Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x01 - "The Next Generation"

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You know reading these posts I've been thinking about a lot of our gripes. the average TV viewer who has the attention span of a flea doesn't care about plot holes or canon, this is specific only to star trek fans, as a show Picard has the things that people look for: action bam bam, easy to digest surface plot (whilst simultaneously satisfying star trek fans with occasional technobable or fan throwback) and some eye candy (with respect to Jeri Ryan who is a fine actress she looks great on the promotional posters as well...always suspect there is a reason seven came back and others didnt).

While she no longer wears the catsuit she wears a pretty tight uniform and you can see Jeris curves. So yeah they brought her back because she still looks good and frankly hasn't aged a whole lot since Voyager ended.
 
So, according to this episode, Seven cared that she was being forced to go by her birth name, instead of the name that was forced upon her by the Borg?:shrug: You don't find that odd?
In the text of the show, being forced to go by Annika is an example of how Starfleet is stifling her and making her question her very beliefs. I don't know the dates, but it's been what? 15-20 years since Voyager and she chooses to go by Seven, so presumably she decided that she is "Seven" and not "Annika".

Annika Hansen was a little girl whose young adult life was stolen through assimilation by the Borg. The person who emerged from the Collective was not this same innocent little girl anymore, it is possible that Seven can not even remember much if any of her childhood.

Seven had lived her life as a Borg drone as a part of a collective consciousness, in a genderless and emotionless state with the thoughts and knowledge of millions of other assimilated beings passing through her mind - there would have been no sense of individuality or identity during this time. Of course, this is besides Seven’s interactions in the dreamscape of Unimatrix Zero. Annika *became* Seven. After leaving the Collective this designation was acceptable to the character and her friends and she chose to go by it.

Seven needed to learn how to be an independent and unique individual after decades of having that stolen from her. Those who grew to love and nurture Seven used this name for her with affection. Seven accepted what she once was, and at the same time what she becoming with her name being a ‘bridge’ in her acceptance of being ‘one’, an individual; an entity separate from the Collective yet still very much impacted by her time spent as part of it.

I do think that Seven would have referred to herself only as Seven though with time, probably dropping the ‘of Nine’ part of her name. Unless Seven *wanted to* remember that she was Seven of Nine… Seven may be wearing her name like a tattoo. A reminder of who she once was, what she became and eventually the acceptance of who she was by those around her, in particular those who cared and nurtured her aboard Voyager. Seven may also not want to forget where she came from because it made her who she is today, regardless of the trauma.

She *was* Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One. The other Nine were not so lucky. Seven may never want to forget this. :(


I think that Star Trek is at its best and most intelligent when it uses allegories to address social issues rather than being blazé and shoving an agenda blatantly in to our faces. Star Trek can deal with important topics and themes but when it does it needs to remember that above all else it is a science fiction show not a soap opera. It also takes more creativity to write things allegorically and allows for interesting inspired storylines.

I think that Seven herself would not be trans. She would probably have been genderless to some extent as a result of her time in the Collective… though over the proceeding years she may or may not have found an identity for herself. This has not been explored properly yet on screen.

Perhaps Seven will truly find herself when she becomes Captain of the Enterprise in a new continuation of the Star Trek Universe. :p
Yeah, I think the name Seven means something to her for her to keep it all this time. Maybe she never saw the need to change it officially, but I'd almost expect that not to matter in a 'progressive' future.

And the whole deadnaming thing is so coded that I assume it's meant to evoke the same horror as when someone does it to a real person. Otherwise, it seems kind of weird to use it otherwise.

But why create a situation or story arc in which audiences are supposed to believe that Seven's Starfleet commander use of her Human name is a form of coercion, when her "nickname" or Borg designation is actually one?
I mean, there is public deadnaming that happens all the time - most recently with a girl who was tragically murdered in the UK - so I have to assume it's meant to negatively characterize Shaw.
To me anyway it's the same as making a character using a racial slur in order to get the audience to react negatively to them.
 
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Closer look at one of the bridge crew. New species as far as I can tell.
https://twitter.com/TerryMatalas/status/1627355334389161986
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You know reading these posts I've been thinking about a lot of our gripes. the average TV viewer who has the attention span of a flea doesn't care about plot holes or canon, this is specific only to star trek fans, as a show Picard has the things that people look for: action bam bam, easy to digest surface plot (whilst simultaneously satisfying star trek fans with occasional technobable or fan throwback) and some eye candy (with respect to Jeri Ryan who is a fine actress she looks great on the promotional posters as well...always suspect there is a reason seven came back and others didnt).

Pretty much. This at the end of the day definitely felt a bit more thought out (previous series didn't, probably from Chabon and Goldman pulling double duties seemingly elsewhere) and also seemed to know what notes it needed to chime for both a casual viewer and us horrible lot lurking the internet arguing minutae.

Ryan's 54. 54! Still looks like she's in her 30s. At least she's wearing something nice and not a skintight romper which just highlights her rear and chest.

Like, the bit with the phasers in the opening with Gates McFadden is utter badassery on screen 101.

We moaned about the "pump action" phasers.
 
Nicely done.

The Shaw dinner scene had a bit of Hannibal Lecter vibe to it. He's a easy guy to dislike. I wonder if he stays one dimensional or surprises as the season progresses.

I bet Will Wheaton was WTF, mom had another son and I didn't know about it! Who was the father, Picard?

The end credits with tribute to Annie (late Borg Queen), First contact music, etc, were excellent touches.
 
Beams and bolts, but when the DSC and SNW Enterprise does fire beams the sound effect is the classic, unchanged TOS sound effect for a phaser beam.
 

Yup. It's Kurtzman wanting to follow what Abrams did in the Kelvin movies is why we see the stupid bolts and things like the window viewscreens. I hate them both.
The Titan doesn't have a window viewscreen, the Cerritos hasn't since Season 2, at least not the normal kind, it can apparently be turned off. Most background ships don't.

We have seen ship fired beams in several episodes of all the series.
 
The AI and Control crap in DSC was some of the dumbest stuff to ever get written into Trek but at least the final battle with Section 31 gives us the best starship phaser beams since TOS.

 
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