I strongly agree with most of your rant except for this. Q isn't trying to create a fascist dictatorship on Earth. He's just creating a game for Picard to play so Picard can deal with his mommy and daddy issues. With that plot point being ridiculously ham fisted into the narrative and was generally the most boring part of the season itself.
Oh, I agree. Q doesn't want to create a fascist dictatorship for any reason other than to deal with Picard's issues, but the operative question is "how is Picard suddenly existing in a dictatorship supposed to help him with his parental/closeness issues?" Instead of creating a tightly constructed mystery/issue (like the anti-time anomaly of "All Good Things"), Q just sets Picard (and a random selection of friends from around the galaxy) into an alternate dictatorship and wishes them "bad luck"? Q seems surprised that Picard came back to the 21st century, and he outright states that he didn't plan for Picard to do that. So, what was Q's plan for the dictatorship? how was that supposed to help Picard learn? Out of all the times that movies have an antagonist set up an elaborate ruse or plot that requires 15 extremely unlikely steps be executed in precisely the right way to get our heroes from point A to point Z, plots that require the antagonist to anticipate information and decisions they couldn't have possibly known about or predicted, Q is the one antagonist that could have done this given his omniscience and omnipotence. But just to put the icing on this particularly poorly constructed cake, the writers decided that Q would be losing his powers and thus unable to fully predict and control the events. The one time it would have made complete sense!
I'm late to this party, but I'm finally watching S2... Episode 7 said "She needed help, but she wouldn't accept it." I thought that implied that Maurice had tried to get her to seek some kind of professional help, but she refused. The Picard family seemed to be rather insular in Picard's flashbacks, so it doesn't seem like there were concerned family friends trying to get Yvette the help she needed. Kor
Which is more the point that many struggle with, which is why it speaks so deeply to many of the audiences members, myself included. It did not help that I have a friend with a wife who is struggling significantly with mental health, but refuses to take medications, refuses to trust any form of help, and who's family will deny she is sick, save her husband. I know the opinion is, well in the Federation it should (fill in the blank). But that misses the individual for just trying to solve the problem.
It's probably been mentioned already, but all this definitely adds some poignancy to Picard's interaction with the illusion/manifestation/whatever of his mother in TNG S1 "Where No One Has Gone Before." Kor
If anyone has experiences with insular families and mental health issues, they know this kind of situation is plausible. Even in the future they can't have a 100% success rate at making everyone happy and well adjusted, and willing to take their happy pills.
It had flaws like most seasons of most shows. But as far as "Star Trek" goes, none of the flaws were that big IMO. The cause of the fascist-Earth timeline was not revealed to be an alien Space-Lennie crying explosive tears, nor a beagle urinating on a sacred tree. None of the main characters deliberately let an entire sapient race die out, in favor of "saving" a hypothetical one that doesn't exist yet. Cristobal Rios's 21st Century girlfriend didn't get him pregnant; Jurati and the Borg Queen's transformation didn't result in baby salamanders; and Picard's family secret didn't involve any lustful green space ghosts. You have to look at things with some perspective.
The only "perspective" you offered there was "Oh look, here are a lot of things that could have been wrong with the show that weren't - so pay no attention to all the things that really are wrong with the show they've actually made."
It doesn't matter what you say, he's not interested in actually discussing this show. Only trashing it. Even if you jump through his hoops, he'll try to pull something else. So don't even waste your time with him.
Yeah, season 2 was a stinker especially after how great season 1 was. I was left bored running though it, which is why I think all Star Trek should be episodic.
But then we wouldn't have Season 1, which you happen to think is great. "I think all Star Trek should be episodic." No. That's the "I love Strange New Worlds!!!" rhetoric talking. I'm going to assume you're not a fan of DSC (just got a feeling... ), so we'll put that to the side and I'll point out DS9 and the TOS Movies, which were serialized. TNG also accumulated some light serialization as the seasons went on. I'm not interested in disposable adventures that you watch one week and forget about the next. I want something that builds up, not something that resets every week. There are literally hundreds of those episodes you can watch. Hundreds.
Season 1 felt like an extended movie, but season 2 was just a bad storyline. Maybe if they’d wait a year+ in between each season and really focus on the story then it’d be better?
And I don't. I happen to prefer episodic Trek myself, but I'm not in the business of telling other people what they should like.