Star Trek: Picard

haha <3

I clicked and I now am full of regret.

OK this show is getting quite interesting! I figured out who Picard would encounter, it was pretty obvious. Bit baffled by Q's bit at the end. Trying to figure out whats going to happen!

from knowing the music of LA, I assume the Watcher is Dr. Dre

oh wait, just thought of the obvious one. will watch and find out!

looking back thru data's paintings for a clue

That "California Dreaming" montage might be the worst thing I've seen on TV this year so far.

Yeah that clunked hard.

I enjoyed this ep but it occurs to me now what was bugging me:

He meets Guinan at the bar at 10 Forward st (heh) and she seems to never have met him before, but he met her in the 19th century in that NextGen episode?

Scene on the bus = roffle.

Actually - was it the same actor?

For some weird reason IMDB has no detail up yet for this ep so I cant confirm.

I don't think it was, I figured more of a spiritual cousin, as it were.

a couple websites are saying it was!

Yeah its him, comparison pics make it clear

I enjoyed this ep but it occurs to me now what was bugging me

Trayce: yeah, I wondered about how Guinan didn't recognize Picard even though they'd met earlier, but timey wimey/alternate timeline shenanigans could be a convenient out. Also she doesn't look the same now as she did a century before (though I guess the throwaway line about being able to change her appearance at will is meant to handwave that away).

Despite that potential inconsistency, I dug all the little easter eggs (10 Forward as mentioned, but also why Picard sounds like a Brit).

Also, Marty McFly's mom directed the episode!

Other things:

I liked Seven and Raffi's bickering!
Dixon Hill!

And this seems like confirmation that the mohawk guy is the same from STIV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74p0A7sN-_I

And a nice interview with the one of the guest stars which also delves into the apparent plot inconsistency (spoiler-tagging the link because it has potential spoilers in it): https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/star-trek-picard-young-guinan-ito-aghayere-whoopi-goldberg-1235213292/

I’ll accept that.

Choice quote from interview:

And, I mean, he has a “Sir” in front of his name. He was just ready for it. He was like, “Bring it! Bring it!” And such a sweet soul.

A friend of mine had told me he really likes this yeast thing, Marmite. Because I have family in the U.K., I know it, and I hate it. It’s awful.

i like the actress who plays guinan but i was kind of annoyed that she didnt really do anything to even vaguely ~seem~ like the character at all idk
like except for her being at that bar & picard saying her name out loud, there isnt anything much there

not that she shd imitate whoopi idk

hah -- i saw who the director was but assumed it was a different person

I like the idea of a timeline where
Guinan has been around earth during one of its worst periods, seen things move back and forth and then arrived at this 2024 bleak version, but without that tempering influence of having met Picard and crew back in the 1880s to know that things are going to rebound in a great way.

I recently rewatched the TNG episode where Ro Laren is initially sent to the Enterprise and Guinan sits her down and says, hey, I’m not here to be your friend, but here’s what I need to tell you. It’s a great moment because you can’t dictate what someone should do, but you can speak to them on their own terms.

I think there’s kind of a questionable writers room thing in ST with that, though, because as good as plays, the ST: First Contact movie also has a “black woman tells Picard to wake the fuck up” moment. I found it on youtube, but it cuts off before the great “..you broke your little toys..” line

Yeah if you accept that the timey wimey fuckery means theyre in a past/present where *everything* they were and did just Never Happened, things make more sense. Its a bit of a deus ex machina, but its also very Trek, so.

i thought guinan specifically told ro laren that she was her friend?

riker was such a dick in that ep; v. unprofessional

yeah he was in super-asshole mode in that episode

Was it episode 5 last season where things went south? This one was fine, but mostly setup for the next episode -- hopefully we'll get more heisty stuff that gets teased.

always happy to see orla but she seems to have let picard take over her entire mission with barely a shrug

not clear on how q had that disappointing finger snap yet still managed to provide soong with that compound/take over as renee's therapist

anyway despite the borg queen's attempts we have a plot, however absurd, that doesn't center on everyone's feelings. (yet, because this picard childhood thing is gonna be bad, right?

also santiago cabrera is a handsome man

I am assuming Q is being her therapist precisely because he's realised he cant just Q-ify her head? So hes manipulating her old school.

Doesnt explain how he wormed into the position, but eh.

Meantime, looking ahead a bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGl8ypcjWeI

how will they bring data back to life and will it involve chronotons

sounds more like one of those Soong mfers to me

Yeah I was rolling my eyes at yet another secret Soong.

I kind of wonder if the appearance of Soong and daughter wasn't so much a "Dahj cast in the image of hundreds of years later" thing but maybe a remixed reality where Q picked important people and recast them in this little fanfic of his.

Q is writing the show, confirmed!

Well Alison Pill is having the time of her life (you know the moment I'm talking about it if you've seen the new episode).

show needs more paintings: reanimate data

this episode was lame

absurd that seven -- the character with actual borg experience! -- has spent the whole season trying to calm down the entirely useless raffi

didn't even get a song ffs

thank god the picards had to go outside, at their crazy locked-down formal event, so someone could hit one of them with a car

oh no, someone is trapped in his own mind by entirely made-up trauma

they even wasted the whole thing with the hot doctor

So you’re in the third season writers’ room.

i thought it had a solid start! but now it needs nothing less than AP reducing the borg queen to reciting the numbers of pi

the borg queen stuff is def annoying to me

and look i should be first in line for pat benatar fan service but they kept the chorus exactly the same & just changed the arrangement for the verse which annoyed me

also thematically it’s kindof a halfass song choice. If you’re going to go there, GO THERE. just swing for the fences and do a bigband workup of “The Beast In Me” or fkn “Dr Hekyll and Mr Jive” or “Jugband Blues” like what are we really doing here

if you're gonna go for a 40yo pop song there's no excuse not to go for total eclipse of the heart

i was going more w split personality theme but ok

Why would someone in 2024 sing/entertain others with a Pat Benatar song from the 80s was my problem. I know the answer is "our fans are all over 50" but hey ho.

Didnt mind this ep but not a lot progressed.

also mookie otm i hate this
oh no, someone is trapped in his own mind by entirely made-up trauma

but in general i still do like this season

I cannot imagine these series (Disco & Picard) being appealing to newcomers to the franchise.

I just watched two early, generic DS9 eps in a row — one where Dax trains a floppy-haired 90s Trill with Chandler Bing’s voice, and one where Quark’s old Cardassian girlfriend turns up — and the characters have such soul and depth and wit. I miss that! That dissonance - that’s always been there - between the depth of feeling and the corniness of the presentation - seems even more pronounced, watching them now alongside the new shows.

a major problem i have with this show is that @sirpatstew's solution to playing picard-when-old is being @OLDsirpatstew and just playing picard and i don't think it works

"he has an unstable arhythmia, his heart's all over the place"
"what does that mean?"
"it means he's in the middle of a major cardiac event"

thanks doc