[7.5/10] Laris. Laris is my favourite character. "Cheeky feckers!"
We are being given a slow burn mystery and I'm all up for it. Outside of the flashback to the Mars disaster that started the episode, there wasn't a single action scene for 40 odd minutes here; instead we were treated to conversations and a clash of personalities across the characters. Patrick Stewart is terrific but so are the actors facing off against him. This is diving into some deep back story from the show's history of Data, artificial intelligence, Romulans and the Borg.
At times the tecnhobabble went a bit too far, but doesn't that make for classic Star Trek? I'm also glad to see that the tradition of high ranking Starfleet personnel being total assholes is still intact.
I wonder if Picard's mysterious illness is the potential neurological disorder that we first learned of back in the TNG finale (in that timeline he contracted Irumodic Syndrome).
Oh well, my fears seem to come true.
This is basically just another Discovery: Written by people who never actually watched any Star Trek and got some bullet points like "Engage!", "Earl Grey", "Borg", "Vineyard" before force-fitting their generic Plot in their butchered version of the Star Trek universe.
At no point in TNG were Cpt. Picard and Data anywhere near being friends, let alone best mates. Professional mutual respect, sure, but not friends.
But casting aside the usual idiocy regarding the incoherent techo bubble, logical errors and other stuff this series shares with Discovery,
theres one point in this episode where it became abundantly clear that this series will be as bad as its older sister: The flashback to mars.
These workers are sitting there, synthesizing their meals with a replicator. Something everyone who watched 1-2 episodes of Star Trek should be fairly familiar with.
But these workers still all synthesize the same 21st century prison garbage on trays and bitch about the meals.
There you go: Form over substance, I'm out. Let this series rot with Discovery, poor Patrick Stewart.
So they really did what Picard and Guinan were talking about in Measure Of A Man.
I like the Romulan angle as they are still a race that needs to be deeper explored given how long they are around in the ST lore. Is the Zhad Vash their equivalent to Section 31 ? Not sure where this Borg stuff is leading. I thought Star Trek was too over-borged at times.
This clearly isn't the federation of old if an admiral takes they position that they should decide a race's fate. I would have love to watch a show centering around that part in history and how Picard acted at the time. But I am OK with where this is at now.
Only thing I can't stand is the Abrams hommage lens-flaring. In the conversation between the Commodore and that Lieutenant you couldn't at times see them. Why does every Star Trek show have to look like that now ?
The storytelling, dialogue and pacing here is top notch. Even for an episode without any action you will never get bored. Good job to the writers
Definitely a slower paced episode......not much to write home.....EXCEPT......the 1st F-bomb in Star Trek history...LOL
This was an information building episode. A lot of it was a reexamination of what happened last week. Add a cup of Starfleet assholes, a pinch of high grade Romulan infiltration and the evil dude from Mr. Mercedes.
I tend to like these types of episodes but I worry with such a short season when they spend so much time not moving forward.
So the secret Tal Shiar had a more secret group within them. Strange how they never popped up during the Dominion wars.
[7.3/10] I thought this was an improvement on the first episode of the series. Getting Picard opposite some more great scene partners is helpful, and I especially liked his confrontation with the Starfleet admiral. The clash of ideals point is coming through loud and clear, and Stewart is doing good work. (I also enjoyed his scene with his old physician buddy.)
But man, they're really strapping on the lore here, and it's not working for me. I don't know why we need a double secret Romulan police force, and the details that we get for the major mystery are pretty convoluted. This one is a drag anytime Picard's not on screen, and the build up to the main mystery has been less than inspired. Still hopeful for things to come!
The entire episode is women explaining how the universe works to Jean-Luc Picard. The show is insufferably bad.
What made the original Star Trek so great is that it acknowledge different races had different characteristics it played on them to tell a story. This garbage everybody is the same with different face paint on. What the hell is the point?
with so many people saying this show actually got good I decided to rewatch it. it's a struggle. like Discovery, it doesn't feel like a Star Trek show to me. yes it has the uniforms and same actors... but it's got no soul and feels like a fanfic.
I am hoping it does get better and they had someone fix it because rewatching these episodes makes me see why I stopped. it has some really odd dialogue and really bad cuts. that's not the end of the world though, all of them do... but this show has that sterile feel to it like it's just not working. fingers crossed it improves because I'm going to give it a shot. I really really want to like it because Discovery nearly made me give up on one of my loves, Star Trek.
The story continues to build up and I like the pacing (not too fast and not too slow).
Looks like the people of the future still look down on synths. Calling them "plastic people" and saying things like "You can't offend them. They're not people."
Not that smart (even today we're already considering that AIs might be the next big step in evolution - or maybe also the end of it all... :o :D) and not that nice (ethically). Those scenes also showed that there's still something like a "worker class".
Anyway, quite frightening how fast and strong those "plastic people" are. It also looks like F8 got hacked? I guess the question is who was behind that?
(Admiral) Picard back at the Starfleet as visitor was "fun" :D
"May I have your name, please, sir?"
And trying to stay out of all of it xD
"This is no longer your house." was quite direct though... :o
Quite a few nice quotes/thoughts as well (I also liked "Ghosts in the machine." for some reason).
It looks like even super smart synthetics like Soji can fall for mysterious man that are likely to bring some trouble but I guess that makes them so interesting. At least she doesn't seem to have activated yet so she has an excuse :D
PS: I just wish I knew more about Picard and his friends, etc. I never could get myself to watch the old TV shows. I guess I should do some quick reading up on old events (I don't even know the people living with him... :o).
PPS: Looks like there's quite a "conspiracy" at play.
5/10
All the flashback did was remind us how exciting and awesome this show could be. This show really needs to concentrate on the here and now. JL hm not quite sure how I feel about that but will see. And i'm seeing a pattern already woman all powerful and pulling all the strings, men bad and get treated and talked to like less than shit.
Please please please don't be WOKE.
And the way that woman admiral talked to jean-luc I would have slapped the taste out of her mouth, absolutely disgusting, disappointing and total disrespectful, that made me so cross, I'll give her the sheer fcuking hubris the stupid B...., I'll stop their. Not much went down, on in this episode just watching
jean-luc getting put down and belittled by so called starfleet woman that wouldn't even be alive if jean-luc hadn't saved the universe and humanity several times and they wouldn't even listen to him are even entertain anything he had to say never mind give him a small ship,
Really....really, like I said slap, taste.
Wow Lt. Rizzo is gorgeous. v.v Though now I'm hella confused who's working for who. The setup though is pretty interesting.
The Destroyer of Worlds? What was that from. SG1 I think.
JL might die from old age or a heart attack before the last episode.
As seen, we will continue to see. I like how they are wearing
If you ignore the odd "never treker" comment, and simply choose to give this series a chance, you will find they are indeed doing a stellar job of setting up the backstory and premise, during the course of the character interactions, all the while incrementally moving the story forward, and, at the same time touching on the subterfuge and duplicity that somehow always seemed to infiltrate the upper echelons of the Star Fleet hierarchy. Like the old saying goes, "you don't have to be a brain to be the boss,..., just a butthole".
The Picard of yore knew it was sometimes better to ask forgiveness than ask permission....
@LHG-Ditto! Laris is also becoming one of my favorites too, I truly hope they keep her involved in the plot-line, even if she doesn't go on the actual mission. And for the "woke" contingent, it's good to see that in the future, biological males will not be the only ones letting their libido overtake their logic circuits. But Narek better be careful and hope that Soji doesn't pull a Model 8 Cylon, and "activate" when he makes her toes curl.... Talk about coitus interruptus... Yikes!
I had the same thought on Jean-Luc's illness......
Any one else expecting that Borg to wake up and shoot an assimilation tendril into her neck?
Hmmmm, who programmed the "plastic people" to rebel, or, did they do so on their own because they were treated like 2nd class slaves? (on a side note for the future...., Make sure all androids and synthetics are equipped with a networked MASTER kill switch. You can't be too careful, nor too trusting)
As others have mentioned, this was a great set-up episode, so everyone can mark their mental score cards for future reference. Cinematically, I was struck by how this could easily play as a theatrical release as it does on the small screen.
See you all next week.....
Where is number one? :dog:
the episode is getting better
Overall, they made a mistake by introducing flashbacks in the second episode. Too soon. They should have kept building momentum on the NOW. We know the basics of what happened on Mars from the pilot, and any details that they wanted to show us could have waited at least a few more episodes. That time should have been spent on the "present day" stuff, which would have helped the pacing on that end.
Beyond that, did they already forget about the dog?
Not as good as the first episode but still enjoyed it.
I guess the next couple of episode will be Picard reunited with his crew. Then he will take off when he has a new crew he isn’t supposed to have.
The first episode was better eventhough. They messed up killing Dahj. The twin thing is so cliche.
Slow episode with a lot of setting up. I'm really liking all the undercover work that it's going on
Shout by Clement MortonVIP 5BlockedParent2020-01-30T10:04:39Z
Slow episode.
It was basically more backstory, and setup. A few introductions to characters and general maneuvering of rolls to set the stage. There wasn't really anything that stood out and wow'ed me in this episode. Overall this episode was important because of its setting of the stage. I enjoyed watching it.
I think the whole series has a lot of potential. From what I can tell its my kind of star trek. I'd like to see more tech and discovery and adventure. As exploration and 'the unknown' are aspects of star trek that make it star trek.
Anyways, Good episode. No real action, just a lot of talking and exploration of characters.
The setting up of the "good" and "bad" guys. - So for this alone - watch the episode so you know what's going on in the future.
Enjoy :)