've finished their first sensor sweep of the Neutral Zone in FC. There's a Romulan Threat. Picard doesn't see it in FC (maybe the Romulans actually would've liked to have taken advantage of the situation) and he doesn't see it here when he asks Raffi why the Romulans would sabotage a mission where they were being helped.
I like how everyone on La Sirena has their own motivation for being on there. Raffi wants to go to Freecloud for reasons she won't tell them (to see her son). Rios is getting paid (he's also in awe of being in the presence of Picard) and is friends with Raffi (so he's also doing her a favor getting her where she wants to go), and Jurati, a leading Cyberneticist, wants to see Soji, the result organic/synthetic AI.
The Romulan XB seeing Soji as the Destroyer of Worlds is predicting what almost happens in the Season Finale but doesn't.
They so should've found a way to keep Laris and Zhaban in the rest of the season. They looked like they were going to be ongoing supporting characters throughout.
I'm giving this one an 8.
.
.
.
Onto "Absolute Candor". Post to be edited as I go along.
I meant to mention this with the previous episode, but one thing I love about Picard Season 1 is that we finally get to see more diversity with the Romulans and more of their culture. As I said before, we never had a Romulan main character before, like we did with the Klingons (Worf and Torres), the Borg (Seven), the Vulcans (Spock, Tuvok, and T'Pol), and the Ferengi (Quark and his family). So the Romulans never had the same type of development as a species as the other major Star Trek species have. Picard Season 1 made up for this in spades. From the Zhat'Vash to the Quowat Milat, to the differences between Romulans with headbrows and without, to something as simple as different hairstyles, different skin colors, and brining back the Romulan theme music introduced in "Balance of Terror".
Picard also introduced the Romulan Free State as a successor to the Romulan Star Empire to show that the Romulans were still a power in the Quadrant, unlike what happened with the Cardassians. No JJ Abrams film was going to take down the Romulans.
Picard's line when he's talking to Zani, "I allowed the perfect to become the enemy of the good." That's quoted from somewhere else, and it can be applied to so many things. So many things. Including on this board. Some people are so obsessed with what something isn't that they can't see what it is. Or nine out of 10 things about something can be great, and they'll disproportionately focus on that tenth item and act as if the rest of it isn't even there. To drive it to PIC: There's more than one way to depict the 24th Century than just the Rick Berman style and I appreciate that Picard did that. The fact that it was different was the main draw for me. Absolute Candor.
I love how this episode takes a notorious trait of Picard's, not liking children, and brings it front and center in the Opening Teaser. Then Picard has to go out of his way to say that he likes Elnor, Elnor feels better, and then Picard spends time with him teaching him how to fence. To show how much things have changed in the last 14 years, Picard's wearing all white in the "past" and all black in the "present".
Some will say that by the fourth episode, it's become a cliché that whoever Picard needs help from is upset that he let them down and they let him know that, but I disagree. I think it shows how many people Picard let down and the gravity of what that meant rather than just having it happen once or waving it away with one line of dialogue. Rightly or wrongly, they depended on Picard to save the day, and he couldn't. He overestimated his pull with Starfleet Command when he told them, "Go with my plan or I resign." He didn't think they'd accept his resignation, and shows what the critical flaw in his thinking was: He didn't realize what makes for a successful Captain, where it all comes down to him, doesn't translate into what makes for a successful Admiral where everything is bigger than the immediate situation and he has to work with other people with equal authority and the CinC has to think of the entire fleet instead of just one ship. That's not even going into all the different governing bodies the CinC and the Admiralty in general have to consider. That's why Kirk told Picard, "Don't let them promote you." Being a Captain and being an Admiral are not the same thing at all.
Picard had a lot of courage sitting with the Romulans who he let down. When the Senator challenged Picard to a sword fight, it looked truly hopeless. Unlike in the TNG Movies, this isn't Rambo Picard. He didn't stand a chance against the Senator, then Elnor saved him from certain death. I'm glad that Picard pointed out to Elnor that the Senator didn't deserve to die. He had valid points, even though he wanted to kill Picard. Ultimately, Soji isn't the only character Picard wanted to save. He wanted to save Elnor too, from a society that would reject him and would have no place for him.
However brief it was, I loved the fight between La Sirena and the old Romulan Bird of Prey, then Seven coming to the rescue.
The only thing I have to point out is that before they knew it was Seven, they kept assuming she was a "he". It's 2399, shouldn't they say something gender neutral until they know if it's a man or a woman? This was filmed in 2019 and released in 2020, so we can't say "It was the '60s!", "It was the '80s!", or "It was the '90s!" But this is a minor, minor nitpick and I know they were going for a misdirect. Doesn't effect how I rate this episode...
... which is a 10!
Onto Icheb's eye getting ripped out next, before he's killed. Picard's giving Battlestar Galactica a serious run for its money with the next episode.
Some Observations (to be added to as I go along):
Laris is a really good detective. None of this is put to use in Seasons 2 and 3. Huge, huge, HUGE missed opportunity later on.
I haven't gotten to the end of the episode yet, but Raffi is upset that Picard hasn't contacted her in 14 years. You know what? She could've always contacted him!
I love how secretive Narek is, even in bed. It's a callback to how secretive the Romulans were in TOS, to the point of not knowing their names. Narek's like, "That's one of my names." It keeps him mysterious. And I'm sure Soji likes him because she thinks he's mysterious.
Picard meeting with his Doctor from the Stargazer works even better now than it did before.
I never had a problem with Clancy's "sheer fucking hubris" line. She can't believe what Picard waltzed in and asked for after badmouthing Starfleet on the news the other day. That line gets all the attention, and I was never bothered by it. The line that doesn't get as much attention (or any) is this one at the end, when Clancy tells Picard: "Do what you do best and go home." The "do what you do best" was harsher than necessary. She must've really pissed him off before, and this had to be the straw that broke the camel's back. That's the way it plays when Picard says that he and Clancy haven't always seen eye-to-eye. I'm guessing this stems from his days as an Admiral, arguing about how to handle the Romulan situation.
Soji says, "Romulans are into drama." Best line of the show.
Narek says Soji's one of those types who pin their hopes on resurrection. Picard as a series turns out to mainly be about resurrection. The resurrection of Picard and, later on in the series, the resurrection of Data and the resurrection of the Enterprise-D.
I like Oh, Rizzo, and Narek better as antagonists than Vadic. Nothing wrong with Vadic, and she's fun, but you know what's all about from the very first frame. And, as a Bounty Hunter, on a ship like the Shrike, there's no hiding anything. Oh operates in plain sight, as do Rizzo and Narek. They're two-faced and look above-board to most people. Kind of like Gus Fring on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, where he blends into both the civilian world and the criminal world with no one in the civilian world ever knowing. I like the sliding scale here as well. Rizzo is definitely worse than Narek.
"Maps and Legends" isn't the knockout that "Remembrance" was but it's still very good, has more layers than I remembered, and works even better knowing how the rest of the series unfolds. I'll give it a 9.
-----
Onto "The End is the Beginning". Post to be added to as I go along.
Most people are not going to pick up on this: but when Jurati is listening to opera before Oh appears, it's a parallel to when Picard was listening to opera before Riker tells him they've finished their first sensor sweep of the Neutral Zone in FC. There's a Romulan Threat. Picard doesn't see it in FC (maybe the Romulans actually would've liked to have taken advantage of the situation) and he doesn't see it here when he asks Raffi why the Romulans would sabotage a mission where they were being helped.
I like how everyone on La Sirena has their own motivation for being on there. Raffi wants to go to Freecloud for reasons she won't tell them (to see her son). Rios is getting paid (he's also in awe of being in the presence of Picard) and is friends with Raffi (so he's also doing her a favor getting her where she wants to go), and Jurati, a leading Cyberneticist, wants to see Soji, the result organic/synthetic AI.
The Romulan XB seeing Soji as the Destroyer of Worlds is predicting what almost happens in the Season Finale but doesn't.
They so should've found a way to keep Laris and Zhaban in the rest of the season. They looked like they were going to be ongoing supporting characters throughout.
I'm giving this one an 8.
.
.
.
Onto "Absolute Candor". Post to be edited as I go along.
I meant to mention this with the previous episode, but one thing I love about Picard Season 1 is that we finally get to see more diversity with the Romulans and more of their culture. As I said before, we never had a Romulan main character before, like we did with the Klingons (Worf and Torres), the Borg (Seven), the Vulcans (Spock, Tuvok, and T'Pol), and the Ferengi (Quark and his family). So the Romulans never had the same type of development as a species as the other major Star Trek species have. Picard Season 1 made up for this in spades. From the Zhat'Vash to the Quowat Milat, to the differences between Romulans with headbrows and without, to something as simple as different hairstyles, different skin colors, and brining back the Romulan theme music introduced in "Balance of Terror".
Picard also introduced the Romulan Free State as a successor to the Romulan Star Empire to show that the Romulans were still a power in the Quadrant, unlike what happened with the Cardassians. No JJ Abrams film was going to take down the Romulans.
Picard's line when he's talking to Zani, "I allowed the perfect to become the enemy of the good." That's quoted from somewhere else, and it can be applied to so many things. So many things. Including on this board. Some people are so obsessed with what something isn't that they can't see what it is. Or nine out of 10 things about something can be great, and they'll disproportionately focus on that tenth item and act as if the rest of it isn't even there. To drive it to PIC: There's more than one way to depict the 24th Century than just the Rick Berman style and I appreciate that Picard did that. The fact that it was different was the main draw for me. Absolute Candor.
I love how this episode takes a notorious trait of Picard's, not liking children, and brings it front and center in the Opening Teaser. Then Picard has to go out of his way to say that he likes Elnor, Elnor feels better, and then Picard spends time with him teaching him how to fence. To show how much things have changed in the last 14 years, Picard's wearing all white in the "past" and all black in the "present".
Some will say that by the fourth episode, it's become a cliché that whoever Picard needs help from is upset that he let them down and they let him know that, but I disagree. I think it shows how many people Picard let down and the gravity of what that meant rather than just having it happen once or waving it away with one line of dialogue. Rightly or wrongly, they depended on Picard to save the day, and he couldn't. He overestimated his pull with Starfleet Command when he told them, "Go with my plan or I resign." He didn't think they'd accept his resignation, and shows what the critical flaw in his thinking was: He didn't realize what makes for a successful Captain, where it all comes down to him, doesn't translate into what makes for a successful Admiral where everything is bigger than the immediate situation and he has to work with other people with equal authority and the CinC has to think of the entire fleet instead of just one ship. That's not even going into all the different governing bodies the CinC and the Admiralty in general have to consider. That's why Kirk told Picard, "Don't let them promote you." Being a Captain and being an Admiral are not the same thing at all.
Picard had a lot of courage sitting with the Romulans who he let down. When the Senator challenged Picard to a sword fight, it looked truly hopeless. Unlike in the TNG Movies, this isn't Rambo Picard. He didn't stand a chance against the Senator, then Elnor saved him from certain death. I'm glad that Picard pointed out to Elnor that the Senator didn't deserve to die. He had valid points, even though he wanted to kill Picard. Ultimately, Soji isn't the only character Picard wanted to save. He wanted to save Elnor too, from a society that would reject him and would have no place for him.
However brief it was, I loved the fight between La Sirena and the old Romulan Bird of Prey, then Seven coming to the rescue.
The only thing I have to point out is that before they knew it was Seven, they kept assuming she was a "he". It's 2399, shouldn't they say something gender neutral until they know if it's a man or a woman? This was filmed in 2019 and released in 2020, so we can't say "It was the '60s!", "It was the '80s!", or "It was the '90s!" But this is a minor, minor nitpick and I know they were going for a misdirect. Doesn't effect how I rate this episode...
... which is a 10!
Onto Icheb's eye getting ripped out next, before he's killed. Picard's giving Battlestar Galactica a serious run for its money with the next episode.
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