Spoilers Star Trek: Picard General Discussion Thread

[USS Belmont]

But the problem is, our heroes were part of Starfleet back then and they were there to right all those wrongs. At the end Starfleet are the good guys. Those hateful people were treated as fringes. However, now in Picard, our heroes are on the outside, retired or have no command. See how Shaw dressed them down, it’s like he has no respect for them (same for the admiral in season 1). It feels like this Starfleet and its officers are no longer the force of good it once was.

 

[Tuskin38]

David Blass just confirmed on Twitter that Picard season 3 takes place in 2401.

He tweeted later that he's going to double check.

It feels like this Starfleet and its officers are no longer the force of good it once was.

I disagree.

See how Shaw dressed them down, it’s like he has no respect for them (same for the admiral in season 1).

I don't see the issue here. They were acting way out of line.

 

[fireproof78]

But the problem is, our heroes were part of Starfleet back then and they were there to right all those wrongs. At the end Starfleet are the good guys. Those hateful people were treated as fringes. However, now in Picard, our heroes are on the outside, retired or have no command. See how Shaw dressed them down, it’s like he has no respect for them (same for the admiral in season 1). It feels like this Starfleet and its officers are no longer the force of good it once was.

That's a rather large assumption based on one interaction. I might as well assume that all Starfleet officers are bad because O'Brien hates Cardassians. We are painting with way too broad of a brush and assuming that Starfleet exists in black and white, when all the evidence of the shows gives us a lot of shades of grey, if not complete technicolor.

 

[Eckauskas]

A really, really minor complaint here, but why are starship bridges always so dark now?

 

[jaime]

A really, really minor complaint here, but why are starship bridges always so dark now?

They switched to energy saving lightbulbs

 

[fireproof78]

A really, really minor complaint here, but why are starship bridges always so dark now?

This has been an ongoing discussion and someone shared a tweet from one of the production crew that they were trying to use the ambient light from the set itself, and rely less on set lights to not interfere with multiple cameras working. Unfortunately, it didn't work but they didn't have the time and money to reshoot it.

 

[Lord Garth]

But the problem is, our heroes were part of Starfleet back then and they were there to right all those wrongs. At the end Starfleet are the good guys. Those hateful people were treated as fringes. However, now in Picard, our heroes are on the outside, retired or have no command. See how Shaw dressed them down, it’s like he has no respect for them (same for the admiral in season 1). It feels like this Starfleet and its officers are no longer the force of good it once was.

I think the Borg and the Dominion changed Starfleet's outlook a lot more than people realized. We're not supposed to like the direction Starfleet has taken in this era. Even Picard says in Season 1 that he left Starfleet "because it was no longer Starfleet."

So I'm not going to defend turn-of-the-25th Century Starfleet. Times change. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. There's no way Starfleet or the Federation in general wouldn't change over a four-decade span, if we're looking at from the beginning of TNG to right now in PIC. I like that it adds some dimension. It adds a "real life" and "real history" type of quality. If you transported someone from the 1980s to the 2020s, what would they think?

 

[Eckauskas]

This has been an ongoing discussion and someone shared a tweet from one of the production crew that they were trying to use the ambient light from the set itself, and rely less on set lights to not interfere with multiple cameras working. Unfortunately, it didn't work but they didn't have the time and money to reshoot it.

Cheers for the explanation there. Most of that first episode felt like they were just wandering about in the dark and I really hope it doesn't carry on throughout the whole season. Particularly if they're going to rock up on the Enterprise-D bridge at some point.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Bigotry in Starfleet Officers goes all the way back to The Cage.

"I still can't get used to all these pesky dames and broads all over the bridge, Mac... "

Captain Pike

 

[cooleddie74]

Yep. Even Christopher Pike had sexist beliefs earlier in his career. Flawed and shortsighted characters are baked into the franchise from the very beginning.

 

[JoeZhang]

This might have been posted:

It is the 250th anniversary celebrating when the NX-01 went out into space and the de-facto birth of modern Starfleet, and you will hear more about it. Starfleet didn’t really solidify until the NX-01 went out – this was the first ship with a multi-species crew and its voyage was pivotal to the founding of the Federation. It was essentially the birth of Starfleet as we know it.

https://trekmovie.com/2023/02/18/ex...prise-roots-of-mtalas-prime-and-frontier-day/

 

[StewMc]

Well that clears that up I suppose. He also says the 2402 date for the Titan launch is a mistake and Shaw did oversee the ship during its refit.

Also sounds like we’ll hear more about it later in the season.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I listened to the latest Mission Log Live last night, where Doug Drexler was interviewed. He made a pretty big deal about how he believed that Discovery was a alternate universe because designs were different than were used to and that Picard was the first show to take place in the Trek timeline we know and love since Enterprise.

Sigh.

I get that that people don’t like Discovery. I get that people don’t like what the current regime has done. And if it helps people sleep at night to make them think that the timeline is fractured, so be it. But, bringing it back to the concept of authenticity, who honestly gets to make the decision on what authentic Trek is? It’s not me. It ain’t Bill Hunt. And as much as I appreciate the work Drexler has done on Trek, it sure isn’t him either.

Doug Drexler is wrong.

 

[Tuskin38]

But then in The Ready Room, he says it's been about 25 years since they saw Beverly. If it was 2401, that would be before Nemesis.

Everything is still wacky. But 2401 makes more sense then 2411.

 

[The Wormhole]

I am still disappointed by the depiction of Starfleet officers in the late 24th and early 25th centuries. Why are Starfleet captains and admirals shown as bigoted, small minded and backward thinking people? In the TOS & TNG eras they were much more forward looking and open minded.

Wut? Evil, corrupt, or just bad Starfleet Captains and Admirals has been a staple in Star Trek for ages now. It's one of the franchise's more well-known tropes.

This might have been posted:

It is the 250th anniversary celebrating when the NX-01 went out into space and the de-facto birth of modern Starfleet, and you will hear more about it. Starfleet didn’t really solidify until the NX-01 went out – this was the first ship with a multi-species crew and its voyage was pivotal to the founding of the Federation. It was essentially the birth of Starfleet as we know it.

https://trekmovie.com/2023/02/18/ex...prise-roots-of-mtalas-prime-and-frontier-day/

"Multi-species crew"? The NX-01's crew was almost entirely human, with only two non-humans serving onboard.

 

[Lord Garth]

"Multi-species crew"? The NX-01's crew was almost entirely human, with only two non-humans serving onboard.

Spin-doctoring and hypocrisy is alive and well in the 25th Century... which is why Frontier Day makes for the perfect holiday. It's everything that's wrong with them.

The writers definitely didn't have that in mind, but it works for me.

 

[Tuskin38]

"Multi-species crew"? The NX-01's crew was almost entirely human, with only two non-humans serving onboard.

That's still multi species. As far as we know, no other Starfleet ships before the NX-01 had non-humans onboard.

 

[DaveyNY]

That's still multi species. As far as we know, no other Starfleet ships before the NX-01 had non-humans onboard.

They certainly didn't have Vulcans as crew.
(though there were probably Vulcan observers onboard at times to make sure we didn't do something stupid )

 

[cooleddie74]

It's possible the Interspecies Medical Exchange could have posted some alien physicians on pre-NX-01 Earth ships but having two aliens serving aboard Enterprise was groundbreaking.

 

[The Wormhole]

As far as we know, no other Starfleet ships before the NX-01 had non-humans onboard.

It was established that there were a few Vulcans who served on Starfleet ships, though they typically only lasted a few weeks before the illogic of humans drove them to requesting a transfer off. Carbon Creek established that T'Pol was the first Vulcan to last a whole year serving amongst humans.