The New Scientist proclaims "Star Trek Renassiance"

[Link8909]

Picard isn't a bad show, just one deeply flawed by the toxic influence of Secret Hideout in general and Akiva Goldsman in particular. There's some stuff in it that I not only loved but that I believe is genuinely revolutionary for Trek, like Troi and Riker's kid inventing his own planet because he was born in space. And Jeri Ryan and Patrick Stewart universally stole the show.

The problem is that the Borg cube scenes mostly suck, the Romulan worldbuilding is mediocre and almost feels too TOS Vulcan, which I guess was the point but is kinda a letdown compared to "Rihannsu", Murderbot is a shitty villain, the fake-out death sucks totally, killing off Icheb and Hugh was cruel and unnecessary (ESPECIALLY both of them!), Raffi is not sufficiently sympathetic to make up for being a jerkass, the android planet's magic flowers and hippie presentation wore on me due to my experience with Berman-era Trek's aging flower-child obsessions, and quite frankly they ripped the plot off of Mass Effect.

It's still way better than Star Trek Discovery, which is Dick Cheney's darkest masturbatory fantasies brought to life with a "We're diverse!" social-capital coat of paint slapped over top, and then processed through the patented and time-tested Alex Kurtzman Shittification Engine, then capped off with the most obvious "oh fuck we really should've paid attention to Clexagate happening THE YEAR BEFORE WE FRIDGED THE GAY GUY and not fridged the gay guy" fix-it imaginable. And season 2 is basically ripped straight from David Hack's shitty novels about the Federation being a secret dystopia run by an evil AI because being good is stupid and naive and for babies and only Hard Men doing Hard Things and making Hard Decisions are able to preserve the fatherland and oh, oh, oh god, Dave Hack just creamed himself all over his Jack Bauer body pillow. But Section 31 are totally good guys it's just that they made a little mistake, y'all.

I mean, at least Picard has the balls to say that mindless nationalism is bad. And some of its scripts are actually competent. And it has two of the best actors in the world.

I do see what you mean, although I'm not going to be as harsh as you are towards the creative teams.

While I do like the first season of Star Trek Discovery, I do think Star Trek Picard handled the message of not giving into fear and prejudice and keeping to moral principles better, and I feel Picard was more focused on what it wanted to tell than Discovery's first season.

I also agree that the senseless deaths in both series were unnecessary and even cruel that robbed those characters of further development, although Doctor Culber was intended to return and I to like that season 2 explored the emotional turmoil from his resurrection, and I feel Hugh's death was handled better as he died protecting the XB's and could become a martyr that other XB's could rally behind.

Although I personally did like the scenes in the Borg Cube, I like the Cube itself as the series really shows just how large this thing is, and even with it shutdown it still has this forebodingness to it, and I like the Soji and Narek relationship as we the audience know he's only using her and thus those scenes are tense, it's the equivalent of Alfred Hitchcock's showing the audience the bomb trick, and I did like Soji slowly discovering what she is and her emotional turmoil.

I did enjoy the small bits of Romulan world building myself and I do hope we get more in season 2, it's honestly been a long time coming for the Romulans as we've only really seen the military side of them, I wasn't that invested in Raffi but after some discussions here I've grown to appreciate and sympathies with her, I do see that you mean with the android planet Coppelius's "hippie presentation", but I still love it as for one it's a civilisation of artificial life, and is no where near as bad or smug as the Ba'ku are.

I do disagree on it just being a ripoff of Mass Effect however, as while Mass Effect was about preparing, fighting, and defeating the Reapers, in Picard stopping the artificial life from another galaxy wasn't the focus and was about Soji and the androids not giving into fear and prejudice like the Zhat Vash had done, and to show that there are people who will stand and fight for their rights to exist, the artificial life from another galaxy could have been replaced by a large bomb that wiped out organic life and the message would have remained the same, I do like the implications of the Alliance of synthetic life however.

And I do disagree with the glorification of Section 31, I honestly thought the Discovery went out of it's way to show how bad the organisation was, also CONTROL wasn't running the Federation or Starfleet in Discovery, but it did show the dangers of that kind of autonomy.

But I agree that Sir Patrick Stewart and Jeri Ryan are fantastic returning to their roles, it was great to see Seven had grown a lot from her days on USS Voyager and both metaphorically and literally let her hair down as it were, and Picard himself was amazing, bringing back his warmth and kindness that we remember him for from The Next Generation, and had some great quotes of wisdom in the season, and I really like they explored more of his trauma from being assimilated, I also really like Brent Spiner retiring as Data, and I'm glade we were given a proper goodbye to him, and his death brought tears to my eyes.

[Worffan101]

I do see what you mean, although I'm not going to be as harsh as you are towards the creative teams.

This is honestly me being gentle, if I wanted to be harsh I would say that Alex Kurtzman is to failure what Patrick Stewart is to acting, and that Goldsman is so stupid and unoriginal I'm genuinely surprised he can breathe without fatally injuring himself. I would say that I think Alex Kurtzman's so stupid he would fuck a goat thinking it was his wife--not because his wife looks like a goat, but because Alex Kurtzman is too stupid to tell the difference between a goat and a human in broad daylight with 20/20 vision.

While I do like the first season of Star Trek Discovery, I do think Star Trek Picard handled the message of not giving into fear and prejudice and keeping to moral principles better, and I feel Picard was more focused on what it wanted to tell than Discovery's first season.

I don't think Discovery was a season of TV so much as a bunch of hacks quickly hacking some crap together because Bryan Fuller had burned literally half the budget on the premiere (which was shit anyway) and then fucked off to have a drug-fueled mental breakdown that left him quitting or fired from a bunch of shows.

I also agree that the senseless deaths in both series were unnecessary and even cruel that robbed those characters of further development, although Doctor Culber was intended to return and I to like that season 2 explored the emotional turmoil from his resurrection, and I feel Hugh's death was handled better as he died protecting the XB's and could become a martyr that other XB's could rally behind.

Then they should've actually done something with Hugh instead of killing him off as a shock death.

Oh, and the bolded part is false. Berg and Harberts lied to you, and it's blatantly obvious, especially considering the way that they repeatedly lied to the audience in the leadup and then blatantly ripped off The 100. Culber's death and return as a ghost is nearly shot for shot identical to Lexa's death and return as a ghost in that show. You know, the death that caused Tumblr to not only ragequit but to set up an entire convention about F/F relationships to give the middle finger to The 100?

Although I personally did like the scenes in the Borg Cube, I like the Cube itself as the series really shows just how large this thing is, and even with it shutdown it still has this forebodingness to it, and I like the Soji and Narek relationship as we the audience know he's only using her and thus those scenes are tense, it's the equivalent of Alfred Hitchcock's showing the audience the bomb trick, and I did like Soji slowly discovering what she is and her emotional turmoil.

Personal taste, then, I found the Borg cube scenes interminable, blandly written, and thought the actors really struggled with the boring dialogue.

Also Narek is worthless and Soji should've punched him a few times and maybe kicked him in the balls.

I did enjoy the small bits of Romulan world building myself and I do hope we get more in season 2, it's honestly been a long time coming for the Romulans as we've only really seen the military side of them, I wasn't that invested in Raffi but after some discussions here I've grown to appreciate and sympathies with her, I do see that you mean with the android planet Coppelius's "hippie presentation", but I still love it as for one it's a civilisation of artificial life, and is no where near as bad or smug as the Ba'ku are.

No, they just have the worst and most obvious ripoff of Killmonger living there swanning around being blatantly evil and practically cackling "And your little dog, too!"

Also I hated Incest Sister's death scene, it was clumsily choreographed and had very little emotional weight because Seven never actually knew or met Hugh and was visibly unsettled by the lack of emotion she felt for him during her talk with Picard as the latter quietly mourned after the crash.

I do disagree on it just being a ripoff of Mass Effect however, as while Mass Effect was about preparing, fighting, and defeating the Reapers, in Picard stopping the artificial life from another galaxy wasn't the focus and was about Soji and the androids not giving into fear and prejudice like the Zhat Vash had done, and to show that there are people who will stand and fight for their rights to exist, the artificial life from another galaxy could have been replaced by a large bomb that wiped out organic life and the message would have remained the same, I do like the implications of the Alliance of synthetic life however.

And yet, they still literally ripped off the Reapers to create artificial drama. Why couldn't the drama have been about a Romulan death cult trying to wipe out androids? You know, like the bulk of the show was about? Why do there have to be Reapers?

And I do disagree with the glorification of Section 31, I honestly thought the Discovery went out of it's way to show how bad the organisation was, also CONTROL wasn't running the Federation or Starfleet in Discovery, but it did show the dangers of that kind of autonomy.

I strongly disagree on every level. Section 31 proper is shown as having done nothing worse than take risks that backfired on them out of desperation. There is no demonstration--as in DS9--that such organizations are by their very nature poisoned chalices, whose plans inevitably--not just by accident, inevitably--cause more harm than good.

Also the Federation was literally built on the exact opposite of Section 31's ethos and methods, the persistent coolification of Section 31 as a necessity or a positive good with badass/sexy black tight uniforms who do Hard Things and make Hard Decisions (tm) is seriously damaging to the spirit of the franchise.

But I agree that Sir Patrick Stewart and Jeri Ryan are fantastic returning to their roles, it was great to see Seven had grown a lot from her days on USS Voyager and both metaphorically and literally let her hair down as it were, and Picard himself was amazing, bringing back his warmth and kindness that we remember him for from The Next Generation, and had some great quotes of wisdom in the season, and I really like they explored more of his trauma from being assimilated, I also really like Brent Spiner retiring as Data, and I'm glade we were given a proper goodbye to him, and his death brought tears to my eyes.

Ryan, Spiner, and Stewart were amazing, but I want to give a big shoutout to Hologram Guy, who had an insanely hard job but did it damn well.

Didn't really like the secret Soong heir myself, but whatever, Trek's pulled dumber things out of its asshole.

Oh, and the pirate episode was IMO the high point of the series. Despite the stupid shock death and the awkward Raffi scene that only establishes that she burns every bridge she has and Picard only keeps her around because he has a soft spot for her.

[Link8909]

And yet, they still literally ripped off the Reapers to create artificial drama. Why couldn't the drama have been about a Romulan death cult trying to wipe out androids? You know, like the bulk of the show was about? Why do there have to be Reapers?

It's to give Soji and the androids of Coppelius the same power that the Zhat Vash and others in the past have always had over artificial life, the power to wipe out a type of life in an instant because they fear what they are.

The difference obviously is organic life is so vast and artificial life is so scarce that it's easier for artificial life to be destroyed, thus something like the Alliance of synthetic life is needed to give that same power to the androids, it's why I say they could have used a large bomb that wiped out organic life and the message would have remained the same, and the Zhat Vash was still a threat till the end, like I said it was about Soji and the androids not giving into the same fear and prejudice that the Zhat Vash had done, and to show that there are people like Picard who will stand and fight for their rights to exist.

I think the only missed opportunity is that it wasn't a V'Ger probe that came through the portal, which while everyone was thinking Reapers, I was thinking those there the androids that built V'Ger.

Also Narek is worthless and Soji should've punched him a few times and maybe kicked him in the balls.

This I agree with and do want to see in season 2.

[Link8909]

Ryan, Spiner, and Stewart were amazing, but I want to give a big shoutout to Hologram Guy, who had an insanely hard job but did it damn well.

Didn't really like the secret Soong heir myself, but whatever, Trek's pulled dumber things out of its asshole.

Cristóbal Rios is great and I love the expansion on the Emergency Holograms, the scenes of him talking with his Holograms are great because they're basically parts of him, so he's having an internal conversation out loud, and I like his ship isn't all beaten up and is kept in pristine condition, plus he's just so cool.

I also don't mind the secret Soong heir, Enterprise added more to the Soong lineage already, and more Brent Spiner is good in my opinion.

[Zargon]

Star Trek Renassiance....more like a sad Star Trek Dark Age.

It won't be so much longer until all the Star Trek haters and Star Wars 4Ever folks leave the show. After they ''ruin'' it enough they must move on as that is what ''cool hip people do".

[CharlesPhipps]

Star Trek Renassiance....more like a sad Star Trek Dark Age.

It won't be so much longer until all the Star Trek haters and Star Wars 4Ever folks leave the show. After they ''ruin'' it enough they must move on as that is what ''cool hip people do".

If the haters left, it would be a miracle. There might just be people who love the show.

Please, tell me it's true! WE DON'T WANT THEM!

[Madner Kami]

If the haters left, it would be a miracle. There might just be people who love the show.

Isn't the world wonderful, all the blacks and whites and no greys. What do you mean, there are people who care about the franchise, but just don't give a toss about the current show? Leave me to my black and whites!

[CharlesPhipps]

If the haters left, it would be a miracle. There might just be people who love the show.

Isn't the world wonderful, all the blacks and whites and no greys. What do you mean, there are people who care about the franchise, but just don't give a toss about the current show? Leave me to my black and whites!

Don't pretend this is new. I was bored out of my mind and over all the haters in discussions about Voyager too.

You don't like it, don't show up in discussions about it to trash it.

[Madner Kami]

Then why do you show up on the site of a reviewer who started his career with trashing Voyager? You seriously need to stop to make it an either or issue. People can dislike stuff and still be fans and just because some twats go overboard in constructing their case, it doesn't mean that you can only either love or hate a given show. You should be smart enough for that.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

It's more an issue of fandoms exhibiting irrational or trite behavior about stuff, namely giving pseudo intellectual objections to *what's out right now*.