TNG: Gambit

[TK99]

"Hmm, must be brand new. I mindmelded with Sarek so if he ever ran into isolationist Vulcans I would know" oh, you are so funny, just so very... FUCK DISCOVERY!!! FUCK IT WITH A JJ ABRAMS AND A FULLER IN IT'S KURTZMAN... sigh, what were we talking about? oh, right, how funny you are. Very funny.

As devil's advocate, that took place over 100 years ago and as far as Picard knew they no longer existed. Or that Michael was such a sensitive subject that even during the meld, even Sarak would not open that door to Picard. Just like fans will probably treat Discovery some day.

As for how Picard switched the codes, it probably wasn't that hard if you could get Captain Metal Hair's one (remember he still had his) to reboot and accept the new codes. Picard punching Metal hair probably was his chance to do just that.

As for how emotional T'Pol is even when posining as a Romulan, well we have seen Vulcans with mental illness do not handle it well and eventually give in to madness.

[Sir Will]

Maybe he was too paranoid to allow himself to be put under to have it surgically removed.

[Darth Wedgius]

I hated the Stone of Gul. It's the McGuffin. Picard seemed impressed by it. It can kill one person every few seconds; even by the unimpressive standards of TNG weaponry, this thing is weak. A semi-automatic pistol with an extra couple clips is better than this thing. An SG team member's FN P90 is worth a dozen of those things. Oh yes, don't let the Vulcan splinter get ahold of this "most deadly weapon." Keep them away from pointed sticks, too.

I can see keeping it out of the hands of those who might improve the technology, but how many labs do these splinter groups have? And maybe a more skilled user can make better use of it, but then someone should, oh, say so.

It was one of those endings (like that of "The Chase") where something being unimpressive at the climax where I was expecting something impressive soured the whole thing for me.

[SlackerinDeNile]

I hated the Stone of Gul. It's the McGuffin. Picard seemed impressed by it. It can kill one person every few seconds; even by the unimpressive standards of TNG weaponry, this thing is weak. A semi-automatic pistol with an extra couple clips is better than this thing. An SG team member's FN P90 is worth a dozen of those things. Oh yes, don't let the Vulcan splinter get ahold of this "most deadly weapon." Keep them away from pointed sticks, too.

I can see keeping it out of the hands of those who might improve the technology, but how many labs do these splinter groups have? And maybe a more skilled user can make better use of it, but then someone should, oh, say so.

It was one of those endings (like that of "The Chase") where something being unimpressive at the climax where I was expecting something impressive soured the whole thing for me.

I disagree with you on that last sentence, I feel that the discovery at the end of The Chase was a really good Star Trek moment, at least in my opinion. You had all these alien races fighting over what they believed was a potentially revolutionary discovery, something that could change and expand their scientific understanding (leading to more powerful weaponry.) The discovery turning out to be the epic space opera equivalent of that poster of the same human skull repeated four times in order to deter racism was actually kind of satisfying and was a good way of driving forward the important Star Trek message of peace.

Anyway, this episode is awful, but I still find it rather entertaining, the space pirates are just so cheesy and 80's it hurts, the ones with the rockstar haircuts looked almost cartoonish. The episode should have had more of a mystery angle to it in the first half, with Picard being revealed to be alive and working with the pirates at the cliffhanger. I also feel that Picard's utter recklessness and disregard for his own life should have been explored a bit in this episode, sometimes Picard's behaviour throughout the show reminded me of Sinclaire's death seeker mentality on Babylon 5.

[Mickey_Rat15]

I realize that they did give Crusher some command duties, but I never thought it a good idea. It always seemed to that a ship's Chief Medical Officer is outside the normal chains of command on a ship, due to having the authority to declare a commanding officer physically or mentally unfit for duty, as well as just having enough admin duties to fill up the rest of their waking hours.

[Darth Wedgius]

It was one of those endings (like that of "The Chase") where something being unimpressive at the climax where I was expecting something impressive soured the whole thing for me.

I disagree with you on that last sentence, I feel that the discovery at the end of The Chase was a really good Star Trek moment, at least in my opinion. You had all these alien races fighting over what they believed was a potentially revolutionary discovery, something that could change and expand their scientific understanding (leading to more powerful weaponry.) The discovery turning out to be the epic space opera equivalent of that poster of the same human skull repeated four times in order to deter racism was actually kind of satisfying and was a good way of driving forward the important Star Trek message of peace.

Anyway, this episode is awful, but I still find it rather entertaining, the space pirates are just so cheesy and 80's it hurts, the ones with the rockstar haircuts looked almost cartoonish. The episode should have had more of a mystery angle to it in the first half, with Picard being revealed to be alive and working with the pirates at the cliffhanger. I also feel that Picard's utter recklessness and disregard for his own life should have been explored a bit in this episode, sometimes Picard's behaviour throughout the show reminded me of Sinclaire's death seeker mentality on Babylon 5.

I think I'm in the minority on the reveal in "The Chase." I appreciate what it was trying to do, but, when humans have warred against humans, Klingons against Klingons, Vulcans against Vulcans (so well that they had to break the habit), the reveal that all the species are actually distantly related just didn't have any power for me. Might be a case of my head intercepting a message intended for my heart.

I do like your suggestions for Gambit. A death-seeker angle could have been interesting for post-Wolf-359 Picard. Gambit had some good ideas, but could've used more.

[AlucardNoir]

As devil's advocate, that took place over 100 years ago and as far as Picard knew they no longer existed. Or that Michael was such a sensitive subject that even during the meld, even Sarak would not open that door to Picard. Just like fans will probably treat Discovery some day.

HAHAHAHAHA...HAHAHAHA, for a moment there I thought you were actually defending the Abramsverse... But seriously, that's a poor counterargument. Sarek was mentally ill, he was unable to control himself and needed Picard's composure. Are you really going to tell me he somehow was able to hide significant portions of his mind in his condition? But hey, what can we expect for a show created by Alex Kurtzman? I had hopes from something by Fuller but I guess Kurtzman was too much even for him to handle.

[bronnt]

I realize that they did give Crusher some command duties, but I never thought it a good idea. It always seemed to that a ship's Chief Medical Officer is outside the normal chains of command on a ship, due to having the authority to declare a commanding officer physically or mentally unfit for duty, as well as just having enough admin duties to fill up the rest of their waking hours.

I agree with this. It seems like the medical department, and in fact probably all of the science divisions, should have a separate command structure. It's like US Air carriers, where the flight division has its own command structure distinct from the ship's chain of command. The Commander of the Air Group (CAG) is equal to the ship's Captain, or CO, but he's not in line to replace the captain in command of the ship itself.

On the Enterprise, the Science divisions could be considered ship specialists, since they're less concerned with the operation of the vessel than they are executing the mission. Their specialities could vary widely and they'd probably only have the most basic training on performing vital ship functions.

[Durandal_1707]

As devil's advocate, that took place over 100 years ago and as far as Picard knew they no longer existed. Or that Michael was such a sensitive subject that even during the meld, even Sarak would not open that door to Picard. Just like fans will probably treat Discovery some day.

HAHAHAHAHA...HAHAHAHA, for a moment there I thought you were actually defending the Abramsverse... But seriously, that's a poor counterargument. Sarek was mentally ill, he was unable to control himself and needed Picard's composure. Are you really going to tell me he somehow was able to hide significant portions of his mind in his condition? But hey, what can we expect for a show created by Alex Kurtzman? I had hopes from something by Fuller but I guess Kurtzman was too much even for him to handle.

You know, I'm okay with Picard, a human with no innate telepathic abilities, not managing to absorb every last bit of information from the mind of a centuries-old guy from a species that's supposed to be several times as intelligent as humans after mindmelding with him for 5 minutes. But maybe that's just me.

[AlucardNoir]

As devil's advocate, that took place over 100 years ago and as far as Picard knew they no longer existed. Or that Michael was such a sensitive subject that even during the meld, even Sarak would not open that door to Picard. Just like fans will probably treat Discovery some day.

HAHAHAHAHA...HAHAHAHA, for a moment there I thought you were actually defending the Abramsverse... But seriously, that's a poor counterargument. Sarek was mentally ill, he was unable to control himself and needed Picard's composure. Are you really going to tell me he somehow was able to hide significant portions of his mind in his condition? But hey, what can we expect for a show created by Alex Kurtzman? I had hopes from something by Fuller but I guess Kurtzman was too much even for him to handle.

You know, I'm okay with Picard, a human with no innate telepathic abilities, not managing to absorb every last bit of information from the mind of a centuries-old guy from a species that's supposed to be several times as intelligent as humans after mindmelding with him for 5 minutes. But maybe that's just me.

I dunno, Sarek was mentally ill and couldn't control himself. After the Mind meld with Picard he pretty much took his composure and dumped everything that made him emotionally unstable on Picard - thus the award wordy Patrick Stewart performance. I have a hard time believing that that one time he almost got killed by another Vulcan didn't have any impact on him and was not part of what he temporarily burdened Picard with. Just watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGd1z2OhHXA and tell me if still believe that Sarek was capable of hiding anything.