Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x07 - "Dominion"

[donners22]

It was in TNG, until it was retconned in other series.

It wasn't even in TNG. The utopia tended to only exist within the confines of the Enterprise. Outside of it, there were conspiracies, cover-ups, murderous captains, an endless series of "Badmirals", forced relocations of civilians...

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Thinking on this and reading what some of you guys think... I don't agree this episode was spinning wheels. In Season 2 there were successive episodes that were guilty of this, but Dominion was answering questions while advancing the story. Learning more about who Vadic and Jack are, finding a reliable way to detect the new changelings and... Oh gosh, a faux-Tuvok is still an opportunity to hear the magnificent voice of Tim Russ in Star Trek again... I was ambivalent towards Michelle Forbes's guest slot, but this one was magic for me. Tuvok is one of my favourite characters, changeling or nay.

It still amuses me to see 'bad writing' thrown about. Most people don't know the difference between bad and good writing and just use those words to mean 'a thing happened that I didn't like'. Which is fine, but in no way has the writing this season been 'bad'.

 

[Gilora]

Beverly threatened Vadic before Picard entered the scene.

Which does not negate my observation.

"What if we do [have the advantage]? I think I know how we can get Vadic." - Picard to Jack.

 

[cooleddie74]

Even the worst of the first seven episodes of Season 3 is better than 9 out of the 10 episodes of Season 2.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Yeah, really, there should be more than just Worf represented here from DS9. That is a huge issue for me. Short of fully reuniting the TNG cast, I’m not seeing the point of Spiner’s return here. Bashir or someone could use that screen time and actually have a real connection to the story they’re telling. Because so far (and this might change), using these characters makes the story feel very disjointed and not AS personal as it could using the DS9 bunch.

I've been thinking exactly this. Not that I haven't been enjoying it, but when Picard said to Vadic "I didn't know..." I thought, well, yeah, because you weren't directly involved in any of it. It feels very much like a DS9 follow-up populated with the wrong characters.

Like I said, I have been enjoying it, but I've been experiencing the same disconnect as you.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

No, whatever the hell her boss wants with Jack, it's got to do with his weird abilities *and* the "anomalous entity" Data found inside Picard. No idea what, but I'm sure it will be interesting.

I said it upthread, and the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced: Locutus. Locutus needs Jack to bring about a new kind of human looking Borg that can assimilate by mere touch. Fighting Locutus will also bring closure for both Picard and Shaw, who have, in different ways, been haunted by Wolf 359 for 30 years.

Who were some of the other baddies from TNG? Tomalak? Sela? Soran? Dead. Q? Dead. Moriarty? Possibly? Armus? No. The way people associate Khan as the greatest villain for Kirk, Locutus and the Borg are synonymous with TNG.

 

[Orac Zen]

I'm liking this season a great deal so far but I find myself wondering if they can stick the landing. There's quite a lot going on and there's only three eps left to tie everything together. I just hope that Janeway and Tuvok are alive, that no one's a changeling (I keep envisioning a newly rescued Troi coming aboard, getting all empath-y and announcing that Beverly's a changeling. It's some sort of waking nightmare I really hope doesn't come true), that the explanation for what Jack actually is doesn't turn out to be something that makes Beverly look stupid or destroys her character (and I don't consider that to have already happened), that no one dies... It's an extensive list.

I thought it was fairly clear that Picard and Crusher were faking willingness to kill Vadic, they were discussing it within earshot of her for her benefit.

Not convinced the 'capture' at the end wasn't a setup. It was way too easy.

Agreed. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea that there's a Xanatos gambit in play. It's a really good idea; I hope the writers went with it, but even though I've found the writing generally excellent this season I won't hold my breath.

Gee, it's almost like he's not Tuvok - perhaps a changeling?

In which case Seven should have known immediately that it wasn't Tuvok. The ears were terrible.

Oh gosh, a faux-Tuvok is still an opportunity to hear the magnificent voice of Tim Russ in Star Trek again... I was ambivalent towards Michelle Forbes's guest slot, but this one was magic for me. Tuvok is one of my favourite characters, changeling or nay.

Completely agree with almost all this (the Michelle Forbes part is the exception; seeing her again was fantastic). The fact Tim Russ will be in another episode - hopefully as the real, very much alive Tuvok - is brilliant news.

 

[NCC-73515]

Vadic's life sign scanner has the WoK tricorder sound

 

[thribs]

Vadic's life sign scanner has the WoK tricorder sound

Should have had the Aliens sound.

 

[Lord Garth]

Unlike others, I don't agree that the Enterprise-E wasn't involved with the Dominion War. We only had one movie that took place during that timeframe, and even that one has been argued, but let's go with it did. That's one adventure during the two years the war was going on. I'm not going to make assumptions about the Enterprise-E's adventures, because we saw too few of them. They can fill that period up with all kinds of things.

For instance: the Enterprise-E fighting the Hirogen. As soon as I heard Picard talk about that story, I immediately thought, "Why couldn't this have been a Star Trek movie? I would've liked to have seen this one!" Or if things went south with Not-Boothby, a battle between the Enterprise-E and Species 8472, on the Big Screen, in the early-2000s. They could've done all kinds of things and it wouldn't have felt out-of-place. Almost all of it would've been better than what we actually got. We just didn't see it. But that doesn't mean these types of stories couldn't have happened.

 

[bookworm8571]

I’ll give them credit for a plot twist that is hard to predict. I still don’t know what they’re doing.

1. The facility has the biological remains of both Jean-Luc Picard and James T. Kirk for some reason, possibly related to the Nexus or the Genesis project. Daystrom/Section 31 has apparently been doing some research on the regenerative effects or its potential as a weapon.

2. There was some sort of anomaly in Picard’s body. I’d predict Locutus of Borg given Jack’s telepathy and Borg like reflexes but it could also be part of Sarek’s katra or the ghost of the flute playing alien whose life he lived.

3. Jack is most likely the naturally conceived biological son of Beverly and Picard given those resemblances Riker noticed and the fact that Beverly told Jack his father is Picard. Given that Jack has some oddities, maybe that anomaly in Picard is also his dad.

4. Seven remembers that a mind meld with Tuvok stabilized her neural pathways. Picard also had a memorable mind meld with a Vulcan. Coincidence or clue?

5. The Changelings want Picard and Jack, probably as a weapon, and also want to show Jack who he really is. Darned if I know who that is.

 

[Orac Zen]

Unlike others, I don't agree that the Enterprise-E wasn't involved with the Dominion War.

I don't, either. In fact I reckon it's a ridiculous assumption that the Federation flagship was just running around exploring when there was a war happening. The fact it didn't happen onscreen doesn't mean it didn't happen.

I have no issue with no one from DS9 being in this series, either, but I reckon I'm far more likely to be on my own there. To each their own.

 

[Lord Garth]

I don't, either. In fact I reckon it's a ridiculous assumption that the Federation flagship was just running around exploring when there was a war happening. The fact it didn't happen onscreen doesn't mean it didn't happen.

I have no issue with no one from DS9 being in this series, either, but I reckon I'm far more likely to be on my own there. To each their own.

This thread might not make it look like it, but I'm not much of a Niner these days. Haven't been for a while. Otherwise, I wouldn't have felt the need to do a crash-refresher course. I was dragging my feet until I cut the re-watch list all the way down.

 

[thribs]

Pretty crappy force fields if a few hits causes them to fail.

 

[Orac Zen]

This thread might not make it look like it, but I'm not much of a Niner these days.

I'm in no way, shape or form anti-DS9 or anything absurd like that. I just don't think it's the be-all and end-all of Star Trek. The mileage of others differs a great deal in this regard, a lesson I learned back when I first started lurking here (and have not forgotten). Such is life. How dull would it be if we all liked the same things?

 

[jackoverfull]

Also, I find it hard to believe that this Project Proteus wasn't so well hidden that Dr. Crusher would easily find it in a database. I mean a whole lot of Federation laws were being brazenly broken. Why would this project be made public?

it’s not public: they found it in the project manifest that was stored inside Data.

 

[Roald]

Pretty crappy force fields if a few hits causes them to fail.

Wasn't Lore destabilizing them..?

 

[thribs]

Wasn't Lore destabilizing them..?

He was taking control of various systems but they never said he was destabilising them. If anything he would have just shut them off.

 

[BBC 2 6pm]

Wasn't Lore destabilizing them..?

I think that must be it in retrospect but I didn't find it obvious --- from the way Crash was talking especially, it seemed like the fields couldn't stand up to the bird faces bashing them.

 

[BBC 2 6pm]

The whole trap thing happened so suddenly and the corridor was so dark etc I didn't realise that they were trapping them on the Titan - I thought it was on one of the half-destroyed ships in the Chinktoka graveyard. Thought that was a clever idea, pressurise part of it and pretend they had been hiding out there.