Star Trek: Picard Season 2

[CharlesPhipps]

Anyway, whether or not, I'm going to throw out some thoughts Good vs. Bad:

Good

1. The Time Travel Plot Holds Up: People were debating left and right this but the fact that Picard says he grew up with the bullet holes in the chateau means that this was always meant to happen. Q is omniscient so choosing a convoluted way to bring about all these events makes sense and avoids ant plot holes because Q knows how it will turn out because he's seen it already. He may not understand why it happened the way it did but he knows how it happened.

Even the Confederacy being a "bubble" timeline works because we've seen these things exist for a brief moment like when Daniels took Archer out of time and fucked over the Federation.

2. The zany plotlines are the best part of the season: The Borg Queen singing Pat Benetar, the punk being afraid of people on the bus, the Battlestar Galactica homages, Seven's insane driving, and other craziness is the best part of the show. I wish they'd actually played up the comedic elements more than downplayed them.

3. Doctor Soong, Bond villain: I have to say I enjoyed when they finally made him as the embodiment of Silicon Valley big tech money. He can buy his way into a space mission, is so arrogant that he clones himself as a daughter, and is able to acquire military drones. He's the guy who will make a fascist future and given Peter Thiel's actions, I 100% buy it.

4. Will Wheaton Return: Fuck anyone who is against this. I was grinning ear to ear.

5. Borg Redemption: They did the same thing in Star Trek: Destiny and I really enjoyed the fact that being a hostile parasitical lifeform that everyone in the rest of the galaxy hates is actually a poor survival strategy. Having Jurati point this is out is strange versus Seven doing it but I also like that Jurati is actually intrigued by the collective's transhumanism in a way that our ex-Borg would never be.

The Middling

1. Picard's Secret Pain: Patrick Stewart used his own abusive father and his PTSD to make this storyline but I frankly don't think it really is all that interesting. There's some good moments like the homage to "Where No Man Has Gone Before" but it's not like Picard didn't already have trauma like the Borg, the death of Jack Crusher, the Stargazer being lost, and being stabbed in the heart. I actually kind of wish they'd stuck with Maurice Picard being abusive because that would at least fit with how Robert and Jean Luc never have anything good to say about the man.

2. Overwritten plotline: There's probably 3-4 too many moving parts in this story. It comes together at the end but they could have removed some of the story elements and probably had more time to develop things like Rios and his past girl or Jurati and Seven. Maybe even kept some of the characters in the story.

3. The Borg Queen: Aside from having her sing, the Borg Queen has always been a bit like Davros in Doctor Who. It's a fine character in its own right but actually reduces the menace of their faction as a whole. The Daleks are always more terrifying and more interesting on their own than when they are personalized by Davros. Ditto the Borg and the Borg Queen. The Borg Queen is great but basically being a sexy cyborg vampire is not something that fits with the implacable embodiments of conformity.

4. Underuse of Q: We could have had a couple of more conversations between Q and Picard, Q and Guinan, or Q and anyone else.

5. Young Guinan: Ito Aghayere did a fine job but Whoopi Goldberg is Guinan and if you're going to use her, you should have used her throughout. It's an easy fix too, just say, "My race goes through cycles of old age and regeneration." They also dug themselves a hole by removing Time's Arrow and should have just addressed it.

The Bad

1. Writing out the cast: Rios, Elnor, Jurati, and more won't be returning. Which ticks me the heck off because I consider Picard's cast to be the most likable scifi cast since Firefly. I was hoping we'd see them as Seven's Nine or whatever sequel series they did. This is targ crap and I don't care about TNG's cast returning in large part because of this.

2. Q in a bottle: I have no idea why this was even a plot point.

3. Not addressing World War 3: This ties into 1# but Rios leaving the 25th century for the 24th for a girl he barely met like a Doctor Who companion (I'm looking at you, Leeta and Jo Grant), is pretty bad but so near to the end of civilization without commentary needed to be addressed. Maybe a simple, "I'm staying so they don't get killed. When the bombs drop, I'm going to be in Outer mongologia" would have helped.

4. Not addressing Q's dying: A simple, "I don't know why I'm dying" would be better than leaving me wondering. This is a show built on nostalgia and since Q's dying has been the plot of several episodes, it's not something to just handwave.

5. All the damn dropped plot threads from Season 1: What happened to Narek? Admiral Oh? Is the Romulan Empire and Federation's relationship affected by the fact that 9/11 really was a false flag operation in this world? This ties into the fact that Isla Briones was criminally underused this season and like Elnor could have been included in the past. Drop the Kore part and maybe have Soji meet her origins in a Master Race nutjob who is the father of all androids.

Screw it, Soji and Elnor hook up. That would be a very pretty couple.

[clearspira]

Anyway, whether or not, I'm going to throw out some thoughts Good vs. Bad:

Good

1. The Time Travel Plot Holds Up: People were debating left and right this but the fact that Picard says he grew up with the bullet holes in the chateau means that this was always meant to happen. Q is omniscient so choosing a convoluted way to bring about all these events makes sense and avoids ant plot holes because Q knows how it will turn out because he's seen it already. He may not understand why it happened the way it did but he knows how it happened.

There is absolutely no way that Q is omniscient. We have seen too much shit blindside him over the years to believe that. Maybe his fortune telling is about as accurate as Troi's ability to read your emotions?

[CharlesPhipps]

There is absolutely no way that Q is omniscient. We have seen too much shit blindside him over the years to believe that. Maybe his fortune telling is about as accurate as Troi's ability to read your emotions?

Omniscient may be stretching it but he is nonlinear as he's often prone to telling people so that is closer than most.

Screenrant also did an analysis of his motives: https://screenrant.com/star-trek-picard ... explained/