I guess that's true. And ever since the Earth-Romulan War there has been a state of permanent cold war between the two powers.
There has to be a reason Descent was on the list. Sure Hugh was in it but he barely does anything in it.
The long isolations from 2160-2266 and from 2311-2364 and the brief alliance during the Dominion War were about the only respites that Earth and the Federation had since first contact with the Romulans in 2152.
Tbh, it wasn't as dark and moody as I had originally feared. San Francisco and France still looked perfectly fine and shiny in the future. So, it's maybe only about DS9-level dark. That I can deal with. Sure, Romulus is gone, but it was J.J. Abrams who made that canon eleven years ago. And Starfleet now seems to be run by a generation of Admirals who all grew hardened and cynical after having to serve in the Dominion War or something. Not that this is an entirely new thing. The Leytons and Doughertys have always been there, it's just that the Picards apparently became a dying breed.
But Data shut Lore down permanently. Though if Lore's body still exists why didn't they just erase his programming and upload Data into him?
Well, just watched Episode 1 and I gotta say, I think I'm 'all in' on this one. Pun intended. It's funny, but I was never a huge fan of the TNG era next to TOS, but I gotta say, this show has it going on right out of the gate.
Schizophrenia is implied to still exist in Picard's time. It's sad how positronic brains are better understood than those of human beings.
I bet if Spiner was willing to come back Nimoy-style it would've been that simple. Using an positronic Fal-Tor-Pan if you will.
I don't know that Maddox is all that obscure. He's prominently featured in "Measure of Man," which is frequently regarded as one of the all-time best TNG episodes. And both he and Lal appeared in one episode each, so I'm not sure why Lal would be more well-known. Heck, I recognized Maddox's name at once and I'm more of a TOS guy at heart.
If they do have him appear this season I hope they get the same actor. Not that a recast would make or break the appearance but keeping the same actor in the role would be a wonderful tie to the past and be even more connective tissue for the hardcore fans this series is clearly aimed at.
Didn't DS9 feature an episode with a number of characters suffering severe mental health problems? Granted, I think they were genetically engineered like Bashir but it still showed humans suffering bipolar, mania, etc, so already established these problems haven't been eliminated in this era, I guess.