Spoilers Differences between season 1 and 2

Let's discuss the changes from season 1 to season 2. As ThreeEdgedSword summed it up, "it felt like the writers didn't care for any of the characters, the friendships between them, but also the themes and world-building of season 1".

Llywela's excellent post in the Rios thread does a great breakdown of what happened to Rios specifically:

What other changes did you notice? What do you think caused them? Do you think it's possible for them to be undone in a future spin-off or in betacanon?

 

I could talk about this at length, but will have to come back to this thread another day, when I'm not pressed for time.

 

Perhaps one of the strangest things about season 2 is that the parts not shown by the time jump would have been more interesting that what we did see. Season 2 seemed to suffer from both too much plot and not enough. Several plot lines were started, such as the resemblance between Tallin and Laris, but never fully explained while we also had episodes where nothing seemed to happen, or the plot was stretched too thin (so many young Picard flashbacks).

We skipped over Elnor being the first Romulan in the academy; Elnor and Picard's relationship; Raffi, Picard and Rios, regaining their posts in Starfleet; Picard adjusting to his android body; Soji accepting that she too is an android; the death of Zhaban; Agnes' arrest and trial; the removal of the galactic treaty and the re-acceptance of androids; Raffi accepting her son was not in her life; Rios becoming uncomfortable on The Stargazer; Agnes and Rios' relationship; Seven and Raffi's relationship; the holos being combined; Starfleet after Commodore Oh was exposed... I'm sure I'm missing many more.

Behind the scenes we know that season 1 was led by Michael Chabon and Akiva Goldsman. Chabon departed in season 2 but still served as executive producer. In his place Terry Matalas was brought on for the first few episodes but then moved to season 3. Goldsman seems to be responsible for Picard's childhood plotline:

https://twitter.com/TerryMatalas/status/1519838201904476165

So what happened? Were all the character complexities and themes from season 1 Chabon's work? Or someone else who didn't work on season 2? The first two episodes were written by Matalas and seemed to correct many of the issues fans had with season 1, though the time jump skipping over plot points was included. Once Goldsman took over, the characters began to suffer and most of the character exploration seemed to go to Picard. It's as though Goldsman didn't seem to understand season 1 himself.

 

Rios staying in the 21st century remains something that a lot of fans find inexplicable. So muich so that popular headcanons like the idea he's doing so to make sure that the doctor and her son survive World War 3 have popped up as well as the idea he was suffering from a concussion or that he wanted Picard to ask him to come with him. However, I think that actually does him a disservice.

Rios was betrayed by Starfleet when his captain murdered two innocent women then committed suicide. He was willing to give it another shot due to Picard restoring his faith in the organization but there's a very good argument that he never was going to fit in as the captain of the Stargazer.

I say this as someone who does largely think the Picard cast is one of the most likable ones in science fiction and that they could easily have done more seasons with the cast as is. We were only getting to know our heroes and while Patrick Stewart was getting a bit long in the tooth, they could have easily continued with Seven taking the lead.

The problem with "correcting" a show is that it may be that many people don't think it needs correction.

 

But the thing is, he did return to Starfleet, once he knew the truth about what happened all those years ago. He did seem perfectly at home and at ease in command of Stargazer. If the show wants us to believe that 'he never was going to fit in as the captain of the Stargazer' then it needed to show us that. It didn't. Not even once. Not once all season did Rios give any indication that he regretted his decision to return to Starfleet. Not once did he suggest that he felt any unease about having command of a starship crew, or that he felt he didn't fit in. Not once, until that final conversation threw it in out of nowhere. It was too little too late, the groundwork was not laid - and there was plenty of opportunity to do so. An entire season, in fact. No mention either of the imminent onset of World War III that he was going to have to live through.

No, it was just a badly written storyline, one which tossed his entire S1 characterisation out of the window completely, purely to fulfil an external plot requirement imposed on the character by the producers, irrevocably burning a character brimming with potential, just because they didn't want to use him in S3 and liked the idea of getting Seven into the captain's chair in his place. How short-sighted. What a waste.

But those that do feel it needs correction also have a right to discuss the reasons why. I mean, don't get me wrong. I actually think that every episode this season was perfectly watchable and entertaining. But I also think that the whole is considerably less than the sum of its parts, and that some of the decisions made for the characters were disappointing in the extreme and weakened the show as a whole. I can see enormous potential in the set-up we were shown in 2.01 and feel tremendous regret that the season not only failed to live up to that potential, but removed much of the source of that potential from the table permanently. I think it is unfortunate that short-term gains were prioritised over long-term investment. Looking back over the season as a whole, I wish that different decisions had been made, and I firmly believe that the show would be much stronger if they had. And I don't think there's any harm in my saying so. It's not like my statement is going to change anything, but it does make me feel better to get it off my chest!

 

Given the reactions I saw to the end of Season 1 I think each character going off on their separate adventures makes sense. Star Trek has always demonstrated characters going on their own path when they find a need Starfleet cannot fulfill.

"Put aside logic. Do what feels right."

Godspeed, Ro Laren, Wesley Crusher, Worf, Rios, and others no doubt.

 

I dunno, this feels like a whole entire other season of softer character building.

It also is the kind of thing that can be handled in a montage. You could argue a lot of this like, "How did Doctor McCoy end up on a planet of refugees, why is Spock seeking Kolinar, and why is Kirk an admiral?" And so on.

 

Thing is, the Picard cast WERE NEVER A CREW. It was JL hiring a ship and rounding up a bunch of misfits to go on one last mission before he died. I hated the S1 end scene with them all happy, a crew going on to the next adventure because really they should have gone their seperate ways there and then. It didn't ring true.

S2 bringing Picard, Rios and Raffi back to Starfleet and them all being happy didn't ring true after how they were treated by the organisation, but I liked that they had at least gone seperate ways before the current crisis. The season 2 people apparently never knew what to do with Elnor (S1 showrunner wanted him to explore his sexuality in S2, iirc) so they just offed him for 90% of it. S2 feels like a current day show that just happens to feature Star Trek characters, and in the case of Adam Soong and his daughter, in new roles.

And now they're almost all gone so they can do TNG season 8 instead of Picard season 3, which is exactly what they promised Picard WASN'T going to be at the outset. Oof.

And this from someone who enjoyed S2 more than many.

 

I mean, wasn't one of the main points that they became a bunch of close comrades and friends DESPITE the fact Picard hired them as disposable cannon fodder?

 

After season 2 I think of Picard more as 3 separate miniseries starring Patrick Stewart rather than a show with its own well developed cast.

 

When Picard talked to Riker in Nopenthe, lamenting his situation, he said, "I had a crew." To some degree, that was visible in the season's finale. In the season 2 debut, that crew had already fallen apart. With the exception of Soji and Jurati, no one seemed to be working together, and they had in some cases distanced themselves from one another. Other than Q giving some of them consciousness of the changes that took place in the new reality, there was nothing that held them together. The subsequent episodes merely established the reasons why they would not coalesce into a crew again: Rios falling in love with a woman, Jurati falling in love with being a Borg, Soji not being important enough to be in the loop. It's all rather depressing.

 

I mean, yes and no. On the one hand yes they became friends. On the other hand, they also still had careers and journeys that took them on separate paths. I've experienced it in my life a lot. And it doesn't strike me as unrealistic in this instance either.

 

See, what you are talking about here is not at all what I am talking about. I am not saying 'they should have stayed together as a crew' (although that is definitely a story that could have been told, based on where S1 left them). I'm saying 'since S2 decided to throw most of the same characters back together again, it should have developed them more as individuals and explored the dynamics and bonds between them, instead of tossing their established development and dynamics out of the window in favour of a contrived plot arc', and the storytelling as a whole would have been much stronger. PIC is a show about Picard, but it isn't a one-man show. Even shows intensely focused around eponymous heroes are strengthened by a strong, integrated, well developed supporting cast who are not treated as entirely disposable. The supporting cast should not feel like makeweights, it weakens the entire show if they are.

 

The main difference between season one and season two is that I loved season one.

 

I will take your word for it.

 

The only real difference between S1 & S2 is that S1 built a universe that made sense and had stories to follow up on. S2 basically ignored that and tried to re-imagine S1.

This is what Short Treks is for. The problem is that is not seen in that light. It was created to mainly to focus on DIS, and promote/introduce some new creative talents. While some of these might be revisited in S3 at some point, a number of these could been ST episodes and then receive a callback in a future Discovery episode.

• Elnor being the first Romulan in the academy (half-true since there was Simon Tarsus and maybe a few other before him, but Elnor would be the first to be open about his Romulan ancestry in the Academy)

• Elnor and Picard's relationship

• Raffi, Picard and Rios, regaining their posts in Starfleet

• Picard adjusting to his android body

• Soji accepting that she too is an android

• the death of Zhaban

• Agnes' arrest and trial (was briefly covered in the S2 premiere)

• the removal of the galactic treaty and the re-acceptance of androids

• Raffi accepting her son was not in her life

• Rios becoming uncomfortable on The Stargazer

• Agnes and Rios' relationship (something that was in the process of being covered in S2 before being abruptly dropped)

• Seven and Raffi's relationship (will probably be tackled in a future spinoff)

• the holos being combined

• Starfleet after Commodore Oh was exposed

 

Was for, sadly.

 

I was amused by the way they pretty much treated Picard being a synth as a joke. I think they'd rather we just forget about that bit.

At this point it feels like the whole series is just a way to tie off TNG, with the new characters just a means to an end. The first season was a bunch of stuff leading to Picard saying goodbye to Data, the second was a bunch of stuff leading to Picard saying goodbye to Q. They're not even bothering with the artifice for the third season.

I'm disappointed, but I'll just take the episodes - which are generally very enjoyable - as they are and try not to think much about the overall picture.

Though they could greatly amuse me by treating the TNG crew like they have the new characters.
"Where's Worf?"
"Oh, he died in a fight with an Orion over his tooth sharpener."
"LOL, classic Worf."

 

Why?

 

As all over the place as the middle episodes of season 2 got, the main difference for me is that it didn't depress me like season one did.