Picard - Maps and Legends

[Chengar Qordath]

BTW, has anyone else noticed that the ''Opinionated Guides'' have gotten distinctly opinionless of late? He doesn't score Star Trek Discovery, he doesn't score Star Trek Picard, he didn't score two of the three Abrams films. I genuinely could not tell you where he puts Star Trek Discovery in relation to the other shows and I genuinely could not tell you how he rates the Star Trek Picard pilot episode compared to the other pilots. He doesn't even give out the episode awards any more.

If Chuck reads this - i'm not hating. I'm sure there are good reasons that I am missing, but sorry, I just do not understand why the format for the later shows are so different to the earlier ones especially as you are still doing the older shows in the older style AKA ''Rejoined'' just last week.

I noticed the same thing. Since he rates them in relationship to the rest of the episodes in the series, and Discovery and Picard are still ongoing series, it's hard to rate them as average, above average or below average for their series.

That makes sense, while I'd like Chuck to give his views on each episode as he covers them, it is his show and he can do what he wants.

I also think the nature of the shows makes it hard to judge each individual episode on its own, because these episodes aren't really designed to be stand-alone stories so much Parts 1-10 of a single story.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Final is cumulative not comprehensive.

[Nightbeat74]

Janeway instead of Clansy...

Last week I finished the audiobook "Last Best Hope" which is the tie in novel to "Picard" which explains all that happened in the 20 years prior to the first episode of "Picard". At the time of Star Trek Picard, Clansy wasn't just an Admiral, she was the CnC of Starfleet, which I assume is Commander and Chief (Here in the United States, Commander and Chief is the military rank of the United States President. I guess it is different in Starfleet. Leads to my theory that Starfleet runs the Federation, unlike in the United States where the government runs the military). So if the original plan was for Janeway to be in Clansy's place, that would mean that Janeway was supposed to be running all of Starfleet.

I do not think it means that starfleet runs the Federation, it might that it is just a diffrent cabnet seat, so that in some way no one has to much power and the fed looks good.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Enterprise established that Starfleet was a joint operation between Vulcans and Humans, which was the main driving vehicle for starting the federation of planets. However, Starfleet was completely an Earth development, and I'm not even sure what kind of legitimate directive the Vulcans even had in the show.

As far as the shows or movies have ever exhibited, the Federation government is at least autonomous from Starfleet. I need to watch the movies again, but the Federation has final word on alliances as far as I remember while Starfleet has no problem sending Enterprise out for 5 years at a time. We never get much indicator of Starfleet's level of autonomy, at least in comparison to the Federation.
.

[hammerofglass]

Janeway instead of Clansy...

Last week I finished the audiobook "Last Best Hope" which is the tie in novel to "Picard" which explains all that happened in the 20 years prior to the first episode of "Picard". At the time of Star Trek Picard, Clansy wasn't just an Admiral, she was the CnC of Starfleet, which I assume is Commander and Chief (Here in the United States, Commander and Chief is the military rank of the United States President. I guess it is different in Starfleet. Leads to my theory that Starfleet runs the Federation, unlike in the United States where the government runs the military). So if the original plan was for Janeway to be in Clansy's place, that would mean that Janeway was supposed to be running all of Starfleet.

Sweet merciful God...

The book explained that it was Captain Clansy who helped convinced Picard to take the assignment to help the Romulans, accept the promotion to Admiral, leave the Enterprise, and then take command of another ship. When Picard suggested giving command of the Enterprise to his first officer, Clansy complained, saying that Worf was a bad choice, but accepted anyways. It was also mentioned that Picard knew that Captain Clansy wanted the C in C job.

Now replace Captain Clansy with Admiral Janeway.

After Admiral Picard risked his career on continuing to save the Romulans after the Synth Revolt, and lost. The then C in C (I forget his name) resigned shortly there after and Clansy was named C in C in his place. Good thing it wasn't Admiral Janeway in the novel. The C in C stepping down after Picard's sudden resignation and Janeway becoming the head of Starfleet would have looked really suspicious.

Hell, the book implies very heavily, that the Romulan supernova wasn't a natural event. That it might have been an attack by someone else. Admiral Janeway instead of Admiral Clansy would have explained everything: Janeway caused a supernova, killing the Romulans, creating a power vacuum, getting smaller out of the way colony planets to threaten to leave, get Picard out of the picture, all to get herself to the Commander and Chief office. Hell, the supernova would have happened around the time of the then Commander and Chief leaving office and her taking the job. "You see it as the Romulan star going supernova. I see it as fireworks to celebrate Admiral Janeway as the new head of Starfleet."

That's so on the nose that I kind of wonder if somebody in the writing team is a fan of Chuck's Nemesis review.

[planescaped]

It's nice seeing Picard again, but I honestly think I'd have preferred a show where he was more of a side character to an ensemble cast.

And not in the Kelvinverse... so basically something that could and won't ever happen. I' easy to please.

[LordFeagans]

Janeway instead of Clansy...

Last week I finished the audiobook "Last Best Hope" which is the tie in novel to "Picard" which explains all that happened in the 20 years prior to the first episode of "Picard". At the time of Star Trek Picard, Clansy wasn't just an Admiral, she was the CnC of Starfleet, which I assume is Commander and Chief (Here in the United States, Commander and Chief is the military rank of the United States President. I guess it is different in Starfleet. Leads to my theory that Starfleet runs the Federation, unlike in the United States where the government runs the military). So if the original plan was for Janeway to be in Clansy's place, that would mean that Janeway was supposed to be running all of Starfleet.

Sweet merciful God...

The book explained that it was Captain Clansy who helped convinced Picard to take the assignment to help the Romulans, accept the promotion to Admiral, leave the Enterprise, and then take command of another ship. When Picard suggested giving command of the Enterprise to his first officer, Clansy complained, saying that Worf was a bad choice, but accepted anyways. It was also mentioned that Picard knew that Captain Clansy wanted the C in C job.

Now replace Captain Clansy with Admiral Janeway.

After Admiral Picard risked his career on continuing to save the Romulans after the Synth Revolt, and lost. The then C in C (I forget his name) resigned shortly there after and Clansy was named C in C in his place. Good thing it wasn't Admiral Janeway in the novel. The C in C stepping down after Picard's sudden resignation and Janeway becoming the head of Starfleet would have looked really suspicious.

Hell, the book implies very heavily, that the Romulan supernova wasn't a natural event. That it might have been an attack by someone else. Admiral Janeway instead of Admiral Clansy would have explained everything: Janeway caused a supernova, killing the Romulans, creating a power vacuum, getting smaller out of the way colony planets to threaten to leave, get Picard out of the picture, all to get herself to the Commander and Chief office. Hell, the supernova would have happened around the time of the then Commander and Chief leaving office and her taking the job. "You see it as the Romulan star going supernova. I see it as fireworks to celebrate Admiral Janeway as the new head of Starfleet."

That's so on the nose that I kind of wonder if somebody in the writing team is a fan of Chuck's Nemesis review.

After Picard's television interview...

"Admiral Janeway, Jean-Luc Picard is here."

"What does that has been want?"

"He wants to talk to someone about reinstating his commission, getting a ship and going on one last mission."

"He wants to command a ship, something we can produce faster than pez and just as disposable? Yeah, like that's gonna happen."

"Should I send him to Senior Ensign Harry Kim so he can deny the request?"

"No. Send him to my office directly. I want to tell that old, bald, smug, french, former Borg bastard that I'd rather blow travel back to the Delta Quadrant and blow Neelix instead of giving him a professional compliment, let alone a ship."

"Weren't you also assimilated once?"

"On purpose. Picard got assimilated like a bitch."

"Mister Picard, the Commander and Chief says that she will love to see you personally."

[Senko]

Am I the only one who given the way certain characters in voyager are treated during the musing about could have been got the following scene pop into their head.

Picard: Well you can just . . . go suck an ass dick.
Janeway: An ass dick? You mean like a donkey or a. . . you know what excuse me a moment.
BEEP
Asssitant: Yes admiral?
Janeway: Contact those scientists in sector 7.
Assistant: The ones we don't admit exists?
Janeway: Of course those ones, now contact them and tell them I need to speak to them about a new assignment for Ensign Kim.
Assistant: I don't think he wants to take anymore assignments from you Amiral.
Janeway: Oh he'll take it all I need to do is dangle that promotion in front of him.

[G-Man]

Rizzo and Oh - don't know which one is which, but didn't one of them look almost like a Dilgar minus the cat eyes?

[Mabus]

The hostile and conqueror Romulan Empire not using/studying cybernetics or artificial intelligence, while surrounded by hundreds of alien species that do, would be like the Soviet Union not pursuing nuclear weapons/technology while surrounded by hostile powers that do.

There's not a solidly-defined consensus definition of artificial intelligence. The Romulans clearly have very advanced computers, as demonstrated by their fancy gizmo in this very episode, but they don't seem to consider those intelligent.

Laris' exact quote "Our computers are limited to purely numerical functions" is complete nonsense, since ALL computers operate on purely numerical functions, and even if they would have duper supercomputers with the computational power of a human brain, any software that runs on it would have to be more or less equally complex, since the purpose of a supercomputer is process insane amounts of data and turn said data into something usable, and given that the Romulan brain isn't more advanced than that of a human, no amount of Romulan technicians staring at the screen sorting the data manually would be a practical solution. You'd have to have some form of AI, even if crude, like on the same level as today to make sense of all that junk data. Which makes Laris' line "We don't have androids or AIs. We don't study cybernetics." to be utter bollocks, as cybernetics is a very broad domain and there is no proper definition for it, just like there is no fixed definition on what an AI is. If we go per the most common definition, an AI would be "a system's ability to correctly interpret external data, to learn from such data, and to use those learnings to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible adaptation", and unless the Romulans run their warbirds on Windows 95 on a Fugaku supercomputer, there's no way their hardware won't have equally advanced software, it has to have some form of AI.

Even if the definition of what an AI is has changed in the next 400 years in the Star Trek universe, as per Tesler's Theorem "AI is whatever hasn't been done yet", the Zhat Vash have been operating for nearly 2000 years, so during that time they would have encountered hundreds of forms of "AI", not everything has to be Skynet-level.

The reason why I compared AIs with nuclear technology, is because AI is a massive game changer in technology and society, just like how nuclear technology is, be it weapons or just research/consumer products. Even though the Soviets doubted the practicality of cybernetics at the beginning and even called it pseudoscience, it was clear they couldn't compete the Western world by relying only on "pocket calculators" so eventually they began adopting it more and more, even if it was in the typical Soviet fashion. If an AI allows you to outthink or outperform your opponent, it will be a massive advantage that'd you'll want to have.

And while the "AI might contact the AI Gods to kill us all" might sound like a good excuse to pursue a complete AI ban, it runs into the issue that the ZV have decided to keep that secret to themselves, yet somehow, the Romulans who have no idea that said group exists, refuse to use AIs or study cybernetics, and everyone is OK with it for centuries, and no one found that suspicious (or that whoever found that suspicious died in a suspicious accident). It would have made far more sense if Laris had said that the development of AIs and cybernetics are limited due to security reasons (they could just mention the many crazy AIs/androids that Kirk defeated in the past as an excuse) instead of the whole "the ZV loathe AIs for some unspecified reason" or something.