Wow awesome. Hope Picard does not die in the end of if he does that it is a glorious death. Also even if picard dies I hope that they give a very good handover of the torch to someone that can make for a good season 2. Go Picard
[5.8/10] Hoo boy was this a rough way to lead into the finale. The show trying to quickly and clumsily introduce a third front in this war, make Picard's illness A Big Deal again, and even add in a never-before-mentioned Soong baby into the mix was just the pits. Everything was super rushed and felt strangely disconnected from a lot of what we've dealt with previously this season.
All the tearful goodbyes to Picard feel flat to me, mostly because we've barely seen these characters spend time with Picard, so much of the weepy breathlessness of it rings false. The twists with the Synth colony happen so fast and furiously that each comes of weightless and contrived. Don't get me started on how we're now in a weird "everybody's prejudiced and angry!" stance with things.
Frankly, this is my least favorite outing of the season. The dialogue is tin-eared and thudding, the plot developments are so sudden and often nonsensical, and just the individual scenes are boring and overwritten. My only hope is that this episode represents the show's creative team getting all this crud out of their systems so that they can deliver the goods in the finale.
Overall this fell a little flat for me. Some parts I liked. I was glad to see them shoehorn Brent Spiner back in. The idea of the hippie android commune was kind of cool. The android mind meld was something to think about. I'm also wondering if either Picard or the Data Doctor Dude is going to end up transferred into the new model.
I thought they misused the Borg again and in the very same way. A sudden build up and then fuck you. I don't like the evil android twin story. It's been done. I did not like the big flowers.
Uch sorry, it's just so boring, stupid, and the plot is so generic. This is literally the plot of Descender.
This must have been the most TNG-ish episode since The Orville.
Want to know the history of the title, "Et in Arcadia Ego?" I recommend reading both of the following Wikipedia/Everipedia pages.
https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/Et_in_Arcadia_ego
Everipedia page about the two paintings by Poussin.
https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/Et_in_Arcadia_ego_(Guercino)
~about the first painting on the subject by Guercino.
It is only fitting there is some depth, nuance and controversy about the translation and meaning intended by the artists! Haha!
"Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding.
There is a realm of existence, so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I, am beyond your comprehension.
Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades, you wither and die. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution, and existence. Before us, you, are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We, are the end of everything.
Confidence born in ignorance, the cycle cannot be broken. The patten has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilisations rise, evolve, advance and at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished.
We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it, and you will end, because we demand it."
Almost familiar? Straight from Mass Effect. Just like this plot.
Don't get me wrong I'm not knocking it. It's just funny to see something I love and know so well repeated as a TV plot. Just wish it wasn't so odd and jarringly obvious that they have no idea what to do with Elnor and Seven. One minute they're there then boom, left again.
So the Kaylon threaten the Alpha Quadrant now huh
A very good episode altogether. I like how they were really starting to become a crew and work together for a common goal. Not that it lasted very long concerning Soji. Jurati probably has something planed as betraying Picard now, again, would practically cancel out her character developement. I like the short scene between Raffi and "JL". Having read the book by Una McCormack (I know - novels aren't considered canon) it fits in very well.
The idea of introducing a powerful ancient AI lifeform sounds interesting but is a huge adition to the Trek mythology and I wonder if there could be a relation to something that was mentioned before (no, I have no idea myself but I remember there being android civilizations mentioned in TOS, no ?). Sutra seems to be more made out of Lore's "DNA" the way she's acting. The rest of them were too easily persuaded. And the look of the synth colony was bad. A bit like a 70s hippie comunity I would say.
There are still a lot of open answers and I hope we will know some of them by next weeks finale. I don't expect those ancient synths to come and sweep the floor with Romulans as that would be too simple. Maybe the cliffhanger will be right in the middle of the battle a la Best of Both Worlds.
I'm perturbed Jana's sister is manipulating the others, even instigating or committing murder to get the others to see things the way she does.... Is she driven by a need for revenge for Jana's death?
I'm relieved it's looking like they didn't plagiarize the game, "Mass Effect."
Did it look like fluidic space at the end of the preview for ep. 10? (I saw black insect-like creatures or ships against a red background, with a round circle that appeared to be over-looking the planet...as if the assistance they call for may be coming from fluidic space...but, not like the fluidic space where Species 8472 lives.)
It started off rally nice but I don't like the ending. I get it but it's also nothing new and the arguments/discussions I was hoping for were missing. It also makes no sense that the alliance of synthetic life would have to exterminate all organic life. The synthetics should be (and apparently are!) so advanced that the organics should pose no thread to them! And if they would exterminate the organics they would be no better than them.
The entrance of that Borg artifact/cube was cool though :D
I also really loved the planet exploration scenes! That's one of the things I like most about Star Trek.
Plus a funny discussion between Rios and Raffi about the 218 warbirds :D
And I really like that part were that message wasn't intended for organic minds but for synthetic life. Although that sound's like the synthetics weren't clever enough as it doesn't sound like a good idea to make the organics even more afraid (unless you'd want to exterminate them :o :D). It could of course also be just an unforseen possibility but they could've tried much better to make the message only available to synthetic life.
The message was kinda cool but also seemed very naive!
"Beyond the boundaries of time and space, we stand, an alliance of synthetic life, watching you, waiting for your signal."
Raffi's "I love you JL" was both unexpected and surprising. Not sure what I should make of it...
Soji and Narek still seem to have lots of unresolved issues and I'm not sure if that "can"/should change.
I really don't like Arcana so far. I wonder what exactly she did to Narek. She seems to have bad plans... :o
I hope Soji still has some good intentions and will fight more for the humans/organics. She and Agnes might have their secret plans too - who knows...
5/10
Wait...What
Borg completely wasted
Evil twin android...cough...Lore
All dialogue again which has been the hole show.
Absolutely can't stand Agnes, I Love the evil female Lore and she's a bitch more than Agnes.
Oh and Agnes is a full on Murderer and everyone is cool with that oh and let's give her a love interest with the ships Captain.....No....just...no..
Honestly this show is so boring and silly with no highs all lows and honesty I find myself wanting the Romulan incesting brother and sister back rubbing against each other as it's a damn sight more interesting than anything else going on in this ridiculously uninteresting show.
Growing bloody Data's and Android mind melds yeah alright...actually NO.
Space flowers crashing Borg Cubes, I love you bloody JL's cringe..
Honestly I could go on but I'm not because this show has been one huge massive Borg Cube size disappointment after another, what a huge predictable letdown.
Awesome seeing my favourite character shoehorned in Brent Spiner
and Spot2 but that was the only Awesome thing to speak of.
Right time to Grind...GRIND this season finale out, no doubt to be underwhelmed and letdown, then I can get back to proper proper Trek
which is the exciting Masterpiece the Flawless PHENOMENAL
STAR TREK DISCOVERY
"PERFECTION"
5/10
Just like the Borg and all other past characters,
The Borg Cube was completely wasted, it came far to early on, totally wasted entrance, same story again...we are Borg boom...done. really...really
They have completely nurfed the borg and this show is one long utter boring exposition dump.
Thank the heavens their is only one more episode to grind....Grind...out.
Then I can get back to the phenomenal perfect flawless Masterpiece
that is
Star Trek Discovery
Slow as usual, yet engaging and interesting. It was nice to see Brent Spiner as well.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2020-03-20T10:12:28Z
This is setting up a strong ending for the show. What I particularly got from this one was how Star Trekky it all felt. The giant flowers in space were such an Original Series concept. From the moment our crew arrived down on the planet it immediately felt like The Next Generation, from the rocky setting to the beautiful (and chintzy) android compound. Even the tone of the dialogue between everyone. I'm was very impressed with how good Isa Briones was here in multiple roles, and actually found her super creepy.
"That's unexpected," followed by the emergence of the Cube was a genuine WOW moment.
I found the emotional scene between Picard and Raffi particularly touching, and a great demonstration of the evolution of Picard's character from the heyday of TNG. He's still awkward but so much more open to expressing and feeling emotions. And again, I have to say that I have absolutely fallen in love with the crew of the La Sirena and I want much more of them.
The surprise appearance of Brent Spiner as another Soong relative (which was spoiled for me thanks to a website publishing articles before the episode has been broadcast worldwide) felt a little too contrived and yet was very welcome.