‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 1, Episode 7
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Jared and Kayla gather round the dinner table to talk Nepenthe, action on the Borg Cube, and some revelations on La Sirena. Have a listen as we discuss the latest episode of Star Trek: Picard, “Nepenthe,” or as we like to call it, “Reunited, and it feels so good.”
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Agree, this episode gives all the feels. Heartwarming & comforting to spend time with the Rikers in their pastoral home. Marina’s acting was outstanding. We now need to have ‘At Home with the Rikers’ commissioned (or as per awesome YT homage – Little House on Nepenthe).
What a waste of Hugh’s character and an underwhelming death scene. Let’s hope his nanoprobes do kick in and he is revivified.
Agnes – what a mess. Brave, redemptive move to save the crew and the mission. (Btw I never bought that Rios would find her physically attractive.)
So yeah… You noticed how tactless Picard suddenly became in this episode. I still say it happened only to give Troi a reason to be useful. She has been traditionally the most worthless character on the bridge.
I, too, could not stand the “positronic cure”. It felt amazingly contrived. A device that only served to get the audience who was not yet on the anti-AI ban side a reason to “join the cause” so to speak. I didn’t buy it. It was too silly.
Troi’s empathy has more times than not been just “pointlessly stating the obvious”. There have been a few times it revealed something but those times were amazingly rare. Also her scanning radius was all over the map. Sometimes she could read across dimensions, other times she had a hard time reading someone across the room. Troi overall was just a very poorly conceived character whose role really should have been reduced to a part time player. Someone on Crusher’s staff who showed up the few times a shrink was needed.
I didn’t see her as reading anything in Picard beyond his obvious apprehension for even involving them. Let alone picking up on that syndrome that was mentioned in episode 2. With all due respect I think anyone who felt like she read more than the obvious were just wishing that is exactly what she did. It never came across as anything really.
I do not recall Picard ever mentioning his Kirk encounter to anyone in the ensuing movies. But it would seem reasonable that it would come up at some point. In fact, Riker making a pizza was reminiscent of Picard and Kirk in the kitchen. My mind immediately went there.
Fully disagree about making Rafi the Gomez character. I’d prefer if they came up with new people. It’s a big universe out there and it feels contrived that SHE would be the one he teamed up with for the relief effort mission. She feels to me like at this point in time she klutzed her way out of Star Fleet. Maddux feels much more organic to use. He had some sort of high position in the Star Flee robitics department or whatever. Feels appropriate he would still be involved. Disagree about using Zimmerman. From what I recall (and I just rewatched Voyager a couple of years ago) he was just a holographic engineer. He never really dealt with AI beyond holo programming.
I was not surprised at all Hugh bit it. In fact, I honestly would have been surprised if he made it all the way through episode 10. I never saw Hugh as a “beloved” character and I’m raising an eyebrow when I hear someone say he was “beloved”. He showed up in two unremarkable episodes. One of which I had completely forgotten about. Characters like Hugh and Icheb are perfect in that fans know them some so their deaths can pull a little on the heart strings… But they aren’t important enough to really mess things up if they are gone. I will be more surprised if they ace 7. I can see them doing it as maybe Ryan did this so she could be rid of 7. But that’s about the only reason. But I don’t sense Ryan as wanted to but an end to 7.
I very much got the impression Rios was trying to play Agnes into a confession. But ultimately I think that was really what he thought based on his later byplay with Raffi.
I think Oh was sharing the AI uprising imagery via some sort of mind share. But, I am unaware of how mind meldy Romunlans are. Is there canon saying so in the TNG era? I used to think the knowledge of what the AI’s almost certainly would lead to was enough to get her to do the covert things for Oh. But after her behavior in the next episode I’m not so sure. It was as if the same horror that cause double secret Tal Shiar members to literally rip their faces off was easily dismissed by Agnes once she interacted with her dream AI. It really didn’t make any sense.
I agree… The Borg cube has been easily the weakest link of the show. For me, Hugh included.
I for one completely bought into Picard having absolutely no clue how to deal with the emotion a teenage girl (or a three-year old android) goes through when facing life-altering changes. For the better part of the last decade he has lived on the vineyard completely detached from humanity and you have to remember, the only android he has ever dealt with was completely devoid of emotion and had no feelings. Also have to agree with those who really noticed Sirtis’ acting. IMO, so much better than TNG and especially when you watch that first trip to Farpoint.
It’s less the child (which Picard always said he was uncomfortable with) but more the cyborg girl. (whose name I continually forget). He has not been behaving like an imbecile recently. Now suddenly he is. Sorry, but Picard would know better. This were merely a device to give Troi a chance to say something. If Picard acted like he has in previous episodes, Troi would be reduced to nothing, as she nearly always has been.
Perhaps it is lack of understanding of the adolescent female mind (human or android) or it is a side effect of his neurological disease. Or maybe it is merely a device for Troi. No matter what, no biggie.
Favorite Trek callbacks:
Riker doing that hand motion when explaining something
Riker saying “shields up”
The dinner table scene was like a Ready Room scene
Picard saying “thoughts” in that scene like he used to when before making a decision and wanted to gather thoughts from his crew
Kestra telling Soji about Data. Kestra asking Soji about mucus reminded me of Dr Bashir asking Data if his hair grows
Troi being empathic
Rios evading a cloaked ship
Also, I didn’t agree with Jared about “too many Romulans.” This season has a major Romulan arc, so there SHOULD be a lot of Romulans, both good and bad. Also, the “too many Romulans” line sounds very xenophobic. It’s like a sexist person saying “too many women on this show.” I usually agree with Jared the most on this podcast, so I was disappointed with his opinion there.
Other than that, good job Shuttle Pod. It’s still my favorite podcast
Well, there is a slight difference. Women being real and Romulans being made-up grumpy space elves.
No mention of Riker saying is was in reserve for the federation. Could he save the day. Now we know a fleet are coming for assistance.
I have a feeling we will hear “shields up, red alert!” before the season ends!
Riker being in reserve star fleet reserve was not discussed. Could he come to save the especially if a fleet is being sent. Also Picard artificial heart was repaired in season 2 episode 17
I wonder if the slice of pizza (just one!) to Picard was a joke about Stewart infamously never having had a slice of pizza until he was seventy-three years old.
(A slice, that is. Stewart had eaten pizza before, but even then had never actually seen it before he was twenty-two.)