I like Seven, and think Jeri Ryan is great. But I don’t think Seven is quite lead character/captain material simply because her character is extremely stoic and introverted. Usually, a more dynamic captain works best; ie, TOS wouldn’t have worked with Spock as captain, it needed the dynamism of Kirk. I also feel like her arc as a character has satisfactorily concluded now.
Her personality would be quite fine to lead a show if she was still a Fenris Ranger on the edge of the Romulan Free State.
Secondly, Raffi is a character best in small doses. I don’t even really know how she’s psychologically fit enough to be in Starfleet still, much less a first officer. Also, a captain and first officer who are ex’s…is just not a good idea (just see DS9’s Change of Heart for a demonstration of why).
Worf and Jadzia weren’t exes.
Also, these two characters have no absolutely chemistry despite their past relationship. I’ve only ever seen them bicker and seem as though they low-key dislike each other.
There’s been no serious effort to develop the relationship beyond bickering. They held hands at the end of PIC S1, and then it went nowhere. They went all though S2 and not once did Seven bring up the loss of Icheb to show she sympathized with Raffi over the loss of Elnor.
ack Crusher-Picard…is annoyingly smug and only a part of the crew out of nepotism. He worked fine in PS3 as a mystery box character, but his arrogance is off-putting, not least because the actor looks about 15 years older than the character is meant to be. So, what could be dismissed as youthful immaturity just comes across as semi-dickishness.
He’s supposed to be well worn due to roughing it.
The new Enterprise is rather ugly and horribly, horribly lit.
They should have either kept the Stargazer from S2. Or give viewers the actual Luna-class Titan, instead of their Shangri-La class substitute.
Even when it revealed that the Titan-A was rechristened the Ent-G, it could have been named after Picard, so that PIC could continue on for another couple of season without Patrick Stewart, or any talk of Legacy. Not to mention that it could have been named after Liam Shaw as well.
The other characters? Well, the LaForge daughters didn’t exactly set the screen alight. They were pretty dull and didn’t exactly strike me as compelling characters. Background characters, fine, but that’s about it.
They did try with Sydney at least. There just was not enough time to do more.
Plus, I’m not sold on Terry Matalas as a writer and show runner. PS3 started off well then the wheels fell off the wagon as they juddered toward the messy climax. I certainly liked elements of the season, but ultimately it was a bit of a mess, substituting both consistent logic and a finely honed plot for increasingly naff and faintly embarrassing nostalgia bait.
There’s certainly room for improvement when it comes to S3. Riker in the first few episodes should have been a Changeling or Tom Riker masquerading as Will Riker. Vadic should have never returned from the gravity well, and the rest of her appearances in the season should have been filled by Kira, or a Changeling that looked like Kira. They should have referenced whether Elnor survived or not when the Excelsior was destroyed, and the Jurati Borg and the transwarp hub. They could have had a cameo appearance of the bluegill parasites when Admiral Shelby was shot. Armus as the big bad instead of the Borg would have felt fresh. They did not need to rush through the fates of the Ent-E and Ent-F to get to the Ent-G to set up Legacy, when Legacy wasn’t a certain thing even then. The Ent-E should have got some screen time, and then Seven takes command of the Ent-F at the end. They did not need to kill Shaw. And Data should have met Soji.
But I think Matalas did the best he could considering the circumstances.
Even if Armus was revealed to be the big bad instead of the Borg Queen, there would be fans would be wondering why the final boss was Armus, when the Borg was the TNG crew’s and specifically Picard’s biggest adversary. And the addition of the bluegill parasites may have made the finale more confusing for some, even I personally think it would have been an interesting twist.
And they did not know how popular Shaw was going to be with the fans. If they did, I’m sure he would have lived.
