Season 1 as a Whole

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Picard' started by Lord Garth, Mar 26, 2020.

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How do you rate Season 1?

  1. 10 - "Engage!"

    15 vote(s)
    7.4%
  2. 9

    39 vote(s)
    19.2%
  3. 8

    60 vote(s)
    29.6%
  4. 7

    27 vote(s)
    13.3%
  5. 6

    17 vote(s)
    8.4%
  6. 5

    13 vote(s)
    6.4%
  7. 4

    8 vote(s)
    3.9%
  8. 3

    11 vote(s)
    5.4%
  9. 2

    5 vote(s)
    2.5%
  10. 1 - "Fucking Hubris!"

    8 vote(s)
    3.9%
  1. Gordie

    Gordie Captain Captain

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    7 of 9 being a ruthless mercenary and becoming the Borg Queen so she could control the cube was epic. Riker and Troi were written wonderfully well and their kid Kestra stole the show. The Synth Arcana was great too. And the Borg cube reclamation was cool. So, I loved all of that.

    I didn't care for the drinking, vaping, drugs, tobacco use. We know where the money came from to produce this show. And they had typical Earth media of today. Characters using words like 'uber' too. Trying to make it like what today's society is. Why? I have no fucking clue. Does not make the show better imo.

    I don't like the Romulans in this and I love Romulans. Ninja elf sucks . I don't buy 7 being a whiskey guzzler either. The plot is very loose. I can't see the Federation helping old Picard out like they did. I don't think that Romulan spy would have easily infiltrated the Federation.

    And of course, it doesn't seem to matter what happens. People commit murder and betrayal. Well that's fine, you can still remain free to walk about the ship and help out. People die, and yet they come back. I was so happy when Picard died in this. Didn't last however.

    Too many stupid ass holograms too.
     
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  2. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Not to nitpick but I am anyway. The Romulans infiltrated as a Vulcan ambassador. One would think that the Vulcans would have better screening than that. O_o
     
  3. Rahul

    Rahul Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I was really hooked when the show was about Picard going on a final mission to find and save his Android friend's daughter. I could absolutely emphasize with that.

    I was also extremely interested in the Borg reclamation project - the Borg are my favourite Trek enemy, and here they showed them in a completely new light. And they were doing something really interesting with the Romulan refugee situation.

    I did not care about Romulan cultists, ancient conspiracies, a character becoming "the destroyer" of the universe, the whole attack on Mars-disappointment, and generally the whole "Android uprising"/Mass Effect 3 - part of the story was the dumbest schlock imaginable. And the Borg did not play into the main story at all.

    So, overall, I'm massively disappointed.
    Not because it's bad. It definitely isn't! As a whole there's more good than bad in it. But it started out with greatness, only to end all plotlines at lower mediocrity.
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2020
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  4. Xhiandra

    Xhiandra Captain Captain

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    I don't quite know what to think of the writing in this. Older Trek shows had good episodes and bad episodes, Picard has good scenes/moments and bad scenes/moments. Sometimes as terrible and clichéd as DSC.

    The villains (Narissa, Narek, Oh, Sutra) were particularly poorly written, reminiscent of 90s sitcom villains. MacGyver villains. I wouldn't be surprised if femme fatale Narissa showed up again after that fall, to complete the MacGyverness of it.
    Sutra... you knew immediatly that she'd turn out to be a villain, from the first 5 seconds on screen. On one hand, credit to the actress for conveying that with a couple of head tilts alone, but on the other hand, there's a reason it worked: it's a cliché.

    The plot begins to unravel towards the end, particularly how quickly the androids went from "peaceful commune" to "let's slaughter the organics!"
    They tried to give motivations to the androids, you have to credit that. They're not just gratuitously jumping to genocide, but it's still extremely thin.
    "The measure of a man" would not be a legendary episode if Data instantly tried to kill Maddox upon learning his plan, especially not if he did so whilst uttering a classic villainous line ("I'm so sorry to hear you say that" or something of the sort), which is what these villains do.
    I've been using the word "villains" above, and that wasn't even a choice. It's just the word that came to me. If they were better written, I'd have used "antagonists", instead, but these characters fit a simplistic manichean model better.
    More nitpicky points about the ending: aspects of it are quite predictable (Picard's ultimate fate), though that's not necessarily a bad thing, if well foreshadowed, and there are Dei Ex Machinae (the repair tool, the fleet arriving in the nick of time, ...).

    So, that's the bad. On the good side, I liked Picard's journey of self-rediscovery, I liked Soji's learning (aside from the aforementionned instantly embracing genocide for a while) and the parallels between them, I loved that Picard gives morality lessons to someone who just saved his life! That was such a great moment, him chiding Ellnor just after they beamed from the NunPlanet. There were a few more of those.
    I loved the Riker/Troi scenes. I loved the first scene of ep1, too. You could predict Picard's lines, but they were delivered so well that it didn't matter.
    And overall, the resolution was pretty good. The ending arc was poorly set up, but resolved quite well, I think.

    So, I don't know what to think. I just hope Narissa doesn't come back, not so much because I disliked the character (though I did), but because it'd be a sign that they're going full MacGyver.
    It's a lot better than DSC, though, that's for sure. In the good moments, it's hard to believe both are Kurtzman projects.
     
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  5. TedShatner10

    TedShatner10 Commodore Commodore

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    I think comparisons to the Mass Effect series are a bit overblown and I got genuine chills there's a overpowered menace lurking out there that trampled over the Iconians and T'Kon all those millennia ago.
     
  6. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I love the ancient cultist story. But I get it isn't for everyone.
     
  7. SolarisOne

    SolarisOne Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    I like the way DS9 handled religion far better.
     
  8. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Well sure, but that's not exactly a fair comparison. I was just glad it was there.
     
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  9. TedShatner10

    TedShatner10 Commodore Commodore

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    Because we had many, many episodes to draw on (and a lot of it seemed plodding and dry at the time).

    I dunno, I was sold on the Zhat Vash's genuine feelings of hatred and disgust towards AIs.
     
  10. Xhiandra

    Xhiandra Captain Captain

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    Oh, no. That was the worst aspect of DS9. Especially episodes like The Reckoning, that episode where the pah-wraiths take over Keiko and the whole firecaves ending, not to mention Sisko's anti-progress from "feel free to indulge your religion but don't make me part of it" to "ok, I'm a messiah".
     
  11. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Same here and I love all the religious aspects of DS9. For me that was one that was willing to explore themes that largely go ignored. The Bajorans are still one of my favorite alien races because of their spirituality.
     
  12. ThreeEdgedSword

    ThreeEdgedSword Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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  13. Rahul

    Rahul Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    To be honest, the most perplexing part (for me) of this whole series was the part where Picard died, and then they resurrected him made a pitch-perfect copy of him, that everybody (including the writers) now treats as if the character just came back.

    By the way, has anyone ever seen "Beerfest"? Ever since that dumb movie, where they played that trope to the absolute extreme (one character was murdered in a drinking game, but later replaced by his look-alike twin-brother, who everybody - including his former girlfriend! - treats like the original) - I seriously can't hold it together anymore whenever this trope is played straight somewhere again:


    DIS actually did that better with how they handled the resurrection of Dr. Culber. Picard feels more like... the Beerfest version.
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2020
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  14. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Which is more fitting with Trek tech than other approaches.
    Ugh, no thanks. That looks and sounds unpleasant.
     
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  15. TedShatner10

    TedShatner10 Commodore Commodore

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    Picard's death and resurrection felt redundant.
     
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  16. EnderAKH

    EnderAKH Commodore Premium Member

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    I just have to ask... what sitcoms were you watching in the 90s that had villains? Full House? Cheers? I guess maybe in Seinfeld you could call Newman a villain, though I would use comedic foil. And obviously in Cheers Norm was the villain, the evil puppet master pulling the strings.
     
  17. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Crazy Joe Davola in Seinfeld was the closest to an actual villain that exuded menace. Unless PIC gets somebody to dress up like a clown from Italian opera and stalk the main characters I don't see how it has had or will have a bad guy reminiscent of a "90s sitcom villain."
     
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  18. Kpnuts

    Kpnuts Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It did seem weird. Like, why bother?

    His health added nothing to the storyline except in the last episode. Both shows reek of "too many cooks", tons of plot holes, tons of threads left unanswered, constant dubious twists, writing by committee.
     
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  19. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It felt like the most TNG aspect of the series. So...maybe?
     
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  20. Xhiandra

    Xhiandra Captain Captain

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    Sitcoms was the wrong word, but I didn't have the right one. Forgot it stood for "situational comedy". I never saw Cheers (pretty sure we never imported that one. Not even sure there exists a French dub). Did see a lot of Full House.
    Seinfeld, I learned of years later (once again, not sure it was imported), and only saw episodes of on youtube.

    Anyway, I meant those 90s series that would be broadcast during "family time". Things like MacGyver, the A-Team, ... the kind where villains were twisting their metaphorical mustaches every chance they got. Now you're going to tell me those were from the 80s.