Star Trek: Picard Season 2

[Madner Kami]

Right.

[Mabus]

https://trekmovie.com/2022/05/03/star-t ... -season-3/

Alison Pill says goodbye

Alison Pill has appeared in every single episode of Star Trek: Picard so far, playing cybernetics expert Dr. Agnes Jurati. But in an interview promoting her new film All My Puny Sorrows, Pill told MovieWeb she won't be back for season three:

"I know that season three will be the end. I wasn't a part of season three, so I don't have much to say about it in terms of spoilers. I will get to watch along with everybody else."

So the final episode of this season will be the final appearance for the character of Jurati, and the actress will not return for the third and final season. So I guess it won't be "Jurati won't return, but Borg-Jurati will".

Also, apart from the original TNG cast (minus Wil Wheaton), the only actors from the current series confirmed to return are Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd. No word if Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, or Santiago Cabrera will return as well.

[CMWaters]

https://trekmovie.com/2022/05/03/star-t ... -season-3/

Alison Pill says goodbye

Alison Pill has appeared in every single episode of Star Trek: Picard so far, playing cybernetics expert Dr. Agnes Jurati. But in an interview promoting her new film All My Puny Sorrows, Pill told MovieWeb she won't be back for season three:

"I know that season three will be the end. I wasn't a part of season three, so I don't have much to say about it in terms of spoilers. I will get to watch along with everybody else."

So the final episode of this season will be the final appearance for the character of Jurati, and the actress will not return for the third and final season. So I guess it won't be "Jurati won't return, but Borg-Jurati will".

Also, apart from the original TNG cast (minus Wil Wheaton), the only actors from the current series confirmed to return are Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd. No word if Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, or Santiago Cabrera will return as well.

Well, the final episode does answer at least one of those...

Kinda sad no Jurati, but time does move on (and it would be crowded with the TNG crew and her).

[Mabus]

Ep 10:
Well, there's a lot to unpack here. So I'll be very short.
This entire season could have been a two or three parter.
I have never seen a more anemic season finale in any TV series. They've really saved up the budet for the third season, haven't they.

Third season better have some actual good fanservice, but at this rate I have a feeling every single TNG character will have a stupid traumatic backstory that will motivate them to rejoin Picard, because that's the only thing the writers know to write. And lots and lots of memberberries.

[Frustration]

I am now rapidly losing respect for each and every crewmember of TNG. And with LeVar Burton, that really hurts.

He has a lot of respect to lose, granted, given his Reading Rainbow work. But his idol is getting tarnished.

[CharlesPhipps]

Picard Season 2 episode 10 manages to bring all the disparate threads together and resolve a complicated and strange story with almost no loose ends. It's incredibly effective storytelling and I'm glad that hopefully the internet sphere won't embarrass itself by trying to attack it. I've long since lost all respect for the "haters" online who nitpick everything but while I may prefer season 1, at least I know this will hopefully be the nondivisve accepted finale we deserve.

[McAvoy]

Picard Season 2 episode 10 manages to bring all the disparate threads together and resolve a complicated and strange story with almost no loose ends. It's incredibly effective storytelling and I'm glad that hopefully the internet sphere won't embarrass itself by trying to attack it. I've long since lost all respect for the "haters" online who nitpick everything but while I may prefer season 1, at least I know this will hopefully be the nondivisve accepted finale we deserve.

Nitpicking is part of Trek. I have been around that since the early caveman days of the internet. Back when it used to scream at you when you log in.

Nitpicking is the reason why some sites still exist like Bernd's Ex Astris Scientia. Figuring out what some Treknobabble really means. Like what the difference is between a photonic torpedo and a photon torpedo. Or turning while at warp or going to warp inside a solar system. Or times beaming through shields. Figuring out the power of a weapon or how fast something is going.

Then there is nitpicking to find anything negative that can be found. That shit I remember during the days of Voyager and Enterprise. Nothing new really.

[McAvoy]

That's because it's not a technical term but generic parlance.

What is a synth? It is a synthetic person.

Presumably the unisex term for androids and gynoids.

Pretty much. This could easily be slang or of a evolution of a word. Language does change after all.

Honestly not even that hard of a concept to figure out.

Next thing is someone arguing how visual effects doesn't show the warping effects of a so called warp drive.

[CMWaters]

This season I admit did drag, but I did like the ending personally. It could have easily been cut in half, the second half being a different story, I do admit.

Thinking about this season of Picard, I think I saw an unintentional (or maybe intentional but understated) theme of this season: acceptance.

-Q had to accept that he was dying, and found a way to make sure he wasn't alone.
-Picard had to accept his past, not take blame, and learn how to accept someone get close.
-Seven had to again accept her Borg past by the end, and her relationship with Raffi
-Raffi had to accept Elnor's death wasn't her fault, and her relationship with Seven
-Rios had to accept he felt he was out of his time, and make a change in that path
-Rene had to accept her destiny for the Europa mission.
-Soong's failure to accept caused him to lose everything and have to change his path in life
-Young Guinan accepting that, while they may stumble, humanity is worth not giving up on.
-Borg Queen accepting that the way things had been done was not working, and maybe it was time for something different
-Agnes accepting a way to end her outsider feeling and work to something better for herself and in return, a species

I may be overthinking things a bit, but that's how I saw it looking back.

[CharlesPhipps]

MY REVIEW OF SEASON TWO

STAR TREK: PICARD Season Two is something that I was deeply looking forward to from the moment it was announced as I was a huge fan of Season One. My impression of that season was that it had an extremely strong start but stumbled due to episode length. We didn't get enough follow up on events and were left with more mysteries than answers. Basically, I wished they had done THE LAST BEST HOPE by Una McCormick as a two parter to open it and added an epilogue to follow up on what happened after the events of the tenth episode.

Still, I was very excited for the return of the cast and seeing how they would deal with the consequences of the first season. Unfortunately, the answer to that is generally: not at all. I think Doctor Jurati being cleared of murder charges due to mind-control was the only subject matter that got addressed. What about the Zhat Vash? What happened to them? What about Admiral Oh? Narek? Is the Federation going to work with the Romulans tracking down the terrorists who burned both of them? How about the ex-Borg?

Instead, the series focuses much more on an entirely new storyline. After rejecting his employee, Laris (Orla Bradly) when she attempts to start a romantic relationship, Admiral Picard (Patrick Stewart, duh) is requested by the Federation to help with a First Contact scenario: a new race wants to join the Federation. Except, it's not a First Contact scenario, it's the Borg and things end disastrously with Picard blowing himself along with the rest of the heroes up.

Like a script editor, this will not do for Q (John De Lancie) and he restores Picard as well as his merry band of miscreants to life. He proceeds to put them in what appears to be a dystopian version of the Federation and from there, Picard must take Seven (Jeri Ryan), Raffi (Michelle Hurd), Rios (Osvaldo Ríos Alonso), and Doctor Jurati (Alison Pill) to the 21st century in order to somehow prevent things. Due to contrived but entertaining circumstances, they also bring the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching). Characters Sonji (Isa Briones) and Elnor (Evan Evagora) have vastly reduced roles.

Generally, the show swerves between zany comedy reminescent of Star Trek IV (with several homages) to that story and deep traumatic introspection, which is not always consistent. Captain Picard remembers his father as an abusive monster to his mother and her as a saint but there's a trick his memory is playing on him. I feel like the episodes might have benefited from picking a lane as it sometimes feels like they undermine each other's tone. There's also some areas where the actions on screen contradict what we're later told. For example, Q seems to be trying to achieve one thing in one episode before revealing that he was doing the exact opposite later (which is, admittedly, not out of character for Q).

On the positive side of things, I think John De Lancie has lost absolutely none of his touch and preserves all the things we love about Q. He's Loki, Satan, and God all in one with a wide eyed grin as he destroys everything for the greater good or saves everyone for his own twisted amusement. The few scenes he and Patrick Stewart have are fantastic and he's also a bright spot in episodes where he deals with Adam Soong (Brent Spinner) or Kore (Isla Brione). Speaking of Soong, he is a bright spot in the show once they cast aside any moral ambiguity and just make him a straight-up Bond villain. Not every Star Trek antagonist can be misunderstood and this transformation gives some higher stakes when the story has perhaps too many moving parts.

Indeed, the storyline is a labyrinthine web akin to one of Fox Mulder's conspiracy boards and we even get an homage to said character in one episode. "We have to go back in time with the Borg Queen's help to find the astronaut who needs to be on the mission that will create the Federation but Q is causing her to doubt herself. If she doubts herself, this will create the Confederacy in which Adam Soong will be their spiritual leader. Oh and the Borg Queen is playing both sides. All of this is related to Picard's traumatic childhood. Somehow. That's not getting into every individual character's subplots." It actually is 99% explained by the final episode but weirdly reads like a George R.R. Martin plot despite being written for television not a book.

Thematically, the story is all about trauma and how we can't lose hope that things will get better. That the current troubles we face in 2022 will be things that we eventually overcome and make a better world from as long as we're understanding and willing to forgive. Except Silicon Valley tech billionaires. Don't forgive or try to understand them because they're completely awful. Borg Queens can be persuaded and negotiated with but not those guys. It's an argument that I'm actually pretty okay with.

Negatively, is just about anything to do with time travel. This is a mess even by the standards of Star Trek and I can't help the season would have benefited from stripping out a lot of the extraneous fluff. "Picard goes to bed one day with his crew and they wake up in Evil Federation. Q then meets with them and says he's let them keep his memories because it amuses him to see them try to fix things Days of Futures Past style. Someone how has gone back in time to muck with the past. Maybe another Soong creation or Borg victim. Stop him. *snaps fingers*). Ito Aghayere does a good job as young Guinan but it's confusing to explain away Whoopi Goldberg's aging but not hers. Also, the change from "Time's Arrow." I mean, it's an easy fix. "My people go through periods of aging and de-aging due to our life cycle."

Overall, I liked Picard season 2 a bit less than season 1 but still significantly more than a lot of Star Trek.
The overcomplexity of the plot and "prestige television" format is something that I feel is hurting the shows, though, because they don't have enough episodes to resolve all the plots. I also was disappointed with the ending for some of the characters. While I didn't always like what they did, I say that the crew of the La Sirena is the one I like the most since Firefly's. I wanted a spin-off show with Rios or Seven as captain. Instead, most of them are very likely no longer going to be doing Star Trek by the end and that's a shame.

7.5/10