Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x06 - "Two of One"

[Lord Garth]

Haven't had time to weigh in on this episode. It's been a crazy day. "The short short version!," to quote from Spaceballs: That went into all kinds of crazy directions!

Okay, a little bit more: I'm surprised and not surprised at the same time that Dr. Soong is up to crazy experiments with his daughter, if that's what she really is. The plot thickens. He probably had good intentions but has gone way too far down the rabbit hole.

I liked this episode, and I thought it was solid, but don't feel too strongly about it. So, that feels like a 7. The first 7 of the season. The rest has been 8 and above. Usually 9 and above.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Who knew the Borg Queen was a Pat Benatar fan?

 

[Paul755]

Good episode but you could feel how short it was compared to the others.

Interesting of them to go really dark with the Soong family.

Queen Jurati is great. Really the stuff with her has been some of my favorite stuff this season. And who knew Pill had such a good voice.

Rios is totally going to stay. Hope he’s well versed in WW3 history.

I’ll say 8/10

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Who knew the Borg Queen was a Pat Benatar fan?

Have you seen how she dresses? Leather Queen!

 

[TV's Frank]

I don't know, I'm just feeling like the show is treading water at this point and everything is rolling out in the most bland fashion. There's no consistency of tone and every line of dialogue seems derived from a computer program which simply regurgitates the most generic phrases heard on TV. This episode lurched from scene to scene haphazardly, characters stated bland things and then on to the next scene. And it's fairly obvious by now that when the writers initially separated Rios from the crew early on, that he would decide later in the show to stay in 2024, right? And I don't know why, but the stuff with Jurati and the Borg Queen seem oddly perfunctory. I guess I just... expected more nuance, more novelty and more focus from the show.

 

[gweeps]

Nuance is not really a part of current Trek.

 

[fireproof78]

I never really found Trek to be nuanced.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Nuance is not really a part of current Trek.

Or any at all.

 

[Gov Kodos]

A most plausible answer.
The fact that she killed the lights, tapped into the sound system and turned on the spotlights can also be used to confirms this.

It worked for Marty McFly.

 

[koresoong]

We also see the fancy key that was shown in a trailer. The chateau seems to have a locked room with some dark secret

Is the kid who meets the vulcan in the forest JLP's brother Robert? did they lock that vulcan away in the dungeon??
It's definitely something super scary in the locked room. maybe this is the big "fear" that JLP somehow needs to get over. did Q interfere with the past to make JLP give Renée a pep talk so she can get over her fears, to make the mission a success? would go along with the whole "getting over your fears" theme of the season.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

I felt this episode was more filler than any other this season. We only learn one new thing: Soong is genetically engineering his daughters. The only thing I ask is that they re-release "The Offspring" with Isa Briones playing the part of Lal....

 

[Saul]

her implants are pretty different. I think it’s all right: she’s just another queen/another incarnation if the queen, I don’t have any problem with it. although I’m not a big fan of her current implants: don’t like those blinking lights in the back and those rubber stuff on the shoulders look suspiciously like…well, rubber! How she’s written and played makes this incarnation by far my favourite, thought, and that’s way more important than the makeup (which is still fine).

I think the OG Borg Queen had blinking lights at the back of her head too.
The thing I dislike most about this new Borg Queen is the black eyes. You can't really emote anything. It's kind of a boring and unnecessary effect.

 

[TV's Frank]

I think I'm also ready for this Star Trek to return to outer space. I mean, I live in present day LA and there are already dozens of current shows set here, so for me it's kind of boring to see a Star Trek show take place right in my neighborhood as it looks today.

 

[Uhura's Song]

OK episode.

Not much foreward movement. Left on a cliffhanger. I am on record not really liking this format for that reason. Hardly ever any sense od resolution/completion. Limits it to 6/7/8 and hardly ever 9/10s.

Better singer, Pill or Ryan? I do oike me some Benatar!

 

[Guy Gardener]

Just a thought, and apologies and credit to whoever already thought of this as I have not been regularly reading anything here or any where, I think the trauma Picard is remembering is the Romulans harvesting his DNA for the Shinzon clone. I swear I saw a Reman in some of Picards flashback memories. And the trailer had a kid being approached by Vulcans, but maybe they were Romulans (and assuming the kid is Picard). l also wonder if we are going to discover Laris was involved, she was Tal Shiar and I think Romulans have longer life spans like Vulcans. Or this is bilge ; )

The assumption is that Romulans can't do telepathy or make it to 300 birthdays, because they don't do Logic or ponn far.

Telepathy comes from logic.

Longevity comes from prolonged abstinence.

If they stretched Ponn Far out to 21 years, its possible that some Vulcans might live for a thousand years.

 

[jackoverfull]

Raffi was not smoking Tabacco.

Indeed she wasn’t. So?

Just a thought, and apologies and credit to whoever already thought of this as I have not been regularly reading anything here or any where, I think the trauma Picard is remembering is the Romulans harvesting his DNA for the Shinzon clone.

it’s a very nice theory, but it doesn’t fit with nemesis: they harvested his DNA when Picard was already a captain and accelerated the growth of the clone.

People's obsession over runtimes is weird to me. Like they were cheated or something,

well, these last couple of episodes were a bit short.

A most plausible answer.
The fact that she killed the lights, tapped into the sound system and turned on the spotlights can also be used to confirms this.

As I said, the whole issue was too prepared to be possible. This is not a bad explanation, if not that it requires all this planning, be it by Jurati or by the Queen, to have happened all in a few seconds. Was this performance planned in advance it would have made much more sense, both visually and musically.

 

[Blooded]

possibly! It would certainly have raised more eyebrows if the captain smoked on the bridge (and even the unlit cigar wasn’t welcomed by many). Also, in some markets there are stricter rules if you have a character smoking onscreen, so it’s possible they want to avoid it this season.

It’s also likely that, given they filmed this during COVID, the idea of someone exhaling smoke around the set in near proximity to people wasn’t something they wanted to do…

 

[jackoverfull]

It worked for Marty McFly.

not really: Marty came on stage, took a guitar and played a blues with musicians used to play the blues. Here she is in control of the lights, has a built in microphone, perfect pitch and somehow the band is ready to play a peculiar arrangement of the given song, full with a brass section coordinated with the piano to the slightest note.

I think the OG Borg Queen had blinking lights at the back of her head too.

Yes, but I found them less evident. Perhaps it’s just me.

The thing I dislike most about this new Borg Queen is the black eyes. You can't really emote anything. It's kind of a boring and unnecessary effect.

Indeed. At least they only did it for a moment with Jurati.

The assumption is that Romulans can't do telepathy or make it to 300 birthdays, because they don't do Logic or ponn far.

Telepathy comes from logic.

Commodore Oh did telepathy just fine.

 

[jackoverfull]

It’s also likely that, given they filmed this during COVID, the idea of someone exhaling smoke around the set in near proximity to people wasn’t something they wanted to do…

and I thought this episode would put an end to that nonsense I’ve read in other topics about the actors filming separately!

 

[timtonruben359]

Maybe I'm in the minority, despite it being flawed, I still really enjoyed this episode, though that is largely due to the Jurati/Borg Queen plot which continues to be the highlight of the season. Like Disco's problems in seasons 3 and 4, however, we seem to have hit a mid-season ebb where we should be building towards the conclusion, yet there are so many unanswered questions and the overall plot seems a bit stagnant. Also, the stakes in the past just seem kind of "meh," like keep a woman from leaving the party isn't really all that exciting, and I don't have a clear understanding of why Reene Picard is so important to the future. I feel like in other time travel stories such as "First Contact," "Voyage Home" or even DS9's "Past Tense" did a much better job at clearly outlining what had to happen to save the future and why it was so important.

Don't get me wrong, I still think this season is a marked improvement over the first, but things need to story moving along here.

Also with the recent announcement about season three: I'm guessing Jurati, Rios, Elnor and possibly Laris have all been positioned to leave the show at the end of the season. Jurati is the new Queen, Rios stays in the past, Elnor either stays dead or returns to the Academy and Laris leaves the Chateau in the end.