The season one finale of Star Trek: Picard is two weeks behind us, but it still has us thinking. Last week we pondered the big metaphysical question about who Jean-Luc Picard is now. But there are still many other questions – big and small – that the finale left us with. While showrunner Michael Chabon has addressed some of them, the answers have often been either vague or based on material not seen on screen, and therefore not (yet) canon.
In no particular order, these eleven questions remain the most vexing…
1. Did they create immortality?
In addition to the philosophical issue of Picard’s synth resurrection, there is also its practical impact on the Star Trek universe and the dramatic stakes moving forward. If the technology now exists for people to be downloaded into perfect copy synth bodies, the show has essentially eliminated death. This new “Altered Carbon” reality would have a profound effect on society and storytelling. This could create some new dramatic possibilities. More likely – as has been the case with last-minute miracle tech – the producers will find a way to negate or at least severely limit the possibility for the tech to be used again.
2. Do they now have access to more magical synth tech?
Golem downloading wasn’t the only bit of impressive synth tech in the finale. Those cool space orchids could neutralize any ship, even a Borg cube. And the tool Saga gave Raffi was not only easily able to fix an “impossible” problem with La Sirena’s engine, but it was also then capable of performing an entirely different – yet equally miraculous – task of creating a duplicate fleet of La Sirenas to fool the Romulans. Having access to a tool limited only by the user’s imagination – and other synth tech – could provide an endless stream of Deus Ex Machina solutions for the crew and a dangerous crutch for writers.
3. Are the Romulans going to get away with it?
The two-part finale unmasked Starfleet’s Commodore Oh as a Tal Shiar general, who was responsible for the 2385 attack on Mars which killed tens of thousands. We saw her Romulan fleet politely escorted away from Coppelius and the ban on synths – who are now exonerated – lifted. But Oh and the Tal Shiar , who appear to be part of the Romulan Free State, are responsible for a heinous act of terrorism. Will the Federation let this war crime slide? And what of all those Romulan refugees that haunt Picard’s guilty conscience? Resolving this could complete more issues for Picard’s arc, and the repercussions of the revealed Romulan plot could provide some interesting galactic politics to deal with.
4. What’s the fate of the xBs?
One of the more compelling season one storylines was the introduction of the former Borg drones (or “xBs”) on the abandoned cube referred to as “The Artifact.” Jonathan Del Arco returned as Hugh to lead the program helping victims of the hive become individuals again. While Narissa spaced many awaiting the process, several xBs survived the Cube’s crash landing on Coppelius. Hugh gave his life for the xBs and much of Seven’s arc in the season was also dedicated to them, leaving their unresolved fate as an annoying loose end. Chabon says there was an edited scene, but the XBs deserve more than a line of text in a post-game Instagram chat.
5. What’s next for Coppelius and the synths?
The ban on synths has been lifted, and Coppelius is now under the protection of the Federation. Does this mean all the synths there are now Federation citizens, with all their rights and privileges? And will they be sharing their “generations ahead” technology with the Federation and Starfleet? Even without the ban, is Federation society ready to accept synths again? And after years of isolation, how will the synths deal with organics, especially after coming close to wiping them all out. The re-mingling of synths and organics could be a dramatic opportunity for the show in season two.
6. Are the super synths still a threat?
The entire first season – and millennia of Romulan mythology – all lead to the revelation there is an “alliance of synthetic life” which spans galaxies and await the call to wipe out all organic life. These super synths left a 911 hotline on Planet Aia, awaiting any synths who want to take it up. While Soji eventually chose not to take up the offer of organic genocide, there are many more synths, holograms, and other AIs populating the galaxy. Leaving “the Admonition” open to any synth to bring down the swarm of killer mecha-snakes is a pretty big risk.
7. Where is Narek?
The fate of the Romulan Zhat Vash agent Narek was an obvious loose end. The last we saw of the season-long antagonist was him teaming up with Rios and crew to attack Synth Town halfway through the finale. According to Chabon, a cut scene had him carted away by the Feds, and that could be the end of his story on Picard. But Narek was one of the more nuanced bad guys for the show, aided by a strong performance by Harry Treadaway. Seeing him cooperating with – or plotting against – the Federation and reigniting his complicated relationship with Soji could be worth exploring in season two.
8. How will Dr. Jurati get off the hook?
One of the darker moments of season one came in “Stardust City Rag” when Dr. Jurati killed her former lover, Dr. Bruce Maddox. She later admitted the crime, explaining that she had been working undercover for Commodore Oh. The season ended with her joining the crew in good spirits, but Chabon has stated Jurati will need a lawyer to face Federation judgment. While being under the influence of “The Admonition” and an invasive mind-meld are mitigating circumstances, season two should show actions have consequences in the Federation. This could be an opportunity for some courtroom drama, and hopefully isn’t just resolved with a line of throwaway dialog.
9. Who is Soji Asha now?
The mystery of Soji’s origins and true mission was at the heart of the season one story. She wasn’t, as she believed, a twentysomething human anthropologist, but instead a three-year-old android presumably sent to “The Artifact” to gather intel. She ends the season leaving her true home of Coppelius, saying she is “more cut out for wandering.” Now that the veil has been lifted, who is Soji really? Is she still an anthropologist? How much of her first years as an android does she remember? Does she have more special synth abilities? In theory, the “real” Soji could be a very different character than the one we knew in season one.
10, Where is La Sirena going?
Season one was a self-contained story of a ragtag crew with their own agendas working towards one goal. That story – along with individual character arcs – ended in the finale, yet we finished with La Sirena’s crew (now with the addition of Seven of Nine) warping off together. They are not part of any fleet, so why are they sticking together and where could they be going? La Sirena is Rios’ ship for hire, so is Picard still paying? Hopefully, their mission is something personal to Picard and the other characters’ history, and not just some random new threat or issue better handled by the Starfleet of the day.
11. How did the harvest go?
In the second episode (“Maps and Legends”) Picard left his vineyard in the capable hands of his Romulan companions Laris and Zhaban. Among the reasons they were left behind was that the harvest was less than a month away. We want to know how that harvest went and how and the former Tal Shiar operatives are faring back at Chateau Picard. Michael Chabon has indicated that season two will check in on these two fan-favorite characters, and maybe they are now free to join Picard on his next adventure. And don’t forget about his faithful dog Number One, too.
What questions do you still have?
There are more questions big and small that linger after the season finale of Star Trek: Picard. Let us know what you think of our assessment and what additional ones are vexing you in the comments below.
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Keep up with all the Star Trek: Picard news at TrekMovie.
I enjoyed the show but the list makes me want to puke …
Crappy plot holes can one day destroy the ST Universe.
We can fill most of the holes with some creative imagination but it would be better to start thinking before writing and filming…
More optimism my friend. Live long and Prosper! (^_^)v
100%
Yeah, I agree. My head is hurting from all the headcanon I’ve had to perform over the last couple of months. At a certain point, it just isn’t worth it anymore. I mean, if someone wanted to pay me to be a Star Trek canonographer, then I’d be willing to take on that challenge. But for me to have to pay CBS All Access for incomplete stories with plot holes the size of the Bajoran wormhole? No thanks. I’m out.
A textbook example of “too many cooks ruining the soup”. When a show has more producers in its opening credits than it has characters, it simply can’t lead to good ends.
You can only do so much in ten episodes! I thought, good job!
You’ll be back for S2..
Then scale it back some and don’t try to do so much. With only 10 episodes you need to focus on the A story. Period. There does not need to be any B, C, D or even E stories because you know you will never be able to wrap them up. This is one of the fails of the Picard show.
I can’t agree more. Sadly.
I’d add:
12 What about the Eugenics ban? If you lift the ban on engineering and creating electronic AI life, why a ban on organic engineering of life? I mean, I find the idea horrid (playing ‘God’) but if the show is right and you can engineer AI life are you not discriminating now against organic life forms in not allowing them to strive for the same immortality and superior capabilities of electronic life (Extended life, immortality, breathing in space, breathing in water, ability to come back to life after being blown to bits, etc)? The Eugenics ban pretty much forces organics to convert to AI life via golumn.
13 – Why would Picard not share this technology with other organics that they too can enjoy the extended life that he himself gets? Do you ethically have to give this to life forms you don’t like? Who lives and who dies and who gets to choose the deployment?
14 – When the Borg get Synth tech do they then drop their assimilation program and just focus on engineering a superior networked unimind? If synths = life with imagination, innovation, etc then who needs organics? Do the Borg take over the universe because they end up with the biggest baddest network AI life form? Are not the Borg the ultimate winners of synth tech?
15 – Does this mean that V’ger was wrong in TMP, V’ger did not need Decker to achieve full organic level imagination, innovation, life, etc, it could have just AIed it into itself?
16 – Organic to energy beings (organians, metrons, Q, etc); are they the AI luddites who would rather convert themselves to energy then become AI beings? Or did they too go through an AI stage only to ditch it for energy.
Now I need to puke twice … ;)
Just think if you are a golumn we can just remove your puke function. Problem solved. Who organically programmed that in the first place anyway, it’s really annoying. Same with runny nose – worse than the virus damage itself sometimes.
LOL
17 – Can you program what life thinks then? I.e. Can you be “born” knowing everything there is to know to that point in time? But what of your politics? In trying to make schools obsolete, do you end up becoming a society of stagnant individuals who think exactly the same conditioned with the same initial programming?
(Honestly this applies to organic life too, if we could “program” the brain, which sort of happens in school. This is probably why as kids we just get a natural tendency to rebel, not learn everything and/or be different. But how does that apply to perfect memory AI?)
Absolutely you can. Do you really think Soong made his butterflies so they could think like the humanoid synths? Soong denied his butterfly sentience when it easily could have had it.
Well that’s the whole reason why the Eugenics ban existed in my opinion. Even the best of intended will engineer life to be what they want and program them as such. I’d say that should apply to new AI forms at least. But maybe in Picard my position is that of luddite (the AI life is completely freed of programming) and I accept that in which case, of course let’s upload ourselves into super strength, flying, breath in space, breath under water, live forever organisms.
Great question about the eugenics ban. If the synths are indeed flesh and blood why would they not fall into that ban?
The fact of the matter is all those synths should be destroyed and Soong taken into custody for crimes against humanity.
I’m not willing to say they should be destroyed if you assume AI life = life. If anything all the Federation might have to accept that is the future and organic life is obsolete. Now is that what I think *our* reality is – no, I don’t, I don’t think you can ever fully do what our brains do with electronic parts. But in the *Picard* reality you can and if that’s how it is and you doubled down on that, that is how it is.
I agree completely. To think humans will ever create life is the epitome of hubris. Although “man” had always tried to play God, he has always failed miserably and always will.
I understand this is merely science fiction ( although outright fantasy is more accurate). And I realize Star Trek has always pushed that any religious belief is mere mythology as dictated by Roddenberry’s atheism. There is no room for faith in his utopia.
Still all that said, I consider myself to be an original Trekker. I have gladly suspended my disbelief over many storylines through the years. I am a Christian but I am also a avid fan of science fiction. Have always loved Trek and Star Wars and many, many other SF stories ( DUNE anyone?).
I have enjoyed reading the comments here. So many interesting questions raised. To get back to this thread, I firmly believe there should be dire consequences for Soong, Jurati and the synths should be kept under a close eye including “Picard”. The real Picard, sadly, is truly dead. And the show should pay proper homage to him next season.
Whatever the entity that looks like Picard is, it is not he.
I cannot suspend my disbelief that far. No way can I “believe” Soong can create an artificial brain that can function like a natural organic human brain. Even if he can create a device to copy Picard,s mind (I also can’t swallow transferring his actual mind) how can it be trusted that his mind will function as it would have organically in a manmade brain? Picard is dead.
Oh well it’s been fun pondering these issues.
Here’s hoping season 2 will deal with many of the questions raised.
I think it’s actually the epitome of hubris to think that humans are so complex or special that we could never be created artificially.
Welcome to The Matrix….
Data was the only one in a very bad Matrix.
17. Why didn’t Melinda M. Snodgrass get a screen credit for creating the character of Bruce Maddox? Shouldn’t Brannon Braga and Michael Taylor also be credited for creating the characters of Seven of Nine and Icheb?
18. Why was the admonition made up of shutterstock clips?
1: They pretty much already created immortality when they said the transporter stores patterns. You start to age, just take a trip through the transporter and have it use the pattern from 5 years ago. This question will likely largely be ignored like any other universe changing solution Trek has come up with in the past.
2: Yes it is a rather powerful tool that get get you out of pretty much any scrape there is. The way out of that is to start imposing limitations on the tech.
3: To me that is another big thing. Romulans infiltrated Star Fleet at its highest levels. This during a time when they were attempting to work with them and help their entire race survive. Seems to me at the very least diplomatic relations with them ought to be completely severed.
4: A good question but I find myself not really caring. The borg part of the story was the weakest link here and it was difficult to remain at attention every time the show transitioned there.
5: What is next is pretty obvious. The Synths eventually turn on their organic creators. Just like all others have done in the history of the universe.
6: Of course they are! I mentioned that way back in the episode threads. That door is waiting for someone to open it!
9: I still have no idea what Soji’s mission was. What was the point of infiltrating the Borg cube? What data was there that was needed? And better yet, how did the double secret tal shiar even know about her?
And another question… What will be done about Soong playing God? He created his own eden. Creating a new “life” whenever he likes for whatever reason. Does anyone really think this guy will stop there? He needs to be put in jail like his ancestor.
“What data was there that was needed? And better yet, how did the double secret tal shiar even know about her?”
The first part could simply be that Maddox and Soong wanted to know how far in advance of the Federation the Borg really were, and she was sent in to get intel (she knew all about that long range transporter from Voyager as if she’d already been intel-gathering). Thes second part, it is probably because Soji had no history at all before three years ago, which led Oh & Company to start looking into her background, where they found a twin sister with identical zero history before three years ago. Narek said something about Soji’s trail going cold three years before and that she wasn’t on the ship she said she was on.
Don’t hurt your back with all that stretching you are doing! While I GUESS it might be possible to pick up on who appeared after only three years all over the galaxy, I find it to be, well, a large stretch. And the Borg part really doesn’t fly with me as that data really doesn’t seem to matter to Soong.
Not a single one of these questions will be answered in season 2. Ok, q10 maybe, but that’s pretty unavoidable.
Anyone worried they wrote Discovery season 3 after Picard and now the future isn’t going to make any sense (apart from Discovery getting some AI life)?
I suspect Question 1 is going to be a big part of Season 2. Question 8 must be addressed in some fashion. I really don’t want a long, dull courtroom episode, but some flashbacks to the trial while Jurati tries to get back on her feet could work.
12. Why does that man have a shiny head?
Probably the result of pondering all these questions and their significance. On the plus side someone can engineer him a hair upgrade if he wants (and if his organic friends using him that they don’t have to feel a loss are OK with that).
Just saw the first 5 episodes of “the Mandalorian” and I unfortunately have to admit it’s much better storytelling.
I know it’s something different – more Fantasy Western than Science Fiction. But in terms of character establishment, pacing, building tension arcs and even placing of music Picard and Discovery can learn from it.
Yep, it also helped that Mandalorian kept its overall plot simple. Picard, on the other hand, had about three season’s worth of material crammed into the first season.
I think this is an important and good point. Trek seems to have too complex plots for its own good in its latest incarnation. I think the producers could learn a thing or two about having more “simplicity” in plots and that this “simplicity” is not something negative or something to be afraid of. Sometimes simple works the best.
Absolutely this. I actually really enjoyed a lot of what STP introduced so far as world-building and history and I adore the new cast (N&N excluded), but dear lord — the xB subplot alone could have easily filled a 10-episode season, let alone the synth stuff, Romulan intrigue, galaxy-ending threat, and Search for Data moments. There was no reason to cram everything they did into a single season or waste the potential of so many plots and characters, and, with respect, I think it points to just why this season needed a more experienced showrunner. Hopefully lessons will be learned for S2.
“Picard, on the other hand, had about three season’s worth of material crammed into the first season.”
Right! That’s the main point, Thank you! Far too much, so you never have the chance to get emotionally attached or involved!
Yes. I wouldn’t go so far as to keep the storyline simple but they certainly need to scale back the excess plots that have nothing to do with the main one. When you have parallel stories going on the viewer expects those stories to meet at some point in a significant way. They ultimately will have something to do with each other. If they don’t, then why is it there to begin with?
I don’t know. My feeling is that there are maybe three or four good TNG episodes’ worth of material here, and that they just stretched it out and watered it down (by repeating the plot over and over) to fill 10 episodes. I keep thinking about The Chase (TNG). So much happened in that episode, it involved Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians, they played tag throughout the known galaxy, and they revealed an even more epic, life-altering plot point involving all humanoid life, but they got that story told in 45 minutes. It never felt rushed or slow, and it was a GOOD TIME. I had fun. And fun is so important. Not so much the darkness and grittiness. That’s the difference between Marvel and DC movies.
It’s hard to critique Picard too harshly, because I genuinely enjoyed a great deal of it. Laris and Zhaban, in particular. There was nuance and depth there that felt lacking everywhere else (and could easily have been missed). I just consistently felt unfulfilled at the end of most of the episodes. Like we hadn’t learned enough, or worrying that the eventual truth wouldn’t be as good as the fan theories that sprang up, or that the plot threads would just be dropped and forgotten. And then… the long wait. That’s what happens when you have 9 cliffhangers in a row. If you don’t absolutely knock it out of the park with the finale, there will be a lot of resentment.
And here we are with 18 unanswered questions. The long wait begins.
Let’s see… The X-B’s might make for a fair episode depending on where they go with it. I would add the Romulan infiltration of Star Fleet could have been something but we’ve seen such things before. Maybe if they did something new with it…
But yeah. I see perhaps at best three 45 minute episodes out of this.
I think they could’ve made 10 episodes alone out of Picard uncovering a mystery involving the synths and AI rights. The Borg and Romulans, while not bad concepts in themselves, were not needed and could’ve been easily saved for future seasons.
The problem is they’re writing more for plots and less for actual characters.
I haven’t watched “the Mandalorian” yet because I refuse to believe we’ve reached the point Star Wars is more Wagon Train to the Stars than Star Trek. But I have been told that as a TOS fan that I’ll like it. Is it really going to be a Lost in Space situation where I should give in and watch? Happened with Firefly too.
It’s not a replacement for Star Trek, no. I was judging it simply as a TV action adventure series with engaging characters and a plot that’s easy to follow without a board and a lot of red string. Also, for what it’s worth, it’s been the most fun I’ve had watching Star Wars in a long time.
“TV action adventure series with engaging characters and a plot that’s easy to follow”
If no one sees Star Trek as that anymore than does Star Trek really exist anymore apart from a label?
I think new Trek has its problems but I’m not ready to bury the franchise just yet. Simplifying the plots, and pulling back on the nostalgia and melodrama, would be a good place to start in making it better, in my opinion.
You are totally right. No comparison. Two different things.
Yeah, the Mandalorian the better of the two for sure. These “end of the universe/everything is at stake” stories are boring. The Mandalorian told a small story on a much smaller scale and was all the better for it.
I mean it’s kind of crazy both Picard and Discovery basically had the same story line and that is AI wanting to destroy all biological life in the galaxy. They went about them in completely different ways but its amazing they both went that direction when we just saw a version of that in Discovery. It’s not shocking people assume there is some story connection but there supposedly isn’t. I’m just glad the name Control wasn’t referenced at least.
And yeah, there is nothing wrong with just doing a story with smaller stakes. It’s funny so many thought this show was going to be a personal story for Picard and some small mission where it ended up with him trying to save the galaxy like Burnham did. He just didn’t have to jump a thousand years in the future to do it.
I also watched the Mandalorian. I always prefered Star Trek to Star Wars by a long shot, but I did find myself in the situation of enjoying The Mandalorian much more than KurtzTrek. As others already said, I totally agree that keeping the plot simple and easy to follow was VERY refreshing. The thing I really have a problem with are these absolute “complex” bullshit-plots in Discovery & Picard, which make no sense whatsoever – the mystery for example of what Dahj’s and Soji’s mission is – it’s just there to hook you, keep you curious and continue watching in the hope to get some answers, while the writers hope that while watching you forget all the questions you have/had.
Anyway, I have pretty much given up any hope that future seasons/shows under Kurtzman will be “for me”. Star Trek needs new people in charge. Personally I miss Manny Coto.
But whatever happens, I’m ultimately not much concerned. All that Star Trek I really love – it’s still there. And there are new shows like The Mandalorian – and also The Orville I really enjoyed so far, so I’m good. I’m really looking forward to the next seasons from these two shows at least, that’s for sure. Can hardly wait.
That is a good take. Something I ought to consider if I’m being honest. But because I am a fan I will still want to watch.
I miss Coto, too and wish he was given a chance to head this new Trek over Kurtzman. Not going to say he would have done better but he at least has a short but positive track record with Trek.
I thought maybe the writing on this show would be a step up from Discovery, but frankly it was even worse.
For me, the reason I see for why this happened was that Chabon was denied full control of the season. He is a solid writer and if the other cooks in the kitchen had allowed him more freedom, I think the whole seasons writing would have been better instead of just several episodes.
Where is the enterprise e. That’s what I want to know
Obsolete compared to the 1000s of Inquiry class starships that the fleet must now have (USS Zheng He)? Seems like they’ve standardized the fleet, maybe retired and replaced with an Inquiry class Enterprise-F?
Star Fleet has turned into Southwest Airlines!
is it even still in service?, Voyagers return home surely rendered the entire fleet obsolete.
Museum ship. Blown up on the Mars attack.
“Museum ship. Blown up on the Mars attack.”
After only 14 or 15 years in service, and 10 years after a major refit post-Nemesis? That seems highly unlikely.
Is it possible Narissa is still alive? After all, no one is really dead. I thought she was goners when the XBs attacked her, yet here we see her still on the artifact. No body, no proof.
Lingering questions?
Really?
The entire thing was one big online coloring book of story telling ending with a newly created Fake Picard in Fake Star Trek resulting from absurd “plot” points. Just because they through out any form of thought provoking processes substituting it with a huge dose of redundant fan Easter eggs doesn’t make it good trek.
Does starfleet know of Cpt. Picards death and Resurrection?
Does Starfleet even know it was the Romulans responsible for the attack on Mars?
I think they made that pretty clear.
Honestly I just don’t remember? What scene was that revealed in? You have the scenes of Picard relaying to Starfleet the plans the Romulans had to attack the synth planet but I don’t remember if he ever told them they were responsible for Mars too. But yes I assume they were told at some point I just don’t remember it being actually said to them.
Real question is, does Starfleet even care?
I know s31 would, because planting one agent’s consciousness in another person’s body would really let their ops run wild.
Picard’s death and the ability to drop a consciousness into perfect android bodies just felt so… unnecessary. Picard succumbs to irrumodic syndrome, but they wrote a back door for themselves in 1994 that it might never rear its ugly head. He tries to sacrifice himself to prove himself to Asha… but we know he isn’t going to die and the drama of that moment is completely undermined by the silly way he is resurrected anyway. A technobabble way to justify that final meeting with Data would have been fine.
Now we’ll get some law banning the transfer procedure and sweep it under the rug, but unless real dramatic mileage is drawn out of this development in season 2, very little of anything hurriedly introduced in episodes 9 and 10 was interesting or worth it to me.
Did they even say it was fatal? I honestly forgot what the conversation with his Dr. early in the series, it was that long ago and seemed so very unimportant at the time. Was the disease being fatal something the audience was supposed to just pick up on their own?
At the end of their conversation, Dr. Benayoun was talking about going back into space, and said something to the effect of “maybe space will kill you first”. As in, the brain thing is going to kill you, but maybe you can get yourself killed another way out there.
And Picard also said his prognosis was terminal when he briefed the crew.
Well… That tells you how memorable the show was.
I honestly thought the Golem was a fake out and the Catomic Field manipulator (the imagination fixer) was going to fix his brain. oh well
*Clever and subtle reference from Kirsten Beyer, to Caeliar and their Catoms (programmable matter), from the Destiny book series and Voyager Relaunch novels
“Now we’ll get some law banning the transfer procedure and sweep it under the rug, but unless real dramatic mileage is drawn out of this development in season 2, very little of anything hurriedly introduced in episodes 9 and 10 was interesting or worth it to me.”
Let’s call him Picard-A, same as the original Picard, but, uh, the carpets are new ;)
Picard-A. Love it!!
Here are my lingering questions:
(1) Why did anyone think any of this was a good idea for a Star Trek series?
(2) Why didn’t someone prevent it from happening?
(3) Why did I think it was a good idea to commit to an annual subscription to All Access?
Your #1 & especially #2 … very good points.
I finished ep7 a couple hours ago, and while it is gearing up and getting more watchable, the number of idiot plot turns and convenient miracle saves (your ship is going to be toast? okay then 7 of 9 to the rescue, or guy with a sword beams in JUST as he is needed) are piling up ferociously. It’s not just about the dubious quality of the idea, it’s about the execution (not effectively contrived, just contrived), which should have gotten every script on this series bounced back at screenwriting 101.
It’s like taking the very worst of big budget action moviemaking and slapping a TREK sign on it … sort of like AbramsTrek that way, come to think of it.
I welcome the perspective kmart.
When I listen to the official podcast interviews on Deadline, I keep hearing from Chabon and Goldsman that they needed to do X so that a certain thing could happen or a certain character could be in a certain place when needed. But the things they needed to motivate the key plot points (e.g. Icheb’s death, Hugh’s death, the victimization of the XBs) are left unresolved.
It seems (as an outsider to the screenwriting profession) as though some weird rule or algorithm is being followed at the micro level, while the overall question of ‘does this make sense to happen here?’ is lost.
Basically they’ve taken the bullet points for screenwriting and followed them, but without any apparent regard for common sense. They mention the rangers at the start of the ep where 7 appears, and I guess figure that mention makes them golden for the deux ex machina save at the end. To me that’s not foreshadowing, that’s dotting an i with a cloaked period. I watched the last 5 eps yesterday for the 1st time, and while I found them somewhat entertaining, occasionally even moving, the big takeaway was how so very little of it hung together. (Also, that the little girl playing Riker’s next generation is going to have a killer career, she’s the real deal.)
I thought the ideas were generally good. I’ve always wanted more AI stories in Star Trek in general and I like the synth angle. I’m actually surprised how well they kept that part of the story line secret. But yes it was the execution of the story that was the problem.
But I do hope we get more AI storylines in general but after seeing what they did with Control turning him into a version of Sky Net and now making Picard a synth maybe I shouldn’t want more stories.
See, I think the idea of AI in Trek is tired and really should not be used unless they were REALLY going to give it an honest take. Not a superficial one like nu-Trek has normally done. That track record did not change in these 10 episodes of Picard. Seems to me that with only 10 episodes they really need to streamline the plots down. They had far too much going on here and ended up with way too many loose ends
Well yeah if they do it seriously enough. But I don’t think it’s ‘tired’ though. Another conflict with the Klingons feels tired because practically every show and multiple movies has done it. AI stories have rarely been tapped into beyond what we saw with Data or the Doctor. Deep Space Nine and Enterprise for example never had one single episode dealing with AIs. There are tons they can do with it and I do like that these new shows are focusing on it.
But yes HOW it’s done is questionable for me. I didn’t like it at all on Discovery and while Picard certainly did it better the end results were still not as good as it could have been.
It’s funny because they’ve done a crazy amount of Klingons but we still have never seen a good Starfleet commander in a Constitution class take on a good Klingon commander in a D7
Battlecrusier……. like poor marksmen they keep missing the target (what most TOS fans I bet think of when it comes to the starship combat they want to see and have played out).
I waited until all episodes aired and then lucked out that they offered a free month to try them out. I binge watched the show in two days and cancelled the service. Sweet.
I can’t believe you were able to watch that much PICARD in 2 days! It took me a week, and even there I was straining, though the last few blew by in a day.
I actually watched the entire 17 ep series of THE PRISONER in one marathon day while convalescing, but that’s maybe my alltime favorite TV show, and it was still a challenge.
Now I got to try to watch DSC s2 with the remaining time on the trial. In the interim, I am prepping by watching stuff I know will be good, like the GALAXY QUEST documentary, and SALYUT 7, which I only just found out about but based on the trailer looks absolutely incredible, like SPACE COWBOYS meets GRAVITY in terms of convincing LowEarthOrbit visuals.
1. Star Trek = money
2. Star Trek = money
3. Money = Star Trek…?
My rationale for the annual was I’d see Picard, probably Disco season 3 (which… shouldn’t be a factor but maybe season 3 will be like TNG’s season 3 and not suck), and possibly Lower Decks. And I wouldn’t have that irritating monthly bill reminding me every month that I’m paying for this.
Also, 40 seasons of Survivor. My 16 year-old daughter is officially addicted. So, that softens the blow a bit.
I think this is why so many people including me felt really let down by the finale. They just left TOO much open. I think if they left it on a cliff hanger of some kind maybe it wouldn’t bother people as much because we know there would be follow to a lot of these things. But instead it sounds like they are going the Discovery route and introduce a completely new story next season. Of course a lot of the story lines and questions will be incorporated there anyway but too much was left off to feel satisfied.
And its not JUST about answering questions or getting resolutions, a lot of the story just felt half baked or a wasted opportunity completely. The entire Borg/Xbs story line just went NOWHERE. Why was it even there at all other than just to bring back Hugh and to just see the Borg (sort of) again. I still have NO clue why the Romulans even cared? I think so many of us thought there was going to be a big side story that somehow connected to whatever they were up to with destroying the synths but nope!
I was also disappointed with how the destruction of Romulus had little to no effect on anything in the story. Other than the fourth episode (one of my favorites) that gave us some background into what happened with them and how they had to spread out none of it had anything to do with the main story. I THOUGHT maybe they were going to connect the supernova with maybe the synths somehow and why the Romulans suddenly seem to be AI obsessed or use that to tie in as a way to keep the Romulan species sustainable after losing their planet. But it was basically just in the background. And it looks like the Romulans are still as powerful as ever with hundrded Tal Shiar ships showing up in the finale. They don’t seem to be any less resourceful and they lost their main seat of power just less than 20 years ago.
I won’t even get into the Picard golum thing. That’s been discussed enough in the other thread and will obviously continue next season. I still wish they avoided it completely. Again I’m fine with the idea but it sucks that some people will question if this ia OUR Picard although I guess they will make that clear one way or the other next season.
I think its fair to say so many of us wanted to love this season and it started with HUGE promise. They set up a lot of great story elements and most of the characters showed promise out the gate. But sadly it ended up like Discovery did by throwing in WAY too much and just not managing the season better. Both Picard and season 2 of Discovery started off with a huge bang but ended in a wimper (Discovery at least answered everything but they just felt a bit over the top and cliched). There are many shows now with ten episode seasons that does just an amazing job with building story and character arcs at a great pace and wraps up the bigger questions well at the end of the season. This isn’t one of them.
All that said though I still thought it was an improvement over Discovery by a mile and they actually did an amazing job with its setting. It really does feel and look like it’s in the TNG era again, nothing really felt out of place. I actually thought they did a brilliant job with all the old characters (minus Icheb ;)) and gave us that universe again so many fans been wanting to see since the ending of Nemesis. There was certainly more good than bad, but I hope the writing improves, a LOT, next season.
In general I do want to like this new era of Star Trek and hope it succeeds but I have to be honest since Picard and DIS ended I don’t bother rewatching any of those but still happily click on old episodes of TNG, VOY, TOS, ENT in the last few weeks (and I had already rewatched tons of TNG and VOY before Picard started to prepare for that show). There is just an appeal of the old shows these new ones lack so far. But hopefully that will change in time.
Doing the same. Enjoying the old shows very much. The quality of the script and interaction of characters feels more natural.
It is amazing how the 90’s episode can compete with current productions….at that time there is no good special effects compared what we have now.
“It is amazing how the 90’s episode can compete with current productions….at that time there is no good special effects compared what we have now.”
Jay, you answered your own question there. There’s nothing surprising really: the 90’s series did not have audience-distracting special effects (and social media mysteries) to fall back on, so they had to deliver on the one thing that matters: good writing.
Can you image the stress!? They wrote great episodes and they even had to produce 24 episodes each year!
Right? I checked and I found more prime material in TNG season 1 than Picard season 1, both in absolute and in relative numbers! Either it’s smartphones or the increased CO2 in the air but our entertainment hasn’t gotten any smarter in 30 years ;)
Yes, that’s always what I been in awe of when it came to television and the AMOUNT of content these shows present every year. It’s staggering. I still don’t know how so many can write and produce 20+ episodes a year and even half of them come out as good as they do. I always think how crazy it is you are given years to hash out one two movie hour story line but only 9-10 months to write 25 Star Trek episodes and you are doing it every single year. It’s nuts.
That is another thing that is disappointing about Discovery, it’s given so much more time (and money) to produce half the episodes the older shows did and its still nowhere as good to me save for a handful of episodes. They certainly look great but people also make the argument that when you have less episodes to write you get less ‘filler’ and better quality episodes. Sure I agree with that to an extent but it doesn’t mean its always true either because Discovery didn’t feel better written by a long shot in both seasons. And while Picard had the least amount of episodes than any season of Star Trek to date people still feel a few of those episodes were filler since so little happened in them or pushed the plot along.
“And while Picard had the least amount of episodes than any season of Star Trek to date people still feel a few of those episodes were filler since so little happened in them or pushed the plot along.”
Because we didn’t get 26 unique stories this year, but only one of them! For most stories, even 10 episodes is overkill. I mean, that’s exactly what” 10 hour movie’ sounds like. Who would watch that in cinema, back-to-back?
It still boggles my mind how many still truly see serialization as some kind of natural evolution of TV. To me it is regress in almost every regard. And they forget we already had serials in the 1930s wirh scifi pulp like Flash Gordon and those weren’t exactly regarded as Shakespeare. Denouncing episodic writing is like denouncing short stories as somehow intellectually inferior to penny novels…
But to be fair those 26 episodes a season had multiple writers. It wasn’t essentially the same crew hashing out a 10 episode arc.
But that’s the trade off. If you stick to a single story arc over 10 episodes it had BETTER be intriguing and good. If not, the entire season goes down the tubes. But in an episodic season, you can have dog episodes and it’s OK. They will be back with a different one next week. I think single story episodes also opens the door to be more creative.
On the other hand, if you come up with a really good story the full season arc could work pretty darn well. It’s just unfortunate that nu-new-Trek hasn’t worked out that way yet.
“But to be fair those 26 episodes a season had multiple writers. It wasn’t essentially the same crew hashing out a 10 episode arc.”
Well, since they like to harp about how much more “diversity” these new Trek shows purportedly have, I like to point out how much LESS diversity these new Trek shows actually have in all but the most superficial definition of this word:
Less diversity in writers and behind the scenes creatives like composers
Less diversity in the ideological spectrum of the writers and their professional background
Less diversity in inter-episode tonality
Less diversity in stories per season overall
This new brand of ‘diversity’ is the Borg kind: painstakingly selected different ‘species’ which however are so thoroughly assimilated into one Collective of great ideological purity that they all think alike and churn out the same sub-standard product, no matter if the bumper sticker says ‘Discovery’ or ‘Picard’.
What you seem to be saying is that quite often those who spout off on “diversity” really only mean diversity in how one looks. NOT diversity of ideas or ways of thinking. Different ideas or ones that don’t conform with the others are still shunned by those who endorse diversity the loudest it seems. That is something I thought was quite obvious.
That gets tripled down when you start talking about TOS. Those effects were monumentally limited and archaic. They were pretty darn good at the time and they did use their budget pretty as well as they could it seemed. But the reason those shows work so will is NOT the production design or SPFX. It’s the writing, the plotting, the characters and the actors.
Honestly I still think most of the effects from those other shows are fine. Obviously they don’t look as great as the new shows but they still hold up. TOS not as great lol but fine for me watching it for so long.
I think the 90s-era effects mostly look better. Didn’t see anything really excellent fx-wise in this till the last episode, and even there it was relatively fleeting (on-the-hull shots as La Sirena weaved around in the big SERENITY-looking battle between orchids and Roms.)
I’m a big devotee of ship vfx and art direction (only reason I keep buying EVENT HORIZON), but the new shows haven’t given me anything to get excited about. Sets are at best desultory, and PICARD honestly looks amazingly cheap to me, I can’t figure out where the money went on set or in post. Same prob on DSC, though not the same magnitude, since there are some things that must have cost them.
kmart, I saw this same problem you mentioned when Seven of Nine was introduced in the show. The visual effects for that battle sequence seemed like they were made for Enterprise almost 20 years ago. Star Trek used to awe me with its space and effects shots. Unfortunately not so much anymore.
Part of this I think ties into the thing emerging with CG as opposed to models, that you don’t have to worry about hiding the mounting pole, so with CG the tendency is to show every side of a ship as it twists and turns and flips, so it becomes less about the story point and more about ‘what we can do.’ ENT was guilty of that and VOY to a degree too, at least in the few eps I’ve seen of those shows.
Except for the opening sequence in 09 and a lot of BEYOND, I haven’t seen totally convincing CG in much of feature Trek either. Some of the FC borg battle used CG ships in the mid and background well, but the hero CU stuff was still miniature-based on the Phoenix, E-E, cube and sphere.
“I think its fair to say so many of us wanted to love this season and it started with HUGE promise. They set up a lot of great story elements and most of the characters showed promise out the gate. But sadly it ended up like Discovery did by throwing in WAY too much and just not managing the season better. ”
I whole-heartedly agree with you Tiger, and there you have the answer to your question why I was disappointed with this season ;)
Just like Discovery season 2, more than being offensive (which only episode 5 was), the biggest crime committed narratively, in my book, is the sheer mediocrity with which this “ten hour movie” was put together. Put simply, once again they did not even live up to their own standards, and promises. And that is what always bogs down KurtzTrek, no matter which century they are in: bad writing.
There is a certain irony to the fact that twenty years ago the “Killer B’s”, much reviled for their complete disdain for character and plot continuity in Voyager, put together a very competent and cohesive arc in Enterprise season 3, which ran much longer than contemporary seasons, even managed to put in some well placed episodic stories for good measure and blows everything the Colonel has been doing in Discovery and Picard out of the water!
If these writers stopped writing their shows for mystery, social media stories and audience distraction, and started writing for characters, stories and ideas, they’d have a much better show on their hands!
Thanks VS!
I hate to say it but you’re right, it’s too much mystery box stuff and then once its revealed it’s never as exciting as the build up to it and the story just feels flat as a whole. I definitely think they handled this season a bit better than Discovery which just felt too convoluted in the end but they both suffer weak plotting although in Discovery case it was just too much at times to the point of confusion and Picard it wasn’t enough. I think they were trying to make Picard feel more character driven but you can’t introduce all these elements and then hardly do anything with them.
That’s the crazy thing when you look at shows like DS9 and Enterprise because they developed all those arcs really well and had strong themes. I’m not in love with the Xindi arc but it was well told AND they put in so many great standalone episodes in that season too as you said, some of the best stories on that show. I never had the hate others had for Berman and Braga though, even though I understood why others didn’t like their later stuff (and I wasn’t in love with it either). But looking at a lot of it now that stuff holds up SO well when compared to what we been given in DIS and PIC so far. That’s the problem with serialized TV, its really hard to rewatch when you felt the story as a whole let you down.
Well said Tiger2. You are absolutely right. Discovery had the disadvantage of the showrunner shuffle, but still, I can see an upgrade in Picard.
Hope we can see the same, an upgrade in Discovery Season 3.
I love that you brought up Enterprise season 3, VS. That was a 24 episode season long arc that WORKED. It was also long enough that some stand alone episodes were able to be included that still kinda sorta served the overall arc. Why were they able to put together a decently thought out 24 episode arc (not saying it was perfect but it worked a TON better than anything Secret Hideout has produced) but Secret Hideout is overly challenged with 10 or 13 episode arcs? My thinking is it’s the writers and producers who are the problem.
There seems to be an unfortunate emerging pattern in these modern Trek shows where the seasons start off strong, but just go completely bonkers towards the end. I think the producers know how to effectively set things up but they don’t how to effectively tie it all together in the end. I blame the many executive producers and two many cooks being in the kitchen for this. I mean you hire a guy like Chabon, why don’t you just sit back and give him the freedom to make the season however he wants to make it.
Yes. Totally. What I hope, is that CBS can give more resources to the new writing team. The cooks are the top executives. I think more people are needed under Chabon. It seems the new (writing) team now is smaller and don’t have the resources to curate, polish, and review the story before production.
CBS also take extreme decisions affecting the consistency and the quality of the show…For example, Fuller, they gave him a green light and they fired him right form the start, before Discovery began. Later, they fired the two showrunners, which maybe unavoidable due to the nature of the verbal abuse from them to the cowriters.
With Chabon the same, now CBS is moving him up right after season 1. He was crazy busy. Sometimes rewriting the night before they were shooting.
Liking or disliking certain things. I have huge respect for these people. You can see they love what they do. A lot of them are Trek Fans. They all have stories describing their sacrifice, divorce, family absence, working 24/7 to produce these shows, for all of us to enjoy.
Personally I did not see Picard starting out strong at all. It lagged big time coming out of the gate. Picard was at its best in the middle act. The start and the finish were big let downs.
DS9 gets no love. :( Bring back Bashir! We could explore Synth vs Augments. I bet augments would feel cheated if the Synths get citizenship and they don’t!
We’ll probably see some DS9 characters in time. This season only had 10 episodes and they can only add so many other characters (and we got more old characters then I think most of us would’ve predicted), but yes it would’ve been nice to get at least one DS9 character. But Quark got a mention at least which I was really giddy about lol.
As for augments we seen more of them on DS9 after it was revealed Bashir was one with the group he was trying to help and they were all considered Federation citizens AFAIK. Even though the Federation banned the procedure they never treated the people who were augmented as criminals and even tried to help the ones who developed mental problems to have a normal life again.
OMG…. 🙄🙄
The question I would like to see answered is why no-one screamed plagiarism at the Star Trek Picard writers?
– Human-like Cylons -> Star Trek Picard Synths
– Cylon resurrection chamber & immortality -> Star Trek Picard Golem** conscious transfer tech & immortality
** The word Golem does not do it for me in relation to Trek. With all the idea appropriation in STPicard, they should have gone whole hog and used Sleeve from Altered Carbon. Or maybe the writers could have been creative and used… blank; or Pino (though that is an android character from Ergo Proxy); suit; hollow; niche; shell (as in Ghost In The Shell); case; exo; sheath; skin; jacket; facade; wrapper; dummy; replica (not a replicant)… anything but golem.
– A sexy strutting Cylon leader with a desire to annihilate humanity -> Sexy strutting Synth leader Sutra with a desire to annihilate humanity.
– Cylons were multiple copies of specific models -> There were multiple copies of specific synths.
– The notion of a tentacled, world ending horror entering the atmosphere from some unknown vastness -> Didn’t the published iteration of WATCHMEN have a world-ending octopus in it? OK, so STP used a mecha-tentacled monstrosity of some kind. It seemed more appropriate for a Godzilla movie. To me, it didn’t feel sophisticated or “super AI” enough for a 2020 iteration of Star Trek.
Ron D. Moore is the show runner for the mostly brilliant, “recent” iteration of Battlestar Galactica that STP pulled ideas from. He is also a former writer and producer for the Star Trek Universe. So maybe there was a wink from the current Kurtzman-run Trek Universe writer back to Mr. Moore. However, if I were Mr. Moore, I would be fairly put out with the blatant copying.
Creatively, if you copy, you are supposed to raise the artistic bar on the idea so as to homage the original while also thoroughly enhance and upgrading the experience of the updated idea. But it simply looks like the Star Trek writers were lazy. They did not improve on any idea that they copied.
MY OPINION: I wish STP had created a forcibly retired, pissed off, and very marginalized Picard (not weak and tired looking) who is viewed as yesterday’s Betamax elder statesman by The Federation. Would love to have seen him using back channels to seek / root out / expose rot in The Federation, working in the shadows with Janeway, Sisco and some shadowy S-31 agent to deal with something that is the seed of the cancer that causes The Fed to be reduced to 8 or 9 members in the future. If it had been a show that got into the inner sanctums of The Fed and Starfleet, creating a terrestrial show rather than a space show, that would have been nice. By the way, is the United Federation of Planets HQ in the same location as Starfleet HQ?
“I wish STP had created a forcibly retired, pissed off, and very marginalized Picard (not weak and tired looking) who is viewed as yesterday’s Betamax elder statesman by The Federation.”
I suspect we would have heard howls of indignation that the show was ignoring Picard’s irumodic syndrome that was established in “All Good Things…” So Picard basically had to have some underlying medical issues in this show. And from that starting point we got PIC.
“deal with something that is the seed of the cancer that causes The Fed to be reduced to 8 or 9 members in the future.”
I for one am very, very glad they didn’t do that. The future Discovery is now set in, with its greatly diminished Federation in is very, very far (~800 years) down the road from PIC. Like the difference between our present and the days of the Crusades, Gengis Khan, and Marco Polo. The world is basically unrecognizable after so much time. Hard to see the events of Picard having any direct relevance to Discovery Season 3.
Really appreciate your reply!
Though I have watched all episodes of every iteration of Trek multiple times. I am not as erudite in the details as many. So quite honestly, at the start of STP, Picard’s brain condition was not at the forefront of my mind. Perhaps it should have. Likewise, I saw Nemesis but very little of that movie stayed with me. Least of all any sore spot relating to factors of Data’s death. So in viewing STP, I am among the few that say, “I must be alone in thinking that I don’t get all the need for having a season of a show that basically provides a memorial and epitaph for Data.” It all felt like an indulgence to me. If you had asked Trek fans 2 years ago what they wanted a Picard show to focus on or resolve, would the majority of them have said, “Resolve Data? And copy BSG’s Cylon story”?
I had a lot more Qs about STP. They are irrelevant now, so, whatever….
The thing about STP that I am so very happy about are Ep 7 and Ep 8. I LOVED how Riker and Troy were handled.
In any case, I am hopeful that Season 2 will raise the bar. Make it so!
To be honest I think both the Data story line and Picard’s illness snuck up on most of us. I didn’t even consider we would even SEE Data on the show much less be the show’s entire story line would revolve around him. I have no problem with that and my guess is many thought fans felt unsatisfied with how Data died in Nemesis and wanted to ‘correct’ it. It doesn’t mean the entire story had to be about him but I guess they saw it as an opportunity to send the character out in a better way although he is already dead.
I’m shocked they didn’t just revive the character completely ala Spock but it sounds like Spiner was adamant he didn’t want to play Data again in the long term so this was a nice compromise I think.
I think with Picard’s brain condition (I’m just too lazy to look up the word lol) it’s pretty crazy this show is practically set about 25 years after All Good Things originally aired and when we saw THAT Picard in the future. But in reality basically everything we saw in that alternative future of the finale have been avoided (Data being alive and Deanna being dead two big ones ;)) EXCEPT his illness. But they could’ve avoided that too if they chose to since Beverly made it clear it may not ever develop. But I guess as Thorny said some fans would’ve been bothered if it wasn’t at least acknowledged. I don’t mind they dealt with it, but we obviously know he wasn’t going to die over it because his name is the title of the show. I just don’t like how they dealt with it but its fine they did of course.
I’m in the same boat as you are Tim with regards to Picard’s brain thing. It was mentioned in an early episode and I still did not connected it to AGT. I’ve only seen it once and I don’t recall very much except that Q basically spoon fed Picard everything. So it was pretty forgettable and reasonable that Picard’s brain thing would not be remembered. I guess it’s a nice touch to pick up bits from previous episodes.
My feelings on the Nemesis pick up were a bit complicated. The way the show played out it very much looked like Picard had some sort of survivor’s guilt over data saving his life. He was having a hard time with it. It seemed to haunt him in a way. And then, in the end, he got the closure with data he needed to move on from it. Nice but then I read that the writers had not intended it to be that way. They seemed to think Nemesis needed retroactive repairs and decided that “real” data needed to have a heart to heart with JL. This made no sense as Data’s end in Nemesis felt like a VERY appropriate end to his existence. It’s almost like the TNG crowd were jealous that Spock got a final death scene with Kirk but Picard did not get one with Data. Knowing the behind the scenes intent showed that they failed in their goals as what they intended was not what ended up on screen. It’s just more ammunition to me that Secret Hideout ought to be fired from Trek.
Last we knew, UFP HQ is in Paris, France.
Read the prequel novel PICARD and see how all this was set up. Paris is where the Federation HQ is located.
“I wish STP had created a forcibly retired, pissed off, and very marginalized Picard (not weak and tired looking) who is viewed as yesterday’s Betamax elder statesman by The Federation.”
That is a decent direction that could have been taken. And with the right story behind it is something that could have even gone somewhere. But I think they missed an opportunity here for Picard to be on the wrong side of an issue and in the end he could learn something from it. Although I thought he was on the wrong side of the synth issue. Too bad that is not the path TPTB opted for.
So I wash away the taste of the ST Picard show’s plot holes, magic tech, and unanswered questions by watching episodes of TOS and TNG. There is some good in the show, but too much bad
How is Number One?
The finale had too many plot holes. Lots of unanswered questions lingering on. They could have at least gave us a satisfying conclusion but instead left us scratching our heads.
The Picard golem thing is complicated. The Romulan situation needs more exploration especially with the refugees. The Borg storyline went nowhere.
I really enjoy this new era of Star Trek. I’m disappointed by how everything turned out in the end.
Since I already know what the usual suspects will be whining about, let me just throw this out there.
In all of Trek, there have always been the “godlike” races. The Melkots, The Q, The Metrons, Charlie X’s parents, Sargon, etc… and yet they’ve never shown the missing link which is, What is between “current” humanity and the godlike?
Maybe Soong creating sentient life is a step towards humanity becoming gods. Not the result, but a first step. Maybe practical immortality is in humanity’s reach. How does this shape us as a species going forward? Sounds like fertile story ground to me.
Do we become enlightened like the Organians, or sink into our caves and withdraw into our own “narcotic” powers like the sad Talosians.
Evolution doesn’t care if you believe in it or not
The more crucial question about Soji is, what was the deal about her losing her ‘memory’ of being an android and working on the Artifact? Same as for Dahj. What was their true ‘mission’ away from Coppelius? It seems this whole storyline was just introduced to create mystery for the audience, without making any in-universe sense to the story (or the character). Then end-season they pulled the rug from it, much like regarding the “Seven Signal /Red Angel” mystery in Discovery season 2. Now the whole storyline doesn’t make much sense anymore. At least huge chunks of story are missing for it to make sense – the missing connection between Soji/Dahj, the Borg and the Romulans.
Like the fact that it was never mentioned what the cyborg twins mission was. Or why they HAD to be twins to begin with.
just me, but all the questions are valid and I look forward to other viewers answers – except #7. If we never see ‘NAREK’ again it will be too soon. I just never connected with him; except as being 2-faced and doing whatever needs to be done to get what HIS DESIRED results are….
Weak cartoon villains is the other prime weakness of KurtzTrek (and ties right in with sophomore writing overall). These Romulans were a far cry from Khan, Chang, even Soran or Tomalak from TNG!
A rant, I adore Star trek and willed Picard at every chance to succeed, but the sheer amount of loose ends and lazy magic science has ruined it for me, I have never seen anything like it in all my years watching Star Trek, so much potential wasted.
After watching a random Voyager episode last night, scientific method, it reminded me of how inferior Picard is and also how good the old episodic format was.
I would not trade that one voyager episode for all ten picard episodes, a season long story with a half dozen loose ends is just not acceptable, one or two sure but basically every storyline.
As for countless faceless bad guys(ships) and a good ole skybeam with super monsters on the other side…. really, was waiting for Tony stark to show up.
Yes. Voyager had a lot of good science in almost every episode.
It had a lot of science words – if one did a shot every time Janeway said tachyon, one’s liver would be very sad.
Yeah I love a lot of the concepts in Voyager. It had some of the trippiest/weirdest episodes but also a lot of good science based ones as well. Funny the new science adviser to these new shows pointed that out in a recent TM article.
That tachyon’s were everywhere in Voyager where I’ve been told they pretty much do not exist apart from the cool name says it all. Axions or WIMPS however we hope are real so we can build an axion or WIMP rocket.
Transporters and diltithum crystals don’t exist either lol. I mean that’s kind of a non-argument. Nearly everything in Star Trek is made up to a degree, even if some of it is actually based in real science. Discovery uses ‘time crystals’ which are indeed real but they have zip to do with actual time travel or locking in a person’s ‘fate’ like with what happened with Pike. There is no real basis in reality to how they are used on that show.
But that’s what Star Trek has always done, either try and use real scientific concepts in at least a theoretical way or exaggerate real science to an extreme level when the plot calls for it. And when those two options fail, go to option three and just make it up.
The problem with “Scientific Method” was the same problem Trek was dealing with throughout late-year Berman era Trek. It was very, very familiar. We already saw very much the same plot in TNG’s “Schizms” and it would be used again in ENT’s “Observer Effect”.
That’s why NuTrek had to go in a different direction. I don’t care for the mediocre villains of Bad Robot and CBS-AA Trek, but I don’t want Schizms v.4, either.
Yes and we ended up with nearly two identical story lines from both Discovery and Picard of AIs trying to wipe biological life from the galaxy lol. It’s nuts how they both went the same direction, just in different ways. It’s ALREADY very familiar and these shows just started. Can you imagine 18 seasons full of shows?
Does anyone else think that the producers of new Trek are kind of trying to create a new Trek universe where humans are gonna be obsolete and all life form will be synthetic. Maybe this will be the connection to Discovery season 3 and the Discovery crew in season 3 might be fighting to put the humans back on the map. I see the current future of Trek to be a synth future.
I don’t think so alphantrion because we did see in Calypso humans were still around in the 32nd century (or 42nd century???). Craft was a soldier fighting in a war but it didn’t seem like he was fighting AIs or anything.
And wasn’t the entire point of Discovery season 2 was to STOP Control from having dominance in the future? It seem weird they went through all of that and threw themselves in the future just to still lose to machines at the end. But yeah anything is possible.
Yeah, humans were still around, but they could always be the minority. They didn’t really tell us who Craft was fighting in that short did they? It could very well be some form of synths or something.
I have the feeling Discovery season 3 was written before ST: Picard and all the logical extrapolations of the series will be ignored.
Between you and me having a show where Discovery tries to rectify the ramifications (put humans back on the map) and/or solve a problem of stagnation might actually be good, doubt that’s what will happen.
Chabon confirmed the people Craft were fighting was the Federation, the name was just said in his language, but yes you could argue the Federation have become mostly synths by then too. Anything is literally possible by that point.
A bit ‘off topic’ but now I’m wondering if the reason the Federation fell in the 32nd century will be due to that war we saw in Calypso? OK, back to being on topic again lol.
Should be all synths, but what if Season 3 is written before ST: Picard and there are no synths. That wouldn’t make much sense now would it? Unless Picard was a jerk and kept immortality only to himself?
I don’t think that really matters because the shows are 800 years apart from each other. We just wouldn’t know why there weren’t more around but it could be for reasons that happen centuries in the future. That said I SUSPECT we will see some. I’ve said this many times and it was already a fan theory before Picard ever started that Booker, the character we see in the trailer with Burnham is probably an A.I. of some kind. Maybe not but that theory has been out there for months already. But even if he isn’t I suspect we may see some. And if not this season then maybe future seasons.
I personally want to see a big society of them and maybe the small sect that started with Soong and Maddox has now become it’s own civilization 800 years later. But then another supernova could’ve happened and wiped them out too! Again with so much time passed they could be thriving or extinct for some reason, we just don’t know.
But your Picard example is just odd, he’s just one guy and has no real power in the Federation, he can’t decide if the Federation wants to make more or not. And he was the one that wanted the ban lifted which it was, so it makes even less sense he would suddenly not want more.
So you think the events of ST: Picard were that irrelevant?? The one thing the show had going to for I felt was that it was universe changing, I think AI = life has dramatic consequences. Even the poor performance of an individual like Picard (helping the Borg at Wolf 359, helping the Borg develop engineering of life, failing to save billions at Romulus, failure to learn as a result of hubris, failure to share technology that they personally benefited from) can have drastic consequences even 1000, 2000 years in the future. Picard’s hypocrisy and irrelevance in not impacting Season 3 as a result of the writers writing Discovery before Picard ironically would not surprise me so perhaps you are right.
Dude, its 800 years apart! If we look back 800 years in our society places like America didn’t even exist, slavery still existed and we had no electricity. It’s hard to predict ANYTHING that far ahead, that’s all I’m saying. But I also said we probably WILL see synths of some kind, the question is on what level? And if the story isn’t about them at all then I wouldn’t really hold my breath it will be many just like we didn’t see a single Klingon in Picard because it wasn’t about them (and we know for a fact Klingons still exist in the 24th century ;)). So it will mostly just depend how relevant AI as a concept will even be to the story line itself, right?
I won’t bother with the rest of that.It’s just nonsensical ramblings, no offense.
The whole idea of synths working on Mars troubled me because they seemed like, basically, a slave workforce (and Voyager showed holograms doing the same thing).
So are any androids created now Federation citizens after this? What if they weren’t built on federation worlds? Can anyone create them willy-nilly? And will there be a similar black market in androids as there was in Borg parts?
The show hinted at how many – refugees, xBs, synths – faced racism and exploitation outside of the federation. Will Picard and the crew now fight for justice?
“The show hinted at how many – refugees, xBs, synths – faced racism and exploitation outside of the federation. Will Picard and the crew now fight for justice?”
I have to admit, I’d actually like that. A sort of “A-team” in space. Why not?
Picard in my opinion was engaged in slavery in forcing these robots programmed with emotions to be forced to work on this evacuation fleet on his watch. Why would you sadistically program these robots with emotions only to force them to do manual labor? In my opinion be it him wanting Data back regardless of the cost, him being a Borg double agent trying to get the Federation to show them how to engineer AI life or him just sub-consciously wanting to be surrounded by the order and rationality AI life represents (especially after being in the unimind) he pretty much committed crimes Picard as the Admiral tasked with the evacuation fleet. Now do we blame the new golumn for those crimes? I don’t know, depends if it’s the same life or not.
If those Mars synths are slaves then the Enterprise computer is a slave. So is the tricorder. And all mechanical devices.
But synths are “alive” TPTP say as opposed to simple robots. Now why one would take a robot doing manual labor and make them “alive” for no reason only to force them to work on their evacuation fleet, doesn’t that make Picard allowing this on his watch sadistic?
But there are people on this site who seem to think the Mars synths are “alive” and sentient. I think it obvious they weren’t but that begs the question… Where do you draw the line?
Well it’s both funny and sad those who think the Mars synths alive also were ok with Picard on his watch as Admiral of the evacuation fleet using them as essentially slaves because of nostalgia over TNG.
Now if we agree Jean Luc Picard never thought they were alive and this was just a case of Siri on steroids, ok, but why? He definitely had a soft spot for AI either Stockholm Syndrome (Borg) or Data or both.
I can’t believe you called Narek nuanced… The writers dropped the ball on a lot of things and this farce of a bad-guy was one. The way Narek and Soji immediately fell into a relationship without chemistry, the over the top acting like a creep (though I don’t know if that’s the writers or the bad actor) it’s annoying the character suddenly disappeared, but I do hope he stays gone.
-Why does Oh need sunglasses on Earth but not on a planet with 8 suns? -Why does she need her fellow Zhat Wash women to experience the Admonition first-hand with the knowlegde that many won’t make it when she can show them the threat via a mindmeld? -Narissa is incredibly onedimensional. How did she become that person she is? I wondered about all the time, seriously. -Does it really make much sense to send Dahj and Soji on a mission without them knowing anything about it? We never saw any of them make any progress on their mission. -Oh’s mission: “Let’s start on mars” – well, considering Starfleet build the fleet there to help the romulans evacuate that was really BAD timing, wouldn’t you say? Especially when you consider that the admonition-warning-message is there for centuries and nothing points to an imminent threat. -How did Seven become a lesbian? And sorry, no it’s not that I have a problem with lesbian characters. But if you take an established character which was previously always portrayed straight, and we saw her hook up with Chakotay, I’d like to have an explanation. What I find real sad is that there is actually potentional for a great, interesting and meaningful story there, but the writers choose to throw just a lot of stuff into the show without dealing with any of the topics at hand. For example, I thought the concept of the Fenris Rangers was really interesting. It would have been GREAT to get an episode dealing with the question of how Seven did become one of them, you know, seeing the Fenris Rangers – who they are – first-hand. That would have also resulted in an much more interesting arc for Seven, but instead they took the cheap route by simply killing an established character within minutes to give us a way to understand Seven’s hatred. -And what arc was there for Seven? Coming to the conclusion that she did the same mistake twice while drinking alcohol seems the sad solution for everything? That’s no arc. A bad-ass arc would have been if she killed Clone-Troi and then coming into the same situation again with Narissa, realising the proper way to deal with her is to let the authorities deal with her, according to law. THAT would have been Star Trek. (Granted… maybe -hopefully- they pick up on that in Season 2, showing us that Seven does it right the third time at least.) -The writers told us afterwards that the show was about showing us the value of human life. Was it, really? Not only we have mustache-twirling villians like Narissa who seems to find joy killing everyone around. No, but we also have several people on the “good” side who show not much respect for life as well. I already mentioned Seven earlier, and no doubt she gets away with all her murders. Then there’s a Jurati of course – but at least they did show us that she really regrets it and that she was indeed influenced heavily. Which -believe it or not- I would actually buy if this was her way-out. (In TOS, we saw Spock manipulating people’s behaviour and thinking via a mindmeld, sometimes even without direct contact and with a wall between them.) But my biggest issue is with “Teenage Candid Ninja Elve” Elround. In the very first episode, Picard had this great speech about the value of all life. Why does he never speak up to Elnor? Picard needs someone who can use a phaser – you know, that weapon with the setting to stun – and not a ninja with a sword beheading people. Picard also looks irritated when Seven asks for a phaser-rifle but he gives it to her… again, not speaking up. I guess it’s easy to ignore these values when the end justifies the means? How much more impactful was “Enterprise”‘s approach when Archer did something like that – the writers dealt with that and I almost can’t believe I’m picking “Enterprise” of all things to come up with a example of how to do it right. -And for what it’s worth, Raffi seems to have a problem with alcohol. Again, Picard doesn’t speak up or seem to care or notice. And why don’t we see her struggle with getting away from it? As usual, the writers throw that topic in there without dealing with it in the slightest. I’d say alcoholism could potentially be a great and powerful topic for a Trek-episode because it’s still revelant. Phew, I guess that’s it for now. Recently I started rewatching TNG, which I haven’t watched for years. It’s the first time I also watch it in it’s BluRay-remaster. And while I’m still only at the first season (and granted there’s still a lot… Read more »
Several other open points:
* In addition to your Number 6: what connection is there between these super synthetic and what we saw in Discovery S2? We left a lot of open points there in regards to the probes from the future, the ships of destruction and their method of travel. There are huge similarities – both visually and thematically – with what was told here. There must be a connection and we wait for some story line connecting the two
* What is the whole story of the Borg Reclamation Project, the Artifact and so on? How the project started, how was handled?
** How Ramhda was able to broke a whole cube? Anger was clearly not an answer here
* How this story reconcile with Kelvin Timeline? Spock and Nero story from the original “Countdown” novel does not fit any longer, so we need a new canon description on how Spock ended on the Jellyfish with Red Matter, how Nero got the Narada and how both were sent back in time creating alternate timeline.
* What happened to Romulan Empire and the Neutral Zone after the end of rescue mission? How Romulan Free State and Fenris Rangers emerged?
“How this story reconcile with Kelvin Timeline?”
Spock was trying to swallow up the supernova with a red matter bomb, or something like that. But that must be considered an extremely high risk option. Mass evacuation of Romulus must still be prepared for in the event Spock fails (which he did) and that’s what Picard was doing. It was never clear why the Romulans needed the Federation’s help, though. Their Empire is as big and powerful as the Federation, or so we’ve been led to believe for 50 years. They couldn’t evacuate Romulans to other nearby stars on their own?
The events of the Countdown comic are not canon. Only what we saw in Trek ’09 is. So it is entirely plausible that Spock still tried to stop the star with the red matter.
I am quite sure there are no plans of solving most of those lose ends. Its just bad television.
Our Trek-everything-is-going-be-fine thinking is encouraging bad television. There is not one actual SciFi series in television which allows itself that much plot holes. This has to stop!
With the new timeline and all the alternate universes, there is inconsistency on how they are telling the new stories.
Gabrielle Burnham, like all previous Trek, is going back to the past to fix it. We have seen this in many episodes.
But we have to remember 2008, they were saying (JJ Abrams Star Trek movies) are in a new Timeline. Not Prime. Which is ok with me.
But that creates a problem for me to understand. For 30-40 years our beloved characters went back in time to fix our past. Burnham (post 2008) did the same saving Michael. So, I am very confused…
I always assumed that at some point, JJ Abrams Star Trek will have few movies and maybe in their last movie going back to Point Zero and do something to avoid altering the continuity. But it seems now will be an open ? if they do another reboot.
Janeway is right with Time Travel…”this is all giving me a headache”. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Actually it’s very simple. The prime time line still continues with Picard doing whatever it is he is doing in this show. The KU still exists on its own as well. There are an infinite number of timelines going on at the same time. Granted this does not jive with what Trek has said about time line changes before, but I don’t have a huge issue with that.
I do ML31. I think it is inconsistent with what they have been saying all along. I get the mirror universe very well. But for all series they went back to fix the timeline. So a timeline like the Kelvin Timeline moving forward should not exist, if they fixed the prime timeline…right!? Still, this is very confusing.
From Picard’s perspective, his timeline is real and the one he operates in. Only Spock Prime would be aware of the change as he is in it. And he cannot return to his previous one.
And sadly Prime Spock is now dead so he couldn’t return to the prime universe even if he wanted. It is a bit sad no one seem to acknowledge Spock’s disappearance in this universe but I guess they just assumed he was killed trying to stop the supernova.
I figured the accepted story was Spock died attempting and failing to deposit the red matter.
So I guess there will be no reset button. You are totally right, Prime Spock was the only one aware of the change. At least the door is open for more JJ Abrams movies if they decide to.
Orci made it clear there was never going to be a reset button. The two universes just did their own thing. They were always planning to make more Abrmas movies and in fact the fourth one was already meant to be made after Discovery was announced. It just didn’t happen after Beyond bombed and has been very uncertain up to now. Even the new Noah Hawley movie could create another universe if he decides not to use the Kelvin cast but wants to redo TOS (which I hope not but its possible).
I enjoyed all the JJ movies. Specially the first two. Too extreme to fire Orci, he should it stay for number 3. These last minute changes affect the quality of the production. Same for Solo when they fired the Lego producers. Now Hollywood never postpone movies. They have a strict deadline and usually the quality of the story goes down.
Well plenty of movies are being postponed now. ;)
But those are obviously due to the extreme circumstances today. And I like the movies too. I liked Beyond but I have a feeling Orci’s idea would’ve been more interesting. I was never in love with them but they are fun distractions for me. Star Trek will always feel like it should be on TV versus the movies but as long as they can do both, great. I do think now that we have shows like Picard on less fans are bothered if we get more movies soon. And the way Paramount is operating we’re probably 3-4 years away before we even see another movie. I hope I’m wrong but not holding my breath we’ll see one by 2022. And even that would be SIX YEARS since Beyond and why I’m pretty certain they are probably starting fresh with a different cast and setting. I would love to see one more Kelvin movie but I think that cast is done now.
And its crazy by the time we do get another movie, 5 or 6 new Star Trek shows could’ve aired by then.
With this virus now for sure will take few more years for the next movie. And few months now to see the next show. I was actually waiting to see how Burnham and Saru were doing in the future.
I enjoyed reading this article. I wonder if there will be an episode in season 2 that the tech showing duplicate La Sirenas backfires where the villains figure it out and the heroes have to come up with a solution on the spot. There are some questions I have which aren’t in this article. Why was Soji & Daji programmed to believe they were human? Why was there an AI pretending to be their mother via video call?
Exactly. I would like Rios to meet the twin of the synth that his captain killed.
The Romulans evacuated the Artifact. The un-released Borg drones were flushed into space. We know the XBs that weren’t slaughtered stayed on the ship and some survived the crash.
What happened to all those non-Romulan scientists that were part of the Borg Reclamation Project?
Actually, Oh isn’t a real Romulan. After getting canned from Babylon 5 in favor of Ivanova, she joined the Tal Shiar to get back at the Federation.
Or something like that.
I already thought they created immortality with the healing serum in Star Trek Into Darkness. There I was wondering about the implications for a sequel, but I don’t think it came up again
Thankfully Beyond tried to ignore Into Darkness as much as possible. Unfortunately while good it was probably too little too late.
Wonder if Discovery Season 3 will ignore all the ramifications and obvious extrapolations of ST: Picard.
Well, if you want to go that route, there were a few other events in TOS/TNG that make immortality seem more or less available, too.
– There was the Spores Planet in “This Side of Paradise” which gave everyone perfect health, even restoring an appendix that had been removed from one colonist. Someone should patent those suckers. Get a little loopy for a few days and afterward you have perfect health? People would be lining up by the millions.
– There was the wonderdrug that Dr. Wallace employed to de-age Kirk, Spock, and McCoy in “Deadly Years”. Could that de-age everyone? When you hit 60, you can take a dose of “Wallace’s De-aging Tonic ™ and presto! you’re back in your 30s!
– There was Dr. Pulaski’s trip through the transporter which restored her to the health she had sometime earlier courtesy of a DNA sample from her hairbrush in “Unnatural Selection”. There really doesn’t seem to be a limit to how this technology could be applied. Keep a DNA sample from when you’re 21 and a quick trip through the Transporter and viola! you’re 21 again?
– There was the planet in “Insurrection” which arrested (or radically slowed) aging once the inhabitants reached adulthood. Ru’afo already tried to steal that energy for his own use, but were thwarted by Picard & Co. So how about just setting up a Rehab Center on that planet? It is a big damned planet.
Yes, every episode that offers “immortality” making both characters and the universe non relatable and eliminating conflict/high stakes pretty much is terrible in the end. Writers need to read the Star Trek writers guide to see the “sweet spot” where the characters are burdened by boring problems (the cold, the flu) but are still relatable (must face death). The best Trek, Star Trek II TWOK, has even Kirk face death.
“Will the Federation let this war crime slide?”
Now *that’s* a question with *very* contemporary relevance. Bear in mind that in TOS politics, the Klingons were the USSR and the Romulans were the PRC. (And sometimes the other way around.)
With respect to golumn Picard, anyone think he should be held to account for, on his watch, sadistically programming those robots with emotions only to be used for all intents and purposes as slaves? Or is he a new life form that shouldn’t be blamed for the crimes of his template?
On the Romulan war crime, you’d think the Federation would want someone held to account? Then again everyone seems fine with letting the PRC off the hook on acting as a breeding ground for virus after virus, not even wanting to shut down the border.
What about the sky cithulu? What were their true motivations? What a glorious new life form it might have been… but we will never know.
I hope they answer none of these questions. Go boldly into something new.
Where’s BEVERLY CRUSHER?
Probably sipping jippers on a beach somewhere.
Really?? How did the harvest go?? Who cares?? Actually I really don’t care about any of those questions to be honest. Some of them, especially the supersynths question, I don’t wanna know because I want them to move away from damn AI stories for Gods sake.
Give us a season with an original and interesting plot next season. While I’ve enjoyed Picard overall, I have felt that it had a lot of problems. Seriously. You only get one more chance CBS. Figure out what you’re doing wrong or get out and let someone who knows what they’re doing figure it out. Lol…who the hell am I?? As if I could carry that out…but seriously make a better quality product please.
I agree. Who cares about Picard’s grapes, really? And I would really like for them to move away from AI. STD S2 dealt with it. Now STP S1 did. Back to back. I would honestly rather see another Klingon war than have more AI stories. Nu-new-Trek doesn’t seem to know how to do them. Hell, even new-Trek had a bit of a hard time with them.
What about B-4?
The download didn’t work and he was disassembled as a result.
Most of these questions are very relevant going forward. What comes next remains up to debate. Picard was a mixed bag to begin with.
Star Trek doesn’t always get the science right and that bothers me a little bit. The science needs to be grounded in reality more. There were certain episodes with good science but nothing makes sense most of the time. Transporters, warp drive, tachyon, photon torpedoes and all that nonsense. Less techno babble and more accurate science in Star Trek please.
Picard had better character development than Discovery and I appreciate that a lot. My favorite new Trek character from Picard is Soji. That emotional connection I have with Soji is real and exists. I find her relatable and a friend. Soji is trying to figure out who she is and seeks Picard’s help along the way. Science aside, it was a great show.
Was it ever explained why and how Laris and Zhaban, former agents of the most feared security agency in the quadrant, the Tal Shiar, just end up working for Picard? He thwarted so many of the agency’s plots, so now he has them picking grapes? It’s akin to former members of Nazi Germany’s Gestapo working for Gen Patton after the war.
I think they deliberately left that point dangling for next season. I actually would prefer to see how that plays out. Hopefully the writers can do a more focused job on that next season. Those two were some of the best characters of the first season.
The comic book prequel series does address that and show us their first meeting with Picard. The novel, The Last Best Hope, also fills in a lot of backstory and events that are alluded to in the show but that aren’t specifically addressed. I loved the show and found both bits of tie-in media worthwhile and enjoyable.
Jim Lancaster already mentioned it but their entire backstory and how they came to stay with Picard was in the Countdown comic book released before the show started.
If you don’t mind being spoiled, and you and every one else have been warned now, but in the story Picard is trying to evacuate a Romulan colony on a planet that could be hit by the supernova but they weren’t aware of the natives of the planet which the Romulans basically used as their labor and was willing to leave them there to die because it was too many of them and there weren’t enough ships to get them all out, which Picard naturally rejected. I’ll save all the details but basically Laris and Zhaban were trying to help the species because they had grown attached to them and felt it was wrong to leave them to die and basically helped Picard to go over the Tal Shiar heads and saved them in the end. But because of that they were afraid they might be a target from them from that point and Picard offered them asylum on Earth.
Spoilers over
It’s a good comic series and fills in their story but also a little bit about Rios and Picard’s relationship (who is the only other character from the show who appears) and even a surprise appearance by another TNG character. But like the show itself, it still felt like it could’ve went a bit deeper with the story elements, but decent.
Well, consider me old fashioned but I always considered “official” comic book continuations or series to be a “lazy” way out for the writers to “complete” the plot points they couldn’t put into the series itself (but could if they had 13-20 episodes)
I agree. It’s just a way to make a little more money off the product. The viewer should not be required to do homework.
I understand, I’m only saying is they do have an explanation for it. But I don’t understand why they couldn’t just reference it in the show and just say a few lines and that would’ve been enough anyway. The amount of sentences I wrote in this post would’ve been more than enough needed to explain it for people who didn’t read the comic. But we know they didn’t bother explaining a lot of things. ;)
I agree… It was not explained. But honestly, I don’t care. Hopefully Picard will never return to his chateau again. At least until the final episode of the series.
Captain Crandall?
1) what drove seven and janeway apart?
2) does starfleet use future tech armour folliwing voyager’s returb?
3) why are holograms not banned a la synths?
4) what enteprise is in setvice?
5) who is the captain?
6) Where the hell is Dr Crusher?
7) Where is Q?
I don’t understand your first point? Was it cited somewhere Seven and Janeway were no longer friends?
Janeway might be dead. She is in the later novels (I know, not canon.)
I’d like a scene where Picard returns to the vineyard and his dog starts barking at him like he’s a terminator …
Regards.
Good one Lostrod!
While the synth technology offers living organisms a workaround for their built-in self-destructions, either physical or mental, the night skies remind us there’s no immortality in a long life, for even the longest “lived” things dotting the night skies eventually succumb to cataclysm.
Just ignore all these lingering questions. It’s pretty much what everyone has done in the history of the franchise….
Why did they let two men who barely know or understand the franchise write such a bad fan-fiction series? They turned “synths” (which isn’t a word in Trek really) into “Replicants”. Why would giant metal space worms be the ultimate form of synthetic life? If they could dump Picard into a golum why not Data too? Then we could have seen Data be human for the first time. It was 4/10 bad, folks. Only Rios and Riker kept it afloat.
yup
I wondered this about Data as well. His essence was intact, they can create new bodies, why isn’t Data out and about?
Also, Picard just unplugged some computer chips. Couldn’t he just plug them back in and Data is back in his simulation?
I only have one lingering question:
1) Why did they piss all over this fantastic opportunity to bring Star Trek properly to modern audiences only to fail in such an epic fashion?
Maybe Picard season 2 should be subtitled SOUR GRAPES: Wi no Vi no?
And then there’s that trajector tech onboard the Borg cube… and I’d suspect the queen chamber would be in a secure part of the cube and not be too badly affected by crash damage.