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

[137th Gebirg]

That probably would have made it just a skosh too meta for a lot of people's liking.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

"Never saw things goin’ so right… Noticing the days hurrying by…"

Well, they certainly stuck the landing in that final episode, didn’t they? I’ve been chewing on my thoughts on the finale, which has been the most exciting episode yet. I surprisingly enjoyed it. I leaned into the nostalgia factor.

Everything fell into place. Almost too easily. Almost too conveniently. But I didn’t get hung up on it. Because after 10 episodes, a glimmer of the Picard we knew shows up. He gives the passionate plea that turns the tide, that wins the day. Words over phasers—the very embodiment of Star Trek.
Starfleet, the organization that is the living manifestation of the Trek ideas, returns to true form. Comes to the defense of the defenseless against an aggressive force. It stands once again on the side of the light. And who better to bring Starfleet back to form then Will Riker, commanding a ridiculously huge armanda, facing off with an equally absurd enormous Romulan flotilla.

The thing that won me over. Data’s farewell. He finally got his “needs of the many” goodbye. And I relished every minute of it. The emotion. The dialogue between Picard and Data… written by a true literary master. Chabon in his finest form thus far in the series.

Yet, I can’t help wondering if it was worth it getting from there to here. The more I wonder, the more I’m left with disappointment. The season and its story doesn’t hold up.

The theme of “being alive is a right and a responsibility” isn’t explored in a truly satisfying way throughout the season and it the individual elements don’t build up to it. It falls apart when looking at the long game. As I’ve said before, there are elements that would make a great story but they don’t rally together well.

PIC is an attempt to create prestige TV with Star Trek, as this Forbes article states.

In today’s era of Peak TV, the clarity and simplicity of Star Trek is deeply out of fashion. Serious (and successful) shows today feature moral ambiguity, anti-heroes, mysterious McGuffins and endlessly percolating subplots. Can you imagine Game of Thrones structured as a “monster of the week” actioner, or Breaking Bad built around a cast of lovably bickering archetypes?

So we’re subjected to all those tropes, forced into the show… the unnecessary mystery box… the Game of Throne Romulan twin spies… and less than satisfying exploration of human flaws, such as addiction.

Don’t get me started on the portrayal of Raffi’s addiction. As a recovered addict, I was excited to see Trek tackle addiction in this manner. But it was lackluster, to say the least. And upsetting that a black woman was not only an addict but also an absentee mother. Umm… that’s relies too much on old stereotypes and a little tone deaf on the part of the show runners.

In any case, I’m interested in where they take season two, especially with Golem-Picard. Will they finally do the deep character dive of Picard we were promised? The character-driven exploration that got sidelined by the Synth arc.

I have further finer questions and issues with the finale… the magic tool that’s all too convenient, the tensionless sterilization orders, Chabon’s reliance on Golems (see his previous work), and no consequences for Jurati for killing Maddox.

 

[fireproof78]

I thought they just did a deep dive of Picard's character? I mean, him being so arrogant to walk away from Starfleet and to trash them on the media because they didn't listen to him? Him having to say goodbye to Data, to struggle with his current frailty, his failure with the Romlans as epitomized by Elnor, and his own trauma recovery with the Borg?

I guess I don't know what a deep dive would look like that is as satisfactory as keeps getting pined over on the Interwebz...

 

[Drunk Superman]

Wouldn't be the first golem in Star Trek

I think Chabon used a Golem once in his work

 

[Nyotarules]

Watched the season again, with hindsight I wish the season ended with the android saviours coming through the wormhole as a cliffhanger but the Data death scene had me almost tearing up.
The Blue skies renditon ...beautiful voice
Sir Patrick Stewart is 80 this year, is this why they did an early death and resurrection ending?

 

[GhoulEddie74]

I was glad he was not a non moutstache twirling evil baddie. Arik, Noonien, A.I were all different as all of us are when to comes to our relations and their personalities

And each had their different upsides and downsides. Spiner managed to endow each generation of Soong with likable as well as truly bizarre and dislikable personality traits and sell each one as a different person despite their largely identical physical appearances.

 

[Nyotarules]

And each had their different upsides and downsides. Spiner managed to endow each generation of Soong with likable as well as truly bizarre and dislikable personality traits and sell each one as a different person despite their largely identical physical appearances.

Yep they came across as humans who could fit in any century lol

 

[GhoulEddie74]

Arik was the criminal mastermind with a core of values that wanted humanity to be the best and the strongest it could be. Noonien was the kind puppetmaster who wanted to extend his own life and its meaning using artificial children who could help carry on his legacy. Altan was the one who probably understood the mistakes of his father and his ancestor and wanted to be the best of them all yet fell victim to the same fanatical devotion to his work, letting his profession blind him to the rights and lives of others.

 

[Drunk Superman]

The Blue skies renditon ...beautiful voice

That was Isa Briones. (Dahj/Soji/Sutra)

 

[GhoulEddie74]

 

[T'Boo]

I couldn't buy how quickly Soji went to the Synth side. She was having trouble adapting to not being human, but suddenly she's ready to have the SuperSynths come and wipe out all humans?

I bet that bitch Narissa is still alive. She had that personal transport thing.

 

[Drunk Superman]

I couldn't buy how quickly Soji went to the Synth side. She was having trouble adapting to not being human, but suddenly she's ready to have the SuperSynths come and wipe out all humans?

I bet that bitch Narissa is still alive. She had that personal transport thing.

She found her people. Who needs those murderous humans?

Narrissa screamed all the way down.

 

[Danja]

I bet that bitch Narissa is still alive. She had that personal transport thing.

I agree. She's too good a villain just to kill off after one season.

 

[Nyotarules]

I couldn't buy how quickly Soji went to the Synth side. She was having trouble adapting to not being human, but suddenly she's ready to have the SuperSynths come and wipe out all humans?

Once she was fully activated her human phobic, genocidal tendencies kicked in - typical android lol

 

[Schnuffel]

hello

I'm a little disappointed with the final.

here are some points in order of appearance :

- it was clear that dr jurati is on the side of the humans, but that soji wants to destroy all humans after the discussion in e09 with sutra is a bit surprising.

-when raffi, chris and narek went to the android city, all 3 should have been kept in custody.

- when dr soong sees that sutra has killed her sister saga and not narek he changes sides surprisingly quickly.

-instead of showing the video to all the andorids and soji, he only talks to sutra offside and deactivates her. (I suspect like worf deactivated data in st insurrection).

-soji just carries on as if nothing had happened and dr soong doesn't even try to deactivate her as well.

- then chris tries to destroy the terminal, but only has one grenade with him, narek made 12 of them.

-after the signal was destroyed, they just let oh go, even though she was responsible for the masacre at mars.

- what has become of narek and ramdha is not explained either.

- but the funniest thing is the golem for picard......
that means that all people can become immortal with such a golem (even if there was only one at the moment)

-Picard hopes for 10 or 20 more years...
he's only 94. More likely, 30 or 40 more years.
(dr mc coy was 137 years old in the first tng episode)
the life expectancy of humans probably carries 130-140 years


I thought q would heal picard and dr soong would actually be lore...
lore and lal are not even mentioned in the whole series...

(another nice point, jery ryan and peyton list had a stunt double for the small fight)

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Sorry if this has already been posted but Chabon gives some insights into the finale on reddit here:

Spoiler: Chabon answers on finale

What became of Narek?

Yeah. Narek. We know, we know. A casualty of the editorial process, alas. The intention was for him to be taken into Federation custody.

What about the xBs?

We shot a scene intended to show Ramdha and other xBs beginning to form a kind of community with the Synths under the auspices of Soong. In the end we couldn't find a place for it that worked and we felt that losing it didn't hurt too much. Maybe we were wrong!

Which came first, the Admonition or the Sisters prophecy Narek spoke of?

The Admonition predates Romulan civilization by hundreds of centuries. If Romulans had not chanced upon it, their history would be very different. Their pre-existing mythology of Gamadan just gave them a framework for interpreting their experience of the Admonition.

Are they really sentient if Deanna can't sense them like she did Lore, Lala, and Data (when she felt)?

The emotion chip and the creation of Soong androids encountered by Troi represent an earlier approach to android emotional engineering. I think Troi or any Betazoid could be trained to read the emotions of the current generation. (OP: Also, recall that there are species that Betazoids can't read, including Ferengi.)

Will Jurati face legal punishment?

She will put herself in the hands of the law.

Will Soong build himself another Golem?

Probably

Are the Starfleet ships' designs influenced by Star Trek Online?

I don't know the answer to that.

What was the class of Riker's ship? And was that filmed in Toronto?

It's a Curiosity*-class ship* (OP: I was right!)And yes, shot in Toronto where Frakes was busy directing DISCO.

Was there ever discussion of having Q speak to Picard, a la Tapestry?

No, never.

Why was Data kept like that when he could've been put into a Golem?

If he could've been put in a golem, he would've been. Soong's golem was not operational and, as he says, he had abandoned work on it until the seeming imminence of his own death renewed his interest in it. What's more, that was a highly sophisticated reconstruction/simulation of Data's consciousness, as Data explains, and not a fully accurate, literal transcription thereof.

Why does Starfleet have so many of the same ship? Do they have any others?

It would be odd and unprecedented if they didn't!

Was the set of DSCs bridge used for Riker's ship?

There was far more cleverness, skill, and wizardry involved, both practical and digital, than your question implies. (OP: While the chair and bridge stations seen behind Riker are clearly from Discovery, the over-the-shoulder shots facing the viewscreen show other stations and details.)

How was Narissa still on the cube? Didn't she warp out?

She beamed, not "warped," and "away," not "out."

Are the evolved AI beings the same who altered a probe in Discovery?

If so, it's news to me. (OP: In Discovery, the probe was altered in the far future by sentient AI Control. In Picard, the evolved synthetic life came from the distant past.)

Did Rios keep the deus ex tool?

It is an important point of honor for Rios that he return what was borrowed.

I wish more had been done for JL advocating for the xBs. Cut/seed for s2?

It would be a good thing, for them and for him.

What did they do with Picard's corpse?

I wondered the same thing!

Can we hope for the (Seven-Raffi) relationship to be explored in season 2?

I hope I don't get in trouble for saying, yes.

How much did you have TOS androids in mind?

Well, I remember Kirsten Beyer and me cracking each other up with discussions about the android duplicator in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

What was one concept from your original pitch to Patrick that you wish stayed in?

Picard as the road/stage manager of an itinerant interplanetary theater company, alone in an empty theater, acting out a scene from Krapp's Last Tape just before the planet he was on got assimilated. Not sure I wish it were still there, but it's fun to think about.

Why didn't Oh kamikaze the synths?

I'd like to think she was listening to Picard and Soji, but maybe that's just because I believe in Star Trek. Perhaps she thought it would be more effective to live and fight another day.

How much time between Picard's resurrection and the final scene?

Long enough for loose ends to be tied up, the xBs seen to and their safety arranged, Seven and Raffi to hook up, Jurati to hire a lawyer ...

Would the advanced synths be concerned that the beacon stopped so abruptly?

Who even knows, after 200,000 years, if they're still "advanced." Maybe they've devolved.

Will S2 go deeper into the Romulan rescue?

In a way.

Section 31 ... how much do they know about the Zhat Vash and do they care?

Section 31 has always kinda seemed like they have their heads too far up their own asses, to me.

If you could bring two Deep Space Nine characters aboard La Sirena, which ones and why?

I'd love to check in on Garak and Bashir. They're always so much fun to hang out with.

In-universe explanation as to why Starfleet's armada looks the same?

They actually don't. Because they aren't. ... I am working to confirm, but I believe there are actually four distinct classes.

Was Oh indeed half-Vulcan, half-Romulan?

Yes. Her parent's were re-unificationists. Or so her Romulan mother wanted it to be believed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/c...urce=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

I wish they had included some of this into the actual finale.

Star Trek: First Draft...

I find myself imagining a scene with Picard standing over a grave where his body is buried contemplating on it. Don't know if that fully makes sense but it'd be an interesting image.

 

[Sir Stewart Wallace]

I bet Narissa will use the Dark Side to heal her injuries. She'll be back.

I find myself imagining a scene with Picard standing over a grave where his body is buried contemplating on it. Don't know if that fully makes sense but it'd be an interesting image.

It makes sense, but this show isn't really deep enough to go there.

 

[Drunk Superman]

I bet Narissa will use the Dark Side to heal her injuries. She'll be back.

She'll be a Borg. All hail Queen Narissa!

 

[Lord Garth]

They have to say something about Jurati's situation next season. As early as possible. Something saying like Jurati wasn't in her right state of mind because of what Oh did to her. It can be something as simple as that. I can rationalize it as such as a viewer but this is an instance where I think it needs to be said out loud in the actual show itself. Otherwise, it's "back at her post like nothing's happened."

I understand that there's no breathing room in a grand season finale where they have to wrap things up in a tiny little bow. But in the beginning of the second season, where the music has stopped, things have slowed down, and the second season's story line begins to build up, they have to devote scenes and moments looking at where the characters are in the aftermath. I believe they will do this, but I'm typing it just to type it. And to be able to point to it for future reference. So I can say "Yes, I was wondering about it."

 

[F. King Daniel]

Guys the Admonition is made up of Shutterstock images