Star Trek: Picard

[BeastieRunner]

More Cast Members Confirm They Are Not Coming Back For S3

So Raffi, Seven, and Laris for a bit will get to intermingle with Geordi, Worf, Riker, Troi, Beverly, and whoever Spiner plays.

Kinda sad no Borg Queen. Any news on the plot yet?

[ChrisIII]

I think maybe part of the reason Trek's command tolerates their captain's actions is that it does kind of get galaxy-saving results, despite unorthodox methods at times. As long as they don't go too rogue, which seems to be a constant Star Trek trope for many Trek villains.

[Jared]

Not only will Raffi survive she is somehow going to be in the third season as well! I never thought I would loathe a character more than Michael Burnham, but here we are! She is the worst character on this show which is really saying something just look at this crew!

Attachment 120809

Hey, Jurati's murders were not her fault, her mind was messed with by aliens...which is a weird thing to have happen to the same character twice in two seasons, but here we are.

I'm guessing that space anomaly the Jurati Borg faction is guarding might figure into the third season somehow.

It would be downright criminal on the part of the creative team if it doesn't.

As well as whatever Wesley's up to.

Maybe. But even in one scene, I felt strongly reminded that Wil Wheaton is not a good actor. Maybe just give him one seen talking to his mom and then shove him off elsewhere.
Maybe have Gary Seven show up.

[Minerboh]

Just saw the final episodes...
It had many surprises such as Jurati becoming the Borg Queen, Seven and Crybaby Raffi becoming intimate (guess a reconcilation with Chakotay is out of the question now), Rios staying in the past (but we all saw that coming), Wesley's cameo and the Borg joining the Federation (but under supervision).
My personal opinion is that S2 was way better than S1 despite some... flaws every here and there.

As for what comes next? Well, my guess is that that wormhole we saw in episode 10 along with the Watchers will play a significant role in S3.
The production teased more Starfleet ships and posted a pic on Twitter of a bridge possibly teasing the return of the USS Enterpise (whatever it will be the E or the F or something entirely different and unexpected, remains to be seen).
I would really like to see a team up between the TNG and VOY cast since Seven will return and a team up between Picard and Janeway would be awesome.
Anyway, I can't wait to see what have they stored for us!

[C_Miller]

So, I finally watched the last episode, though I had heard most of the spoilers. It was... something. I mean, it was probably the second best episode of the Season, but when you make a season of television like this, it's hard to judge the parts on their own merits. This season was a total mess and this is coming from someone who has really enjoyed NuTrek as a whole. Discovery is not without problems, but overall, I'd say I'm a fan. Lower Decks may be one of my favorite Star Trek shows all things considered and I think Prodigy has a lot of promise, even if it feels more aggressively like Star Wars than any other Trek that has regularly been accused of being like Star Wars (Discovery, Kelvin-verse, etc.)

I even liked the first Season of Picard to a certain degree. I've seen some reviewers (mainly Steve Shives) explain that Season 1 was too many ideas packed into too few episodes where Season 2 was too few ideas packed into too many episodes. I can't help but agree with that. Nothing felt like it really mattered in the end. So many of the events were just obstacles to pad the run time. The ICE kidnapping didn't really play into any larger themes and it was never mentioned again after Rios was freed. It clearly didn't factor into his decision to stay. The gala may have been one of the flattest single of episodes of Star Trek that I've ever seen. All the characters were just listless and the whole big plan just involved Picard talking to Renee.

Picard's mother and the Confederation really didn't have much to do with anything that actually happened. Q seemed like hew as just floating through the season by saying that he had no intention for them to go to the past. Picard seemed to have accidentally fallen into the lesson with no real motivation from Q. It really wasn't clear exactly what he had set up and what the Confederation really had to do with anything. We aren't even really given the point of divergence all that clearly. Usually in these time travel shows, there is one thing that the crew has to set right in order for history to correct itself. Look at City on the Edge of Forever, Past Tense or even Future's End. Picard Season 2, never really gave its thesis statement and it was a weaker season for it.

And don't get me started on the Marvelization of Trek. Again, it felt worse here than it ever has before. We literally gave Wesley Crusher a Nick Fury moment and teased Project Khan, which again feels very Marvel-y. They would have felt right at home after the credits. The worst thing is that the end of this season sets up a lot of things that may not even come to pass. With Jurati leaving the show despite setting up a Borg/Federation alliance, it seems like we're either going to see that in another show or it's just going to be dropped. We took a lot of time to bring back Elnor... who also is not coming back. Same with Isa Briones. She's becoming a Traveler, yet she's not going to be in the next season.

So much of this season felt poorly thought out and executed not much better. Things I liked? I think the cast is stellar. Even Michelle Hurd whose character I don't care for is really good. Patrick Stewart's age showed pretty significantly this season, but I still thought he can deliver a monologue and every one of the unfortunately few scenes he shared with John De Lancie were great, especially that final one. I actually really like the reveal about Picard's mother. I think it goes further to explain why he was always so closed off, though I didn't appreciate the deletion of Robert. I though the Jurati/Borg storyline was fun and thought that it was the closest the show got to a competent arc.

Ultimately, I'm just saddened by everything this could have been. Episode 1 created a pretty interesting ideas. A new group of Borg, a fleet of unique ships, Captain Rios, a cybernetic goodwill tour, Jurati and Rios subverting the Riker/Troi dynamic, an Admiral Picard as the head of Starfleet Academy, the first Romulan in Starfleet. I'm not saying any of these would have been any better explored in a 10 episode season built like a 10 hour movie, but there were some interesting things I wanted explored. Unfortunately, they chose to explore none of it.

Still, I look forward to Season 3. It will likely just be a nostalgia fest, but I'm cool with that if they craft a good story. I didn't like Nemesis, which is probably the coldest of takes, so if they can find a way to build a season of television that will act as a true send off for the Next Gen crew, these last two seasons will all have been worth it.

[nx01a]

Ultimately, I'm just saddened by everything this could have been. Episode 1 created a pretty interesting ideas. A new group of Borg, a fleet of unique ships, Captain Rios, a cybernetic goodwill tour, Jurati and Rios subverting the Riker/Troi dynamic, an Admiral Picard as the head of Starfleet Academy, the first Romulan in Starfleet. I'm not saying any of these would have been any better explored in a 10 episode season built like a 10 hour movie, but there were some interesting things I wanted explored. Unfortunately, they chose to explore none of it.
Still, I look forward to Season 3. It will likely just be a nostalgia fest, but I'm cool with that if they craft a good story. I didn't like Nemesis, which is probably the coldest of takes, so if they can find a way to build a season of television that will act as a true send off for the Next Gen crew, these last two seasons will all have been worth it.

The first episode setup would have still been destroyed by needless darkness and trauma. That's what I'm afraid of re: s3: what horrors will the writers impose on the TNG cast? Will Alexander's death leave Worf a drunk shell of a Klingon? Will Geordi's body reject his cybernetic eyes, leaving him blind and angry? Will Crusher lose her medical license after making a horrible mistake during micro-surgery? Will Brent Spiner's latest Soong family villain capture the TNG crew so he can torture them for the deaths of Lore, Data, Noonien Soong, B4, etc.?

[ChrisIII]

I think it was explained Robert was away at boarding school, or at least that what I googled. Can't find the particular dialogue though.

My main problem with Picard being an academy admiral is a bit of too similar to what happened with Kirk-although in Picard's case, a change of career I suppose suits him much better, whereas Kirk was kind of always unhappy as an Admiral and his friends felt that his talents were wasted there too (Although Mccoy initially disagreed with Kirk being back in command in TMP, but that's mainly because Kirk was being a bit too obsessive instead of melancholy)

[Powerboy]

Just finished Season 2. Some general thoughts.

Okay on it's own merits, not so much on continuity, though at some of that was acknowledged and explained.

spoilers:

At least they explained that Picard had created an illusion in his mind of his mother being old. But, I guess he never looked himself up on the 24th century version of on-line and saw his mother's date of death. This whole thing that every Soong that ever lived was a scientific genius had already become a joke before this one. Also, lucky for the plot that Soong never thought of something like, oh, backing all his files up on multiple flash drives, and not keeping them all right there, in case of fire. It was a cute touch though that he proposed Project Khan in 1996, to at least keep that year relevant. I think some of us might reading the Traveler's species into the one that backed Gary Seven. Not sure they're the same. Also, the Traveler sought out extraordinary individuals of talent. I don't really see them as having the mentality of the guardians of time and space, but it's possible. The Q dying thing. Dramatic? Yes. Makes any sense whatsoever? No! Besides, I prefer to believe he was ascending beyond the ability to enter the physical universe anymore. Would have been nice to know what his son and his wife think, and even what Janeway, godmother of his child, thinks. But, I am sure there will inevitably be a novel that covers all of that, including the why. Rios staying behind was foreshadowed long ahead of time and, frankly, would have been hugely disappointing had he abandoned the doctor and her child. Most of the characters ended as expected- except one. Until it started happening, I did not predict the Borg Queen changing. I thought they'd find a way to separate them. I would imagine that Borg ship avoided other Borg until the encounter with the older Picard, to avoid messing up events leading to that. Of course, what the heck does Guinan think of Q now? In this new timeline, she remembers her first encounter with him (the last from his view) from before he caused them to encounter the Borg or losing his powers. Was she just play-acting that she hated him to preserve the timeline?

end of spoilers

I know there are other things but that's all I want to get into right now.

[Godzilla2099]

Not only will Raffi survive she is somehow going to be in the third season as well! I never thought I would loathe a character more than Michael Burnham, but here we are! She is the worst character on this show which is really saying something just look at this crew!

I agree. Burnham was my most disliked character but Raffi took this to an unthinkable level. How in the world does she have a high ranking with Starfleet? I wouldn't trust her to swab the decks much less give her command of a starship! This character is flat out toxic on every single level. (For the record, I like the actress that played Raffi but I never want to see this character again)

I'll even tie Jurati with Burnham. I loathe that character too. "Get me the file I have titled '**** I have on the Borg Queen." You could feel the writers trying to force feed her and Burnham to the audience thinking they'll be liked, but to me they had the exact opposite effect.

The Borg is so laughably bad now.

[Captain Craig]

The Borg is so laughably bad now.

That is not new to this era of Trek though.
Ever since, was it S6, the appearance of Hugh in TNG they have been working to neuter the Borg.
Voyager gave us Seven who was meant to be our insight into more Borg thought.
Now in the retcon of all current retcons we have Jurati as 'A' Borg queen guarding the gates of a wormhole to defend the Alpha quadrant. WOWWWW!!

My new personal take is like different ant or bee colonies that have a unique queen per hive that there can be more than one Borg queen at any given time and the Alice Krige Borg Queen from First Contact is still continuity. Cause...badassery reasons.

[nx01a]

The last episode where the Borg were truly scary was Dark Frontier. Everything after that was swiftly downhill.

After Janeway's neurolytic pathogen, I've always thought that the Borg were horribly fractured and multiple factions formed. We saw one sphere working perfectly so there must have been at least a few other spheres or cubes unaffected across the entire Delta quadrant. There being truly menacing Borg out there who don't want to make nice with the Federation is still possible. Jurati as a Borg Queen leaves the door open for that.

[ChrisIII]

To be fair I think the Borg's second appearance pretty much changed things almost right away-Q Who? inferred that they were mainly interested in technology, and that the Borg were grown in the cube and then given the cyborg enhancements shortly after birth.

From BOBW they've pretty much been a less individualistic and more zombieish version of Doctor Who's Cybermen, pretty much kidnapping and converting/assimilating.

[Beantownbrown]

Picard Writer Confirms Borgs Don't Retcon Earlier Star Trek Stories

[Styles]

[nx01a]

Please be good.
Please be hopeful.
Please don't make the rest of the TNG crew's lives post-Nemesis horrible.
Please keep Raffi to a minimum and have Troi counsel her.