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Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x04 - "Absolute Candor"

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Picard was good again last night - nice use of Musketeers. Still more a setting up episode, and Elnor's skills were silly, but it was nice to see the old RBOP - even if it's odd that somebody was using a 200 year-old ship - and if there isn't an audiobook of The Three Musketeers read by Patrick Stewart there fucking needs to be, stat. The Romulan brother and sister characters on the cube are by far the weakest link in the show, neither of them have shown any acting talent yet.

The episode used the Musketeers, but for some reason I saw them play fighting and it was Peter Pan and Captain Hook.
 
That scene where Picard makes the boy swear that he won't kill again (unless ordered to do so). It made me think of Terminator II when the Kid makes the Terminator swear that he won't kill again (although without proviso in this case).
 
This whole thing's not getting resolved in six episodes. They'll hit a stopping point at the 10th episode. Leave some for next year, then continue on.

Discovery wraps everything up by the end of the season. Picard doesn't look like the type of series where it will.

Agreed. This is an adventure Picard is not coming back from so I imagine if this goes for 3 seasons it will be 3 seasons of Picard in space. Or either he dies at the end of this season

They’ve said season 1 is a 10 part story, and was written when they only had one season. So imagine the main plot involving the twins will be finished at the end of this season. Now there could be other plot threads or side stories that lead into season 2, but I believe the main story will be finished by the end.
 
I'm sorry, I'm not a ship aficionado, so revile me if you will, but why is an original Romulan Bird of Prey not painted like a giant bird? Because THAT'S super cool.
I could have sworn it did have the painted bird design underneath. We just didn't get very long, lingering glances at the undercarriage. Now I need to watch again to see.

Edit: it is, confirmed by others up-thread.

Kor
 
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It looked to me more like structural detail made to resemble that bird design...? And that particular ship looks like a "stretch limo" version, too?
 
They’ve said season 1 is a 10 part story, and was written when they only had one season. So imagine the main plot involving the twins will be finished at the end of this season. Now there could be other plot threads or side stories that lead into season 2, but I believe the main story will be finished by the end.
That's definitely the likely scenario. But still, with them liking to have a cliffhanger at every possible chance, it's almost a given that Picard Season 1 will end on one as well. And I do hope/pray that it's not USS Discovery showing up in the last scene of the last episode.
 
I enjoyed Sir Patrick Stewards performance in this, he did give off that Picard vibe at times for sure. But I didn't enjoy the episode very much. I'm just having a hard time with the world building as a natural progression of where we left off in DS9 and Voyager. With these gaps in the world, it brings into question whats actually going on in the story. I still don't see the federation just giving up on a request for aid. Which is the catalyst for the story so far.

The reason I see it this way, is that the idea they needed to fabricate a fleet that could even be sabotaged is not plausable in my mind based on what we have seen. When they could have just brought in their merchant fleet\civilian fleet, starfleet, the romulan merchant fleet and their military. I think this would have more closely resembled what picard used as an analogy in the interview... Dunkirk. No need to build ships...

So for me, this disconnects me from whats happening in the show quite a bit. Telling me starfleet\federation was bad and picard quits is just not enough backstory to accept what i'm seeing as a natural progression.
 
I enjoyed Sir Patrick Stewards performance in this, he did give off that Picard vibe at times for sure. But I didn't enjoy the episode very much. I'm just having a hard time with the world building as a natural progression of where we left off in DS9 and Voyager. With these gaps in the world, it brings into question whats actually going on in the story. I still don't see the federation just giving up on a request for aid. Which is the catalyst for the story so far.

The reason I see it this way, is that the idea they needed to fabricate a fleet that could even be sabotaged is not plausable in my mind based on what we have seen. When they could have just brought in their merchant fleet\civilian fleet, starfleet, the romulan merchant fleet and their military. I think this would have more closely resembled what picard used as an analogy in the interview... Dunkirk. No need to build ships...

So for me, this disconnects me from whats happening in the show quite a bit. Telling me starfleet\federation was bad and picard quits is just not enough backstory to accept what i'm seeing as a natural progression.

I think the Borg and the Dominion both hit the Starfleet harder than Starfleet Command likes to let on. It's possible that by April 2385, less than 10 years after DS9 ended, they still weren't entirely back up on their feet yet. These new ships were going to be what fully built them back up again, and then the rug was pulled out right underneath them.
 
I think the Borg and the Dominion both hit the Starfleet harder than Starfleet Command likes to let on. It's possible that by April 2385, less than 10 years after DS9 ended, they still weren't entirely back up on their feet yet. These new ships were going to be what fully built them back up again, and then the rug was pulled out right underneath them.
War construction seemed to concentrate more on slapped together (kitbashed) small ships dedicated to fighting rather than multi-purpose ships. Moreover, those Galaxy-class ships repeatedly took a pounding (or was that the same effects used over and over?).
 
I think the Borg and the Dominion both hit the Starfleet harder than Starfleet Command likes to let on. It's possible that by April 2385, less than 10 years after DS9 ended, they still weren't entirely back up on their feet yet. These new ships were going to be what fully built them back up again, and then the rug was pulled out right underneath them.

It still doesn't make sense, the borg incident was resolved with much less loss than it could have been thanks to picard. I think it was generally accepted that the federation was already building ships to deal with the borg at the time the dominion war broke out. It still has to go from that point to accepting all of the ships from 2 space empires wouldn't be able to make a reasonable effort in the time they had. So this week i'm seeing romulans living in dirt streets fighting with swords. With actual government officials living still. And i'm essentially asked to believe the romulan empire (with dozens or hundreds of worlds) fell to a point where this would occur. It just doesn't feel like the right progression to me. But maybe thats just me :)
 
It just doesn't feel like the right progression to me. But maybe thats just me :)

What you see is what you get. It happened. So you have to fill in the blanks yourself. 20 years happened since last time we were in this timeline. First season is only 10 episodes long and some people complain they are spending too much time, as is, on background exposition and just want the story to go forward. So unless/if we get a series that focuses specifically on the interweaving 20 years, you're just going to fill in the blanks yourself.
 
Well, if they are drawing upon Star Trek Online even in the slightest, most of the Romulan refugees live in conditions like this except for the Tal Shiar and ex-military types who wielded the true power. The Senate may be seen as having sold out to the Federation, or this particular Senator had enemies who conspired to keep him from regaining a cushier lifestyle.
 
War construction seemed to concentrate more on slapped together (kitbashed) small ships dedicated to fighting rather than multi-purpose ships. Moreover, those Galaxy-class ships repeatedly took a pounding (or was that the same effects used over and over?).

Fun fact, contrary to popular myth we never saw a single Galaxy Class destroyed during the Dominion War.
 
It still doesn't make sense, the borg incident was resolved with much less loss than it could have been thanks to picard. I think it was generally accepted that the federation was already building ships to deal with the borg at the time the dominion war broke out. It still has to go from that point to accepting all of the ships from 2 space empires wouldn't be able to make a reasonable effort in the time they had. So this week i'm seeing romulans living in dirt streets fighting with swords. With actual government officials living still. And i'm essentially asked to believe the romulan empire (with dozens or hundreds of worlds) fell to a point where this would occur. It just doesn't feel like the right progression to me. But maybe thats just me :)

I think it was more so the Dominion War that hit the Federation hardest. The Borg incursion during the events of FC certainly damaged or destroyed many ships, but absolutely not at the levels of the Dominion War considering in one engagement Starfleet lost nearly 100 ships (the 7th fleet which was lost in the early stages of the war)

Surely an event that was repeated several times before the tide turned
 
Fun fact, contrary to popular myth we never saw a single Galaxy Class destroyed during the Dominion War.

Nope...the closest was the Galaxy herself which was badly damaged at Chintoka. To date we've only seen three Galaxy Class destroyed on screen..The Enterprise, Yamato and Odyssey
 
As I said, he could have gone to the Cantina, and hired Han and Chewbacca to ferry 50 ppl at a time. Drop in the bucket compared to 900 million. But that's a weak basis for a redemption story since he had no obligation to do that. They dont go into any other detail about it. Clancy says cutting them loose was the right call. Did he go to Chancellor Martok and ask the Klingons to save the Romulans? IDK.

But this premises his "redemption" on not making it his lifes mission as a civilian to save every Romulan he could, no matter how few. To me that's weak grounds for a redemption story since it is based not on his responsibility for the problems, but rather on his failure to be a living Saint who devotes every hour of his life to saving people. Thats a failure to live up to Sainthood, not a moral failure in need of redemption.

This is Jean Luc Picard we’re talking about here, one of the most, if not the most decorated and honored Starfleet Captains of all time. There is so much he could have done, even outside of Starfleet. Did he go to Vulcan High Command and try to create a Vulcan Rescue Fleet? Did he try and pull the “Arbiter of Succession” card with the Klingon High Council or contact Ambassador Worf to try and get the Klingons to help? After he left Starfleet did he go straight to the people and let them know why he’d left and work to change public opinion on the rescue effort? The answer to all those questions, based on what we’ve seen his far is no. He took his ball and went home to nurse his wounded pride. He gave up. He knew what the right thing to do was, and he didn’t do it. He made a conscious choice to give up and that choice has had consequences he’s now being forced to finally deal with.
 
Why would it wear out? Does she scratch there often?;)

She may have gotten a black market upgrade to her cybernetic eye.

Either that, or TPTB retconned it.


The reason I see it this way, is that the idea they needed to fabricate a fleet that could even be sabotaged is not plausable in my mind based on what we have seen. When they could have just brought in their merchant fleet\civilian fleet, starfleet, the romulan merchant fleet and their military. I think this would have more closely resembled what picard used as an analogy in the interview... Dunkirk. No need to build ships...

Imagine the fleet at Dunkirk being tasked with rescuing Germans. That's similar to what the Federation was facing after the attack on Mars.

The Ferderation is comprised of a great many of Romulus's enemies. A great many of them may well have said, "Let the Romulans die! Why bother with them? We're better off without them!"
 
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