Star Trek: Picard - Season 1 |OT| Re-ENGAGE!

[chrominance]

It was never brought up again. Fans speculated that the variable geometry was the fix, but Voyager never addresses it, and it's just as likely it's done to give Voyager it's superior warp speed.

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Looks like Memory Alpha says you're mostly right! Apparently it was never mentioned on the show proper as the reason for the variable geometry, though it shows up in some of the tech manual stuff that I think isn't considered canon? I wonder if that's where I got the notion.

 

[low-G]

If you're going to recycle your trolls from other series, you may want to take the time to fully commit to replacing all of the "wars" with "treks".

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Excuse me, what the fuck is your problem? It's called a typo, kid.

 

[Inugami]

Excuse me, what the fuck is your problem? It's called a typo, kid.

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What a nice even keeled response there bucko. The constant Star Wars whining is bad enough in it's own threads.

 

[AgeEighty]

It was never brought up again. Fans speculated that the variable geometry was the fix, but Voyager never addresses it, and it's just as likely it's done to give Voyager it's superior warp speed.

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It was definitely mentioned at least one other time, in the case of an emergency when the limit was "temporarily" lifted.

 

[low-G]

What a nice even keeled response there bucko. The constant Star Wars whining is bad enough in it's own threads.

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I'm not the one going around accusing people of trolling because of a typo. Don't start none don't get none.

I'm allowed to state my opinion here, and frankly Star Wars is a good point of reference right now. Am I whining when I praised Mandelorian?

To get back on topic, it's specifically Nemesis and the recent Star Trek movies, having to compensate for -- oh Data died, and oh Romulus blew up... having to account for all these things because they want the plot to include everything major that has happened in Star Trek, why? I don't know.

Just like with Rise of the Skywalker they were in an understandable situation where previous hack writers have written them into a corner. But I don't think canon should be treated like the bible. I wish they felt ok writing certain things out.

 

[StallionDan]

I know the simple answer why they didn't do this is because there'd be no show otherwise but I've always thought it was funny that it never occurred to Janeway or the Voyager crew to just use timed explosives set to explode 5 minutes after they used the array to get home.

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This, and reasons why it would not work, have never been discussed.

 

[AgeEighty]

My review: It's bad. Possibly not as bad as Nemesis, but close.

Patrick Stewart still acts well, but even Picard doesn't feel quite 100% Picard. More like... 70%? I mean that's fine, but most of the other acting is just okay.

The plot could be worse, it's bad, but not Rise of Skywalker bad. The writing is also pretty terrible. There's a few scenes which really don't have much of a point and they're really trying hard to show and not tell, but there's too much dumb, terrible crap that has happened around Nemesis and the alternate universe movies that they feel they have to account for. A lot of the universe events don't really make a ton of sense in the context of Star Wars canon, but it's a general shitshow as of late anyways.

So, there's worse things out there, but hopes of something more on the tier of Mandelorian are crushed.

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Jesus Christ, imagine if the internet of today were around when TNG premiered. It never would have made it past one season.

 

[low-G]

Jesus Christ, imagine if the internet of today were around when TNG premiered. It never would have made it past one season.

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The Internet was around, and people argued about it constantly on Usenet.

Hey if Picard takes off by Season 3 I'm all for it.

 

[AgeEighty]

The Internet was around, and people argued about it constantly on Usenet.

Hey if Picard takes off by Season 3 I'm all for it.

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That's why I said "the internet of today", and I'm well aware that Usenet argued about the show. I took part in it. And if you did as well, then you should already have learned this lesson.

 

[deimosmasque]

Didn't Undiscovered Country come out a year after (or maybe the same year) as TNG premiered? Always find that odd.

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Undiscovered Country came out in TNGs 5th season actually.

 

[low-G]

That's why I said "the internet of today", and I'm well aware that Usenet argued about the show. I took part in it. And if you did as well, then you should already have learned this lesson.

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I don't think it should be so easy to dismiss the faults of this by, 'there was once a really good TV series that started off so-so, so criticism is invalid.'

Encounter at Farpoint didn't burden itself with the last several Star Trek TOS movies. Imagine if everyone was constantly talking about Kirk and what he did all those decades ago?

 

[UltraMagnus]

Undiscovered Country came out in TNGs 5th season actually.

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Yeah TNG was well underway and into its peak while the film series was still ongoing with the original cast.

To be honest I don't really recall much sniping between fans at all, though who knows what it would have been like if the internet was around.

1990-1998 was really a nice golden age for Star Trek in terms of popularity. It was really Insurrection not being such a big hit (and even that still did decent box office) that was kinda the first cracks in the armor and then Enterprise and Nemesis not being big enough hits in the early 2000s where the wheels came off.

 

[RastaMentality]

 

[SirMossyBloke]

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Errr...that's a terrible take, even on the last sentence alone.

 

[UltraMagnus]

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Who cares really if some people didn't like it. First episodes of Trek series' are never great or going for a home run.

It's just trying to get on base and it accomplished that. I don't go into the initial episodes expecting to be blown away, it takes every Trek series a little bit to get its engines revved up, shit it took TNG really two full years (obviously Picard can't go that slowly, but still).

 

[AgeEighty]

I don't think it should be so easy to dismiss the faults of this by, 'there was once a really good TV series that started off so-so, so criticism is invalid.'

Encounter at Farpoint didn't burden itself with the last several Star Trek TOS movies. Imagine if everyone was constantly talking about Kirk and what he did all those decades ago?

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Criticism is valuable when it's measured and well reasoned. Yours wasn't.

Encounter at Farpoint had a cameo from freaking DeForrest Kelley, lol.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

Who cares really if some people didn't like it. First episodes of Trek series' are never great or going for a home run.

It's just trying to get on base and it accomplished that. I don't go into the initial episodes expecting to be blown away, it takes every Trek series a little bit to get its engines revved up, shit it took TNG really two full years (obviously Picard can't go that slowly, but still).

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From his bio it seems he'd have loved it if Patrick Stewart was replaced by Jony Ive.

 

[low-G]

Criticism is valuable when it's measured and well reasoned. Yours wasn't.

Encounter at Farpoint had a cameo from freaking DeForrest Kelley, lol.

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Your critique of my criticism is even more worthless, as we are to be discussing the show, not why you don't like that I didn't like the episode. I will measure as much as I want, but my reasoning is sound.

Cameos are fine, cameos that subsume 90% of the pretense and writing? Not so much.

 

[AgeEighty]

Your critique of my criticism is even more worthless, as we are to be discussing the show, not why you don't like that I didn't like the episode. I will measure as much as I want, but my reasoning is sound.

Cameos are fine, cameos that subsume 90% of the pretense and writing? Not so much.

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It's simple: you say "the writing is terrible" but, since we have all seen examples of writing on television that are far, far worse than that, maybe say what you didn't like about it instead of throwing hyperbole around.

And it's a sequel series. You were expecting it not to reference its own past? TNG wasn't a sequel series. We haven't even gotten to most of the new characters yet. Relax.

 

[VorpalNonsense]

Encounter at Farpoint didn't burden itself with the last several Star Trek TOS movies. Imagine if everyone was constantly talking about Kirk and what he did all those decades ago?

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They didn't have to because they literally released TWO TOS-cast movies after TNG had already started. TOS was still going and Bones still showed up in TNG anyway.

If you wanted to know what was up with Kirk you just went to the movies.

 

[UltraMagnus]

TNG doesn't really start to get going until about the middle of season 2 looking back at the episode list.

The Riker/Klingon ship exchange program and The Measure of A Man episode half way through season 2 is where that show really started to find its bearings.

Obviously Picard can't take 34 episodes before it finds its groove but I think they got a good enough foundation to get cooking a bit by ep 4/5/6 this season.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

How many seasons do we expect this to go? Didn't Patrick hint at 3 seasons in some interview?

 

[Spectromixer]

How many seasons do we expect this to go? Didn't Patrick hint at 3 seasons in some interview?

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yeah I don't think Patrick wants to do more than three. Maybe they spinoff characters into another show after three seasons.

 

[funky]

How many seasons do we expect this to go? Didn't Patrick hint at 3 seasons in some interview?

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I wouldn't expect more then a tight 2/3.

Patrick Stewart is 79 years old. He is in great health for the age but that is a hell of a age to be doing something as demanding as a series.

 

[antonz]

I imagine Picard is going to be the stepping off point for a future series. Picard is establishing the state of the galaxy etc. So a new series will flow much easier

 

[zombiejames]

I imagine Picard is going to be the stepping off point for a future series. Picard is establishing the state of the galaxy etc. So a new series will flow much easier

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I'd be down with that. With the JJ reboot and Discovery, it's been tiring always going backwards timeline-wise. It's good moving forward again. Real good.

 

[Deleted member 2226]

I'd be down with that. With the JJ reboot and Discovery, it's been tiring always going backwards timeline-wise. It's good moving forward again. Real good.

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Especially if they cannot fathom having a sci-fi series not look "modern".

 

[low-G]

Oh! I had almost written it completely out of my head but this is way better than Discovery, I'll give it that!

 

[Spectromixer]

I'd be down with that. With the JJ reboot and Discovery, it's been tiring always going backwards timeline-wise. It's good moving forward again. Real good.

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Discovery is going forward too

 

[zombiejames]

Discovery is going forward too

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Don't remind me. That finale made absolutely no sense.

 

[Deleted member 29660]

Jesus Christ, imagine if the internet of today were around when TNG premiered. It never would have made it past one season.

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Even offline back in the day some people hated TNG because it was different from ST. Someone posted an article about it a year ago here when we first heard about Picard.

 

[CommodoreKong]

It was an okay episode I guess. Feels like a lot of setup for future episodes so really it's hard to say at this point. I feel like it probably had just the right of TNG nostalgia, which is nice because they could have easily gone overboard.

The Synths attacked Mars and the Utopia Planitia Shipyard (which I always assumed was in orbit of Mars but is depicted as on the surface of Mars here, but whatever). I highly doubt there was any high Romulan population. The episode didn't really draw a straight line between the relationship, but it seems Starfleet (and the public too?) felt that the Synth attack was worse and more devastating because Picard had a good portion of the existing fleet away helping rescue the Romulan population and Utopia was busy making ships specifically for the rescue effort, and then with the Shipyard destroyed, Starfleet's ability to build new starships period had to have taken a big hit, hence the resentment from Starfleet and the negative public perception.

Of course, if Starfleet has really gone centuries without having other shipyards other than Utopia Planitia then they were asking for trouble anyway.

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Yeah Utopia Planitia has been depicted as being ship yards in orbit of Mars so it was weird they depicted them here as being on the surface of Mars. I'm sure they had facilities on Mars as well but I would imagine most of the ships would be built in orbit.

Yeah there's no way that Utopia Planitia is the only Starfleet ship yard though it wouldn't surprise me if it's the biggest.

 

[deimosmasque]

It's not the only shipyard but it is the largest and most high tech. It's also where experimental tech is first deployed and tested.

 

[ArchedThunder]

I imagine Picard is going to be the stepping off point for a future series. Picard is establishing the state of the galaxy etc. So a new series will flow much easier

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Kinda my thoughts as well. I expect Picard to end with the character Picard's story coming to an end.

 

[Quinton]

My review: It's bad. Possibly not as bad as Nemesis, but close.

Patrick Stewart still acts well, but even Picard doesn't feel quite 100% Picard. More like... 70%? I mean that's fine, but most of the other acting is just okay.

The plot could be worse, it's bad, but not Rise of Skywalker bad. The writing is also pretty terrible. There's a few scenes which really don't have much of a point and they're really trying hard to show and not tell, but there's too much dumb, terrible crap that has happened around Nemesis and the alternate universe movies that they feel they have to account for. A lot of the universe events don't really make a ton of sense in the context of Star Wars canon, but it's a general shitshow as of late anyways.

So, there's worse things out there, but hopes of something more on the tier of Mandelorian are crushed.

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This show's already light years ahead of Mando IMO. And I like Mando.

 

[QuigleyMcShine]

Yeah Utopia Planitia has been depicted as being ship yards in orbit of Mars so it was weird they depicted them here as being on the surface of Mars. I'm sure they had facilities on Mars as well but I would imagine most of the ships would be built in orbit.

Yeah there's no way that Utopia Planitia is the only Starfleet ship yard though it wouldn't surprise me if it's the biggest.

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Even in the Short Trek that ties into Picard they show drydocks in orbit, even weirder because it was with Discovery-era ships in them. Guess they had the renders handy for the lower budget short.

 

[DSN2K]

I've come to conclusion that unfortunately there is a part of the Trek Fan base who wont be happy with anything new in the franchise. To criticize Patrick Stewart acting in that first episode kind of sums up the levels they will go. Character is 20 years on and 97 years of age. how anyone can say Stewart didn't handled that anything other then exceptionally is beyond me.

 

[deimosmasque]

If you ever want to see how divided a fan base can be over nothing....
Go to TrekBBS. I was semi regular there before discovering ERA and they will literally fight over the shades of color on uniforms.

 

[Inugami]

Me and my wife finally had enough time to sit down and watch it together, and both of us immediately wanted more. For anyone doubting if this feels like classic Trek, I'd say the first episode should make you feel a lot better. The action scenes were short and in service to the story instead of detracting, and so far it's hitting the right notes.

As an aside, we ended up watching 3 episodes of TNG immediately after (Best of Both Worlds 1/2 and Family) since that got us both back into a Trek mood.

 

[Big-E]

I liked it. I feel they did a bad job with Data though as he just looks weird. I honestly would have taken some deaging tech here as I found looking at 2020 Spiner off putting.

As for the end,

Spoiler

the Romulans using a cube and borg tech to rearm seems kind of stupid but I will allow it for now. Also I liked that they actually killed the girl and set it up with the twin. Felt a little different

. Still, too much action and I felt the interviewer was not really dealing well with the material while Stewart did well. Potential is there though and so far I think I feel better out of this one episode than all of Discovery so that is a bonus.

 

[Amnesty]

Where's all that borg nanotech and future tech that Voyager brought back?

Well it did rip the heart out of the Romulan empire, essentially consigning one of the big Trek enemies to permanent refugee status surviving on the ragged edge of space.

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But if they had an empire how are they reduced to refugee status on the edge? If it's an empire wouldn't it be expansive and they'd have like a lot of colonies and other planets with lots of Romulans?

 

[Halbrand]

I was a really casual watcher of The Next Generation as a kid so I'm not overly familiar with it at all but I loved this, so good to see him back. Way better than Discovery. I called the twist pretty much from the get go. Very Blade Runner 2049.

It's so surreal after the JJ Trek (which I loved too) and thinking that any Next Generation stuff at least with the old actors would be done with for good.

 

[FreezePeach]

I actually liked it. Wasnt expecting to.

 

[deimosmasque]

I disagree that it feels like classic Trek.

See that was the actual problem with TNG when it started. The stories it was telling was TOS stories told decades to late. So they felt wrong and dated.

If Picard was actually like classic Trek, it would be a failure. Television storytelling has evolved since then. If the Picard story felt like TNG it would feel dated and bad.

 

[antonz]

The Romulans tinkering with Borg Tech has been a thread point for quite awhile in Star Trek lore. The Mining Vessel in Star Trek 2009 that Nero has is supposed to be heavily modified with Borg Tech which is why its so nasty looking. 2009 Showed but did not tell much about it. Picard is again showing but hopefully it will tell more

 

[Amnesty]

I disagree that it feels like classic Trek.

See that was the actual problem with TNG when it started. The stories it was telling was TOS stories told decades to late. So they felt wrong and dated.

If Picard was actually like classic Trek, it would be a failure. Television storytelling has evolved since then. If the Picard story felt like TNG it would feel dated and bad.

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Television storytelling doesn't 'evolve (evolution isn't about becoming better or superior anyways!)', it just changes to what is most marketable at the time. There isn't any teleological nature to the change in how these things are made. You can't outmode a certain style or aesthetic in television simply by doing something different, you can only adapt it to the general marketability of what's common at the time.

 

[firehawk12]

Television storytelling doesn't 'evolve (evolution isn't about becoming better or superior anyways!)', it just changes to what is most marketable at the time. There isn't any teleological nature to the change in how these things are made. You can't outmode a certain style or aesthetic in television simply by doing something different, you can only adapt it to the general marketability of what's common at the time.

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Isn't that essentially the definition of evolution? lol

 

[Amnesty]

Isn't that essentially the definition of evolution? lol

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Well, no. Television is media which is artifice, not a natural phenomenon.

 

[Guppeth]

But if they had an empire how are they reduced to refugee status on the edge? If it's an empire wouldn't it be expansive and they'd have like a lot of colonies and other planets with lots of Romulans?

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If they lost a huge chunk of their military and leadership, the empire could have been overthrown. The colonies would have fought back and kicked out the oppressors.

Well, no. Television is media which is artifice, not a natural phenomenon.

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Evolution doesn't necessarily require natural selection, it just means development over time. That's why Darwin's book needed such a long title.

 

[Inugami]

If the Picard story felt like TNG it would feel dated and bad.

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I completely disagree with this in every sense. First of all, TNG stories mostly hold up and thus don't feel dated or bad. On top of that, story telling doesn't necessarily need to evolve, it just needs to be present in modern sensibilities.

I'd say Picard definitely feels more optimistic in a way that's clearly TNG, even if the effects, sets, etc are more modern.