TNG: Gambit

[Madner Kami]

I can live with a "missing" scene where Picard shows Sarek's feelings towards his adoptive daughter. It's something I expect mostly from a fanfic though and, thruth be told, I expect this mostly from a self-insert fanfic. It reeks of a bad self-insert fanfic. Good continual story-telling takes something that happened, was said or implied and runs with it. Bad continual story-telling takes something that is possible but comes out of the blue and runs with that.

As for the mindmeld Picard would have been aware of Michael. One shouldn't forget that the mindmeld is a two-way connection. When something as minor as calling Riker "Numer One" by habit makes it into Sarek, then something that should be as strong as feelings towards an adoptive daughter, even or maybe especially if she was a disappointment, would definitly make it into Picard, unless you want to argue that Sarek did not care for her at all, which I can not imagine given who Michael is and what her influence on the general events were.

[Nevix]

Galen is actually Picard’s alias on the pirate ship. It’s a nice nod to his archeology professor from “The Chase.” The pirate leader’s name is Baran.

That's right. He's so forgettable that I can't even get his name right, yeah.

But honestly, making him memorable as a villain would have been a positive for this episode, I think. Richard Lynch is not a bad actor, so he could pull off something that had a bit more substance.

I left this off for an upcoming TOS episode, but this criticism extends to all the raiders. The most personality among criminals this episode is the scum informant, and even that is still not engaging, he's just more than a mouthpiece for lines that advance the plot. If even the boss of the raiders is forgettable, how much more his underlings?

Though I suppose we should be grateful that they didn't give us Okana; a plain white cracker is still better than Okana any day.

Okana makes table water crackers, which resemble mildly edible cardboard, look like gourmet butter crackers. Baran resembles a bargain unsalted saltine, and is there mainly as... I don't know, a proto Kazon because of the hair? And as a distraction before T'Paal becomes the villain? Someone for Picard/Galen to kill to look cool/smart?

So... yeah. This episode really did need trimmed to a single episode.

[drewder]

So I was just watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIZjKHFGip4 which is a clip from Gambit and I'm surprised Chuck didn't bring up that Data apparently orders phasers to be used on a ship that they're pursuing at war 9. Pretty sure you're not supposed to be able to do so since phasers travel at light speed.

[clearspira]

So I was just watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIZjKHFGip4 which is a clip from Gambit and I'm surprised Chuck didn't bring up that Data apparently orders phasers to be used on a ship that they're pursuing at war 9. Pretty sure you're not supposed to be able to do so since phasers travel at light speed.

Kirk used to fire phasers at warp all the time.

[CharlesPhipps]

HAHAHAHAHA...HAHAHAHA, for a moment there I thought you were actually defending the Abramsverse... But seriously, that's a poor counterargument. Sarek was mentally ill, he was unable to control himself and needed Picard's composure. Are you really going to tell me he somehow was able to hide significant portions of his mind in his condition? But hey, what can we expect for a show created by Alex Kurtzman? I had hopes from something by Fuller but I guess Kurtzman was too much even for him to handle.

No one likes my view that Star Trek's DISCO is canon but it's "newly" canon the way the Multiverse is newly canon in the Marvel Universe. The Temporal Cold War from ENT and a bunch of other fuck ups by the time police is what resulted in Michael Burnham living with Spock's family along with other changes.

I felt that was meant to be what ENT was doing but apparently the writers never intended to explain away any changes that way.

[Deledrius]

I felt that was meant to be what ENT was doing but apparently the writers never intended to explain away any changes that way.

It wouldn't surprise me if it got all tied up in the same "Yes, but also no" thinking that led to ST:2009 being a reboot but also an alternate timeline, instead of just picking a lane and staying there.

[CrypticMirror]

HAHAHAHAHA...HAHAHAHA, for a moment there I thought you were actually defending the Abramsverse... But seriously, that's a poor counterargument. Sarek was mentally ill, he was unable to control himself and needed Picard's composure. Are you really going to tell me he somehow was able to hide significant portions of his mind in his condition? But hey, what can we expect for a show created by Alex Kurtzman? I had hopes from something by Fuller but I guess Kurtzman was too much even for him to handle.

No one likes my view that Star Trek's DISCO is canon but it's "newly" canon the way the Multiverse is newly canon in the Marvel Universe. The Temporal Cold War from ENT and a bunch of other fuck ups by the time police is what resulted in Michael Burnham living with Spock's family along with other changes.

I felt that was meant to be what ENT was doing but apparently the writers never intended to explain away any changes that way.

If they'd given DSC its own little universe then that would have so many fan argument and prevented so much community division. But, it would mean the showrunners wouldn't have the ego rush of working in the same perceived sandbox as Gene and his direct successors, and also they used the disintegration of the fan community as a method of advertising; playing different fan groups off against each other while doing so.

So I was just watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIZjKHFGip4 which is a clip from Gambit and I'm surprised Chuck didn't bring up that Data apparently orders phasers to be used on a ship that they're pursuing at war 9. Pretty sure you're not supposed to be able to do so since phasers travel at light speed.

The only time phasers at warp caused a problem was in TMP, because of an in-universe new phaser design, and that was itself only a problem because the warp engines had gone wonky and were eating themselves at the time.

[CharlesPhipps]

No one likes my view that Star Trek's DISCO is canon but it's "newly" canon the way the Multiverse is newly canon in the Marvel Universe. The Temporal Cold War from ENT and a bunch of other fuck ups by the time police is what resulted in Michael Burnham living with Spock's family along with other changes.

And then Star Trek the original timeline would be dead. No one likes to believe DISCO revived the old Trekverse but it did and in spades.

[CrypticMirror]

And then Star Trek the original timeline would be dead. No one likes to believe DISCO revived the old Trekverse but it did and in spades.

It would be dormant, perhaps, but dead is where DSC has left it due to the convoluted mess it has left of things. I'd rather have had a dormant, but revivable in the future, prime timeline that ended with Riker's end programme than the mess DSC has made of it. DCS in its own little weird universe could then do whatever the fuck it is it is doing without bothering the rest of the franchise.

[CharlesPhipps]

It would be dormant, perhaps, but dead is where DSC has left it due to the convoluted mess it has left of things. I'd rather have had a dormant, but revivable in the future, prime timeline that ended with Riker's end programme than the mess DSC has made of it. DCS in its own little weird universe could then do whatever the fuck it is it is doing without bothering the rest of the franchise.

Yes, it's completely dead except for the seven series in production.

Man, I swear, some fans are clinging to the "DISCO was a failure" meme more than JFK conspiracy theories.