Ok Picard episode 8.

I procrastinated on watching it. Actual avoidance. So it’s at that stage /sigh.

Spoiler warning as always.

First let’s focus on the positives.

I am not someone that loves to hate. I am frustrated because I love and I do love Trek. So were there any good moments?

Yes Deanna and Riker’s banter was mostly pretty cool. Worf needs to learn a sense of timing as enemies were maybe still around and I wasn’t very taken with Riker’s seeming jealousy? But otherwise everything between Deanna and Riker felt very natural. Even their talk about grief. It would be easy to say Deanna shouldn’t have messed with his head but she was in the throes of grief too. His pain and her own and the love all mixed up together. People make irrational choices in an emotional maelstrom like that. Considering what they went through, I think they were just coping best they could. So yeah their relationship was a high point.

Raffi taking on Vadic’s soldiers with swords made me go “Elnor!!!” because did our favourite sword wielding badass teach her? Watching Raffi fight was cool. Worf banter afterwards was good too.

Seven finally snapping and correcting Captain Asshat was long overdue.

BUT as we’re now getting into the “not so great territory” the fact that he didn’t seem to learn or care about the correction is maddening. Habit might have meant he continued to say Hansen, but what comes out first doesn’t have to be last. He could have acknowledged Seven’s words and ruefully corrected himself and he did not.

Captain Asshat having a go at Seven in the middle of the situation was also a WTF moment. If he disagreed with the call and wants to chew her out, do it afterwards when they are in the ‘report writing phase’. If they can talk under their breath say something useful to think of a way out, or encouraging for morale. Busting her chops was just going to make everyone feel worse. Piss poor leadership to what stroke his own ego?

Also changelings are resilient. If Seven had blown the lift that was no guarantee it would have killed Vadic. They are goo. Besides as I recall it Shaw practically dove in the turbo lift offering himself as hostage. If he wanted it blown that badly I suggest not being in it. Anyway laying the guilt trip on Seven was just inappropriate timing. Was Seven wrong? I don’t know – road not taken – and Seven is going to torture herself endlessly over this anyway. Him sanctimoniously going “that’s not StarFleet” may well be the push to resign her commission at the end of the season.

Seven’s “I’m facing the consequences” snark back to Shaw. She would have sacrificed herself. I think she would have done it anyway but him putting the boot in on the guilt trip only made her need to make it right. Begging Vadic to kill her. Moving to fight to try and force that. All because I think Seven followed Janeway’s teachings who I think said “we don’t trade lives” I swear I remember that. It’s ok to sacrifice your own but not others. Besides it was a split second. A “do I kill Captain Asshat and have a legit reason? Shit I hate him, they’ll think I did it on purpose. Oh fuck I have lost my window as the turbo lift takes less than 17 seconds” I mean we had that conversation a few episodes ago. About how long it took to get to SickBay. It’s not a long time.

Speaking of the whole guilt thing. I am sick to death of only the bridge crew/officer lives mattering. This is how Star Trek got the whole “redshirt” cliche in the first place. It was pretty damn dark showing the crew running scared through the halls, getting locked in with the pursuing killers, and massacred. But then it was like those lives, and those losses, didn’t make an impact. It was all about the “executing the bridge every 10 minutes” and all I kept thinking was “what about all the other poor sods who have been killed already?” I mean they really tried to hammer it home. One guy had a knife in their neck pinning them to the wall. It was pretty gruesome. But then no emotional payoff. That is what is needed. The visuals aren’t enough. All flash and no substance.

I’m really not vibing with the whole ‘chosen one’ thing they have going on with Jack Crusher. Not going to lie my first fanfics were rife with OC’s. They sort of drove the plot. This reeks of the same thing. Admittedly I was 11 at the time. I think I had learned between by the time I was 14 or so. How old is Matalas? Anyway Jack Crusher is the fanfic OC. The special one, and all the characters we know and love are dancing around him and I really don’t give a damn. What reason have they given for us to care? That he was semi-cool for 5 minutes as a Han Solo rip-off? The narrative is on one hand trying to push that nostalgia/the old characters are all that matter, and on the other make Jack Crusher the second coming since Merlin. Erm no.

I suppose it could be argued that Soji filled the same function in season 1 but I would argue it was different because of how the narrative placed it. Soji filled a role and the characters moved to save her, to take her home etc. but the focus of the narrative was on the federation itself, on ideology. It was on Picard getting his purpose back, on making a new life for himself. There was the found family aspect of the forging of the new crew. Yeah you could say Soji ‘drove the plot’ but the narrative focus wasn’t on Soji. Not how it is with Jack Crusher.

Season 3 has been so disparate and piecemeal. There doesn’t feel like there has been any character journeys for those characters we know and love. It’s like soundbite to nostalgia scene, shiny special effect mixed with a plot that fails to make sense.

I did like that Deanna got to use her abilities. About time she actually got to do something. But I don’t think opening the door that evil lurks behind is a good idea. I mean won’t that let it out? Are they ever going to explain how this door thing/telepathy exists in a human like Jack? Because he is special for plot is not a reason I accept.

And then Data /sigh. That was a cool sequence I admit with the memories and Brent Spiner acted the hell out of it. But I don’t know. So much focus on Data. Although as I said to someone, it’s not actually lack of screentime that’s the issue, it’s what they are doing with it. Showing Jack Crusher cry for the 20th time is a waste of film. The plot itself is also very… this feels like a feature film that has been stretched to 10 hours. It doesn’t have the feeling of the character moments that makes a TV Show. The focus is on the ‘big stuff’ but that’s not what I watch TV for. If I want the big set pieces I would watch a movie.

Oh and one last thing (though I have probably forgotten things) I am not immune to visuals. Seeing them all around the briefing room table again sure was something. For me it wasn’t worth screwing over pretty much every character (and especially ones not in that room) but it was very nostalgic.