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

[Thomas Elliot]

Also, highly amusing to me, is the refrain of "It needs to be more like Star Trek" and then when the TNG style ending shows up, save, you know, with consequences, then it needs to be less like Star Trek.

If anything, it should be an issue of common ground. Since the so-called reset-button of TNG was criticized by people praising PIC you'd think they'd be critical of its eventual use in the finale.

 

[NCC-73515]

I think they pulled a TWOK. They killed off Picard in the first season to take our minds off it, like they "klled" Spock in the first scene of TWOK only to reveal it wasn't for real, so we can now watch the rest of the series without wondering if he'll die. Then they'll blindside us later.

And now that I posted it, that's probably what's not going to happen.

Then why not simply say he's cured of the syndrom? Maybe they had him die in case there's no S2, but then it was renewed and they added his revival.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Then why not simply say he's cured of the syndrom? Maybe they had him die in case there's no S2, but then it was renewed and they added his revival.

There was no cure. They made that clear all the way back in "All Good Things..."

 

[cooleddie74]

And clearly 29 years of progress in medical science didn't make the difference in saving his life. Some things are just incurable in TNG's time. The Tellurian Plague being one. Irumodic Syndrome being another. Both worried Beverly but one took Picard's life.

 

[fireproof78]

If anything, it should be an issue of common ground. Since the so-called reset-button of TNG was criticized by people praising PIC you'd think they'd be critical of its eventual use in the finale.

I don't know. I know it comes across as a reset but I don't think of it as a full reset button but rather a logic extension of technology already seen in universe.

Now, if it lacks any consequences then I'll be more critical. At this point it had a nice TNG wrapup but with the actual potential of revisiting the problems, and not just warping away.

 

[Lord Garth]

Then why not simply say he's cured of the syndrom? Maybe they had him die in case there's no S2, but then it was renewed and they added his revival.

We'll circle around back to this after the end of the series. "We have no evidence. Only a theory which happens to fit the facts." If I'm wrong, then any explanation I'd give to support my speculation about why they killed off Picard in S1 will go up in smoke.

 

[Gepard]

There was no cure. They made that clear all the way back in "All Good Things..."

There's no disease. It's all fictional. If the writers wanted to say there was a cure, then there would be a cure. Nothing about android resurrection was inevitable or necessary.

 

[Turtletrekker]

There's no disease. It's all fictional. If the writers wanted to say there was a cure, then there would be a cure. Nothing about android resurrection was inevitable or necessary.

And have the GateKeepers scream about how the writers don't respect canon? No thanks.

 

[Lord Garth]

There's no disease. It's all fictional. If the writers wanted to say there was a cure, then there would be a cure. Nothing about android resurrection was inevitable or necessary.

Of course it's all fictional. It's not about what they had to do. It's about what they wanted to do. In both the "All Good Things" version of the 2390s and the Picard version of the 2390s, Picard's condition is incurable. So that's one thing from "All Good Things" the writers thought they could use. How they handle Picard being a synthetic version of himself in S2 will let us see if doing what they did was worth it.

 

[NCC-73515]

There was no cure. They made that clear all the way back in "All Good Things..."

Different timeline

 

[fireproof78]

And have the GateKeepers scream about how the writers don't respect canon? No thanks.

That ship blew up a long time ago, several times, caught in an endless timeloop.

 

[Kpnuts]

When they revealed his Irumodic Syndrome (though weirdly not stating it as such as a quick throwaway line), I figured it would be this long-running thing in the back of Picard's mind, and it would become serious in season 3 or 4.

Silly me for forgetting Kurtzman and co just love to fast forward emotional character development, so yep, literally 10 episodes later it kills him.

But then it doesn't, becomes he comes back to life five minutes later. Pointless and poor.

 

[Lord Garth]

When they revealed his Irumodic Syndrome (though weirdly not stating it as such as a quick throwaway line), I figured it would be this long-running thing in the back of Picard's mind, and it would become serious in season 3 or 4.

They can't think this way when Patrick Stewart is the age he is. Any season could be the last season. There's no "Wait until Season 3 or 4." Every season has to be written as if it could potentially stop right there.

And Covid-19 makes that sobering possibility even worse than it was before. Suppose the worst happens before the Covid-19 Crisis dies down? Suppose the quarantine lasts longer than we thought? That's it. If this was their only shot, I'm glad they told the story they wanted to tell.

And if there's more, afterwards, so much the better. At least for me.

 

[DEWLine]

And we do want the cast and crew to survive this along with us, so that they have a decent chance of picking up the threads on the terms of their choosing. Failing that, at least we got this.

 

[fireproof78]

When they revealed his Irumodic Syndrome (though weirdly not stating it as such as a quick throwaway line), I figured it would be this long-running thing in the back of Picard's mind, and it would become serious in season 3 or 4.

Silly me for forgetting Kurtzman and co just love to fast forward emotional character development, so yep, literally 10 episodes later it kills him.

But then it doesn't, becomes he comes back to life five minutes later. Pointless and poor.

No way that they would tease a long running possible death with Stewart's age. I see no reason to make it long running, and no, his death is not pointless nor poor.

 

[Kpnuts]

They can't think this way when Patrick Stewart is the age he is. Any season could be the last season. There's no "Wait until Season 3 or 4." Every season has to be written as if it could potentially stop right there.

And Covid-19 makes that sobering possibility even worse than it was before. Suppose the worst happens before the Covid-19 Crisis dies down? Suppose the quarantine lasts longer than we thought? That's it. If this was their only shot, I'm glad they told the story they wanted to tell.

And if there's more, afterwards, so much the better. At least for me.

If they can't be sure how many seasons the show will last then don't bother with the Picard dying storyline if 10 episodes later it happens, and then gets reset. It's just bad writing, and frankly, pointless. The writers on both show have a habit of fast forwarding plot and character development, this is yet another example.

No way that they would tease a long running possible death with Stewart's age. I see no reason to make it long running, and no, his death is not pointless nor poor.

"I see no reason to make it long running". Huh? How about, you know, to make it more compelling, more nuanced, less forced? TNG made Q putting humanity on trial last over 180 episodes. Picard showrunners are getting impatient and showing all their cards, after just 10.

Why bother showing Agnes and Rios develop a relationship like normal people would? Nah, let's have them kiss in an extremely WTF and sudden way the episode after they first meet.

 

[Lord Garth]

If they can't be sure how many seasons the show will last then don't bother with the Picard dying storyline if 10 episodes later it happens, and then gets reset. It's just bad writing, and frankly, pointless. The writers on both show have a habit of fast forwarding plot and character development, this is yet another example.

No. The point of the death was to get Picard to a point where he could speak to Data in the "Afterlife". Getting over Data's death was the main point of the entire season and Picard's "death" was the catalyst to get him there. It's not pointless, it's just a point you disagree with. There's a difference.

 

[Lord Garth]

Furthermore, if Picard had Irumodic Syndrome for multiple seasons, that would be mulitple seasons where we'd start to question whether or not he had all of his mental faculties intact. Clearly PIC is in a galaxy that's been jaded by the events of DS9 and what happened afterwards, so do you really want the person fighting for what's right in this changed "world" to be someone who's lost his mind and who no one should take seriously? I don't think you do. I don't think most people do.

So either they have to find a miracle cure for the Irumodic Syndrome, or he has to die if there's truly no cure. In which case, they made a synthetic body for him and now they can take Picard into a place next season that isn't him moping about 20 years ago.

Whether or not it would've been better to just have a cure or to resurrect him is a debatable question with no right or wrong answer. It depends on what they do with it next season. But if you can accept Spock being resurrected through something as wonky as Genesis, then you can accept Picard being resurrected by having his essence transferred into another body. Something that's more grounded in science-fiction than the fantasy that was TSFS. As much as I like the movie, let's be honest.

I see the first season of Picard as have tied up any loose ends with him that weren't resolved by the TV series or the movies and now that they've done that, they can do something else with him without people wondering, "What about this?" "What happened to that?" They addressed his Irumodic Syndrome, they answered what he did when Romulus was in danger, how he coped (or more accurately didn't cope) with Data's death, and answered what he'd been doing all these years. But the entire series couldn't have been about cleaning up the mess left behind by Nemesis or seeing how much of "All Good Things" came true. Now it can be about something else.

They wrapped up the "old business" before going into the "new business". If they get the chance, I think they want this to be more than just an epilogue to TNG. But in order to get this series going, that's where they had to start. Or as they said in a tagline before the series premiered, "The End is just The Beginning."

 

[fireproof78]

"I see no reason to make it long running". Huh? How about, you know, to make it more compelling, more nuanced, less forced? TNG made Q putting humanity on trial last over 180 episodes. Picard showrunners are getting impatient and showing all their cards, after just 10.

One, more compelling is highly subjective. Constantly going "I'm dying" and having that hanging over Picard's head isn't compelling to me. It feels cheap and more along the lines of soap opera.

Q having humanity on trial was not a consistent effort. Q just popped up and a retcon appeared. The only benefit is that "All Good Things" is a really good episode.

Why bother showing Agnes and Rios develop a relationship like normal people would? Nah, let's have them kiss in an extremely WTF and sudden way the episode after they first meet.

"Normal people?" I'm supposing that people having one night stands after first meeting and kissing is not "normal?"

I have developed relationships with people within a week that are deeper than people I have worked with for years. It's all about context and there is no "normal" way about it. It's all in personality, circumstance and individual need.

 

[Makarov]

Rios and Jurati arent in a deep relationship they're kind of just passing the time, sooner or later they will be in splitsville