Star Trek: Picard - Season 3, Everyone loves the D

[Hamus]

14 minutes ago, Mogster said:

Were they?

 

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Let's pull on the nostalgia strings for the end credits. What do you think, the TNG theme?

 

Nah, people like First Contact. Use the theme from that.

 

Why not both?

 

They're very different. You can't really segue from one to the other.

 

Oh, nobody will notice.

 

The episode was okay, but other than being more visibly "Star Trek" I still thought it missed the mark. 

 

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What was with Captain Arsehole being a dick for no reason? He seemed very cross about how irresponsible Picard had been as a Captain.

 

Yes.

 

The Titan-A bothered me for nerdier reasons. It's somehow both "the new refit" and Riker's old ship, despite being a different class altogether and being an "A". Surely it's just a refit of some other ship they renamed?

 

Crusher was being very un-Crusher like, opening with a full on action shootout instead of, I don't know, commanding a medical Starship like she did in the alternate future.

 

Raffi's bits were bloody awful.

 

I did appreciate the general look and feel of it though. It seemed to be riffing more on the TOS movies than TNG, and that was refreshing.

 

I think maybe some people won't be such grumps and 'notice' everything.

[LaveDisco]

Random thoughts as I watch Episode 1.

Spoiler

• In space, no one owns a lightbulb. It's like a parody it is so heavy handed. Like, just build a set and have belief that it looks good.
• About to lose it at his friend (Raffi?) falling back off the wagon, but it was cover, so all's okay again. Lampshaded the criticism there then.
• The CGI of the ship leaving the dock, gave me real 'it's the 90s and were a sci-fi show that doesn't have Star Trek's budget so this is the best we could do.' vibes. It felt small, compared to it's textures, if that makes sense.
• As an excuse to get the band back together again, we can't trust the Federation again. I get it, but come on.
• The Captain of the Titan is a prick (whilst actually in the right). That's a good move.
• Raffi has got another (probably dead) kid to care about so she can stay in her series repeating plot loop. Yay. I'm guessing her handler, isn't even starfleet, but the fact her handler, acting via computer, READ HER PERSONAL FILE means they are super-duper thorough apparently. Hell, with skills like that, they that would be a match for the ultimate detective.  PLOT-TWIST
• Raffi really is this show's Miles O'Brian - but without the ability to wash it all away every 45 mins. Portalling a building was good.
• ooh it's the guy from Misfits? Maybe? Either way. Wesley's got a brother!
• That bad ship has the sensor array thing form the Enterprise-D, I can't wait for weeks of theories on Reddit to amount to nothing.

EDIT: Now the spoiler actually works.

 

[Spartan]

Didn't hate it but didn't love it. I just don't like serialised Trek, TNG could pull off high art in 45 mins (Strange New Worlds scratched that itch for me). Still the metric ton of TNG references kept me entertained.

 

Frakes is basically Riker, Raffi continues to be bloody awful, music queues were bizarre at times, why are a lot of Captains and Admirals arseholes?

[Exidor]

36 minutes ago, Spartan said:

why are a lot of Captains and Admirals arseholes?

 

Because the tools running the franchise at the moment are physically incapable of imagining a utopia where people rise through the ranks on ability, and instead just do modern day "officer class" characters with a lick of space paint.

[LaveDisco]

To be fair, 'the Admiral is a dick' was a standard plot in most of TNG, but almost every episode ended with that dick being ousted for being so.

 

It's pretty canon, for a captain of a ship, to not trust an Admiral coming on board. But I'm mean, this is 100% sci-fi that can't imagine things being good in the future. That's the unrealistic elephant in the room they are convinced would kill believability in the audience.

[Benny]

Apart from that classic bit of TNG where Picard was away or got captured or some shit and the "asshole Captain" they got on turned out to actually be really good at his job, knowingly subverting the show's own trope at that point.

[IcEBuRN]

Stop it guys. This is star trek. Don't pull it apart, you know it won't survive that. 

 

Anyone else like the link to lower decks. I heard they have a cameo at some point in the season!

[Festoon]

As for the Dick Admirals, it's time for me to quote Michel Piller's book again. This time quoting Patrick Stewart:

 

 

A Rebel/Activist has to rebel against someone. 

 

Stewart simply doesn't like the character we do.

[Barnard]

54 minutes ago, IcEBuRN said:

Stop it guys. This is star trek. Don't pull it apart, you know it won't survive that. 

 

Anyone else like the link to lower decks. I heard they have a cameo at some point in the season!

I don't mind the odd things that doesn't stand up to in show lore..

 

But the Star Trek universe has held together very well over the years, as it has created a believable galaxy full of adventure.

You could look at a map of the Galaxy and really imagine the size and scale, or really enjoy the background of the Vulcans/Klingons/Romulans/Cardassians/Bajorans/Trill. 

 

There was no need to shit up the semi-utopian aspects of the Federation when you had all those alien races to use as foils.

 

Memory Alpha stands as a testament to the success of the universe building in the franchise.

 

Nutrek just shits on all of that.

[Vulgar Monkey]

1 hour ago, LaveDisco said:

To be fair, 'the Admiral is a dick' was a standard plot in most of TNG, but almost every episode ended with that dick being ousted for being so.

 

It's pretty canon, for a captain of a ship, to not trust an Admiral coming on board. But I'm mean, this is 100% sci-fi that can't imagine things being good in the future. That's the unrealistic elephant in the room they are convinced would kill believability in the audience.

 

 

Maybe the limited field of view we get from the shows misrepresents things a bit, but it always felt like starfleet upper leadership would have a massive 'peter principle' issue whereby all of the decent captains keep refusing promotion unless practically forced at gunpoint, so the admirals are mostly, if anything, middling at best.

[LaveDisco]

1 hour ago, Benny said:

Apart from that classic bit of TNG where Picard was away or got captured or some shit and the "asshole Captain" they got on turned out to actually be really good at his job, knowingly subverting the show's own trope at that point.

 

That was such a good episode.

 

[Mogster]

Oh yeah, there was some mention in the show of offers being on a higher "pay grade", which was annoying. 

 

Also I don't know if I just tuned out, but I don't think we found out any real plot in that episode beyond 

 

Spoiler

big scary ship

 

[ManWithNoName]

On 14/02/2023 at 20:09, LaveDisco said:

I’ve watched two seasons of a show I actively dislike. I’ll almost certainly watch the third. It’s like an abusive relationship. 

I didn't even make it to the end of Season 1 of Picard or Discovery.

It was all just so fucking terrible.

 

The only good thing about New Trek is watching Mike Stoklasa and Rich Evans die inside while reviewing it on RedLetterMedia.

 

That said, Strange New Worlds looks possibly not terrible.

[LaveDisco]

Yeah, I realise the reaction this causes, but SNW is genuinely good. Genuinely worth watching. Fun, lighthearted, standalone, understands the spirit of Star Trek, in all the ways Picard doesn't.

 

[ManWithNoName]

4 minutes ago, LaveDisco said:

Yeah, I realise the reaction this causes, but SNW is genuinely good. Genuinely worth watching. Fun, lighthearted, standalone, understands the spirit of Star Trek, in all the ways Picard doesn't.

 

I have downloaded the first episode to find out for myself. Hope springs eternal.

[DeciderVT]

Utter, utter crap.

 

Spoiler

I won't dwell on it too much but Raffi needs to fuck off forever and I audibly groaned when they said that the Titan was "Neo-Constitution class". Get some new ideas and stop worshipping TOS, you bunch of fucking hacks.

 

And why is the Titan's bridge so dark? Shaw was also so pointlessly abrasive that it actually made me laugh. Jellicoe was a great example of a rigid, opinionated Starfleet officer because he actually conducted himself professionally but had strong ideas about how he should work and who he should work with. Shaw is just a needlessly rude prick.

 

Also, Crusher going pew-pew and disintegrating someone with a phaser that behaves like a disruptor is just what I want from Trek, like the distant screaming of thousands of innocents dying. But hey, 'member LCARS?

 

[Thor]

Well, that didn't suck. Look forward to more. 

[GwiDan]

Spoiler

I think it was the best episode of the series so far, but Riker was doing a lot of the heavy lifting to achieve that. Nu-Picard was a lot more tolerable in his company. 

 

[DeciderVT]

Any bets on the unannounced returning character?

 

Spoiler

People are hoping for Ben Sisko but please, leave him with the prophets.

 

[Alex W.]

Three seasons. Three entirely different shows. Playing the name “Jean Luc Picard” as a big reveal with dramatic music in the pre-title sequence of a show called Picard about Jean Luc Picard. Pump action space guns. Incredible opening play. Just an amazing dynasty of nonsense continuing.

[Vespa Alex]

2 hours ago, ManWithNoName said:

I didn't even make it to the end of Season 1 of Picard or Discovery.

It was all just so fucking terrible.

 

The only good thing about New Trek is watching Mike Stoklasa and Rich Evans die inside while reviewing it on RedLetterMedia.

 

That said, Strange New Worlds looks possibly not terrible.

Strange New Worlds is the best Trek since DS9. 

[Alex W.]

Eaglemoss models!

 

Edit - And the Enterprise-D Micro Machine I had!

[Alex W.]

1 hour ago, GwiDan said:

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I think it was the best episode of the series so far, but Riker was doing a lot of the heavy lifting to achieve that. Neo-Picard was a lot more tolerable in his company. 

 

FTFY

[Hamus]

5 hours ago, IcEBuRN said:

Stop it guys. This is star trek. Don't pull it apart, you know it won't survive that. 

 

Also it's star trek limited series. So we can expect both drawn out periods of not much happening then big leaps to change direction or tie things up.

 

No more 45 minute tightly controlled stories like the auld days in Picard.

 

It's why Strange New Worlds works and, ironically, it's much more like old trek than ever.

Which is kinda funny because there's always a call for "something new" but when you get a thing that's more something old (structure, form, but with modern people's in) - it actually turns out alright.

[Strafe]

In the first 2 minutes of the new episode of picard there is a gun fight. When the gun runs out of ammo it says “power cell depleted”

 

What kind of fucking moron designs a gun with an actual speaker on it that loudly announces to the people shooting at you that you can no longer shoot back?

[Strafe]

It’s not fucking arbitrary if it does it to every digit, is it? That’s not random, that’s very precise. Furious watching this shite.

[MechE]

It was the decision, not the number that was arbitrary.

[ManWithNoName]

Strafe's fury is pretty entertaining. Probably more so than the actual show.

[Strafe]

There’s an old fashioned gramophone to fit with Picard’s mid-18th century fetish for home decoration. Fine. But why does it have glowing blue lights in it? Is it retro or current? Why would you have blue glowing lights on an antique looking gramophone? None of the other old fashioned looking stuff has glowing blue lights in it, so why a gramophone? Who signed off on this shit? Infuriating.

[MK-1601]

Not to mention that a gramophone record that warped would sound utterly fucked