Star Trek: Picard Season 2

[Frustration]

Pay these actors enough and they'll appear in anything.

[Deledrius]

That was a slog, and they're making a lot of the same mistakes as season one.

I'm going to make a recommendation to anyone who hasn't watched it yet but plans to: for episode one, skip the teaser and opening credits. The episode spends most of its runtime slowly building elements of a mystery (and it's really one of the few elements of the episode that would-be engaging), but the teaser act is a flash-forward that undercuts both the mystery element and the tension of decisions made in that moment. You'll see it all again later, and as far as I can tell it exists at the opening only to start the episode with action. If you're committed enough to watch ST:Picard, you don't need that hook.

It was almost amusing how much it made me think of Chuck's recent review of Voyager's The Fight and how the framing device was completely at odds with the main plot. There's even a moment when things come back around to the teaser and the music crescendos and it cuts to black for the commercial break, meaning that whoever wrote it fully intended it to be a dramatic reveal. Someone came behind their back and edited this episode into ruining the standalone element.

I realized that if Voyager is known as the show where "potential goes to die", Picard might be the show where "potential goes back in time to prevent itself from being born".

As for the rest, nothing really terrible, but then Episode 1 of Season 1 was decent, too. It fell off the cliff shortly after, and I expect this one to do similarly given the season trailer at the end. There were many moments of cringe, and at least one really obvious telegraph for a reveal-to-come that makes no sense, but we'll see. I'm hoping that this season won't be eight episodes of filler that contradict the premier and finale with loose and dropped plot threads, but since it's the same numbskulls working on it that's a faint hope. Nothing seen here inspires confidence. With luck it at least won't make me want to stop watching it altogether from the sour taste like last season did.

[Mabus]

Just watched S2 premiere, and while it's too early to tell, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that it's clear that there isn't much to salvage from the show's premise.

Another fucking anomaly/space hole, tentacles again, Jurati failing to be funny, Seven being violent and hateful and more talk about ex-Borg drone hate. So basically the dumbest things from the previous season brought back in what would amount to almost 10 minutes, but scattered throughout the episode. And they're doing a watered down version of Tapestry now?

I actually had a tiny bit of hope when they showed Rios as captain and the ship crew actually behaving like adults for 5 minutes, hey maybe they'll actually have more oldTrek scenes... nope, those scenes only existed to lead to the stupid action scene.

Also, that scene with Picard and Raffi in that large geodesic covering building, which also appeared in the trailer is just too similar to the UN building from "The Expanse", even the angle which was shot reminds me of a scene from S1 finale of the series, and I doubt it was accidental.

[CharlesPhipps]

Everyone basically agrees this is a lot more idealistic, addresses most of the issues of Season One, and is a lot more bright/Star Trek/Star Fleet.

I'm annoyed because I liked the civilian/Rogue/Criminal element of Season One.

[CharlesPhipps]

While it totally doesn't fit Roddenberry's ideal world, Papa Picard being abusive really does explain a lot and is one of those things that makes sense with what we know of the character. We know he was a general butthead from Robert and Jean Luc's reactions to him. Neither of them have any good memories of the man even with Robert following in his footsteps.

And I think Robert is meant to be a BETTER man than his father, we know that Picard hates children but secretly yearns for them due to the Nexus (meaning that SOMETHING made him afraid of having a family), and Picard has a serious issue forming attachments that goes beyond Captain Kirk. Beverly was down for it but their relationship never left port and failed in alternate realities.

Picard having no idea how to relate to children except what he knows to be wrong from his abusive dad and being afraid of making the mistakes his father made really fills in a lot of blanks.

Plus its an homage to Patrick Stewart's own past. My headcanon is that Papa had some past trauma that resulted in him becoming the Luddite we know. Maybe not Starfleet but a failed colony or something.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

While it actually seems kind of normalized, I was for some reason really l liking the visuals of the space rupture in spite of that. Perhaps because I'm still going through TNG and this is doing some justice to all the technobabble you hear about spatial ruptures, but the precise animation development with it looking like an IMAX shot was really nice.

[Procstar]

Everyone basically agrees this is a lot more idealistic, addresses most of the issues of Season One, and is a lot more bright/Star Trek/Star Fleet.

I'm annoyed because I liked the civilian/Rogue/Criminal element of Season One.

I did like the seediness of the first season as well. That wasn't an element really focused on in the old shows because everybody was on the Starfleet side.

I did like the starships though - some old favorites, some newer designs and the very welcome inclusion of Star Trek Online vessels.

[stryke]

I really liked it, but then I just might be in a good mood for them being so spot on nailing the return at the end of that episode.

[Frustration]

Beverly was down for it but their relationship never left port and failed in alternate realities.

Maybe. Some people have seriously suggested that human pairbonding isn't meant to be lifelong, and that most relationships would be temporary ones if culture didn't keep emphasizing permanent marriage as normal.

Plus its an homage to Patrick Stewart's own past. My headcanon is that Papa had some past trauma that resulted in him becoming the Luddite we know.

I'm very tired of there always being Freudian excuses for antagonists. Some people are just jerks. They don't need to have been traumatized in the past to become that way - that's just Rousseauism philosophy reheated and served over a plate of utopianism.

[CharlesPhipps]

I'm very tired of there always being Freudian excuses for antagonists. Some people are just jerks. They don't need to have been traumatized in the past to become that way - that's just Rousseauism philosophy reheated and served over a plate of utopianism.

In this case, it's the fact Patrick Stewart's own issues with domestic violence were directly related to PTSD from WW2 where he experienced severe shell-shock.