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

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It would not. If the sun was transformed nearly-instaneously into a black hole of the same mass, the Earth woul orbit around it as it always did. The world would slowly chill to ten degrees or so above absolute zero, but the Earth would physically survive.

The effects of red matter do propagate wildly, but not so wildly. Vulcan might have been consumed in the Kelvin timeline, but the effects of that black hole did not propagate to adjacent worlds.
I see you added an IF there, I wouldn't hang around to see IF you are right plus its a big assumption to assume it would be anything like as smooth a transition as you are describing.
 
Just watched.
Picard finally got his crew together, and the journey starts. This episode also marks the end of "the beginning", the first three episodes really feel like what's normally the two-part pilot.

This episode had some rough parts in it - especially I'm not really fond of Rafi's acting style, but also some of the character introduction/backstory (of her and Cabrera, the pilot) feel a bit tired and clichéd. OTOH, I absolutely love this show as a whole. Add Cabrera to the pile of characters I absolutely love. And color me very intrigued on where the main plot leads.

A few other observations:
  • Love how the forehead Romulans are "stubborn Northerners", and the flat forehead ones others
  • One of my criticisms of the pilot - how the backstory (of two planets exploding) was not properly conveyed is completely gone - it was (as hoped) continously more explained and shown over a few episodes. At this point, the situation of the Alpha quadrant is properly explained and feels relatable
  • The Tal'Shiar attacking the rescue fleet for Romulans, as well as hints of Borg being connected to suuuper ancient Romulans / time travel being involved makes me sceptical. I have to see where that goes.
  • If I hadn't read it before - I wouldn't even have realised "Hugh" was "The" Hugh from "I, Borg". I wonder if they wrote this character as another former Borg, and only retroactively gave that role to "Hugh" because the actor was available or something. That's no complaint though - everything works perfectly with or without that connection
  • Not a fan of a Romulan spy being in such a high position (head of Starfleet Intelligence) - that's really more tv-level drama than realism. But I love "Oh's" sunglasses, so I will forgive that
  • I feel the editing/directing was a bit weird. Especially the points where they cut between Picard and the Borg cube felt very awkward and unmotivated
  • I really love the atmosphere aboard the Borg cube. Reminds me a lot of VOY
  • I'm a bit sad Cabrera's ship doesn't have traditional nacelles and a deflector dish, but instead the generic SF big-blue-lights-at-the-back. But I like it.
  • "Engage!"

I'll give this one a
8/10.

It had more weak spots than the previous two episodes. But also lots of bright moments, and this one really felt like it had a beginning, a middle, and an end, aka a clear mini-story within the overall larger arc of the season. I like that.
 
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Is this the same franchise that had so many holodeck malfunctions causing possible fatalities where the characters pleaded for the computer to end program? :O
And yet, every time The Doctor annoyed somebody on the Voyager, they shut him off.


I can't believe that nobody has yet to complain about the HUGE HONKIN' WINDOW on the bridge of the La Sirena!
;)
 
You are wrong dude. People have directly quoted science articles regarding this. Don't be ashamed - lots of people misunderstand this.

Of course, in a real world situation, you could never "fire off" a black hole into a sun and cause it to collapse immediately. Matter can only be sucked into the black hole at a certain speed given its radius, which means (if you're dealing with a micro-hole) it could take years to actually consume a star. It would happen much quicker if you used a stellar-mass black hole, but still not instantly - and that would certainly disrupt the orbit of the planets orbiting, just like another sun suddenly appearing would disrupt them.
Oh not ashamed at all, I will still go my own way on this one if its all the same to you.

It sounds too much like wishful thinking to me.
 
Don't want to be morbid, but a fire worked just fine on Picard's brother and nephew. The Zhat Vash should have tried that.

Anyone else wonder about Raffi's "antiques" comment - considering the fire presumably burned the original main house down?

Up until that point I had just presumed he replicated all the old-timey stuff.
 
Anyone else wonder about Raffi's "antiques" comment - considering the fire presumably burned the original main house down?

Up until that point I had just presumed he replicated all the old-timey stuff.
Picard may have had a bunch of stuff that he has collected over the years in storage someplace that he brought out after the fire.
 
Don't want to be morbid, but a fire worked just fine on Picard's brother and nephew. The Zhat Vash should have tried that.

Looks like there are still some bugs in the chateau's alarm system, seeing as the Romulans were able to shut it down.
 
The BORG remember everything.
I'm pretty sure that when a Borg Queen dies, the entire Collective becomes aware.
I was thinking about this while watch the scene in one of the previews between Picard and Seven. She seemed to know him well; then my next thought was "of course she does."
 
Just watched.
Picard finally got his crew together, and the journey starts. This episode also marks the end of "the beginning", the first three episodes really feel like what's normally the two-part pilot.

This episode had some rough parts in it - especially I'm not really fond of Rafi's acting style, but also some of the character introduction/backstory (of her and Cabrera, the pilot) feel a bit tired and clichéd. OTOH, I absolutely love this show as a whole. Add Cabrera to the pile of characters I absolutely love. And color me very intrigued on where the main plot leads.

A few other observations:
  • Love how the forehead Romulans are "stubborn Northerners", and the flat forehead ones others
  • One of my criticisms of the pilot - how the backstory (of two planets exploding) was not properly conveyed is completely gone - it was (as hoped) continously more explained and shown over a few episodes. At this point, the situation of the Alpha quadrant is properly explained and feels relatable
  • The Tal'Shiar attacking the rescue fleet for Romulans, as well as hints of Borg being connected to suuuper ancient Romulans / time travel being involved makes me sceptical. I have to see where that goes.
  • If I hadn't read it before - I wouldn't even have realised "Hugh" was "The" Hugh from "I, Borg". I wonder if they wrote this character as another former Borg, and only retroactively gave that role to "Hugh" because the actor was available or something. That's no complaint though - everything works perfectly with or without that connection
  • Not a fan of a Romulan spy being in such a high position (head of Starfleet Intelligence) - that's really more tv-level drama than realism. But I love "Oh's" sunglasses, so I will forgive that
  • I feel the editing/directing was a bit weird. Especially the points where they cut between Picard and the Borg cube felt very awkward and unmotivated
  • I really love the atmosphere aboard the Borg cube. Reminds me a lot of VOY
  • "Engage!"

I'll give this one a
8/10.

It had more weak spots than the previous two episodes. But also lots of bright moments, and this one really felt like it had a beginning, a middle, and an end, aka a clear mini-story within the overall larger arc of the season. I like that.

Speaking as a Commodore, I find it unrealistic that the head of Starfleet intelligence would have a rank of no higher than a Commodore. It's probably more realistic that Oh is more likely the head of Romulan related intelligence operations/gathering and not the overall head of an entire division of Starfleet which would more likely be overseen by an admiral.
 
Speaking as a Commodore, I find it unrealistic that the head of Starfleet intelligence would have a rank of no higher than a Commodore. It's probably more realistic that Oh is more likely the head of Romulan related intelligence operations/gathering and not the overall head of an entire division of Starfleet which would more likely be overseen by an admiral.
That's fine, because she introduced herself as the head of Starfleet Security. Not Intelligence.
 
Speaking as a Commodore, I find it unrealistic that the head of Starfleet intelligence would have a rank of no higher than a Commodore. It's probably more realistic that Oh is more likely the head of Romulan related intelligence operations/gathering and not the overall head of an entire division of Starfleet which would more likely be overseen by an admiral.
Unless nobody else wants the job.
I'm thinking that Oh has probably been very manipulative through the years in order to end up exactly where she is.
Possibly refusing any promotion.
 
Watching it a second time, I just realized those were two different holograms, an EMH and ENH, medical and navigation. Which I should have realized the first time if I paid attention to the dialogue. Plus the different accents and clothes.
The fact they all look like rios is really odd. He strikes me as the type to dull his pain with a pretty holographic Orion woman.
 
I see you added an IF there, I wouldn't hang around to see IF you are right plus its a big assumption to assume it would be anything like as smooth a transition as you are describing.

I added "if" because there is no way the sun can become a black hole without some sort of artificial intervention. I am guessing, not least from the hints in The Last Great Hope, that the Romulan sun was in a similar position.

The physics, as others have noted, are clear: As long as the black hole replacing a star has the same mass as that star, objects orbiting that star will continue as always. There would only be disruption if something happened in the transition from star to black hole. This does not seem to have been anticipated: Spock's plan was to use red matter to "create a black hole, which would absorb the exploding star". He said that he had expected that his plan would let the planet Romulus survive.

Even given all that, Romulus couldn't evacuate in the 2 years between the synth attack and the supernova, but suddenly the 2 months (or whatever) Spock buys with this stunt would be enough? :vulcan:

Who said that it would be enough for a complete evacuation? Even if there was no possibility of setting up self-contained shelters for non-evacuees, even if there was a horrific death toll as Romulans froze with their planet, there would still be the possibility of evacuating at least some people from Romulus. That possibility simply would not exist if Romulus was flash-vapourized.

Beyond that, even if somehow Romulus was sucked into the black hole of its sun, the worlds nearby Romulus in other planetary systems would be intact, unharmed by this oddity. The 900 million people that Starfleet was going to evacuate would be fine despite Starfleet's withdrawal from the project.
 
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The fact they all look like rios is really odd. He strikes me as the type to dull his pain with a pretty holographic Orion woman.
He's a self-prescribed Loner with "Issues" ...
Having EH's that look like him is just a huge EGO boost.
Especially when he can essentially tell himself to "go away" (dismiss himself) and not have to think about his problems.
 
I haven’t perused the whole thread, but has anyone else noticed the increasing issue with contemporary sayings and lingo creeping into the dialogue? Every use of “hell yeah,” “dude,” “bogus,” and “pro tip” break the immersion in the story and universe for me a little bit.
 
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