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

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How can the Romulans taking residence inside that Borg cube be completely sure that one day it won't reactivate? I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in there. You can just never be too safe when it comes to the Borg.

Perhaps that's why they're "letting" Federation-types do much of the work for them.
 
Been avoiding this thread as I’ve only just now had the chance to watch it. Loved the episode! Best so far imo. I’m liking seeing it as a more story based Trek, but still has traditional elements and “battles”. Love seeing a fellow Aussie on the show! Evagora was in an Australian political show I love called Secret City, so it’s nice seeing he’s gone into bigger and better things!

I’m also more of a fan of the La Serena now. I had reservations initially, but seeing it in action on this ep has really warmed me up to it. Looking forward to the Picard Eaglemoss Starship Collection!

Considering we’re now nearly half way through the series, I feel it’s not going to be like Discovery in that each season deals with a different storyline. There’s not enough episodes left this season to flesh out everything that needs to be resolved from the seeds so far planted. So my guess is the three seasons are basically going to be one long 30 episode story that won’t have a resolution till the end of the final season.
 
No paved streets but a planetary defence system?

Wasn't it said that the "Rangers" (didn't catch the full name of them) were the ones who installed that defense system? It seems like they probably were stretched pretty thin in the past when they still were able to defend the planet, so the fact that they would have put more resources into defense instead of helping with infrastructure is plausible. Or perhaps defense is literally the only thing they put effort into.
 
I don't really get why Picard tear of that "Romulans Only" sign and then went into the bar. For once it is really stupid as he must know it would provoke the present Romulans. But even more so it doesn't make really sense considering what went on before. I mean he saw how poor that place it and voiced regrets to the nuns and Elnor for abandoning them completely. The last episodes made clear that he thought that the Federation and Starfleet acted completely wrong in abandoning the rescue efforts and in this episode he admitted even before the bar incident his part in it all, that he should have tried more.

So why go the provocation route? He must understand why Romulans are not a fan of humans and other Federation members right now. And especially why they wouldn't like him personally after he broke his promises. So why not try to make amends and get rid of that "Romulans Only" sign with that speech he hold after the sword fight? Something to build some bridges and lessen the hurt. Instead he just acted so much like he deserved respect from those Romulans around him and then threw a hissy fit when they didn't give it to him. That felt off after he already admitted to the nuns and Elnor that his past actions and especially the actions of the Federation and Starfleet were wrong.
 
Picard made himself the face of the Romulan rescue operations. He made grandiose promises that he said would be delivered on and weren't. Yes it wasn't entirely his fault they weren't, but people like to have someone they can blame their misfortunes on, and he did make those promises. Then Picard did make a conscious choice to run away instead of continue to keep fighting or even admit he couldn't live up to his promises, so that hatred festered. And he and we can see this laid out in the episode.

It's not an accident that aphorisms like "A promise is a trap", "You couldn't save everyone, so you chose to save no one," and "I allowed the perfect to be the enemy of the good," inform us what is going on here. I get it that you don't care for this line of storytelling, but to anyone watching it's pretty clear what it going on and it's not an unrealistic turn of events and it doesn't turn Picard into a "Moral Mary Sue" because by letting his pride and self-righteousness prevent himself from facing the music and carry one fighting the good fight, he fucked up.

I think you summed up the entire point of the show right here in this post. In fact, I'll go one step further than that by saying that I believe this show would not have even gotten made if it wasn't for this content. I think it's likely one of the reasons Sir Patrick even bothered to come back.

I love the idea that Picard's ego and self-righteousness now has a price tag associated with it. It's a FANTASTIC character arc/development...and not too dissimilar from the arc the earlier TOS films put Kirk through, particularly TWOK - TVH. Kirk's past caught up to him...and he had to pay the price for his decisions and / or arrogance at various points. He was humbled and learned to re-build himself and the things he cared about. It's part of what makes those films so great.

People are up in arms about Picard's actions being "out of character." I think that's the whole damn point! Sometimes real human beings do things that are out of character as well (due to pressures, emotions, etc), and have to pay the consequences. It's great to take someone like Picard and put him through these kinds of serious paces and see him react. In almost every episode, he's meeting another past associate looking for their help, and they are all telling him to go to hell. It's great. It makes Picard more of a real man and less of a fantasy.

These last 4 episodes have elevated Picard from a somewhat likable but ultimately middle-of-the-pack Star Trek character (for me) to now becoming one of my favorites.
 
I really don't get the whole "slow paced" thing about this series. Every single friggin episode has included some form of combat. In contrast, there are lots of earlier Trek episodes which were essentially "action-less." Even fantastic episodes.

I mean, where was the action in The City on the Edge of Forever? The Trouble with Tribbles? The Measure of a Man? Family? Data's Day? The Inner Light? Lower Decks? Duet? The Visitor? Little Green Men? Far Beyond The Stars? It's Only a Paper Moon? Barge of the Dead? Those were all among the best episodes of Trek, and there were no action scenes to speak of.
 
No paved streets but a planetary defence system?
Priorities. Military assets are going to matter more than roads.
I really don't get the whole "slow paced" thing about this series. Every single friggin episode has included some form of combat. In contrast, there are lots of earlier Trek episodes which were essentially "action-less." Even fantastic episodes.

I mean, where was the action in The City on the Edge of Forever? The Trouble with Tribbles? The Measure of a Man? Family? Data's Day? The Inner Light? Lower Decks? Duet? The Visitor? Little Green Men? Far Beyond The Stars? It's Only a Paper Moon? Barge of the Dead? Those were all among the best episodes of Trek, and there were no action scenes to speak of.
Different production eras and different expectations.

I don't really get why Picard tear of that "Romulans Only" sign and then went into the bar. For once it is really stupid as he must know it would provoke the present Romulans. But even more so it doesn't make really sense considering what went on before. I mean he saw how poor that place it and voiced regrets to the nuns and Elnor for abandoning them completely. The last episodes made clear that he thought that the Federation and Starfleet acted completely wrong in abandoning the rescue efforts and in this episode he admitted even before the bar incident his part in it all, that he should have tried more.

So why go the provocation route? He must understand why Romulans are not a fan of humans and other Federation members right now. And especially why they wouldn't like him personally after he broke his promises. So why not try to make amends and get rid of that "Romulans Only" sign with that speech he hold after the sword fight? Something to build some bridges and lessen the hurt. Instead he just acted so much like he deserved respect from those Romulans around him and then threw a hissy fit when they didn't give it to him. That felt off after he already admitted to the nuns and Elnor that his past actions and especially the actions of the Federation and Starfleet were wrong.
People react emotionally in different situations. Despite what is presented on screen, our heroes are flawed human beings who will not behave in perfectly rational ways all the time.
 
I don't really get why Picard tear of that "Romulans Only" sign and then went into the bar. For once it is really stupid as he must know it would provoke the present Romulans. But even more so it doesn't make really sense considering what went on before. I mean he saw how poor that place it and voiced regrets to the nuns and Elnor for abandoning them completely. The last episodes made clear that he thought that the Federation and Starfleet acted completely wrong in abandoning the rescue efforts and in this episode he admitted even before the bar incident his part in it all, that he should have tried more.

So why go the provocation route? He must understand why Romulans are not a fan of humans and other Federation members right now. And especially why they wouldn't like him personally after he broke his promises. So why not try to make amends and get rid of that "Romulans Only" sign with that speech he hold after the sword fight? Something to build some bridges and lessen the hurt. Instead he just acted so much like he deserved respect from those Romulans around him and then threw a hissy fit when they didn't give it to him. That felt off after he already admitted to the nuns and Elnor that his past actions and especially the actions of the Federation and Starfleet were wrong.
I think maybe because of what had happened he just couldn't tolerate the affront to decency and no matter how ill-advised he was determined to set it right.

I've actually started thinking of this series as kind of like Don Quixote. You have the broken fool knight errant in his later years going off on one last crazy quest for which he's over his head. You have his ragtag crew of "Sanchos" who are more level-headed but are so broken that the chance to fill what's missing in their lives have them believing in the quest against their better judgment because it's better than the alternative of staying grounded in their lacking lives.
 
Barge of the Dead? Those were all among the best episodes of Trek, and there were no action scenes to speak of.

One of the criticisms of Voyager was that it was indulging in these "character eps" when the crew should've (in the opinion of some fans) been fighting for dear life. :shifty:
 
FENRIS Rangers.

It's been mentioned before.
Yeah its Fenris Rangers and we may end up encountering them before long, perhaps they will have some members that we recognise, Seven could be one of them.

Perhaps they are a bit like the Maquis, Starfleet wont lift a finger for the remaining Romulans but they will.

In the end Picards actions could be what spur Starfleet into finally helping them, especially if they find out they were manipulated into abandoning the Romulans in their hour of need which is highly likely.

The ultimate question is exactly who it was and why, to answer that we need to know if the Supernova is connected to the attack on Mars, it will narrow the possibilities greatly.
 
Different production eras and different expectations.

But the people complaining about the pace seem like the same people upset it's not TNG! Do they remember how many episodes of that show were basically office drama, romances of the week, or character focus episodes?

What set TNG apart from other sci-fi shows - even from TOS honestly - was how little action it had in a relative sense. In some seasons probably less than 1/3rd of the episodes had either the crew or the ship firing phasers.
 
Elnor's sword is inspired by novels?
latest

latest
 
But the people complaining about the pace seem like the same people upset it's not TNG! Do they remember how many episodes of that show were basically office drama, romances of the week, or character focus episodes?

What set TNG apart from other sci-fi shows - even from TOS honestly - was how little action it had in a relative sense. In some seasons probably less than 1/3rd of the episodes had either the crew or the ship firing phasers.

Ture, but they were used to stories being wrapped up with a bow tie after 45 minutes. They are pissed that Picard has taken 180 minutes to reach the equivalent of 18 minutes into a typical TNG story.
 
Just saw this episode. Rated it with 8.

End the end....

...a certain Voyager character arrived and is recognized by Jean-Luc....
 
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