But no one knew if Picard would be saved and restored or how the crew would get out of the Borg situation whereas I pretty much knew how the Xindi arc would be resolved after "The Expanse".
No, no-one could be sure he would return. There was talk about Stewart leaving the show at the time. So it was pretty unclear how it all would eventually turn out. Alternatively Riker would have become captain with Shelby as his first officer.
EVERYONE knew Picard would be rescued and returned to his normal self. Maybe not all, but most of the fans were unaware of any contract negotiation problems with Stewart. And even if I had known of the contract problems, Stewart was the breakout star; there is no way I would have believed he was done.
You are assuming a great deal. I don't know how you could say everyone or most everyone knew he would be rescued. The way I remember it is a large part of the cliffhanger appeal and frustration that summer was learning not only how much carnage the Borg would wreak but the fate of Picard. If everyone knew he was going to be okay I don't think people would have been in such a hurry for the summer to end.
Oh I agree. BoBW is the best cliffhanger, not just in Trek, but all of TV. There have been other great ones like Dallas' "Who Shot JR?" or Melrose Place's "It's not what you think it is worse" or Quantum Leap's "Shock Theatre" cliffhanger where after receiving shock treatment Sam and Al switch places or DS9's "Call to Arms" where the Defiant joined up with the massive Fed/Klingon fleet going to war with the Dominion and yes even "Azati Prime"'s cliffhanger with all hell breaking loose.
I agree about this as well. Even though I knew how the Xindi story would play out I enjoyed seeing it unfold but BoBW was a show where I didn't know if things would return to normal let alone the "how". I might be the only one but I had zero idea how BoBW would play out.
You knew that the deflector would fail because the Borg assimilated Picard's knowledge, you knew Riker would kidnap Picard and use his link to bring down the Borg, you knew that assimilation could be reversed or that the destruction of the cube wouldn't kill Picard. I'm not sure I buy that.
``The Communicator''. Archer kicks off a world war for no good reason, and seems to think this supremely avoidable fate was somehow beyond his power to avoid.
what was yours???
And you knew Degra would flip, knew he would then be killed, knew that some of the Counsel members would still side with the humans, knew even, that Shran would swoop in and help save the day. Not sure I buy that.
"The Expanse" set up only one real course of action to resolve the threat. I didn't know all the details but the broad strokes were obvious. Given that a future faction was behind provoking the Xindi into attacking Earth and supposedly came from the 26th century it only stood to reason that Archer would need Daniels to take him to the future and provide proof otherwise. Then he would finally reach the council and present his case.
There were plenty of surprises--how the deflector dish failed in the teaser, the destruction of the fleet at Wolf 359, how the Borg cube was stopped, that Picard survived and was recovered, the sequence where Riker retrieves Picard, using Picard's link to turn it on the Collective.
Yes, the fact that both Picard and Archer would be rescued in their respective situations were obvious "broad strokes".
If disagreeing with you is making a "big deal" out of it, then so be it. As for the love of both BoBW II and AP/Damage, we agree (although I found Damage to be a much more compelling part II).
