What I Like Most About Picard and Discovery S3

[Riedquat]

I also agree that it's great the Seven isn't in that catsuit anymore, and I love that she is more expressive and embraced more of her humanity since her time on Voyager, it's another example of moving the characters forward in the series that I like, as opposed to in Star Trek Online during the Delta Rising arc where we interact with Seven (with Jeri Ryan reprising her role) and she's exactly the same as she was on Voyager (catsuit and everything) and thats set ten years after Star Trek Picard.

Seven's character in Picard felt like a natural development of her character. She's neither a leader nor a follower so that go-her-own-way lone wolf fits her well. It's completely the opposite of the collective so I suppose you could argue that it doesn't work at all, but she'd never fit in all that well into a collective of individuals, too strong-minded for that and they'd never all be acting together in the same way as the Borg anyway.

[Sir Will]

I liked that Seven acted more naturally. It was a natural evolution of her character. Voyager stunted her growth after S4 or 5. After that, the reset button was always pushed. Or it was the finale so nothing followed to see any growth. The fridging of somebody to get her there, that's more questionable, but still.

[Link8909]

I'd honestly say that the characterisation of the retuning characters in Star Trek Picard was overall fantastic more me personally.

As you've said, Seven's more natural and expressive personality is a natural growth to her time on Voyager, and her lone wolf attitude fits well with her rebellious tendencies, as well as her wanting to help people by joining the Fenris Rangers.

Riker and Troi were also great, seeing them being a couple and raising a family was incredibly heartwarming, Riker being not just as the teddy bear like father, but also an awesome Captain was great, and this is definitely the best portrayal of Troi I've seen since "Face of the Enemy".

And Picard himself in my opinion is perfect, while he had lost faith in the organisation, he still holds to Starfleet ideals no matter what, he's still compassionate as he was in The Next Generation, and I like that the series acknowledges that he's now older, and things like him bonding with a young Elnor are great additions showing how he's grown over the years, and also heartbreaking when one remembers René and could look at this a Picard potentially filling the void he left, and Sir Patrick Stewart acting is alway fantastic.

And the other retuning characters are also great, Data is spot on, I love the Hugh had grown and was helping other Borg find their individuality, it's great seeing Bruce Maddox continuing his work even after the ban, and it was nice to see Icheb make it into Starfleet.

However the thing I do feel is something that the shouldn't repeat in season two is killing off characters, I'm fine with a bit of tragedy and I don't mind the darker story of Star Trek Picard, but killing of a character like Icheb robs them of any further development, I personally never cared that much about him to begin with, so his death simply continues the fact that he was only there to develop Sevens character.

But I do thing that the death of Picard and Data are both well handed and fantastic, Data's death in Nemesis was lackluster and I personally feel that Star Trek Picard finally added what was missing, a chance to say goodbye, Picard and Data's talk in the simulation about what it was like to die and finally saying the Picard loved Date, follows with Data growing old and diving peacefully with his Captain while his daughter sung Blue Skies was beautiful and the perfect way to say goodbye to Data.

And I'm happy that they stuck to his death, it would have been so easy to bring Data back to life like with Spock (they could even have a new actor reprise the role), so keeping the death permanent makes his sacrifice in Nemesis matter all the more.

And Picard's death and resurrection is defiantly an interesting development that I'm looking forward to seeing in season two.

[clearspira]

I'm not quite sure where ''becoming a lesbian'' fits into Seven's character development though. Maybe she kept her heterosexuality inside her catsuit and it fell out along with the padding when she took it off?

[Riedquat]

I'm not quite sure where ''becoming a lesbian'' fits into Seven's character development though. Maybe she kept her heterosexuality inside her catsuit and it fell out along with the padding when she took it off?

I must've forgotten that bit, don't remember it saying anything about her preferences (nor do I remember anything in Voyager that would've definitively ruled that out).

[clearspira]

I'm not quite sure where ''becoming a lesbian'' fits into Seven's character development though. Maybe she kept her heterosexuality inside her catsuit and it fell out along with the padding when she took it off?

I must've forgotten that bit, don't remember it saying anything about her preferences (nor do I remember anything in Voyager that would've definitively ruled that out).

I have always found this to be a cop out answer of the highest degree.

''Well, it was never 100% stated what his/her sexuality was, therefore it is 100% possible for them to be gay.''

''But that was just an alternate timeline in Endgame where she married Chakotay, maybe in OUR timeline she...''

''But maybe she's bisexual...''

Stop. Just stop. These are justifications for bad writing and you are enabling them to get away with it.

[Riedquat]

I'm not quite sure where ''becoming a lesbian'' fits into Seven's character development though. Maybe she kept her heterosexuality inside her catsuit and it fell out along with the padding when she took it off?

I must've forgotten that bit, don't remember it saying anything about her preferences (nor do I remember anything in Voyager that would've definitively ruled that out).

I have always found this to be a cop out answer of the highest degree.

''Well, it was never 100% stated what his/her sexuality was, therefore it is 100% possible for them to be gay.''

''But that was just an alternate timeline in Endgame where she married Chakotay, maybe in OUR timeline she...''

''But maybe she's bisexual...''

Stop. Just stop. These are justifications for bad writing and you are enabling them to get away with it.

Why is it? It's only bad writing IMO if it's an obvious retcon, or if you end up with a ridiculous level of over-representation. There are plenty of aspects to someone's character that might simply never have come up before. It's only annoying if it contradicts that character, or makes it look like the writers are trying to fulfil and agenda (whether that's a political one or a "because we can" one or any other).

[Madner Kami]

It's repeatedly shown that Seven is instinctually picking men over women in Voyager. You don't just switch your sexuality, like you switch clothes.

[Riedquat]

It's repeatedly shown that Seven is instinctually picking men over women in Voyager. You don't just switch your sexuality, like you switch clothes.

In that case fair enough. It's a long, long time since I've seen any more of Voyager than the reviews here, which mostly seem to involve Harry failing to get anywhere near Seven, I don't remember much the other way around other than the later rather out-of-the-blue Chakotay relationship.

[TGLS]

It's repeatedly shown that Seven is instinctually picking men over women in Voyager. You don't just switch your sexuality, like you switch clothes.

In that case fair enough. It's a long, long time since I've seen any more of Voyager than the reviews here, which mostly seem to involve Harry failing to get anywhere near Seven, I don't remember much the other way around other than the later rather out-of-the-blue Chakotay relationship.

Her lover from unimatrix zero?

--

Random thought; it might seem implausible that Seven flips sexuality out of nowhere, but on the other hand she has maybe 4 years outside of the collective by the end of Voyager. She looks like a woman, but has about four years of life experience. As I understand it, LGBT people can spend a considerable amount of time in the closet; maybe that's where she was on Voyager?