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

[Longinus]

I like that. However, my one reservation with that character right now (albeit sight-unseen, admittedly), is that he exhibits quite a few tropes that are a little bit too elvish. The long straight hair, the long flowing robe-like attire, the elaborate sword work (and of course the ears add too it) and, most importantly, his name sounds like something straight out of Tolkien!

I'm fine with it. Vulcanoids and elves are pretty similar anyway. They are both ancient smug pointy ears who are better than humans. When I first read LOTR I imagined Elrond looking like Spock.

 

[Tarek71]

All of this would be great....if it was actually in the episode and not just post-facto speculation without any real evidence.

Most of the ideas for improving this part of the backstory for Raffi and Picard would involve giving Raffi even less of a reason for hating Picard. There in lies the problem. The braintrust of Picard producers apparently decided that Raffi needs to be furious with Picard, and this what they came up with. It falls dead flat. It makes no sense that she would be "fired", or to blame Picard for it or anything that happened to her in the years after that. It is just important that she be mad at him, for whatever reason, and so this is what they decided to do to establish that. It was yet another storytelling Fart.

 

[Longinus]

Most of the ideas for improving this part of the backstory for Raffi and Picard would involve giving Raffi even less of a reason for hating Picard. There in lies the problem. The braintrust of Picard producers apparently decided that Raffi needs to be furious with Picard, and this what they came up with. It falls dead flat. It makes no sense that she would be "fired", or to blame Picard for it or anything that happened to her in the years after that. It is just important that she be mad at him, for whatever reason, and so this is what they decided to do to establish that. It was yet another storytelling Fart.

Well, it felt a tad artificial, but it's really not such a huge deal. Ultimately the exact details of how Musiker got fired do not really matter nearly as much as that she blames Picard for it, rightly or wrongly.

 

[DaveyNY]

Most of the ideas for improving this part of the backstory for Raffi and Picard would involve giving Raffi even less of a reason for hating Picard. There in lies the problem. The braintrust of Picard producers apparently decided that Raffi needs to be furious with Picard, and this what they came up with. It falls dead flat. It makes no sense that she would be "fired", or to blame Picard for it or anything that happened to her in the years after that. It is just important that she be mad at him, for whatever reason, and so this is what they decided to do to establish that. It was yet another storytelling Fart.

Don't know any Drug Addicts, do you.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, they blame EVERYONE ELSE for their problems.
(and this personal knowledge is from 40+ years of hands-on hospital nursing employment)

Raffi is displaying classic, long-term addict tendency's.

 

[BillJ]

It makes no sense that she would be "fired", or to blame Picard for it or anything that happened to her in the years after that.

People are funny. Many times we see people through our lives that blame other people for something that they didn't have anything to do with. It is life.

As far as Raffi Musiker goes, she feels like Picard completely abandoned her that day, and hadn't reached out to her for fifteen years. She's irrationally blaming Picard for what her life has become.

 

[1001001]

Yeah it’s the abandonment/hurt that’s really behind it all.

 

[Nyotarules]

Yeah it’s the abandonment/hurt that’s really behind it all.

yep not even a WhatsApp bonjour text from the chateau

 

[Bad Thoughts]

It's funny. The news is showing footage of a guy who was just fired from his "job" with a top intelligence agency. He wasn't fired from his branch of the military. The firing reflects a shift away from a coveted position.

Could not Raffi be fired in this sense?

 

[DaveyNY]

It's funny. The news is showing footage of a guy who was just fired from his "job" with a top intelligence agency. He wasn't fired from his branch of the military. The firing reflects a shift away from a coveted position.

Could not Raffi be fired in this sense?

... and it was a "retribution" firing over a major 'incident' as well.

(which also took out the person's sibling, who had nothing what-so-ever to do with the 'incident' in question)


Raffi is/was a Star Fleet Intelligence Officer.
Apparently it was her whole world.
Being discharged from that through no real fault of her own, was absolutely devastating to her.
(the drug habit didn't help either)

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Guess Kurtzman really is the new Berman. Getting shit for stuff he's not even done.

Is Chabon the new Brannon Braga? That talentless hack!

Lets wait and see if he hooks up with Jeri Ryan!

 

[Gonzo]

There was a line of Sisko's: "It's easy to be a saint in paradise." Raffi and Rios were expelled from that paradise for whatever and it is natural to see them suffering a kind of PTSD, turning to substance abuse. People were complaining that Raffi vaping was another one of those "Not My Trek" rallying calls for people, but if you follow this idea that they were exiled from paradise, it's not beyond reason.

One of the reasons I enjoyed certain story-lines in DS9 so much, specifically the S31 stuff and bringing the Romulans into the war.

Raffi got the political boot, while the death of his Captain and subsequent purging of the record showed Rios that the image of paradise was exactly that, just an image.

No wonder he walked away after that.

 

[Danja]

Lets wait and see if he hooks up with Jeri Ryan!

Jeri and Michael are both happily married.

It's not quite that easy this time.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

I

I love you guys.

Now let me explain why that love fits with the canon of fan affection using this handy chart...

s this the type of love that Kirk had for the Enterprise or the type of love that would need a Roddenberry-esque love instructor?

 

[DaveyNY]

I love you guys.

Now let me explain why that love fits with the canon of fan affection using this handy chart...

As long as it involves some verbal torture, I'm in.

 

[Tombfyre]

After this episode... I'm really having a problem with using this new federation\starfleet image as a natural progression of the federation\starfleet we last saw in DS9\voyager. In 0x03 when raffi is snapping at picard for living in his fancy house while she lives in her hovel in the desert... it kind of throws into question everything I know about the state of living in the federation. Adding to the fact that they are producing humanoid androids and storing them in boxes for labour, choosing to not help the romulans makes no sense either.

It feels to me like the motivation of the writers is to be cynical about the idea of the federation. Trying to put current day values and government structures into one that was not intended to be that. Just so they can have the protagonist(s) struggle against them. I feel like that is backwards to what star trek was intended to be... which to me was writing stories that show how the more positive outlook of our future deals with situations we struggle with today or might struggle with.

The real story shouldn't be this synth story... but it should have been about how the people of the federation deal with a collapsing empire after a critical natural disaster.

 

[Alan Roi]

Do we really need it spelled out? Her association with Picard cost her her job, it seems fairly cut and dry. And, historically, we know Starfleet can be petty. Look at the 1701-A they gave Kirk after he slipped the "noose" on those regulations violations.

My guess is that Raffi's association with Picard was the only reason she hung onto her job as long as she did.

 

[Hythlodeus]

The real story shouldn't be this synth story... but it should have been about how the people of the federation deal with a collapsing empire after a critical natural disaster.

not well. end of story.

 

[DaveyNY]

not well. end of story.

Heh ...
They could probably make that into a 5 or 6 episode tale.

 

[Alan Roi]

Different situation entirely. Everyone is rushing to "excuse" Raffi's utterly illogical firing by making up excuses the show doesn't provide or by extrapolating what the actress said in interviews.

The show itself explicitly says Raffi was "fired" due to blowback from people being mad at Picard That's bullshit, no organization would work that way, let alone a government body in the 24th Century.

So those people inventing explanations actually agree with my point, hence the "well, she was a drug user! And maybe she pissed people off already!"

But you can't just invent shit to "fix" the shoddy storytelling of the show.

It doesn't say explicitly that at all. It instead, IMO, implies that Picard provided her purpose and protection. When he resigned her behavior suggests that, and her reaction and rants during his visit to her, plus her providing of help and showing up on the ship tells us that as well.

 

[Danja]

After this episode... I'm really having a problem with using this new federation\starfleet image as a natural progression of the federation\starfleet we last saw in DS9\voyager. In 0x03 when raffi is snapping at picard for living in his fancy house while she lives in her hovel in the desert... it kind of throws into question everything I know about the state of living in the federation. Adding to the fact that they are producing humanoid androids and storing them in boxes for labour, choosing to not help the romulans makes no sense either.

It feels to me like the motivation of the writers is to be cynical about the idea of the federation. Trying to put current day values and government structures into one that was not intended to be that. Just so they can have the protagonist(s) struggle against them. I feel like that is backwards to what star trek was intended to be... which to me was writing stories that show how the more positive outlook of our future deals with situations we struggle with today or might struggle with.

Rafi is a drug addict.

How much of her anger is projection and self-loathing?