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Star Trek Picard Season 3 |OT| The Next Generation's Fifth Movie

Nydius

Member
some fan service
Some?

Episode 6 was Star Trek: Gene Memberberries. The plot is still atrocious and the whole thing is setting up a ridiculous Synth Picard vs Changeling Picard showdown.

The nostalgia factor is the only thing this season has going for it. They’ve turned the old crew into husks of their former selves. Compared to TNG or DS9, this would be bottom tier in any episode lists and second worst put up against the TNG movies.
 

Laptop1991

Member
Some?

Episode 6 was Star Trek: Gene Memberberries. The plot is still atrocious and the whole thing is setting up a ridiculous Synth Picard vs Changeling Picard showdown.

The nostalgia factor is the only thing this season has going for it. They’ve turned the old crew into husks of their former selves. Compared to TNG or DS9, this would be bottom tier in any episode lists and second worst put up against the TNG movies.
Yeah, they are no where near TNG or DS9, but they were never going to be were they, but compared to season 1 and 2 of Picard, it's miles better, i don't know how good you were expecting it to be, and as i said it is fan service, it's unlikely to get to the original series quality, and i never thought it would.
 

xandaca

Member
I hope there's going to be an explanation as to how Starfleet were planning on getting genetic confirmation of Picard's identity for Frontier Day when he's in an android body.
 

Locutus

Member
I need you guys to talk some sense into me. Is there any chance Jack Crusher has a Pah-Wraith inside him? Is Avery Brooks sane enough to make a cameo as Benjamin Sisko?
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
That episode was a mess. It feels more like the writing & directing style of previous seasons of Picard/Discovery.

One problem is the hyper-emotionalism of some scenes that slingshots from one beat to the next in a matter of seconds, as if this is how to make a drama. The Tuvok scene is a good example... in one moment he seems to confirm his identity and they immediately play the Voyager theme song in the background in a sentimental overload moment, then a mere few seconds later he misses a question and camera zooms in on Seven's enraged face, and the next instant he's smiling to promise them all painful death. It's so overblown at every moment like this.

The mysterious superpowers of Jack also don't feel very Trek-like, nor the corny red eyes at the camera every time.

While I liked seeing Data, those scenes were extremely corny. For a moment we'd get Data, then it would transition mid sentence to Lore scowling with "I hate your dumb face Picard." Then there was a panel showing Data's body and head, with half of his cranium lit up blue and the other half red. So they physically can see his Lore/Data sides (...B4 apparently doesn't fit into the schematic view) as if it's a good/evil detector. A bit ridiculous, surely the personalities would not be spatially isolated like that nor detectable in that way.

It's all a bit too much like a fantasy or superhero movie here. The previous episodes like the Ro Laren one stayed a bit more grounded and careful, but this one was all over the map. It just reminds me that so many of the actual screenplay & directing staff were retained from previous seasons, as you can see if you line up the credits on imdb.
 

DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
That episode was a mess. It feels more like the writing & directing style of previous seasons of Picard/Discovery.

One problem is the hyper-emotionalism of some scenes that slingshots from one beat to the next in a matter of seconds, as if this is how to make a drama. The Tuvok scene is a good example... in one moment he seems to confirm his identity and they immediately play the Voyager theme song in the background in a sentimental overload moment, then a mere few seconds later he misses a question and camera zooms in on Seven's enraged face, and the next instant he's smiling to promise them all painful death. It's so overblown at every moment like this.

The mysterious superpowers of Jack also don't feel very Trek-like, nor the corny red eyes at the camera every time.

While I liked seeing Data, those scenes were extremely corny. For a moment we'd get Data, then it would transition mid sentence to Lore scowling with "I hate your dumb face Picard." Then there was a panel showing Data's body and head, with half of his cranium lit up blue and the other half red. So they physically can see his Lore/Data sides (...B4 apparently doesn't fit into the schematic view) as if it's a good/evil detector. A bit ridiculous, surely the personalities would not be spatially isolated like that nor detectable in that way.

It's all a bit too much like a fantasy or superhero movie here. The previous episodes like the Ro Laren one stayed a bit more grounded and careful, but this one was all over the map. It just reminds me that so many of the actual screenplay & directing staff were retained from previous seasons, as you can see if you line up the credits on imdb.

Jack's powers don't seem "Trek -like"? There's like 15 episodes between TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager that say otherwise

The show is run by Terry Matalas, one of the former writers of Enterprise. Criticize that show all you want but it was still very much Trek.

Piece of trivia: the planet M'Talas Prime was a throwaway line from Enterprise that the writers put in there as a joke for Trip to say at Terry Matalas' expense. He brought it back for the first couple of episodes.
 
Yeah, I don't see Jack's psychic powers as unprecedented in the Trek universe, but the execution and the mystery surrounding it...it all feels very Firefly River to me more than Star Trek. It's not a plot element that I like. In general Jack has been growing on me, though.

The thing that continues to feel the least "Trek" to me is Vag-Itch. They even gave her a Sith spinny-chair shot ffs. What's going on here? Are the 6,000 Star Wars shows on Disney+ that I'm not watching doing Star Trek shit and they're trying to retaliate or something?

While I liked seeing Data, those scenes were extremely corny. For a moment we'd get Data, then it would transition mid sentence to Lore scowling with "I hate your dumb face Picard." Then there was a panel showing Data's body and head, with half of his cranium lit up blue and the other half red. So they physically can see his Lore/Data sides (...B4 apparently doesn't fit into the schematic view) as if it's a good/evil detector. A bit ridiculous, surely the personalities would not be spatially isolated like that nor detectable in that way.
There was a line about B4 and Lal being 'archived' or something. In the background, not active personalities. Silly and contrived so we can have pure Datalore I guess. Lal is an especially silly inclusion of a member berry. At least B4 has relevance as far as recovering Data re: Nemesis. But of course S1 completely undermined all this bullshit with their 'resurrected Data from a single positron' nonsense... so it's really really hard to pay attention to these scenes.

It's almost like blessed-superfan-trek-veteran-genius Matalas was watching the RLM S1 review right as he started writing the season and just couldn't shake the endless talk about how Picard didn't give that much of a fuck about Data and how Geordi and Data were the real GOAT robo-sapien bromance. And that's all true, but they're just acting like it should resonate with us now and we're supposed to ignore that they already fucked it up. The basic logic doesn't click.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
Jack's powers don't seem "Trek -like"? There's like 15 episodes between TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager that say otherwise

The show is run by Terry Matalas, one of the former writers of Enterprise. Criticize that show all you want but it was still very much Trek.

Piece of trivia: the planet M'Talas Prime was a throwaway line from Enterprise that the writers put in there as a joke for Trip to say at Terry Matalas' expense. He brought it back for the first couple of episodes.
Just bc he wrote for Enterprise, doesnt make this good or actual Trek. I agree with the posters assessment. Its a whole lotta drama, mysteries and memberberries. Is it better than Picard S1 and S2? Fuck yes, but thats a low bar to set.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
Jack's powers don't seem "Trek -like"? There's like 15 episodes between TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager that say otherwise

The show is run by Terry Matalas, one of the former writers of Enterprise. Criticize that show all you want but it was still very much Trek.
I’m aware of who Matalas is; not an Enterprise fan at all but that’s another topic.

It’s not that having psychic abilities is outside the realm of Trek. The problem is the presentation, the superhero feeling, red eyes into the camera over and over, fantastical mysteries as the sole way to move the plot, etc. For me that was just an extremely cheesy episode, like some TV fantasy show mixed with another genre. Very far from Trek’s grounded sci-fi, more like Discovery.

Yeah, I don't see Jack's psychic powers as unprecedented in the Trek universe, but the execution and the mystery surrounding it...it all feels very Firefly River to me more than Star Trek.

I almost said Buffy-like, and Firefly was the same writer. I can’t stand everything Whedon brought to fantasy TV… he’s up there with Disney-Marvelverse on my list of people who made entertainment profoundly worse.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
At a glance (haven't seen the whole video yet), it seems that RLM have the same feeling I did from the past couple of episodes, that this season is going off the rails to feel more and more like typical nu-Trek in its writing. Hopefully the ending gets back on track.
 

AJUMP23

Gold Member
They do, but they've served together for a long time and have become a family of their own. Between Enterprise D and E their group must've had 15 years together.
All that matters is that we are together was corny from the episode this week.

This season is better than season 1, but it is still dumb.
 

xandaca

Member
Most of Ep8 was more time wasting, especially dragging out the Jack Crusher reveal yet further, but redeemed itself towards the end with Geordi's chat with Data and the old crew sitting around the conference table. The humour's hitting its marks, with Matalas recognising that Worf was always best as a comic character thanks to Michael Dorn's superb dry comic delivery, while the running joke about nobody liking Picard's wine is great. Plot-wise, this season would be vastly better as two hours rather than ten(ish), the overreliance on lifts and callbacks from classic Trek can be frustrating and out of place (the First Contact theme over the credits doesn't suit the tone of this show at all), and the moment-to-moment writing can be as slapdash as earlier seasons (though not as offensively dreadful), but now everyone's mandatory Depressing Backstories are largely resolved, the character writing is starting to exert a positive influence and bring back a touch of the old TNG glow. Hopefully the last two episodes won't lose that with any more grimdark plotting, but even if so, it's nice to see a bit of it back if only for a moment.

Point of curiosity: I am far from an expert in such matters, but wouldn't Vadic boil in space rather than freeze? As an aside, her parting line was the first time the 'f' word has sort of worked in Trek, and got a laugh out of me.
 
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ManaByte

Gold Member
5p8DuWo.jpg
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
The Data/Lore “fight” is one of my all-time favorite Star Trek scenes. Perfect resolution to Lore that he didn’t get in the series.

Agreed. The weight of all that history behind it made it very special, what with the things Data plucked from his memory. It was the perfect way to finish Lore's storyline once and for all, not to mention B4's, Soong's and 'old' Data's. And the way Data instantly takes back command of the ship with those quips shows just how powerful he is - and always was. What a fantastic celebration of the 36 years of that character.

And having it that Deanna is the only one who can unlock what's going on with Jack? Perfect. They've given the character the importance she never really got previously. I'm not keen on the mystery box stuff and never have been, but if they put it in there so Troi could have her moment, then I'm absolutely fine with it.

Honest to god, I know this show isn't perfect, because nothing is, but I'll say it again, I don't see how any long term fan of TNG can be watching this and hating it. It hits so many beats perfectly, and captures the characters from the show so well.
 
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ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
Much better than the previous episode, which I’m happy to say because it seemed briefly to be slipping.

I’m not as fond of the way Data hugged Lore as others seem to be… I liked the idea of resolving the two of them by sort-of merging, but I couldn’t shake the memory of Q and Picard hugging prior to Q’s death last season, one of the worst things to come from this series. This wasn’t that bad but felt like the same cheap over-emotionalism. But in general I’m okay with the “new” Data and the merge.

The conference room reunion was lovely. I’m glad they kept others like Raffi out of that scene. Speaking of her, that ninja scene was obnoxious bullshit, but at least it gave us some dry Worf humor after.

Let’s hope something worthy of the mystery is behind the red door.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
Kurtzman's announced "Starfleet Academy" series is going to be absolutely awful... I'd wager he'll even bring along Akiva Goldsman again, the writer of Batman & Robin that he put onto Picard, absolutely amazing that this profoundly talentless hack has an ongoing career.

And you can rest assured it will have young characters who act & speak like the worst of today's younger generation, just like the abomination Lower Decks.

So I don't think the Star Trek brand is even remotely redeemed by a few mediocre-to-good episodes of Picard. It's still all in the worst possible hands.
 
Everyone who wants to avoid spoilers be warned that word is that spoilers for episodes 9 and 10 have been leaked and hitting social media.
 
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