Reviews of Star Trek: Picard season one

[Mabus]

To paraphrase Chuck, "this is your once in a lifetime chance, don't blow it": the show had the perfect premise: a world post-TNG/DS9/VOY, that has mostly recovered from the Dominion War; many species that didn't participate in the war, like say, the Tholians, Gorn, Nausicaans, Orions, Sheliak, Kovaalans, Mazarites, Vissians, maybe even the Xindi if they're still around have slowly taken advantage of this perceived weakness and expanded into other systems; You could even have a sort of parallel Federation made up of the less aggressive species if you want; or maybe they decide to usurp the Federation from beneath by placing spies and saboteurs; the supernova that destroyed Romulus has delivered a decapitation strike to the Romulan Empire and the recently reconstructed Klingon Empire has occupied the chaotic former Romulan Empire, which has further escalated tensions with the Federation; you can even say that Martok was assassinated and the new Chancellor has decided to bring back glory to the Empire; he also banished Worf from the Empire, and this could lead to a nice backstory for Dorn's Captain Worf series that he wants to make; some parts of the Romulan Empire have managed to survive and are being helped under the table by the Federation, with the help of the Vulcans that desire reunification; The Romies have lost most of their fleet so they have very little ships laying around; so basically the Maquis, only this time it's the Romulans; with many actors still wanting to return, either for a small cameo or longer role you can still please many instead of none; you can even fit Stewart's pet politics into the show, since the state of the Federation and its allies isn't that different; and you don't even need to have Stewart play Picard as in TNG if he really dislikes it so much since he doesn't have to appear too much; hell, you could even have each of TNG, DS9 or VOY main or side character share their view on this new world...
But no, instead of actually bringing in competent writers and producers that actually care about the source material, that actually care enough to create a plan for the story and don't just throw in scenes after scenes, and give enough time for the graphic designers to finish the CGI in time, as well as editors that butcher scenes, or, you know some love for their work, they decided to bring in Alex Kurtzman, a man known to turn to shit everything he touches, Michael Chabon who while won a Pulitzer prize winner for writing books doesn't seem to understand that writing for TV is different than writing for books and spends most of his time explaining the plot and plot holes on his Instagram instead of the writing room, and the other writers that for some reason are just bland.
Can't write a good show, everything has to be rushed and lazy, how else are we gonna compete with HBO, Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, Amazon Prime, etc.

[Captain Crimson]

I would heartily recommend just tuning it out of your life if you have a problem with modern ST. I mean, you get theories like how even when something is branded as the prime world again, it's still not the prime world. My take on that? They hold the rights, they own it. Now, whether you dislike that or not, they do hold the rights. Is it basically stripping down an older classic to put the pieces into some new grafted together hybrid car? Sure. But at the same time, they bought it, they own it, they negotiate over it all the time. So yes, this is the prime world. Can you argue it lacked all the magic which made it so good? Sure. There is always that perspective, and it's as valid as ever to hold in today's market. But you can't pretend this is not the prime world in anything past headcanon, as no doubt even if the story were to ever pick up, this would be considered canon by any future writers. Find the stuff you enjoy in other places.

[Mabus]

Are you aiming that comment at my post?
Because if so I can tell you I didn't mention anything about not prime universe or whatever.
And I couldn't care less if CBS/UPN/Paramount or whoever owns the ST IP and there's nothing I can do. What I care is if the people that hold the property can do something good with it. I want to know that the people that work on it actually put some heart in it and not just throw in some offhand comments and be done with it. The Disney ST is an example of that without a proper plan and over relying on the "mystery box" you end up with an inferior product that people aren't going to remember fondly of. Which is sad, because the MCU is the exact opposite in this regard, regardless if you like or adore the superhero genre.
And even if I don't enjoy a story 100%... so what? Maybe I like to watch something to nitpick because something can be so bad it's entertaining. Other time I can just watch it because I'm just curious what ideas people have, even if they're not the best or well presented. I've watched lots of shitty and bland films in my life. I have also seen lots of good films. I don't necessarily have to watch only good stuff. When it comes to films I prefer to be curious as opposed to very picky, since maybe later I might change my mind, who knows. Or maybe I'll hate it more. Anything can be possible.

[Captain Crimson]

I just have a lot of backlog posts to catch up on. I'm sorry if I confused you. I'll use quotes for individual people I address. Fair enough if you wanna find something to be negative about, but it surely can't be healthy in the long run. It's easier to find stuff you do love. Lots of choices out there.

[excalibur]

I refuse to believe that even after 14 years, Picard had exhausted all his friends in Starfleet. People that would have served under him could have easily been in positions of power to help. Worf, LaForge, Crusher, etc. Hell, even Janeway could of been someone to talk to. But the show runners didn't want that. They'd rather push aside the title character and his generation while throwing these new characters with very little development. Raffi basically lost her purpose after getting to Free Cloud and Elnor was missing until the very last couple episodes, also contributing nothing to the crew other than being a space elf.

I understand Seven could become more human but tearing down her character and all the story she went through in Voyager to make her this hard drinking bitter cold blooded killed is not the way.

Who were the Fenris Rangers? This type of group not only sounds nothing like a Star Trek organization but actually reminded me of Babylon 5 with their Rangers.

Jurati was all over the place. None of the characters at Picard's Vineyard calls into question why she's there and with such good timing. She's also working outside her main field. Did the writers think that because she's a "doctor", it means she's a medical doctor as well as knowing about ships making those decoys at the last battle?

Riker's intro felt like they did a bunch of reshoots and the entire episode felt disconnected from the rest of the season. And why is he an "acting" captain at the end? Why not a regular captain? or an Admiral? I'll tell you why. It's because that would be another character Picard would have called to help him. Like in All Good Things, Picard asked everyone of his old crew for help, starting with Riker. His character knew about loyalty and they would have come to his aid.

Raffi is a mystery why she's even this close to Picard. Because the Countdown comics is now not canon, but Raffi is from those comics I think. She served under Picard as an XO but we're not sure how long they've been serving together in this show's canon. We don't know why she got kicked out of Starfleet for just working with Picard. That makes no sense. The whole JL nickname was just off putting. No one who has served under Picard has even called him any less than his rank, Picard or at most Jean-Luc. This type of familiarity is just weird oh and she "love him". Again, not sure how long they've served together for her to developed that level of relationship but too late, the plot has moved at warp speed because she's doing a hand holding thing with Seven at the end...after we spent another edge filled scene of her drinking her problems away, but now she's smiling because of...Raffi...that's almost as out of no where as Rios and Jurati's relationship. The good doctor just killed her old lover and instantly and very awkwardly tried to bone Rios.

The Federation, especially humans live in a post scarcity world where poverty does not exist but yet Raffir CHOSE to live in a trailer park kinda of home and basically turned into a crack head horrible mom. I understand her career in the shit would affect her family but she even had the whole "I'm clean" speech with her estranged son. This felt like a soap opera than anything I've seen in Trek.

The swearing...oh the fucking swearing. Having swear words in a script doesn't make something more relatable or real. It adds to the edge.

Also when Soong turned off the robot girl, I forgot her name, why didn't he revealed to the rest that it was she who killed Saga? They had evidence. That alone would stop Soji from turning on the Reaper beacon.

Also, the advanced machine race is a bunch of tentacles and claws...


The scene with the Vash ladies with their cloaks and on a desert planet reminded me of Dune...down to the hatred against AI.


You're telling me, the Federation, instead of investigating WHY and HOW the robots on Mars went crazy, they just banned all research and development of robots. That's the most short sighted thing I have ever seen the Federation do.

I also don't see why the Romulans are pissed at Picard. They all know he was the only one trying to save him. The sword fight was dumb as hell. You want to challenge a 94 year old man to a fight?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

And why is he an "acting" captain at the end? Why not a regular captain? or an Admiral?

Acting captain isn't a sub rank like junior lieutenant is to lieutenant. Anybody that is commanding a ship is referred to as captain regardless of Starfleet rank.

[Mabus]

I also don't see why the Romulans are pissed at Picard. They all know he was the only one trying to save him. The sword fight was dumb as hell. You want to challenge a 94 year old man to a fight?

That scene is even dumber when you consider that they don't even give a reason onscreen why the Romulans couldn't just use their own ships to begin the evacuation of their homeworld or at the very least relocate the Romfugees brought by Picard on that planet. And to add more fuel to the dumpsterfire, that Romulan senator's speech to Picard is just sonsense: "Just as no one asked for your help. You and Starfleet had no understanding of Romulan ingenuity, resolve, self-sufficiency. You took advantage of us at the very moment where we doubted ourselves, enticed us with your empty promises, and did everything in your power to scatter, confuse and divide us."
It sounds like the Romulan fleet just vanished overnight and the Romulans just sat there on the doomed planet or in the middle of space waiting for a Federation ship to appear, like the entire Romulan population became a bunch of hitchhikers making the thumb up signal and showing some leg at any Federation ship passing by.
And since Picard was in no condition to fight, the whole "let's humiliate the old guy" gets dumber when they could have just shot him with their disruptors, and if they wanted to kill him slow, they could have just shot him in the arm or leg since apparently that's not immediately lethal.

[Nobody700]

You know what would fix a lot of the dumb Romulan plotholes?

They knew the sun was gonna blow up so they sent their fleet to save the homeworld and inner systems but the sun blew up midway through it, so while only a small percentage of the species died, they lost over half of their military fleet, and well... a lot of the Romulan races they conquered rose up and fought their oppressors, so now the Romulan race went from a power equal to the Federation to a broken power, where in some places they are still as powerful as the old days... but in many more, they are weak and barely able to survive. The Federation could have saved entire planets of Romulans but didn't, leaving those Romulans to suffer where war has devastated the planet and they cannot leave because their IS no where that will take them. It's not perfect mind you... but it's better than what the show presents.

[Mabus]

You know what would fix a lot of the dumb Romulan plotholes?

They knew the sun was gonna blow up so they sent their fleet to save the homeworld and inner systems but the sun blew up midway through it, so while only a small percentage of the species died, they lost over half of their military fleet, and well... a lot of the Romulan races they conquered rose up and fought their oppressors, so now the Romulan race went from a power equal to the Federation to a broken power, where in some places they are still as powerful as the old days... but in many more, they are weak and barely able to survive. The Federation could have saved entire planets of Romulans but didn't, leaving those Romulans to suffer where war has devastated the planet and they cannot leave because their IS no where that will take them. It's not perfect mind you... but it's better than what the show presents.

Yeah, I can accept that explanation. The Romulans could have also sent most of their fleet to other parts of the Empire to end any rebellions, possible invasions or separatist movements, since many would take advantage of the chaos that's about to happen. However, even so, there still should have been some civilian ships available near Romulus, since being their homeworld it would have been a high traffic location.
I suppose the Zhat Vash sabotaged their own homeworld evacuation as well and somehow managed to seed the idea that the Federation is responsible, which could explain why Nero was angry at the Federation and the other Romulans are also angry for nonsense reasons at the Federation.

[excalibur]

And why is he an "acting" captain at the end? Why not a regular captain? or an Admiral?

Acting captain isn't a sub rank like junior lieutenant is to lieutenant. Anybody that is commanding a ship is referred to as captain regardless of Starfleet rank.

Actually, the crew will refer to the commanding officer of the ship as "captain", the CO will still state his or her rank when addressing others. We've seen this before.