Spoilers OK 9ers, how did you like S1 of ST:Picard

(without giving anything away)...I really really liked it. Not as good as DS9 S5-S6 but very good

 

It was good, not as good as S1 TOS or S1 DS9, but very good. There were a few episodes that were very good (Impossible Box being the best), but nothing that beat Errand of Mercy, City on the Edge, or Duet. I did feel that there was the best match of character to actor: there isn't going to be any adjusting of the characters going forward.

 

I thought it was excellent, until...

Spoiler

they ruined it all with the lame copy and paste federation fleet.

At 14 I could of done better CGI with a copy of blender.

 

Very enjoyable, really enjoyed the characters. The pay off of the entire story wasn't what I expected, but I'm ok with it. Interesting to see where they're taking Picard now.

 

I was bothered by that too.

Spoiler

I do like a little ship porn in Star Trek, but the Ships in new Star Trek are a little lame. DS9 really did have some awesome variety in their federation fleets.

 

A mixed bag for sure. From what I'd seen (one whole episodes, 15 minutes worth of clips. Some were good, some not so much...)

Riker's character was the best thing about it, by far and might be why I'd ever want to this through this series... make a Riker show instead, from what I saw they really handled him well and it was refreshing.

Spoiler: For those fortunate enough to have not seen the show

Even with the actual naming of the animal as a "bunnicorn"*. And I got the feeling the writers wanted to have Rike have more badass dialogue in the TV show and movies, of which the movies did oblige with "bastards" now that I'm remembering that moment. Fits in perfectly but Frakes is the type of actor that can really sell that sense of authority and anger where there is nary a swearword around. And so infrequently used that it doesn't become stale, which is another plus. Unlike Data's comedy act with the emotion chip being fused and stuck on and then on and off whenever convenient then removable then acting as if it was never there (GEN/FC/INS/NEM respectively...)

Which reminds, despite Spiner saying he wanted Data to die because Brent as a human would age... given his far better use in PIC (which isn't that hard a task given how awful NEM was in scribbling him out) , it's easy and understandable to embrace his return too. Still, then we have characters like "Sutra"* as well... or if they did it's easy to forget...

Hugh had a good reintroduction, though he's changed his tune rather a lot about Picard since "Decent". But the reason was easy to forget too...

* Seriously, not even 60s Trek did gave anything such a so jaw-droppingly infantile name; even TNG's worst days they'd put in something something less juvenile or dilettante. It is what it is.

 

I really liked it. I thought it was way better then Discovery. Though their are some plot holes such as in the defector when Setal said to data that Romulan cybernetis that would very much like to see him. But to me that about how much I noticed.

 

I liked it. There were aspects of it I didn't like, but I'm not going to let that ruin the whole show for me.

What I wouldn't give to see a DS9 series with the creative freedoms the Picard showrunners seemingly have.

 

It definitely isn't perfect, but I've really enjoyed the first season.

 

I have to say it was way better than the early seasons of DS9, but in that respect had enough already established to handwave some of the kind of worldbuilding DS9 required with a bullet point catchup.

It hit the ground pretty fully formed, yet without rushing. It actually had rather a measured pace whilst maintaining forward movement. I liked the characters and I liked the writing.

I liked it. A lot.

 

Actually, the name is kind of clever.

Spoiler

Many of the Soong type androids are named after sources of information or history. "Data", "Lore", "Saga", "Legacy", "Codex". "Sutra" fits into that pattern as a "sutra" is simply defined as a Buddhist scripture. To make it juvenile or kinky, you would have to add the "kama" to it.

 

I like it very much. It has a great cast (during the first seasons of DS9, there were at least two... mediocre actors imho.. later, they got better) and nice cinematography. Great imagery, ideas and themes to explore. When they let their characters just be and their scenes "breathe", those scenes are great.

I also find it incredibly frustrating at times. Lots of loose threads, inconsistencies, half-assery. Almost as if they threw everything at a wall to see what would stick. In serialized storytelling, I think your narrative has to be more coherent and meticulously planned out. (In that sense, the first season of DS9 was better. They may not have known how certain things would play out later on, but still story and character developmnts made sense and still do in hindsight.)

So, I will criticize a lot, but only because I like it so much and because it has such great potential.

On a side note, I also like that Chabon interacts with fans and answers questions.

 

Picard Season 1? Better then DS9 Season 1 but not (yet) as good as DS9 Season 3-7.

 

Meh. I feel like it was pretty hastily done. A lot of things were cheats and I felt like I was watching the Star Trek version of The Rise of Skywalker.

Spoiler

RIght down to the battle fleet arriving in the nick of time with a fan favorite in commant (which in itself felt like Avengers Endgame "on your left."). Picard's "death" was a waste of time and hand wringing since the second season was announced pretty much before the first was aired. Agnes was supposed to turn herself in for killing Maddox nut there's not even no mention of it at the end, she is kissing RIos and acting like all is well. Picard HIRED Rios and dragged these poeple together for one specific mission. Sooooo, no what? Just bop around the galaxy together?

 

granted stuff came together unorganic. not as bad as in disco, but they seem to want a faster pace then during the 90th. somehow i like it, somehow i dont.

 

Aside from a couple of "Wait, what? Come again?" moments, I was enjoying it immensely right up to the finale episodes. Then it took a couple of weird turns, gave nostalgia priority over story, and never regained its momentum. And the creative team and I seemed at odds most of the time as to what bits of the narrative we thought were most interesting, so... *shrug* I'll probably pick up the DVDs, but not sure if I'll come back for S2.

 

I don't think "Picard" season 1 is better than DS9 season 1.
DS9 season 1 is actually good! Not the best season of DS9 but actually very good.

As for "Picard", I have mixed emotions. Some of it is good but then there's the 2010's-2020's "doom-and-gloom" creeping into it here and there.

 

PIC easily has the best first season of any ST show. It tells a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end; it has thematic depth and wonderful characters. The writing is light-years more sophisticated and beautiful than anything we got in TNG or DS9 S1 -- yes, even better than "Duet," which (though I adore it) has a very ham-fisted, Wheel-of-Morality-turn-turn-turn-tell-us-the-lesson-that-we-should-learn ending.

And most of the complaints I see about the show are pretty shallow and vapid. Who cares if the Federation fleet had more than one class of starship? The story isn't affected by it either way. Yes, they named the animal that we see for five-point-seven seconds a bunnicorn because sometimes characters are whimsical. Yes, a character is named Sutra, because other characters are named things like Codex and Saga and Legacy -- "Sutra" is a word for a holy book, and not all sutras are the Kama for Vishnu's sake.

Spoiler

It is no such thing. PIC S1 is wrestling with many things, and one of the key themes of the whole season is death and how we choose to relate to it. Picard's death is necessary to the story being told -- it is a story about a man finding purpose again in his final days, after he had thought his meaningful life had ended, and the demands of a story like that are that the character must then sacrifice his life in order to achieve thematic catharsis. And, yes, Picard's resurrection is also thematically appropriate -- by accepting his own mortality, Picard finds meaning and purpose again, and so symbolically is "reborn," given one final reprieve before the sun finally sets on him. Not everything is just about the question of suspense or surprise.

Spoiler

I don't think we're supposed to take this as "all is well." Her actions have been haunting her all season and will continue to haunt her. But, yes, PIC is also about forgiveness and new life, and Jurati's feeling of being forgiven by her friends and by herself as allowed her to feel as though she has value again. Chabon has said that there will be more consequences in S2, but Jurati having a feeling of love is not the same thing as ignoring something they already spent half the season dealing with.

Spoiler

Yes, because in the course of that mission, a crew of misfits who had previously felt rejected and isolated came to love each other and to find purpose and meaning in working together. That's called character development, and it does not need to be spelled out for an audience member if the audience is paying attention.

 

nah.

glad you liked it tho.