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March 28, 2024, 03:23:53 PM

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Star Trek - Picard show

Started by mothman, May 15, 2019, 09:42:58 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Malcy

Enjoyed the first 20 mins or so of this week's then found myself fairly bored.

The good

Spoiler alert
I felt like I was watching Star Trek which is rare these days.

Got chills at the Voyager theme playing while Seven kicked some dead Romulans off a ledge!

Quite liked the Orchid things bringing down the ships.

Spot 2! Surprised Data never attempted to make an android animal before attempting Lal.
[close]

The bad

Spoiler alert
As nice as it was to have a new Soong character played by Spiner it did feel like a very insignificant thing. Yeah I was born, Data was created, let's move on. Almost felt a bit like a last minute idea.

They better not be linking this to DSC in any way.
[close]

The ugly

Spoiler alert
The Android make up was pretty bad. I know they were trying to make them stand out but it looked like the makeup you see on women these days that makes their face 10 shades darker than their neck!
[close]

One to go. Quite glad. The only bits I've really enjoyed have been references to Trek of old. Hope next week's is a bit longer as well and

Spoiler alert
a load of Starfleet ships turn up commanded by Riker, who get their arse handed to them on a plate before Worf turns up with a Klingon fleet declaring it a good day to die.
[close]

That would save it for me.

Chairman Yang

So we're finally here. Eight episodes of side-quests and misdirection and it turns out that yes, indeed, it was Mass Effect the whole time.

When *ahem* 'Noonian Soong's biological son' turned up, I briefly hoped this would swerve into an elaborate trick but no... no we're doing 'computers want to kill us all'. Again.

'I'm A. I. Soong, pleased to meet you!' That not raising any red flags, Picard?!

idunnosomename

"Rich wants to be in a grave and counts the days until he is there."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyGGW3tqNPY

Zero Gravitas

#633
Quote from: Malcy on March 19, 2020, 12:28:20 PM
The Android make up was pretty bad. I know they were trying to make them stand out but it looked like the makeup you see on women these days that makes their face 10 shades darker than their neck!

Reminded me of how awful the early makeup tests were:



But even more jarring.



Still could be worse:



Generally over the course of the series I've been pining for episodic episodes, somewhere where they've got an isolated story and aren't playing a game of slice and dice the overall arc, put some 'cool' bits in and then slap some late re-shoots over the top, this probably came the closest but was ultimately quite cringe inducing.

I'd not willingly reveal I've sat through all of that episode to anyone.

Blumf


Poobum

Hate the ship designs, all look like the generic models you'd find in Elite: Dangerous. Romulan Warbirds didn't need to be redesigned, they were iconic, these plastic wing toy things are worse than Discovery's Klingon lumps.

I'd love to know what the hell Patrick Stewart was going on about when he said the show was going to deal with contemporary problems. Did he mean reducing things to a false diametric that eschews all potential diversity on both sides and offers no intelligent investigation into the nature of either. Is it a meta commentary on centrism?

Was having a commune of synth hippies fighting with literal flower power supposed to be witty? Might give them that one actually.

greenman

Quote from: idunnosomename on March 19, 2020, 07:53:44 PM
"Rich wants to be in a grave and counts the days until he is there."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyGGW3tqNPY

I gave up after episode 2 but these reviews maybe justify the series existence? seeing two men in some kind of collective mental breakdown is oddly entertaining.

sirhenry

"If you develop synthetic life and if you then try to wipe it out, we will come and wipe out all organic life."

"We'd better set up a secret society/religion whose one aim is to wipe out all synthetic life once it's been developed then."

And this is what the entire series is built around?[nb]I use 'built around' in the sense of 'building a Lego model of the Enterprise using parts from several other sets, none of which are the right shape, or even curved, but if you squint and really use your imagination it might just look like a Borg cube'.[/nb]

Blumf

Quote from: Poobum on March 20, 2020, 03:12:49 PM
Hate the ship designs, all look like the generic models you'd find in Elite: Dangerous.

Still haven't got a good idea of what the main ship (La Senza?) looks like. Best I can see is a dented shoebox with some Toblerones stuck on as warp nacelles. That camo paint job is working.

The rest of them, low poly count seems to be the design principal. Only exception being that old Bird-of-Prey, which looked lovely. I presume someone had that model in their library.

Bring back Andrew Probert!!

JamesTC

Remember when Enterprise did this whole
Spoiler alert
Soong with a band of young followers
[close]
thing and did it much much better?

Remember
Spoiler alert
Spot
[close]
. I remember.

Malcy

Quote from: JamesTC on March 20, 2020, 07:39:57 PM
Remember when Enterprise did this whole
Spoiler alert
Soong with a band of young followers
[close]
thing and did it much much better?

Remember
Spoiler alert
Spot
[close]
. I remember.

Remember when Enterprise was the last actual Star Trek we had?

Wonderful Butternut

Quote from: Malcy on March 20, 2020, 08:24:15 PM
Remember when Enterprise was the last actual Star Trek we had?

No, because it was also shit.

So
Spoiler alert
is Picard going to die and stay dead, and La Sirena named Picard in his honour, or be re-made as an android? Place your bets.
[close]

Lemming

Christ that dragged like hell.

Are we meant to be with or against the Romulans at this point? The Federation ban is clearly justified if this is the end result of building synths. The Romulans have been vindicated every step of the way. If it wasn't for the fact that they inexplicably started murdering the ex-Borg (the people they'd been helping for free up until that point???) then they'd literally be 100% in the right.

idunnosomename

Quote from: greenman on March 20, 2020, 05:23:57 PM
I gave up after episode 2 but these reviews maybe justify the series existence? seeing two men in some kind of collective mental breakdown is oddly entertaining.
i think it is all worth it for rich evans' "good sir" jibe at the end

Wonderful Butternut

Quote from: Lemming on March 20, 2020, 08:37:57 PM
Are we meant to be with or against the Romulans at this point? The Federation ban is clearly justified if this is the end result of building synths. The Romulans have been vindicated every step of the way. If it wasn't for the fact that they inexplicably started murdering the ex-Borg (the people they'd been helping for free up until that point???) then they'd literally be 100% in the right.

Yeah it's kinda fuckways that the Evil Soji, in going kill-crazy, effectively justifies everything the Romulans are doing and alienates the only society (The Federation) that might accept and protect the Synths. Hopefully they're setting it up as a rejection of some sort of warmongering psuedo-dictator.

Maybe I'm being naive, but I have to assume that Chabon's misery fetish doesn't extend so far as to have all the Synths die, so I have to assume she'll be foiled. Maybe only most of them will die.


Deyv

Could the second season be Star Trek: Days of Future Past and attempt to fix the timeline fuck it who cares anymore

JamesTC

Quote from: Malcy on March 20, 2020, 08:24:15 PM
Remember when Enterprise was the last actual Star Trek we had?

Yep. And the producers all saying that this is supposed to be an allegory for modern-day society all looking dim as the message is so cackhanded. Whereas the Enterprise two-part finale is more relevant than ever.

Malcy

Quote from: Wonderful Butternut on March 20, 2020, 08:30:14 PM
No, because it was also shit.

So
Spoiler alert
is Picard going to die and stay dead, and La Sirena named Picard in his honour, or be re-made as an android? Place your bets.
[close]

Even the worst of Enterprise shits all over Picard. I think you could be half eight with that theory though. Bit of foreshadowing in ep 7 possibly.

Quote from: Deyv on March 20, 2020, 08:56:08 PM
Could the second season be Star Trek: Days of Future Past and attempt to fix the timeline fuck it who cares anymore

There's rumours of a DSC , Picard, Kurtzman-verse cross-over shitfest on the way. Preferably with Picard waking up and realising everything post 2005 was some awful nightmare.

Wonderful Butternut

Quote from: Malcy on March 20, 2020, 09:07:32 PM
Even the worst of Enterprise shits all over Picard.

I'd dispute that "A Night in Sickbay" shits on anything other than itself and the series' Captain, but even if that weren't the case, Ent was still terrible Star Trek and it nearly killed the franchise. That's what let Abrams, Kurtzman, Orci, Chabon and all the other edgelords who we have now in the door. Let's not go pining for it.

Malcy

Quote from: Wonderful Butternut on March 20, 2020, 09:58:21 PM
I'd dispute that "A Night in Sickbay" shits on anything other than itself and the series' Captain, but even if that weren't the case, Ent was still terrible Star Trek and it nearly killed the franchise. That's what let Abrams, Kurtzman, Orci, Chabon and all the other edgelords who we have now in the door. Let's not go pining for it.

I would and have rewatched Enterprise a good few times. I don't ever see me rewatching Picard or DSC so I'll pine for whatever the fuck I like, thanks.

Wonderful Butternut

Quote from: Malcy on March 20, 2020, 10:01:05 PM
I would and have rewatched Enterprise a good few times. I don't ever see me rewatching Picard or DSC so I'll pine for whatever the fuck I like, thanks.

A dog pissing on a tree and the Captain going around in a childish temper for a whole episode? Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. (And Ent is still terrible and nearly killed the franchise, let the edgelords in yadda yadda... something of Ent's quality would not save Star Trek now, even if it's not as damaging to the legacy as Picard or as visually ugly and insanely written as Disco).

Anyhow, I saw someone suggest a 'worst case scenario' that is more than likely going to be the exact synopsis of season 2:

Quote
Spoiler alert
Worst case: Picard's brain in an android body played by a younger actor watches the destruction of the android planet; his new crew of Raffi, Rios, Jurati, Elnor, and Soji join him on his season 2 mission to find the super-synths and end their sword-of-damoclese threat hanging over the Federation.
[close]

This is exactly what is going to happen, isn't it?



Chairman Yang

That would extremely stupid and bad so... probably?

DocDaneeka

Thought it was nice to see that timelapse footage of the decomposing fox in the mind meld.

Malcy

These are worth a watch. All the Easter eggs and references in each episode.

Here's this week's.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=bUofwyWu87o

Lemming

Quote from: Wonderful Butternut on March 20, 2020, 10:08:59 PM
This is exactly what is going to happen, isn't it?

And then in the season two finale, the gang are visited by MICHAEL BURNHAM FROM THE 30TH CENTURY who tells them that she's come back to FIX THE TIMELINE and SAVE THE FEDERATION

#655
Quote from: Lemming on March 20, 2020, 08:37:57 PM
Are we meant to be with or against the Romulans at this point? The Federation ban is clearly justified if this is the end result of building synths. The Romulans have been vindicated every step of the way. If it wasn't for the fact that they inexplicably started murdering the ex-Borg (the people they'd been helping for free up until that point???) then they'd literally be 100% in the right.
While coherently explaining what the fuck's going on isn't this show's strong point, in the last episode some of the characters appeared to saying that the Romulan double secret police kicked all this off by somehow hacking all the synths on Mars and reprogramming them to kill everyone because the Romulan lads were too organic to correctly interpret the message left by the Reapers uber synths.
So the Romulans are definitely the baddies or something.


I feel that I've given this show more than a fair go, certainly more than I gave Enterprise or Discovery, but it's going to have to join them in the folder in my brain marked 'Bollocks written by twats'.


Quote from: DocDaneeka on March 20, 2020, 11:24:30 PM
Thought it was nice to see that timelapse footage of the decomposing fox in the mind meld.
Can anybody recall which recent-ish TV show used this footage in its title sequence?
It's doing my head in trying to remember.

Edit - Just remembered, it was True Blood.

evilcommiedictator

Is this the bit where Q shows up and claim to be part of this AI but a dissenting faction? Just so it's more confusing

Endicott

As far as the android makeup goes, I assumed that was a deliberate attempt to portray improvements in android production techniques. Sutra is an older model, whereas Soji is the current state of their art, being able to pass for human.

My problem with this episode is the decision to make Sutra go evil. I assume the in show reason is that the Admonition drives everyone crazy so it makes her crazy too, but I don't think it should affect androids, especially ones based on Data. I can easily imagine an episode of TNG where Data is subjected to something like this and yeah, he says 'Fascinating', but then just carries on as before completely unaffected. Having her turn evil is very dull, possibly I would even call it lazy. Much more interesting would have been her being unaffected, with the in show reasoning being that this is precisely because she is based on Data. That would have given Picard a bargaining position if only he could effectively communicate that these androids aren't a threat. That would be a Star Trek story. But on the current trajectory I can only see agency being taken out of Picard's hands, and it's supposed to be his show, FFS.


beanheadmcginty

I always thought Data's makeup was worse in the films than the TV series. Too shiny and metallic. It seems that they've used the film style makeup in Picard too.

Cloud