I don't have a problem with the gore itself, but the context. Tyler's flashbacks to his "torture" were appropriate when portrayed as part of his PTSD. But when he is secretly Voq, and those scenes were actually just almost equally tortuous, voluntary medical procedures (still basically leading to PTSD), the message about PTSD, if there was one, gets lost in the larger "it's just Klingon spycraft" plot. The same way that Icheb's ice gouging, or Seven's being "forced" to mercy kill him, either of which would be strong story points to center an insightful Seven storyline around, gets lost in the larger action/revenge plot against campy Freecloud gangsters. Or the way Jurati's coerced murder of her mentor/lover Bruce Maddox got almost totally ignored - unless season 2 follows up with her mention of turning herself in.
It's just that each of these elements could be used to good effect to explore these characters in the right context. But the show has no time for them, and instead of thinking "do we really want to have our main character (Seven or Jurati) be responsible for the death of their loved one if we don't have any time to follow that up?" it just sweeps them under the rug with a single sentence or doesn't even bother to address them. Maybe they were hoping writers of later episodes could address them, and it just never happened. Given the unlimited runtimes streaming on Paramount+ can support, this would be the perfect time for some "Pillar filler": add a couple of character-heavy (and budget-efficient!) scenes where a couple main characters have insightful, meaningful conversations about what crazy crap they just had to deal with.
But these shows can't slow down long enough to deal with the actual events they include. If they had 20 or 26 episodes per season, they could devote a whole episode to Seven experiencing and then dealing with the trauma of killing Icheb (like the did when dealing with the trauma of her parents in "The Raven"). But they only have 10 episodes for all of these stories and characters, so instead of realizing they don't have the time to cover it, they still include the eye thing and the killing him with a phaser thing, and never really deal with it again. In the end, Seven is happily canoodling with Rafi and ready for her next Space Adventure (TM). I guess Picard season 2 still has the opportunity to address some of these, but I think the chances are about 10%. I think at best, we might get a line from Seven to Rafi about Icheb. Or a one-off line saying Jurati's case has been reviewed by Starfleet JAG, or whoever, and not prosecuted. But I am not holding out hope.
Thank you! It would also help to explain why the Emperor wasn't eliminated by Section 31 but recruited, when she was stranded in the Prime Universe.
