"Pro tip?"
Well, after a strong start,
Picard has given us a second week of decline. Hopefully now that the three-part pilot is over (if this was true), we'll start to see some more interesting developments and course corrections. This initial quest for Freecloud seems a little intriguing, anyway.
But our two new supporting characters are a little painful. Somebody needs to remind the creators that they are writing in the
Star Trek universe. How can somebody in the 24th century, a former Starfleet officer, end up living in a trailer, drinking and vaping and snarking Millennial slang? And complaining about Picard's nice house. Are we going to be subjected to Picard accused of being a one-percenter?
Unless this turns out to be some form of extended self abuse-- it was implied that Starfleet discharged Raffi for being Picard's XO, but I'll bet she was offered the Enterprise and also resigned. At least that would salvage this scenario somewhat.
And then we have Han Solo Junior. Once again, in an allegedly moneyless society, we have someone who will do anything for the right paycheck. Perhaps a little more justifiable in his case, since he probably operates on the fringes of space society where you still need to pay your way, but seriously-- a cigar-smoking rogue? Can't Trek do better than that? I did get a kick out of his multiple emergency holograms, though. I wonder if his Emergency Intercourse Hologram also looks just like himself.
So, if we keep in mind that the cyberneticist also has a grudge against Starfleet or the Federation, this is apparently going to be the League of Disgruntled Employees. I didn't really want to see Starfleet and the Federation portrayed as the bad guys in this series, but I found that the scenario does really speak to me, since I've been watching the younger generations abandon the liberalism of my youth for at least the past quarter century, but I really hope that we get to see some
Star Trek again real soon.
It certainly wasn't all painful and inappropriate cliches, though. I'm not sure if the contemporary trope of preluding the main story with a backstory-filling flashback is something I want in a Trek series, but my favorite part of the episode was definitely the glimpse back to Picard's last day in Starfleet. They did a nice job of suggesting, in just a couple of minutes screentime, that he and Raffi had an easy camaraderie and close relationship similar to he and Riker. Her use of the nickname "JL" also gave it a unique touch that made her different than his other close companions like Beverly and Riker (though I was disappointed not to hear him call her Number One). Those few moments were so sweet that I immediately wanted to see this current series replaced with one about Picard and Raffi on Enterprise with a new crew.
The uniforms were also notable. They were a nice evolution of the later uniforms from DS9 and
Voyager and had a proper Trek feel to them. I do prefer the more colorful uniforms over the primarily black jumpsuits, but at least those horrible gray pleated things from the horribly gray movies were nowhere to be seen.
And I continue to love the Romulan caretakers. I envision one of two futures for them: Either they turn out to be moles of the Jack Flash or they will catch up with Picard out there in the universe just in time to save his ass.
But now I'm leaning more toward the cyberneticist being our token mole character, despite her being the most interesting of Picard's rag-tag, off-the-grid crew. I think she was speakng the truth when she said that she didn't tell Commodore Oh that she was going with Picard-- because I'm pretty sure that Commodore Oh ordered her to go with Picard. I'm not happy with the idea of high-ranking foreign agents in Starfleet, but, oddly enough, I do hope we see a lot more of Commodore Oh.
And it looks like Picard's new canine Number One won't be going with him on his latest space adventure. This is a shame, because I was hoping for a scene where, confronted with an enemy Romulan or something, Picard points and shouts, "Number One, engage!" and the formerly laid-back puppy goes for the throat.
Ah, well, on to Freecloud and Maddox. Hopefully they will do better.
