Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x10 - "The Last Generation"

[J. Frank Doobie]

Upon reflection, my favorite thing about the finale was that, somewhere out there, there's a man --- a simple cook --- who piloted the (soon-to-be) USS Enterprise in the Federation's (hopefully) final, victorious standoff with the Borg, a daring run against the might of Starfleet turned against him, after being buoyed by the legendary warrior of justice, Captain Seven of Nine.

 

[Campe]

The American health care system killed my mother. You don't know what you're talking about.

I work in administration for the American healthcare system. It is flawed. No doubt. There are far better systems in the world. I will not deny that. But it saved my wife and child’s lives surrounding that pregnancy/birth. It’s a small comfort, I know, but I’m sorry that happened to your mother. I really am.

 

[FreezeC77]

Upon reflection, my favorite thing about the finale was that, somewhere out there, there's a man --- a simple cook --- who piloted the (soon-to-be) USS Enterprise in the Federation's (hopefully) final, victorious standoff with the Borg, a daring run against the might of Starfleet turned against him, after being buoyed by the legendary warrior of justice, Captain Seven of Nine.

The funny thing about him being a cook was that Neelix was a cook. So basically she ended up with Neelix piloting for her

 

[Commander K]

“I really wanted a scene where Data met Soji,” he says. “That's a scene that would've been great. So Data meeting his daughter. … Again, time and money.

Reading the IGN interview with Matalas, pretty much seems to confirm the scenes/characters/plot direction we wanted to see was down to time/money and not necessarily a creative decision.

 

[RTMS]

And what makes it so amazingly stupid is that "G" would imply that it's a newer fancier Enterprise, yet it's actually an ass log compared to the F apparently.

Not to mention the Titan wasn’t even able to withstand against the Shierk, and only made it through the Borg battle cloaked. That ship is a light exploration/science vessel. I really hope it’s just a temporary ship and the better new version of the Flagship is already being built and almost finished. This is a serous downgrade for a Flagship. If Enterprise still has that designation.

 

[Tarek71]

It has bothered me all day but finally remembered. The fleet vs the Starbase reminded me of a Birth of the Federation battle.

It reminded me of all those times I tried attacking the Starbase while I was playing that Interplay Star Fleet Academy game 25 years ago.

 

[USS Belmont]

I am bummed out that there was no fight between D and F. I knew they would get Jack pretty quickly, but I was half hoping that after the cube got destroyed, F would be the only assimilated ship left and then Titan & F duke it out with D arriving just in time to take out the F with an assist from Titan. Alas, that was not to be…

 

[sevenstars]

The funny thing about him being a cook was that Neelix was a cook. So basically she ended up with Neelix piloting for her

But Neelix spent years piloting his own ship, and presumably running away from a lot of angry pursuers. So he would have been operating on slightly more than a pep talk.

 

[fireproof78]

If Enterprise still has that designation.

Hopefully not.

 

[firehawk12]

I mean, that would depend on how much time they had to get various constitutional officers out of the city. To the best of my knowledge, they don't have "Designated Survivors" placed permanently outside of D.C., only for special events, and they rely on things like the Distant Early Warning system to know to get the President out of the city.

And I sincerely doubt it's even possible to have a Federation government that keeps its branches' and agencies' headquarters on multiple planets. If the Federation President and Council are both gone and Starfleet's fleet is also gone in a matter of hours, the rest of the UFP would have a hell of a time reconstituting the leadership structure even if the Borg suddenly went away. Realistically, Federation worlds would have to rely on their Member State governments, their Member State fleets, and on whatever planet-based or station-based local Starfleet units might survive all operating autonomously.

Sure. But if the entire Starfleet fleet is there at Earth and got taken, then all those Federation Member States will have to rely on their local fleets. I doubt the Vulcan Defense Force or Andorian Imperial Guard would have the numbers to mount an effective defense.

There's the Klingons, the Orions, the Cardassians, and who knows however many other fleets out there who never joined Starfleet. Even the Darmok aliens, or as I joked last week, the Pakleds.

I mean, the real life example is killing Osama Bin Laden or most of the Taliban leadership.
Seven makes a plea to the other members of her crew that their families are in danger on Earth, but that assumes every single one on that ship happens to know someone who is from Earth... which seems kind of improbable to me.

Having Earth get destroyed would probably have a huge psychic impact, but as if the entire apparatus would collapse in on itself and people would just... lose all hope and lay down and die? I dunno.

I get why you have those stakes though, because it's a TV show. But also, this is why I said I didn't really care about these nit picks because that's not what this show is about.

I would assume no such thing, since Odo made it clear to Worf that Vadic's Changelings are a rogue faction who defied the rest of the Great Link.

I'll be honest that I do remember the non-Odo reference ("I have a friend" or whatever it was), but don't remember what was said there.

I mean, sure, but even then, I don't think the series finale of Star Trek: Picard should be spending a lot of time on the trauma of Ensign Ricky. These were tertiary characters portrayed by day players, not primary or secondary characters.

I mean, you don't even get Geordi reuniting with his daughters or maybe helping them through whatever trauma they may have. You just go to Sydney making a joke about how she never listens to Jack - which is ironic because Jack is the one who forced her to kill other Starfleet officers, but let's just forget about that I guess.

It's just funny when everyone's favourite character was motivated by Wolf 359 baggage from 20 years ago, but to get a swift ending the writers also kind of want you to forget a similar trauma happening to all the characters at the end of this series. Whether it's killing someone older, or being forced to kill a Borgified young person.

 

[Scionz]

“I really wanted a scene where Data met Soji,” he says. “That's a scene that would've been great. So Data meeting his daughter. … Again, time and money.

Reading the IGN interview with Matalas, pretty much seems to confirm the scenes/characters/plot direction we wanted to see was down to time/money and not necessarily a creative decision.

Ahhhh yeah what I wanted for Data's end was for him to go to Copellius and meet Soji, and then to go to Soong's old quarters and find the painting of Lal there. The painting that started Picard on the path to resurrecting Data in 2399.

 

[Yistaan]

“I really wanted a scene where Data met Soji,” he says. “That's a scene that would've been great. So Data meeting his daughter. … Again, time and money.

Reading the IGN interview with Matalas, pretty much seems to confirm the scenes/characters/plot direction we wanted to see was down to time/money and not necessarily a creative decision.

cut scene from Picard Season 1--

Soji leads Picard to confinement before she calls in the evil synths.

Picard: If you're father were alive, he'd be ashamed of you!

Soji: No he wouldn't.

Revived Data eventually meets Soji

Data: So I heard about that shameful incident where you imprisoned Picard and tried to wipe out the galaxy by calling in synthetic worms.

Soji:

 

[Qonundrum]

I am bummed out that there was no fight between D and F. I knew they would get Jack pretty quickly, but I was half hoping that after the cube got destroyed, F would be the only assimilated ship left and then Titan & F duke it out with D arriving just in time to take out the F with an assist from Titan. Alas, that was not to be…

I don't know what's more F'D up, if they had shown such a contest or if they hadn't. Sounds cool though!

That, and the F was an ugly design...

 

[Addy_lane]

I haven't read the thread before posting this, so I don't know if I'm just not enough of a TNG fan to love this ending - and now having seen the season in totality, yeah, it really didn't hold up.

IMO - In the end, Terry Matalas didn't stick the landing for me. It was INCREDEBLY nostalgic, and that was okay; but sorry, the idea that the original Borg have been dead/dying since the end of Star Trek: First Contact; and the Borg Queen took 30+ years to get her hands on Jack; and effectively just played with Jean-Luc Picard like a mouse and didn't just take them ALL out when they became a threat...

And yeah, exactly what were the Changelings getting out of all this that made it worth it to them. Yeah Vadic might have wanted revenge, but you'd think the lot of them would want something more. Hell, I still have no clue why she (Vadic) supposedly hated Picard so much.

And don't get me started on reviving/rebooting Q <--- That was just ridiculous. Plus if you going to go that crazy and undo the best scene from Picard S2, you'd think Mr. Matalas could have done another Wesley/Traveler cameo - maybe offering Jack a spot with the Travelers?
^^^
IMO no worse then rebooting Q.
(And I'm sure John De Lanicie was just rolling his eyes when they had him on the call sheet for S3 after he did that nice death/goodbye in S2.)

Yeah, Terry Matalas really JUMPED THE SHARK for this ending.

I like PICARD S3 more than S2 - but yeah...as to the ending, as I think and write more about it, sorry, it wasn't good; it just wasn't. <--- And that's annoying because there was a lot of PICARD S3 I liked; but yeah, to hit a home run, you NEED to 'stick the landing' - and they honestly didn't, yet again.

As for 70f9/Raffi/Jack as a 'Legacy' continuation <--- No thanks. I do think Jeri Ryan is a good actress, and overall they gave her better stuff to play/do in PICARD S1-S3 then they ever gave her on Star Trek: Voyager (but to be fair, to this day I consider it the worst Star Trek franchise series, and really didn't watch more than a handful of it's episodes past The 37's. I did give the S4 VOY two parter Scorpion a view; but as soon as they had 7of9 in that Silver catsuit...yeah, didn't bother continuing.)...

But my point: She (Jeri Ryan)still doesn't have the draw/star power to be a Lead for a series of this type; not when there is so much other Star Trek in the works with larger stars (actors). Who knows, maybe one day they'll try a 'Legacy' streaming Star Trek film with the cast they set up; but if I were Terry Matalas, I wouldn't be expecting another call anytime soon.

It was a decent coda to TNG - but overall, yeah, this ending could have stood another writing pass.

But hey, Terry Matalas looks like he got everything he personally wanted from this, so congratulations to him on that as it doesn't happen often in Hollywood.

I still liked this season a lot more than PICARD S1 or S2 (S1 really blew the ending and taking 3 episodes before really starting its main story... And S2 for me was just a misfire on many cylinders. 'Not Guinan' never really worked for me. If you couldn't get/afford Woopi Goldgerg for the whole part of the story you needed her charcter for - REWRITE!)

And to this day, I think the best 'new' character (and especially his intro) was Elnor. but said character was underused in S1 - Sloppily used in S2 (and yeah, if they could work a Romulan in as a Gary 7/TOS S2 Assignment Earth type 'Supervisor' (of course we know now it's not an alien race doing this but rather a godlike Wesley Crusher); they could have worked Elnor in more than just using him as some 2 minute 'combat hologram'. And yeah, guess Terry Matalas even killed him off if her was still on the USS Excelsior when the Borg blew it up <--- WTG Terry Matalas; hell Raffi and 70f9 never mention him AT ALL in PICARD S3.

So yeah, I guess what I'm saying is PICARD the series was okay IF you don't think about the actual stories it told too much...

I have less of a problem with Jack being on the G as an ensign than I do Raffi being Seven’s XO. It’s just a little too cozy. Raffi belongs in Security. That’s her strong suit. Also, it’s going to be as awkward as Worf though going to battle with Raffi and Seven would be - whether or not they’re together again.

 

[Yistaan]

Having Earth get destroyed would probably have a huge psychic impact, but as if the entire apparatus would collapse in on itself and people would just... lose all hope and lay down and die? I dunno.

We'd get a situation analogous to Hosnian Prime's destruction in Star Wars. Except unlike in Star Wars, there are far more factions than just the Republic and First Order. The Klingons, Odo's Dominion, heck even the Ferengi are going to pummel Borgified Earth quickly and mercilessly before the new Borg rebuild their assimilation apparatus.

 

[SJGardner]

I don't know what's more F'D up, if they had shown such a contest or if they hadn't. Sounds cool though!

That, and the F was an ugly design...

Data, as Worf destroys the F with a final torpedo barrage and triumphantly flies through the fireball:
"Say our Enterprise is the ugly fat one again, shitheads, I dare you!"

 

[Scionz]

I don't know what's more F'D up, if they had shown such a contest or if they hadn't. Sounds cool though!

That, and the F was an ugly design...

It was really cool they cannonized the F. It was the de-facto F for years (because there was nothing else) and given that 4 people designed every other Enterprise ever featured, it was a tremendous honor collectively for all of Trek's fandom to have a fan designed one become official.

But it's not a strong design. It's the Enterprise-E mated with the Enterprise D, with a few things to make it distinctive, and it ends up losing what made its parent designs great in the first place. It was also comically large fore really no reason.

After the Enterprise D and (probably) Enterprise F being the Federation flagships (I don't think the E was but I could be wrong), I do like the idea that the new 1701 is a smaller (though by no means small) cruiser again. The super-large ships of the Galaxy and especially Odyssey scale, within universe, would have been an unwise direction for Starfleet to go in now that families have been off the fleet plan for about 30 years by this point (they were vanishing by 2372, as the Enterprise E didnt have them though it could have supported them). A return to a fleet the size of Voyager and Mirandas,where the largest ships are Excelsiors and Connie-III class seems so practical.to have a larger fleet, more commonality in parts (23rd century style, which is very smart if you want a big fleet) and easier ship construction.

There were exactly two Odyssey class ships, one being the 1701F, at Frontier Day, so there probably aren't a lot of them. It's good starfleet turned away from that direction.

 

[Timofnine]

I do not know how to rate or even review this episode because there is so much to be emotionally invested in regardless of any flaws that it may have.

Overall, I think that I liked this weeks episode, though.

I am sure that they stole the inspiration for Picard’s speech about surviving the flood and riding the tides from my Star Wars fan fic, they probably stole the rest of the episode from Star Wars too, but I have never seen that rival franchise so would not know for sure.

Thank you for making Seven of Nine Captain of the Enterprise, Terry Matalas, I think.

Amazing special effects and music.

I rate Star Trek: Picard episode 03x10 ‘The Last Generation’ 22/10.

Will post further thoughts after a rewatch.

 

[jackoverfull]

Raffi belongs in Security. That’s her strong suit.

I don’t think it made to the screen, but raffi’s intended background from season 1 and thus the comics is that she had been Picard’s first officer for a while.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Yup! Let's have a sing-along at the end of this one! LIke in The Final Frontier! Worf? You start. Ro Ro Ro you're dead, blown to smithereens. Merrily...

On second thought, maybe not...