This isn't their story, it's Picard's story
I totally agree that it isn't their story. I didn't expect any of them to come out. However, I'd have appreciated even a slight reference to them, just to keep everything 'in touch'.
So, we'll wait for Season 2 I guess.
Flipping the script and making the Quarians go to Eden Prime first while it was the Humans who built the Geth was a neat twist. I'm not sure if it worked, but that's okay.
I don't like the new design of the Geth. They're too humanlike. I recognize that it was inspired by the Cylons from BSG but they're just not as threatening.
The actress they got to play Aria T'Loak on Omega looked a lot like Marina Sirtis. That caused a bit of a double-take.
Jeri Ryan as Garrus/Archangel was inspired, as was Isa Briones as Legion.
Allison Pill as Tilly Zorah was also great casting.
The interior of the old Reaper ship that the Quarians were studying was suitably creepy, though it doesn't look much like the Reaper tentacles that we see in the final episode. I hope we get to see more of the Reapers in S2.
I never imagined Patrick Stewart as an aging, retired Commander Shepard but it kind of works. Putting Shepard's resurrection at the end of the first installment instead of the beginning of the second was a bold move. I guess they want to establish right away that he's Space Jesus.
I'm not sure why they cut the nose off the Normandy SR-2 and painted it red, but I'm fine with it.
I liked how they depicted Shepard using a Paragon roll to stop Ashley from activating the beacon on Virmire.
I hope the Collectors from Beyond come back.
Also they released a VFX breakdown. Here's as seen in the show;
And the infinitely vastly improved shot without VFX
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ED-YjeKywZc
Also they released a VFX breakdown. Here's as seen in the show;
And the infinitely vastly improved shot without VFX
Straight up, you can blame The Visitor for establishing that post 2390, nearly all interfaces are holographic.
Suppose it makes sense for a civilian craft to use the cutting edge crap that barely works, and for the military to experiment, decide it doesn't work, and go back to the old tried and tested.
Like a holographic panel as first seen in First Contact and later Voyager that looks like a pane of glass, but clearly isn't since there's nothing corresponding on the outside of the ship. Or I suppose using an exact bridge layout that's almost 200 years old.
So, I just finished watching the first season of Picard - and only the first season. Iâll get back to it later. I kinda want to watch lower decks first. So, before I begin, two stipulations!
- I have not read any previous posts. I do not intend to until I finish Picard in its entirety. I avoid spoilers like the plague.
- This is all like⌠my opinion, man. Iâm just some person that RPs in a star trek roleplay community and feels compelled to watch the shows as a result. I am not a star trek fan (or a trekkie, if you will). Nor did I grow up with ST. That should help illuminate where Iâm coming from.
Finally, I would like to thank Dex for providing the show and facilitating commentary with me. I would not have watched Picard had it not been for him.
Now, the plot. Wot I think:
There were some really good moments in Picard. And at times, I feel like it touched on some really deep and compelling stuff. But I feel like it was often sidelined and upon reflection, I think I know the answer now: there were two plots.
Has anyone ever seen Mythbusters? How every episode has an A plot and a B plot? One gets the majority of the screentime, and the other gets the minority? Thatâs kinda what Picard felt like to me. Like they were trying to do two things at once. There was the A plot and the B plot.
Plot A: Harbinger is coming, and he wonât be alone. Commander She- I mean Admiral Picard has to prevent a mysterious and extremely powerful force from coming in and destroying the galaxy. Why? Because organics created synthetics but will eventually fear synthetics so the organics will try to destroy synthetics who will in turn destroy organ- yeah, itâs Mass Effect/Battlestar Galactica. Itâs a race against time, the Romulans are involved, thereâs an organization thatâs more secret than the most secret organization, typical save-the-galaxy plot.
Plot B: Picard. Yeah, Picard. Picardâs introspection, his reflection, his grief. What I both expected and wanted Star Trek: Picard to be. This kind of gets explored with his promises to the Romulan refugees, but I was kind of hoping for more stuff beyond just the Romulans. Surely Picard has evolved as a human being since his time in TNG and taken time to reflect upon all of it. I feel like -this- should have been the main plot of the movie. Forget saving the galaxy, thatâs⌠thatâs really unnecessary. Discoveryâs saving the galaxy, let Picard execute a slow burn. The focus of the movie should be on -Picard-.
I donât think this is a bad show. TNG had some really bad, questionable, and outright racist episodes at times. For PIC, the spectrum slides between mediocre and great, depending on what the plot is doing. I was more or less on autopilot when I watched the Plot A stuff, but there were a couple things related to Plot B that -really- made me excited. I was on the edge of my seat. The first was the interview Picard gave and then the second was later when they were going at FTL to that 8-sun place. Picard was talking about the power that fear has in manipulating a society, its enormous magnitude and ramifications. How Starfleet and the Federation sought to be perfect but existed in a system that wasnât quite so. I felt like it was exceptionally important dialogue, and well written. Paladin Picard has stopped running off to save people from bandits, and is instead asking -why- there are bandits on the highway. This was some serious character development and reflection and I was so into- and then it was cut short by Plot A. I was like noooo and I felt like I had this intense desire to grab a fishing rod and try to hook onto Picardâs tongue, reeling him in to keep talking.
The point is that there were some moments in this show that I absolutely loved. They explored, deconstructed, reflected, analyzed. They did what I thought Star Trek: Picard ought to do - look inwards, not outwards. Look at the big picture, not just the monster of the day. And it did do that, more than once. But the problem is that it was all in the minority. The majority of the plot was Mass Effect. So much of it was stuff I didnât care because I played a Bioware trilogy that did it better than the show ever could - and frankly (just as in Mass Effect) I found the foundation of Plot A (Organics v. Synthetics) to be a little closed-minded and quick to fall into tropes.
This really confuses me and frustrates me. In my opinion, they shouldâve just ditched the entirety of Plot A. Get rid of it. Give me more of the B plot. I will eat it off the damn floor if I have to with my cat. The rest feels like filler. I liked seeing Picard visit the Romulan refugees, I liked seeing him argue with others and grapples with that which he has wrought. I think itâs -really- great. There are parts of this show that I want so much more of.
I guess until Harbinger assumes direct control.
Thereâs more stuff I could get into. I thought Hughâs appearance was cool. I was really miffed about 7 showing up because I thought it was fan service, but I ended up changing my mind and thought it was handled well (minus that graphic scene with the borg eye, like wtf). Thatâs another thing that frustrated me about the show. Because it had an A Plot and B Plot, it felt like the tone shifted a lot throughout the episodes. It didnât feel consistent and would feel jarring to me at times. I also didnât like how much the difference in tones were with regards to subtlety. Plot B felt like it was trying to point to things and make you think, Plot A felt like it was bashing my head with a brick whilst screeching âZhat Vashâ repeatedly.
But yeah, really good stuff surrounded by filler. Lots and lots of filler. Never a bad show, but they could do to compact stuff together more and focus on one plot. I could go into the specifics of my particular thoughts on each character and each episode, but I think a general summary will suffice for a forum post.
PeaceâŚthrough superior firepower.
ZHABAN NO!
âCountless voices speaking countless languages, all I unison? Itâs like some sort of hive of⌠of minds, like a collective of-â
âItâs the Borg. It is obviously the Borg.â
âWhat? How can you be so- oh, no, wait, I see it now. Shields up!â
okay, Season 2! My first Trek season I canât willingly binge. How do people live like this??
So first things first, Iâm saddened that Zhaban has passed (Iâm assuming this was the actor saying no to returning) but all good things etc etc.
Pros of the Episode:
- Stargazer looked great inside and out
- Guinan!!
- holee crap its JDL reprising Q!! I literally screamed after predicting it a few moments prior.
- Looks like everyone is back in Starfleet.
- Finally pacing. Season 1 had 44 minutes total runtime per episode. The season 2 premiere clocked in at 55 minutes. I think that extra ten minutes to flesh out certain scenes or ideas is truly what the show needed. I really hope there are more than 10 episodes as well to fully flesh out arcs.
Cons of the Episode:
- Okay so Picardâs first command was the Stargazer, okay. A nice little nod. But I feel like his formative years and the command that really set him apart as a known captain would be the Enterprise. So why would they choose the Stargazer over an arguably more iconic starship is perplexing. But okay not really season breaking.
- The second big thing is Larisa and screentime. Now if the premise of this season is Q sending them back in time I feel like they sorta sucker-punched the actress (not sure of her name) into doing 3 scenes in the premiere for continuityâs sake and nothing more. Obviously, we donât have the whole season yet, but I think this sort of explains why Zhabans actor did not return, it feels almost insulting.
- Borg: You get a borg, and you get a borg, and EVERY SERIES WITH THE EXCEPTION NOF DS9 GETS A BORG. Yes borg is bad, and yes I can tell Picard is more of a modus operandi and Stewartâs farewell to the beloved character. All that said, goody, more borg. I wonât call it lazy writing, but it is nothing if not predictable. That all said I liked the queen, she was scary, but meh, Borg. If by the 2400s Starfleet hasnât started to figure out how to deal with borg and had the technology to do soâŚthereâs a bigger problem in the established canon, but thats just an opinion
All in all the premiere was great, I enjoyed it. Looks like they learned a few things since season 1 so im hopeful for this season
She shows up in the rest of the season, based on the trailers.
It feels weird when IâM the nitpicky one:
It bugs me that the Borg ship wasnât even vaguely shaped like a regular polyhedron.
I dunno, maybe thatâs part of the point. The Borg were acting and presented differently than usual. So their ship looked different too.
They made a casual reference to the fact the Borg had been less of a threat and were decimated (open mind that they used that word correctly) and while they donât say it I think the is the first canon indication that what Voyager did when it came home had a lasting impact.