I was really hoping they wouldn't go with for the obvious, but... they went for the obvious. Why does the kid have the same accent as a guy he never even met before, let alone grew up listening to? So that the Lowest Common Denominator figures out he's Picard's son.
Why would you want the audience to figure it out from such an on-the-nose gimmick, instead of dedicating a beat or two to the Titan-A's doctor pulling Picard aside while the camera remains on Riker and Seven, or Riker and Shaw, or Seven and Shaw, after which we see a shaken and befuddled Picard and get to infer what his problem is until the scene where he confirms it? Because Fuck You, That's Why.
I'll admit that the thing where Squiggy From LaVerne And Shirley
flings a ship at another ship... that was novel. I'm pretty sure that's never been done before -- or, if it has, that's the first time I've ever seen it done.
More Raffi-and-drugs. Although, I'll give that this much credit: It's a nice callback to the episode "
The Game."
The Titan-A... pffft. It's just a mashup between the Strange New Worlds Enterprise and the TMP refit, but with (more) blue neon on the engines and absurdly fucking huge impulse engines for absolutely no reason except to up its "flying casino billboard" look.
