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Star Trek: Picard - Make It So Engage Earl Grey Hot

WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

There was more unnecessary fanservice in this episode than any episode of Star Trek has ever had, but I am here to say I am a mark for what they did. Jack saying his favorite was the Enterprise-A made me felt seen. And Seven reminiscing about The Voyager actually made my eyes well up.

I can't wait to see Data die a third time and it'll have all been worth it because it really was dumb to not get Data and Geordi into the same room again so god bless Terry Matalas.
Vaeran said:
Sure. I just think it's kind of funny, insofar as people keep going "There's only one man in the galaxy who can help me: Jean-Luc Picard." and then when Picard gets the message he's like "...the fuck am I supposed to do with this?"
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Another angle from this that I didn't think of until now, but really quite enjoy (and is also touched upon thematically in this week's episode as well) is that this is all a very purposeful inversion of Riker being the clueless one on the bridge. If you ever go back and rewatch TNG, keep track of how many times Riker is completely clueless about some subject matter - often something that as a command officer he probably ought to know about. In the meta sense, it was done for the benefit of the audience. Someone needed to ask wtf all that technobabble meant so that we could get a simple explanation for the audience to understand. It just so happened that it was usually Riker, and it kinda makes him look like a dumbo sometimes. We've seen Riker explain things or subvert that dummy stereotype so many times this season, it feels like a very purposeful choice at this point. It's wonderful! And it also fits very neatly into the Riker/Picard role reversal that's been a theme all season long.
 
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Vaeran

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
That was like eating a cake made entirely of fanservice frosting. Very tasty, but also kind of a bit much.

I continue to be mostly onboard with what this show is doing, but god damn they'd better give Troi something to do other than be a fucking victim again.
 
Vaeran

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Some more detailed thoughts:

Lots of fun to be had on both stations we found ourselves on. Yeah, Moriarty was a bit of a waste, but it was still a fun callback even if it wasn't really him. The mutated attack tribble had me lollin'. And of course everything at the Fleet Museum was lovely.

Re: Data, this feels very like the show having its cake and eating it too. Data gets to have a big emotional death scene, and then oh look he's back two seasons later. They'd better do something really interesting with him. Starfleet's reasoning for hooking up an unfinished, "insane" android to the security system of their most classified site was extremely specious.

I don't believe for a second that Jack and Sidney could remove the Bounty's cloaking system, bring it to the Titan, and get it mostly wired up in less than an hour. That would be miracle work for an actual chief engineer. And no one noticed them? (Would it have been cooler to have them steal the Defiant's cloak instead, so a part of her could once again fight against the Dominion...? No. Leave the Defiant alone. She's earned her rest.)

Speaking of engineers, Shaw nerding out over Geordi was delightful. Though I didn't quite get Geordi's point about all Starfleet ships being networked and how that would prevent a cloned transponder signal from being an effective strategy, especially since the episode opens on... that exact strategy working. But big ups to him for sending Starfleet repeated e-mails urging them NOT to gather their entire fleet in one place just to show off. Clearly the only member of the cast who watched Gundam 0083.

I am hoping "Deanna" is actually a Changeling, but I'm still not looking forward to her likely being "tortured" to get Will to talk. That also doesn't get them off the hook for finding something cool for the real Deanna to do.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

chud_666 said:
Moriarty was stupid.
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Yeah I had a feeling he wouldn't be used much or well. Oh well. Probably should have just left that one out of the trailer so people wouldn't get their hopes up.

Vaeran said:
Some more detailed thoughts:

Lots of fun to be had on both stations we found ourselves on. Yeah, Moriarty was a bit of a waste, but it was still a fun callback even if it wasn't really him. The mutated attack tribble had me lollin'. And of course everything at the Fleet Museum was lovely.

Re: Data, this feels very like the show having its cake and eating it too. Data gets to have a big emotional death scene, and then oh look he's back two seasons later. They'd better do something really interesting with him. Starfleet's reasoning for hooking up an unfinished, "insane" android to the security system of their most classified site was extremely specious.

I don't believe for a second that Jack and Sidney could remove the Bounty's cloaking system, bring it to the Titan, and get it mostly wired up in less than an hour. That would be miracle work for an actual chief engineer. And no one noticed them? (Would it have been cooler to have them steal the Defiant's cloak instead, so a part of her could once again fight against the Dominion...? No. Leave the Defiant alone. She's earned her rest.)

Speaking of engineers, Shaw nerding out over Geordi was delightful. Though I didn't quite get Geordi's point about all Starfleet ships being networked and how that would prevent a cloned transponder signal from being an effective strategy, especially since the episode opens on... that exact strategy working. But big ups to him for sending Starfleet repeated e-mails urging them NOT to gather their entire fleet in one place just to show off. Clearly the only member of the cast who watched Gundam 0083.

I am hoping "Deanna" is actually a Changeling, but I'm still not looking forward to her likely being "tortured" to get Will to talk. That also doesn't get them off the hook for finding something cool for the real Deanna to do.
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Re: Data - seems like this site is run by Section 31, so it seems in character for them to do something dubious and stupid. But yeah that was a little silly. I bought the motivation though for Altan. Data's death in S1 was great, but there was no reason why someone couldn't just redo the process of reviving him again and throwing him into a body.

Re: The Cloaking Device - Rom & Quark stole a cloaking device in DS9 off of Martok's ship. If those two bozos can do it, I don't have a problem with these two bozos doing it too. It's also my headcanon that Klingon tech is designed to be very simple and modular on account of all the thick-skulled, drunken warriors clunking around Klingon ships. Also, recall that the original Defiant actually blew up. So this ship is actually the rebranded USS Sao Paulo, and we have no reason to believe a cloaking device was ever installed on it to begin with.

Re: Shaw geeking out was great. Great way to humanize the character and give him more texture. I'm a little bummed though that he hasn't had much to do the last episode or two. I'm sure he'll get at least one good hero moment by the end.

Oh, don't think I didn't miss that that the LaForge family seemed to go out of their way to avoid having to say their mother's name. I don't need to know who Geordi hooked up with, and I definitely don't need to know if it was a certain icky situation that must not be named
 
SpoonyBard

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
I'd say this episode was just a hair less impressive than the others leading up to it, but that was also made up for by the delightful fanservice so I guess it's a wash?

Gotta agree about Moriarty though. The trailer made it seem like he'd be significant, possible related to the big bad in some way, but instead he's nothing more than a cameo. This is especially unfortunate since it follows the stellar episode with the unannounced and unexpected return of Ro Laren, Moriarty by comparison just feels like he was wasted. I think it definitely would have gone over better if he simply was never teased at all and we just were pleasantly surprised by the callback. Ah well.

Everything with Geordi went pretty much how I thought it would and I was just so happy to see it.

I'm not sure how to feel about Jack having Picard's genetic plot brain disease being the reason for his really suspicious visions he's been having. That can't just be it, right? They were waaaaay to specific and deliberate to just be a red herring. My fear is that it's ultimately going to tie into why the Changelings need Picard's old body, somehow. I don't know how the two connect, or if they do, but if the entire plot of the season is going to go sideways it will be as a result of one or both of those things.

Finally, anyone putting money on that Deanna not being Deanna? Mostly I just really don't want her to be brought in just to need to be rescued. If it IS the real Deanna I hope the writers remembered she can be pretty damn cunning when she needs to be, hopefully they gave 'Face of the Enemy' a rewatch when they wrote up what's going to happen here.
 
Sprite

Sprite

(He/Him/His)
I’m fine with the Data thing. It’s pretty clear that this synth is only partially Data, and likely by the end of the series will have integrated all the personalities into what is essentially a new character. It fits pretty neatly with the season’s themes of what we pass on to progeny.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

SpoonyBard said:
I'm not sure how to feel about Jack having Picard's genetic plot brain disease being the reason for his really suspicious visions he's been having. That can't just be it, right? They were waaaaay to specific and deliberate to just be a red herring. My fear is that it's ultimately going to tie into why the Changelings need Picard's old body, somehow. I don't know how the two connect, or if they do, but if the entire plot of the season is going to go sideways it will be as a result of one or both of those things.
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Based on how Irumotic Syndrome was characterized in "All Good Things..." and the hallucinations Picard had in S1 of PIC, it makes sense. And it would be an interesting explanation for why Picard's mother was the way she was as well. Jack sees it as a burden/curse initially, but that's because he's dealing with it alone, and is terrified. It's pretty wholesome that his old man can come in and reassure him it's something he can live and thrive with. But yeah, I'd be happy if this was the end of that plot thread; hope it doesn't turn into anything dumb.

It's anyone's guess what they need Picard's old corpse for. I'm sure it'll be fine, whatever it ends up being. It's been hinted in previous episodes, but in the sneak preview clip from this week's Ready Room, they spell out explicitly that the Changelings aren't the only baddies involved, and there's even scarier baddies that the Changelings are taking orders from so who knows what'll happen.

One thing I really liked about this episode is that it gave Jack and Sidney some fun stuff to do. I thought the two had pretty good instant chemistry. I've been down on Sidney as a character because up to this point, she couldn't open her mouth without reminding the audience she was Geordi's daughter. But this episode finally gave her some agency and personality which worked out pretty well.
SpoonyBard said:
Finally, anyone putting money on that Deanna not being Deanna? Mostly I just really don't want her to be brought in just to need to be rescued. If it IS the real Deanna I hope the writers remembered she can be pretty damn cunning when she needs to be, hopefully they gave 'Face of the Enemy' a rewatch when they wrote up what's going to happen here.
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They've done such a good job with all of the other characters so far, in both honoring them, and doing justice to them where TNG often fell short. I really don't have any apprehension about how they'll use Troi at all. Also, she and Riker are Imzadi. Riker should be clued in instantly if it wasn't her if they don't share their psychic bond. The writers have shown a pretty strong command of lore so far. They'll give her moments to shine I'm sure.
 
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SpoonyBard

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
Also I'd like to highlight that moment at the end of the episode, where Riker's bravado and confidence melted away in an instant to give way to worry and fear was a great bit of acting from Frakes.
 
SpoonyBard

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
Trailer for this week:


Not gonna lie, the fact that we're this deep in the season and I don't have the same sort of sinking feeling about the larger plot like I did in the first two seasons is starting to give me hope that they won't eff this up.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

David Blass - a production designer on Picard - is at it again. This time he posted a bunch of stuff regarding the Fleet Museum:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1641118176183197696

There's a few curveballs in there that don't necessarily make a lot of sense, and what I assume must be a few production errors as well, but I get the impulse from the production crew side of things to include these. Great starship porn at the very least and fun to click through.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

Not a lot happened in this episode, beyond finally getting to hear Amanda Plummer's side of things, and some really awesome horror/suspense vibes from the show. Still was a great time. Any excuse to watch Brent Spiner ham it up is a good time. As was finally giving Geordi a chance to really interact with Data one last time. Data x Geordi was one of the best parts of TNG, and it was always a massive shame that Data died (TWICE!) and Geordi wasn't there to really react to it either time. I was promised Deanna would be in this episode and I guess we'll have to wait for next week instead. Also, Jack's macguffin-brain is back and we promise it's a super secret! Hope you know what you're doing with that, Terry.
 
Vaeran

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Another really solid episode. This show's on such a hot streak!

The opening with not-Tuvok was effective, including the fakeout with the swelling Voyager theme music. Speaking of Voyager, they've been name-dropping Janeway so much that at this point I'll be shocked if she doesn't make an appearance in the finale. Is it too much to hope for a DS9 cameo? (No, Worf doesn't count.)

Last episode we were told that the "golem" contains parts of Lal, but now Geordi tells us there are four personality matrices: Soong, B-4, Data, and Lore. This is blatant Lal erasure and I won't stand for it. That said, watching Brent Spiner shift from Data to Lore and back mid-sentence was fun. ("Has he always been this... arch?" slayed me.)

Why in the name of all that is holy would you hardwire Lore to the Titan's systems? This is the one bit of lazy writing in this episode, because absolutely no one on the ship would be that stupid.

Geordi revisiting Data's death / pleading with Lore was very affecting, as was Vadic's monologue. I like that we're reckoning with the Federation's sins during the Dominion War, even if Roddenberry would have had a conniption fit.

Jack's mystery continues to deepen but it looks like we're finally about to start getting some answers. Hope they don't fuck this up. I will say that purely from a character perspective, they're doing very well with him. Jack Crusher could very easily have been the Scrappy Doo of this season but they've been giving him good material and the actor's bringing his A game to it.
 
chud_666

chud_666

WisteriaHysteria said:
Not a lot happened in this episode, beyond finally getting to hear Amanda Plummer's side of things, and some really awesome horror/suspense vibes from the show. Still was a great time. Any excuse to watch Brent Spiner ham it up is a good time. As was finally giving Geordi a chance to really interact with Data one last time. Data x Geordi was one of the best parts of TNG, and it was always a massive shame that Data died (TWICE!) and Geordi wasn't there to really react to it either time. I was promised Deanna would be in this episode and I guess we'll have to wait for next week instead. Also, Jack's macguffin-brain is back and we promise it's a super secret! Hope you know what you're doing with that, Terry.
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Jack really is the weak part of this show.

But great ep. Better get a ds9 cameo though... Weird that tng and voy would be so well represented in these events. Hell I just saw Miles on its always sunny...
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

chud_666 said:
Jack really is the weak part of this show.
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I'm with Vaeran on this one and thought he was pretty good in this episode. I like the character so far, and I hope the actor gets more shots at doing more Star Trek stuff in the future. Terry Matalas at the very least obviously wants to bring the character forward into a new spin-off. I'll be down with that.

Vaeran said:
Speaking of Voyager, they've been name-dropping Janeway so much that at this point I'll be shocked if she doesn't make an appearance in the finale. Is it too much to hope for a DS9 cameo? (No, Worf doesn't count.)
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Admiral Janeway showing up would make my day. I feel like there's a decent chance? She's gotten namedropped like literally every episode, and she should be there at the Frontier Day celebration. I like DS9 too, but so far all of the cameos that have happened have made sense/felt organic versus being gratuitous. And I'd prefer them keep it that way. I know it feels kinda weird to have DS9's main antagonists here without much if any DS9 characters. But the way I see things, we've been wondering what the TNG crew did during the Dominion War for decades at this point. And one of the big M.O.'s of this season has been righting historic wrongs from the TNG days (addressing Picard & Bev; letting Geordi deal with Data's death; redeeming Worf's character progression after DS9 kinda ruined him; getting to see Captain Riker; letting Bev do fun things; resolving Ro Laren's story; etc) so that's what I imagine is happening with bringing the Dominion back here. It was bad/wrong for us to have never gotten to see the TNG cast handle the Dominion, so here's a mulligan on that as well.

Vaeran said:
Last episode we were told that the "golem" contains parts of Lal, but now Geordi tells us there are four personality matrices: Soong, B-4, Data, and Lore. This is blatant Lal erasure and I won't stand for it. That said, watching Brent Spiner shift from Data to Lore and back mid-sentence was fun. ("Has he always been this... arch?" slayed me.)
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I noticed that too, but this is how I handwaved it: If you recall at the end of "The Offspring" - Data uploaded Lal's memories into his own positronic brain. So if Data's personality is there, then by default Lal is there too since Data had already integrated her into him back during TNG.
 
Vaeran

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Question about the opening scene:

When Seven suggests the meeting place, she catches not-Tuvok out when he readily agrees, because "no Vulcan would ever go to [planet] after [apparently bad event]!" (I don't remember the names.)

Is she referring to something from pre-existing Trek lore, or was this new information? I ask because I am trying to imagine a case where Vulcans would shun an entire planet because of something that happened there, unless that event made it a physically dangerous place to be. But this sounded more political than anything else (I recall it as "the something demonstrations.") Weird that Seven would be an authority on what an entire race would or would not do, especially in extreme circumstances such as these. I mean, she turned out to be right, but still.

Also, I hate that Shaw is still calling her Commander Hansen. Come on, man. I thought we were over this shit.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

It's a new thing. As you say, you could poke holes in it, but it's vague enough you could create some elaborate backstory that makes sense for it if you wanted to. And that's not really the clincher of the scene though. Even if that wasn't true, the 2nd part she brings up is the dead giveaway - which is a callback to the episode "Infinite Regress" where Seven gets Borg-induced multiple personality disorder as an excuse to get to watch Jeri Ryan go on a tour-de-force of capital-A Acting.
 
SpoonyBard

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
Y'know, if nothing else comes of this season we have at least been given an all-time great new Trek villain. Vadic is one of the best I've seen in a long time. She has the trifecta of genuine malevolence, unexpected sympathy, and an utterly engaging performance. Amanda Plummer is fantastic and I'll be kind of sad when Vadic (presumably) dies since it'll mean no more of her character.

Still a bit worried about Jack since this episode basically underscores that, no, it's not just Plot Brain Syndrome that's plaguing him, unless Picard ALSO had psychic powers all this time and just never let on about it. I honestly can't imagine what the deal is but maybe next episode is when we'll finally start to get some answers there?

Man, Troi has REALLY been underserved by this supposed TNG reunion, hasn't she? This episode's cameo has had more screentime and lines than her so far.
 
Lakupo

Lakupo

Comes and goes with the wind
(he/him)
SpoonyBard said:
Man, Troi has REALLY been underserved by this supposed TNG reunion, hasn't she? This episode's cameo has had more screentime and lines than her so far.
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I saw a tweet by Matalas about this: Marina Sirtis' schedule was apparently the most difficult to work around, which makes sense, she's British, travel is a bigger deal, etc. Contrast that with Frakes, who is usually already in town to direct half of the time. But I assume they'll all be together for the final few episodes, which is where you want to focus your actors' schedules.

Count me in the camp who is generally warming up to Jack over the course of the series, but hoping that the reason for everything clicks (also hoping that the big bad makes sense, but they've been pretty cagey so far). My husband's definitely more wary, and is ready to eye roll if Jack is the Kwisatz Haderach, which is still kind of a possibility after this week's episode.

At this point, the whole season has been really solid, so I'm just hoping they stick the landing.
 
Sprite

Sprite

(He/Him/His)
Enough of this season has been good to great that I’d be willing to forgive a flubbed ending. If nothing else I expect them to expand the lore in fun ways, which is something thing I’ve consistently enjoyed about this show.

My one fear is them revealing that this Jack is not actually Bev’s son but some sort of genetic experiment that replaced Jack. I don’t think they’d do something like that but Vadic sort of vaguely hinted at it.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

The thing about Troi is that she is basically cheat codes regarding detecting Changelings so even if there weren't scheduling conflicts or whatnot, the story kind of by necessity needs a reason for her to not really be involved until the end, you know? Like, if "How It Should Have Ended" ever makes a video on this season of Picard, they're just gonna be like Here's Deanna at the beginning of the season and she just immediately starts pointing "Changeling! Changeling!" And the plot is immediately resolved.
 
SpoonyBard

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
Yeah but Janeway has been named dropped so much.

Like so much.

Maybe he specifically said 'Janeway' instead of 'Admiral Janeway' to refer to the holographic Janeway from Prodigy as misdirection?
 
Lakupo

Lakupo

Comes and goes with the wind
(he/him)
I'm game for rampant speculation for future VOY cameos! Especially if Janeway and Chakotay are tied up in Prodigy land. (Definitely counting Chakotay out since Beltran said in an interview that he turned down a request to play the Confederacy Magistrate (a.k.a. Mr. Hansen) in Season 2)

Tom? B'Elanna? Both? Miral? The Doctor (now a famous novelist) Captain Kim? Admiral Kim?

But where are the DS9 cameos?
 
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