Spoilers Star Trek: Picard General Discussion Thread

So Doug Drexler and Mike Okuda were only able to come on Season 2 because of Covid, Orville and For All Mandkind were shut down, but Dave Blass was still having the art team active on PIC Season 2, so he was able to poach them while their shows were shut down.

Mike Okuda was also going to retire after the current season of FAM finished, but Dave convinced him to come on Picard again for Season 3 and have a Star Trek project as his final show.

 

Just watched Mercy and it's the first one this season I've really not liked. A lot of wheel spinning and my brain just switches off when Spiner is onscreen bwahahaing and world domination or whatever. That whole subplot I just can't invest in because I am too drawn out of it by having the characters played by actors who have both already played multiple characters in this same show.

I know a lot of you like him, so a dash of 'IMO' but Brent Spiner is way, way overrated. The whole Soong side of this season should have been dumped.

The FBI stuff was weird as well. Really, a lot of running on the spot, with a Q revelation thrown in to make it seem like more happened than what actually did.

ETA - I've reflected on it for a few hours... no, for the first time this season I found little to like in this one...

Thoughts:

Season 2

I do still prefer this season over the first so far. It's got a bit more fizz and direction to it. Yes, it meanders, but there is a clear goal. For me, Season 1 couldn't decide if it wanted to be about Romulans, or the Borg, or Synths or whatever. Some very stately drifting about went on. But this season, though I think it finally tripped up in Episode 8, maintains a lot of momentum, especially I guess when binged. Waiting week on week for episodes where you aren't guaranteed that much is going to happen... yeah, I know why some people felt pissed.

Seven/Raffi

Some of the character interactions feel forced. Like, decided after the fact. This episode was egregious in Seven calling out Raffi for being manipulative when... well, Raffi isn't particularly manipulative, necessitating a bolted on flashback scene where she manipulates Elnor. In fact neither Seven nor Raffi seem to be written consistently this season. They both swap the idiot role at points, meaning sometimes Seven is incredibly out of her depth in dealing with the 21st Century stuff (celluloid picture), except when she's incredibly adept at dealing with it all and likewise Raffi.

They seem to exist just to argue, but I feel I've no idea of their relationship outside of that state, the result being it seems like antagonism is a default setting for them? It doesn't seem healthy and it's neither pleasant nor entertaining to watch.

Rios

I feel like Rios is coming out of this story well. His subplot has beats and the attraction/romance feels earned. I'm already spoiled that he stays behind, so don't worry, but I'm already happy with that. I think @Lord Garth said that he was always a man out of his time anyway. I'd rather he ends up in the 21st Century with a woman he loves than have him in the Captain's chair on the Stargazer for sure.

Guinan

For some reason my brain has easily made a mental leap and I like young Guinan. I wish they'd found someway to de-age Goldberg in truth, but the way they went is also legitimate and it works out. Stewart sells it too and for that matter, so does De Lancie.

The whole FBI subplot/character was poor though. Trite even.

Q

I hate to say it, but depowering Q and shuffling him right into the margins of a story like this is an... odd choice.

Soong/Kore

This whole side of the story can suck a dick for me. There are no other TNG guests this season, excepting a brief Wheaton cameo and I would much rather have another actor in this role. I could see Bryan Cranston in the mad professor role, or Giancarlo Esposito. In a fantasy world I could imagine Stewart convincing one of his RSC buddies to sign up for a role. Ian Mckellen say. Or just... somebody else.

Spiner has played three roles in two seasons now and Briones has played four.

I think looked at objectively, neither actor is doing a dreadful job. Just seeing the same faces again and again pulls me out of their scenes every time and honestly, I kind of don't see the need for this part of the plot anyway. I'd have preferred more about Renee Picard learning to be an astronaut and overcoming her fears in the process. More about the Gemini stuff.

Picard

Just sort of pottering about in his own show. I do like learning more about his childhood and I'm fully spoiled on what happened to his Mother. That's going to be tough to watch I guess.

Anyway.

I'm still enjoying it so far, but towards the end of the season I do get the feeling the whole thing is stretched too thin. I'll shut up until I've seen Episode 10!

 

I didn't mind Raffi and Seven bickering (we're given more than what we had with Chuckles), I've made peace with Rios' exit (and he always felt out of place for the late 24th century), Brent Spiner was always fucking hilarious, but the bulk of S2 was busywork, and being captured by the FBI is more of that (alongside ICE) is another example of delaying Picard's run to the end of the S2.

S2 to me is a guilty pleasure that is a solid set up for later stories, propelled by a very strong cast, and bookended by OK/good episodes.

 

Does anyone know where the recent unblurry version of this tweet, that the last page or two of discussion was based on, went?

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/sta...scussion-thread.301351/page-348#post-14140760

 

It's still there, posted by cooleddie74.
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/sta...scussion-thread.301351/page-350#post-14148931

It also wasn't an unblurry version of that image in the tweet, the new image came from a short video Doug Drexler uploaded of the bridge where he missed a single frame of it being shown, but once it was noticed he deleted and reuploaded the video with it blurred.

 

This is beautiful!

 

that shade of blue on the railings reminds me of The Orville.

 

I prefer the full panorama view here:

 

Maybe the Enterprise E has been augmented with Borg Technology? This could be some type of armour that can be deployed in emergencies such as when entering a suns corona, a nebula similar or even more volatile than the Mutara class, or even severe asteroid or ion storms? Such armour could also help the Enterprise navigate the Badlands properly and traverse the galactic barrier?

 

Perhaps it is the E²

 

Is that E squared or E to the power of 2? Or does it even matter?

 

Aren't they the same thing?

 

Yeah both of those mean the same thing: that the ship is actually two ships, one of them from an alternate future and run by the crew's descendents.

 

Could it not be the E³?

 

No, it's only the Borg ships that are cubed.

 

No, that was cancelled this year.

On a serious note, since they had two of the STO ship artists on Season 2 to bounce ideas off for the Stargazer, maybe they did the same with whatever ship this is.

 

1) Yup

2) I take it as her being a different queen with her own...hive?...who were off doing their own thing.

3) His mate had left him by Q2, his kid could be anywhere/when, being a Q and all.

4) Sure.

What in the world are you basing that on?

 

*raucous applause*

 

Well in "Hide and Seek" she killed at least five of Soong's Borgified henchmen (one hand to hand with Raffi's help, and other four she beamed into the walls of the estate's dungeon).

And it takes experience to kill someone with a bladed weapon (and she was aggressively brandishing it when in Soong's lair, expecting him there).