I like the characters. Though their journeys from point A to point B have been… uneven in terms of the writing paying sufficient attention to have those journeys make sense, the cast is generally good enough to paper over these flaws. If the ensemble has a weakness, it's Briones, who never really conveys the cognitive dissonance the script demands of her in this final act: believing that organic life as whole has to go while still caring for organic individuals, instead settling for a more general and less compelling confusion.
The Reapers, such as they were, were teased so briefly that I can forgive their existence despite my previous (and still valid, I think) objections to how they fit into a universe built on Star Trek's ethos. But while I'm glad that the Reapers were not actually deployed and I'm pleasantly surprised that the powers that be could resist that potential spectacle, I wasn't too enthralled by the spectacle we got in its place: the Starfleet / Zhat Vash standoff. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for Riker stepping out of retirement and into the captain's chair, but I don't think we needed two whole fleets in this scene. Hell, two ships—Riker's and Oh's—would've been enough, and having La Sirena be dwarfed and thoroughly outclassed by just the two of them would've highlighted just how modest our protagonists' ship is compared to the settings of the Trek series we're used to. "Bigger, but for no reason" is a trap Star Trek has fallen into repeatedly in the last decade… and I think it makes the material feel emptier when it can't—and shouldn't have to—fill that space.
As for Picard's resurrection undermining Data's parting message, I don't know that it does, though I agree that some of those moments between Stewart and Spiner would've played better had both characters perished. But, as the series finale of The Good Place said, knowing that you're mortal is enough; you can cross the threshold in your own time. Either way, Picard having the chance to give Data a proper goodbye was something I was explicitly hoping for out of this season of television, and I'm pleased to have gotten it.
I also enjoyed being left with our crew reassembled. The writing certainly didn't always sell the surrogate familial relationships it clearly believes it did in getting us to this point, but again, the cast is good enough that I'm happy to pretend it did in the name of using this state as a jumping off point for more stories. As it turns out, a show is not a series of teleplays and writing isn't everything, no matter how much criticism in the internet age would have us believe otherwise.
So it was okay. I'll certainly be sticking around for season two.
was the entire Federation fleet just copy/paste of the same 1 or 2 models? I love me some ship porn (especially Federation) but there just wasn't anything there. Where is that beautiful Galaxy model they used for all of 10 seconds in the first episode? Or Intrepid, Sovereign, Nebula, Akira, Steamrunner, Norway, Saber, Nova, Prometheus, with a few Defiants thrown in for good measure? I was actually sitting there trying to figure out if the ship clone trick they just pulled was immediately followed up by Riker doing a ship clone trick of his own. The Voyager finale had all sorts of different ship types at the end and there were only what, like 6 of them?
You are correct, Capt Riker actually even mentioned this "I'm commanding the most badass Fed ship ever and I'm at the head of a fleet of them" I guess they went full copy paste after the Dominion War and Mars.
Other Feelings About The End.
I was a little disappointed, though it wasn't as bad as I'd feared, at least the "synths" decided that killing everything wasn't the right solution 'cos Picard Picarded them.. Didn't much care for the resurrection either but whatevz. Overall I like the season, lots of really good stuff, particularly in the middle stretch there
Found some screenshots:
I really can't tell if it's one design with different lighting, or two designs. But still completely lazy, come on CGI people!
There's something both entirely consistent and wholesome that Elnor's the one to openly weep at Picard's death. Like yeah, his all-truth philosophy would have expressing his emotions be no problem whatever.
In general,
bit of a bumpy landing, but the ship's in one piece. Character work was good, the Reaper plot wasn't as imaginative as I'd have hoped for. Given the same set up, it would have been nice to show the Reapers Riker's actions and it's like "look organics are fighting for synths it doesn't have to be either/or!" The brain abnormality felt completely unconnected to everything right up until the end, and then they undo it, so that was a bit cheap. The Data meeting was aces, but I think Spiner's makeup kinda made him look like he was scowling. The copy/paste ship design was a shame too, because the DS9 fleets were fun to see the different ships and their different roles.
I think they've done a good job having an interesting cast, and that's the big success of this series. I hope the next season can tighten up the plotting.
Urgh.
I wish they could have stuck to 1 story idea and explored it more indepth instead of glancing at several.
The last episode falls apart for me because there's no real reason the way things played out the way they did; the romulans could have just as well nuked the planet and started a war with the federation, whatever.
A lot of the Borg stuff consistently felt like the bit from the Simpsons where Homer is trying to eat a bag of chips with the greyhound puppies. Like they'd start an episode with the Borg and I'd be all "This time..." and then they would, once again, cut to something else and never come back to the Borg.
was the entire Federation fleet just copy/paste of the same 1 or 2 models? I love me some ship porn (especially Federation) but there just wasn't anything there. Where is that beautiful Galaxy model they used for all of 10 seconds in the first episode? Or Intrepid, Sovereign, Nebula, Akira, Steamrunner, Norway, Saber, Nova, Prometheus, with a few Defiants thrown in for good measure? I was actually sitting there trying to figure out if the ship clone trick they just pulled was immediately followed up by Riker doing a ship clone trick of his own. The Voyager finale had all sorts of different ship types at the end and there were only what, like 6 of them?
You are correct, Capt Riker actually even mentioned this "I'm commanding the most badass Fed ship ever and I'm at the head of a fleet of them" I guess they went full copy paste after the Dominion War and Mars.
Other Feelings About The End.
I was a little disappointed, though it wasn't as bad as I'd feared, at least the "synths" decided that killing everything wasn't the right solution 'cos Picard Picarded them.. Didn't much care for the resurrection either but whatevz. Overall I like the season, lots of really good stuff, particularly in the middle stretch there
Found some screenshots:
I really can't tell if it's one design with different lighting, or two designs. But still completely lazy, come on CGI people!
Goes to show the kind of blinders people have.
I saw those ships and I remember thinking "why the fuck are they all the same" and yeah, I thought they were doing the clone trick the La Sirena was too. It just didn't even occur to me that it was laziness on the production team. same thing with those Shutterstock images initially. Now that it does occur to me, that pisses me off even more.
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
I give this season a solid 7/10. Not a bad start, plenty of room for improvement. Here's hoping they take some lessons learned and make a better season 2. Also bring back Picard's housekeepers. Come the heck on, they should be part of his crew.
just how many times did evil admiral have to say "prepare planetary sterilization number 5"? Like it was funny enough that they had more than four ways to preform exterminatus on hand but the constant non ending
Charge the Disruptors!
Keep charging them!
Are they charged yet?
Well keep charging!
How bout now?
Ok, well don't do it just now, wait for my command!
Still waiting...
What, we overcharged somehow?
Ok well we'll just have to do it all over again.
As was said earlier in the thread it feels like that part of the episode would have been stronger with only one or maybe a half dozen ships on both sides. With only a couple ships then faced with a threat to your mission to (as they saw it) save all life in the galaxy of course you would redirect whatever firepower you have to whatever threatens your ability to carry it out. With hundreds of ships, just open fire, sure you might loose a few ships, hell you might loose them all, but robot C’Thulhu’s about to murder every living thing in the galaxy, the stakes could only be higher if a magic ball of fungus was going to kill all life in every possibly multiverse (thank you Discovery).
opened fire as soon as they came out of warp. Or if they had to scan the planet, they could have came in cloaked, scanned, dropped the cloak and opened fire.
Considering how they thought the apocalypse was imminent, there was no reason for them to wait for the entire fleet to get ready. Just have ships fire as soon as they're ready.
We keep seeing this in media lately (comics, "prestige" TV, etc etc):
Raise the stakes too high and they become meaningless, because everyone knows they can't just have it happen.
One thing regarding the cut/paste ships to keep in mind was that the Utopia Planitia shipyards were destroyed in the synth attack. Maybe they can only produce certain ships now? Most of the ships seen in the DS9 battle are ~30 yo designs at this point, and they lost quite of few of those there. Just made sense to me that they might have mostly a single type now.
Yeah, its lazy, but its also not completely without explanation either.
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+4
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
It would bother me less if it wasn't such a boring, generic design. Also considering they already had a Galaxy Class CG model from the first episode...
+3
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HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
edited March 2020
uhhhhh sooo
is Allison Pill's character just.. not going to jail or.. what's the deal there?
ep 10 was yikes
Hardtarget on
+10
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
It would bother me less if it wasn't such a boring, generic design. Also considering they already had a Galaxy Class CG model from the first episode...
Given how they went so over the top with all of the prior show references, I can’t believe they didn’t use the All Good Things... Galaxy-Class refit there.
It would bother me less if it wasn't such a boring, generic design. Also considering they already had a Galaxy Class CG model from the first episode...
Given how they went so over the top with all of the prior show references, I can’t believe they didn’t use the All Good Things... Galaxy-Class refit there.
When that episode first aired, I loved the Galaxy-X, but as time wore on, it looked uglier and uglier to me and was so war-like and not what the Fed...oh wait, nevermind, it's fine now I guess.
We keep seeing this in media lately (comics, "prestige" TV, etc etc):
Raise the stakes too high and they become meaningless, because everyone knows they can't just have it happen.
Picard should have learned from Logan. Instead, they learned from Dark Phoenix.
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
Man, I was with Picard up until those last couple of episodes. Sure it wasn't perfect but I was enjoying it. I'll echo the sentiment that the show really shit the bed at the end, there. I really wanted to love Picard.
I didn't want to believe that it would end with a beam in the sky and a portal to monsters, waiting to invade. Buuuuuut they went and did it anyway.
At least they didn't end it with an epic space battle but man, was I left miffed with the rest. Killing Picard only to bring him back minutes later just totally undermines it's emotional impact. I especially disliked how the federation just ends its ban on synths off screen with no explanation. I really REALLY hated how they fucking kill data twice.
well, pretty much all of this had virtually no impact and never could.
If it was a planet full of synths, waiting to be unleashed on the galaxy that could conceivably be stopped but at some cost, ok. If Picard's 'death' meant charging into the Romulan fleet in a futile but meaningful gesture, sure.
But having the galaxy be attacked by a complete Out of Context invasion, coupled with Picard dying and coming back sucked. Romulan incest twin died and no one really gave a shit, not even her twincest brother.
Commodore/General Oh just...goes home.
I liked certain parts of this, but all in all it was a pretty damp squib and I will only selectively watch the next season.
+2
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Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Yeah I dunno guys, between Discovery and how this series ended, I think Star Trek is dead to me now...
There were some clearly good moments that were just blatantly undermined by how artificially-high the stakes were raised.
What I find most damning about this show is that I cared far, far more in low-stakes situations about brand-new characters in 14 episodes of Firefly than I ever did in 10 episodes of a show that had the advantage of over a decade's worth of characters and nostalgia from multiple series past.
At this point I'm just going to go back to not watching Star Trek. I tried to re-engage after the whole Voyager/Enterprise debacle with Discovery and now this first season of Picard, and I feel like I'm just setting myself up for disappointment. They started this one off so well and it just went to complete and utter shit.
Can you just tell a good fucking story and not throw literally every goddamn idea you have into a giant nonsensical universe-ending plot? Is that a thing we can do now? In this Golden Age of Television this is what we get for Star Trek?
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PolarisI am powerless against the sky.Registered Userregular
Discovery was good and got better as time went on, Picard definitely peaked around the centre of the season but there were many things I loved about it. TNG was a unique show that is unlikely to ever be repeated, but these two new series were way better than Enterprise or Voyager. I felt Picard was a love affair of TNG written by someone who doesn't quite understand scifi, that's ok, I forgive them. The scene on
Are you kidding? There's always been more trash science fiction tv series than good ones. Honestly that holds true for any genre, but you can always watch The Expanse rather than this BRAND NAME IP exploitation nonsense
Kurtzman does seem to have a penchant for ripping off stories from computer games. Ugh. I just realized that Kurtzman made me do something I can't forgive. He made me feel bad for EA.
I think the "Star Trek is dead" reaction goes way too far. We still have Wrath of Khan. We still have Best of Both Worlds. We still have Duet and the Thaw and City on the Edge of Forever and The Inner Light and The Visitor and Spock's Brain and All Good Things. I don't think disliking the most recent Trek thing negates the good stuff. Otherwise we'd have all been here after Into Darkness. You can not like Discovery or Picard or anything else, but you can still appreciate what drew you to this show in the first place. Careful with ending up like the other Star thing, and maybe have a "better luck next time" attitude.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
If Star Trek were gonna die, Enterprise woulda killed it. Picard is rad, eff the haters.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
+23
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David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
Quick question about the final ep:
At the very end, they show Raffi and Seven of Nine playing handsie and gazing lovingly at each other.
Did they ever in the entire season have even a one on one conversation before that? "Picard" has very much been my dual screen experience, so it's possible I just missed something entirely.
I quite enjoyed the season up until the final episode.
It was terrible, absolutely terrible.
I'm gonna watch season 2 because I'd watch Star Trek: Dogs and Cats Go To Space! but fuck me.
One thing that was totally awesome about season one: Will Riker.
I would really love to see a slice-of-life episodic comedy titled, "Riker's Pizza". It would be like Cheers where he just runs a small pizza shop in the Spaceport when people come in to chat with him funny things happen, maybe his daughter even comes around every few episodes to do Grand Adventures.
DisruptedCapitalist on
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
+6
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
I wonder how many All Access subs are getting canceled about now.
+6
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ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
One thing that was totally awesome about season one: Will Riker.
I would really love to see a slice-of-life episodic comedy titled, "Riker's Pizza". It would be like Cheers where he just runs a small pizza shop in the Spaceport when people come in to chat with him funny things happen, maybe his daughter even comes around every few episodes to do Grand Adventures.
Has a quiet rivalry with the Sisko restaurant.
Yes, they're across the continent from each other, but transporters.
Posts
The Reapers, such as they were, were teased so briefly that I can forgive their existence despite my previous (and still valid, I think) objections to how they fit into a universe built on Star Trek's ethos. But while I'm glad that the Reapers were not actually deployed and I'm pleasantly surprised that the powers that be could resist that potential spectacle, I wasn't too enthralled by the spectacle we got in its place: the Starfleet / Zhat Vash standoff. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for Riker stepping out of retirement and into the captain's chair, but I don't think we needed two whole fleets in this scene. Hell, two ships—Riker's and Oh's—would've been enough, and having La Sirena be dwarfed and thoroughly outclassed by just the two of them would've highlighted just how modest our protagonists' ship is compared to the settings of the Trek series we're used to. "Bigger, but for no reason" is a trap Star Trek has fallen into repeatedly in the last decade… and I think it makes the material feel emptier when it can't—and shouldn't have to—fill that space.
As for Picard's resurrection undermining Data's parting message, I don't know that it does, though I agree that some of those moments between Stewart and Spiner would've played better had both characters perished. But, as the series finale of The Good Place said, knowing that you're mortal is enough; you can cross the threshold in your own time. Either way, Picard having the chance to give Data a proper goodbye was something I was explicitly hoping for out of this season of television, and I'm pleased to have gotten it.
I also enjoyed being left with our crew reassembled. The writing certainly didn't always sell the surrogate familial relationships it clearly believes it did in getting us to this point, but again, the cast is good enough that I'm happy to pretend it did in the name of using this state as a jumping off point for more stories. As it turns out, a show is not a series of teleplays and writing isn't everything, no matter how much criticism in the internet age would have us believe otherwise.
So it was okay. I'll certainly be sticking around for season two.
Found some screenshots:
I really can't tell if it's one design with different lighting, or two designs. But still completely lazy, come on CGI people!
In general,
I think they've done a good job having an interesting cast, and that's the big success of this series. I hope the next season can tighten up the plotting.
I wish they could have stuck to 1 story idea and explored it more indepth instead of glancing at several.
The last episode falls apart for me because there's no real reason the way things played out the way they did; the romulans could have just as well nuked the planet and started a war with the federation, whatever.
And the final shot makes no sense.
not
"engage", warp spooling up, WHOOSH!
Goes to show the kind of blinders people have.
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Narek?
Charge the Disruptors!
Keep charging them!
Are they charged yet?
Well keep charging!
How bout now?
Ok, well don't do it just now, wait for my command!
Still waiting...
What, we overcharged somehow?
Ok well we'll just have to do it all over again.
Considering how they thought the apocalypse was imminent, there was no reason for them to wait for the entire fleet to get ready. Just have ships fire as soon as they're ready.
Raise the stakes too high and they become meaningless, because everyone knows they can't just have it happen.
Yeah, its lazy, but its also not completely without explanation either.
Eh, I'd put it on the same level as the time Romulans programmed Geordi to assassinate someone.
but.. but... she did it of her own free will
Given how they went so over the top with all of the prior show references, I can’t believe they didn’t use the All Good Things... Galaxy-Class refit there.
"The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I’d beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it." -- Jack Kirby
When that episode first aired, I loved the Galaxy-X, but as time wore on, it looked uglier and uglier to me and was so war-like and not what the Fed...oh wait, nevermind, it's fine now I guess.
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Picard should have learned from Logan. Instead, they learned from Dark Phoenix.
At least they didn't end it with an epic space battle but man, was I left miffed with the rest. Killing Picard only to bring him back minutes later just totally undermines it's emotional impact. I especially disliked how the federation just ends its ban on synths off screen with no explanation. I really REALLY hated how they fucking kill data twice.
If it was a planet full of synths, waiting to be unleashed on the galaxy that could conceivably be stopped but at some cost, ok. If Picard's 'death' meant charging into the Romulan fleet in a futile but meaningful gesture, sure.
But having the galaxy be attacked by a complete Out of Context invasion, coupled with Picard dying and coming back sucked. Romulan incest twin died and no one really gave a shit, not even her twincest brother.
Commodore/General Oh just...goes home.
I liked certain parts of this, but all in all it was a pretty damp squib and I will only selectively watch the next season.
There were some clearly good moments that were just blatantly undermined by how artificially-high the stakes were raised.
What I find most damning about this show is that I cared far, far more in low-stakes situations about brand-new characters in 14 episodes of Firefly than I ever did in 10 episodes of a show that had the advantage of over a decade's worth of characters and nostalgia from multiple series past.
At this point I'm just going to go back to not watching Star Trek. I tried to re-engage after the whole Voyager/Enterprise debacle with Discovery and now this first season of Picard, and I feel like I'm just setting myself up for disappointment. They started this one off so well and it just went to complete and utter shit.
Can you just tell a good fucking story and not throw literally every goddamn idea you have into a giant nonsensical universe-ending plot? Is that a thing we can do now? In this Golden Age of Television this is what we get for Star Trek?
Very much looking forwards to Discover season 3.
I'll stick around for Season 2.
Are you kidding? There's always been more trash science fiction tv series than good ones. Honestly that holds true for any genre, but you can always watch The Expanse rather than this BRAND NAME IP exploitation nonsense
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Did they ever in the entire season have even a one on one conversation before that? "Picard" has very much been my dual screen experience, so it's possible I just missed something entirely.
It was terrible, absolutely terrible.
I'm gonna watch season 2 because I'd watch Star Trek: Dogs and Cats Go To Space! but fuck me.
Awful.
also, dr jarati (synth doctor) is just forgiven?
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I would really love to see a slice-of-life episodic comedy titled, "Riker's Pizza". It would be like Cheers where he just runs a small pizza shop in the Spaceport when people come in to chat with him funny things happen, maybe his daughter even comes around every few episodes to do Grand Adventures.
Has a quiet rivalry with the Sisko restaurant.
Yes, they're across the continent from each other, but transporters.