‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 1, Episode 3
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Join Brian, Kayla, and Matt as they discuss the third episode of Star Trek: Picard, the aptly titled “The End is the Beginning.” We’ve come to the end of the first third of the season, and we’re finally setting off into space… but not before rehashing the past with Admiral Picard and Raffi Musiker, and meeting the roguish captain of his own ship Cristobal Rios (and his holographic doppelgängers), while Soji finds herself the subject of Romulan myth, and the bad guys pose in black leather and sunglasses.
Good discussion. Agreed with most of the views.
A few thoughts.
I disagree with Kayla’s read that the pass by the command chair was fan service. I found the hesitation at that chair showed us the distance Picard has come psychologically from the hubris he showed in effectively demanding captaincy of a ship from Clancy.
On Raffi’s forced discharge from Starfleet, we may have the needed piece of information already. When Raffi speaks of Romulan involvement in the synth attack on Mars, she says that she doesn’t just see these things like angels but has evidence. This is a fairly defensive statement. This, along with the earlier allusion to a tendency to paranoia (even without snakeweed), suggests that those involved in the cover-up trumped up a mental health rationale to pull her clearance, thereby making it impossible to continue as an analyst.
As I’ve mentioned on earlier threads francophones don’t allow short forms of their names the way native English speakers do. Hyphenated names are said in full (never shortened to Jean), but short forms like J-L among close colleagues are ok. Given how Picard’s family were determined to keep their French heritage, J-L would be the familiar name Picard would permit if someone asked to use one. A trusted advisor on an Admiral’s Flagg staff would definitely be more likely to be permitted the familiarity that a line officer might not. By the way, I noticed that Raffi switched to using Jean-Luc when the conversation turned dire in the flashback.
I totally forgot to bring up the Starfleet-Romulan conspiracy that Raffi says she has proof of, doh!
I think a lot of people miss that Picard’s name is not Jean Luc Picard, Luc is not his middle name (or something) and no one would call him simply Jean. His first name is hyphenated, it’s Jean-Luc. So “JL” as a nickname seems perfectly fine to me, Raffi isn’t by-the-book, and this shows that she’d rather have a nickname for him in day-to-day interactions with him. I’m sure she calls him “Admiral” in front of the Starfleet brass :-) And as you noted, she started to use his full name when the situation got serious.
On the nickname front, he allowed his two best friends at the academy to call him “Johnny” (which I guess was him sucking up his Franco pride and allowing it) so it’s not like the guy never had nicknames before.
One of my favorite bits from this podcast is when Kayla does her valley girl voice. :-D
It’s a hoot, we all get a good laugh from it.
ohmyghad….
Laris and the other Romulan friend of Picard are ex-Tal Shiar. Picard is, well, Jean-Luc Picard. Even in their advanced age, I totally believed they could fend off their attackers with the hidden weapons and stuff. It’s just too bad they couldn’t have his dog Number One help fight the bad guys.
It sucks that overall this show is so good, but they have such really cringe worthy stuff in it, like the vape pen and the sunglasses. Ugh. Oh well.
Well done as always. You guys rock!
I’ve noticed that the last few podcasts seem to follow the same pattern. It begins with everyone saying (unenthusiastically) that they “liked” the episode but then spend most of it by listing in great detail all the things that are “stupid” or “ridiculous” about it. Can’t we all just admit that Kurtzman Trek is just…. not what we want?
Let’s remember that even in the darkest moments of Star Trek passed you could sit down with your kid and watch it together. No profanity laced, secret upon secret upon world ending secret that gets you numb to any consequences.
I’m probably in the minority’s, but I tee up with Star Trek and never missed a show but I didn’t watch episode 2 of Picard and that made me sad.
Onto Orville!
.
Sean, honestly more TOS or 90s Trek is decidedly not what I want now.
I’ve enjoyed rewatching a lot of it with our kids in recent years, but I’m hungering for something new and fresh.
So, while I have my quibbles, just as I did back in the 90s when I debated each new episode with my housemates rather than a discussion board, I am in no way ready to say Kurtzman’s Trek isn’t what I want. In fact, so far all the Kurtzman Trek products are keeping our entire household engaged.
The debates and the quibbling is part of the Trek fan experience for many of us. It’s hard to read more into it than that.
By the way, in our household of Trek fans, only half of us will even watch the Orville so I doubt that it has any greater universal appeal than Kurtzman Trek – and likely less.
Fully agree TG47,
people can say a lot of bad things about Kurtzman and they may even be right with a lot of it, but there is one argument that they can’t beat. Kurtzman brought back Stewart. And he only could do that with changing the formula.
There would be no STP without Stewart and no Stewart without Kurzman.
Three episodes in and I’m still surprised his back on our screens playing Picard. I really thought he wouldn’t play him ever again.
I’m not. I figured it was only a matter of time and money. And when Discovery failed to deliver what CBS hoped it made perfect sense they would reach out to him.
Sorry but if someone else was in charge of Trek at CBS and went to Stewart with bags full of money he would still be back. That’s pretty much what Kurtzman did.
I respect the opinion given in response to my own. I try to look at KurtzTrek in a balanced way to BurmTrek or GeneTrek (and of course, Rick Burman made some mis-steps). Why am I less forgiving of Disco & Picard compared to Season 3 or TOS or Season 1 of TNG? Because, Picard & Disco have massive budgets, 20+ Executive Producers (and they can’t even get the editing right). They have SO much more experience, SO much more money, SO much more “talent” and yet a lot of what I see in Disco and Picard isn’t honest mis-steps…its laziness.
1. We want to grab peoples attention = F-Bomb
2. We want people to feel emotional = Build up a robot character in Scene 1 and kill her in Scene 6 (Disco)
3. We want people to feel excited! = 10,000 shuttle craft against 10,000 MORE shuttle craft
4. We want people to relate to the characters = Romulan with an Irish Accent! “Fe**ing Cheeky” (groan)
5. We want me to tune in next week = “everything changes” / “the fate of the galaxy…” / “you are the destroyer of worlds!!” DANGER DANGER! Excited yet?
Like I said, I know why we have KurtzTrek…and I admire the ‘attempt’ by ‘some people’ when it comes tp updating it….but the rookie mistakes (editing), the lazy writing and the platitudes “we loved Spock too! look, here he is!! and look! the Enterprise!!!!! and PICARD!!!!!” it seems fake and contrived.
In short, its not what they are trying to do, its how well they are doing it that really annoys me.
(in my first draft of this post I made about 20 spelling mistakes, I was able to go back carefully and correct most of them and it didn’t require 17 writers)
“The debates and the quibbling”
Let’s make a fan episode and call it……(wait for it)…..”The Trouble With Quibbles”.
Two things can be true, we both generally like ‘Picard’ and also have some criticisms.
Also as TG47 said, Trekkies love to nitpick, and critique. So not all of it comes from a negative place. For us it’s more of a “oh so close” kind of thing, where the show has great promise and is generally doing quite well, but then does something silly or hamfisted, which only slightly takes away from it, and those small things haven’t detracted any of us from still wanting to watch and see what happens next.
Agreed. To me, there is no such thing as a “perfect” Star Trek episode, series, or movie. There are always nitpicks and criticisms. I would not give credit to any review that is 100% negative or positive.
I’m just glad new Star Trek exists! ST: Picard does have it’s bad stuff (anything to do with the villains, the contemporary slang, vaping), but the good stuff is really good stuff! I’m enjoying it so far. I think it’s the best Star Trek we’ve had since DS9 ended in 1999.
All I know for sure that it’s far better than the last two TNG films. I kept having sleepless nights thinking that’s how they would end their journey, hopefully ST Picard will attempt to rectify that. So far so good IMO.
“I kept having sleepless nights thinking that’s how they would end their journey, hopefully ST Picard will attempt to rectify that”
That’s a nice way of thinking about it! TNG now ends the way it was meant to end – on the small screen! :)
Actually I think it was meant to end on the big screen. Nemesis was partly set up to be a finale but they left a couple of holes just in case and I think there were already ideas for a 5th and truly final TNG feature had the film done better at the BO. But the fact that NEM was set up as a partial finale tells me that many sort of saw the writing on the wall for the future of Trek at the time.
hear they planned a post ‘nemesis’ film featuring characters from ds9, Voy and TNG.
but season 3, 4 of Ent were not bad before the berman era closed.
My friends and I did the same thing with WoK. We all loved the movie but have been known to nit pick it to death. I guess similar to how Spock was a bit shocked when Kirk, McCoy and Scotty were admiring certain aspects of Khan Singh. They said they could admire him and be against him at the same time. Well, we can admire WoK and still see the small flaws at the same time.
I’m with you, Sean. Watched TOS first season ‘The Man Trap’ and ‘Charlie X’ yesterday, simply wonderfully written stories.
Kurtzman Trek is not impressing me at all yet, and I was really psyched for Picard. I’m kind of bummed (and out $10 a month for CBSAA, which is a drag). I’m actually watching Mandalorian for the second time, so much better (imo). Agreed, bring on Orville. I have loved the first two seasons.
I wish all of these new shows are exactly what I want/need to see!!!! This is what everyone is asking Kurtzman to do, if not, please hire a new Guy. I feel some fans prefer to have nothing new for Start Trek. Why people go to the extreme to say “I want Picard but not this way” “Fire Sonequa Martin-Green, cancel Discovery” “Don’t even think about Michele Yeoh and Section 31″Etc, etc….
For investors, they don’t care, they only want profit, our $$$ subscription. We should be more supportive to what Kurtzman is trying to do here. This guy worked with JJ Abrahams in the most recent Star Trek movies. They revived the franchise. And now he is bringing back what we all love, the TV (streaming) Shows.
He has been able to walk (and dance) in a thin line between the decision makers and the audience. He listens to the Fans, he make adjustments and move forward. I’m Grateful.
CBS Executives are giving him the green light for Discovery, Picard, Short Treks, Section 31, the animated shows, and very soon, he will also bring back Captain Pike….and very likely, I think he will also oversee the upcoming Movies.
If we continue the online bullying, non respectful criticism, we will end up, AGAIN, with 3 season shows. When Star Trek Enterprise was finally getting better, they cancel the show, and we waited years for Star Trek 2009.
That doesn’t mean that we have to love everything they make. If new Trek sucks, I am going to say so. That’s what fans do. When my favorite hockey team sucks (and they do) I tell everyone how much they suck. I don’t pretend they are doing great.
Enterprise was on for 4 seasons.
Yes, 4, sorry for the mistake!
I hear you but saying Kurtzman worked with Abrahams on the new movies is not a huge selling point here lol.
But I get your point obviously. I have said I don’t mind what Kurtzman is doing and I give him credit for trying to do something different with Star Trek. It doesn’t mean I like it all or agree with the entire direction but he clearly has a vision and wants to push Star Trek in a new era for a new generation of fans and that’s a great thing IMO.
Yes as many people here have alluded to, many would probably just be happy with a revamp TOS or TNG show, episodic and all, but I’m glad they are not going that direction and trying to shake things up even if I’m still on the fence with Discovery and the jury is still out with Picard.
But for me, this is what I always dreamed of seeing Star Trek, really expanding the universe and seeing multiple aspects of it in various time periods. I want to see Trek go forward and come up with new ideas and approaches. If I’m being super honest I don’t need Trek to go back to the 23rd or 24th century at all and come up with completely new situations like Discovery is thankfully doing. But I don’t mind being back in these periods, especially the 24th period since it was the most developed and what a lot of people wanted to see again. So bringing Picard back was a total no-brainer and as we are seeing its connecting to the TNG era mythology and other characters. We’ll probably even get more familiar faces next season which is really excising. So its great for me even if its still not my first preference.
So I’m willing to give him a chance and see where it goes. Not overly excited about Section 31 but we still know so little about it ad that could surprise people too. Lower Decks sounds like tons of fun and will probably make a lot of people happy who want something more akin to TNG and they already said they plan to bring in characters from all the shows. So I’m keeping an open mind. And it’s Star Trek, I’m just happy its back again!
ML31 and Tiger2, I agree with you. This is exactly the space to talk about the shows, to talk about everything. Its just that sometimes, from time to time I see some people writing very mean comments. I don’t enjoy some people saying “I want X show, cancel Y show” kind of thing. They don’t see that the more shows the better it is for everyone.
We always have to wait several years to see a new production. Thanks to Berman, we had several movies and shows simultaneously. CBS and Kurtzman are already aiming at that and (again) I see a wave of negative (and unnecessary) complains.
Maybe reading not from one person, but reading from everyone at the same time, it amplifies the negative feedback that CBS detractors will be using as an argument not to move fwd to invest in more cheaper shows.
Tiger2, Section 31 is the perfect example. Me too, not impressed with the portrayal of Emperor Georgiou leading the show. The cynical personality. I wish we had our Captain Phillipa back to lead the series. How can you trust a Mirror Universe Evil Character!?
For me, what you want to see would be perfect. The dream to many of us. Could be very awesome Time Travel stories to visit different time periods. Can you imagine revisiting Captain Archer and T’Pol trying to bring Trip Tucker back!? Section 31 interacting with Pike and his new crew, Julian Bashir, Jadzia Dax, Janeway, B’elanna, TOS Sulu, Uhura…she is very old but still alive meeting fans at conventions. Unlimited stories and characters.
I dream of having this new show bringing back my favorite characters fixing the timeline…past, present, and future. Resolve the Temporal Cold War. Like the Section 31 “DS9” and “Voyager” stories. A mix of the STNG finale “All Good Things” with Quantum Leap and Back to the Future.
I think this will not happen, but would be awesome. I feel now the new audience or executives are more interested in NCIS and Top Secret Spy stories.
I personally don’t like the Emperor to lead this show. The cynical personality. I want our universe Phillipa to take the lead. But Hey, who am I to argue a new show, I also want to see this show in 2021!!!
Thanks Jay for this.
I really appreciate especially your understanding that fans hyping up sibling rivalry among Trek shows does nothing to advance the franchise.
I may be having a hard time imagining an S31 show that works, but if Kim & Lippoldt have a pilot/premiere written that is greenlighted, I’m game.
We have to accept that the format of episodic shows that could pivot in style from week to week is not realistic at present. So, we’re going to see the variety across rather than within series.
I’m ok with that because we have more than 700 hours of episodic Trek, and new formats offer new opportunities for storytelling.
The market will surely shift again over time, and new Trek writers may be able to do other things. For the moment, I’m cool with seeing what serialized Trek can be.
Well said Jay!
And yes obviously I agree with nearly all your points. No, I don’t want the franchise just to wallow in fan service and just be a ton of sequels with old characters but its nothing wrong to want to see favorite characters you grew up with watching! Hollywood in general has been going through a huge revival stage in the last 10+ years now in both movies and TV, its just how it is. People like seeing characters they know, it doesn’t mean they don’t want NEW characters but as a show like both Discovery and Picard are proving, you can do both.
The funny thing is for me is when we found out Kurtzman was going to make a new Trek show and we heard it was Discovery, I was REALLY down on him and the idea (yes Fuller came up with it but I thought it was a direction Kurtzman himself wanted to go in).
And not just because it was a prequel and it was so close to TOS, but because I thought this was all we were getting…for years. We would have ‘new’ Star Trek but it was only going to be based in this time period and everything was going to just eventually reference TOS in some way and I just thought that was sooooo boring. And I’ll make this clear I would’ve felt the same way if Discovery was set ten years before TNG because it would tell me the same thing. They didn’t want to EXPAND the universe in a real tangible way, they only wanted to highlight it, i.e. draw us in to things we already knew, just give us a different angle or ‘fill in’ things more with a lot of ‘connections’ like finding out a very famous character had another sibling we never knew about. Oh gee, I HAVE to watch it now!
I thought that’s where Star Trek was going to be for at least another 5-10 years because I thought Kurtzman was going to do what Berman did and just spin off other shows from Discovery in this period like we all assume Section 31 is. I KNEW we would eventually get another post-Voyager show, but I thought it was YEARS down the line and I never even considered it would be with any of the the old characters, just new ones, which I would’ve been fine with.
The day Patrick Stewart showed up to announce Picard was coming back just changed everything for me after that. I knew from that point on all bets were off. This was the FIRST announced show after Discovery. And every announcement since has been wildly different from the other. And of course once we learned Discovery was going into the future farther than anything we’ve ever known, I realized this guy is actually speaking to the type of Trek I always wanted to see personally. Maybe not exactly, but close enough.
The sky is the limit now. Maybe we won’t ever see someone from Enterprise or DS9, but NOTHING stops them now. They are creating a franchise that can go to any time period, use any character, follow any event, past, present and future. It’s the reason why we got Pike, Spock, Seven, Picard, Romulans, Section 31, tribbles and the Borg all in the same year. And its just getting started.
I know not everyone is onboard with all of it (especially on Youtube lol) and a lot of the criticisms ARE valid! But you have to at least admit that he’s trying to make something for everybody while adding a lot of interesting angles to the universe. Section 31 is not something people necessarily want to see in Star Trek but if done RIGHT, it can open the universe up in a way that hasn’t been done since DS9. So I’m really excited to see where its all going, even if I’m still not fully into all of it. I’m even willing to see where a Khan show can go…but I’m not endorsing the idea lol.
What is the tale of the 4 (maybe 5) replicators we’ve seen in Picard?
Ok, I digress a bit from this specific ShuttlePod podcast, but each of the replicators that have appeared in Picard, episode by episode, have raised comment from the ShuttlePod crew, so I’m thinking that they’re worthy of a TrekMovie deep-dive.
Given how well the writers know Trek lore, and particularly how much Kirsten Beyer has thought about replicators out in the Delta Quadrant for her novels, I suspect there is a message in all of these replicators.
To kick it off, here’s my listing of “What have we seen?”
Seen:
Ep1, #1: Dajh’s apartment replicator has surprisingly few options according to her boyfriend. (Only a plain vanilla shake by the menu image shown.)
Ep1, #2: the Chateau Picard kitchen has a TNG ship-style replicator in the kitchen that produces both cup and tea to Picard’s specification. Notably, Picard’s late brother Robert would not have allowed the technology, but it was an option at that time.
Ep2, #1: the staff room replicator on Mars base seems to be a simple, century-old food synthesizer that uses prepared steel plates and food-component matrices. It provides a single option of an inferior quality meal.
Ep3, #1+: In addition to the main space of Rios’ ship appearing to be effectively a large bulkhead-free holodeck, it seems to have either an internal transporter or replicator built in. It’s not clear if the medkit is ‘real’ or a holographic representation that does the same work. It’s implied that the alcohol that Rios offers Picard and then splashes on his wound is real, but I’m not sure we know that with certainty.
Trailers: a scene with Seven pouring a drink in what appears to be Picard’s Chateau has been shown more than once, but she asks “What are you doing out here Picard?” So, it seems as though Picard will be offering replicated hospitality in a holographic representation of his Chateau in a future episode.
Observations?
Technology is not uniform in this era of Trek.
However, local in-house or at a worksite replication is universal : people aren’t going out to a replimat (as in DS9).
Resource scarcity is operating for some reason such that there are constrained choices about production and consumption.
We know from Voyager’s rationing of replicator meals that pure replication uses a high level of energy, such that it impacted the maximum warp speed attainable.
What does all this mean? I’m not quite sure.
“the staff room replicator on Mars base seems to be a simple, century-old food synthesizer that uses prepared steel plates and food-component matrices. It provides a single option of an inferior quality meal”
I dont like the classist message of this, at all! So even 400 years in the future in a so-called post-scarcity, free energy society, they are still promoting the (literally) medieval idea that those doing the hard, menial jobs must eat equally coarse and simple food? Seriously?
I think the problem getting our best glimpses of 24th century civilian/Earth life now is that same as in the Berman Era, they haven’t really thought about how all of this REALLY works, the future, Utopian society and economy. Just Berman got away with it by keeping this vague and invisible and us focused on Starfleet’s finest in a planetary system far, far away…
I find that concerning as well. There’s no reason for that kind of artificial separation, when in theory (at least in the core Federation worlds) there’s little-to-no scarcity of resources, so people are generally free to pursue the vocations they want — and the wide variety of ways to contribute to society are all valued.
I’ve been wondering if the poor quality food at Utopia Planitia is the result of the staggering effort to build a fleet of warp capable ferries.
If priority for matter feed-stock and energy usage is given to the project, then less than ideal working conditions might have been accepted by the workers – but then this would be a personal sacrifice for a cause of for personal advancement.
It doesn’t align with the disgruntled attitude of the workers though. It seems like rationing was imposed on them.
If the Federation and Starfleet were prioritizing scare resources for the Romulan relocation and perhaps other objectives over consumer choice, the strains within the Federation would be more understandable.
I could actually buy that if there wasn’t yet ANOTHER classist message in the same episode, when Raffi confronts Picard about his “fine chateau” while she’s sitting in a 24th century trailer in the middle of the desert. Surely we can’t believe that Earth and the entire Federation are facing tough rationing regarding all aspects of life for all their citizens, just for the relocation of one planetary systems’ population (which anyway was aborted 14 years ago)?
Now, even in the 24th century there would be a scarcity of centuries-old French chateaux-cum-vineyard to be privately owned, but she does seem to be disgruntled by the economic disparity, that she isn’t able to get comparably comfortable housing. Now, I’m all for Trek to explore economic inequality as the actual underlieing cause of much of contemporary problems (and not the various smokescreens different political factions have come up with), but they should do it in a way that is consistent with canon and does not contradict much of 24th century core tenets that were held onto even by First Contact and DS9 (“Earth is a paradise without need”). DS9 was able to do that by setting its conflict zone far away from Earth to border worlds, and the Maquis was a good way to explore (former) Federation citizens facing problems the core worlds would not and could not have, so it’s not impossible to solve this conundrum.
It seems to me that the writers of this, or maybe even Chabon himself, either doesn’t understand or doesn’t accept the reality of the time they set their show in (kind of how Discovery never accepted the 23rd century tenets), even if they are much better at visual consistency than the latter show, and that is unfortunate.
VS, I would argue that this inconsistency in access to material goods has been apparent throughout all of Trek, but we’ve been less conscious of it because it fits with our preconceived notions of hierarchy on a starship.
I can’t say that the current writers are less thoughtful about this, rather that the more we see civilian life, the more the longstanding inconsistencies are apparent. In fact, I’ve been wondering if the writers realized these inconsistencies and decided to take them on in their portrayal of civilian life.
For example, in TNG and Voyager, in some episodes we saw that ensigns had shared or at least inferior quarters to senior officers.
Why would that be appropriate or needed in a classless society? Ready rooms and other office space for work might need to vary, but differences in accommodation seem to have no purpose other than to delineate status. It smacks of a hierarchy of access to apartments, hotels and restaurants in former Soviet societies.
In TOS, all the officer’s quarters were quite small and the captain’s was not particularly different, but again it was implied that the crew had less.
It’s never been clear in Trek-economics how resources would be prioritized, but it’s always been clear that some elements cannot be replicated without feedstock (dilithium crystals, latinum) and that despite food synthesis, there are actually agricultural colony planets and interstellar shipments of food.
My head canon has been that replication of food and many material goods is possible but requires huge energy expenditures. The enormous energy produced by a warp engine on a starship generally provides enough surplus energy to make replication a better choice than bringing a large inventory of supply aboard ship, especially on ships intended to be long rage explorers. By contrast, that and of energy production and expenditure might be environmentally unsound for a population in billions on a planet.
More, we know that Wolf 359, Federation expansion and the Dominion War each put pressure on Federation resources. Perhaps some kind of rationing was put into effect, and like post WWII rationing in the UK, it continued for a long time after the conflicts ended with adverse effects on equity.
These rationalizations aside, family businesses and their real property have been a longstanding oddity in Trek.
I’ve always found the Picard estate a bit of a conundrum, but it sounded as though as long as a family member continued to operate the vineyard and winery, the family had a legacy right to stay. This would be similar to families who retain rights to historic properties in national parks in the US and Canada, but cannot sell. It would explain the tremendous pressure on Picard to return and continue the family business after Robert and Rene’s deaths, but his lack of heir suggests that he will be the last of the line.
But who would get to have or run the estate after the Picard line dies out? Certainly, families like Worf’s adopted parents had to go to a colony planet to start their own farm.
Sisko’s father’s restaurant in New Orleans provides the same quandary. How did he get that space for a restaurant in historic New Orleans? Will some other chef somehow be assigned his restaurant space to run once Sisko’s father could not continue? Will it pass on to one of his sous-chefs?
Riker’s father’s family place in Alaska seems to be even more of a question. It sounds as though the Riker’s have continuing rights to that land despite not doing anything with it.
Bottom line : Trekonomics has always had it’s issues, but they’re more in our face in this series.
The captain’s chair thing didn’t bug me. Kirk did the same thing in Generations.
I agree that these three episodes should have been 2.
When you say “that hurt” about the resignation, I assume you mean it hurt Picard. Not the audience. But if you recall that C in C mentioned Picard’s hubris. Well, thinking he himself was so very important that his resignation would force their hand… Well that was either him being a monumentally overinflated opinion of himself or him not thinking things through. Which is something he ALWAYS did on TNG.
Rafi.. OK all that makes sense but those things NEEDED to be presented in episode. Not left for fans to speculate or discover in promotional materials. So if that is the case then that is a strike against the director and writers for not making the viewer aware.
Yes, given what we were told in the episode the Federation did indeed react poorly. Which is why I think it obvious there is a ton more to this than we have been told. And makes me wonder why Picard didn’t think this and ended up doing something so rash as offer his resignation. What TNG Picard would have done was realize something bigger is going on and stay on the inside so he could snoop around and expose it.
My hope is they will peel away the layers in coming episodes but they really haven’t been doing much of that regarding the Borg cube. We still don’t know anything more about it than we did in the first episode. I have to say the longer they go without dropping any hints the more I really don’t care about the Cube and the greater the chance I will mentally tune out of any scene that takes place there. And this is with a bunch of scenes there already. Which makes me wonder if they really are going to expose the politics behind the Starfleet thing beyond just them being infiltrated by the double secret tal shiar.
Count me as someone who was not bothered by the vaping or the cigar. I would rather it not be there but it’s not a big deal.
I did like the EMH and the ENH. If found them to be the best characters in the show so far to be honest. And so far Rios himself is the 2nd best character in the show.
I haven’t heard them referred to the Storm Toopers of the Picard. That seems to be the case. I was wondering did Picard know there were weapons stashed around his house? If he did why did not grab one of those instead of the cane? If he didn’t why didn’t he ask “You stashed guns around my living room?”
I think it amazingly obvious Pill is a mole of some sort. The surprise would be if she ISN’T.
You mentioned the MU theory is not true. Yet Chabon’s twitter answer severely hints at it. So maybe he is intentionally creating a red herring? And saying Oh is a Romulan is hardly a “spoiler”. And I did theorize that the inner eyelid could have been taken out through evolution. But I’m not a huge fan of that. I prefer them to be even more similar. The thing is, the “subtle” differences have never been spelled out in canon so I guess this could be one of them.
Regarding the spy siblings… I did find it a little weird, too. But has the show decided that in Romulan culture sibling hookups is acceptable?? I think that might be too much for audiences to handle.
I still don’t see that piece of music as the “TNG” theme. I see it as the TMP theme that TNG appropriated.
It would be hilarious of Freecloud was found on Nimbus III. But Discovery has ignored Sybok so it seems like they don’t want to reference things from the lesser films.
I thought the triple breasted cat lady was a Caitian.
Agree that it was nice they incorporated the TNG Romulans in with the TOS ones. Something that Discovery SHOULD have done with the Klingons.
And I had ZERO problems with Rafi calling him “JL”. It showed to me that she at the time was closer to Picard than anyone on the Enterprise. Which was completely believable.
Act 1 went on way too long. The three episodes felt like it should have been two. I felt like I did with the Spock blocking in STD S2.
And thanks for helping me kill a slow hour at work!
I really wanted to love this show, but so far the writing is just so lazy and simple. Twice now as Pickard was building his new crew two characters have said no to joining giving the same “you’re selfish, only call when you want something” lines, yet jump to very next scene and they somehow instantly changed their minds without any real thought or explanation other then a simple “well…ya know, reasons”.
So far has been no real character development, everything feels rushed with tones of Information dumps that at often times feels forced and unrealistic. The pacing and editing is just a mess, even if the overall story is interesting, the way they move the story forward just feels hollow.
It’s not all bad, Patrick Stuart is as wonderful as always (even if his dialogue often feels unnatural and out of character), the set design and visuals are incredible, and the cinematography is first class. If they would just dig a little deeper with the writing this could be a great show.
“Freecloud” is a David Bowie reference.
For all you know, the Vulculan’s sunglasses are precisely the kind of sunglasses that will be fashionable in the 24th century.
Let’s bump up the energy a bit, guys. The group almost seem annoyed to be doing the podcast. Holy smokes.
Just a bit about the Romulan/Vulcan inner eyelids evolutionary divergence…
Two millennia is typically too short a time for evolutionary differences in humans to manifest. Even twenty millennia is too short a period. As an example, the ability of humans to digest milk as adults evolved over a period of around ten to twenty millennia, and it still hasn’t become a normal human trait. What we call lactose intolerance — which was really the norm 20,000 years ago — is still common among East Asians. Note the near total absence of cheese and other milk products in East Asian cuisines.
So, one wouldn’t expect a trait such as an inner eyelid to disappear from Romulans after a mere two millennia of living off Vulcan, unless having inner eyelids was such a hindrance on Romulus that individuals with them typically did not survive to have offspring. And why would that be the case with inner eyelids?