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Man, what a coincidence that the implants needed to save Seven’s life just happened to look exactly like her old ones!
Spoiler:
True, but honestly of all the convenient elements, that make sense. Chances are the Implants used to save her were in part based on the memory of her before by Jurati and influenced how they were adapted to her appearance.
Overall solid episode but kind of felt a little like two squished into one. A few of the combat choices felt forced by situation to get to the desired end game. Eg no one runs across an open field with dozens of armed warriors with no cover and survives; or how Picard paused for a lot of the internal parts of the house for memory and revelations as if he knew what was happening on the ship at the same time.
That said I'm glad we've got closure on Picard's troubled past. A dark part of the story to be sure.
The new Queen of a new Borg fits very nicely into the established ideas. What is most curious to me now is how this event actually started. Because its the appearance of this new queen and her new hive in the Main time line that triggered all these events. At least so far as we know right now. So right now they are preserving a self-fulfilling destiny. However we have to wonder how it all started the first time. What triggered everything to go down this pathway the first time to create this new Borg collective.
It's an answer I hope we get from our next meeting with Q who also still has an unresolved story to be told in this. We are on the home run now, getting some but not all the answers.
I thought the series started strongly (time travel, hurrah!) but has gone downhill.
We now have immortal, god-like beings being shown up as impotent, Picard with some dark, repressed memories, and now finally what many regard as 'the' big baddie of TNG reduced to.. something that asks for consent for assimilation? This after we find out they do it, because they are afraid of being alone in the galaxy (!) Is there no-one without any hang-ups?!
It feels like they have literally neutered anyone that used to stand out as a threat, and actually trampled on the background with some pretty poor plotting (the problem being, in the past the episodes and storyline often revolved around the responses to those threats). Am now waiting to find out that Q does what he does because he was abandoned at a young age and has mummy issues.
Way, way too much 'me time' and ill-timed moments of reflection (you're having this conversation now, while borg-implanted killers are hunting you?!) between the characters too, I honestly found myself drifting off at parts of it, which is something I have never done with other series (even the more dull episodes of Voyager or Enterprise).
I would still say it is better than Discovery, but that's really not saying much. Very disappointed.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/05/03 13:07:49
If its a race to the bottom, I think that last episode of Picard has taken the lead. I haven't seen an action oriented episode fall apart like this since Animorphs.
Its easily on par with the worst excesses of Discovery, but that show at least gets better over time.
I'm honestly not expecting to like "Strange New Worlds". I really want to. I really miss having new star-trek that I actually want to watch... but at this point I just don't expect it's going to be any different/better than Picard or Discovery.
Some mild spoilers in their episode descriptions in the second half of the video but the first half is spoiler free. Basically like old TV guide couple line episode preview entries.
We Munch for Macragge! FOR THE EMPRUH! Cheesesticks and Humus!
So, CBS/Paramount ended the 20 year novel-verse continuity by killing all the characters in mostly-horrible ways, blowing up their universe, then erasing the timeline from ever having existed at all. The characters did this on purpose, sacrificing themselves so at least the Picard TV Show timeline could exist.
I’m having some strong feelings about this decision, and not ones that make me want to watch Picard.
Ah. I knew they ended things and you might have referenced it before but I didn't know the destruction of the novels multidecade beta canon was so complete.
Why would they do that? ST novels have never enjoyed even the 'well um kinda sorta but not' canon status that Star Wars books had prior to the Legends rebranding.
They could have just as easily have not addressed it at all.
Episode 10 - much better than the one from the season 1. Still do not know why
Spoiler:
Q had to die
Also there seem to be retcon as to the date of
Spoiler:
Khan's creation
But the biggest surprise was the appearance of
Spoiler:
Wesley Crusher
Overall, I am happy that I decided to watch the entire season. Yes, it had it flaws, but it still was fun, and felt as ST show, unlike Abrams or DIS(aster). Now, the waiting for the season 3, and the meeting of my favourite crew, begins
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/05/05 11:35:48
Man, the whole experiment gal, culminating with that special appearance, really feels like a long back door pilot to a spin-off they want to make.
Why does it always have to be about the Galaxy with you? Can’t it just be about one life? Immediately followed by a cataclysmic event that will kill billions. Which was just a really weird event in itself.
Ah. I knew they ended things and you might have referenced it before but I didn't know the destruction of the novels multidecade beta canon was so complete.
Enjoyed New Worlds. Pretty simple single world story so far. Bit on the nose but that’s how things are these days. Spock’s deadpan delivery of lines is amazing, truly a treat. I also loved Kirk’s appearance.
I've been rolling my eyes at every headline talking about the return of Kirk and every time they mention him by name in this first episode.
Spoiler:
That it turned out to be George "Sam" Kirk is super amusing to me.
Also, did they name the shuttle that brought Pike up from earth after Paul Stamets?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, hey. I was expecting to hate La'An Noonien-Singh, but I thought she made a decent, Yar-esque addition to the core dynamic. Hopefully she'll still get to do stuff as the series progresses.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/05/05 20:54:16
Gamgee on Tau Players wrote:we all kill cats and sell our own families to the devil and eat live puppies.
Kanluwen wrote: This is, emphatically, why I will continue suggesting nuking Guard and starting over again. It's a legacy army that needs to be rebooted with a new focal point.
Confirmation of why no-one should listen to Kanluwen when it comes to the IG - he doesn't want the IG, he want's Kan's New Model Army...
tneva82 wrote: You aren't even trying ty pretend for honest arqument. Open bad faith trolling.
- No reason to keep this here, unless people want to use it for something...
My wife and I watched the first episode of “Star-Trek: Strange New Worlds” last night.
We are incredibly conflicted. The thing is, neither of us expected to be anything but angry at it. We expected it to be, well, pretty much like all the other Kurtzman shows (what is sometimes called “nu-trek”) and pretty much ignore everything actually star-trek and just focus on creating a lot of melodrama and ridiculous action sequences.
But it wasn't.
We actually liked it. We actually liked it a lot! For the first time in YEARS we saw a new Star-Trek show that actually felt something like Star-Trek. There were likable characters, non-violent resolutions, a brightly lit ship, a bit of humor, philosophy, and a focus on exploration. We honestly couldn't believe it. My wife, in particular, hadn't even wanted to watch it because she was so convinced it would only make us both mad.
So now we are conflicted. We desperately want it to keep being good, we are interested to see where it goes, and we want to be able to trust that the show will keep looking and feeling like the sort of Trek that we love... but we just don't trust Kurtzman. At all.
Basically, we were burned so bad before (and multiple times too!) that trusting this man and this new take on the franchise is going to take a little more than a good opening episode.
But we are hopeful. By the Emperor, we are hopeful...
Ok so I think the only part I dislike is the way the New Borg negotiated control over the fleet; especially the part where Picard issues the order for the fleet to stand down and not resist control by the Borg in that moment. Considering that that's just what the Borg say when taking over and, at that stage only he and the others from the time jump are even loosely aware of what's going on (indeed the others appear to not be fully aware at the start and then gradually more aware as moments pass).
That's really the only oddity. The "these are good Borg" was just a touch too fast.
Otherwise a very solid episode. I'm glad we saw the Khan elements arise; a hint that the original timeline was going to do just what it should.
Wesley appearing was interesting, but also gave some closure to the Watchers aspect. A bit pushed in there, but an interesting element I think.
We neve got an answer about the El and the Q and, I'm ok with that. It's a puzzle that maybe one day we learn the answer too or never do - ST I think has to have those to keep the wonder going.
The new Trans Warp link is interesting. My gut feeling is "Aliens from another Galaxy" considering that they've done so much with the Milky Way on a grand scale. Considering that 2 quadrants are dominated by Starfleet; 1 by the Founders and 1 by the Borg the Galaxy is quite full of major threats and power players; so perhaps stepping outside will be an interesting way to revisit a lot of the magic and wonder of exploration for the series. Certainly better than jumping forward or back in time which seems to not really work well with the writers.
Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios
Dysartes wrote: Yeah, I suspect Noonien-Singh to be a slow-burning plot point of some form - as well as a character.
That would require the show to have plot in the first place. Not the random sequence of events that just... happen as the characters bumble around.
New Trek is what would happen if you brought a bad star trek fan-fiction to the screen where the author has inserted themselves as Picard and acts completely contrary to the established character.
I was never the biggest Star Trek fan, I'm not a fan of the overly optimistic sci-fi. I do prefer gritty sci-fi, but that is exactly what makes star trek star trek. It doesn't work as a gritty sci-fi. If they wanted to make a gritty sci-fi, they should have made some new IP OR just looked for any number of existing minor IPs that would have fit what they wanted to do.
I kinda liked Star Trek as a corny lighthearted sci-fi that had episodic self-contained stories. The setting only works well when you do that. If you try to make it some gritty commentary it just falls flat, especially when the writers just cannot write stuff in even remotely passable ways.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/05/07 04:02:19
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
DS9 did well with a lot of its grittier stuff but that only worked because it was funny as well and still followed the Star Trek mandate of telling you to not be a horrible person. The Xindi arc for Enterprise also did it really well.
There are bits of humour in Picard and there's the whole Patrick Stewart doing his speeches thing but it feels like such a letdown for so much of it. NGL I did like what they did with Q.
Spoiler:
Saw the Rios stuff coming a thousand miles away but I did like bits of Anges/Queen.
this was a good episode, sure it had its problems but I am willing to overlook a little in the hopes of getting Star Trek back and none of the NuTrek crap we have been subjected to with STD and "Picard"
That was actually a much better final episode than I had feared and hundred times better than the gak show of season one final episode.
It was still a narrative mess but the scenes between Q and Picard were good.
Spoiler:
Q ending was well done - although were there Q like flashes in the final scene?
Is that end of the Continum as none turned up to the summoning - and when exactly does Q die as he was alive in the future.....??
The Rios stuff was telegraphed from the moment he met the Dr but was done quite nicely so happy with that.
Seven was good - when they actually gave her something to do which was rare
The New Borg Q has possibilities
which only leaves us with the one character I really can't stand as:
Raffi reverted to unpleasent type as a neurotic clingy mess - def not starfleet material never mind a Captain! Get rid of her and give Seven a more worthy girlfriend/boyfriend - whatever
Some wierd mixed up messages:
Choose your own destiny - but we monitor and control the outcomes?!
Sorry but Wesley Crusher ruling and choosing the "right" timelines sounds a horrible idea - who decided that he was god?
Did he get rid of the Q?
It all really felt quite weak next to something like the Expanse - although Naomi = Raffi.....
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/05/09 15:28:52
I AM A MARINE PLAYER
"Unimaginably ancient xenos artefact somewhere on the planet, hive fleet poised above our heads, hidden 'stealer broods making an early start....and now a bloody Chaos cult crawling out of the woodwork just in case we were bored. Welcome to my world, Ciaphas."
Inquisitor Amberley Vail, Ordo Xenos
"I will admit that some Primachs like Russ or Horus could have a chance against an unarmed 12 year old novice but, a full Battle Sister??!! One to one? In close combat? Perhaps three Primarchs fighting together... but just one Primarch?" da001
Wesley teleported out so I suspect that whilst he is no longer fully human, he's not like a Q with inherent powers. He's reliant on technology. It's more that he's part of a "secret time police" group it seems.
I suspect that its the natural concept for any setting where time travel is possible because eventually more and more races would discover it. As a result the potential to mess with time becomes greater and greater and that's before you get to species like the Q who can do it themselves without any technological advance.
It's an interesting way to bring him back and it did answer the whole "destiny of a family" being protected.
Q is interesting in the concept of "When" he died. His species lifespan suggests that it could be an infinite span of time that he's been around to then come back to this time period to die.
Then again his close relationship with Picard in this moment, his legacy in this moment, suggests that perhaps its much closer. Because otherwise he could have outlived humanity itself not just Picard. Over such an infinite timespan it seems almost beyond belief that he'd choose this one man to come back to of all the untold numbers of others he's likely interacted with.
