Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x01 - "The Star Gazer"

Well, at least a Stargazer series. Rios needs to earn that right for me.

 

I enjoyed what we saw of his comand style here - an extension of what we only caught glimpses of last season. He just needs to get out from behind the shadow of that revered old admiral who keeps hanging over his shoulder all the time.

 

And be nicer.

 

Just say that episode a little earlier and absolutely loved it. Great start to the season. Great also to see the stargazer again, kind of. Great epiusode.

 

WOW!

Socks officially and thoroughly knocked off! This is Prodigy level storytelling right out of the gate, with a ton of nostalgic feels to boot. 9.9

 

Nicer than what? He was perfectly personable in this episode. In season one he was extremely grumpy but also showed himself to be diplomatic (it was Rios who talked everyone down and got the team home safe in Stardust City Rag, not Picard), kind by nature (so very gentle with both Agnes and Soji), and extremely patient (how many times did Picard try to assume command of his ship without realising what he was doing? Rios was incredibly forbearing).

 

What gives me a bit of a pause:

• I absolutely loved the Kelvin-opening of ST2009
• I liked the Shenzhou-opening of DIS
• And I like the Stargazer-opening of PIC S2

In all cases (and I include the "vineyard opening" of PIC & the "Enterprise/red angel"-opening of Dis S2 as well as the opening of STID in this) - the season/series openers where the absolute best parts of each by a mile and not very indicative of the rest of each show/movie.

Like, I'm interested in the Borg & Q mystery. But the whole "dark alternate reality" as a season long arc reminds me too much of DIS S1 (which was the absolute worst Trek in years), and "time travel to present day" also feels more like a one-off episode/comedy concept, and nothing to put a "serious" action season arc around.

We'll see. I liked what I saw so far, but I'm not exactly sucked in either.

 

Nicer with his crew. I need more crew interactions.

 

I don't remember him not being nice with his crew.

 

Well, some day I will reevaluate this episode.

Until then, I shall reserve judgement and defer to you.

 

I was expecting to see this on Prime first thing this morning but it didn’t go up until later, so I’ve ended up seeing the episode twice today.

First and second impressions, really good. Great to see a more traditional Starfleet and a more diverse fleet of ships (my headcanon has decided Captains Worf and La Forge were in there somewhere, and Captain Crusher was on her way at high warp on the Pasteur).

The scene between Picard and Guinan was lovely. I got the impression that Whoopi had forgotten how to play Guinan but I read earlier that she was on heavy medication during filming so maybe that’s the reason she seemed a little off. The handwave of Guinan and Q’s apparent ageing was a perfect acknowledgement without going into unnecessary detail (hi there, “Affliction” and “Divergence”). I’m glad that Seven and Picard got a fairly meaty scene to themselves too and hope to see more of that this season.

I do like Alison Pill — really good drunk acting without going OTT and she and Isa Briones really conveyed that their characters had been on this grand tour of the Federation together for a while — but I still can’t get over what a garbage character Jurati is. Introduced as the Federation’s foremost cyberneticist and then reduced to a quippy kook who doesn’t seem to have a purpose in the series. But there we go.

As Soji only got one scene I don’t really feel in a position to comment. Also with limited screen time was Elnor and, heyyyyy, they’ve wasted the opportunity with the character by sending him to Starfleet Academy! I feel the same way about this as I did when they packed Jaylah off to the Academy at the end of Beyond. Just seems like they’re taking the independence away from these characters and making their futures much less interesting. Raffi and Rios are back in uniform now so surely that’s enough active Starfleet characters?

Picard’s backstory now featuring domestic violence by his father. There’s enough wiggle room in Picard’s history for this to have happened, and it provides a good explanation for why he keeps prospective partners at arm’s length (casts his reasons for ending it with Nella Daren in a different light too). This would surely have been a plot put forward by Patrick Stewart, and, with his direct experience of DV as a child and his extensive work with Refuge and Amnesty, I’m confident that if it does form a significant part of the season then it won’t be ham-fisted. I would have thought though that TV had moved beyond showing DV as solely physical abuse and hope that they’ll show the other facets it can take too. Surely if Stewart had put this forward as a plot to include he would also want it to be somewhat educational too?

Trivial nitpicking

• I hate the rearranged theme tune. The season one theme was beautiful. I get that they wanted to up the urgency with this season being more action-oriented but, even having watched the episode featuring it twice in the last 12 hours, I can’t remember much of it
• Beaming grapes off vines. I won’t add to what’s already been said
• The heroes filling their ships with enemy alien technology and those aliens then using it against them seems like a really dumb misstep from Starfleet. Didn’t this happen in Independence Day Resurgence?
• Q hasn’t dropped in to say hi to Picard in 30 years? Bit rude.

Edit: I’ve noticed a couple of people wondering if the “René Picard” mentioned was a nod to the post-NEM novels. The Prime subtitles spell it “Renée” and presumably this came from the scripts.

 

”now we will begin negotiations”: loved it, very borg.

good point. Well, he probably was the first half Vulcan, half human to join, at least.

Indeed. Here is a story idea for discovery, in fact: 23rd century crewmen that can’t trust genetically engineered humans and 32th century humans scratching their heads at such a backwards attitude.

I don’t think there was domestic abuse involved: I think the two of them argued a lot but this arguing had nothing to do with whatever happened to picard’s mother.

I didn’t get the impression that they got there particularly fast, but they were probably in the area already.

I do love the mixed fleet that shows up within minutes: “hey guys, we got a big, bad borg ship just outside sol, everybody drop whatever they are doing and get there ASAP, even on 100 years old ships if needs be”.

…yet! I suspect that TPB loved what happened with pike and are trying to see if they can repeat it.

 

Best Episode since 2005. A few nitpicks though.

weren’t the Picards hardcore luddites? Why is his mother talking about beaming to Paris and looking at the Stars? I know Picard himself used to do that but I thought it was only him.

Elnor is not the first Romulan in Starfleet, there was that one in the Drummond- though he applied asa Vulcan.

 

To borrow from All Good Things (modified for the occasion):

PICARD: The last time that you stood here was thirty years ago.

Q: Thirty years ago. How little do you mortals understand time. Must you be so linear, Jean-Luc?

 

these are still the holograms that came with the ship and were set up by Rios, 7 clearly doesn’t know their system well (she can’t even turn off the shrink), so they operate according to their original programming, wich doesn't include repelling intruders.

she is operating with the fenris rangers again, I assumed she beamed them to a prison facility or something similar.

It’s consistent with the “evolved humans” trope: they can chose to make a difference again, working to improve things, especially now that they know they had been manipulated, or just keep rotting doing nothing out of spite. The right choice seems obvious to me.

I think you are into something here: that’s probably why they didn’t promote raffi to captain! I’m all for it.

I don’t remember his crew at all, honestly. Apart from the trill communications (?) officer, any prominent officer was conspicuously absent. Especially the lack of a first officer was notable.

I do understand that it was a necessity to keep the budget a bit lower and to avoid adding to a story with too many characters to star with, but I still noticed the oddness (as I often did in every series starting with DS9…it’s just a TV thing that you need to keep the non-regulars cast to a minimum).

It’s pretty much snippets over a generic “tense” motif. Awful. Really awful.

What has been said? Loved it, personally.

did they say that the queen was using the borg technology already present to assimilate the ship? If so I missed it.

30 years for Picard, 30 minutes for Q!

 

funny how the "why doesn't everyone live forever in synth bodies" issue was addressed in discovery but not picard

 

she married a Picard, but isn’t one herself!

that was only one quarter romulan.

 

Best start of a season in Star Trek ever!!!
I'm overwhelmed.


10 of 10 Ten Forwards for me.

Can't wait for the next episode

 

Look up.

Hmm. How the points of light must be dancing all over the place. The fixed stars immobile and anchoring the blackness as ships, satellites, stations, shuttles zip overhead. The night sky must be absolutely alive in Picard's time. Earthbound astronomy must be a thing of the past.

I've seen a train of Starlink satellites chug overhead and marveled. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of orbital and suborbital machines! What must the view be! Can there truly be a night sky when Picard looks up?

 

maybe all the 24th satellites are cloaked to the visible spectrum!