Star Trek: Picard Season 2

[CharlesPhipps]

Episode 9:
-I didn't have much hope for the season finale, but the writers have taken a page from GoT season 8 and decided that the most "exciting" firefight in the series should take place in near-darkness. While thankfully not as dark as the Winterfell battle thank God, I couldn't stop laughing how the most advanced Borg mall cop squad had to rely on freakin' laser pointers to find their targets, which only had the effect of scaring their targets away. What, the Borg Queen forgot to give them night vision? The Borg eyepiece was described in the past as being capable of seeing most of the entire EM spectrum, surely the Queen could have had those nanoprobes she used to (partially) assimilate the mercenaries to at least give them IR vision, I mean the assimilation did alter their eyes for a moment.

-Also why did the Observer had a late 24th century Romulan disruptor rifle in 2024? It sure as hell didn't come from Rios' ship.

-"Janeway went to bat for me, threatened to resign" You know that there are other ways to solve this issue without having to threaten to resign from your position, who writes this crap? For fucks sake, by "Nemesis", Janeway was promoted to not just an admiral, but to a very high ranking admiral, if she really wanted Seven to join Starfleet, she would have just snapped her fingers and it would have been done. People in military, politics or businesses don't end up high positions by lottery, they have friends and contacts in most if not every branch of the government and rely on their tacit approval and influence to get where they want to get. And such things have happened in OldTrek, so the Federation isn't that different from our modern day world.

-Ah yes, the hologram Elnor is just as dumb as his flesh and blood counterpart. Apparently using handguns in close quarter battle is not a good idea, but a long sword somehow is. What, his programming couldn't have included point the gun at target and shoot? I guess Jurati must have thought of that scene from "Pulp Fiction" from Zed's shop.

-Why did Seven beamed those Borg soldiers into the bedrock near Picard? Why not... in space? Stargate Atlantis did it better with that human-form Replicator.

-So what condition was Picard's mom supposed to have? PTSD? Depression? Schizophrenia? BPD? Cause all she did was appear depressed and then she just offed herself. And where is Picard's brother? Nah, who cares.

-Oh and Borg-Jurati is now a thing and she just decided to leave. With their only mean of going back to the future. And they just let her go. OK...

I don't even know what to make of this episode. It's the second to last episode of the season and very little has changed significantly. Are they seriously gonna cram the rest of the plotlines in the final episode? Or are they gonna wrap it all in season 3? It's the season finale yet for some reason I feel like we're at episode 4. I get the sensation that the story barely progressed at all.

I could argue all of these points but you strike me as one of those guys who think the Klingons shouldn't use swords in combat but phasers.

In which case, your opinion has no validity whatsoever.



Swords always beat guns! Pfft! Why? BECAUSE.

This is a show where the Borg Queen sang a Pat Benetar cover. Enjoy the silly! This is unabashedly a Star Trek IV homage and not to be taken seriously.

[Frustration]

Tiger King isn't digesting and excreting a beloved franchise in order to promote itself.

[clearspira]

Episode 9:
-I didn't have much hope for the season finale, but the writers have taken a page from GoT season 8 and decided that the most "exciting" firefight in the series should take place in near-darkness. While thankfully not as dark as the Winterfell battle thank God, I couldn't stop laughing how the most advanced Borg mall cop squad had to rely on freakin' laser pointers to find their targets, which only had the effect of scaring their targets away. What, the Borg Queen forgot to give them night vision? The Borg eyepiece was described in the past as being capable of seeing most of the entire EM spectrum, surely the Queen could have had those nanoprobes she used to (partially) assimilate the mercenaries to at least give them IR vision, I mean the assimilation did alter their eyes for a moment.

-Also why did the Observer had a late 24th century Romulan disruptor rifle in 2024? It sure as hell didn't come from Rios' ship.

-"Janeway went to bat for me, threatened to resign" You know that there are other ways to solve this issue without having to threaten to resign from your position, who writes this crap? For fucks sake, by "Nemesis", Janeway was promoted to not just an admiral, but to a very high ranking admiral, if she really wanted Seven to join Starfleet, she would have just snapped her fingers and it would have been done. People in military, politics or businesses don't end up high positions by lottery, they have friends and contacts in most if not every branch of the government and rely on their tacit approval and influence to get where they want to get. And such things have happened in OldTrek, so the Federation isn't that different from our modern day world.

-Ah yes, the hologram Elnor is just as dumb as his flesh and blood counterpart. Apparently using handguns in close quarter battle is not a good idea, but a long sword somehow is. What, his programming couldn't have included point the gun at target and shoot? I guess Jurati must have thought of that scene from "Pulp Fiction" from Zed's shop.

-Why did Seven beamed those Borg soldiers into the bedrock near Picard? Why not... in space? Stargate Atlantis did it better with that human-form Replicator.

-So what condition was Picard's mom supposed to have? PTSD? Depression? Schizophrenia? BPD? Cause all she did was appear depressed and then she just offed herself. And where is Picard's brother? Nah, who cares.

-Oh and Borg-Jurati is now a thing and she just decided to leave. With their only mean of going back to the future. And they just let her go. OK...

I don't even know what to make of this episode. It's the second to last episode of the season and very little has changed significantly. Are they seriously gonna cram the rest of the plotlines in the final episode? Or are they gonna wrap it all in season 3? It's the season finale yet for some reason I feel like we're at episode 4. I get the sensation that the story barely progressed at all.

I could argue all of these points but you strike me as one of those guys who think the Klingons shouldn't use swords in combat but phasers.

In which case, your opinion has no validity whatsoever.



Swords always beat guns! Pfft! Why? BECAUSE.

This is a show where the Borg Queen sang a Pat Benetar cover. Enjoy the silly! This is unabashedly a Star Trek IV homage and not to be taken seriously.

You proudly claim to be a published author of multiple works at the end of every post so I assume that you are fairly knowledgeable regarding the subject of tone. Do you think that a story can effectively ''embrace the silly'' alongside extremely dark subjects such as child abuse? And if you think that it can, do you think that it should? Is it actually a wise idea to blend sitcom level humour such as a singing Borg Queen alongside Picard getting beaten by his parents?

Because to me, tonally, this show is all over the map and not in a good way. There is a reason for example why Micheal Corleone doesn't put on a clown nose when he orders the assassination of his brother Fredo. Sure, you MAY be able to make that work somehow, or you could just leave the clown nose off and not confuse your audience as to how they should be feeling in that scene.

[CharlesPhipps]

You proudly claim to be a published author of multiple works at the end of every post so I assume that you are fairly knowledgeable regarding the subject of tone.

Well, Audible is currently advertising my books alongside Firefly's in the Big Summer SciFi Sale so someone likes them.

https://www.audible.com/ep/annual-serie ... zCVfWiVPrM



On the other hand, it also is being advertised with DISCO's novels so maybe I shouldn't be too proud.

Do you think that a story can effectively ''embrace the silly'' alongside extremely dark subjects such as child abuse? And if you think that it can, do you think that it should? Is it actually a wise idea to blend sitcom level humour such as a singing Borg Queen alongside Picard getting beaten by his parents?

Because to me, tonally, this show is all over the map and not in a good way. There is a reason for example why Micheal Corleone doesn't put on a clown nose when he orders the assassination of his brother Fredo. Sure, you MAY be able to make that work somehow, or you could just leave the clown nose off and not confuse your audience as to how they should be feeling in that scene.

Absolutely, I believe comedy can and should go along with extremely serious subjects. I believe mood whiplash is actually something that can be extremely effective. Picard Season Two is dealing with complicated subjects of mental illness, ICE abuse of prisoners, racism in America, and poor healthcare (the fact Rios has to be treated in secret). It is also doing so with a lot of material designed to make sure the audience doesn't just tune out.

I feel like the silly and bizarre material of Picard Season Two is there so the subject matter doesn't get too heavy that the audience doesn't want to continue watching it. Right now is a very contentious time period in America where people don't want to be lectured about anything so it has to be a mixture to make the medicine go down.

At least that's my take on it.

I do actually prefer Season 1, though, and wish it had followed up on all the stuff established there but I understand why they decided to go a different direction.

[CharlesPhipps]

Some thoughts about the penultimate episode:

1. The Federation had just come out of the Dominion War and was a lot less accepting as well as cordial than it was before the Voyager was lost. They weren't ready to accept the Doctor as a sentient being and were iffy about accepting the Maquis as crew members.

I can easily imagine them attempting to impose a lot of conditions on Seven, only for Janeway to make it a fight and Seven to say "no thank you" because she didn't want to make it a fight. Seven's pride has always been huge and she wouldn't want to be a place she wasn't wanted.

Also, Seven identifies as a Borg while Picard didn't. By contrast, I'm inclined to think Icheb would react to any hoops he had to jump through by going, "How high?"

2. Picard's mother committing suicide after being locked up by her husband in the attic and freed by her son isn't so much LIKE a Victorian novel as it is made of several Victorian plots put together. Particularly Jane Eyre. Certainly, it makes no sense as a thing on Earth in the 21st century let alone 24th but I'm willing to give a pass for the sake of melodrama. My headcanon is Picard is the child of one of the two suicides on Earth that year versus our 800,000 per year. And yes, I say this as someone who has lost loved ones to it.

I also do love the "Where No Man Has Gone Before" comeback because it turns an innocous scene into something that would clearly FREAK Picard the hell out.

3. Speaking as someone with a family that has a history of mental illness, I can easily buy it as a perfect storm of Papa Picard hating modern technology (including medicine) and the mother believing she’s not mentally ill. Destygmatizing it is hopefully something that happened in the 23rd and 24th century but I can easily buy she doesn’t consider herself “sick” if she was just severely bipolar. The two’s out of odds views combined with their relative isolation resulted in an event that should never have happened.

4. The Borg being driven by a relentless sense of loneliness and fear of rejection is something that I think works on that "everyone bad is secretly reasonable and good except for Dukat" that is part of Star Trek's heart. I also buy it because Jurati is only dealing on a one to one basis for the Collective.

5. I am going to be sad if this is the end of Doctor Jurati even if this was a pretty good send off for her. Having Captain Picard inspire the woman who potentially "heals" the Borg or at least causes a good chunk of them to break off is a pretty good resolution to a lot of Picard's plots. I do hope Rios stays in the future, though, because I want to see him in Season 3. As much as I love the old gang, I don't want the current group discarded.

6. I don't think Picard forgot his mother committed suicide or anything, though he may have forgotten letting her out.

7. I actually like how Adam Soong essentially just brushes off Picard's attempt to reach out to him, which I don't think we see enough of in Star Trek. I truly believe he'd look at the Confederation and go, "Hey, the Borg had it coming. What's a little genocide if they're EVIL?"

[McAvoy]

Careful Charles. Mabus doesn't like it when his opinions are challenged.

[Mabus]

It's funny how even Steve Shives, who has defended and keeps defending NuTrek strongly, dislikes the current Picard season. But nah, "haters" clearly don't get it. Because... reasons.

Even if the writers haven't thought of the entire season-long story, they should at least be competent enough to write an interesting story from what little they have. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have both stated that they haven't planned much of Breaking Bad (and Better Call Saul) ahead of time and half the time they pretty much wrote the series by the seat of their pants and too often they wrote themselves into a corner and had to find all kinds of solutions to get out of their own short-sighted decisions. When they wrote the scene with Hank cornering Walt and Jesse in their RV, the writers had no idea how to solve that problem in a satisfying manner, so they just came across with all kinds of ridiculous solutions (like digging a hole under the RV, Bugs Bunny style) until they finally came up with a good solution. The S5 premiere flashforward where Walt buys an M60 exists only because apparently Gilligan thought it'd be funny to see Walt go Rambo, and had no idea how to fit that scene in the season. Yet, they were still able to turn that joke into one of the best scenes of the series finale. Why? Because the writers actually gave a shit about their own show and their own characters. Contrast this to the "Calypso" Short Trek. It's been how many seasons of Dis since that ST aired, and despite being a few moments in the show when they could have fit that ST in the Discovery timeline (like say, when they try to escape that subspace tear when everyone was inside the transporter buffer, that would have been a good moment), the writers kind of forgot about it ever existing.

There is no good writing in this season and every time the writers do something stupid, they don't even bother trying to fix it, instead they either ignore it or just double down on it, making the end result a joke. Whatever minor good moments there are in a few episodes, they get completely overshadowed by lazy and bad writing.

[Frustration]

It is shocking how little science fiction has been in the Picard show, as opposed to drama with hypertech. One of the things TNG was known for was competently-written science fiction.

[CharlesPhipps]

It's funny how even Steve Shives, who has defended and keeps defending NuTrek strongly, dislikes the current Picard season. But nah, "haters" clearly don't get it. Because... reasons.

Even if the writers haven't thought of the entire season-long story, they should at least be competent enough to write an interesting story from what little they have. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have both stated that they haven't planned much of Breaking Bad (and Better Call Saul) ahead of time and half the time they pretty much wrote the series by the seat of their pants and too often they wrote themselves into a corner and had to find all kinds of solutions to get out of their own short-sighted decisions. When they wrote the scene with Hank cornering Walt and Jesse in their RV, the writers had no idea how to solve that problem in a satisfying manner, so they just came across with all kinds of ridiculous solutions (like digging a hole under the RV, Bugs Bunny style) until they finally came up with a good solution. The S5 premiere flashforward where Walt buys an M60 exists only because apparently Gilligan thought it'd be funny to see Walt go Rambo, and had no idea how to fit that scene in the season. Yet, they were still able to turn that joke into one of the best scenes of the series finale. Why? Because the writers actually gave a shit about their own show and their own characters. Contrast this to the "Calypso" Short Trek. It's been how many seasons of Dis since that ST aired, and despite being a few moments in the show when they could have fit that ST in the Discovery timeline (like say, when they try to escape that subspace tear when everyone was inside the transporter buffer, that would have been a good moment), the writers kind of forgot about it ever existing.

There is no good writing in this season and every time the writers do something stupid, they don't even bother trying to fix it, instead they either ignore it or just double down on it, making the end result a joke. Whatever minor good moments there are in a few episodes, they get completely overshadowed by lazy and bad writing.

I'm not even sure what you're talking about because everything about this season relates to everything else. Episode 9 showed virtually everything is tied together with it almost certain this was all about Jurati becoming the Borg Queen, Picard coming to terms with his relationship/trust issues, and plenty of tie-ins to everything from "Assigmment Earth" to "Star Trek IV." It's apparently extremely well plotted and we're only finding out how it all fits together by Episode Nine.

The Calypso thing is also frigging bizarre because the voice of DISCO from that episode is now a regular cast member. They even had an episode about her sentience. Its pretty clear that Book is based on the protagonist Craft from it too. It's not canonical because they've seemingly stolen a bunch of ideas and mixed them around. But it's a major part of its retool.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

It is shocking how little science fiction has been in the Picard show, as opposed to drama with hypertech. One of the things TNG was known for was competently-written science fiction.

TOS is just as culpable to that.