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I mean, there's previous franchise precedent for the switcheroo when Voyager cast somebody different to play the Queen during some of its episodes. But I assume they were just lowballing Krigg or something because they brought her back for the series finale which was the right decision since Krigg is great and iconic in that role. I'm just sayin' it's a weird decision. Unless she's like a secret weirdo or is hard to work with, idgi.is there any real reason why the Borg Queen would have to be the same actress over and over again?
NGL, that's uh. That's a choice. Since Alison Krigg is still out there and would probably love to get paid to be the Borg Queen again. Made more awkward since I keep seeing Krigg show up for their virtual convention-ish stuff.
This makes sense but it wasn't my first thought. Rather, I thought it was likely about handwaving away responsibility in general for crafting world-building lore for the 25th Century. I liked a lot of what S1 was doing in that regard, but most of it was just background flavor for a bunch of character studies that never felt properly/fully utilized. And maybe the show runners decided to shift gears and allow for a more disposable setting to keep doing those character studies that the show was obviously far more invested in, and allow some other future property to explore the 25th Century in earnest.Also I wonder if most of the season taking place in an altered timeline is how they're going to address not dealing with Picard being a Robutt? Feels very DIS S2 in handwaving away disliked plot points from S1 but I'm ok with that.
Honestly, it's perfectly in character for Captain Picard of TNG as well, IMO. It's just that back then, he had responsibilities to adhere to and thousands of people whose lives he was directly responsible for at any given moment. Pissing off an immortal god would have been a bad play, no matter how much he felt like telling Q off. (And he still did several times, let's not forget!) Just he's retired now and can say whatever he wants, it's great. For as much as it makes some people feel uncomfortable, I've adored this interpretation of the character because as someone who spends way too much of their time thinking about all the little mineuta of Star Trek, the evolution of this specific character has felt very genuine and been very entertaining.Is it out of character? For Captain Picard of TNG, yes. For Crotchety Old Man Picard? It works.
I thought it was likely about handwaving away responsibility in general for crafting world-building lore for the 25th Century. I liked a lot of what S1 was doing in that regard, but most of it was just background flavor for a bunch of character studies that never felt properly/fully utilized. And maybe the show runners decided to shift gears and allow for a more disposable setting to keep doing those character studies that the show was obviously far more invested in, and allow some other future property to explore the 25th Century in earnest.
I mean we already had Mirror Universe, and future earth being not in fed. It's like, enough already.I liked Picard Season 1 a lot, so I will check out Season 2.
However, the alternate earth with authoritarian government feels like well tread and tired ground. I'm not happy with that reveal, but I'll give Season 2 a chance.
I loved Picard. I was so, so pleased to be back with Jean-Luc again. But there are bits of it which feel like a betrayal of Star Trek, and I think it's sad that we apparently can't accept that there may be a time when things aren't shit any more. And there were bits where Picard was hugely out of his depth and it felt horrible. I mean, it's Picard, man.Again, I'm not critizising the show, I find it well done and enjoy watching it. And I'm very much looking forward to season 2. I'm just hungry for a new, utopian vision, that shows us that we can do it. Not with a small group of people, who act against the government body. But with a structure, that is open, helpful and welcoming. I know, we see grimmer stuff from the very start, but it just feels so different. Especially the start of Picard is so moody, about how everything went bad, and the structures failed, we move backwards again.
I've never for a second thought this was something that needed an explanation. Q is an asshole. Guinan has been around the block. They've run into each other in the past before and it obviously didn't go well. Whatever they'd possibly think up, isn't going to be as cool as whatever you imagine. I don't want or need Star Trek to fall into the trap of having Boba Fett Syndrome, of over explaining/showing things we already know happened because it'll inevitably just boring.I wonder if we'll get an explanation for Guinan and Q's antagonistic relationship.
I'm fine with Picard thematically. It's a pretty standard scenario of testing Star Trek's high ideals by putting characters/the setting through the ringer. It's easy to adhere to high minded morals from the safety of an ivory tower, it's a lot harder when things get messy and dirty and hard. It's just that instead of that happening over the course of a single episode, that journey was spread out over a whole season. In the moment, I think a lot of viewers get impatient with the show and don't let the story arc play out in full. The conclusion of PIC was extremely Star Trek and reaffirmed a lot of the Star Trek's core moralities. It was just a more bumpy road than usual.But there are bits of it which feel like a betrayal of Star Trek, and I think it's sad that we apparently can't accept that there may be a time when things aren't shit any more.
I've never for a second thought this was something that needed an explanation. Q is an asshole. Guinan has been around the block. They've run into each other in the past before and it obviously didn't go well. Whatever they'd possibly think up, isn't going to be as cool as whatever you imagine. I don't want or need Star Trek to fall into the trap of having Boba Fett Syndrome, of over explaining/showing things we already know happened because it'll inevitably just boring.
Or ludicrous. When O'Brien asked Worf about the plain-looking Klingons in Trials and Tribble-ations, his response of "we do not discuss it with outsiders" was sufficient. It wasn't necessary to go into a full explanation of why Klingons looked less alien in 1960s Trek, because the answer's already obvious... it was what the producers could afford with the budget they were given. We didn't need some plot-filling spackle about an augment virus in Star Trek: Enterprise.
I didn't mind the Klingon/Augment story arc. I thought it was fine. I'm amenable to arguments that view it as superfluous as other things I described. It probably is. But it's at least done in a way that actually brought more texture to Klingon society, and fit naturally into other related story plots here. To me, if you're gonna do something like this, I thought this was the best possible outcome and only possible if you do a lot of hard lifting in the writing department to make things interesting. Examining Klingons as this society that was once vibrant and diverse and valued the arts and sciences, but was in decline because the culture had begun ignoring academia and other niches of society in favor of jingoism I thought was a stroke of brilliance, and this episode played a hand in that. I don't know how expanding on what made Guinan hate Q would bring to the table with regards to meaningful expansion of lore in the same ways.It wasn't necessary to go into a full explanation of why Klingons looked less alien in 1960s Trek
That's the thing though. We don't see in Picard a Federation that "failed"; I object to that evaluation. We see one that was infiltrated, subverted, and tempted by the darker impulses of humanity by bad faith actors. It took time to identify that was the fact through the course of the entire season, but they got things sorted out by the end. Here's the thing about PIC S1. To me it's a very obvious allegory to the struggles we deal with today in modern times and the encroachment of fascism. These things happen, and will always happen. And when it does, the way to deal with it is for good people to stand up and fight, even when they may feel helpless or hopeless or even defeated - like Picard does at the beginning of the show. By the end, things get sorted out exactly because a few moral people in the right place and time take a stand and fight back and work to expose the rot to sunlight so that it can get excised before it's too late. That's the kind of prescient, thoughtful, valid for modern dilemmas, moralizing that is core Star Trek.it's a bit different when it's the Federation that's failed