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Sparky Prime
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Re: Star Trek

Post by Sparky Prime »

Picard season 2 episode 5
Spoiler
"Laris" transports Picard to her apartment. Picard once again calls her Laris, and she introduces herself as Tallinn, confused as to why Picard keeps calling her Laris. She explains that she's a supervisor, assigned to watch over and protect a single individual, without ever making herself known. Picard realizes she's like an individual Kirk's Enterprise encountered, Gary Seven (I don't recall him being able to mind control people like we saw in the previous episode). Apparently she just happens to look exactly like Laris, albeit human. I kinda get the impression there is more to it though, like maybe Laris is somehow a descendant of Tallinn or something. At any rate, the person Tallinn is watching over is Renee Picard, Jean Luc's ancestor (which I guess explains why Guinan thought she'd want to talk to him once she learned his name is Picard, but begs to question how/why Guinan knew Tallinn's mission, especially since they apparently didn't get along). Renee is meant to go on a mission to Europa in a few days, but her nerves are starting to get the better of her, and Q is trying to convince her not to go (posing as a psychiatrist). Picard says they'll need the help of his crew if they are to prevent the divergence in the timeline. Meanwhile, Seven and Raffi save Rios from the deportation bus (they discuss beaming him out, but decide that'd be bad with so many witnesses, not that it stopped them from blindly beaming into LA), using their tricorder to create an EMP to disable it (and apparently an EMP can also knock out the driver? They use it against him when they get on the bus to free everybody. Also have to question their logic for potentially changing the timeline here, since they let everybody off the bus that would have gotten deported in the original timeline. They don't even go into that.). Pretty anticlimactic end to this side story and was way too easy. Ultimately this did nothing related to the plot. They could have completely avoided all of it if Raffi hadn't been so recklessly hot headed when they arrived.

Back at the ship, the Borg Queen gets access to local cell phone signals after Jirati goes to get some sleep in the Chateau (the Queen's voice doesn't have access, so she starts faking the crew's voices. Despite Picard ordering the cloak online in a previous episode, for some reason, the computer says his voice doesn't have access in this episode. Only Rio's voice works). She calls the police, and a cop comes to investigate. I guess the cloak isn't maintaining a stable field or whatever, since it keeps shimmering, which the cop notices. Somehow he finds his way into the ship. Rather than straight up assimilating him, the Queen captures him and calls Jirati back to the ship. I guess she wants to assimilate Jirati, but says she'll settle for the cop if she refuses. Having taken a shotgun that was mounted on the wall of the Chateau (why was it loaded if it was mounted to the wall?!), Jirati kills the Queen to save the cop (but not before the Queen injects Jirati with nanoprobes). Jirati beams Seven, Rios and Raffi back to the ship, while Picard and Tallinn arrive through her own method of transportation, and catch the crew up on what they've learned.

Elsewhere, because of Q's inability to use his powers, he enlists the help of Adam Soong (Brent Spiner once again playing the role of the Soong men). Adam has a daughter (the actress who plays Soji filling this role) with a rare genetic disorder that prevents her from going outside (apparently he also had a son that has died, but don't really go into what happened to him), and despite his expertise in the field, he hasn't found a cure for her himself (he has also had is license revoked and funding taken away for running illegal experiments on former soldiers... pretty sure he should be in jail for that). Q gives him a cure, but the effects wear off after a while, forcing Adam to work with Q (to do... something to Renee) if he wants the permanent cure. (Not sure how Q has access to this cure without his abilities. Unless maybe he does still have his powers, but just can't affect Renee for some reason. Be nice if the series addressed it, or told us why Q thinks this is necessary if he's already manipulating Renee in other ways. Also, side note, Adam has drones that can create forcefields that protects his daughter from the sun. Pretty sure we are not 2 years away from that type of technology.)

With Renee Picard's launch only a couple days away, Picard and company decide if they can keep her in the program until the astronauts go into pre-launch quarantine, it'll be impossible for her to back out (if she's having anxiety attacks and stuff, it's not realistic that NASA would keep her on the mission). There is a "high security" gala (I get it's a high profile mission, but I doubt NASA would facial recognition and all this stuff) that night that they decide to crash... Jirati is sent to hack the security (apparently she's the only one with the skills necessary... Wasn't her expertise building/programming androids? How does she have the skills to hack what would be antiquated tech from her perspective? EDIT: Apparently I missed a throwaway line that Jirati took "antique coding". And wouldn't Seven have the necessary skills for this? These writers don't seem to know just how intelligent Seven is supposed to be.) it's revealed to us that the Borg Queen is inside Jirati's head.

Jean Luc doesn't seem to know much about Renee Picard. He says whatever records remain from before First Contact were chaotic. She apparently plays a big part in early exploration of the solar system and discovers a microorganism on Io at some point that she believes may be sentient, and convinces the mission commander to bring it back to Earth.
This was better than last weeks episode. Still has a lot of contrived story elements though.
Last edited by Sparky Prime on Mon Apr 04, 2022 9:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Star Trek

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Strange New Worlds has posted their first official trailer, after a week of character introduction videos.

They've made some modifications to the Enterprise. It now has windows across the top forward half of the rim of the saucer, and lost some of the windows that had been in the middle of the rim. I'm guessing just so they could make new lounge (like 10 Forward on the Enterprise D) and crew quarters sets with these views of space. I have to say, I don't like them. It's an odd aesthetic for the ship to only have them on the top half of the saucer, and it just looks wrong for this Enterprise to have so many windows on it. I've always liked the sense of technological progression in the design lineage between the shows. Like the NX-class was meant to be submarine like with limited cramped spaces, slowly progressing to the luxury ship that the Galaxy-class essentially is. These creators don't seem to understand that progressive lineage.

Pike knowing his eventual fate (thanks to events in Discovery with magical time crystals, which they explain he cannot escape once he took said crystal) also feels problematic. He knows nothing will happen to him until then. So wouldn't that allow him to take risks he wouldn't ordinarily?

However, I have to say I am intrigued. Pike being in Discovery was one of the best things that series has done, the popularity of which obviously giving us this series. Given their track record, hopefully the creators wont screw it up... Strange New Worlds premieres May 5th, about a month from now.
Last edited by Sparky Prime on Mon Apr 04, 2022 9:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Star Trek

Post by andersonh1 »

I'm curious to watch Strange New Worlds. Like Picard, it probably won't happen until it's out on physical media, but I may get Paramount+ for a month when both seasons are done and binge watch. We'll see.
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Re: Star Trek

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An announcement of the cast for the 3rd, and final, season of Star Trek Picard was made today in honor of First Contact Day....
Spoiler
Joining Patrick Steward will be a reunion of TNG cast. Johnathan Franks, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner will all return.

I'd be excited but unfortunately... My first thought is that I hope they don't screw up Worf's make-up. He'll be the first nu-Trek Klingon we've seen since season 2 of Discovery, which was better than season 1's Klingons, but still pretty bad. And I'm wondering what role Brent Spiner will be playing. With Data's (second) death in season 1 of Picard, I'd have to assume he will return as Altan Inigo Soong.
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Re: Star Trek

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Picard season 2 episode 6
Spoiler
Jurati uses a device to knock out everyone in the security room (they never searched/confiscated anything from her? And how long until someone notices the security in this room have gone silent?) and with the Borg Queen's help (I assume the nanites in her blood have enhanced her strength?), breaks free of the handcuffs to upload the false ID information (apparently all she needed to do was plug in a USB drive, again making me question why she was the "only one" with the skills to do this) as Picard and crew make it to the front of the line.

Picard and Tallinn seem to be the only ones keeping tabs on Renee. Jurati starts arguing with the Borg Queen, Seven socializes, Rios walks around, and Raffi hangs out by the bar. Renee eventually texts Q that she's quitting as soon as the gala is over, and Picard goes to confront her, but he's confronted by Adam Soong. He explains he doesn't want to get between whatever it is between Picard and Q, but he has no choice, and alerts security to Picard (who really don't make much effort to reach him). However, Jurati causes a distraction by turning out all the lights and performs a song. The change in her endorphins allowing the Borg Queen to take control over her body (I am guessing the Borg Queen isn't straight up assimilating her, as least outwardly, to keep her presence hidden, but why would Jurati's emotional state make any difference?). Picard finds Renee in another wing and gives her a talk about his mother and fear, which convinces her to rejoin the other astronauts. But on their way back to the gala, Soong hits Picard with his car (not sure why they ended up outside, when it didn't look like they'd left the building before. And I think Q could have managed this... why did he need Soong?).

Renee is said to have rejoined the other astronauts, so they were apparently successful. Meanwhile, Rios suggests taking Picard to the same clinic he'd gone to several episodes ago, because the bio bed back at the ship isn't a doctor. The doctor finds Picard unusual, especially when his synthetic body overloads the heart defibrillator (I'm thinking they would have had more luck with the bio bed), but after stabilizing him, the doctor says she doesn't know what's wrong with Picard. Everything working but it's like he's in a coma. After she leaves, Tallinn uses her technology to find he's not in a coma at all, his brain is actually hyper active, trapping him in some memory (whatever trauma he experienced with his mother). She suggests using her technology to perform a "jury-rigged mind meld" to get him out of it. Soong meanwhile returns to his daughter, Kore, clearly upset but doesn't tell her what's going on. She decides to snoop on his computer, and finds articles about his disgrace for his illegal practices as well as pictures and videos she doesn't remember. In his research vlog, he mentions various names she doesn't know before saying that Kore is the last one (suggesting that she's a clone).

And Jurati, with the Borg Queen still in control over her body, is shown wandering the streets of L.A....
This felt like a really short episode. Mostly, it just sets things up for the next episode but not a lot really happened. I have to question why Rios, Seven and Raffi even went to the gala. Pretty sure Seven didn't even have any dialog whatsoever. It's frustrating because it feels like the writers don't know what to do with these characters. Renee Picard didn't feel like a real character either. All we see of her is her insecurity.
Last edited by Sparky Prime on Fri Apr 15, 2022 1:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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andersonh1
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Re: Star Trek

Post by andersonh1 »

Sparky Prime wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 11:30 am An announcement of the cast for the 3rd, and final, season of Star Trek Picard was made today in honor of First Contact Day....
Spoiler
Joining Patrick Steward will be a reunion of TNG cast. Johnathan Franks, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner will all return.

I'd be excited but unfortunately... My first thought is that I hope they don't screw up Worf's make-up. He'll be the first nu-Trek Klingon we've seen since season 2 of Discovery, which was better than season 1's Klingons, but still pretty bad. And I'm wondering what role Brent Spiner will be playing. With Data's (second) death in season 1 of Picard, I'd have to assume he will return as Altan Inigo Soong.
Nice. I hope the writing is good and that they don't waste the opportunity to see all these actors reunited. I wonder who Brent Spiner is going to play?
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Re: Star Trek

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Picard season 2 episode 7
Spoiler
Picard (in his mind) is in a therapy session with Dr. Gaius Baltar... Well no not really, but the counselor is played by James Callis, and he is about the only highlight of this episode as he plays this role very well. For some reason, he's in a DS9/Voyager era uniform. The session which going anywhere, as Picard refuses to open up. And why didn't Troi ever pick up on whatever it is Picard wont open up about? Well the writers thought of that, but lazily explain it away. The counselor points out Picard has buried it so deeply that even a Betazoid can't detect it. :roll: I'm not sure where this setting is supposed to be. It's on a starship, and at one point Picard calls it his ready room, but it's not a ready room we've ever seen before. Finally, the therapist convinces Picard to tell him a story, and he begins the story we've been seeing of Picard as a child with his mother. Monsters arrive and they escape to the catacombs under the chateau, but Picard's mother is captured by unseen forces. At this point, Tallinn enters his mind and begins to help the younger Picard. He says they need to save his mother behind the white door.

Seven and Raffi return to the ship because Jurati isn't responding and they need to find her. Seven discovers the computer has been encrypted with Borg algorithms, which she is able to break but discovers it was Jurati herself that put them in place. They leave to track her down in LA, and find a bar where she'd broken a window. Seven realizes she's been assimilated by the Borg Queen and is trying to speed up the process with endorphins. What do endorphins have to do with speeding up the assimilation process? We've seen nanoprobes will assimilate an individual in a matter of minutes. Is it different because it's a Queen? If so, why? At any rate, Seven realizes they may have just doomed the future, as Jurati is becoming a new Queen, and will assimilate Earth if they can't find and stop her. Back at the clinic, Rios reveals to the doctor (and her kid) that he's from Chile but works in outer space (we get it, the writers watched Star Trek 4 shortly before getting to work on this season, it was cute in the earlier episodes, but it is getting old), not only because of Tallinn's mind link with Picard, but Rios beams in a medical device to help stabilize Picard, which he gives to the doctor, despite she's got no idea what it is or does, but it works just by waving it over his head. Why didn't they just take Picard back to the ship in the previous episode? They could have done this themselves. I guess to further convince them of his honesty, Rios decides to beam them to his ship. Granted, telling people in the past about the future happens often in Star Trek time travel stories, but they're already trusting him. This feels like he's going out of his way and is unnecessary.

Back in Picard's mind, the older Picard joins his younger self and Tallinn at the white door, where the therapist is revealed to actually be Picard's father (who claims Picard lived longer than him but he got to keep his hair... despite appearing as a bald old man in TNG). Picard calls him a monster for what he did to his mother. His father reveals his mother had a mental disorder and was obsessed with getting lost in the dark. The catacombs were dangerous, so he tried to protect her from herself by locking her in the room with the white door. The older Picard realizes he may not have truly known his father. This is not the sort of relationship we saw Picard had with him in TNG. He (and his brother) wasn't happy that he joined Starfleet, but there was no indication they had a troubled relationship beyond that. Tallinn tells the younger Picard he would use this pain to help millions of civilizations, before realizing this isn't the end of this story, as he produces a key to the door... However, Picard wakes up and the link is broken. Having witnessed some of Picard's inner demons, she reveals to him she's actually a Romulan after all (and cannot hide her ear again for 8 hours because of a limitation of the technology?) and Picard realizes she must be an ancestor to Laris. Apparently, most supervisors are sent to watch over their own species, but sometimes similar species are sent to watch over other planets. Don't know why, the episode doesn't elaborate any further than that.

Picard is caught up to speed on the situation with Jurati, and Picard believes there is more to why Q had them come here. Needing to talk to Q, Picard revisits Guinan who tells him the El-Aurian's once fought a war with the Q Continuum, and declared a truce over a bottle. Using the magic of the bottle (because the El-Aurian's believe in the power of words and the moment or something, I dunno, this whole scene made no sense to me) Guinan attempts to summon Q, but it fails, which stumps her. However an FBI agent with footage of Picard beaming to the bar shows up out with a whole squad that comes out of no where and arrests them. Kinda reminded me of the police arresting everyone at the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Seems out of place for the FBI to be arresting Picard for beaming into LA, not to mention how would they know he's back at 10 Forward Avenue the next day? It has been pointed out the head agent (Wells) is the same actor that played Lieutenant Ducane in Voyager's "Relativity", leading to some fans speculating he may be reprising his role as a time agent from the 29th century.... But I doubt these writers are that clever.
This was one of the biggest WFT stories we've had this season. I'm disappointed they didn't really resolve this inner turmoil Picard has going, because I was hoping this would be the last they'd focus on it. At this point it feels like they're needlessly dragging it out. Why is a man in his 90's even still dealing with childhood trauma, which he apparently doesn't remember accurately (which both seems intentional and unintentional)? Overall, disappointing episode. The plot feels very disjointed. They have yet to explain how any of these plot thread tie together, and with only 3 episodes left of the season, they really should have started to by now...
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Re: Star Trek

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Picard season 2 episode 8
Spoiler
Despite FBI agent guy being played by the same actor as a Temporal Agent in Voyager which a lot of fans seemed to think would be one in the same... He's not. Just as I'd thought, the writers were not creative, so he's a new unrelated character, just a regular FBI agent who happened to have a close encounter with a couple Vulcans as a kid. Although, he's named Wells, which was the class of ship the USS Relativity belonged to... which seems too much of a coincidence for them not to be aware of the casting and his previous role in Voyager. And if so, it's such a waste. At any rate, one of the Vulcans tried to mind meld with him presumably to erase the memory of the encounter, but was beamed away before he could complete the process (Couple of things... didn't Enterprise establish Vulcans didn't mind meld for hundreds of years, save for outcast groups or in secret? Wouldn't beaming away mid-mind meld cause brain damage or something? And did Vulcans have transporter technology at this point? Even through the 22nd century, we didn't see Vulcans using transporters, they always landed or docked their ships). So Wells became obsessed with aliens and thought he finally caught a break when a friend of his that keeps an eye on security camera feeds sent him Picard beaming to 10 Forward.

After being completely absent in the last episode, Kore uses a VR headset to look around her father's lab where she encounters Q (he programmed himself in... somehow?). He offers her the cure to her conditional while revealing tidbits of her true nature. She confronts her father about the others before her, and convinced he loves his work rather than her, leaves him, having taken the cure. Not sure where she expects to go or do. Having grown up in a bubble and having no money, I'd think she'd have a hard time assimilating into society.

While in the FBI custody, Guinan is visited by Q. Apparently the summoning at the end of the previous episode worked after all, but without his powers, Q had to walk. Yet he could get FBI clothes and see someone in FBI custody in an FBI building without credentials or questions? This is such lazy writing. Does he have his powers to be able to do stuff like this without question, or not? I was really hoping for more from this scene as well. Q mentions they haven't had their encounter yet, so whatever happened between them that TNG mentioned hasn't happened yet. Guinan senses that Q is dying. Q confirms this, saying he was excited at first having grown bored with existence. But now he fears he's just fading away. He then tells her that it's not the trap that's important, it's about how they escape. Whatever that means. Oh, and Guinan apparently can send telepathic messages now, although it takes a great deal of effort. I have no idea why the writers put FBI side plot into the show. Guinan and Picard spend the whole episode in an FBI basement, and it's literally a waste of time. It adds nothing to the plot. In the end, despite Picard telling him the truth, Wells is fired for "crying alien" and has to let them go. Even though he came up with evidence that Rios (complete with a confession about being from the future... even though he told that to a guard who didn't believe him and wasn't recorded or written down) had been arrested by ICE and they were all at the NASA gala. How'd he even get approval to raid Guinan's bar?

On the La Sirena, Rios gets closer to the doctor while trying to clear the ship of any Borg programs that may still be around, resulting in the transporter going offline. Meanwhile, Seven and Raffi are still at the bar that Queen/Jurati broke the window of. The pacing is really off here. Have they just been standing on the street this whole time while Picard and Guinan were arrested and held for presumably hours? Seven also gets mad at Raffi pushing her to think like the Queen and calls her manipulative (uh, okay? Not sure how Raffi is manipulative, she often times just comes across impetuous to me). And we get a flashback to Raffi convincing Elnor to stay in Starfleet. Not sure why this is scene is in this episode. It really doesn't fit with anything going on. I guess it's to show us Raffi kinda blames herself for Elnor's death? Really falls flat if that's what it's meant to do, since we never really got to see any sort of relationship between them. Anyway, they ask a guy cleaning up where she went, they find a dead guy and his cell phone down the street, and she'd eaten the battery. Seven explains Borg us something similar the lithium metal in the battery to stabilize the nanites in the blood or something, I dunno, honestly this explanation is pure garbage because the writers clearly have no idea how a cell phone battery actually works. Around the corner they find her eating car batteries. Which is a lead-acid battery and goes completely against the explanation Seven just gave, showing us the writers have no idea how batteries in general work. Not to mention how toxic these chemicals would be to organic tissue... Anyway, Queen nearly kills Raffi, but Jurati asserts a moment of control, drops her and walks off. Rather than go after her, they just sit there for a while, and check the search history of a cell phone of someone she killed to find out what she's planning... Queen/Jurati has gone to Adam Soong and explains he's at a fork in the road. In one history, Renee Picard brings back a microbe that makes all of his work obsolete. In another, society collapses and they turn to him to fix it (wait... so the Borg Queen is offering to help Soong create the timeline in which the Confederation destroys the Collective by the 25th century?). Soong agrees to help her and calls in some ex-special forces (as a discredited scientist? how?). Queen/Jurati has managed to create enough nano-probes to assimilate them (and they're all fine with this? They don't seem to react or object when they watch her do it! and why is it taking her so long to create new nano-probes? Seven mentions something about the crudity of materials available to her they'd be "primitive", but if nanoprobes could turn a mobile emitter and a work console into an incubation chamber over night, I'd think "primitive" in construction or not, they'd still work just as quickly). Although it's looking like they'll just be mind-controlled by the Queen rather than become fully Borg. I'm not really sure if they're planning on killing Renee Picard, or as Picard suggests (after he's filled in on the situation), if they're going to go after the La Sirena. And if she's going after the La Sirena... why didn't she just return after the gala two episodes ago? Why wander around the city for a day?
This was such a bad episode. Save for maybe the last 10 minutes, it felt like a complete waste of time. Only two episodes left of the season, and they have a LOT of work to do to finish this season off...
Last edited by Sparky Prime on Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Star Trek

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Picard season 2 episode 9
Spoiler
Rios is unable to prevent a remote signal that activates the transporter system. A whole army (they had like a dozen people in the previous episode, how'd they get this many people? And where did all the women who where part of the group at the end of the previous episode disappear to? They're all men now) of primitive, half assimilated ex-special forces beams down around Chateau Picard and inside La Sirena, along with Queen/Jurati. Not sure why, but the transport effect appears green here, despite they're using the La Sirena transporter systems... Even if it is infected with Borg algorithms, it should be the Federation blue colored beam. At any rate, Rios is able to get his doctor friend and her kid out. The Queen goes to her old body and transfers her old suit to her new body (apparently it's made of nanites?). She does to activate the ships engines but finds Jurati prevents her from doing so. Jurati tells her she's been poking around her mind and says the Borg only exist because the Queen was lonely :roll: to which the Queen denies. Queen gets control back to touch the helm, but is locked out of the system. Somehow, Jurati was able to lockout the ships systems, and hid the encryption key in a combat hologram she created using Elnor because the ship can make a holographic version of anyone that steps foot on it (apparently including their memories and feelings as well). Which she activates (why would she tell her where the key is and then show it to her?!?!? She says she's smart enough not to have memorized the key for the Queen to just take it from her mind, and then literally activates the program it's hidden in?! Where is the logic in telling the Queen she hid it only to reveal exactly where?!) and tells him to defend the ship (if Jurati is talking to the Queen from inside her mind, how could she talk to the Elnor hologram?), to which he complies and begins attacking the drones (and... dodging their bullets... If he's a hologram, why bother? The bullets can pass right through him).

Outside, Picard and company use Tallinn's transporter to arrive at the Chateau, where they meet up with Rios and are quickly pinned down by the drones. I have to say, I like how the laser sights on their guns emulates the what we'd normally see on the side of a drone's head. Rios is shot in the arm so Picard has him and the two civilians beamed back to Tallinn's apartment and locked out of the system so they stay out of trouble. Adam Soong arrives telling Picard they're fighting for a better future, to which Picard argues he's doing the same. Using the Chateau as cover, Picard and Tallinn split up from Seven and Raffi so they can circle around to get to the La Sirena, as Picard experiences flashbacks to playing hide and seek with his mother. They end up in the catacombs under the Chateau, while Seven and Raffi make a run for the ship out in the open, not expecting to survive. They make it onto the ship without incident :roll: and meet the Elnor hologram (I noticed he has mobile emitter on his sleeve, although I'm not sure why when the ship has holoprojectors throughout, and he never tries to leave the ship. Although he probably should to keep the key he carries out of the Queens hands). Raffi apologizes to him, despite knowing he's not really Elnor. Giving Seven access to the ship's systems, she beams all the drones halfway into the walls in the catacombs (back to the blue beam effect), right in front of Picard and Tallinn for some reason, who are still being pursued by Soong and drones. The Queen (equipped with a transport inhibitor) assimilates the Elnor hologram and severely injures Seven. Jurati prevents her from killing Seven, and has a talk about forming a kinder, gentler Collective. :roll: Jurati also points out the Borg loose in every single timeline (Erm, excuse me? Everything the can happen does happen in an alternate timeline. The Borg would win in some timelines. We even saw in "Parallels" an Enterprise D where the Borg had succeeded in destroying the Federation and the Enterprise was one of the few ships left. And I knew when they introduced it earlier in the season this whole 'the Borg Queen can see across timelines' ability would end up being moronic. If the Queen had access to every possible outcome, across the multiverse like this, then they shouldn't ever loose). So the Queen agrees and partially assimilates Seven to save her (which gives her back the exact same implants she used to have for.... reasons? She was stabbed in the gut, why does she get implants on her face and hand again? And why are they exactly the same as she'd had before?)

Picard and Tallinn end up back in the Chateau where they get cornered by Soong. They're saved when Rios hacks Tallinn's security and is able to beam himself back. Defeating the drones, Soong ends up with his phaser. Rios informs him it is key'd to his DNA and is set to explode if someone else holds it too long (what? when has Star Trek ever had phasers that function like this?). Soong throws it (above their heads for some reason, instead of at them) and escapes as the others... recoil slightly (they don't bother to chase after him or anything). Picard finishes reliving his flashback with Tallinn's encouragement (is now really the best time for this?), and reveals his mother committed suicide by hanging herself. Picard blames himself for letting her out of her room, and sometimes imagined his mother as an old woman ready for a chat over tea (as a means to very weakly explain the discontinuity of when Picard saw an illusion of his elderly mother in "Where No One Has Gone Before"). Raffi agrees to allow Queen/Jurati to take the ship in exchange for her help, and she informs Seven and Raffi that there needs to be two Renee Picard's, one that dies, and one that lives, and beams them off the ship. As they watch the ship leave Earth, Seven relays the Queen's message and Picard says they need to get to work...
This was certainly a big improvement over the last three episodes, but that's a very low bar, and was still a good episode. I don't see why Soong would trust the Queen. When she first showed up at his house in the previous episode he literally asked if he was having a nightmare. Even if she is offering him a future where he becomes a savior to the world, he has no reason to trust anything she told him. Not that he really has any reason to trust Picard either... But then Picard didn't turn anyone into cyborg zombies, which doesn't seem to set off any red flags for Soong. Morally depraved mad scientist or not, why isn't he questioning any of this? I really hate what they did with the Borg Queen. It makes no sense with what we've seen of their motivations and goals before and makes the Borg feel small.

I'm also still not seeing why these flashbacks to Picard's childhood have kept coming up, like they're important to the plot. But if they were all edited out, it really wouldn't change anything in the story. It also hasn't made sense with what we know of Picard's background. More than that... If his mother suffered from depression (or whatever you want to call it, since the writers never actually named what she was suffering from), why didn't she get treatment for it? We know they have cures for mental illness by then. And where is Robert Picard? I think they mentioned him once at the beginning of the season being off at school (begging to question why Jean-Luc isn't also off at school, or why Robert isn't beaming back home or anything), but that was it.

Where does the xenophobic attitude the Confederation has come from? Soong doesn't seem bothered by the fact he's essentially working with extraterrestrials, and as the "savior" of that timeline, he should be. What was the point of assimilating the soldiers anyway? They didn't have any Borg abilities from what we saw. It just made them zombies, but they were already there to follow The Queen and Soong's orders so... What was the point?

Oh, and Raffi mentions at one point Seven would have made a good Starfleet captain and asks why she never joined Starfleet. Seven explains she tried, after Voyager returned but was blocked because she was once Borg. Janeway went to bat for her, but Starfleet still wouldn't budge, so ultimately Seven decided to become a Fenris Ranger instead. So.... Since when would Starfleet discriminate against anyone like this? And what about Icheb? He was once Borg. Last season he was established to have been Lieutenant in Starfleet when he was killed. These writers are terrible...

They've got a lot to wrap up in the final episode... Unless they make it a cliffhanger.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Star Trek

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Picard season 2 episode 10 - season finale
Spoiler
At Chateau Picard, the group are puzzled about what Queen/Jurati meant by needing two Renee Picard's (again I have to ask, how would the Borg Queen even know this? This whole season, they've made the Borg Queen out to be some omnipotent being, with access to outcomes across every timeline. It breaks the character. It makes sense she'd have a great deal of knowledge from everything the Borg have assimilated, but to know things the Borg should have no knowledge of, not to mention knowledge across timelines... It's ridiculous. Why have the Borg lost ever if they know everything like this?). Tallinn's expression indicates she knows exactly what it means, which Picard picks up on. Oddly, this episode portrays this like a pre-destination paradox. Picard notes the bullet holes in the walls, which his family believed came from WWII, but now realizes they actually came from the drones in the previous episode. How though? The change to the Confederation timeline were a result of Q's meddling and Picard's crew going back in time, the changes back to the 'normal' timeline shouldn't be a predestination paradox. Not to mention, doesn't work with what we see with some changes at the end of the episode. Anyway, using Tallinn's transporter, they head to her apartment, and split into teams... Seven, Raffi and Rios will go to Soong's lab while Tallinn goes to protect Renee, but Jean-Luc joins her. He tells her he knows what she's planning to do, and she explains it's her mission, and it isn't his job to save her. Meanwhile, the other team discover that Soong is not at his lab and has remotely activated his drones, figuring it is probably a backup plan to take down the launch if whatever his first plan is fails. Picard and Tallinn spot him at the launch site. How exactly did Soong get from France to Florida (correction, apparently the launch happened in southern California, which makes this even worst! Not to mention, completely ignores every reason why NASA launches from Florida) in such a short amount of time? Without the La Sirena/Borg Queen helping him, he doesn't have access to transporter technology anymore. I could maybe believe he has access to private jets, but any flight would take HOURS, when this should only be a few minutes after the La Sirena departed. He tells the NASA execs that he wants 5 minutes of face time with the astronauts. Initially they refuse, but apparently all his donations gives him access? No, just no. The whole point of the astronauts going into quarantine is so that they don't get sick during the mission. NASA would never allow someone from the outside anywhere near them at this point, regardless of how much money they gave them. They also just allow Soong to leave his escort behind, which would also never happen. Raffi manages to hack the drones and Rios flies them into each other, destroying them. Not sure why the writers couldn't have Seven do anything here, once again making it seem like they've forgotten she used to be good at this sort of thing. Tallinn goes and talks to Renee, explaining she is her guardian angel who has been watching her.

Renee leaves her suit up room complaining about a crazy woman and immediately runs into Soong. He promises to get her to safety, but when she starts feeling ill, he reveals he poisoned her with a neural toxin (when and how did he get that?). He leaves her to die, and she finds Jean-Luc. They watch as the Europa mission launches and "Renee" is revealed to be Tallinn, using her technology that disguises her as human to make her appear as Renee (would a neural toxin intended for humans work the same on a Romulan? I guess it could, but realistically, it probably shouldn't have). She dies, happy to have met the person she protected all this time. Soong returns to his lab where he trashes the place having realized he failed to achieve the outcome he wanted. Someone hacks into his system and erases all his data on his computer, which is revealed to be his daughter Kore (who apparently can do this with her VR goggles on a library Wi-Fi network), telling him it's for all her sisters. Soong pulls a file out of a drawer that says "Project Khan". Sigh... So I guess these writers are suggesting Soong created Khan, and now, rather than the Eugenics Wars taking place in 1996, it now takes place sometime after 2024? Meanwhile, Wesley Crusher shows up and explains to Kore he is a Traveler. Apparently the Travelers are also the Superior Beings that protects time and space that employs Supervisors like Tallinn and Gary Seven. He offers her a choice. Either she can live a normal life, or she can join him to become a Traveler, warning he cannot guarantee that'll be a safe path. Not having had a normal life, Kore chooses to become a Traveler, and they are beamed somewhere. Cool to see Wil Wheaton reprising his role, but this comes out of the blue and raises more questions than it answers. Doesn't really work with what the Traveler said his role was the first time we saw him in TNG. Not to mention, the last time we saw the Traveler, he'd told Wesley they don't interfere. Why is Kore even getting this invitation to join the Travelers? She hasn't displayed any special ability that we where ever shown. And what about Wesley's appearance in Nemesis, wearing a Starfleet uniform? Oh, and Wesley says that the last time he told a joke he changed a century of history... I'm not sure if this is meant to be a reference to something, but it doesn't make sense either way.

Seven, Raffi, Jean-Luc and Rios return to the Chateau, where they prepare to live out the remainder of their lives in the past. Picard returns a key to where he'll find it as a little boy and let his mother out of her room. Q congratulates him for choosing to maintain things as they were before when he could have destroyed that key. Picard asks "Why me?" and Q explains he wanted to help Picard know himself a little better and open himself to love, so that he wont die alone, like Q is about to... Um, what about Q's son? And why pretend to be Renee's psychiatrist trying to convince her to quit? Why did he get Adam Soong involved? What about "The trial never ends"? He did all of this simply as a "favor" to Jean-Luc so he could open himself up to love? You have got to be kidding me. Where is this idea that Jean-Luc couldn't open himself up to love even coming from? We've seen him have a few relationships during TNG. It was his duty to Starfleet or his rank that always got in the way, not some inability to love. Heck, he even had a wife and kids in "The Inner Light". Even if that wasn't real, it was still a real experience to Picard. At any rate, Q offers one last gift... Gathering everyone outside, Raffi threatens to kill Q, which he says in his weakened condition she might be able to do, but then he wouldn't be able to send them home. Rios asks not to be sent back, because he wants to stay in this time and Q explains that'll give him enough juice for one more surprise...

Back on the Stargazer, Picard aborts the autodestruct, having realized that this Borg Queen is actually the Jurati assimilated 400 years ago (why did she brute force her way onto the Stargazer? Isn't this supposed to be a kinder/gentler Borg Collective?). What happened to the Jurati and Rios that should still be on the Stargazer prior to Q's meddling? They've just disappeared. She explains she needs to commandeer their fleet so they can combine their shields to prevent a nearby anomaly from destroying the entire quadrant. And Starfleet didn't detected this until this exact moment.... why? At any rate, Picard gives Seven a field commission and she takes command of the Stargazer. Excelsior has some problems with their shields and when Raffi (I guess Q dropped her off on the Stargazer rather than Excelsior. tells them to reset, it's revealed Q's last surprise was to bring Elnor back alive and well (not sure why a Cadet would be responding though). The combine Borg and Starfleet shields successfully block a beam of energy the anomaly puts out (which they portray as only really threatening one planet that this collection of ships are easily able to block, it certainly did not threaten the entire quadrant like they'd claimed). The anomaly forms into a transwarp corridor unlike any Seven of Nine has ever seen before. Queen/Jurati asks for provisional Federation membership and that their collective of Borg will be gatekeepers for whatever is on the other side.

WHAT?! So, no let me get this straight... They suddenly introduce this "galactic event" capable of destroying an entire quadrant of the galaxy that this "friendly" Borg Collective, whom has stayed secret somewhere in the galaxy for 400 years, has suddenly shown up to ask the Federation for help to contain. This "galactic threat" then sends out a single beam, which is only about as big as the "friendly" Borg ship and is easily contained by the shields of about 30 ships. And then the "friendly" Borg ship is just going to sit there to watch over it? This is the laziest writing. It's literally only here for the sake of getting the Federation to work with the "friendly" Borg with no set up and then is wrapped up too quickly and easily. It doesn't feel satisfying or earned.

Back on Earth, Team Picard has a reunion with Guinan. She remembers all the events they just went through (wait... so the showrunner explained Guinan didn't remember the events of "Time's Arrow" because they came back in time from the Confederation timeline. But now that the timeline was restored and the Confederation timeline never happened, she still remembers that resulting time travel event? Which is it writers, you can't have it both ways). She tells Picard she's surprised he never noticed an old photo she has of Rios. Together they formed a clinic that helped a lot of people, and Rios was eventually killed in a bar fight, protecting medical supplies. The microbe Renee Picard discovered would be used by the Doctor's kid to clean the oceans and sky (well isn't that convenient?). Picard then returns to the Chateau, where he finds Laris has restored the solarium. She talks about leaving for her own adventures, but Picard tells her something about time not giving second changes but people can.
As I'd feared, this episode was badly rushed. The more I think about and look into things with this episode, the more problems it has. They tie everything up very quickly, but don't really make sense or rationalize much of it. As a result, it felt like a very sloppy story with poor pacing. Unfortunately, a disappointing end to an overall disappointing season. The first episode was good, and fixed so much of what they did wrong in season 1, but it was all downhill after that.


Edit:
Spoiler
Santiago Cabrera, Alison Pill, Evan Evagora and Isa Brones have all confirmed they will not be returning for season 3
Last edited by Sparky Prime on Mon May 09, 2022 9:58 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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