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Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x06 - "The Impossible Box"

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I was watching with subtitles on because of some noise, and I could swear the subs included a line of dialog that wasn't actually spoken aloud, when Picard was on La Sirena before transporting over to the Artifact. I'll have to watch that scene again to verify.

Kor
 
Its been a long time since I watched Best of Both Worlds. Was it explained why Picard didn't have to deal with external implants remaining after he was reclaimed? As well does he still have any internal components left?
 
Its been a long time since I watched Best of Both Worlds. Was it explained why Picard didn't have to deal with external implants remaining after he was reclaimed? As well does he still have any internal components left?

Crusher says, "We won't have any problem getting those implants out now." And that's the last we ever hear of it. But Picard can still sense The Borg in First Contact, so something has to still be there.
 
I can't believe I'm so strongly in the hater camp. I really want to love this show.

The good:
Picard confronting his traumatic Borg past. Hugh and Picard's reunion and witnessing the recovering ex-borg was touching. Rios is likable. Raffi's sweet talking was clever.

The bad:
There were so many moments where characters act irrationally or make very strange assumptions they state out loud to excuse where the story needs to go. The others quickly and with little skepticism excuse Maddox death simply because Agnes said so. Hugh immediately assumes Picard must be there because he needs help and pledges his unwavering loyalty to help. Hugh assumes Soji must be in danger. Soji isn't in her room, Picard assumes she must be concealed and activated. Soji literally falls at Picard's feet through the ceiling and he gives a hurried explanation to trust him. Elnor drops from the ceiling and kills two/three Romulans without knowing the situation. The time the four of them debate was more than enough to make a safe escape. If the Romulans don't know about the Queen's chamber, close the door. Send Picard, Soji, and Elnor on their way and wait it out. - tv and story tends to do this perfect timing stuff, but great stories don't rely so heavily on it.

What was Hugh thinking? He has this, probably imperfect, alliance with the Romulans in which he is saving thousands of ex-Borg. Is he not completely throwing this cause away by helping Picard escape based on what? Just because Picard showed up? Should be interesting to see how that plays out. I'm guessing will be sword and Borg vs. Romulan guards.

Less bothersome but weird:
Agnes murdering a former lover and dealing with it by banging Rios. A bit strange, but whatever. I've heard the writers insist many times that they would only bring legacy characters in if they served the story. Perhaps they have something really interesting cooked up for the Riker's and Picard, but I figured their meeting would be far more organic than jumping in a space teleporter to go see Riker.

There are some great ideas throughout this series so far, but the execution seems so clunky. It seems reverse engineered where a couple of situations were the touchstones and they tried to find ways, however clunky, to get the story to go there.

The Fleet Admiral turns Picard down for help to go chase a flesh android that may or may not exist. The evidence? A necklace with two rings on it and a colleague saying Bruce may have built two. Why not call one of hundreds of other contacts in Starfleet or throughout the federation for leads? Because. Why not call former Enterprise colleagues for advice/help? Because he can't ask former crew members to put themselves in danger. What about Raffi? Well that's different, she hates him. Why does that make it okay to put her in danger? Because.

Surely they'd take you seriously after you have a chateau full of dead Romulan assassins? Welp, we got to go now! We need a young alien warrior character. Aren't we in a hurry to find Maddox and twin? Picard helped a kid 14 years ago he hasn't visited or called since, he's likely to devote himself to a nebulous cause...and I might not be out this way again so we HAVE TO make a stop. Why not just bring his two warrior vineyard helpers? Because it's harvest time.
 
The Fleet Admiral turns Picard down for help to go chase a flesh android that may or may not exist. The evidence? A necklace with two rings on it and a colleague saying Bruce may have built two. Why not call one of hundreds of other contacts in Starfleet or throughout the federation for leads? Because.

Because Picard still wanted to do things by the book and was banking on his reputation/history giving him enough credit/weight/gravitas where the CnC would reinstate a former Admiral and grant him a ship
 
Crusher says, "We won't have any problem getting those implants out now." And that's the last we ever hear of it. But Picard can still sense The Borg in First Contact, so something has to still be there.

My guess is that Picard still had the nanoprobes in his system...they never come out and explicitly say it because I don't think the writers had even come up with the concept of nanoprobes at the time..in BoBW you never see the assimilation tubules but the Borg do inject Picard with some sort of hypospray when first taking him off the Enterprise...and by First Contact they had assimilation tubules but never outright say Picard still had the nanoprobes...actually I really can't remember...were nanoprobes even a thing before First Contact? No mention of them in Q Who and it's been a long time since I've seen BoBW. It seems FC was sort of when they ran with that idea and by Voyager it was definitely a thing.
 
My guess is that Picard still had the nanoprobes in his system...they never come out and explicitly say it because I don't think the writers had even come up with the concept of nanoprobes at the time..in BoBW you never see the assimilation tubules but the Borg do inject Picard with some sort of hypospray when first taking him off the Enterprise...and by First Contact they had assimilation tubules but never outright say Picard still had the nanoprobes...actually I really can't remember...were nanoprobes even a thing before First Contact? No mention of them in Q Who and it's been a long time since I've seen BoBW. It seems FC was sort of when they ran with that idea and by Voyager it was definitely a thing.

The first we ever hear of nanoprobes is in Voyager. But retroactively, Crusher could've discovered she couldn't get everything out and we just didn't see that discussion between her and Picard. It can work.
 
Doesn't First Contact heavily imply they exist, given people are assimilated before even getting any parts grafted on?

Yes. I was thinking of when the exact term was first used but this is a case of "a difference that makes no difference is no difference." The First Contact Borg are basically the Voyager Borg.
 
First Contact does indeed depict assimilation starting with the tubules in the neck. See here, starting about 5:14:

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Obviously, some kind of tiny machinery is injected through the tubules and begins the process of assimilation, even if the word "nanoprobe" was not specifically mentioned in the movie.

Its been a long time since I watched Best of Both Worlds. Was it explained why Picard didn't have to deal with external implants remaining after he was reclaimed? As well does he still have any internal components left?
In my headcanon, his Borg implants simply weren't as fully and inextricably integrated and embedded into his biology, since he was only a Borg for a brief period.

Kor
 
Because Picard still wanted to do things by the book and was banking on his reputation/history giving him enough credit/weight/gravitas where the CnC would reinstate a former Admiral and grant him a ship

I understand that. It makes sense the Admiral would turn him down. In part because of his history with Starfleet since the Mars attack, the recent tv interview, and because he has no evidence. That is not the part that makes little sense. It's everything after that. I'll even grant the really weird ignition of the story that involves an android, who thinks she's human, approaching Picard and he immediately assumes she must be a flesh android. Her running to a roof and getting blowed up and then, on very little evidence, assuming there must be a twin out there and that is a cause he'll risk everything to take up. I'll grant that. Even granting that as fine there is just so much stupid.

Sorry, I'm not helping by venting here. I'm going to just be healthy and let it all go. I'll always have TNG.
 
If the Borg have Sikarian gateway tech now, can't they just beam into any world they want within 40000 light years and start assimilating? No need to battling pesky defense fleets when you have that tech. A cool reference and all but the implications of them having that tech are enormous.
I was thinking the same thing. It must have some serious limitations for this not to be the case. It needed to load up for a while, perhaps it can only transport couple of people and then needs to recharge for a long time, so that it is not practical for mass invasions? Though it is not that 'why the Borg have not won already' is a new problem. As good film as FC was, if the Borg used the time travel logically they would have won a long time ago; in fact they would have won exactly whenever they wanted.
 
I understand that. It makes sense the Admiral would turn him down. In part because of his history with Starfleet since the Mars attack, the recent tv interview, and because he has no evidence. That is not the part that makes little sense. It's everything after that. I'll even grant the really weird ignition of the story that involves an android, who thinks she's human, approaching Picard and he immediately assumes she must be a flesh android. Her running to a roof and getting blowed up and then, on very little evidence, assuming there must be a twin out there and that is a cause he'll risk everything to take up. I'll grant that. Even granting that as fine there is just so much stupid.

Sorry, I'm not helping by venting here. I'm going to just be healthy and let it all go. I'll always have TNG.
Strictly speaking, his goal was to find Maddox to make sure if there was a twin or not. And the link to Maddox was provided by the painting. Someone died killed by Romulan assassins. That was the only evidence he had to go on, and Jurati supported his hunch there was a link to Maddox.

My complaint is once the final attack on the Chataeu was made, why didn't he hand the body that Jurati killed to the authorities as his proof?
 
Hugh immediately assumes Picard must be there because he needs help and pledges his unwavering loyalty to help. Hugh assumes Soji must be in danger. Soji isn't in her room, Picard assumes she must be concealed and activated. Soji literally falls at Picard's feet through the ceiling and he gives a hurried explanation to trust him.
Maybe these deserved a little more attention, but Hugh hasn't been the focal point of the story. Picard is effectively about the experiences of Soji and JL. Other people may get stories, but they are still along for the ride. I think we get enough of Hugh's personality, sensitivity and motivation that he is aware of Soji's spiritual dilemma in some fashion. Given how rare diplomatic visits to the Artifact were, it could only be assumed that JL was not there for pleasure.
 
Strictly speaking, his goal was to find Maddox to make sure if there was a twin or not. And the link to Maddox was provided by the painting. Someone died killed by Romulan assassins. That was the only evidence he had to go on, and Jurati supported his hunch there was a link to Maddox.

My complaint is once the final attack on the Chataeu was made, why didn't he hand the body that Jurati killed to the authorities as his proof?

Exactly. I mentioned this in my original grievance list above. He has a room full of dead Romulans, only one of which is disintegrated. That would be the time to get back on the horn with some authorities.

You could argue Picard thought more were coming. Rios stated "things are getting hot up here." That doesn't much help Laris and friend. What do we assume happens to them? More Romulans come to finish the job? They're left alone, dispose of the bodies, and cover the incident up? They contact the authorities and try to promote Picard's conspiracy so that backup can be sent? My guess is the in-show answer will be: forget about it.
 
The Commodore is Chief of Starfleet Security so she can make it go away if she wants.

Especially as she will probably have her own people in place for just such a situation.
 
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