There are three episodes remaining in Star Trek: Picard season two, with the eighth episode arriving this week and we have details, new photos, a trailer, and a clip to get you started.
“Mercy”
The eighth episode of Picard’s new season is titled “Mercy.” Episode 208 was written by Cindy Appel and Kirsten Beyer and directed by Joe Menendez. It debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, April 21.
Synopsis:
With time running out before the launch of the Europa Mission, Picard and Guinan must free themselves from FBI custody. Seven and Raffi come face-to-face with Jurati and the horror of what she’s become.
New Photos:
Patrick Stewart as Picard and Jay Karnes as Agent Martin Wells
Patrick Stewart as Picard
Patrick Stewart as Picard and Jay Karnes as Agent Martin Wells
Patrick Stewart as Picard and Jay Karnes as Agent Martin Wells
Jay Karnes as Agent Martin Wells
Ito Aghayere as Guinan
Patrick Stewart as Picard and Ito Aghayere as Guinan
Michelle Hurd as Raffi and Jeri Ryan as Seven
Michelle Hurd as Raffi
Trailer:
A trailer was released on social media and startrek.com.
Picard and Guinan are trapped while Jurati is on the loose in the next #StarTrekPicard. pic.twitter.com/flmsXd6myz
— Star Trek on Paramount+ (@StarTrekOnPPlus) April 16, 2022
Clip:
A clip was shown at the end of The Ready Room (starting at 21:11).
All photos by Trae Patton and Nicole Wilder/Paramount+
New episodes of Star Trek: Picard premiere on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Fridays where Paramount+ is available around the world. In Canada, it airs on CTV Sci-Fi Channel on streams on Crave on Thursdays. Picard is also available on Fridays on Amazon Prime Video around the world.
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So – I have enjoyed the Picard series thus far and while I am nowhere in the same camp as those that seem to hate it, I am a bit concerned for this season. Individually, I’ve enjoyed the episodes, but we are now heading into episode 8 of 10 with little overall progress…. It seems as if these episodes could have been condensed and been more fulfilling…
I think the writers have good ideas and good intentions but they have to many episodes they need to fill, this would have been a much better series if it were half the amount, I think we would have less filler. I am sure that it is Paramount pushing them to have a new episode of Star Trek every week.
I disagree with this. The writers (I include showrunner/executive producers here) chose this story and chose to structure the story this way. A 10 episode season isn’t “too many episodes to fill” If they can’t come up with a good story for a 10 episode season then they are in the wrong business.
Well, there have been a few articles written around the web about the “ten hour movie” season of television and its pitfalls. This season appears to be illustrating it for us in real time.
I know, but there are so many serialized shows out there that don’t have this problem and if they do it isn’t to the extent of this season. I think the issue comes down to the writing and not the format.
Okay, yeah, you’re right. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any kind of storytelling format; it’s all in the execution.
This season is so inconsistently structured. That it has been spinning its heels for the past five weeks with little progress means there was not enough story for 10 episodes. I cringe when I see how this season left the gate at such a breakneck pace with two such standout episodes, then fell flat on its face with five inferior chapters in a row. As someone who works in the industry, I unfortunately see this happen a lot. It’s completely avoidable every single time, yet it’s the frequent result of creativity by committee. In this case, it’s especially regrettable after the polarizing first season, which bled away disenchanted viewers. This was their chance to bring them back, but they’ve not delivered despite a fascinating setup.
They brought back Q… then gave De Lancie nothing to do. They introduced the most fascinating Soong to date… then gave Spiner just as little to do. They introduced Renee Picard, but have not given us any reason to invest in her story. They killed off Elnor and left Soji in the future. They gave Seven and Raffi a meandering storyline that is going nowhere. They showed us a younger Guinan, then wrote her far too un-Guinan-like. They brought back “Assignment: Earth,” then had that plot spin in place without advancing much. And Rios has been saddled with a cliched romantic story that could have been much more interesting than it is.
Meanwhile, the revelations about Picard’s parents don’t really jibe with what we’ve been told about them before (both lived to be old and grey, yet this show is implying they died relatively young). Agnes and the Borg Queen are carrying the show, because their storyline is the only one that sizzles… yet even THAT arc is plodding along. These actors deserve better writing than this.
I’m a fierce defender of new trek, but this season has me underwhelmed and screaming “what are they doing?”
I agree with your analysis.
I love the new Trek era. But the current seasons of both Discovery and Picard have suffered from this same problem, in my opinion.
Agreed with many of your points here and I thought I was the only one who thought De Lancie had very little to do so far in the season with the amount of Buzz his appearance was getting before the season started.
I don’t get why people hated s1 so much. It wasn’t perfect, sure, but I enjoyed it and thought that, on the whole, it was pretty strong.
We don’t actually know how long the episodes will be, so it could be they extend the running time a bit… unlikely maybe but it would make some sense.
Looks like another episode of plot lines that will be quickly and poorly resolved. Picard should have been a multi season mini series, I think the writers would do a lot better with less writing..
Oh Lord. Not another episode where a character has to break out of jail. Wasn’t Rios enough?( I remember every other episode of Enterprise Archer had to break out of somewhere, I digress ;)
I still say the Premiere episode was incredible. Really the best live action stuff in 20 years. The rest has been wildly uneven. It was a mistake to set the season in our times. Because it just ends up boring, my overall impression is one big “meh”
I just want it to be over already.
Agree. I think what makes this season worse is how far the quality has dropped in such a short time.
Yeah I feel the same way. That first episode really felt like a proper TNG story in every way possible. People were so excited after it. I think all of us felt we were in for an amazing season after that and certainly one that felt more in line with TNG and Star Trek. The second episode was great too. Not as good as the first but still strong and promising of what was to come.
Ever since they went back in time, the rest of the season deflated. It’s sad I’m just waiting for season 3 now and praying with the whole TNG cast is back we’re going to get a great season. But after the last two, I’m not holding my breath with that either.
Honestly as much as it breaks my heart to say it I think we just need to wait for the Discovery and Picard initial Kurtzman eras to end and hope they know what they are doing with SNW
That’s a strange looking interrogation room. I don’t think Agent Wells is who he says he is.
While it would be cool if he was the same character from Voyager it seems unlikely given the change in the timeline.
For it to work, he would have to come from the original timeline, like the others did. Absent that, given that the future changed that agent may not even exist.
From the preview for the next episode he does not appear to be the character from Voyager.
I guess he is the boy from the trailer that was forced into a mind meld by Vulcan visitors, chasing aliens ever since.
Note of interest is that since such encounter took place before the divergence in the timeline in 2024 it means that this kid meeting Vulcans happened in the original timeline, and has always been part of history.
Indeed, thus far everything that has happened in Picard S2 so far predates the anomaly, therefore it’s all been part of the original history.
Yes, this has been implied in the trailer and the clip (“This is personal to you”).
I wonder whether his chasing aliens since being a kid is actually relevant to the main plot or whether it’s just another side story that presents a temporary obstacle for Picard to overcome but ultimately doesn’t go anywhere.
With Fake Laris turning out to be a Romulan, it seems that first contact took place well before 2063. I guess it depends on how you define “first contact.” Is it really first contact if the humans don’t know they’re dealing with aliens? No one in Carbon Creek knew that T’Mir, Mestral, and the other guy were aliens, and no one knows (except Picard and maybe his crew) that Fake Laris is an alien. It seems to me that *real* first contact is when the aliens reveal themselves, as the Vulcans did in “First Contact.”
The preview could have been misleading, though. All it would have taken would be for Seven to meet the FBI agent and recognize him as the temporal agent.
Which is why she’s going to be out looking for Agnes so they won’t have to deal with that.
The threads could still collide. Time will tell, I guess.
“The preview could have been misleading, though. All it would have taken would be for Seven to meet the FBI agent and recognize him as the temporal agent.”
I thought of that too, but it’s been a really long time since Seven met maybe-Ducane, and he doesn’t even look the same. Which raises a question about time travel: If it is Ducane, why would the need for him to come to 21st-century Earth have to wait until he was like 40 years older than when Seven met him? To the people in the 29th century, everything that happened before then should be known to them, so couldn’t Ducane (if he is Ducane) have known all along that he needed to be on 21st-century Earth? Which of course would have made it impossible for Jay Karnes to play the part, unless maybe they could have done a deep fake thing using a younger actor’s body.
Maybe he’s another Q. That was my first thought when Guinan did the summoning and the original Q didn’t show up but he did.
I’m wondering about that myself. I was hoping he is playing Dutch, from The Shield. Ultimate crossover!
I got an X-Files vibe about Agent Wells. Like Fox Mulder, he is interested in the supernatural/extraterrestrial cases no one else takes seriously.
Wells. As in H. G. Wells!!??
I’m trying so very hard to stay optimistic. Uhngh…
“With time running out before the launch of the Europa Mission..” well..where is the suspense? As we last saw, Renee was ok and going to go through with the mission so why do we care? The characters sure don’t seem to be in any kind of hurry or too concerned about it.
I hope I’m wrong, but this looks like more of the same as the last few episodes. Great first 3 episodes. Every episode since then has been worse than the one before. This will be half an episode of Picard in custody and eventually he’ll explain who he is and why he’s there (we already know all this of course so this is just going to be retread for the audience), Scenes of Rios showing Theresa around the ship, Half an episode of Seven/Raffi trying to find Agnes, Some mysterious Q scenes where we still don’t learn what all this is truly about. Like I said I hope I’m wrong. The season is almost beyond repair for me so a lot hinges on this next episode.
No hints towards the question everyone wants answered: Will Teresa’s son touch the French cop’s spleen in a box?
As others have commented, they seem to be setting up that Wells is Ducane. “Wells” being a name a Time Traveling Starfleet officer might adopt, as a private little joke, huh? Especially since the USS Relativity was a Wells-class starship.
Yeah. H G Wells…
Not subtle.
“Especially since the USS Relativity was a Wells-class starship.”
OMG… That detail escaped me… Maybe… They could still be outside the timestream thus not being affected by the changes…
Don’t be embarrassed. I only found out when I googled the character he played. I think I would hate myself more if I actually knew that off the top of my head. ;)
Ugh. The Temporal Authority of the 29th century allows for millions to die in world war 2, kids to die in Ukraine in 2022 but hell, Renee Picard isn’t feeling all confident on her mission to Europa so must send a time ship.
Horrid, just horrid.
I don’t think you understand what the 29th-century Temporal Authority do. They don’t go around changing time. They STOP people from changing time. World War II and the Ukraine genocide are horrific, but they’re not due to temporal tampering. So what do they have to do with the Temporal Authoirty?
So the Temporal authority is all there because Q disguised as a therapist, attempted to talk Picard out of the Europa mission?!?! Wow, that sure is right stuff eh?
Timeline sure would be screwed if Q really tried to talk to her. Or say went back in time again to break her leg or something.
Good thing the Q treats TNG as a joke.
Also the Temporal authority sure is funny. You are a) allowed to bring whales forward in time b) disclose transparent aluminum to the past but c) NO PRETENDING TO BE A THERAPIST. THAT’S JUST WRONG!!!
I’m not taking a side in this debate, but your comment made me laugh. Thanks!
Got to keep it entertaining above all else! = )
Again, that’s exactly why the Temporal Prime Directive exists!
And it exists for a reason which COTEOF made clear waaaaaay back in the 60s. If you tamper with time, even if you think it’s for the good, it could still have worse disastrous effects than the disaster you were trying to stop; in that case having the Federation itself wiped out.
Star Trek has always treated time like the Butterfly effect which they even referenced on this season of Picard. But it has made this point over and over again, changing the timeline, even with good intentions can still pave the road to hell. We usually see when something good in history doesn’t happen as it should like the Bell Riots. But the irony about something like that is the riots happening paved the way for a better society in the future. If they never happened at all, again, there would be no Federation today as Past Tense also made clear.
As bad as WW 2 was it actually paved the way for better things we take for granted today like the United Nations. And yes, looking at the world right now doesn’t stop all wars. But there could’ve been much worse ones after WW 2 without it; especially during the Cold War.
Stopping one bad thing from happening doesn’t mean a worst thing won’t come along later in the future. Star Trek, along with many time travel stories, has always made this point and why history should be left as history.
My view is that Picard season 2 would have fared better had it been made up of up two or three different mini-arcs. Or five 2-parters which would have made five great features. Ah well.
I’m so crushed by this season, it started so strong but sagged into dull absurdity. I use to stay up to watch the episode at the stroke of 2AM, but now I can barely muster the interest to continue. The season is reminding me of Season 1 in that it has plenty of great moments with great performances, but the writing is wildly uneven and nonsensical. I actually have no issue at all with the setting, I love the fish-out-of-water type of Star Trek time-travel trope, but they aren’t taking advantage of this as well as they could. It should be more fun…and it was at first. But as they try to solve the setup to the season, it’s just not holding up.
I’m the same way. Started the season staying up because I was so excited. The last few I’ve watched during the day Thursday and I couldn’t even make it through 2.7 in one sitting.
“But as they try to solve the setup to the season, it’s just not holding up.”
The fact that this season is “dragging,” as so many here have said, is even more absurd given that we know how it’s going to end: Does anyone think they *aren’t* going to restore the timeline? Maybe if there’s a “surprise,” it’s in *how* they do it, not *that* they do it. I can’t imagine, though, that they could do it in such a way that we would all sit back and say, “Wow, THAT was worth sitting through a bunch of boring episodes!”
Who interviews suspects for possible federal crimes… in an evidence/file locker?! Not an important detail but this whole season (minus the first two episodes) has been bad TV. Really bad TV. So paramount plus will have viewership data and more importantly, rewatch rates and numbers on how many dropped subscriptions by Picard viewers there have been. Hopefully they will be dramatic enough to demonstrate that creatives behind this season should be swapped out. And didn’t they have the whole pandemic break to iron out these scripts? What is the excuses for such #basic bad writing and poorly constructed story? I don’t think there has ever been a worse season of Trek produced by and series or creative team in 55+ years. It’s just a sad waste. Again, I went from “make it so” to “make it stop.” Glad there is only one more season of bad TV the can churn out after this.
Dave Blass, the production designer is active on Twitter and responds to fans. If the episode itself doesn’t explain why the interrogation is taking place in an evidence room it couldn’t hurt to ask what the thinking was for having the set be made out that way. Asking respectfully of course.
The third season is already shot and possibly has even completed post-production.
LOL I forgot about the delays with the pandemic and the fact they had MORE time to write the scripts because o it. And yet they are still this bad? Can you imagine how bad it would’ve been if they were still writing it as they were shooting it like last season?
As for the worst season ever, for me, that became first season of Discovery. No not all bad but being one story it just makes things worst in the end. But I have to agree, this may end up being the worst Trek season for me too. Unless the last 3 episodes really wow me, I just don’t see how I can look back on this season and see it as anything else but a mess that squandered what could’ve been an incredible story if they had real ideas to work with. Spending 3 episodes to bust Rios out of ICE custody is the epitome of bad ideas and plotting.
I wonder if the writers think they’re going to surprise us with a Ducane reveal. They’re dropping all these Easter eggs (too many, in my view) that are meaningful in some fashion to longtime Trek watchers but probably meaningless to non–Star Trek viewers. Could they really think they could cast the Ducane actor and reveal him to be Ducane (which they haven’t, of course), and we dedicated fans wouldn’t have seen it coming? The proof is that we’re actually discussing the possibility.
It kind of reminds me of all the clues they dropped in Discovery when the Guardian of Forever was brought back in season 3. At least in Picard they are a bit more subtle about it if it is Ducane.
I am enjoying this season greatly. So much so that the episodes seem shorter than what they are, and I am left eager to see what happens next week. At least they aren’t stopping for therapy or a reassuring handholding every other scene, which seems to be the main plot of another new Trek show which will go unnamed.
My big questions are… Why is Q losing his powers? Are the Q dying?
Picard was literally in a long therapy session last week.
Not the same. They didn’t stop fighting some alien for a time out in the lounge for some therapy and a good cry.
No, they took time out to explore Picard’s daddy issues while they were actually in the 21st century to try and stop the universe from turning into a dystopian fascist nightmare.
They should have made the alternate timeline(Penance) the focal point of the season instead of going to 2024. That had heaps more potential than what we got. I was sooo bummed it was only one episode.
If this were a football game (UK I’m from lol).. game starts super quick and quick movement and plenty of dangerous shots, but then the team quickly went flat and were plodding for rest of first half of the game. Q’s evil team have started to dominant possession and now Picard is well on the backfoot and going through the motions.
The second half started as the first left.. a midfield battle with no real purpose, no creativity.
Now we are entering the last 10 minutes .. it’s time to bring on Riker. Someone! Anything! Please?
With a third season already in the can and several more seasons of other new shows to look forward to, a thorough critique of this substandard entertainment is only logical. There is no threat of Star Trek suddenly going away, might as well look at it for what it is: subscription bait. In the era of sponsors, shows were beholden to not only the execs, but the execs were beholden to the advertisers all through the “magic” of (somewhat) transparent ratings. P+ is not making a long-term play. They don’t care if people will watch these again and again. They want to make sure the subscriber number is large enough to make the entire Paramount company attractive to a buyer.
There’s nothing remarkably inventive or memorable in this ongoing Picard saga, except some really successful writers in other mediums showing off just how little they get how to make great TV. I have no idea what’s actually important this season. The launch? The Borg? Q? Picard’s family history? None of it seems particularly urgent, until it does, and then when it gets a spotlight, it fizzles immediately or pivots to the next Most Important Thing.
The only reason they’re banking on the audience to care about any of this is because people care about Star Trek. I don’t know if that’s cynical, but at worst it’s lazy, at best it’s boring.
The response to the last few episodes seem to be almost universally bad on various forums and social media. I’m not talking about the hater accounts, but fans like myself that like the new Trek shows and have liked Star Trek: Picard up until a few episodes ago. Not to say people don’t or can’t still like the episodes. I really wish I did too, but the number of posts i’ve seen liking the show seem to have gone down quite a bit with 2.7.
It’s just a bummer to see that most people are still going into SNW with optimism, as though it is in no way connected to Picard. It is incredibly tough for me to get excited about these shows because they are all basically made by the same people.
That’s the funny thing about most Star Trek fans, we’re actually pretty optimistic just like the show itself purports to be. Most fans are usually excited every time there is a new movie or show announced. There are definitely contrarians and cynical people but they are usually the minority. They are just very vocal. If people hated Discovery as much as this group claims it did, it probably would’ve been cancelled in the first season.
MOST of us want to love Star Trek bottom line. Even when we DON’T love it, we still want to give it a chance and see if it will change our mind later. The TV shows are the best example of course because most of them didn’t start out with a huge wave of praise. But most stuck it out and in the end up loving a particular show they were convinced they would always hate. Now it didn’t mean it happened right away. Many didn’t appreciate a show until it was off the air years later and some will just never like certain shows of course. But the majority usually comes around. Enterprise seems the best example of this today. It’s now being praised in a lot of circles where as before it was treated like Satan himself devised the show. Even I gave up watching it after it’s first season. Today I love it. Not my favorite show, but definitely one of my favorites today.
Picard is in a different boat. Many, certainly the vast majority, was excited about the show originally. But many were also disappointed in the first season but still had high hopes for season 2 once that was shown and it looks like most of the people who were disappointed in season 1 are now disappointed in this one.
But yes I have to say even for me, I am very cautious now because I haven’t loved Discovery or Picard. These are still my lowest ranked shows out of the entire franchise. I wanted to love both. And a few instances I was convinced I would love them and that was usually at the start of the season. But I also remember when DS9 was my lowest ranked show. Today it’s my favorite show in the franchise bar none so things can turn around.
But I will also say DS9 just had a lot more time and episodes to get better. It didn’t become my favorite until around the fifth season but became a huge fan of it by it’s third. But with shows like DIS and PIC and it’s limited episodes and being serialized, it has to come out the gate much faster. Picard is done after next season so you basically have your mind made of the show now. Yes it can change years later but we can only talk about right now and right now for many the show is basically lost. That’s a shame to even say that because Picard was probably the most excited fans have been about the franchise since Enterprise was cancelled.
The Kelvin movies and Discovery certainly had fans excited, but they were both pretty divisive in the fan base before they even premiered. Not so with Picard. For the people who weren’t excited were in a tiny group. The show was opening up possibilities again we haven’t had in decades and sadly it’s all feeling pretty squandered now.
But there is still hope the next show will just be better even now.
I think the boundless optimism of IP fanaticism has its charms for sure. It just seems like a healthier degree of skepticism at this point is warranted — the powers that be don’t really seem like they have to work to earn that optimism, and I just think that’s a shame. It’s hard not to feel as though their business plan is built upon taking advantage of people having faith in them because they are carrying the banner for the latest Star Trek creation.
I agree with all of this of of course but we do also have to remember some of the shows ARE working and working well for a lot of fans like LDS and PRO. LDS is definitely more divisive but the fanfare has grown tremendously with that show after just two seasons. AGAIN, it doesn’t mean everyone loves it now (I always feel I have to put in these disclaimers lol) but it’s obvious the show is certainly more accepted than not by the fandom.
With Prodigy, that’s the oddest one out of all of this because it’s become a huge fan favorite out of the gate and it’s originally designed for 8 year olds lol. It’s not even meant to target the base the way the new shows are and yet it’s doing it the best from what I can tell. Now it’s VERY new and it hasn’t even finished it’s first season yet but it proves not everything is hated with the new shows.
In other words it’s not black and white. Some of the new shows are hitting Trek-y vibes with some fans on a level they haven’t felt in decades. But because LDS and PRO are animated, they are not put in the same boat like the others for some reason. That’s also a good thing in the sense the expectations weren’t as high for them like Picard and SNW. But for people who love those shows, they are still optimistic for the future even if the live action ones isn’t doing it for them.
But I understand what you mean of course. The same people who made Picard and Discovery is literally making SNW. That’s the other thing about the animated shows, they are not being developed by the live action people, they have a completely different staff of writers and producers. Those shows were also created separately. Kurtzman name is on them, but he had very little creative input from what I can tell unlike DIS and PIC where he had a direct hand in them being developed. McMahan seems to have complete control of LDS UNLIKE the show runners for Picard and DIscovery where it’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen. It’s probably due to the crazy costs and expectations of them. LDS and PRO aren’t meant to be the flagship of the franchise like those shows are.
But it does prove Star Trek can still thrive if in the right hands. I’m not a Kurtzman hater at all. We only have shows like LDS and PRO because he approved them. I have issues with his execution of the shows for sure but I also can see the guy is bending himself into a pretzel to give the fans what they want. SNW is actually the embodiment of that. So was Picard. It’s also why Discovery is essentially a completely different show it started out as.
But yes, I will also admit that the live action shows probably needs to bring in other writers and producers. Ironically they did that with Picard and Terry Matalas who I praised for months here. But it probably goes to the too many cooks in the kitchen issue. I mean I don’t know obviously, but it’s a good guess what is happening with the live action shows more than anything.
Yeah – I’m out. After a promising start, this show has devolved into a fever dream of silly plot, and juvenile dialogue. What a waste.
Hi, I’m confused about something.
Can anyone explain to me why Orla Brady’s watcher character is a Romulan on Earth and not a human? And why did she keep that hidden from Picard until the last episode? I cannot bring myself to go back and watch the reveal and whatever dialogue there was around that.
I know production-wise Orla Brady was contracted and they’ve just probably shoe-horned her in to play this other character to make use of her, like the lady playing Kore who was also Soji. But I am confused by the fact that it’s a Romulan. Why would a Romulan ever be a watcher on another planet? And is she from the 24th century, or is she from the 21st century too and using old Romulan tech from that century, because it seems pretty advanced?
Talinn says that whoever she works for usually has someone of the same species watch over their subject, but sometimes it is a similar species, so in her case a Romulan watching over a human. That was the only explanation given.
And it was a ridiculous explanation at that. How is a Romulan suddenly ‘similar’ to a human outside of the fact they are humanoid? And in the Star Trek universe, 70% of species already looks human and many that are closer to humans in culture and looks. It just feels false given the relationship humans and Romulans will have 200 years from now. I don’t have a problem with having an open minded Romulan but its better to keep the idea Romulans and humanss had no idea of the other until Starfleet was born and began expanding into space.
The real answer is they wanted to find a way to use the actress since they have a contract with her and she was very popular first season. But the shoehorning of characters in the Earth past just feels a bit ridiculous and really there out of convenience, not story.
Oh…so it was no wonder I was confused, and still am. My word, they have made some bizarre and confusing choices this season.
Thanks to you and Salt Vampire for the explanation!
She was only contracted for the first 3 of season 1 – they brought her back for this. If they wanted to have her as a regular character in season 2 they should have had her travel to the past with the crew instead of this nonsense they came up with. This vague defined Romulan watcher role is just poorly written. “I’m a Romulan hired to just sit here and watch someone on another planet” – What for? Why? It’s just so bad.
“If they wanted to have [Orla Brady] as a regular character in season 2 they should have had her travel to the past with the crew instead of this nonsense they came up with.”
Then she would have had to wear a headband like Spock did in the whale movie, because Laris wouldn’t have that hand-dandy Ear Disguiser thing that Tallinn has. Or Picard could have had to say repeatedly, “My friend is obviously Chinese.”
Look at how quickly they ditched Elnor when they got to the 21st century. Although I’m not sure if it was done to avoid having to cover his ears or whether they simply don’t know what to do with the character.
I’m guessing the latter. ;)
Probably the same reason they didn’t bother to bring Soji along although it would’ve made sense to bring her and connect her with ‘ancestor’ and the work Soong is doing with her. Seems like a missed opportunity but it’s a season full of them frankly.
At least, Isa Briones is getting a little screen time, even if it is as a different character. I feel a little bad for the guy playing Elnor. Unless I forgot something he’s had two “blink and you miss him” cameos over the course of 4 (?) episodes.
The first episode of Season 2 felt like good solid TNG-style (when it was at its best) quality story-telling. Episode 2 had it’s moments, casual violence via throat slittings by one of our “heroes” not-withstanding. That was a tonally very poor decision… But agree with most everyone else here the rest has been a decidedly poorly plotted mess, despite the often awesome visuals/camera-work, music and of course our superb cast. They do their best, and sometimes elevate the material (until you actually think about the episode afterwards and it falls apart very quickly), but a good cast can only do so much. Once poor writing and/or plotting/pacing breaks the illusion, you’re in trouble… I just hope the ending is sufficiently strong (and wasn’t come up with ‘on the fly’) that at some point an enterprising fan-editor can make something far stronger by cutting out all the flab and honing this thing way down…
Akiva Goldsman was asked if in season 2 they learned the lessons from season 1 of not knowing the ending to their story in advance. He said he didn’t know.
Why doesn’t this really surprise me… Streuth.
Just out of curiosity, when Raffi pulled the phaser out of the holster, what made the sound?
I really want Martin Wells to be Ducane.
In England, it’s not uncommon for high budget/high event tv shows to run three 90 minute episodes per season. That’s what SHERLOCK did. And they did it successfully. Probably what they should of done for Picard
The issue is that Paramount want to make money by getting subscribers on board on a month by month basis. If they made three episodes it would mean customers are able to watch in a single month. And if they spread the episodes to say one a month, it would still potentially mean less interest in gaining subscribers probably. Not everyone will subscribe just to watch one particular thing.
I’m thinking that this strategy of multiple TV shows is a misadventure. Creatively it’s surely going to put some strain on the writers/producers and lead to a messy and unfocused result. I’d rather they focused on one or two shows and put everything into those to be as good as they can be really. Picard is only 10 episodes. Its a short season. I haven’t seen episodes 6 and 7 yet but I’ve read a lot of comments on how they’re received. One word. ‘Filler’. Why on earth are there ‘Filler’ episodes in a season this short? It’s not logical. The bottom line is they need to write smarter and they need to keep pacing correct. They need to drop the idea of sticking to a arbitrary 10 episode season rule and just write naturally. So if there is only really enough for 6 episodes then do that.
One episode recently clocked in under 40 minutes. That’s kind of a joke in my opinion. For those watching weekly I’d have thought they would at least want something worth their time and isn’t ending before it’s just begun. They could probably have halved the episode and edited it attached to the two before and after to make the other episode meatier.
Obi Wan for example over in Star Wars land is going just six episodes. Its being advertised as an event. A sort of TV movie writ large and extended, a little. Now, nobody has seen it yet, but with just six episodes I cannot begin to imagine that a single one of those episodes will be construed as a ‘Filler’ or ‘boring’.
Not long for me to find out myself how I trully feel about eps 6-8 but I’m certainly bracing myself (lol)!
People have the exact same complaints about some of the Marvel shows. Some are on the shorter side, and some are considered “filler” in a 6 episode season. Read lots of complaints about Hawkeye and Falcoln on the MCU boards.
I’d agree about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier show. It could have been really good, but it felt middling. There’s probably a decent 2 hour Disney+ movie somewhere in those 6 episodes.
WandaVision was really well done and had a bit of “this is filler content”, but I’d say that while not central to the story, it really helped flesh out the immediate post-Endgame chaos, through the eyes of a non-Avenger character.
Loki was really good and only had a few stretches that felt a bit too long that could have been trimmed up a bit, but again, it didn’t feel like it was filler content. Same goes for the “What If” show. Hawkeye isn’t something I’ve watched, but from all accounts it looked a lot like the Falcon show – largely filler content. Which sucks since they’ve never given Hawkeye the respect he deserves.
The Mandalorian was pretty well put together, but The Book of Boba suffered from the same issue as the MCU, perhaps even moreso since the way they wrote the show weaved in Mandalorian content. There’s about an episode and a half of just Mando content out of 7 episodes! The big question I have will be how they handle Mando season 3, are they just going to assume that everyone watched Book of Boba and know what happened with Mando/Grogu?
No limited run serialized series/season should have *any* filler or feel like it’s just going through the motions. Serialized shows need to have the endgame planned out *before* they start the beginning, course correcting as they write is fine, but they still need to know where they’re going, especially for only 6-10 episodes.
20-episode seasons that you break up 10/10 with 6-10 or even 13 of other series types seems like it might be the best way to go moving forward. Always have an Enterprise-based show as your longer flagship (the 20 ep), then you can do Lower Decks as one of your other 10 and then maybe S31 or some other new show for the other 6-10 that are more mini-series or season-arc focused.
I’m not sure if I would say that Sherlock did it successfully. I loved that show, but every season had at least one bad episode, which is a big problem when the seasons are so short.
Funny, I thought the first three seasons of Sherlock were brilliant. But, the fourth season was an abomination. It was like they were trying to top past storylines, and failed miserably in the attempt. I honestly wondered what they were smoking during season four. Disgraceful!
When I recommend the series to people, I tell them to skip the last season.
As much as S2 is better than S1, I think S2 suffers from trying to do too much. 1) Reintroduce Q with some sort of issue only Picard can fix. 2) Time Travel…always an iffy proposition in Trek. 3) The Renee Picard arc to nowhere. 5) Assignment Earth throwback 6) Possibly reintroducing the Temporal Authority and Ducane 6) Reintroducing the Borg who may want to negotiate peace for some reason. Should have picked one or two big ideas and fleshed those out more. I hate to be the pessimist but it makes me worry about S3. I love the TNG cast and I love Picard’s new cast. But both sharing the limelight seems to mean that neither will get the love and attention they deserve.
I don’t hate this season but it is by far my least favorite of pretty much all the new trek shows, and I honestly believe they kind of saw that would be the fan reaction, but it may have been the story they wanted to tell and also may have been why they announced so early about the next gen cast being in season 3 due to how far a departure season 2 was. If season 3 ends up being as good as people are hyping it up to be then ill forgive season 2….
The actor who plays the FBI Agent in Picard also played an agent in the 12 Monkeys Show where Matalas was showrunner. And he was also an agent there from the past.
Hmmm, three episodes left to pull out of this nosedive. We shall see….
OT: I was reading the Wikipedia article about the Guinan character, and it said that in Part II of “Time’s Arrow” there was “sexual tension” between Guinan and Picard when they were in the cave near the end. I wasn’t aware of any “sexual tension” — was anyone here aware of it? I never thought there was a sexual or even just a romantic element to their relationship.
Someone was just shipping characters…
Well at least we know we’ll get 30 sec of Q this episode :p
I’m tired of all the wheel-spinning over the past 5 episodes. Going to wait and binge-watch the last three together, as maybe that way it’ll hang together better. I honestly don’t think Star Trek is suited at all for season long story-telling. It all seems very disjointed so far. Q and 7 have been criminally under-used. Star Trek moments the writers assume the public want and easter eggs from far superior Trek history randomly thrown into a blender, and shovelled ontop of a CONTEMPORARY feeling show/characters. None of them feel like characters from a different century. The way they act, cuss, etc. It breaks the fourth wall of escapism for me.
I agree about Q. He seemed absent in Eps 3-5 much of it. I hear that was the case in last couple too. The big deal for me was Q being in S2 and I’d have thought he would be present in it more than he seems to be. DeLancie still has that great charisma and presence.. more than Patrick Stewart has that’s for sure.. use him!!
A good interrogation episode could be nice. Just three people in a room talking. Maybe in real time. But as Episode 8/10 it would be weird and I don’t trust the writing team to actually come up with good dialogue … so …
Seems like y’all should just read plot summaries.
OT: Kathryn Hays (Gem from “The Empath”) has died. She was 87.
Oops, that happened in late March. Sorry.