Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x10 - "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2"

[Romulan_spy]

Sounds like lots of stuff was left on the cutting room floor.

Yes. A lot. I think the finale would have been better if they had included all the extra stuff to properly wrap up the loose ends.

 

[Mojochi]

 

[Longinus]

If again we take the hints that consciousness transfer is quantum teleportation process, the original is just matter + quantum states, the quantum states are all transferred to different matter ( the simulation) where they interact with Data and evolve, these updated quantum states are then transferred to the new matter (golem). As I mentioned above the process would likely have some approximation errors, but if they were small, Picard's collection of quantum states would evolve and for all purposes experience each step of the process. The "original" is transferred with some errors and some new experiences. The errors are equivalent to experiences.

The transporter could be considered to be the same, though even more magical and impossible in real life. Tom Riker, while good fiction, makes the whole transporter thing even more out of whack with physics. If we take that to be immutable cannon, then transporters are inconsistent with the Picard transfer. Quantum information cannot be cloned only transferred. But transporter information can be. Transporters thus, must reconstruct all the matter with a default quantum state and that state evolves as soon as the person rematerializes. Transporters kill and recreate. Picard's transfer into his new body, transferred his consciousness, with error, to a new body with more error but in a continuous manner. Both transporters and mind transfers are a proper mindfucking.

The best option is to just call it all magic.

Yeah, I always have maintained that transporters work via quantum data and thus the transported individual is indeed 'the same person.' If this consciousness transfer works similarly, then it would apply to that too. Transporters generally do not seem to be able to duplicate things, and this is consistent with it being quantum teleportation. My explanation with Thomas Riker is that there somewhere is a nearly identical parallel universe that in which Riker just altogether vanished in that transportation. We know from the mirror universe that transporters can accidentally pluck people from parallel universes, so that's what happened there too.

 

[No Grave Marked]

Yeah!


Never mind, Spock. That doesn't count.

Spock's Resurrection wasn't instantaneous the same way it was in this episode of STP.

John Luc Picard dies; and effectively after the next commercial break he's 100% fine, Brain abnormality fixed, and ready to go.

Spock's Resurrection required Kirk to have to steal the Enterprise; travel to a quarantined planet, fight Klingons, and escape in the nick of time. Further, it took one more movie, to really get Spock to recover his mind.

Again in STP, if you decided to take a bathroom break, you could have missed John Luc Picard's death entirely, and it really didn't affect the overall story at all.

It was an absolutely classic TNG reset button move. They killed off Picard , resurrected him, and had him 100% back to normal in the last 5 minutes.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Seems like some of the stuff they left on the floor like the xBs scene could have been placed between Picard's death and rebirth, to make it seem like he was actually dead for a bit.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Yeah, they should probably have gone for some additional time in the finale, maybe even a part III, to give Picard’s non-death some more meaning and gravitas as a cliff-hanger before hitting reset.

 

[ThreeEdgedSword]

And as they showed everyone bawling at his death, I sure as hell would have liked to see at least some of them react to his resurrection, even if it was just Raffi throwing a half-empty bottle at him going, "Seriously, JL?! Are you fucking kidding me?!"

Not to mention what happened to the cube/ xBs, the synth folks, and yes, I'll reiterate, the mystery of the vanished Borg cube scientists, and lots more.

 

[AresB]

But if they spelled out every little detail, what would we speculate on?

 

[Campe]

I really hope we get some extended episodes on the blu-rays. I liked the season quite a bit, but I’m not naive enough to think that lots of good character and story moments weren’t lost to the editing process. If a Trek series ever would benefit from extended cuts, it’s this one.

 

[137th Gebirg]

But if they spelled out every little detail, what would we speculate on?

If nothing else, but to save us all from wading through a hundred pages here of wondering, “whatever happened to...”

 

[Batai]

Narissa, on the other hand, has been a lost cause of a character. The only scene I'd keep of hers would have been the Zhat Vash initiation scene because she actually acted like she had some depth. Putting lines in her mouth like asking Narek if he's fucked any of the Synths only continues to make her a cardboard villain. All of her lines in her final duel with Seven could've been dropped into any 80's action movie. She is just evil to be evil.

Narissa asked that question because she clearly has an incestuous jealousy of Narek's attention toward other women, and Narek cringes when he senses it. If she's older than he is, no telling what she did to him when they were kids.

 

[fireproof78]

Spock's Resurrection wasn't instantaneous the same way it was in this episode of STP.

John Luc Picard dies; and effectively after the next commercial break he's 100% fine, Brain abnormality fixed, and ready to go.

Spock's Resurrection required Kirk to have to steal the Enterprise; travel to a quarantined planet, fight Klingons, and escape in the nick of time. Further, it took one more movie, to really get Spock to recover his mind.

Again in STP, if you decided to take a bathroom break, you could have missed John Luc Picard's death entirely, and it really didn't affect the overall story at all.

It was an absolutely classic TNG reset button move. They killed off Picard , resurrected him, and had him 100% back to normal in the last 5 minutes.

I don't see the issue. I didn't expect Picard to be dead. It's just like that Firefly episode.

 

[ThreeEdgedSword]

Tying up major loose threads or showing leadup to important scenes is not "spelling out every detail".

 

[thribs]

According to Chabon on Instagram, there were scenes written/filmed that show Narek being taken into Federation custody, and Ramdha and the other XBs trying to form a relationship with the Synth community, but they were cut.

Why cut them? It’s a streamed show.

 

[thribs]

Wouldn't surprise me if in S2 we see Picard investigate the idea that the Vulcans didn't evolve on Vulcan at all.

Was a big piece of info that Narek just dropped into the fireside chat.

That was just a script error that they forgot to change.

 

[Campe]

That was just a script error that they forgot to change.

Is this something Chabon said or are you just assuming? Because that's a pretty big thing to just accidentally leave in.

 

[Khan Jr]

So Data's great hurrah is to be not only a euthanasia advocate, but the worst possible one?

"Just let me die, I know you can make me a literal human being and I'll be able to live on this synth heaven planet, but just unplug me. I WANT to die. Being dead is the most human thing ever.

The suicide idealization in the episode is disgusting, and potentially harmful, especially in these times. I'll hope this series wins less space in its audience's head than its predecessors did.

 

[Longinus]

The suicide idealization in the episode is disgusting, and potentially harmful, especially in these times.

Yep, it really left a bad taste in my mouth as well. Accepting inevitable death is one thing, intentionally killing oneself for no apparent reason is quite another. Neither the clone Picard or ghost Data had to die, they both could have lived forever in android bodies. The pontificating about 'death making us human' seemed really hollow.

 

[Anduinel]

Tying up major loose threads or showing leadup to important scenes is not "spelling out every detail".

Quite. Especially the xB stuff - that was kind of a big deal for Elnor and Seven's motivations, and I'm surprised Chabon would think it was unimportant enough to just drop.

 

[Frightscape One]

Good point about streaming shows... they didn't need to edit so much out. Some things, okay.

Likely need material for extras on the dvd... deleted scenes are always a win.