Thing I'm keeping in mind here re all plot shenanigans is that the trailers revealed we're getting Moriarty back at some point.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 5 March 2023 17:11 (one year ago) link
I think mookie and I are mind-melded because I thought Riker was happy that Jack (btw why would Bev name him after her other husband?) went to sickbay because that meant getting JL off the bridge.
― Shartreuse (Leee), Sunday, 5 March 2023 17:36 (one year ago) link
medical science has gone way downhill in the last 3 decades, huh. the scanner can't even detect internal bleeding. they've gone back to defibrillators to treat arrhythmia.
bring back the salt shaker
― formerly abanana (dat), Monday, 6 March 2023 03:28 (one year ago) link
I did find that whole scene odd, when the other Dr got snotty at Beverley as if she had no clue how to doctor. Something about "things change a lot in 20 years". Really lady?
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 6 March 2023 05:30 (one year ago) link
the trailers revealed we're getting Moriarty back at some point
and lore too, right? i fear the worst
honestly just give me worf, son of mogh, house of martok, solving mysteries
― mookieproof, Monday, 6 March 2023 06:29 (one year ago) link
i’d settle for Barclay and call it good
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 6 March 2023 06:51 (one year ago) link
Okay the new one is the honest to god best episode of the season, maybe of this whole series.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 9 March 2023 21:32 (one year ago) link
Episode 4 has been the shark-jumping point for the first two seasons, maybe they decided to flip that trend on its head?
― Shartreuse (Leee), Thursday, 9 March 2023 22:08 (one year ago) link
Some of the old TNG magic came back when they had actors retelling dramatic events rather than clumsily showing it, which was directly contrasted to them clumsily showing dramatic events in the same episode.
I'm down for Lone Worf and Cub spinoff.
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 9 March 2023 22:11 (one year ago) link
Lone Worf & Q’uhb, perhaps?
― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Thursday, 9 March 2023 22:50 (one year ago) link
"You're only ever really as good as those around you" -- sums up Picard the TV show pretty well
This two-parter was very BSG remake season 1 and that's a good thing to imitate.
― formerly abanana (dat), Friday, 10 March 2023 01:04 (one year ago) link
It was nice to see another mid-season arc conclusion. Star Trek seemed to forget about it after Disco S1.
― formerly abanana (dat), Friday, 10 March 2023 01:44 (one year ago) link
nice callback to voyager with the 'we can literally harness energy from space mom's contractions but the holodeck is untappable'
― mookieproof, Friday, 10 March 2023 13:47 (one year ago) link
"did you just.... throw an asteroid at them?!" was a great line.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Saturday, 11 March 2023 09:15 (one year ago) link
Wow we almost got a CRAZY deep cut...but I have always wondered:
https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-picard-season-3-changelings-conspiracy-tng-1850214543
But while the Changelings were an early part of Matalas’ plans for season 3, for a brief moment they were almost replaced by another hidden Star Trek villain, this time directly from Picard’s roots in TNG—the parasitic bugs from the infamous season 1 episode “Conspiracy.” In that episode, Picard and Riker uncover a plot by a race of alien bugs to infiltrate Starfleet command, burrowing into their unfortunate hosts and killing them, puppeting them in secret. Which was, for Matalas, the problem with bringing them back.“I do like the conspiracy bugs, I did consider for a hot minute, the conspiracy bugs,” Matalas continued. “The issue with the conspiracy bugs is they kill their host. So that would mean anyone that you saw with a bug in them was dead, and you wouldn’t be able to do the paranoia thriller that you wanted to do if it was somebody you loved, that meant they were dead. So there (were) about three storylines I couldn’t do without killing legacy characters.”
“I do like the conspiracy bugs, I did consider for a hot minute, the conspiracy bugs,” Matalas continued. “The issue with the conspiracy bugs is they kill their host. So that would mean anyone that you saw with a bug in them was dead, and you wouldn’t be able to do the paranoia thriller that you wanted to do if it was somebody you loved, that meant they were dead. So there (were) about three storylines I couldn’t do without killing legacy characters.”
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 11 March 2023 18:20 (one year ago) link
did I, for a moment, wonder during the interrogation of that guy at the hands of Worf and Raffi if that was going to be the reveal? maaaaybehow funny would it have been if instead of looking sick and then being revealed as a changeling, we got one of those bugs bursting from the guy’s chest Alien-style
― mh, Saturday, 11 March 2023 18:59 (one year ago) link
Side question - does watching this season spoil the end (or parts) of DS9? I’m only on season 3!
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 11 March 2023 20:02 (one year ago) link
not so far
― mookieproof, Saturday, 11 March 2023 21:37 (one year ago) link
Oh wow, so the nubbins _WERE_ considered as the Star Fleet conspiracy. The hosts of the Greatest Generation/Trek podcast would be so proud their jokey prediction was more accurate than expected
― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Saturday, 11 March 2023 22:04 (one year ago) link
Having only just finished watching DS9 in toto I found it helped. But I dont think its neccesary.
The pot thing bugged me though. That always seemed like an Odo-specific item, I dont see why another rogue changeling (I assume, one of the ones released like Odo was years earlier to "explore"?) would have the same kind of pot, given they all usually live in the Link, and the outliers... dont even know what they are initially if DS9's anything to go on?
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Sunday, 12 March 2023 06:37 (one year ago) link
indeed. and even odo -- who didn't know what he was, and therefore couldn't have known to create a special pot -- could at a pinch, liquidate himself in the . . . embrace of a friendly betazoid
― mookieproof, Sunday, 12 March 2023 06:53 (one year ago) link
It also bugged me that Seven found it so quickly hidden in a compartment!? I mean the titan is a fucking huge ship with multiple levels.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Sunday, 12 March 2023 07:02 (one year ago) link
i realize that i'm complaining a lot and i don't really *mean* to do that
but!
if these producers are masterful enough to pull out changelings plus the rumored moriarty and/or lore, they should be better about the other, perhaps 'smaller' things that seem off
― mookieproof, Sunday, 12 March 2023 07:18 (one year ago) link
surely when Odo went back to the great link he shared his knowledge of the specific model of small bucket that serves as the perfect changeling resting vessel and they’re all replicating it when they visit the federation
― mh, Sunday, 12 March 2023 14:23 (one year ago) link
Agreed that this was a good episode but it took a lot of exasperation to set the characters up on the chessboard in a way to make the story work, the most anti-Trek example of which is making Shaw an anti-Borg bigot who thinks little of dead naming 7. I'm not a "no conflict in Starfleet, ever" purist but you can make a jerk Trek captain (Jellico 4ever) without making him a stupid goon.
― Shartreuse (Leee), Sunday, 12 March 2023 16:59 (one year ago) link
Whew...and I thought *last* week was good.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 16 March 2023 20:16 (one year ago) link
Yeah this was a great episode. I think I can see where things are panning out now, though Ive been wrong plenty before!
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Thursday, 16 March 2023 20:26 (one year ago) link
And we still have some key characters yet to surface! I do have half a guess myself but yeah I'm just content to let this play out some.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 16 March 2023 21:14 (one year ago) link
Great guest star this episode. I didn't expect how good that character resolution was.
I can read the changelings Conspiracy as being a meta-commentary on how the people running Trek behind the scenes are completely different now, resulting in Trek series that feel like imposters.
― formerly abanana (dat), Friday, 17 March 2023 16:06 (one year ago) link
agree this was a pretty great episodeloved the guest reveal, and the storyline fitted them well i thought can worf just kill rafi nowi’m still incredibly tired of her
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 17 March 2023 18:34 (one year ago) link
Worf needs Raffi around so he can do his Weird Dad Worf thing.
― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Friday, 17 March 2023 19:02 (one year ago) link
:/
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 17 March 2023 19:26 (one year ago) link
fantastic guest but we should have gotten more
― mookieproof, Saturday, 18 March 2023 02:51 (one year ago) link
although i have to say that said guest having rejoined starfleet feels unlikely to me
― mookieproof, Saturday, 18 March 2023 02:54 (one year ago) link
https://www.memorygongs.com/worf_bloodloss.png
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Saturday, 18 March 2023 03:16 (one year ago) link
farkn why cant I post any images succesfully lately.
agree re unlikelihood
― H in Addis, Saturday, 18 March 2023 08:07 (one year ago) link
they're not making it easy for themselves having to compress 20 years of backstory of what happened to Ro in 30 seconds of dialogue but amnesty for any maquis left after getting butchered in the dominion war who are willing to use guerrilla tactics against the Cardassian-Founder axis under some black ops section 31 shenanigans seems plausible enough but the writing doesn't really sell it, being 3/4 baked (which is still an improvement over how half-baked most of the earlier seasons were).
― Philip Nunez, Saturday, 18 March 2023 22:00 (one year ago) link
Yes that was my only issue - i guess we're still spoilerizing this are we Picard makes it clear he has Had It with Ro, she's dead to him because of what she did, he seems quite bitter about it in fact (and I have to be honest I don't recall her leaving TNG being THAT acrimonious?). Then she turns him around completely in one quick conversation? I get they had to speed things along but it was a little wham-bam.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Saturday, 18 March 2023 23:16 (one year ago) link
oh, i don't doubt that starfleet might ultimately take ro back -- i mean two seasons ago a romulan spy was their chief of intelligence; their security is historically awful. i just don't think *she* would do it, particularly when a free bajor needed rebuilding
the whole interaction was necessarily speedy, but i do buy the general sense of it. he really liked and respected (at least??) her in TNG and was torn up when she defected. it's kind of funny how riker, who actually hooked up with her and later sympathized with her defection, was left out of it, but i guess the show isn't called 'riker'. (also beggars belief that these starfleet legends were unaware of her return while she built her career back up to commander, but whatevs)
― mookieproof, Saturday, 18 March 2023 23:37 (one year ago) link
Despite myself and the narrative whiplash and what is imo still kind of a boilerplate story, I agree that this was a genuinely good episode. They even made Worf an interesting character! To Mookie's last point, she said that she even went to the media, yet somehow Picard and Riker were still blindsided by her resilience.
― Shartreuse (Leee), Sunday, 19 March 2023 06:36 (one year ago) link
Also, I'm really torn about how quickly Ro got reintroduced and disposed of, like was Michelle Forbes' availability limited to a one episode guest shot? In which case the slack dithering of the first 3-4 episodes feels a lot more egregious.
― Shartreuse (Leee), Sunday, 19 March 2023 22:35 (one year ago) link
i def agree w that, it felt like too good of a “get” to be one and done.
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 19 March 2023 22:37 (one year ago) link
I don’t know if I’ll continue to enjoy it if it stretches further, but the “revelation” that Picard was never this stoic figure, that he was very emotionally involved in his crew and his relationship to them, plays pretty well. Old man in his dotage, maybe. I thought for a minute that Picard and ~spoiler character~ were being implied as having a deeper bond offscreen, but I think it’s shown in the TNG episodes that he felt tested!It’s not really revisionist per se, but just showing us what it meant to be Captain Jean-Luc Picard. They had to stick to the character and only show brief cracks or absolutely break him (see: Locutus) to make him fallible, and now we’re just getting all cracks
― mh, Sunday, 19 March 2023 22:58 (one year ago) link
^^^ it was interesting and well-done to see the contrast between picard's interaction with sisko re: wolf 359 in the DS9 premiere (instantly went stiff and icy) vs. that with shaw last episode (sad but no excuses)
― mookieproof, Sunday, 19 March 2023 23:05 (one year ago) link
otm
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 19 March 2023 23:38 (one year ago) link
they should throw a wrinkle in it and make it canon that Picard disliked Wesley, though
― mh, Sunday, 19 March 2023 23:45 (one year ago) link
it's not?
― mookieproof, Sunday, 19 March 2023 23:53 (one year ago) link
I just want to hear someone say his name and see Picard noticeably grimace
― mh, Sunday, 19 March 2023 23:55 (one year ago) link
they did the facepalm this episode. they could do "shut up wesley" too.
― formerly abanana (dat), Monday, 20 March 2023 00:25 (one year ago) link