Star Trek Picard and Trek Taking on Modern Politics

[Riedquat]

Sorry about that, but it's one of those things that irritate me a lot, being a miserable, depressed sod most of the time (although I'm rather pleased that I once got called a grumpy old man when I was about eleven years old). There are people whose complaints annoy even me (of course they do, that happens to everyone when they disagree with them) but I'd still rather they made them.

I also strongly feel that "musn't grumble" is an attitude responsible for creating an environment in which crap can thrive.

[Zargon]

Well Episode five is out....and, well, it was fairly good. Guess it really helped the Picard took a far back seat in this episode.

The Seven of Nine plot was good.....better then the whole, er, ''plot" of the show so far. It was great JUST to see Seven and Picard talk about being Borg even for just a couple seconds.

Oh so Agnus is the Dr. Smith character...wow, what a shock did not see that coming like a billion light years away....sigh.

[CMWaters]

Oh so Agnus is the Dr. Smith character...wow, what a shock did not see that coming like a billion light years away....sigh.

The way she was acting while performing the act, she seems more a reluctant Dr. Smith character. She seemed to not want to have to do this, but had to anyway. For whatever reason (either to protect Maddox from a fate worse than death or forced to kill him because of whatever Oh had planned). Especially when she was watching that holo-vid where she was a lover (which given Maddox is about 20 years her senior at least...well, guess it's less a problem in 2399).

Meanwhile, I know Maddox's original actor retired from acting, but I wonder why (unless it's because he didn't like the scene) Icheb's actor didn't return. I mean sure, not the first time a Trek actor has been recast (looking at you, Saavik), but still.

[Al-1701]

I kind of felt they shouldn't have killed Maddox, and might have painted themselves in a corner with it. Like, have the EMH override the deactivation command due to a patient being in critical condition (a reasonable safety measure that I doubt Rios would have overwritten because it would have never come up) and restarting whatever was being done to him, but he falls into a comatose state because of the damage done. So, he's out of action for the time being, but could be brought around for later events when he could be needed.

[CMWaters]

Perhaps, while a delayed reaction, his death is what leads to Soji's activation (different that Dahj's and more subtle, but it does change her).

Also, this is completely unrelated to this episode but...out of the two sets of new Trek uniforms, I highly prefer the 2380s style to the 2390s one.

[Deledrius]

It's hard to watch this show despite the production values and the beleaguered actors trying hard to elevate the material, because it's clearly pedestrian writing which sadly thinks it's cleverer than it is at least by half. No one can ask a question without getting either another question in response, or a cut to another scene in order to avoid needing to write something meaty and difficult. Important character beats like the moment that [strike]Elrond[/strike] Elnor walks in while Picard is speaking with the matron is interrupted by editing, and when we return time has passed and we missed their first meeting... except then it also turns out that they didn't respond to each other at all yet! Which is ridiculous because that's both important and interesting to watch!

Every time the show moves to the action on the Borg Cube everything grinds to a halt. We have a young woman doing... something... and a Romulan hobo spy trying to... stop her? Help her? Kill her? They finally nail that down near the end of episode 4, but until then it's two characters who are kinda allied but kinda playing at odds to each other, except it's so ill-defined that there's no drama in their scenes. I still don't know who Soji is or what she wants. I feel sorry for them because these two actors are trying desperately to act in what, for their side of the script, is the main plot. Unfortunately, so far it has no relevance; it's just killing time, because in the context of the show (notably called Picard) they're waiting for the main character to intersect what they're doing. For some reason both of them have high-level access to random things, but not the things they need, but they're working on each other to achieve those things. It's just too nebulous to matter, and I don't find myself caring about a Twilight-quality romance plot between these two either. Every scene on the cube is shot and acted as if it's The Most Important Thing, but the audience hasn't been given a single reason why that is. The only tidbit of "importance" we have in this side of the show is the Ominous Prophecy of Doom, but I don't care for Fate/Destiny nonsense in Trek, so this doesn't engage me; it's just a way for the show's writers to foreshadow later story elements they're super-proud of. Very rarely is prophecy used in stories in a way that isn't just lazy. In fact, it can often become a noose around the neck of even a decent story.

Also, Narek's handler is an idiot amateur spy playing far above her league. I've never been a spy, and I don't know what real spies sound like, but nothing about how she acts with him is convincing to me as being effective or appropriate. But then too Narek comes across like he's walking around the Cube wearing a nametag that says "Hi, My Name is: Narek. I'll be your resident Tal Shiar plant." Maybe that's actually not that weird, since we saw in Face of the Enemy that embedded Tal Shiar was not unusual, but the show is playing it like somehow no one actually knows he's an obvious spy. Kinda like Jurati, the other obvious spy that apparently we weren't supposed to notice was given the "I'm the Traitor" nametag in plainview the week before. If Picard didn't bring her along on purpose knowing she's working for the Mirror Universe Starfleet Intelligence Agent, I'll be sad. I'm beginning to think we weren't supposed to notice, as her nosiness was played straight here despite her introduction the week before into the main plot.

I still don't feel they've adequately explained why Raffi blames Picard and appears to resent him for it. I understand why she'd feel conflicted and frustrated by him, even irritated as he goes at his old tricks again (assuming they were as close as we're told). But precisely because of that closeness, I just don't understand how she can blame him for what happened. She was there, working with him. She knows what happened. One minute she's blaming him, which seems like the kind of person who was never that close, and acting like she has no faith in his conviction. Then the next she's being understanding yet disappointed, which is a lot more in line with how I expect her to feel after what she's been through with him and because of him. There's no justification for the extreme shutting out she's doing in some scenes, especially when it's applied inconsistently, clashing against the honest familiarity we see just a few moments later.

I think people need to step back and realize the people we saw on this planet felt betrayed. Picard left saying he and the Federation had their back. It turned out they didn't. Many probably lost friends and family due to the evacuation efforts being halted, and their once mighty people have been reduced to refugees. That's going to sting.

My guess is Picard hoped their better angels would have prevailed. However, they did not.

It's really hard to accept that. It's the setting we're being force-fed in this show, but it feels profoundly out of character for at least dozens of names and faces we know who were actively in Starfleet. I'm not sure we're ever going to be given any explanation for it, either, because the assumption appears to be that we should see this as normal and not a deep retcon of the setting.

Ok, but just look at the weird writing:

So Picard was crazy obsessed with saving the Romulans for no reason, but guess he was just getting old and crazy. So Starfleet tells him no, so Picard takes all his toys and goes home. So transformation from Cool, powerful character to weak, crazy fool complete.

Just think what Classic Picard would have done: Ok, Starfleet said no...fine who needs them. Mr. Picard would have set off on his own and gathered a fleet of Civilian transport ships.

Right, and the part that isn't working for me isn't that the show wants to engage with this aspect of his character. It's a stretch, but I can maybe buy that it happened; maybe he was feeling too old already and couldn't muster the willpower? Who knows. The part that's failing to feel properly motivated for me is that the other characters like this former Senator seem to also know all of this about him and despise him for it. The writers aren't keeping the characters' thoughts separate from their own omniscience. They might blame Picard for not doing enough (as horrible and wrong as it is to blame him, it's the sort of thing people do), but it's ridiculous to the point of making them all sound like that they know he's just been sitting around doing nothing but feeling sorry for himself, when realistically these people would just say "Where were you? Where did you go?" and there'd at least be many who said "We heard you got fired over trying to save us" and have mixed emotions about knowing that he tried and failed, not that he tried and just... didn't.

Instead, for some reason, everyone (even Raffi) seems to be some internal mirror to Picard's own guilt in ways that are completely unrealistic and don't hold up to any scrutiny assuming they exist as independent people outside of his mind.

What I'd like to know is, who are the people in Starfleet who made this decision? Who was it in the Federation Council? What are there names? What are their faces? Who were the 14 worlds that threatened to leave over saving lives?

I want to know who the real villains are, and I want to see them be exposed and removed from power. This is still Star Trek, isn't it?

If this was the A-plot, we'd be getting this information, and since we're not it has me concerned. They're writing a hyper-focus on Picard-as-guilt-ridden failed-savior, and the A-plot is him going on one last adventure (from which he expects never to return) as atonement, saving one last person. But that's completely at odds with the tone in Absolute Candor that the one man willing to put his career on the line to save everyone is the only man being held accountable simply because he didn't do enough to help. That's a pretty awful and self-defeating message to begin with, and it's even worse that they can't even stick to it without saying "but hey if he saves this one person (who, by the way, is almost entirely unrelated to the Romulan tragedy) then he can assuage that personal guilt without actually making any reparations to the entire race that he failed".

There's a lot of nonsense plotting that can only be explained by "thematic writing!" English 101-style smack-you-on-the-nose symbolism.

So? Why it's problem now when it wasn't issue before? I sense some double standard from people who complain about it now and act like it's issue.

Or, if you hadn't already decided to dismiss all explanations, it might be because the context is different and that's why some people are annoyed by it. But by all means start with your conclusion that it's a double-standard and only accept answers that fit that presumption. You'll surely get to the truth that way.

Sorry about that, but it's one of those things that irritate me a lot, being a miserable, depressed sod most of the time (although I'm rather pleased that I once got called a grumpy old man when I was about eleven years old). There are people whose complaints annoy even me (of course they do, that happens to everyone when they disagree with them) but I'd still rather they made them.

I also strongly feel that "musn't grumble" is an attitude responsible for creating an environment in which crap can thrive.

Precisely. If someone doesn't have an argument, feel free to say so, but if they present one and it's casually dismissed, especially with "well you just want to complain", that's not having a discussion in good faith and only tends to shut things down. Admittedly, that often seems to explicitly be the point of doing so.

[Antiboyscout]

Didn't think you could sum up modern Trek in one image, but I guess the show can surprise even me.

So, not only has this show depicted a black woman as impoverished in a post scarcity socialist utopia, but they now have Romulan jim crow.

StarTrek is dead

[Mecha82]

Whole claim that X is dead based on that you don't like something is just childish and self centered but then again we already knew that you were not to be taken seriously.

[Al-1701]

The "Romulans Only" sign being in English struck me as an unwelcome mat to Terrans.

[Antiboyscout]

Whole claim that X is dead based on that you don't like something is just childish and self centered but then again we already knew that you were not to be taken seriously.

I say it's dead because the very basis of startrek has been irrevocably altered. This new show is almost the opposite of the series intent.

We're a far cry from this.