Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x08 - "Broken Pieces"

[Gonzo]

I don't agree with the "Clancy is a bad 'un" view. She dismisses Picard because he has ZERO evidence and shows up making all sorts of demands a day or so after publically slagging off Starfleet, when she feels if he'd stayed he could have helped guide them back on course.

If she really thought he was demented, she wouldn't report it to Oh and ask her to check into it - she has enough respect for Picard to at least follow up on what he told her, even if she bought Oh's cover-up.

Now, with actual proof, she's willing to help, but not prepared to subject herself to a "Starfleet isn't what it used to be!" speech from the guy who retired rather than try to make the system better from the inside. I get the feeling that Clancy is another one who looked up to Picard and felt betrayed when he quit because he felt he couldn't make a difference.

Alternatively she could have been one of those that stabbed him in the back.

Its just like Picard said in the episode, the Zhat Vash set a trap for Starfleet and the Federation, they could have side stepped it if they had wanted to but as we all know they were just looking for an excuse to fold.

Clancy's career now depends on how helpful she is, Picards star will rise and then he will be the one in a position to dictate terms.

He could end up as Commander in Chief for this, the Federation and Starfleet will have no choice if it all comes out and political heads are going to roll.

Starfleet and the Federation will have been caught with their pants well and truly down, same goes for the Romulan Government and Tal'Shiar.

Jurati will probably be acquitted, she certainly has grounds for it.

Commodore Oh is up shit creek without a paddle if it all comes out, everyone is going to want her extremely dead, her actions killed not only 90000 Federation citizens but also up to 900 million Romulans.

Raffi will be reinstated and most likely make full Commander immediately, Rios will probably get another ship if he wants one and the Synth ban will be rapidly revoked.

That is assuming that the Zhat Vash are wrong, or right and there is enough time to stop whatever it is they are shitting the bed about.

 

[Gonzo]

That moment when you realise Seven is going to plug herself into the ship and become the Queen of the cube was the biggest fucking fangasm I've had in a very long time. When her eyes went black and she spoke in The Borg Voice™ I was like,

YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

And then her plan immediately went to shit. But those few seconds were amazing.

Rest of the episode was fab too. Loved the conference of Rios Holograms. Only complaint is that it's terrifically improbable that they'd end up chartering the ship captained by the guy who was there when 2 more of these "perfect synths" showed up and that his tragic backstory would so neatly tie into the main plot.

Is someone nudging events in a certain way.

Its just the sort of thing Q would do as a test of Picard.

 

[Yistaan]

Commodore Oh is up shit creek without a paddle if it all comes out, everyone is going to want her extremely dead, her actions killed not only 90000 Federation citizens but also up to 900 million Romulans.

It would be poetic justice if a Romulan killed Oh for what happened, except the only prominent Romulan victim of the supernova who wasn't Zhat Vash on this show was a Senator who got killed by Elnor. Well maybe Laris and Zhaban can kill her...

 

[Nerys Myk]

So basically you can be mind melded into furthering their cause until said meld victim starts suffering consequences for their actions and then breaks free of the brainwashing.

Clancy can still thus be converted.

Seems doubtful. Or as Clancy might say "It seems fucking doubtful".

 

[Yistaan]

Seems doubtful.

Hey, we still remember when a bunch of scorpions brainwashed the entire Starfleet Command back in Conspiracy.

 

[Gonzo]

It would be poetic justice if a Romulan killed Oh for what happened, except the only prominent Romulan victim of the supernova who wasn't Zhat Vash on this show was a Senator who got killed by Elnor. Well maybe Laris and Zhaban can kill her...

It is possible that she could survive if the Zhat Vash are shown to be correct in their interpretation of the message.

If the big bad does appear then there is no point in killing any more synths, its pretty much the only thing that can save her at this point.

I am most interested in finding out just how many other spies there are in Starfleet, it could get very messy if there are a lot of them, personally I think the number will be small to minimise the chances of exposure.

We won't have long to wait to find out.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

So basically you can be mind melded into furthering their cause until said meld victim starts suffering consequences for their actions and then breaks free of the brainwashing.

Clancy can still thus be converted.

Clancy would just tell them to fuck off

 

[Nerys Myk]

Hey, we still remember when a bunch of scorpions brainwashed the entire Starfleet Command back in Conspiracy.

Entire might be a stretch. Definitely three admirals though. They were controlling their victims through a parasitic infestation, so not really brainwashing.

 

[RaulMacca]

You are all way over thinking this, they have not left enough time for a supercomplex finish.

Clancy will be bad, its almost canon starfleet admirals are bad, regardless picards broke the law, he nor clancy get to alter that but writers may ignore it.... like the half dozen dead bodies in picards study on earth.

And worf is going to show up, no way Dorn was on set to watch

 

[Yistaan]

You are all way over thinking this, they have not left enough time for a supercomplex finish.

Clancy will be bad, its almost canon starfleet admirals are bad, regardless picards broke the law, he nor clancy get to alter that but writers may ignore it.... like the half dozen dead bodies in picards study on earth.

What law did Picard break? Not reporting the bodies? For all we know Laris and Zhaban did it.

Also, it seems that Zhat Vash hatred of AI is just barely fitting in with the rest of the franchise. A poster on trekmovie noted that Data was captured on Romulus itself by Sela and no Zhat Vash showed up to execute him. Every Romulan at the time was more concerned with the bizarre and unrealistic invasion of Vulcan (which is a Federation member and would have prompted an intergalactic war).

 

[Llywela]

It occurred to me, if the Zhat Vash were after Data for a long time they would know Geordi is his best friend. Why didn't they brainwash Geordi to kill Data in the Mind's Eye?

Also, it seems that Zhat Vash hatred of AI is just barely fitting in with the rest of the franchise. A poster on trekmovie noted that Data was captured on Romulus itself by Sela and no Zhat Vash showed up to execute him. Every Romulan at the time was more concerned with the bizarre and unrealistic invasion of Vulcan (which is a Federation member and would have prompted an intergalactic war).

I figure the Zhat Vash is a relatively small cabal who can't be everywhere, which is why they weren't able to capitalise on the occasions when Data was within Romulan reach. Also, from what we learned in this episode, it doesn't seem like Data was ever a target in himself. He wasn't advanced enough to be considered the Seb Cheneb himself, he didn't represent the tipping point, to need to be exterminated as such. What Data represented to the Zhat Vash was a warning that the tipping point was being approached and therefore synthetic research must not be allowed to develop any further. So rather than waste any effort trying to destroy Data, they focused their efforts on infiltrating Starfleet so they could work toward a much bigger and, to their minds, more important target: preventing any further research into advancing synthetic development.

 

[RaulMacca]

what law are you kidding?

murder, in france having live firearms unsecured is a crime, using them and not reporting killings and fleeing earth....yeah thats a few crimes.

protecting a synth banned by treaty would be a crime, try harbouring a taliban member.

Then the romulans would pin everything from that cube onto picard, who conspired with hugh to break the treaty.

Just all imo ofcourse

 

[Agony_Boothb]

You are all way over thinking this, they have not left enough time for a supercomplex finish.

Clancy will be bad, its almost canon starfleet admirals are bad, regardless picards broke the law, he nor clancy get to alter that but writers may ignore it.... like the half dozen dead bodies in picards study on earth.

And worf is going to show up, no way Dorn was on set to watch

It's not going to be wrapped up in the next couple of episodes. This is longform storytelling at play. The synth plot is going to be the keystone story across all 3 seasons.

 

[Yistaan]

what law are you kidding?

murder, in france having live firearms unsecured is a crime, using them and not reporting killings and fleeing earth....yeah thats a few crimes.

protecting a synth banned by treaty would be a crime, try harbouring a taliban member.

Then the romulans would pin everything from that cube onto picard, who conspired with hugh to break the treaty.

Just all imo ofcourse

Well the Romulans invaded Picard's home, so they would be fair game even in modern law. And as for Picard having unsecured weapons, he may have been given special dispensation due to his long list of enemies or the law changed in a few hundred years. Or perhaps those phasers only work for Picard and his housemates' fingerprints or something.

As far as I know, Hugh was going to break the treaty after Picard left for Nepenthe. And even then we just have Rizzo's word, no trial or anything.

Picard could always claim he didn't know Dahj was a synth at first. And that he was going to report her but she ran away and was later killed.

So rather than waste any effort trying to destroy Data, they focused their efforts on infiltrating Starfleet so they could work toward a much bigger and, to their minds, more important target: preventing any further research into advancing synthetic development.

This puts Measure of a Man in a whole new light.

 

[Danja]

Voyager needed several thousand tons of plate armor to go through a Borg transwarp conduit ... yet La Sirena somehow manages to breeze through as though it was on a Sunday drive.

What gives?

That moment when you realise Seven is going to plug herself into the ship and become the Queen of the cube was the biggest fucking fangasm I've had in a very long time. When her eyes went black and she spoke in The Borg Voice™ I was like,

YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

And then her plan immediately went to shit. But those few seconds were amazing.

She did what she set out to do ... she drove the Romulans out and retook the cube.

 

[Maurice]

[...]The only person they share evidence with actually tried to murder[ed] a man to prevent it from happening.[...]

[...]The only person we see them share evidence with was a human who found it convincing enough to try and murder a man and also influenced others to discover the octanary system they were trying to hide for some reason.[...]

Fixed that for ya.

 

[Yistaan]

Voyager needed several thousand tons of plate armor to go through a Borg transwarp conduit ... yet La Sirena somehow manages to breeze through as though it was on a Sunday drive.

What gives?

That was over 20 years ago though, with the plate armor being from around when Picard is set curiously enough. For all we know that plate armor is now common and built into all starships inconspicuously.

 

[SJGardner]

murder, in france having live firearms unsecured is a crime, using them and not reporting killings and fleeing earth....yeah thats a few crimes.

I'm pretty sure defending yourself against home invaders who shoot you with firearms is not illegal in any jurisdiction. And I'm not sure the contemporary French criminal code is still valid on a unified 24th century Earth. Yeah, I'd rather that Federation civilians didn't have the right to bear arms, but the Federation as portrayed evidently recognizes it.

protecting a synth banned by treaty would be a crime

I'm about 85-90% certain this will be directly resolved in the finale as it's central to a main character. Either through an ex post facto amnesty law retroactively making harboring a synth legal, or if the writers don't want to delve deep into legal concepts, then probably with Clancy relaying that Picard has been given a pardon and the ban will be lifted shortly.

Then the romulans would pin everything from that cube onto picard, who conspired with hugh to break the treaty.

That would require the Federation taking what they say at face value, which is far from guaranteed. They don't exactly have any admissible evidence other than what Narissa says.

 

[Danja]

That was over 20 years ago though, with the plate armor being from around when Picard is set curiously enough. For all we know that plate armor is now common and built into all starships inconspicuously.

Sirena looks awfully light.

 

[Yistaan]

Sirena looks awfully light.

Yeah, the advancement in starship hull technology is amazing! And let's not forget Janeway brought back that armor and thus advanced ship tech by 20 years in Endgame.