Picard - Remembrance

[Senko]

I do wonder how they convinced Patrick stewart to let himself be portrayed like this. It only gets worse from here too.

[Hero_Of_Shadows]

I do wonder how they convinced Patrick stewart to let himself be portrayed like this. It only gets worse from here too.

Stewart is human he acknowledges his own age, any Picard series that would have been filmed would have needed to acknowledge the passage of time and that this wasn't the Picard of the Enterprise-D era running around on screen.

[Link8909]

I do wonder how they convinced Patrick stewart to let himself be portrayed like this. It only gets worse from here too.

Sir Patrick Stewart wanted to come back, he's even an executive producer, so anything that Picard does in Star Trek Picard has to be agreed by Sir Patrick Stewart, honestly I don't get the issues about how he's portrayed, Picard still has his high moral standard, he's still kind and cares about people, and would still fight for what is right.

Stewart is human he acknowledges his own age, any Picard series that would have been filmed would have needed to acknowledge the passage of time and that this wasn't the Picard of the Enterprise-D era running around on screen.

And definitely this as well.

[Mabus]

Upon rewatch, to get a better view of the show's failings, I noticed that most if not all the themes/plots seen in the show have already been done in the previous show, and much better:
-Android sapience? (Soji's question to Jurati e.g.: "Am I a person?" which gets no answer) Measure of a man (TNG)
-Picard being an arrogant ass that needs to be humbled? Q Who, Inner Light, Tapestry (TNG all three), as well as ST:FC
-AI destroying the world with space tentacles? Discovery (twice?)
-Spiky space tentacles abomination destroying planets? Star Trek 09 (Narada)
-Xenophobia, anti-mixed marriage sentiments, Brexit, Trump, populism, isolationism, fake news? Demons/Terra Prime (ENT)
-Space!9/11? The Expanse (ENT)+S3 ENT
-Borg cube being salvaged by aliens and former drones (who later get their Borg implant removed by more competent people) after it was severed from the Collective due to something that it assimilated and suffered a breakdown (because Icheb gets kidnapped and used)? Collective, Child's Play and Imperfection (VOY all three)
-Mini Borg collective made from former Borg severed from the Collective? Unity (VOY)
-Very old advanced civilization (Tkon, Iconians, etc.) destroyed by a bigger threat? The Last Outpost, Contagion (TNG both)
-Psychic message obelisk that turns you crazy? Mass Effect, Memorial (VOY)
-Las Vegas-like planet/city? Blade Runner, Star Wars prequels, Kelvinverse films
-Seven of Nine going on a rampage and doing questionably moral decisions? Lots of early VOY episodes

To quote Nicholas Meyer (and Chuck), the difference between a ripoff and homage is whether the former adds something (of value), you have to put another layer on it.
So what has Picard added more to these plots?
-Poverty is now possible on Earth (with a high-tech caravan bigger than most houses, and set in a National Park)
-Substance abuse is treated just as casual as today, even though previously it was mentioned that drug addiction can be cured and characters smoking or taking drugs was considered a quirk at best
-Apparently having just one Romulan infiltrator inside the Federation (high place, but still) and Space!9/11 no. 3 caused Earth to revert to being like 21th century morons
-One of the greatest powers in the quadrant are now both Space!Refugees, Space!Hobos and Space!Hydra, and the collapse of their empire hasn't affected the Space!Hydra
-The victims of Space!9/11 no. 3 are all assholes (Hollywood dads and racist/rude workers that mistreat the synths), so I can't feel sorry for them when they get killed (great 9/11 parallel guys!)
None of these seem to improve the show. None add something new and good. If anything, they revert the character development of Picard and Seven back to the early seasons of their original series. They end up shallow, with no substance. Like the holograms.
And I don't get the "Star Trek always had these problems before" excuse. Wasn't the whole selling point of the new ST shows that they'll be better than the old ones? Hell, isn't that the whole point of a new show? To take things into a better and new direction compared to the old one? To improve the things that didn't work so well? To learn from past mistakes and never repeat them? Are the old problems really that hard to solve?
Let's do a count of how many old Trek common problems are still found in the new Trek, which are easy fix:
-Creator's pet: Michael Burnham, Georgiou;
-Deus ex Machina: Time traveling Michael Burnham, magic mushooms, the magical hand gizmo, Picard's plastic body transfer and the USS Copy-paste fleet from PIC's ending;
-Planet of the hats: Romulans+secrets=Love
-Technobabbles: Everything related to magic mushrooms, Time travelling Michael Burnham, STD S2 ending, positron cloning, etc.
-Killing off well-liked or simply established characters for cheap shock value: Icheb, Hugh, Maddox, Data;
-Forgettable villains (with dumb names to boot): What was the name of the Deanna Troi-look-alike that Seven killed? Or that crazy Romulan chick that kept being handsy with her brother? Or the Romulan-Vulcan spy? Oh, right. Oh! Oh yeah, that's right. Oh! Oh...
-Writing that feels it hasn't left the first or maybe the second draft, everything is grimderp and the network heavily interfering (funny enough John Billingsley recently said that one of the reasons why ENT didn't work that great is because it was too rushed as VOY only ended a couple of months earlier, there was fatigue in the writer's room, they couldn't strike a proper balance between the show's darkness and the more lightheartness of the previous ST and the network kept interfering)
-Bad makeup: Klingorks, Tellarites, Data's weird eye contacts and shoddy de-aging;
-Stock footage being reused: Shutterstock, and they're not even trying to hide it;
-Special honorary mention: Black guy dies first
I think that if the show had more competent writers, more time to improve the script, less pointless grimderp, less network interference, it would have ended up better.

[Link8909]

Stewart is human he acknowledges his own age, any Picard series that would have been filmed would have needed to acknowledge the passage of time and that this wasn't the Picard of the Enterprise-D era running around on screen.

Actually, this is another thing I really enjoy about Star Trek Picard, that they acknowledge and made it apart of the story the fact that time has moved on, that Picard is now older and not exactly the same as he was in The Next Generation.

It’s what they did in The Original Series era films as well that I really liked, rather than Kirk and his crew doing the same thing that they were doing in the series but now older, the films acknowledge and made them getting older apart of the overall theme, and in the case of The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country was the focus of their stories, its also something of a missed opportunity of The Next Generations films, while I enjoyed both Generations and First Contact, the creators really could have had Picard and his crew move on an evolve more much like Kirk and his crew did, instead they kept their status quo till the end of their run, so when it comes to Star Trek Picard I’m really happy that they show that Picard and the returning characters have actually changed from how they were when we last saw them.

I’m happy as well that this isn’t like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull where it’s trying to be like the original material, but instead you have an old Harrison Ford trying to be exactly like he was but they make jokes at the expense of his old age, in Star Trek Picard, Picard being older not only plays into the story, but they don’t make light of it like in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, that while he isn’t a Captain or commands the same respect as he once did, or isn’t as strong as he used to be, he also didn’t become a stereotypical old man neither, he still will stand up for what’s right, he still is as compassionate as he was in The Next Generation, and his actions in Star Trek Picard show that getting old doesn’t mean your just give up and wait for death, instead it shows that even when you do get old, you can still make a difference.

[UltimateSpinDash]

A small thing that really bothers me about Picard is the Hobus nova retcon, one that SFDebris appears to be relieved about.

The Hobus nova threatening Romulus only begins to make sense (and even then it's a stretch) if we assume that it was not a naturaly occurence (the route Star Trek Online went with).
By changing it to be the Romulus sun that blew up, it means that Spock's plan to save Romulus stops making sense instead. I mean, yeah, you can prevent Romulus from being blown up by a Nova if you destroy the sun with a black hole instead, but Romulus is still screwed afterwards.

[Mabus]

A small thing that really bothers me about Picard is the Hobus nova retcon, one that SFDebris appears to be relieved about.

The Hobus nova threatening Romulus only begins to make sense (and even then it's a stretch) if we assume that it was not a naturaly occurence (the route Star Trek Online went with).
By changing it to be the Romulus sun that blew up, it means that Spock's plan to save Romulus stops making sense instead. I mean, yeah, you can prevent Romulus from being blown up by a Nova if you destroy the sun with a black hole instead, but Romulus is still screwed afterwards.

There's also the small problem if the Romulan sun was turned into a supernova intentionally, who did it. Did the Zhat Vash did it? Some ancient civilization (like the Iconians in STO)? Some other unknown faction? A new player? They just brush it off like it's something ordinary.

[Link8909]

A small thing that really bothers me about Picard is the Hobus nova retcon, one that SFDebris appears to be relieved about.

The Hobus nova threatening Romulus only begins to make sense (and even then it's a stretch) if we assume that it was not a naturaly occurence (the route Star Trek Online went with).
By changing it to be the Romulus sun that blew up, it means that Spock's plan to save Romulus stops making sense instead. I mean, yeah, you can prevent Romulus from being blown up by a Nova if you destroy the sun with a black hole instead, but Romulus is still screwed afterwards.

I think with what Star Trek Picard reveals is that Romulus was doomed no matter what, while we don't know yet if Star Trek Picard will keep to the supernova causing a chain reaction that is expanded upon in Star Trek Online, I think the plan was for Picard to evacuate Romulus while Spock stops the supernova from causing the chain reaction that would threaten other worlds.

I imagine that Star Trek Picard will expand on this in Season 2 or later on.

[Link8909]

There's also the small problem if the Romulan sun was turned into a supernova intentionally, who did it. Did the Zhat Vash did it? Some ancient civilization (like the Iconians in STO)? Some other unknown faction? A new player? They just brush it off like it's something ordinary.

I don't think the people in universe or the creative team of Star Trek Picard just brushed it off or treated it as something ordinary, Season 1 of Star Trek Picard wanted to focus on the synthetics as well as the philosophical meaning of what it means to be alive, as well as the plight of the X-B’s, and the overall theme about not giving into fear and prejudice, while only touching on how the Romulan people and the rest of the Alpha Quadrant were affected by this catastrophe, like I said, this is only Season 1 and we still have more to come, and I’d image that this will get expanded upon in the future.

[Mabus]

Star Trek has a history of forgetting important plot points.
I won't hold my breath that they'll bring it back.