Star Trek: Picard (aka ST:P)

[RJDiogenes]

Hurry up!

[scottydog]

Hurry up!

You can't rush a souffle

There were lots of nice nods to continuity from Voyager and Deep Space Nine, which will hopefully continue (along with more from TNG).

Speaking of continuity, at the 5-minute mark, our villainess offers Bruce Maddox some tranya to drink. You may recall that tranya is first introduced in The Original Series when the baby-ish alien Balok serves it to Captain Kirk and members of his crew in the episode The Corbomite Maneuver.

Overall, another solid episode. I can't tell you how much more I'm enjoying ST: Picard compared to ST: Discovery. The latter is okay but not 1/10th as intelligently written and executed. ST: Picard actually takes the time to develop characters and doesn't worship at the altar of nonstop action.

I'm actually okay with the career & life arc of Seven of Nine. She's saving people. And I loved the end-of-episode exchange between Picard and Seven about reacquiring their humanity after being Borgified. Does Picard have any remaining Borg parts in him?

I gotta say that I saw Agnes's dark side coming. We'll find out why she had to kill Maddox, and you're right, the EMH was witness to what was happening -- yet he seemed indifferent to it. Are these advanced EMH's so limited and unidimensional? I can't imagine Voyager's EMH doctor (Robert Picardo) ignoring a murder in progress.

[RJDiogenes]

You can't rush a souffle

Speaking of continuity, at the 5-minute mark, our villainess offers Bruce Maddox some tranya to drink. You may recall that tranya is first introduced in The Original Series when the baby-ish alien Balok serves it to Captain Kirk and members of his crew in the episode The Corbomite Maneuver.

Good catch. Apparently Quark's Bar has also been franchised to Freecloud, which I missed. I wonder if somebody on the Internet has compiled a list of Easter eggs in this episode.

I'm actually okay with the career & life arc of Seven of Nine. She's saving people. And I loved the end-of-episode exchange between Picard and Seven about reacquiring their humanity after being Borgified. Does Picard have any remaining Borg parts in him?

No parts that I know of, but we saw in First Contact that he still has a psychic connection to the Collective.

I gotta say that I saw Agnes's dark side coming. We'll find out why she had to kill Maddox, and you're right, the EMH was witness to what was happening -- yet he seemed indifferent to it. Are these advanced EMH's so limited and unidimensional? I can't imagine Voyager's EMH doctor (Robert Picardo) ignoring a murder in progress.

I don't think he was indifferent, since she deactivated him pretty quickly. As far as I'm concerned, until shown otherwise, all the holograms are sentient. Rios' multiple holographic selves are the thing that makes him my favorite of the new characters and the one uniquely Trekkian character.

[scottydog]

Rios' multiple holographic selves are the thing that makes him my favorite of the new characters and the one uniquely Trekkian character.

I like him and his cadre of role-playing holographic helpers, too. I wish I had a dozen scottydogs to run errands, clean house, buy chocolate, and do work tasks that I dislike. Not to mention scottydogs who can write more books and articles on heroes, too.

[RJDiogenes]

I think if you set up a thousand RJD holograms with a thousand typewriters, they would eventually recreate the works of Shakespeare.

[scottydog]

I think if you set up a thousand RJD holograms with a thousand typewriters, they would eventually recreate the works of Shakespeare.

I think those thousand RJs would create amazing original work, too. You'd be someday known as William Grapespeare.

[RJDiogenes]

Grapespeare. I like that.

[RJDiogenes]

So it has now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Soji is an android, because she falls asleep within 70 seconds of talking to her mother. I guess I must finally face the truth: I am an android.

But that's okay, I can live with that. Another thing that I can live with is Picard finally running into someone who is happy to see him. Namely, Hugh. And I finally realized who Hugh has been reminding me of: Special Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks. And here he is, dealing with twin androids. Coincidence? I think so.

What did we learn in this episode? Well, we learned that young scientists travel around the galaxy armed with more Polaroids than Earth-bound humans kept in their attics in the 1960s. Not to mention that they pin up their own childhood drawings in their quarters on a field expedition to an alien artifact. No glitches in her programming at all.

We also learned that Rios has an Emergency Soccer Hologram, who made it with Agnes. What is up with that? Is Agnes planning to kill Rios next? Or am I just being overly suspicious because she killed one boyfriend already? One does not constitute a pattern.

We also learned that the Borg have completely abandoned their plans to assimilate the universe, because they have a transporter that can teleport them 40,000 light years in one jump and they haven't used it even though it would make them unstoppable.

And we learned that Raffi may have exaggerated her progress in getting clean and sober.

Overall, an interesting episode, though, with some nice touches. The Romulan Rubik's Cube provided a nifty plot device to demonstrate the different approaches of the Romulan siblings: Impulsiveness versus patience. And it finally turned out to be a murder weapon intended for Soji. It was a great scene when the encroaching radioactive mist triggered her and she went right through the floor. Rommie-boy better make sure his affairs are in order now.

This episode focused a lot on Picard's history with the Borg, beginning with his conversation with Agnes and Elfwich (who has a habit of "in-butting" ). Then continued with his research on the holodeck, which seemed to be nothing more than picking at the scab. And then finally with the full-fledged flashbacks and panic attacks on the cube. But that nightmarish scenario was nicely mitigated by Hugh's VIP tour of the reclamation project, and Picard seeing that the Borg drones are as much victims as he was and that it's possible for them to be saved. Hugh wants him to be the spokesmodel for XB acceptance into society, and I hope that becomes a part of the series in the future.

In any case, the Rommie Twins managed to find a clue to the location of the android nest, before alienating Soji with a murder attempt. Personally I would have held out for more than "two red moons and a thunderstorm," like maybe a ZIP Code or something. But the sister seems to be satisfied and the seeds were planted for brother to turn the corner and become an android lover-- figuratively as well as literally.

Next week, we will be seeing Riker and Troi at last. I've been assuming that those scenes take place in Alaska, so perhaps Picard has transported himself back to Earth. Now what will become of Hugh and Elfwich? I really hope Hugh doesn't die. In fact, I hope nobody else dies but Agnes.

[scottydog]

I'll watch this latest episode soon, hopefully tomorrow. Then I'll respond to your thoughts.

[RJDiogenes]

Hurry up!

[scottydog]

^You can't rush a souffle!

Another very good episode. Seems like every episode has something to commend it.

she falls asleep within 70 seconds of talking to her mother. I guess I must finally face the truth: I am an android.

Try to avoid having affairs with a Romulan.

We also learned that the Borg have completely abandoned their plans to assimilate the universe, because they have a transporter that can teleport them 40,000 light years in one jump and they haven't used it even though it would make them unstoppable.

That massive transport was cool, but geez -- it means the entire galaxy can now be explored and traversed very easily, assuming the device can be replicated and distributed.

The Romulan Rubik's Cube provided a nifty plot device to demonstrate the different approaches of the Romulan siblings: Impulsiveness versus patience. And it finally turned out to be a murder weapon intended for Soji. It was a great scene when the encroaching radioactive mist triggered her and she went right through the floor. Rommie-boy better make sure his affairs are in order now.

Loved the mini-cube on board the big cube. I'm surprised that XBs have to remain disfigured in appearance. Surely advanced epidermal regenerators can help smooth out their skin and hide the seams.

I'm afraid Rommie-boy needs to die right alongside Agnes The Terrible. And I'm not thrilled about his sister -- she reminds me of the female arch-villain in Game of Thrones.

and Picard seeing that the Borg drones are as much victims as he was and that it's possible for them to be saved. Hugh wants him to be the spokesmodel for XB acceptance into society, and I hope that becomes a part of the series in the future.

I agree. And I really like Picard's young bodyguard, the killing machine. He's loyal and he knows when to disobey orders.

I hope nobody else dies but Agnes.

Like I said, Rommie-boy's gotta go, and his sister too. But they're pretty good bad guys to root against, so they'll probably stick around a bit longer. Rommie-boy obviously should have anticipated that Soji would be able to break out of that room. Why do bad guys make a habit out of underestimating the escape abilities of the good guys?

[RJDiogenes]

Try to avoid having affairs with a Romulan.

Swipe left!

That massive transport was cool, but geez -- it means the entire galaxy can now be explored and traversed very easily, assuming the device can be replicated and distributed.

There must be some serious drawbacks to using it that prevent widespread implementation. Maybe Picard will discover some terrible side effect now that he's gone through-- like a craving for cherries, but he can only eat strawberries, or something.

Loved the mini-cube on board the big cube.

Nice. I never even made that connection.

I'm surprised that XBs have to remain disfigured in appearance. Surely advanced epidermal regenerators can help smooth out their skin and hide the seams.

Presumably the ones we saw just aren't done yet. Once they're fully healed, they're probably relocated somewhere to live their lives.

I'm afraid Rommie-boy needs to die right alongside Agnes The Terrible. And I'm not thrilled about his sister -- she reminds me of the female arch-villain in Game of Thrones.

Those two are very Game of Thrones-ish.

Like I said, Rommie-boy's gotta go, and his sister too.

I meant out of Picard's crew and other associates. The Rommie twins and probably Commodore Oh should die in the end.

Rommie-boy obviously should have anticipated that Soji would be able to break out of that room. Why do bad guys make a habit out of underestimating the escape abilities of the good guys?

He probably watched too many old Batman episodes on the Federation Internet.

[scottydog]

I'd be curious what humans of the 24th century will be watching. Probably live plays, as that will never go out of style. In terms of TV and film, I wonder if 24th century people will just close their eyes and activate the Federation Movie Channel on their chip implants.

[RJDiogenes]

Kirk once had a traveling Shakespeare troupe on his ship.

But I've often wondered about the Science Fiction of the future. What does SF entail when you're living in an SF world? William Gibson gave up writing SF because he felt the world had caught up to him.

[RJDiogenes]

All that time on Nepenthe and not once did anyone say "quaff."

Well, this episode certainly had its ups and downs. How wonderful it was to see Picard reunited with Riker and Toi, but this business of killing off a character just to impress the teenagers in the audience has got to be the most moronic trope of all time.

The circumstances of Will and Deanna's life twenty years later are not what I expected, and I'm still kind of mulling it all over. I wonder how the writers came to write them into this scenario. It's an unusual situation for this type of show, but certainly a situation that a lot of people experience, so it makes me wonder if it's a fictionalized version of somebody connected to the show. But it was sad and sweet and felt like more than a few real-life reunions that I've had. Kestra was certainly a likeable kid. The thing with the languages seemed a little too specific to be random, as did the references to Captain Crandall. It seems likely that both will be important later. Even moreso is the detail that their son died because there were no positronic matrices available after the AI ban-- this makes the Federation seem even more callous if they even outlawed medical applications.

The Riker homestead also left me with a few questions. Such as, if this planet has medicinal properties, why aren't there more people there? And if access is limited, why are the Rikers still allowed to live there after their son died, rather than make room for somebody else with a sick kid? Maybe they just got suckered by a persuasive real estate agent and there's nothing special about the planet at all.

Meanwhile, back on the cube, Hugh the XB, one of the most promising characters on the show was killed, just to convince us that anybody can die at any time. Because that's one of the hallmarks of a great story. And wasn't it lucky that Elfwich just happened to find a Fenris medic alert tag while hiding in a random corner of the Borg cube. Where did that come from?

And then, somewhere out in the final frontier, Agnes has realized that the smarmy Romulan is able to track their ship because of a Chocks chewable tracking device given to her by Commodore Oh back on Earth-- right after the Commodore took off her Ray-Bans long enough to implant apocalyptic images of a synth uprising into her brain. Where did those images come from? They didn't seem like anything that actually happened in real life, so I'm thinking Oh just kind of implanted her own psychotic paranoia into the woman. But, after coming to the realization that she was putting her comrades in danger, Agnes did what any rational person would do and attempted suicide. Because killing yourself disables the trackers in your body. Of course, this was after we got to watch her puke all over the floor a couple of times. It cracks me up that this show will use the word "fuck" freely, share graphic images of eyeballs being torn out in a gory mess, and give us all the vomit that can fit in an actor's mouth-- but then cop out on the nude scene back at the Riker Ranch. It also amused me to see Raffi almost lose her lunch while calling on the Emergency Hospitality Hologram.

In sum, we finally got the big reunion that we were waiting for, but it was slightly mitigated by a pointless death of a promising character. We got some backstory filled in for Agnes, which didn't really add up. We got some foreshadowing of further involvement by the Riker family and their friend Captain Crandall. Also a couple of nice moments from the crew of La Sirena as they try gamely to stack up (loved Rios' mad dash for the comatose Agnes and Raffi's comment about being the wreckage of a good person). And there it stands for now.