Star Trek: Picard Season 2

[Al-1701]

Something drives the twisted logic of people. Papa Picard could have been a jerk just for the sake of being a jerk, but being a technophobe and turning one of his sons into one in the 24th Century has to have something behind it.

I felt this episode was slow, but not as slow as the first season as I think we are where we were at the end of the third episode of that season. There will be more setup, but it will be setup with the new normal instead of just being in the old normal (and then needing to do more setup in the new normal with a third of the season behind them).

I did like to see the characters having found their center since the end of the first season. The Federation itself seems to be getting back on track after a rough patch in its history.

Of course, we've been thrown out of it thanks to Q (like how they handled the fact Goldberg and de Lancie are older despite playing functionally ageless characters that didn't involve extended CGI shots like Skywalker). I'm hoping Q is in top form as I think he will bring a sense of fun Picard lacked in too much of Season 1.

Also, love the faceless Borg Queen design.

[CharlesPhipps]

I like the Borg's new design even if I'm 100% sure the special effects people have been playing Destiny: The Taken King.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I'm taken with the idea that they've traveled forward from the past just to kick the federation's ass without trying even though they seem to be 200 years behind.

[Mabus]

youtu.be/7bC7PGzY3NE

I never got the impression from TNG that Picard grew up in an abusive environment. If anything, his story was more of a typical "character wants to escape their boring and pre-destined life to become something more". It is mentioned that Picard's relationship with his father wasn't all roses, and by the looks of it Picard's father was more harsh than abusive, but to go from "Picard and his father weren't on good terms" to "Picard's daddy beat his mommy", makes as much sense as "Romulans hate AI because we never saw them using AI".

Sure, one might argue that Picard would not have been comfortable talking about how his father was beating his mother, people who grew up in an abusive childhood don't like to talk about their trauma to everyone due to trust issues, unless he was talking to someone that he could trust and would understand him, who could empathize with him, like an empath, like a counselor, like counselor Troi... oh wait, he did talk to her about his father and his family and didn't mention anything about his father being a scumbag...

The show should be renamed "Star Trek: Patrick Stewart" because at this point the guy is just playing himself.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I have to agree with Mabus on this point. Picard is driving the flagship minivan rocking out to Semi Charmed Life. His policy in season 1 is crude, and it is a logical development from there. I think it's season 2 or 3 where he makes a rather fatally compromised analogy when using animal testing as an appropriating analogy to Beverly for one of their missions or anthropological assessments. He's not in darkness much but instead fully comprehensive by the time he finds another love interest (after the archeologist and his subsequent and unrelated mind meld with Sarek).

He does go through darkness with the Borg, but it is very self contained.

[CharlesPhipps]

I dunno, it's a switch that he's outright abusive but both Robert and Picard make it clear that living in the Picard household was a miserable experience. Robert is one of the most curmudgeonly, unpleasant, and snide individuals in the Federation and he's implied to be a nicer version of his father.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Can't we just pretend that episode didn't happen?

[Riedquat]

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.

That makes it sounds like "You've got to love in a technology-dominated world or there's something wrong with you." Arrogant and offensive.

No doubt this'll bring out the usual suspects who fail to grasp anything between loving it all and rejecting it all ("so you want children dying from easily curable diseases" being the usual half-arsed, completely un-thought-through example).

[CharlesPhipps]

That makes it sounds like "You've got to love in a technology-dominated world or there's something wrong with you." Arrogant and offensive.

Shockingly, as a fan of a pro-science pro-technology series about space travel and exploration, yes, I reject Luddite reasoning.

Also, he was clearly an abusive asshole even as early as "Family."

[Deledrius]

It does smack a bit of Stewart's own past being overlaid onto Picard, but it's not out of nowhere. I don't think it was necessary, but it's also not the worst thing going on here. I think there's a danger in taking away things from Picard's previous characterization to do it, but that's more in the larger pattern of media representation than anything specific to this show.

The obvious "we can't show you the Borg Emissary's face because it's obviously Picard's mom" thing was just stupid though.