Star Trek: Picard - Season 3, it's not s**t

[Garwoofoo]

This is objectively terrible. Every time a show or movie does "all the usual characters but in THE REAL WORLD!!!" it means it's run out of ideas, or money, or both. The prospect of these dullards doing an entire season of fish-out-of-water situations and pithy social commentary makes me despair.

 

I do kind of want to see what happens next though, and I don't know why. I genuinely quite like Rios (although he in no way makes up for the absolute charisma vacuum that is Raffi). They have at least temporarily removed the worst characters from the show (Space Legolas and the Twin With The Chin). It'll no doubt bring Brent Spiner back as another spurious Soong which at least provides good scenery-chewing entertainment. I dunno, it's absolute shit I know but sometimes absolute shit can also be reasonable entertainment. Can't it?

[Thor]

Well I enjoyed the episode. Fuck y'all.

[DeciderVT]

Another thing about this week's episode:

 

Spoiler

I may have tuned out briefly when Picard was going through his plan but why on earth did the crew split up to search for the watcher by looking for alien signals instead of sitting tight and finding out from the Borg Queen first?

 

[Bacon Horsemeat]

48 minutes ago, DeciderVT said:

Another thing about this week's episode:

 

  Hide contents

I may have tuned out briefly when Picard was going through his plan but why on earth did the crew split up to search for the watcher by looking for alien signals instead of sitting tight and finding out from the Borg Queen first?

 

 

Because Raffi couldn't control her RAGE after losing someone she cared for so much for 2 episodes.

[Gambit]

I'm not a Star Trek expert at all. In fact, a lot of my previous old Star Trek watching occured when I came home from school and there was that block from 5pm that contained Next Generation, Voyager and Buffy. So can someone explain Seven to me please? In the series I remember here being...well...a little more robotic in her performance and manneurisms. A side effect of being former Borg I guess maybe? Only in Picard she's very stereotypical badass woman hero who occasionally even cracks a joke or too. Is there something in past Star Trek that explains this or is it just another case of Alex Kurtzmann just doing what he wants and never mind if it doesn't make sense for the character.

 

It's just a little thing that's been bugging me since season 1.  

[jcafarley]

5 minutes ago, Gambit said:

is it just another case of Alex Kurtzmann just doing what he wants and never mind if it doesn't make sense for the character.

Bingo.

[Benny]

Don't worry, you're just as confused as everyone else.

[Unofficial Who]

I would love it if the Deus Ex Machina ends up that their very presence in LA 2024 is what causes everything to go wrong. Q's ultimate revenge.

 

Then again my hopes for Season 1 as Don Quixote in space didn't pan out so...

[Benny]

I just can't get over how fucking lazy it all is. I suspect it's not likely to be any cheaper to film in the "real world" given the production budgets of these things anyway, but even then: if they are going back in time to fix the universe as a concept, this is a golden opportunity to get the actors pratting about with say, Joan of Arc, Sowcrates, Ghengis Khan and Beatoven or something, in all sorts of crazy costumes and locations. Like Q would actually send them to. In Star Trek. But no, we get generic filthy present times. Whyyyyyyyy

 

[Mogster]

I thought the episode was okay again, but was still completely daft when it came to canon stuff.

 

Spoiler

The assimilation bit was the biggest offender, as that's just not how assimilation works in canon. The Borg inject you with nanites that, and after that they do all their grafting stuff. There's no battle of minds involved.

 

On top of that it made no sense for Pill's character to start speaking in "Borg collective voice". She's still just one person, so if anything they should have just had her speaking in sync with the Queen or something. 

 

Raffi blaming Picard for Q's games was just silly. Picard's response was correct, but, well obviously.

 

I actually liked the stuff with the clinic and the immigrants. It was on the nose, sure, but I don't see it as something that required any particular subtlety.

 

And yeah the crash from orbit didn't really make much sense. If they'd just shown them popping back into space on a direct collision course it would have been much better.

 

[monkeydog]

If the Queen doesn't get space Legolas's legs in the next episode I'm going to be terribly disappointed.

 

[Monkeyboy]

There was a bit where Raffi seemed appalled by the poverty around her, contrasted with the rich elites in their big fancy buildings in the background, the implication being their time didn't have these problems. But, in the first season, wasn't she weed smoking trailer trash bemoaning Jean-Luc's fancy chateau??

[BossSaru]

How did the unhinged killer scientist 'interface' with the Borg Queen? Did Picard just like a USB into her neck?

[DeciderVT]

The premise of this series seems to be Q once again showing Picard "the road not taken" but if that alternative path led to the Confederation (groan) then surely humanity originally made the right choice?

 

It made sense (and was a lot more interesting) in TNG when Picard had agency and was shown what sort of person he would've been if he'd not taken risks. He got to revisit a choice at a key point in his life, overcame his regrets and decided to be the adventurer after all.

 

In this series Q is basically altering the timeline at a point before Picard was even born, effectively making genocidal bastard Picard a product of the Confederation, carried along by the timeline he was born into. However, it's entirely arbitrary. It'd be like Q appearing to one of us, altering some random seventeenth century historical event we had nothing to do with, fucking up our timeline and gloating about us being a bit shit, when humanity didn't actually follow that path in the first place. It's entirely his doing.

 

(Sorry if I've missed something obvious that explains this plotline. This series just washes over me while I'm watching it and hating myself for hoping for something better.)

[Peter St John]

Picard did say that Q was acting odder than normal, so maybe they're setting up something else that explains it…maaaaaaybe.

[Waggo]

It's better than season 1 and Discovery is as much praise as I can muster.

 

Agness calling Picard a pretentious prick did raise a smile though.🤣

 

[deKay]

Avoiding spoilers as I’ve just watched episode 2 but this is better than series 1 so far. Agnes is by far the best thing. Q is shit as always. Always hated Q episodes. Guinan was pointless.

 

I see Spiner is back as yet another member of Soong’s strong-gened ancestors.

[Eric86]

12 minutes ago, deKay said:

Avoiding spoilers as I’ve just watched episode 2 but this is better than series 1 so far. Agnes is by far the best thing. Q is shit as always. Always hated Q episodes. Guinan was pointless.

 

 

 

[IcEBuRN]

Put the crack pipe down dekay, and step away from the keyboard.

[Garibaldi]

Oh, nothing to see here. DeKay has a history of gushing over Tilly in Discovery, even when she was in full ‘wear a football helmet to bed’ mode, so this new deviance comes as little surprise. 

[deKay]

Everyone else is just watching this wrong, that's all.

[layten]

10 hours ago, deKay said:

Avoiding spoilers as I’ve just watched episode 2 but this is better than series 1 so far. Agnes is by far the best thing. Q is shit as always. Always hated Q episodes. Guinan was pointless.

 

I see Spiner is back as yet another member of Soong’s strong-gened ancestors.

[deKay]

59 minutes ago, layten said:

 

Omnipotent gods that can deus ex machina the fuck out of everything are so, so shit. They were in TOS, Q always was.

 

Sure, he's funny and de Lancie is excellent, but as a character in Star Trek it's just bollocks. I don't get why fans like it and yet also hate "big red reset buttons" when Q is literally a big red reset button. He's basically Thanos with the infinity gauntlet but it just doesn't work in Star Trek.

[Garibaldi]

2 hours ago, deKay said:

Sure, he's funny and de Lancie is excellent, but as a character in Star Trek it's just bollocks. I don't get why fans like it and yet also hate "big red reset buttons" when Q is literally a big red reset button. He's basically Thanos with the infinity gauntlet but it just doesn't work in Star Trek.

You seem to be saying that none of the things Q does have lasting consequences, which isn’t true. I mean, he introduced humanity to the Borg hundreds of years before they were supposed to meet! Which, of course, led to ‘Best of Both Worlds’ but also arguably allowed the Federation to not immediately be annihilated by the Dominion as they had started to militarise in preparation for the Borg with new ships and new weapons. 
 

Mostly, though, Q’s episodes are about character growth. He tests Picard in ways no-one else could, and as a result has made him a better person. Whether that’s allowing him to see that making different choices in his life would’ve made him a lesser man, or driving him to finally socialise with his crew at the end of the series. 
 

But it’s not just about Picard. Q has grown too. He started off as an angry, spiteful imp but, over time, found himself challenged, and defeated, by Picard until he was forced to spend time as a human. The Q that features in ‘tapestry’ is quite different to the one from ‘encounter at farpoint.’ His actions, while maintaining an air of mischief, are all about tough love. He cares about a single, insignificant human. Something that would’ve been unthinkable when we first encounter him. 
 

So it's pretty reductive to say ‘big red reset button’ when every Q episode (not counting the latest ones) has been careful to have a point besides ‘YOLO then forget about it lol!’ 

[Kevvy Metal]

3 hours ago, Garibaldi said:

You seem to be saying that none of the things Q does have lasting consequences, which isn’t true. I mean, he introduced humanity to the Borg hundreds of years before they were supposed to meet! Which, of course, led to ‘Best of Both Worlds’ but also arguably allowed the Federation to not immediately be annihilated by the Dominion as they had started to militarise in preparation for the Borg with new ships and new weapons. 
 

Mostly, though, Q’s episodes are about character growth. He tests Picard in ways no-one else could, and as a result has made him a better person. Whether that’s allowing him to see that making different choices in his life would’ve made him a lesser man, or driving him to finally socialise with his crew at the end of the series. 
 

But it’s not just about Picard. Q has grown too. He started off as an angry, spiteful imp but, over time, found himself challenged, and defeated, by Picard until he was forced to spend time as a human. The Q that features in ‘tapestry’ is quite different to the one from ‘encounter at farpoint.’ His actions, while maintaining an air of mischief, are all about tough love. He cares about a single, insignificant human. Something that would’ve been unthinkable when we first encounter him. 
 

So it's pretty reductive to say ‘big red reset button’ when every Q episode (not counting the latest ones) has been careful to have a point besides ‘YOLO then forget about it lol!’ 

 

I just watched the Robin Hood episode the other night which was sheer 👌

...just thought I'd add!

[layten]

6 hours ago, deKay said:

 

Omnipotent gods that can deus ex machina the fuck out of everything are so, so shit. They were in TOS, Q always was.

 

Sure, he's funny and de Lancie is excellent, but as a character in Star Trek it's just bollocks. I don't get why fans like it and yet also hate "big red reset buttons" when Q is literally a big red reset button. He's basically Thanos with the infinity gauntlet but it just doesn't work in Star Trek.

deKay is not a merry man.

[deKay]

Episode 3 done.

 

Spoiler

Pill great, Rios surprisingly likeable, Picard just lost like a senile old man, Raffi utterly confusing, Legolas in the best place. Borg Queen nonsensical.

 

But I enjoyed it all. Human Seven is great too.

 

I hope the reason they go back to 2024 is to stop Kurtzman making Star Trek shows.

 

[Nicky]

@deKay lets face it, you and @Flub just need a spinoff with Pill and the ginger girl from Discovery being their fucking obnoxious unlikable selves. How the fuck was she great? she's terrible.

[IcEBuRN]

Her eyes are too close together. My grandpa said never trust someone with eyes too close together...

[Garibaldi]

The latest RedLetterMedia video covering episodes two and three is excellent. They address one of my biggest problems with NuTrek: emotion over reason. TNG both showed, and told us that Starfleet officers are trained to moderate their emotions and not let them interfere with their jobs. Certainly there were times when they did lose control, but those were always notable exceptions and made out to be a big deal, whereas NuTrek embraces a mindset of ‘I feel strongly about this, so I’m entitled to feel my feelings. Also, they trump your facts.’
 

Those clips of Wil Wheaton interviewing Alex Kurtzman and Patrick Stewart peppered throughout were agonising. Like watching a man on the verge of an existential crisis.