Star Trek Picard season 3

Mentalist

Administrator
Staff member
BUT WHAT DOES JAMMER THIKNL!?

(Actually he's handing out the stars pretty generously this season)

The first line of his Vox review.
That's what I realized as Picard and the entire TNG crew stepped onto the bridge of the Enterprise-D in all its perfectly restored glory. The plot doesn't really matter.
There is a lot of goodwill and love for this show and cast to the point that even a janky greatest hits tour will garner some level of praise but I still think we deserved more.
 

Colonel Kira's Left Tit

Bearded Belly of Bajor
Once again we are left with one hour to wrap this plot mess up, with seems endemic with modern serialized Trek. I suspected it would go this way eventually, even though I'm able to brush off most of the other stuff in the season. Once the mystery box was opened (really? The Borg again?) I literally rolled my eyes. And the Ent-D stuff, while nostalgic again... why?
 

Mentalist

Administrator
Staff member
Once again we are left with one hour to wrap this plot mess up, with seems endemic with modern serialized Trek. I suspected it would go this way eventually, even though I'm able to brush off most of the other stuff in the season. Once the mystery box was opened (really? The Borg again?) I literally rolled my eyes. And the Ent-D stuff, while nostalgic again... why?
The sad thing is they act like they have this big ace up their sleeves, with this shocking twist, like they haven't already run this shit into the ground. That's why it feels so badly like people who only have a very casual interest in Trek are writing this stuff. Yes, the Borg are an awesome creation, but you've gone to the well too many times now, and the luster is gone. Same with Data. You had the big emotional payoff with the character, and, oh wait, he's back again. It just feels unearned and sloppy.
 

whisky

Boobie inspector
Once you establish that even the biggest ship in the fleet can be run by drones and seven people then you have to wonder why they even need a Starfleet academy.

Also a video I watched last night made a good point, if any of you also watch prodigy and lower decks, this whole fleet is taken over bit will seem very familiar, and either star fleet never learns from previous mistakes or you have three currently produced shows where noone talks to each other to make sure they aren't all writing the same ending to their seasons.
 

Mentalist

Administrator
Staff member
Once you establish that even the biggest ship in the fleet can be run by drones and seven people then you have to wonder why they even need a Starfleet academy.

Also a video I watched last night made a good point, if any of you also watch prodigy and lower decks, this whole fleet is taken over bit will seem very familiar, and either star fleet never learns from previous mistakes or you have three currently produced shows where noone talks to each other to make sure they aren't all writing the same ending to their seasons.
"In universe" logic takes a major back seat to everything they do. They wanted the Ent-D scene, so they did it. I won't speak for others, but one of the most captivating things about Trek to me as a kid was the whole world building of the entire epic. In Picard (and Discovery), they have completely shit the bed when it comes to being internally consistent. Again, not saying Trek didn't have its continuity issues and other plot problems back in the day, but it feels WAY worse now.
 

SAUSAGEMAN

Registered User
Yeah, the world building being terrible is one of the things we talked about on SA.

The Borg working together with Changeling is just not addressed at all! If you look at the way DS9 handled things, when Romulans worked with the Dominion, or when Cardassians worked with the Dominion, or when the Romulans helped one side in the Klingon Civil War in TNG, you knew exactly why. You knew why each side wanted to work with the other, you knew what they were getting out of it and what they were risking, you understood the dynamic of them working together and how that evolved over time. They used "these two adversaries are working together" as a way to develop those adversaries, and to tell us more about the world.

"Why are Borg and Changelings working together" could have been the most interesting thing about this season, and this show is not interested in that question, at all.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
They're both BADDIES so they must be friends!

Jammer's always been overly generous to this show and overly harsh on Strange New Worlds because it's more light-hearted, I gave up on him years ago.

I was totally wrong about the Borg not needing Jack as they actually did use him as "transmitter" so he was a vital part of their plan. I still think it's stupid that they can't just build a transmitting and need a Borg grandson to function as one instead, but whatever.

Ed Speleers is 35, I think whisky was talking about the Bajoran actor being 37? Both bizarre casting choices when being under 25 is a major plot point.

I've been thinking about the "Somehow, Palpatine returned" meme lately. I think a lot of people use it incorrectly. They used it to mean that Palpatine (or whoever they're comparing him too) returned inexplicably, when in fact the movie does explain his return. You might find the explanation silly (and you'd be right to!) but it is there in the text. What that meme SHOULD refer to is desperately brining a character back because you can't think of anything else and you're trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator. So somehow the Borg/Palpatine returned: the "somehow" doesn't refer to the in-universe explanation but rather than creative choice by the geniuses in charge.
 

whisky

Boobie inspector
I knew he was two years younger than Riker in encounter at farpoint, but I couldn't remember which one was 37.
 

StarMan™

Active Member
By Jammer's own admission, he's succumbed to the memberberries. He's caught a bit of flack for the lack of critical appraisal in the comments section. I'd ask anyone who is lavishing every episode with 10/10 to try re-rating the episodes several months from now. Go watch some classic Trek episodes first that are still clearly 10/10 25+ years later, then come back and tell me how incredible this season is.

The hit you get is real, no doubt about it. But it's a one-time trick - fleeting, like a sugar rush. I get it, but I wish people would stop suggesting this is "real" Star Trek or some big about-turn in the writing department. Strip away the nostalgia and good vibes of seeing the OG crew and I see the same NuTrek formula under the hood. The structural differences in writing are minor at best. We still had the mystery box dragged out to the penultimate episode. I'd say the only big difference is they avoided the mid-season malaise and delayed it to episode 7-8. But that aside - another convoluted mystery box plot with holes the size of Discovery's turbo lift shafts? Check. Quippy "we're cool now" dialogue? Check. Little to no respect for audience's intelligence? Check. Character development steamrolled over for plot? Check.
 
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StarMan™

Active Member
Picard is worse than all the episodes Odo spent ignoring Kira so he could have goo sex with the founder.

Picard is worse than Rumpelstiltskin and Asian Baseball Dude.

Picard is worse than the cocky smile on Dukat's face when he had Kira cornered in his office at the beginning of Season 6.

Picard is worse than folksy Irish Holodeck people.

Picard is worse than salamander sex.

Picard is worse than the Gallitep labor camp the night after the Cardies went on a Kanar bender.

Picard is worse than this:

0f66ae11fb0da8643f20c3f82160044c.gif
 

StarMan™

Active Member
I've gone in hard on Picard here, but when it comes to the ABOMINATION that is Fair Haven and Spirit Folk, Picard is high art in comparison. Fair Haven was so bad that it made me stop watching Star Trek and buying the new Voager tapes for a few months at the time because I was so disgusted by it. :no:

Ha. I remember waiting for those damn VHS tapes each month. I'd always be calling up to harass the poor guy at the shop to see if they were in.

"Those were the days!" <gets all nostalgic>

Pretty sure I stopped buying the Voyager tapes around same time as you - definitely before Spirit Folk. I started losing interest during S5 (+ it was DS9's final season). Interest rekindled when RDM came on the writing staff (before leaving after two episodes).
 

Colonel Kira's Left Tit

Bearded Belly of Bajor
Picard is worse than Rumpelstiltskin and Asian Baseball Dude.

Picard is worse than the cocky smile on Dukat's face when he had Kira cornered in his office at the beginning of Season 6.

Picard is worse than folksy Irish Holodeck people.

Picard is worse than salamander sex.

Picard is worse than the Gallitep labor camp the night after the Cardies went on a Kanar bender.

Picard is worse than this:

0f66ae11fb0da8643f20c3f82160044c.gif
Hey now, that's a bridge (lol) too far. Don't go steppin' on steppin' into Eden or you will become my permanent Nemesis. :)
 

whisky

Boobie inspector
So when the Borg are going round shooting everyone over 25, do they know which of the crew are changelings, or has their alliance abruptly ended at that point?

Also on frontier day, which is essentially a parade everyone has a phaser on them?
 
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