Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x05 - "Stardust City Rag"
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Most films, even hits, don't linger in the pop cultural consciousness for very long. Heck, "Avatar" was the most successful movie of all time and a year later, poof, no one talked about it, no one made parodies about it, no one made cosplay or fan fic about it, there was no more merch for it....it was almost as if it never happened.
Yes, the reboot films were "successful", but that doesn't mean they cast a longer shadow in the culture than the TNG series, which ran for seven years and has been constantly available in reruns and streaming ever since.
I still see more of JJ Trek around in cosplay, fan art and such in the very sites I enjoy looking at.
Avatar is definitely an oddity though I occasionally still see it.
Avatar is definitely an oddity though I occasionally still see it.
I disagree, but I appreciate your thoughtful perspective.
You could completely cut Seven out of the episode entirely and replace her with five bricks of gold-pressed latinum.
Last time, on "Picard" - they blow up a Romulan Bird of Prey. Floating in the wreckage is a box containing five bars of gold-pressed latinum.
They head to freecloud and learn Bruce Maddox has been kidnapped by Vajazzle, the gangster. How can we possibly get her back?
I know, we'll pose as gangsters and offer five bars of gold-pressed latinum.
It works. We get Maddox back and return to the ship. Jurati kills Maddox. Oopsie.
Oh, well. It's off to the Borg cube to find Soji.
Meanwhile, with the thought of entering a Borg cube on his mind, Jean-Luc reflects on his experience being assimilated.
End of Episode.
The only difference is that Seven's tiny subplot about killing Vajazzle would be removed. But that doesn't affect Picard or the other regular characters in any way and nothing about Seven's presence actually impacts the plot/story/mission or has any affect on the characters. It's just a small subplot that involves Seven, a character who had no business being in this episode to begin with. It's a separate story. Fine. Give the show a B plot. But let's not pretend that B plot has anything to do with the A story in any meaningful way. It's Jake and Nog on a wacky double date while Vedek Bareil dies a slow, painful death.
Yes, Picard and Seven share a halfway decent scene reflecting on assimilation. While nice, it's not remotely relevant to any of the story threads or even the themes or character arcs of the show.
You could have Odo randomly pop up for no reason and say, "Boy, being tortured by Cardassians sure does suck," and then Jean-Luc could nod grimly and say, "yup, sure does." But that would be just as random and unearned and as irrelevant to the larger series as the Picard/Seven scene.
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I hope that Maddox created the twins using Brian Brophy DNA.
I understand what you're getting at here, but that is not an episode. It's maybe half an episode at best. The main problem being successfully paying off Vajazzle and GTFO without any drama/complications makes for a shitty, anticlimactic episode. You'd need to add something else - like Elnor fucking things up and blowing their cover or something - in order for it to make more dramatic sense. After all, all heist/caper/con movies need to have plans go awry somehow.
But yeah, Seven's presence in this episode was totally unnecessary for the plot. I'll cut some slack though, because I know she's appearing at least once more in the series, and it might be less gratuitous fanservice later on.
I totally agree that it's not "an episode."
But the way to flesh out that concept was not to say, "Hey, let's loop in a character from another series with no history with Picard, force her into that story for utterly contrived reasons and give her her own subplot, which doesn't tie into the large themes or character arcs or story points of the show in any way just because, hey, cool, she shoots with two blasters and people remember her from 20 years ago!"
Well I'm glad you're not writing the show.
Might not have worked for us, but judging by the ratings it worked for a lot of people, so.
How dare people like things!?
But this is not true.. Both Seven and Picard are facing similar situations; the Federation isn't doing the job it's supposed to. So, who will?
She's a foil for Picard.
Whereas Picard is controlled, Seven is unrestrained, hotheaded "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" fury.
It's most clearly evident in the scene where she beams down to confront -- and ultimately kill -- Jay. (She goes down brandishing two rifles after she had just told Picard she wasn't going to seek revenge. Perhaps he knows better than to toy with someone who's seen the red mist?)
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Well so's money, when you put it that way.
Well so's money, when you put it that way.
What is furious about money?
I guess she's a foil to his... no no fencing puns.Well so's money, when you put it that way.
It is, too! Written by the same folks, and animated.
Seven's plot did allow Picard to get that "If you need space rangers call us" card. The way the camera lingered on a close-up of Picard pocketing it makes it a Chekov's Gun.
The writers could have used anybody to be the space ranger that gave Picard the card and they chose to use a known character (Seven). They also chose to give her more of a plot than a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. They probably chose her because she's an XB and the XBs are part of this season's arc already. No matter which character it was from whichever series, we'd still be arguing about it.
The writers could have used anybody to be the space ranger that gave Picard the card and they chose to use a known character (Seven). They also chose to give her more of a plot than a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. They probably chose her because she's an XB and the XBs are part of this season's arc already. No matter which character it was from whichever series, we'd still be arguing about it.