Star Trek Picard and Trek Taking on Modern Politics

[Al-1701]

They brought back the Borg because this is a Picard story with a healthy dose of Seven of Nine. The cube itself is also apparently going to be used by Seven and Elnor.

And, hey, they're making the Borg threatening again. Even a dead cube has a sense of menace to it.

No, they brought back the Borg because "casuals viewers" know who they are, which also (in theory) makes "marketing" easier.

They were probably on the "must include" list from the network mandate for that reason, but I'm still worried they're deeply connected to the backstory of this conspiracy, too. Time will tell.

With the Romulans, you never know. Apparently they disabled the cube on purpose, and they're not recovering the drones out of the goodness of their hearts. Since there's a black market for Borg parts lucrative enough to ensnare Starfleet officers, something is up.

[Yukaphile]

I never bought into Picard's revenge in First Contact. I mean, the fast pace actually hurts the movie here. And the fact that it's against a Queen, making it look like a lover's spat. Hell, it contradicts TNG too, where he had clammed up in "I Borg," but give him credit - it was the first time the Borg were seen since their failed invasion, that they should have won. It was the third time they had ever appeared. And when he saw them again in "Descent," he had no issue working with Hugh. He even grew to like Hugh. Point is they seem to be (from my outsider perspective) doubling down on the action hero elements the movies gave us, which I think is stupid, but I will say this. At least it is character focused. It is one I disagree with, but it's something, at least.

[Enterprising]

Considering how much connected Borg are to those two characters not including them wouldn't had made much sense no matter how some people (haters) complain that it's all about marketing.

When “haters” is all you’ve got to offer as an argument, then you have no argument. Curious you’ve said nothing each time I’ve called you out on that…

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I'm betting that he said something, just that you didn't hear it, and you wouldn't like it.

[Enterprising]

I'm betting that he said something, just that you didn't hear it, and you wouldn't like it.

You lost a bet.

[Mecha82]

Nah I just like verbally slapping people like you around. I couldn't care less what you think about me because at end of day your opinion of me means nothing to me. And why should it when we don't even know each other.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I'm betting that he said something, just that you didn't hear it, and you wouldn't like it.

You lost a bet.

OH DO YOU HAVE A MICROPHONE IN HIS ROOM??

[Mabus]

I will save the rant for when the season is over, but so far the series hasn't been all that great.
Sure, there are some good moments here and there and it was nice to see some of the old ST actors back, but overall, the bad parts outweigh the good ones. The Artifact plot practically went nowhere, since the Soji's homeworld location reveal could have been done in any other way that doesn't involve a boring uninteresting "love" triangle. Picard being cucked by everyone and everything is not only facepalming but so far Picard's character development has... umm... yeah... I got nothing. I guess for a show that carries the name of the (supposedly) main character, the fact that the show has revealed very little about its main character shows that CBS simply wanted another Discovery-lite show, and only brought Stewart in to attract more audience. The gish gallop plot with finding Maddox and Soji was underwhelming and full of convenient coincidences. Oh and Icheb was brutally murdered probably because the original actor defended Spacey on twitter, but later apologized (long before STP was about to begin filming so what was the point of that), and even if that wasn't the case, of course this is what all ST fans and viewers wanted to see, a Hostel-like scene in freakin' Star Trek. We're still not given a clear idea on what the status of the Romulan empire is after it collapsed, there was some mention of some Free republic/state I think, no more Neutral zone, some imperial remnant I suppose, I don't know, I'm probably mixing that one with Star Wars. Also the reveal about some force (?) that will wipe out life if synthetic life becomes too advanced, crosses some threshold (that name is cursed in Star Trek, isn't it?) then hell comes or something, and apparently only a couple of Romulans know about said threat and no one else found out, or if they did, they killed them all and erased all evidence, because when some powerful race builds an octonary system so that everyone from the Galaxy could see it and find it (even stated in the episode!) and learn about the threat the AI evolution poses, we clearly must never allow everybody to learn about it, because that makes perfect sense.
The series is just... soulless, there's nothing engaging, it feels dull and nihilistic.

[Deledrius]

Well, we've been given the reason for Hugh's passing. It's so Punisher of Nine can come back and be the one to interface with the ship. Also, it looked like Narek's sister was going to get the Reefa treatment from the remaining Ex-B's only for her to be beamed away.

And, really, Seven worked better for the scene in the Queen cell. Hugh's anger would have driven him to create the mini-collective without a second thought. Seven is thinking more clearly, and understood what would she was doing to the drones in stasis.

I think having Hugh, Seven, and Elnor in that scene would have made it even more powerful. But the episode would have also needed to spend more than a few seconds on the dialog and character beats. I could sacrifice Narek's sister mugging for the camera. I hope she was assimilated. The constant "she beams away to safety" nonsense so that she never faces any consequences of her actions is boring.

[Jonathan]

Well, we've been given the reason for Hugh's passing. It's so Punisher of Nine can come back and be the one to interface with the ship. Also, it looked like Narek's sister was going to get the Reefa treatment from the remaining Ex-B's only for her to be beamed away.

And, really, Seven worked better for the scene in the Queen cell. Hugh's anger would have driven him to create the mini-collective without a second thought. Seven is thinking more clearly, and understood what would she was doing to the drones in stasis.

I think having Hugh, Seven, and Elnor in that scene would have made it even more powerful. But the episode would have also needed to spend more than a few seconds on the dialog and character beats. I could sacrifice Narek's sister mugging for the camera. I hope she was assimilated. The constant "she beams away to safety" nonsense so that she never faces any consequences of her actions is boring.

It's so weird how the twist is that the Zhat Vash are acting with good aims, considering Narissa's been nothing but a pantomime witch in the show's present day. We see her after the Admonition vision turning to Oh quietly and asking what they should do; fast forward and gleefully on about gassing the drones.

Anyway, I have a three way tie personally for what the most gaping idiotic plot issue in Picard is, but here's one candidate:

If the Admonition is there for synths, why's it just on some planet in the middle of nowhere? If a synth uprising needs help, they're unlikely to have anything like the numbers to explore the galaxy to the extent that they'll happen across it, particularly in comparison to the likelihood of organics touching the thing. Synths only got the message here because of the wildly lucky fact one of them has learnt how to Vulcan mind meld and met the right person who had it melded into her. If organics (who are always going to be much more likely the find the thing by virtue of numbers) were able to understand the message properly, they'd realise that the last thing they want to do is kill synths; instead the Zhat Vash get the message from it that killing synths is a moral imperative. Talk about broken!

Supersynths: 'We don't want our synth brothers and sisters to die, this message will make sure they don't.'
The message (for anyone likely to hear it): 'DESTROY ALL SYNTHS TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE!'

There's also the walking distance with the Artifact in this episode combined with there being two days max before the Romulans get there which illustrates to me the writers have put a first draft up on screen. I discuss a lot of these issues in my new review/analysis of episode 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_c9jLJGQ-s