Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x03 - "The End is the Beginning"

[rfmcdpei]

This episode did highlight an interesting connection between the Romulans and the Borg. is there something about Romulans—perhaps specifically ridged Romulans—that makes them immune to assimilation, or that might even disrupt the Borg?

The speculation that I have seen in a couple of places suggesting that the Vulcans, the Romulans, both popjlations, or some subset thereof are descended from experiments with synthetic life is starting to feel real.

 

[Yistaan]

I think it demonstrates how prepared Laris and Zhaban are.

I want more of them. A Short Trek, at least!

They have to be, they're former Tal Shiar. Even Picard should be more prepared, he made a lot of enemies in his life.

Did the attackers kill the dog? We never got confirmation either way. Why don't they call the police, or move or something? Those attackers will just come back.

 

[rfmcdpei]

Yes i read the comic prequel where Raffi is on the verity, but could she have been on the enterprise, especially regarding her use of jl?

Its a cut scene, but could Raffi have been Rikers successor on the Enterprise E? Riker pranked his successor into saying that Picard liked to be addressed by first name. Although that scene was cut and the successor was a different character, and a man, i have no problem with that scene being canonized and changed to be Raffi instead of the other guy.?

In The Last Best Hope, which has been written to be consistent with the Trek canon, Raffi is described as a Romulan intelligence officer who Picard recruited to help with his mission. They served together only on the Verity.

 

[Yistaan]

In The Last Best Hope, which has been written to be consistent with the Trek canon, Raffi is described as a Romulan intelligence officer who Picard recruited to help with his mission. They served together only on the Verity.

I saw your post and was like, the novel's out already? But then I saw it's not out till next week. You got this from a preview?

 

[eschaton]

I want more of them. A Short Trek, at least!

According to IMDB we'll at least see Zhaban again in the eighth episode.

 

[rfmcdpei]

I saw your post and was like, the novel's out already? But then I saw it's not out till next week. You got this from a preview?

The novel got released early in Canadian bookstores.

They have to be, they're former Tal Shiar. Even Picard should be more prepared, he made a lot of enemies in his life.

Did the attackers kill the dog? We never got confirmation either way. Why don't they call the police, or move or something? Those attackers will just come back.

We have not gotten any indication of Number One being killed, or of Laris and Zhaban not alerting authorities. The emphasis on that scene was on demonstrating that Picard was just about to go, and that he really had to leave.

 

[eschaton]

Honestly, Laris and Zhaban should have gone along with Picard after the attack. I mean, I know the death squad was probably just trying to kill/capture Picard, but given it's clear that the other two have blown the cover of the Romulan agents it really won't be safe for them to stay on Earth any longer as well.

 

[Shon T'Hara]

Did the scene with Raffi at the beginning remind anyone of the bit in All Good Things where Worf complains that Picard always uses honor to manipulate him, and Picard tells him, "Because it always works"? For all that Picard acts like a stern but loving father, when push comes to shove he knows exactly how to manipulate his crew, and he has no qualms about doing it.

 

[MvRojo]

Soji knew about Dahj, but Dahj didn't seem to know about Soji

They communicated with each other, which is how Laris knew that Soji was off Earth in episode 2.

 

[Yistaan]

Honestly, Laris and Zhaban should have gone along with Picard after the attack. I mean, I know the death squad was probably just trying to kill/capture Picard, but given it's clear that the other two have blown the cover of the Romulan agents it really won't be safe for them to stay on Earth any longer as well.

That's what I thought as well. Plus, they know far more about the Tal Shiar than Picard, and would be far more useful than even Dr. Agnes, who probably is a sleeper agent after likely being mind meld violated by Commodore Oh (although I thought we agreed she was a Romulan not a Vulcan, can they mind meld too?)

 

[eschaton]

Given their mother seems to be a holo-fiction - and neither one goes back more than three years - I have to wonder why Dahj and Soji were made aware of the existence of one another to begin with. Were they eventually supposed to link up?

 

[MvRojo]

I just love how there are phasers under every bit of furniture in Picard's chateau.

I didn't get a good look at the weapons, but they looked more Romulan than Starfleet. Maybe Laris and Zhaban installed those as protection.

 

[Discofan]

Kinda remind us of Blade Runner and the replicants doesn't it? Short lives, fake memories and superhuman abilities.

 

[MvRojo]

Yeah, it looked to be the same actor to me. If true, that would be interesting. Did Rios program his EMH to look like him?

Rios programmed the EMH and the ENH to look like him. Kinda weird, but I guess that's a nice feature of newer models.

 

[Yistaan]

Given their mother seems to be a holo-fiction

They should expose this in the most hilarious way possible.

Narek: Soji, now that we've been dating a while, I think it's time I met your family.

 

[gvn2fly]

So did Picard not take any action to rescue the Romulans on his own after he resigned? I had assumed he did, perhaps with Rafi but this episode basically shows the opposite? Why did the Romulans living with him thank him for what he did then?

 

[Tuskin38]

What’d y’all think of the

Spoiler: ep 3

concealed weapons at the Picard residence

?

No need for spoiler tags, the thread itself has a tag in the title which is enough.

 

[rfmcdpei]

So did Picard not take any action to rescue the Romulans on his own after he resigned? I had assumed he did, perhaps with Rafi but this episode basically shows the opposite? Why did the Romulans living with him thank him for what he did then?

In the comics, he is shown as having saved them from Tal Shiar reprisals.

Beyond that, even though the refugee relocation project ended after the attack on Mars, he was involved for four years in relocating very large numbers of Romulans to safe refuge. I find it perfectly possible that he, by pushing for Starfleet assistance early on, might be responsible for saving millions--even tens of millions of Romulans, maybe even more--from death. He might consider saving only 200 million Romulans a failure, maybe, but would anyone else?

 

[Yistaan]

So did Picard not take any action to rescue the Romulans on his own after he resigned? I had assumed he did, perhaps with Rafi but this episode basically shows the opposite? Why did the Romulans living with him thank him for what he did then?

For all we know he coordinated with Spock for the red matter.

 

[Sakonna]

Seems to be a bit of a theme with this show. Narek showed up in the last scene of Episode 1, and Raffi had like 30 seconds of dialogue at the end of Episode 2.

I really wonder if they do this for title credit reasons or something. IIRC the way actors' contracts work the main cast gets paid even in the episodes they don't appear in, so it can't be that.

Casting is my previous career, so I can speak to this some. You can sign someone as a series regular and pay them only for the episodes in which they appear, even if they're always credited. My experience with this was primarily on shows with 13 episode orders, and for series regular contracts there were three standard options in terms of minimum episode guarantees: ASP (all shows produced), 10/13, and 7/13.

In theory, you could use your 10/13 and 7/13 SR's for more than the number of guaranteed episodes during the season, if the writers want to, and if they can find it in the budget. I'm not sure what the standard lower guarantee would be for a 10-episode season. But in the Peak TV era, it has become a bit of a wild west in terms of these contracts... things aren't as standardized as they used to be.

I hadn't noticed the final-scene-intro phenomenon, but that could be a contractual thing as well. I had some casting colleagues who negotiated these weird "and on your first episode you will be paid less because it's only one day of work to intro you in the last moment" deals. I always found it a bit sketchy when I heard about it, since the whole system is premised on per-episode deals, and I didn't like figuring out how to use loopholes to undermine that. But it also makes a certain amount of sense, and if people are willing to sign on for it, who am I to judge.