Spoilers Star Trek: Picard General Discussion Thread

[Enterprise is Great]

I never heard of Battle Royale until after The Hunger Game movies came out. I heard of Mass Effect but only knew it was a video game. It’s possible to go through life and not hear of this movie or that movie or that video game or that what ever.

There’s lot of current musical artists who I don’t know. I usually stick to classic rock and movie scores so newer bands or singers names don’t register with me. I’ll stumble across some that Spotify recommends but other than that I’m clueless about a lot of current music. I’m 52 so I’m a little stuck in my own little bubble a lot of the time.

 

[Skywalker]

Having sunk far more hours into all four Mass Effect games (well, not that much into Andromeda) than I'm comfortable admitting, I did get some ME vibes in the previous episode when it began to look as if they were going for the same "organics create synthetics, synthetics rise up and try to overthrow their creators" theme that ME dealt with, but then in this latest episode they ended up flipping it on us when it turns out that it's apparently the organics who tend to turn on their synthetic creations out of fear of being overthrown.

Not that either idea is especially original in sci-fi. I highly doubt Chabon or any of the other PIC writers were aware of a decade-old video game franchise when they wrote this season.

 

[DaveyNY]

Anybody want to start listing Famous Sci-Fi Authors from the past that Mass Effect ripped off?
Cause I can think of at least two just off the top of my head.

Oh, and I'm aware of the ME Games but never played any of them.
Not really into Basically Shooter-Only games.

 

[fireproof78]

Anybody want to start listing Famous Sci-Fi Authors from the past that Mass Effect ripped off?
Cause I can think of at least two just off the top of my head.

Oh, and I'm aware of the ME Games but never played any of them.
Not really into Basically Shooter-Only games.

Meh, I file it under the same person who said Tolkien ripped off Rowling. Stupid assumptions with no basis in reality that will be repeated no matter what.

 

[The Super Brando]

In all seriousness the Mass Effect trilogy is some of the best games ever made. Also the whole rip-off accusation is dumb.

 

[Danja]

Hater Bingo:

 

[Thomas Elliot]

Anybody want to start listing Famous Sci-Fi Authors from the past that Mass Effect ripped off?
Cause I can think of at least two just off the top of my head.

Oh, and I'm aware of the ME Games but never played any of them.
Not really into Basically Shooter-Only games.

This reminds me of the accusations against Alan Moore that he got many of his ideas for Marvelman/Miracleman, Watchmen, and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomrrow? from a 1977 parody novel "Super Folks" by Robert Mayer. After Grant Morrison called him out on it and other people pointed out the similarities between those works and Mayer's novel, Moore did admit that he had read it, but downplayed the book's influence.
I'm a big fan of Alan Moore's work but sometimes he was a little too liberal with what he was borrowing from depending on how well read you were. He wrote a Mr. Majestic (a Superman analog) story titled "The Big Chill" which was clearly patterned after Isaac Asimov's short story "The Last Question" yet gave no credit to or mention of Asimov. His Mr. Majestic story was written during the 90s for readers who were probably in their early teens and weren't familiar with Asimov. Two different mediums, 30 years apart, and two somewhat separate genres, super hero and speculative-fiction. What I did like about Moore's work is that at least he was getting his ideas from other mediums and genres and not just crafting super hero stories based on earlier superhero stories, compared to someone like say, Geoff Johns.

I'm enjoying PIC mostly for the performance of some of the actors, in particular those playing Soji, Narek and Narissa in particular, and I wanted to see how this all tied into the Borg, AI and Romulus. It started out feeling too much like other well-known SF film and television I'd seen. In the middle it got pretty good, especially with going into Romulan culture and the episode where Soji escaped. But now towards the end it's continued to veer back into predictable, mainstream SF tropes. Battlestar Galactica, Bladerunner 2049, the Terminator, A.I., I, Robot, and so on. If I hadn't seen those movies and shows I might be more engaged with the story in PIC.

 

[The Habs Fan]

Long ago, I used to be a whole lot nicer and whole lot more understanding. I gave a lot more benefit of the doubt. Then, over time, I began to notice a particular pattern which led me to reconsider my approach.

Let's look at the progression of things.

ENT
They said: "We want Rick Berman gone!"
I thought: Okay. So do I.
What happens next: After that, Rick Berman is gone.

Abrams Films
They said: "We want the Prime Timeline!"
I thought: I'm neutral on this.
What happens next: When Star Trek returns to television, it goes back to the Prime Timeline.

DSC
They said: "What?! Another prequel?!! We want to go passed Nemesis!"
I thought: What are you talking about? This is the best Star Trek in 20 years!
What happens next: Picard comes out, which takes place after Nemesis.

PIC
They said: "This isn't anything like the Picard I remember! I miss the days of Rick Berman! But I want a Pike Show!"
I thought: What the fuck? Wait a minute. Hold on. You wanted Rick Berman gone, now you want him back? You wanted to go passed Nemesis, now you want a Pike Show? Are these complaints for real or are they just for the sake of complaining?
What happens next: Remains to be seen.

So, I think I can't be blamed for feeling the way I do about the type of complaining I'm seeing. There's no through-line. To me, it looks like it's there -- for the most part -- just for the sake of being there.

I think it's because it's impossible for any new Star Trek show or movie to please every single Star Trek fan. Even if they did a clone of TNG, many many people would complain that they're not doing anything new and they've run out of ideas. There are people who like both Disco and Picard and those who like only one of them. There are also those "fans" like Robert Meyer Burnett who will hate any new Trek no matter what.

 

[Danja]

Bananarama liked my retweet to Jeri Ryan (Who knew they were Star Trek fans? )

JR and I are both 80's kids (she's four years older than I am). I figured she'd get a kick out of it. I'm glad the band enjoyed it as well.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Bananarama liked my retweet to Jeri Ryan (Who knew they were Star Trek fans? )

JR and I are both 80's kids (she's four years older than I am). I figured she'd get a kick out of it. I'm glad the band enjoyed it as well.

What song was it?

 

[Danja]

What song was it?

"Cruel Summer"

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[CorporalClegg]

Also, I had to look up how old Ryan is. I was surprised at first. But then did the math and thought, "Oh yeah. I'm that old..."

 

[fireproof78]

If I hadn't seen those movies and shows I might be more engaged with the story in PIC.

That might explain my own enjoyment. I've seen a few episodes of BSG, and I watched "I, Robot" a long time ago. But, haven't seen Bladerunner, Terminator or A.I.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

That might explain my own enjoyment. I've seen a few episodes of BSG, and I watched "I, Robot" a long time ago. But, haven't seen Bladerunner, Terminator or A.I.

I've seen and liked BSG, Terminator, Bladerunner and played Mass Effect and I can can see similarity between them but it doesn't affect my enjoyment of them or Picard.

The fact that Mass Effect reminded me of BSG is what got me hooked on the game and Picard has led me to giving ME Andromeda another chance

 

[Lord Garth]

I think it's because it's impossible for any new Star Trek show or movie to please every single Star Trek fan. Even if they did a clone of TNG, many many people would complain that they're not doing anything new and they've run out of ideas. There are people who like both Disco and Picard and those who like only one of them. There are also those "fans" like Robert Meyer Burnett who will hate any new Trek no matter what.

To be clear, I'm not talking about people who like PIC but don't like DSC (or vice versa). I'm talking about that last group you describe. The ones who change their angle to keep their shtick going once they get what they claim they wanted. It's not a prequel, it's not a reboot, an award-winning showrunner at the helm, and so they had to reach further than ever and become more creative than ever to stay in the game when it came to Picard. Which is the point where I finally decided, "Enough. Game Over. We're done."

 

[cooleddie74]

When you realize Jeri Ryan has a teenage or adult son of her own and then realize that makes you old as dirt.

 

[The Habs Fan]

To be clear, I'm not talking about people like PIC but don't like DSC (or vice versa). I'm talking about that last group you describe. The ones who change their angle to keep their shtick going once they get what they claim they wanted. It's not a prequel, it's not a reboot, an award-winning showrunner at the helm, and so they had to reach further than ever and become more creative than ever to stay in the game when it came to Picard. Which is the point where I finally decided, "Enough. Game Over. We're done."

I completely agree. They will hate anything no matter what.

In fact, one of these type’s criticism of the last episode was that Sutra should have been naked because why do androids need to wear clothes. I felt stupid for reading it on my Twitter feed

 

[Phily B]

The "not real Trek" people are the strangest, least self aware people you can meet. By their definition, TOS is the only real Trek.

 

[cooleddie74]

Any "Trufans" are by definition strange.

 

[Phily B]

Any "Trufans" are by definition strange.

I saw someone talking about how they're going to ruin BSG with a reboot, like they ruined Star Trek. That's 2003 BSG which was a reboot.

These people really need a hobby or a girlfriend.