you were half now you're whole
Aug. 30th, 2024 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestBeast and I acquired Paramount streaming service about, uh, ten days ago? And have now watched all of Star Trek: Picard.
Some of it, I enjoyed. It was nice to see Chateau Picard, and the normality of the grape harvest. And I do like seeing a story in which the characters are (almost) all old. It makes a change.
I'm not convinced this show knew what it was doing. If it was trying to show what happened to Jean-Luc Picard after he retired, fine. The first season had a good go at that—showing that he was still the strongly principled and capable man who would want to do the right thing, particularly for his friends. But it somehow seemed that the more TNG intruded into the show, the less it seemed to be about Picard. It seems to me that if they wanted to give us sometime TNG fans a bathe in nostalgia it would have been better to establish the Changelings/Borg plot somewhat earlier on, to bring in the other old friends for good reasons earlier, and to establish that each of them had something important to contribute. I thought at the time it happened there was no need to put Picard into a golem body, but I suppose that was a Useful Plot Seed, so, okay.
The first season did look like "Picard is retired but he's still Picard, and he will Do The Right Thing, and competently, if the occasion arises. And he's not averse to the occasional adventure." Which is fine. The "this is Data's daughter" thing was pleasing, too, and it all rounded up quite satisfactorily. I liked the visit to the Riker-Troi household. And Hugh. Though using an empty(ish) Borg cube for anything at all is... weird.
Somehow, Trek managed to make the Borg less terrifying with every appearance. On their very first appearance in TNG, the only thing that saved the Enterprise was, I think, Q. Then they kidnapped Picard, which must have been absolutely awesome at the time, if one were viewing it as it was broadcast... but after that, with 'Hugh' humanising the Borg, and Lore doing weird shit with them etc, they became a less frightening supervillain every time. I don't know what they did in Voyager as I gave up on that show very early in the process. (I have to admit I liked Seven of Nine here.)
Changelings, now. They are terrifying. I had dropped out of watching DS9—not from lack of interest, but I think probably because Virgin Media ceased to carry the Sky channel which was showing DS9, and I never got round to acquiring the later seasons on DVD. So I don't know about the Dominion War. But an enemy who can look just like a friend... so much potential.
The detection of Changelings, in season 3 - so much Borgcrap stuff during the body of the season that I'd forgotten about Changelings, and they showed up for about twelve seconds at the end so we could see that the Federation had managed to neutralise the threat. Yay. Still not altogether convinced that Borg and Changelings made a convincing alliance—what do they have in common? Wouldn't it have been better to have the two enemies acting separately, and Our Heroes not necessarily sure which one they were dealing with at times? Imagine if the ships were somehow 'assimilated' by the Borg, except for the Changelings on board who didn't get assimilated and kept working on their own agenda—how much more scary to be a free human then!
As (in my day) a huge Data fan, I was irritated by the incessant reappearances of Brent Spiner. He's brilliant when he does Data/Lore/B4 in the same scene. He's not particularly interesting playing a self-centred ancestor of Data's actual creator. I'd very much have preferred that role to be played by a different actor. Likewise Soong's biological son (—saywhatnow?—), although there is more justification for having Noonian Soong's actual son look a lot like him. I did love, and think entirely proper, the eventual merging of Data with Lore. Though Data's descent into common humanity was irritating—I mean, possibly it could have been presented in a more shallow way, but eh, possibly not.
I thought it made sense for Q to show up. Canonically, he was always obsessed with Picard, and what we got here was Q showing love in a typically Q-like way, so I approve. I was surprised when he turned up again at the end of the second season—the show seems to have made a habit of setting something up at the beginning of the season and then forgetting about it for ages, only to have it turn up at the end and remind everyone it was supposed to be important. I did smile, though, thinking of all those Picard/Q fans (well, whoever's left) squealing with joy. (And I was charmed to see the brief appearance of Wesley Crusher.) In fact, I found the end of season two quite emotional, and I like that. But then there was collective amnesia for season three, and everyone forgot about season two pretty much in its entirety.
And then with season three...
I felt mild approval of the fanservicing references to Trek history... and disapproval of the way they wrote some of it out. Pick a side, guys! (I mean, didn't Picard canonically *marry* Dr Crusher at some point? I'm sure he referred to their being married, though I can't remember where. Possibly it was in a future that ended up not happening?) (Also, where was Picard's elder brother when he was growing up being the sole prop and comfort of his depressed mother?) By the time the show got to season three, it seemed to have forgotten its own canon completely, never mind prior canon. What happened to the JuratiBorg? And why, having spent season two teaching Picard how to accept love, did he dump his new beloved with a wave and a smile and apparently spare her not one more thought? Gah. I wasn't particularly sold on the relationship, but by the end of S2 was happy enough with it, as was J-LP, and then... *crickets* If she had come along with him, there could have been some interesting character stuff. I think Laris could have got on well with Seven, and she might have struck up a surprising rapport with Beverley. Both would have been interesting to see. Laris might even have considered Picard's son *more* important than Jean-Luc himself did - because Jean-Luc hadn't really sought out parenthood and might reasonably have been expected to sacrifice Jack, whom he'd known for a matter of days, in order to save the rest of humanity. He hadn't had any interaction with Beverly for twenty years, either, so could probably have steeled himself against her maternal feelings. Oh, but the audience has to be totally on Picard's side, so he can't sacrifice a known individual (with a name, and everything) just to save, oh, say, Everyone Else. Shoulda given Jack a red shirt.
Wasn't particularly interested in Jack as a character. He was The Cheeky Lad Who Wins Through And Proves Himself, which is a type I don't care for. If he'd spoken like that on MY bridge I'd have sent him to replicator tech, or Jeffries Tube maintenance. Way too Sooper Speshul for my liking, but I suppose that was the plot right there. I mean, it was nice for Picard to have an actual son, sons being important, an' all, but it would not have been unreasonable for him to be a bit more willing to be ruthless, to sacrifice the individual for the sake of the rest of the human race. Oh, and while Picard and Crusher and Riker and LaForge were all earnestly being parents of one kind or another, couldn't Worf have remembered the existence of Alexander? And frankly, Picard had taken on a kind of surrogate parenthood to both Elnor and Soji in the early parts of this show, and indeed, also Ensign Ro, but now—because he Has A Son! Of His Very Own! Genetically! Actual Sperm Were Involved!—he just... forgets about them completely. Which blows.
I liked this incarnation of Worf a lot.
I did like Captain Shaw. It's good to see an authority Starfleet figure who actually obeys the rules, and it's good to have someone on board who doesn't instantly get all pally with Our Heroes. Also, totally reasonable to have festering and absolutely justifiable resentment against Picard after Wolf 359. I mean, if Starfleet were a sensible organisation, Picard would have been carefully retired after that, and kept well out of sight of the thousands and thousands of survivors and relatives-of-the-dead who would have been after his blood. Also, pretty much everybody in Starfleet would have been in serious therapy. But episodic television hadn't learned to do consequences, back then, and Trek apparently still hasn't. Still, I knew Shaw was toast from his first appearance onward. Pity.
I was disappointed that the enterprising crew didn't figure out the transporter cure for assimilation and manage to implement *that* (I did), instead of the peculiar shenanigans with the Borg cube. I mean, it was kinda cool to see decaying Borg corpses, but—would the Enterprise even fit in there? I mean, she's not a small ship. They could at least have removed the saucer section. And, well, maybe I'm just being mean, but I really think *somebody* should have died on the Borg cube. But I'd have kinda wanted it to be Jack, and obviously someone in production thinks Jack Crusher is the bee's knees so that wasn't going to happen. It probably should have been Admiral Picard, sacrificing himself for others to round off his legacy of service to humanity, a not outrageous end to the character.
So, well. Picard. It was nice to see it, and I remember surprisingly little considering we *just* finished watching it at lunch time yesterday..
Some of it, I enjoyed. It was nice to see Chateau Picard, and the normality of the grape harvest. And I do like seeing a story in which the characters are (almost) all old. It makes a change.
I'm not convinced this show knew what it was doing. If it was trying to show what happened to Jean-Luc Picard after he retired, fine. The first season had a good go at that—showing that he was still the strongly principled and capable man who would want to do the right thing, particularly for his friends. But it somehow seemed that the more TNG intruded into the show, the less it seemed to be about Picard. It seems to me that if they wanted to give us sometime TNG fans a bathe in nostalgia it would have been better to establish the Changelings/Borg plot somewhat earlier on, to bring in the other old friends for good reasons earlier, and to establish that each of them had something important to contribute. I thought at the time it happened there was no need to put Picard into a golem body, but I suppose that was a Useful Plot Seed, so, okay.
The first season did look like "Picard is retired but he's still Picard, and he will Do The Right Thing, and competently, if the occasion arises. And he's not averse to the occasional adventure." Which is fine. The "this is Data's daughter" thing was pleasing, too, and it all rounded up quite satisfactorily. I liked the visit to the Riker-Troi household. And Hugh. Though using an empty(ish) Borg cube for anything at all is... weird.
Somehow, Trek managed to make the Borg less terrifying with every appearance. On their very first appearance in TNG, the only thing that saved the Enterprise was, I think, Q. Then they kidnapped Picard, which must have been absolutely awesome at the time, if one were viewing it as it was broadcast... but after that, with 'Hugh' humanising the Borg, and Lore doing weird shit with them etc, they became a less frightening supervillain every time. I don't know what they did in Voyager as I gave up on that show very early in the process. (I have to admit I liked Seven of Nine here.)
Changelings, now. They are terrifying. I had dropped out of watching DS9—not from lack of interest, but I think probably because Virgin Media ceased to carry the Sky channel which was showing DS9, and I never got round to acquiring the later seasons on DVD. So I don't know about the Dominion War. But an enemy who can look just like a friend... so much potential.
The detection of Changelings, in season 3 - so much Borg
As (in my day) a huge Data fan, I was irritated by the incessant reappearances of Brent Spiner. He's brilliant when he does Data/Lore/B4 in the same scene. He's not particularly interesting playing a self-centred ancestor of Data's actual creator. I'd very much have preferred that role to be played by a different actor. Likewise Soong's biological son (—saywhatnow?—), although there is more justification for having Noonian Soong's actual son look a lot like him. I did love, and think entirely proper, the eventual merging of Data with Lore. Though Data's descent into common humanity was irritating—I mean, possibly it could have been presented in a more shallow way, but eh, possibly not.
I thought it made sense for Q to show up. Canonically, he was always obsessed with Picard, and what we got here was Q showing love in a typically Q-like way, so I approve. I was surprised when he turned up again at the end of the second season—the show seems to have made a habit of setting something up at the beginning of the season and then forgetting about it for ages, only to have it turn up at the end and remind everyone it was supposed to be important. I did smile, though, thinking of all those Picard/Q fans (well, whoever's left) squealing with joy. (And I was charmed to see the brief appearance of Wesley Crusher.) In fact, I found the end of season two quite emotional, and I like that. But then there was collective amnesia for season three, and everyone forgot about season two pretty much in its entirety.
And then with season three...
I felt mild approval of the fanservicing references to Trek history... and disapproval of the way they wrote some of it out. Pick a side, guys! (I mean, didn't Picard canonically *marry* Dr Crusher at some point? I'm sure he referred to their being married, though I can't remember where. Possibly it was in a future that ended up not happening?) (Also, where was Picard's elder brother when he was growing up being the sole prop and comfort of his depressed mother?) By the time the show got to season three, it seemed to have forgotten its own canon completely, never mind prior canon. What happened to the JuratiBorg? And why, having spent season two teaching Picard how to accept love, did he dump his new beloved with a wave and a smile and apparently spare her not one more thought? Gah. I wasn't particularly sold on the relationship, but by the end of S2 was happy enough with it, as was J-LP, and then... *crickets* If she had come along with him, there could have been some interesting character stuff. I think Laris could have got on well with Seven, and she might have struck up a surprising rapport with Beverley. Both would have been interesting to see. Laris might even have considered Picard's son *more* important than Jean-Luc himself did - because Jean-Luc hadn't really sought out parenthood and might reasonably have been expected to sacrifice Jack, whom he'd known for a matter of days, in order to save the rest of humanity. He hadn't had any interaction with Beverly for twenty years, either, so could probably have steeled himself against her maternal feelings. Oh, but the audience has to be totally on Picard's side, so he can't sacrifice a known individual (with a name, and everything) just to save, oh, say, Everyone Else. Shoulda given Jack a red shirt.
Wasn't particularly interested in Jack as a character. He was The Cheeky Lad Who Wins Through And Proves Himself, which is a type I don't care for. If he'd spoken like that on MY bridge I'd have sent him to replicator tech, or Jeffries Tube maintenance. Way too Sooper Speshul for my liking, but I suppose that was the plot right there. I mean, it was nice for Picard to have an actual son, sons being important, an' all, but it would not have been unreasonable for him to be a bit more willing to be ruthless, to sacrifice the individual for the sake of the rest of the human race. Oh, and while Picard and Crusher and Riker and LaForge were all earnestly being parents of one kind or another, couldn't Worf have remembered the existence of Alexander? And frankly, Picard had taken on a kind of surrogate parenthood to both Elnor and Soji in the early parts of this show, and indeed, also Ensign Ro, but now—because he Has A Son! Of His Very Own! Genetically! Actual Sperm Were Involved!—he just... forgets about them completely. Which blows.
I liked this incarnation of Worf a lot.
I did like Captain Shaw. It's good to see an authority Starfleet figure who actually obeys the rules, and it's good to have someone on board who doesn't instantly get all pally with Our Heroes. Also, totally reasonable to have festering and absolutely justifiable resentment against Picard after Wolf 359. I mean, if Starfleet were a sensible organisation, Picard would have been carefully retired after that, and kept well out of sight of the thousands and thousands of survivors and relatives-of-the-dead who would have been after his blood. Also, pretty much everybody in Starfleet would have been in serious therapy. But episodic television hadn't learned to do consequences, back then, and Trek apparently still hasn't. Still, I knew Shaw was toast from his first appearance onward. Pity.
I was disappointed that the enterprising crew didn't figure out the transporter cure for assimilation and manage to implement *that* (I did), instead of the peculiar shenanigans with the Borg cube. I mean, it was kinda cool to see decaying Borg corpses, but—would the Enterprise even fit in there? I mean, she's not a small ship. They could at least have removed the saucer section. And, well, maybe I'm just being mean, but I really think *somebody* should have died on the Borg cube. But I'd have kinda wanted it to be Jack, and obviously someone in production thinks Jack Crusher is the bee's knees so that wasn't going to happen. It probably should have been Admiral Picard, sacrificing himself for others to round off his legacy of service to humanity, a not outrageous end to the character.
So, well. Picard. It was nice to see it, and I remember surprisingly little considering we *just* finished watching it at lunch time yesterday..