ChiggyvonRichthofen wrote: ↑Sat Apr 25, 2020 6:44 pm
Gonna rant on this a little.
Finished the series, and it was honestly shocking how badly they bungled their own themes in the end run. Once again logic is sacrificed for the sake of spectacle, and not even impressive spectacle at that. Romulans were dealt a huge blow by the disaster on Romulus, but somehow this top secret organization can bring hundreds of copy and paste ships? They destroyed Utopia Planitia, but somehow Riker can conjure up hundreds of copy and paste ships to match them. Ships that are, according to Riker, the bestest and most powerful ships ever! It's laughable.
I really don't see what is the problem here. Yes, the Romulans were dealt a huge blow by the destruction of Romulus. But what was before the Romulan Empire still exists and is still considered a threat. It is not without ressources. They are even able to administrate and defend the Artifact. We are also told since Episode 1 that the Tal Shiar is still a thing. That they have a fleet is no surprise. However, this fleet is no longer composed of huge D'Deridex warbirds, but of smaller, nimble ships.
Yes, Utopia Planitia Shipyards had been destroyed, with all the romulan rescue fleet. Do you really believe that they were the only shipyards in all the Federation? And it's not the whole fleet that has been destroyed. It's the fleet built for the romulan rescue mission. And the Federation has decided that it had not enough ressources to rebuild it. But that does not mean they had none to build and maintain a fleet of the toughest, fastest ships in Starfleet. After the Dominion War, you'd think that Starfleet would want to have real warships to defend the Federation. And those ships do not look that big either. They look much smaller than a Galaxy-class.
They devote themselves to a slow burn for six or seven episodes, and yet they somehow end up developing their actual threats in a huge rush at the end of the series. Audiences could be forgiven for missing what everyone's plans actually were, everything was so slipshod.
It was a bit slow, I will admit that. However, all the pieces of the puzzle are placed episode after episode and, of course, when all the pieces are put together, the plot unravels and things go faster. It was not "slipshod".
Worst of all, Picard dies, he has a conversation with Data about the importance of mortality, and then he's immediately resurrected? I don't know if I can think of a worse example of completely undermining your big serious theme in five minutes. Worse than Into Darkness. Exacerbated further by characters who just met him breaking down over his death. What exactly is the point?
I will give you that point. When Picard died, I thought it was a good ending to that character. Sad, of course, but good. And yeah, resurrecting him in the end was some kind of cheap cope-out. At least he remains mortal. As for characters who just met him breaking down over his death, I would give you Rios and maybe Seven of Nine. Elnor and Raffi knew him for years. He was a father figure to Elnor. So, yeah he would cry. And I found it very fitting that he found comfort in the arms of Raffi. Elnor has lost his parents while Raffi has lost her son (in a certain point of view).
Now, Rios just met Picard, but that does not mean Picard had no important impact on him. In fact, he had a profound impact on every member of his crew. Every crew member changes in some way during the show because of Jean-Luc Picard.
I wasn't enamored with this show to begin with, but I thought it was ok. The torture porn soured me on it, but that was about the point where the show dove off a cliff (with the exception of the Riker-Troi stuff, which I liked). With all the hype and all the talk of an introspective, meaningful Star Trek show, their slow build up was heading toward a ridiculous, half-baked Mass Effect 3 rip off.
I don't know. It seems to me that Picard had very serious themes. While it may not be the most profound show, it certainly is not the most superficial either.
Now of course the show is not without flaws. I was not impressed with Seven of Nine. I mean, Jeri Ryan was not bad, but Seven was just a big "meh" to me. I didn't care for her story arc. I don't know, I pictured her as a scientist in the Daystrom Institute after Voyager, not as some kind of vigilante in the Federation's Far West.