Star Trek: Picard Season 2

[TGLS]

Slightly underrated note...we do get a mention of a General Sisko in this: is it Ben or was Jake forced into service in this timeline? And if the former, wonder what The Prophets think of all this.

I think there's a rather distinct possibility that they don't really care as long as the Pah Wraiths were dealt with.

[Madner Kami]

She was portrayed as an elderly woman. Not a young woman about to go into space and somehow be abducted by the Borg (who are canonically on the other side of the galaxy, unaware of the Federation).

Adherence to canon in NuTrek? You must be new here.

[Mabus]

This entire "Evil Federation due to a single time change" story feels like fanfic. And I won't be surprised if it wasn't inspired by at least a few ST alternate timeline fanfics.

Or, and call me crazy, it is literally one of the most classic time travel usages in fiction.

It's like saying, "Wow, they're totally ripping off the Lord of the Rings in Zelda. An evil wizard taking over the land! Pfft!"

Thing is, Star Trek already did the whole "Evil Federation empire" to the death, each Trek series had at least one such episode. But each time it was done, there was something different about it, even if it wasn't always done good. This time however, not only it's done in a very generic way (let's give the Federation Nazi imagery, because Nazis are evil), but somehow each of the main character conveniently has an important role in said Evil Federation, where not only they are safe from any interference, they can use their own position to find everyone else. And in case of Elnor, he just happens to conveniently be in in Raffi's path. It's very safe for them, for some reason not one ever died in battle, or was captured, or is a traitor, double agent, or hell, they're just a lower deck ensign, etc. They are in the best positions where they only struggle a bit to achieve their goals, can use their authority to escape their problems and then, by the looks of the next episode they immediately travel back in time to undo everything. Hell, the only character that might pose a threat, Seven's husband, is so obviously going to be the main obstacle, they might as well just give him a Snidely Whiplash moustache, at least that would have been funny. Dumb, but hilarious.

This is what I mean by "fanfiction": it's bland, generic, unimaginative (Federation is evil and kills aliens because they're evil), all the main characters are already in important positions where no one can pose any threat to them (except for Elnor, who is super conveniently rescued by Raffi, who only manages to do that because she is super conveniently the police chief apparently and super conveniently knows that Elnor was nearby when it took everyone else some time to find each other), any serious challenges are immediately solved, or if there's a problem it's just a temporary setback, and there's nothing memorable about any scene. I really don't feel that they're struggling in any way.

There was no reason for the gang to come together at the end of the episode, they could have stretched the story over 2-3 episodes and have each character slowly realize what is happening, as opposed to one or two characters immediately find another, because all are in important (or convenient) positions.

[TGLS]

There was no reason for the gang to come together at the end of the episode, they could have stretched the story over 2-3 episodes and have each character slowly realize what is happening, as opposed to one or two characters immediately find another, because all are in important (or convenient) positions.

It's the reaction to season 1. Biggest complaint of Season 1? It's too slow! So what do we do with season 2? Make sure we aren't going too slow.

[CMWaters]

Some notes that someone picked up on with President Annika Hansen's report that Seven was looking over:
-Lt. Colonel Tasha Yar was dealing with an Andorian rebellion (makes me also think that she personally killed Worf for some reason)
-General Miles O'Brian was dealing with this timeline's Dominion War.
-The Vulcan fleet Rios was fighting was led by Tuvok.

[CMWaters]

This entire "Evil Federation due to a single time change" story feels like fanfic. And I won't be surprised if it wasn't inspired by at least a few ST alternate timeline fanfics.

Or, and call me crazy, it is literally one of the most classic time travel usages in fiction.

It's like saying, "Wow, they're totally ripping off the Lord of the Rings in Zelda. An evil wizard taking over the land! Pfft!"

Thing is, Star Trek already did the whole "Evil Federation empire" to the death, each Trek series had at least one such episode. But each time it was done, there was something different about it, even if it wasn't always done good. This time however, not only it's done in a very generic way (let's give the Federation Nazi imagery, because Nazis are evil), but somehow each of the main character conveniently has an important role in said Evil Federation, where not only they are safe from any interference, they can use their own position to find everyone else. And in case of Elnor, he just happens to conveniently be in in Raffi's path. It's very safe for them, for some reason not one ever died in battle, or was captured, or is a traitor, double agent, or hell, they're just a lower deck ensign, etc. They are in the best positions where they only struggle a bit to achieve their goals, can use their authority to escape their problems and then, by the looks of the next episode they immediately travel back in time to undo everything. Hell, the only character that might pose a threat, Seven's husband, is so obviously going to be the main obstacle, they might as well just give him a Snidely Whiplash moustache, at least that would have been funny. Dumb, but hilarious.

This is what I mean by "fanfiction": it's bland, generic, unimaginative (Federation is evil and kills aliens because they're evil), all the main characters are already in important positions where no one can pose any threat to them (except for Elnor, who is super conveniently rescued by Raffi, who only manages to do that because she is super conveniently the police chief apparently and super conveniently knows that Elnor was nearby when it took everyone else some time to find each other), any serious challenges are immediately solved, or if there's a problem it's just a temporary setback, and there's nothing memorable about any scene. I really don't feel that they're struggling in any way.

There was no reason for the gang to come together at the end of the episode, they could have stretched the story over 2-3 episodes and have each character slowly realize what is happening, as opposed to one or two characters immediately find another, because all are in important (or convenient) positions.

Well, we don't have Soji in this timeline, so that's one difference.

But as far as everyone being right place, right time (arguably Rios had the hardest path to it, he only got away because of Seven's role similar to Elnor with Raffi): since he's the overbearing presence in the season even if not always seen, as well as we knowing he's gonna appear again later, how much of that was Q subtly manipulating things? Setting the pieces in the right spot for the "atonement" that he mentioned to Picard at the start.

[Al-1701]

I think things feel "generic" because this is a problem to be fixed, not really a setting to experience. The world of 2024 is going to be the actual setting of the season, so the brainpower should be concentrated on that.

Also, if recent history is any indication, xenophobic totalitarians aren't the most creative bunch and rely heavily on nostalgia. We're talking about people who insist on waving the flags and wearing trappings of dead regimes. The Terran Empire was built by a species who never developed empathy. This was where the worst of humanity managed grabbed power and never let it go.

This episode made me feel like we could've done without the first or, the two episodes could've been combined into one. I'm just hoping it doesn't take a whole episode to time travel. I know Picard takes more of a pace of novel in its first half, but that would work better if there were 13-16 episodes instead of 10.

Looking forward, I wonder if this could be messy like in "All Our Yesterdays". The Eugenics Wars and World War III were pivotal moments in Human history leading to the development of warp drive and first contact with the Vulcans. Could somehow stopping these horrific events be the cause of this? Which means our heroes will need to do something that ensures the deaths of hundreds of millions in order to save their future.

[CharlesPhipps]

No offense but I'm not sure, "Captain Picard should be a nobody in the fascist evil Federation" is really an interesting story beat.

You could write it that way but it's a lot less fun.

But if you want not to deal with the Federation dealing with fascism and dystopianism then Picard will never be for you because Patrick Stewart said the reason he unretired the character and agreed to do the series was because Brexit and the rise of Far Right types inspired him to believe we needed to address these issues in fiction.

[Mabus]

New episode is up.

Can Raffi be anything else besides being angry every scene? Like actually have a personality of sorts, besides being clingy and annoying? Last season she was angry at Picard and stupid Romulan causing pointless deaths, now she's angry to Picard and stupid Romulan pointless death.

Same with Jurati, her only personality is that she's awkward, but that can only be funny up until a point.

And glad to know that Rios, who is supposed to be a Starfleet officer/captain so he should have some competency at knowing when to bail out, is conveniently dumb because of a convenient head bump, and of course he had to conveniently get injured due to a convenient bad beaming location, because that's how you get a plot in NuTrek, convenient stuff conveniently happens so that the convenient plot can conveniently happen. Because why have a single good plot when you can have two bad ones that contribute to nothing but a shitty commentary about "ICE bad".

Also, glad to know that Biden is still removing illegal aliens from the USA near the end of his first term. He probably also set fire to those Californian bushes.

[stryke]

Let's see if I can cast some sunshine over all these grey clouds of general grumpiness and misery.

Personally I'm rather digging this season, and it's very much so far a step up from the first season. Which shouldn't be a surprise as it's Trek, and it's only Lower Decks who managed to do that half way through their first season rather than waiting for the second, third, or fourth.

There's a bunch of stuff here worth praising.

Main one though is that it's brought back the Borg as something legit scary since their untimely death as a threat to be taking seriously back in Unimatrix Zero.

The Borg Queen here is arguably in my eyes the best one yet. She's not the 'lets take the alien Collective and make it a more recognizable individual who mostly really wants to get laid' of First Contact, or the (possibly) less evil alternative mother figure for Seven of Dark Frontier, or the jokes of Unimatrix Zero or End Game. Here's she's a lot more alien, a lot more competent, and a hell of a lot more intimidating. Loved her line about it being dangerous to impress her.