Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x05 - "Fly Me to the Moon"

[shapeshifter]

Someone needs to be taught how to give arterial injections, the artery isn't two inches deep into the elbow.

Didn't really feel any magic from seeing a Supervisor again like I thought I would, Picard and Tellin's interactions were just ho hum. And where was the shapeshifting animal companion? Not canon!!!1! My excitement for a series based on that origination has fizzled out.

Soong and Q interactions were better. Cool foreshadowing of the future, if there is one... What has Q done?!

The past implication has been that new queens are somehow produced from a mold or cloning as the need for a new one arises. Logical and fit with the observed facts. Here, the current queen chooses someone of her liking, who just happens to always look like her and have the same tortured history? I suppose all ways could still be used, depending on how her situation is going down. Jarring moment, but a fresh take on her regenerations is welcome.

Yay, everyone is back together again sooner than I thought they would be. I was afraid the starship with a missing man sidetrack would be drawn out to the last. Now the teamwork for fixing this mess can shift into high gear.

Infiltrating the gala, very Bondish but kicks it up a level. Seems a couple old tropes got fresh updates in this episode.

Going with a 8.8 for this one.

 

[Mr Awe]

I think it has to somehow work in with Jurati's assimilation. Q knows that if Renee goes into space, people are going to die, so he's trying to stop it.

My wild-ass guess is Renee in space has first contact - with the Borg. Mankind's first contact with an alien race is hostile, and it is only Adam Soong's genetic augmentation which saves humanity. Humanity becomes isolationist and xenophobic as a result.

Interesting theory. I'm not sure that I agree with it, but it would help tie in with the first episode. Picard did mention her discovering a sentient microbe. Perhaps her replacement didn't discover it or treated it as non-sentient, which caused some sort of conflict, leading to the Confederation and the sense of aliens being dangerous.

I'm hoping that the writers are going with a more interesting series of events that leads to the Confederation than a single point of deviation, which has been done to death.

Perhaps Q was setting up a test for Picard initially, but then it spun out of control due to unforeseen circumstances. Unforeseen by an omnipotent being? Queue (no pun intended) Q's medical issue which is interfering with his abilities.

 

[Kevman7987]

So that's why Q's powers didn't work on Renee; he couldn't force her to feel self doubt, her depression already had her feeling that.

 

[gvn2fly]

Eh. Never bothers me. It's a fictional Earth history anyways and most hardcore Trek fans take them for granted.

It's not like they're mentioned often anyways. Cochrane gets mentioned more often than the Eugenics Wars.

Agreed. The wars weren't mentioned when Voyager went back in time to the 90s either (except for a Botany Bay easter egg I think). To me, it's just a conflict that happened sometime in Trek's past 90s/early 2000s whenever that resulted in Khan becoming a dictator somewhere - but didn't affect the entire world. It doesn't really need more explanation than that.

 

[Mr Awe]

Even worse thought. The Confederation Timeline is the original timeline. Picard and Company alter the future and make the Federation timeline. Q is trying to fix what Picard and Company did and restore the original correct timeline. An idea so out there, I'd be very disappointed if it's true.

Several of us discussed that possibility in the previous review thread. It appears like the real world is heading towards the Confederation. It would take some outside intervention to bring about the Federation timeline. However, there were doubts that they'd go so far and do that. It would be a great, meaningful twist though.

 

[Yistaan]

My guess is no retcon will happen(both ENT and STID were pretty adamant about the wars happening in the late 20th century) but I could see this whole period of history being viewed as one extended period of instability and conflict and the separate Eugenics Wars of the 1990s and World War III being connected by certain individuals and government actions taken in the wake of the earlier conflict.

The smart move is never to mention Eugenics Wars in the 90s ever again.

Honestly we should probably just consider the Eugenics Wars novels by @Greg Cox as basically canon at this point, where they were made to be an underground war in line with real 1990s history.

 

[Tuskin38]

So that's why Q's powers didn't work on Renee; he couldn't force her to feel self doubt, her depression already had her feeling that.

No, he's still making it worse by doing it the old fashioned way. With words.

 

[Aeolusdallas]

You know I was thinking Soong's forcefield which also looks like the one keeping the pollution back in the Confederation future might explain why San Francisco and other places weren't destroyed in the coming Nuclear War. Perhaps they had force fields around them when the bombs started to hit. Might even be why all life on Earth was't completely killed off.

Even in the normal timeline San Francisco was spared. It's always seemed to me that Asia got the worst of it. They claim 600 million dead which is several times what the first two world wars killed but it's not Fallout or most other nuclear war in media levels of destruction.

 

[tomalak301]

Much better episode than last week. Things finally feel like they are progressively moving, and we are getting into the gist of the story. I was very intrigued by Adam Soong (How many Soongs are there) and Corey (Nice to see Briones again) and how his relationship with Q will go. However, this Q seems really angry at Picard, not really testing Picard so I wonder what his motive is. As for Jurati and the Borg Queen, I guess we can say that Jurati was the Queen we saw in episode 1.

Overall, this episode was the best episode since the premiere, and hopefully things start coming together in the next few episodes.

7.

 

[Yistaan]

However, this Q seems really angry at Picard, not really testing Picard so I wonder what his motive is.

They'd better come up with a good reason why, because everything indicates Q and Picard haven't even talked since the end of TNG. I know Q experiences time differently but still

 

[Tuskin38]

Pretty sure it's because of the encounter with the Borg in Episode 1.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Loved this episode. A few thoughts / highlights for me:

1. Jurati is the Masked Borg Queen, as I've been saying.
   
   
2. NotLaris is surely going to be Laris in the future. She just can't say it. She's assigned to all Picards, not just Renee. She blew it big time, however, on Robert , Marie, and little Rene...
   
   
3. Jurati and head-Borg Queen in the communications room. Pretty sure that was a nod to nuBSG, namely Baltar and his head-Six interactions (red dress included!).
   
   
4. "That's your crew?... dragging away a dead police officer."
   "Oh, I'm sure he's not dead!" That was a big LOL.

 

[tomalak301]

Dr. Werner (Lea Thompson) says to Soong "Dr. Soong you were running genetic experiments with a privatized military organization, Spearhead Operations, on soldiers. Unmonitored, unregulated illegal experimentation". Could this be related to the Eugenics Wars?

I've just done a rewatch of Orphan Black and when she said that, my mind went straight to that series, especially with the Military and Monitors.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Been a solid 8 since Episode 1. I hope there's a 9 or 10 up the road. Acting's been on point. Spiner did a great job this episode. Not quite sold on Brady's American accent though.

 

[Amaris]

Call the number on Q's card, everyone. You get a nice little easter egg.

I did, and I giggled like a school girl.
Then I cried a little bit because this is the kind of thing I liked to do as a kid, and it brought back some really good memories.

I wholeheartedly recommend calling, folks. It's 1-323-634-5667

Standard phone rates apply.
I don't even know if long distance is still a thing, but you know, just in case.

 

[gweeps]

Considering Carl Sagan's statement about how humans are "star stuff", I almost wonder if Q's line about being the "evolution of stardust" points to humans eventually evolving into Q?

Who knows?

"I am death, destroyer of worlds" is a slight paraphrase of a popular saying quoted by Oppenheimer. And the mention of a butterfly is pretty obvious.

I really like it all because it shows how Q, like most sentient creatures, contains multitudes.

 

[Airmandan]

I wonder if the show would have the balls to change the future they end up going back to? The way they’re running around causing mayhem, what would happen if they go back and there’s small differences that weren’t there before. Like carpet in the hallways!

 

[Amaris]

I like how she was born on the release date of Star Trek: First Contact.

So that's why Q's powers didn't work on Renee; he couldn't force her to feel self doubt, her depression already had her feeling that.

"Joke's on you, I already hate myself."

 

[Jarvisimo]

I have to say, Brent Spiner looked much healthier in this episode than he did two years ago! Maybe it was the suit and beard hiding things, but did anyone else think so?

EDIT - pics for reference

 

[Amaris]

I have to say, Brent Spiner looked much healthier in this episode than he did two years ago! Maybe it was the suit and beard hiding things, but did anyone else think so?

He did! I thought he looked terrific.