Picard

[Raven]

Anyone watching this? 

 

I stayed up and watched the first episode last Thursday night (or rather last Friday morning) - twice! (not planned, I certainly didn't expect to do so, but my mind was buzzing from watching it through once so I don't think I lost any sleep by watching it again!).

 

Patrick Stewart more than carried the show, and seeing him playing Picard again was an absolute joy, but if you watched The Next Generation there was so much more here than that.

 

Discovery has been good, but this is in a completely different league.

 

I cannot wait for the next episode!

[Hayley]

I’ve only seen the trailer but I did think it looked good. I wanted to wait until I heard reviews of it before I decided whether to watch though. So far, so good! 

[Brian.]

I've heard good things about it from friends so I'll probably check it out once I'm done with one of the series I'm watching at the moment.

[Marie H]

I liked episodes 1, but I thought #2 & #3 were less so. Thankfully, it has improved for #4 - 6.

[Raven]

Having seen the complete series now, I must confess to having conflicting feelings about it (some of it worked for me, some of it didn't). 

 

Patrick Stewart was good, but with age Picard seems to have lost the authority and respect he commanded in The Next Generation and I'm struggling to work out why.

 

I think I need to watch it through again, knowing now how it all plays out.

[Marie H]

I finished the last two episodes last night, and I still have mixed feelings of the series. Parts were excellent (the special effects were beautiful), but too many times I was cringing at the schmaltzy acting. But I did like 

Spoiler

the with Data’s ending request. 

 

[Athena]

I took an Amazon (NL) Prime trial, partially because I wanted to see Picard (as well as some other shows that I'm working on watching). I enjoyed season 1 of Picard. It wasn't as good as TNG, but I enjoyed it. The pacing was a bit slower in places, particularly in the earlier episodes of the season. It didn't bother me overly, I noticed it but I enjoyed watching it anyway. It's true that Picard has aged, I'd agree with that. I liked most of the characters a lot (though I didn't like Narissa at all, but I don't think you're supposed to like her?).

[Raven]

The pacing of the series was rather sedate at times.  I know everything doesn't - and shouldn't - be fast spaceships and action sequences, but they did just seem to wander from one situation to the next a lot of the time.  Really, the whole series felt like a protracted pilot episode.  Hopefully the next series will be a bit tighter, and the cameos from past cast members a little less indulgent.

[Nollaig]

I haven't watched it yet, because I've never really liked anything Star Trek related since Voyager, but I really wanted this to be great. Can't say the comments here are making me rush to watch it. But I do have Amazon Prime so I will at some stage.

[Raven]

17 hours ago, Hux said:

 

The Federation has become some kind of authoritarian nightmare that has no value for outsiders and thinks enslaving androids en masse is completely fine. 

 

 

I wasn't a fan of what they did with the Federation.  As the series went on it did start to make a little more sense, but I don't think it was very credible (I think this is a common problem in the new Trek series; none of them do a very good job with their world building (especially the most recent series of Discovery).  Of course, the main reason for the change in the Federation was to give Picard a reason for leaving Star Fleet.... 

 

17 hours ago, Hux said:

 

Then we get a Seven of Nine who has gone from intelligent logician to a gun-toting lesbian who murders indiscriminately.

 

 

I was never much of a Seven of Nine fan, or Voyager fan, for that matter.  After Deep Space Nine, Voyager always felt like a string of missed opportunities and under utilised characters.  

 

17 hours ago, Hux said:

 

This whole show is based on the idea that Picard and Data were somehow deeply connected. Again, have they watched TNG? Picard tolerated Data at best. The idea that he's Data bestest friend is absurd. Data was no more meaningful to Picard than his toaster.

 

 

I don't agree with that.  Picard was pretty stand-offish with the whole Enterprise crew throughout TNG (with the exception - in the later series - of Crusher) but I think that all changed in All Good Things when Picard joined the rest of the bridge crew to play poker at the end of the episode. 

 

After that - in the films - Picard does seem to be a lot closer to the rest of the crew, and especially Data in both First Contact and Nemesis. 

 

[Raven]

3 minutes ago, Hux said:

 

Closer, but not to the extent that he would go on a death defying mission to save Data. 

 

 

I still don't agree, but also, don't forget that Data sacrificed himself to save Picard, and that was a big part of Picard's motivation in this series (he says as much on more than one occasion).

 

3 minutes ago, Hux said:

 

This show, like Discovery, has only the most wafer thin connections to Star Trek. The original shows had an identity which made the world stand out in sci-fi but now it essentially looks the same as all the other sci-fi shows (The expanse, The 100, Lost in Space, Dark Matter). I'd like to see them meet some aliens and grapple with ethical dilemmas but instead, it's just a lot of pew pew pew and explosions. 

 

 

The shows are both definitely Star Trek; I just think both have just suffered - certainly in the last year or so - from poor writing and a lack of a clear identity and/or direction. 

 

I liked the first series of Discovery; I enjoyed the Klingon plotline and the whilst I was left thinking "that wasn't very Star Fleet" on several occasions, the plot-twist with Lorca explained why that was, and the "We are Star Fleet!" bit at the end of the series worked and wrapped up the season nicely.  Season 2 wasn't anywhere near as cohesive, story wise, but it was saved for me by the presence of Anson Mount's Christopher Pike, and I'm still genuinely looking forward to seeing how Strange New Worlds will play out.  Season 3, though, was just poor.  I don't understand why they have taken the series in the direction they have and I have no idea what they are trying to achieve.

 

For the most part I like Burnham as a character and Sonequa Martin-Green really has pulled off some great acting performances playing the character, but they have to stop making the show all about Burnham, because it is just not plausible for one character to be constantly at the centre of events. 

 

Take the last episode; they have to force the ship to drop out of warp - who comes up with the plan for how to do that? Tilly? Reno? (the two engineers left on the ship).  No, Burnham phones in what to do whilst she is in the middle of Die Hard tribute elsewhere on the ship... *face palm* 

 

The episode before; who talks round the scared, young Kelpian?  Saru, surely, the ship's captain and only Kelpian in the series? No, Burnham is the one to have the heart-to-heart chat.

 

Earlier in the series, when Adira is facing going through a Trill ritual, who is chosen to go with her? The ship's heart and soul, Tilly? The ship's chief medical officer, Dr. Culber?  No, Michael Burnham gets to jump in the pool of milk...

 

There have been plenty of chances for the writers to get other crew members involved in a more significant way, but they just keep defaulting to Burnham.  It's not realistic and it' doesn't make for very good television. 

 

Star Trek TV sequels have form for being poor for the first three series and then getting better, though, so I can only hope Discovery turns it around next year, but I think that is going to require a change the writers don't even know they need to make.

 

As for Picard, I have zero interest in finding out more about Picard's new crew, and not much more in what they might get up to, so the writers are going to have to work really hard to pull that one back as well.

 

[Raven]

15 hours ago, Hux said:

 

Star Trek is about exploring worlds and ideas and solving ethical or philosophical dilemmas. Discovery and Picard are about things blowing up and ninjas.

 

 

I take your point, to a point, but Star Trek is also about things blowing up (see: The Wrath of Khan, The Best of Both Worlds, most of Deep Space Nine etc..).

 

I believe Strange New Worlds may be more in line with your expectations, from what they have been saying about it.

 

[Raven]

2 hours ago, Hux said:

 

 

 

D7s!  Woooooot!

[Raven]

16 hours ago, Hux said:

 

Sums up my feelings.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwF1iri1GjQ&t=2219s

 

 

Nothing personal, but I can't watch these videos (people putting on mock voices and trying to be clever in the name of running something down). 

 

YouTube is full of this sh*t at the moment and I'm just not interested in watching it. 
 

I'm sure there are other channels out there that make the same point, but it can be done without being a dick about it.

 

(Apologies for the language and, as I said, it's nothing personal towards you, but this sort of "review" does no one any favours, imo).

 

16 hours ago, Hux said:

 

Edit - how do I embed a video? 

 

 

It should work automatically, and used to, but the linking is a bit wonky at the mo (should be fixed when the forum is migrated to Invision hosting).

 

[Orang-U-Can]

I have been a Trekkie since 1966.

I found this show slow.

It is probably the first ST themed show I will never ever want to watch a second time. What a shame.

Even worse than enterprise and that is saying something.