He objectively IS different from Will's mom or Troi's dad. He's a child (a VERY different dynamic regarding death), introduced long after we've come to care about Riker and Troi.
Except he
wasn't introduced. He never appears! He's not only dead, but he's long dead. I cannot emphasize this enough: Thaddeus Riker is not a character; he is a
plot device. Just like Will's mom and Deanna's dad.
Thad is a plot device introduced to facilitate this thematic element: Will, Deanna, and Kestra have learned to continue finding happiness and love in their lives beyond grief. Because that's so muc of what PIC is about -- finding life after grief and loss.
Interesting points, but the bolded part is why I think I'm just turned off and depressed by Picard rather than engaged (no pun intended). I don't see that as "challenging", I see it as taking away what I like about Star Trek, what sets it apart from most sci-fi, and making it just like everything else.
Nothing else on television gives you Sir Patrick Stewart reaching his emotional catharsis as he confronts and accepts his own mortality and finally moves on from his grief over his ersatz son's death. "That's why we're here -- to save each other."
Full disclosure, I haven't read all 69 pages of this thread. I honestly thought the 'utopia' of Star Trek pretty much only referred to Earth (as referenced by Sisko) and some planets such as Vulcan (as referenced by every Vulcan ever) because pretty much everywhere else we see across the different shows seems mired in the same problems we face today, war, poverty and oppression.
DS9 establishes pretty firmly that, at least in terms of material wealth, every mainstream Federation world exists in a state of abundance. "A Simple Investigation" features a woman talking about how her homeworld "isn't like a Federation world where everything is given to you."
The only Federation worlds that don't seem to exist in a state of economic abundance are the barely-developed colony worlds we always see at the frontier.
Andorians in TOS are described as being passionate and violent so that hardly bodes well for Andoria being a utopia during the 23rd century.
I see no contradiction there. I generally don't like the tendency to ascribe broad traits to entire species in ST, but let's say the Andorians are passionate and violent -- what if they just
really like boxing or competitive sports? These are things that can be channeled in a socially productive way.
Yeah, the utopian future was in the Federation. No one is saying Ferenginar or episodic planet of the week or Cardassia or the Romulan Empire or wherever were all peachy.
Was the utopian future
in the Federation, or was the utopian future
onboard the Enterprise? Because TNG certainly depicted the Federation engaging in a lot of abuses of power for a utopia.
The most depressing thing about Earth or the Federation in PIC is Raffi's lifestyle and the conditions of her existence, but those could be her own self-destructiveness and choice and not something Earth society imposed on her. Humans throughout Trek have the choice to be constructive or self-destructive.
I want to be very careful about this, because far too often "its their own choices" is used as an excuse for judging, and ignoring the needs of, people in real life who live in poverty and need a better welfare system. But, yeah, in the broader context of what ST has established about the distribution of material wealth in the Federation and on Earth, it makes more sense to assume that Raffi is living as she does out of personal choice.
Also, she's not exactly living in destitute misery. That mobile house looks like it's safe and provides adequate shelter from the elements. There's no indication of any pest infestations like roaches or wildlife. There's no indication that she's in any danger from other people. There is no canonical evidence that she's living in poverty or unable to afford to meet her needs. There's no indication that she's malnourished or is unable to obtain medical care. She seems to be able to get her hands on some recreational drugs. Her mental health obviously isn't great, but that's clearly a result of her personal choices. And no one is hassling her for living next to an iconic rock formation. Ultimately I'd say that the United Earth welfare system doesn't look like it's failing her.
And that same U.E. welfare system seems to have set up the unemployed 22-year-old college grad Dahj with a very nice apartment in a major metropolitan area that would go for over $2,000/month in real life today, with no indication that she has to pay for it or for the food she obtains from its replicator.
This does lead to other questions though, are the Rios holos sentient or do they just seem so as they appear have distinct personalities or do these persona's just come from Rios' mind scan where his engineer has a pass of a Scottish accent because Rios links engineering with a legendary Scotsman but can't actually do a Scottish accent himself so again its just clever programming?
Hard to say. You would think that the Synth Ban would preclude the presence of sentient holograms aboard
La Sirena, but there again it's possible that those holograms weren't obtained legally (what with
La Sirena being an illegally unregistered ship and all). Their scene puzzling out Rios's behavior with Raffi establishes a level of cognitive reasoning that implies sentience.
