Killing off Rios saying he’s “lived a life” is just… it feels like a cop-out, a trite reason that I hate because it limits possibilities. Was Rios happy in the past? Maybe. But if they ever wanted to bring him back it would be difficult. If Guinan hadn’t dropped that sentence it would have been more open-ended. Rios was a good character who I think had more story to tell.

Plus it shows a double standard of care. To be honest with how Picard’s health was a theme in season 1, I thought he was going out then. I couldn’t really understand the “bringing him back in a robot body” thing given that Patrick Stewart is a real life human, who bless him is getting on in years, and I figured was probably sensible to ‘write him out’ so to speak to let the man rest. He led the way to carry the start of the show, until people got to know the new characters, and then he could bow and let the “next, next generation” take over but alas…