Star Trek Picard and Trek Taking on Modern Politics

[Yukaphile]

I think it is safe to conclude the Space Alzheimer's has been retconned at this point. They wanna get political, fine. And let's be honest, clearspira. Ignoring Brexit, and refugees, 100 years from now, the same damned thing will be happening. Only the players change. And given DS9, there was no way the Feds were ever going to be painted like The Culture again. Not even Culture Lite.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

The EMH had a trial episode pertaining to his rights as a being didn't he?

[MrL1992]

I do wonder how the Synthetics ban affected the rights of sentient holograms? I do not neccesarily expect season 1 of Picard to address it as they can only stuff in so much but would hope it comes up eventually.

Starfleet never admitted that holograms were sentient so probably not much. And frankly, Chuck once hit the nail on the head during ''Fair Haven'': if holograms can be proven to be able to evolve into actual living beings, even if its only a few, then the Holodeck is perhaps the greatest torture chamber in human history. Forget ''Westworld'' because at least those androids eventually learned than they can leave; the Holodeck is a place where you are perpetually trapped; can be reprogrammed at will, deleted at will, and lets be honest, raped at will.

Most ordinary people will never want to believe that the Holodeck can create real people lest the implications be too disturbing. And as for the people that actually build and profit off them such as Quark - he would have a vested interest in denying holograms can become sentient lest he lose what is his greatest latinum source besides Dabo and alcohol.

Certainly still worth potentially exploring in the future. Right now, the EMH is right up there on my list of characters they're likely to bring back in this series, right below Q, for how well his story could connect to the goings-on.

[Zargon]

Holograms are not exactly the same as synthetic life for the basic reason of freedom and independence.

A synthetic like Data is free and clear to go where ever he wants and do whatever he wants. They are not ''owned" by anyone. This is even Federation Law after "Measure of a Man".

A hologram on the other hand needs both an environment will holographic projectors and a massive building sized computer to run their program. In short it takes a ton of technology for them to ''Be". And all that tech is owned 100% by the Federation Starfleet. They don't have freedom....and even if they did, they can't really use it

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Picard doesn't seem fully at his wits.

And on that note I have to ask: any mention of his Space Alzheimer's that he contracted in ''All Good Things?''

That would have been a much better plot than Space Brexit. Something actually heartfelt. Something that is an actual a mature theme instead of what children believe to be mature themes (like boobies! and F-bombs!). And yes, that was an alternate future, but it was also described as being an incurable genetic disease and thus no reason why the change in timeline should prevent it in any way.

The thing is, he's just as detached. He's on his farm and he isn't keenly receptive in his accord with people. It also gets to him on a behavioral level, but he is just kind of mopey instead of being crotchety. Over the last few years I've noticed Patrick Stewart take on a more sentimental tone with social matters, and it seems like he's channeled that into this broken down Picard.

It's not totally unlike how we meet Luke in Last Jedi. It did feel like it was meandering in the same fashion, but he does start to get his act together, which almost happened off screen with Luke.

I think this is meant to be not Picard, as a show. Seems they very much are trying to depart from the day-in-the-navy format for an adventure narrative in the ST universe. It seems more like the principles that Next Generation espoused via Picard than a logical progression of Picard from what we're familiar with. I think it works a little better here than with the Disney Trilogy because in spite of him being a passive vessel, he pretty much owns every scene.

[MrL1992]

With Picard having two Romulan 'carers' (both of which seek very sweet), did it ever lead to an awkward evening if Worf ever came to dinner? XD

[clearspira]

The EMH had a trial episode pertaining to his rights as a being didn't he?

Starfleet agreed that he could own his work, but by the end they no more considered him a man than Toby the Targ.

[clearspira]

I think it is safe to conclude the Space Alzheimer's has been retconned at this point. They wanna get political, fine. And let's be honest, clearspira. Ignoring Brexit, and refugees, 100 years from now, the same damned thing will be happening. Only the players change. And given DS9, there was no way the Feds were ever going to be painted like The Culture again. Not even Culture Lite.

But that's why Star Trek was great. It taught us that perhaps, just perhaps, it doesn't have to be the same. Although even Trek admitted that the only way for it to happen would be to kill a billion people and demolish all existing governments via WW3. And then have aliens land.

Star Trek in that sense is extremely bleak.

[Yukaphile]

@BridgeConsoleMasher In that respect, I do get a slight sense of age-ism in regards to both.

[SamWiding]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfQdf93e63I&t=0s

Mike and Rich talk about Star Trek Picard!