Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x02 - "Disengage"

To be fair worf has killed before even in tng. This was a bit more gratuitous than I would have liked but it is what it is. At least they were all armed. 7 of 9 just killed a unarmed women in season one that had her hands up trying to surrender. That's much worse.

 

During the 'one hour' Vadic gave them, I started wondering when Riker was going to get up to his old tactical Macguyvering- remember during the show's run the reputation he was developing for unorthodox strategy and off-the-cuff tactical genius? This was a great opportunity to circle back to that.

Never happened. Instead, we went with 'no plan whatsoever', clever or otherwise, until Picard is finally shaken out of his doldrums with the revelation that Jack might be his son. I'm still not completely sold on that.

 

It's not perfect but it's a story. Riker will probably show his chops soon enough. He did help picard to find Beverly. Each major character is supposed to get a episide to have their shining moments. Yeah i hope picards new awareness sticks with him. I was getting tired of him acting like the gracious old man. He's a leader not a follower.

 

So I rewatched the episode on my laptop and tv and looks like they fixed the color issue.

 

Thiiiiis. I still have a hard time buying the idea that Bev would have somehow had a child with JL, either naturally or through medical shenanigans, and then never told him about it. Character-wise it just doesn't make a lick of sense.

 

I'm sure we'll get those answers either next week or in the upcoming episodes.

 

Its almost like they are giving us information piece by piece and week by week.

 

I don't have a problem with Shaw being convinced to go help Picard and Riker. I don't think they used the best argument to convince Shaw, but I think it is just fine that he is convinced. My problem is when Picard says "admiral's orders" and Shaw reacts "what are you doing?". Which is a reaction that indicates that Shaw believes Picard has the authority to command the crew, which is contrary to the previous episode's entire plot. Only after this moment, and after Picard reveals that Jack is his son, does Shaw seem to warm up to rescuing Jack. That last part, I too am ok with because it seems clear that Shaw has some backstory that makes him more responsive to some father/son dynamics. I just don't like that Picard suddenly has the authority that he expressly did not in the previous episode, with no explanation. This is an actual, dictionary accurate definition of a plot hole. In itself a minor plot hole wouldn't be a big problem but they made it a major point of the previous episode and integral to Seven's story.

Yeah, Riker does take one action at the very end. That was good. But I would have liked to see him do something active for the rest of the hour.

Hmm, I must have missed that. I will have to rewatch. But does anything come of it? Is there any followup? I don't remember.

I think he is "overly wary" (my words) of engaging even before they get the full scan of the Shrike. He may not say "underpowered" but that is the impression he gives. And yeah, fine, the Titan might not be a battleship like the Defiant, but my preference would be that all Starfleet vessels be Ent-D equivalent (powerful even though it was not designed as a fighter) - capable of standing up to most threats, and only backing off from overpowered threats (like a pair of D'deridex warships, or a Shrike). It just speaks to the general competence and tech level of Starfleet (in my mind).

Yeah, I thought the fight scene was well done. I think it is "clear" (pun intended) that they obfuscated Worf's identity for the surprise reveal a few seconds later (and to allow the stuntman to do the work) but that the fight itself was visible.

 

Watched the ep on Prime last night, WORLD of difference compared to what originally aired on P+…! I’m actually upset that my enjoyment of the ep was ruined the first time because of the contrast/saturation issues, which took me out of it… Vadic is totally awesome imo; on her way to become one of the greatest ST villains! And Shaw…. Wow….. I’ve rarely seen someone do sarcasm so well..! The score was absolutely brilliant, and the final ‘no word, eye contact’ only shots between Picard and Beverly are beyond beautiful…!

 

Laptops can brighten things up. Mine still looks awful even with brightness all the way up.

 

It's an ok episode. It takes a bit too long to get to the point. So far it feels like a 10 cut of 1 TNG episode.

 

I was devastated. They can never make a more beautiful ship, the E can never look as good! But then I saw FC and fell in love all over again, and found the E even nicer than the D

 

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When Picard issues his "Admiral's orders" they are in an urgent and dangerous situation and Shaw knows it just would not be possible for him to dispute it and convince his officers that Picard's actions are illegal. The lower ranking officers will just follow the Admiral's orders because he is technically the highest ranked person there. It's just not practical to try to debate the issue. It's also critical the senior personnel demonstrate unity to their subordinates. Plus, Shaw will probably be thinking that Picard must have a very good reason for taking over - they had been working together for a while at that point and Shaw's manner towards him had become more respectful. It is also possible Picard does have the legal authority to take over even though he is retired.

What happened at dinner is a different kettle of fish. Even if Picard does have the authority to instruct Shaw to alter the ship's course, Picard's presence on the Titan is not sanctioned by Starfleet and his order would have been illegal. Picard doesn't push it because he knows he can't; he has no leverage to do it and he'll get exposed in a dispute. Imo, it's a completely different situation and this was not a plot hole.

 

The fat one? Nobody wants her

 

We know this isn't the case though. Starfleet vessels are not all designed to be taking an utter pounding damage wise, there's still a bit of mix of lighter designed and heavier designed vessels and there's no real hint that the Neo Connies are anything other than fairly mid tier ships like the Luna's before them.

The seen was probably the best "Show, don't tell" I've seen in years, and the first I can think of on TV in a while, it was quite refreshing.

Shaw also seemed to have more infomation to hand in the crap situation. When it became outside of an area he felt comfortable in he's deffered to Admiral Picard (ret.) who at least has experience with rather low odds situations.

 

I enjoyed this one a fair bit. The problem is when you stop to actually analyse the plot, which is tropey and cliched as hell. It seems like Terry M’Talas (sorry, couldn’t resist!) is leaning into something of a “Trek’s Greatest Hits” (although not all of the elements are among Trek’s finest admittedly).

The Picard/son plot seems to be lifted from TWOK (and given the nod to “stealing a ship” and even the reference to Horner’s TSFS score i doubt that wasn’t intentional). It’s also been done before, rather poorly, in TNG’s own “Bloodlines”. Beverly sure as hell has a LOT of explaining to do next week. I’ve no idea what excuse she could have for ghosting Picard for twenty years and keeping all knowledge of his own son from him. That’s unconscionable in my view. Fair enough if Picard was some abusive monster she wanted to protect her son from, but…jeez. What was she thinking?

I have to call out the casting. Are we really meant to believe Jack is twenty years old? The actor looks like he’s pushing forty. We also need to know why he speaks with an English accent. Please tell me they don’t think accents are genetic? I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes, but I don’t have much confidence the answers will be satisfying. I’m still burned from last incoherent season where nothing made sense at all (so many things happened “just because!”).

Shaw had been toned down from last week and his position understandable and even logical, although his turnaround when he learns Jack is Picard’s son was too abrupt, as his earlier argument that 500 lives weren’t worth sacrificing for just a couple still stood I would have thought. Unless, perhaps Shaw had lost a son or something. The conflict was better done though. He’s more human and less hateful.

Amanda Plumber…no idea if I loved her or hated her performance. It could go either way for me. She’s almost like DS9’s MU Intendent without (thankfully, so far) the hypersexualisation. She could be fun, although this is maybe just too much campery for a villain. The creative team are still obsessed with creating another Khan, and this also strongly recalls and borrows from Nero and his ship (can’t remember its name right now) and Shinzon and the Schimitar. Subtlety is a fine art and there’s certainly no semblance of it here. But we’ll see how it goes.

The Raffi scenes dragged, frankly, and this plot seems to borrow from Into Darkness. It was just fantastic to see Worf again briefly even if his return felt so signposted it was hardly the surprise it aimed to be. I loved seeing a Ferengi again although the makeup left a lot to be desired. I’d increased my TV brightness settings so maybe that affected details like this, but the actor’s skin tone on his exposed lower face seemed notably different from the skin tone of the Ferengi head and ears. In other words, he totally looked like a dude with an appliance glued to his head. We need to bring Michael Westmore out of retirement.

Anyway, I enjoyed watching it more than it may sound. It’s just very cliched and pulpy thus far. My expectations are guarded, however, so I’ll just take it for what it is.

 

I very much agree with this, such ridiculous, badly written villains drive me up the wall.

 

Trek BBS stands for Trek Bulletin Board Sluts.

Uh I think Jack meant to imply that he has been 'fully functional' (to borrow a phrase from his late Uncle Data) with many women, all of whom presumeably had fathers. So yes you are entirely wrong.

 

Season 3 is 2 for 2 so far. Loved it!