Picard 1x03 - "The End is the Beginning" [ SPOILERS WITHIN ]

Slydice · 08-02-2020 6:50pm

Oh! Just remembered the Transdimensional Photonic Species from that Voyager episode with Captain Proton and the Holodeck!

Be mad if they brought them back for the show

pixelburp · 08-02-2020 9:00pm

Was an ok episode, certainly the pace could be better. 3 episodes in and Picard has only left earth. Not even sure we've met the whole crew either, as I remember a Vulcan samurai from the trailers. How long is this series, 10, 13 episodes?

Not too hung up on the Oirish ENH, the actor is Uruguayan IIRC so can't expect miracles and the scene was played for laughs anyway.

Liked the background Easter egg of a Romulan with that old school, TNG era haircut. Nice touch.

Stark · 08-02-2020 9:03pm

pixelburp wrote: »

Was an ok episode, certainly the pace could be better. 3 episodes in and Picard has only left earth. Not even sure we've met the whole crew either, as I remember a Vulcan samurai from the trailers. How long is this series, 10, 13 episodes?

Only 10 I think. Hence why I think we're seeing all these weird scene jumps/plot jumping forward in nonsensical ways. Probably a **** load dumped during editing.

pixelburp · 08-02-2020 9:15pm

Stark wrote: »

Only 10 I think. Hence why I think we're seeing all these weird scene jumps/plot jumping forward in nonsensical ways. Probably a **** load dumped during editing.

That's not the pacing of a 10 episode show then. And we haven't even met 7of9 or Riker yet. I'd have presumed those were all pilot cameos but the fact they're clearly not, leaves me disappointed they're not proper surprises.

Oh and another note from the episode, was that the vibe between the Romulan siblings was creepily incestuous. Hope it wasn't just me, cos otherwise it makes me worry about myself lol.

coffee_cake · 08-02-2020 9:16pm

pixelburp wrote: »

That's not the pacing of a 10 episode show then. And we haven't even met 7of9 or Riker yet. I'd have presumed those were all pilot cameos but the fact they're clearly not, leaves me disappointed they're not proper surprises.

Oh and another note from the episode, was that the vibe between the Romulan siblings was creepily incestuous. Hope it wasn't just me, cos otherwise it makes me worry about myself lol.

100% all up in each other's business

TheValeyard · 08-02-2020 9:20pm

Definitely a bang of House Lannister off the two.

TheValeyard · 08-02-2020 9:25pm

pixelburp wrote: »

That's not the pacing of a 10 episode show then. And we haven't even met 7of9 or Riker yet. I'd have presumed those were all pilot cameos but the fact they're clearly not, leaves me disappointed they're not proper surprises.

Must have had lessons from the BBC on how to ruin surprises.

coffee_cake · 09-02-2020 12:15am

Sat himself down and said what accent is this enh doing, tell me

"he could be on Heartbeat. Terrible fake though"
It's not just me!

Also soji's romulan sounds like klingon when she's askin to be let in
VOQ

Also we rewatched the second one. Big safety speech plus "oh romulans are just dramatic ha ha everything's fine" plus green badge when she grabs ramdha definitely is going to = trouble! Maybe the romulan borg are all linked up again now

FGR · 09-02-2020 1:07am

I'm trying to figure out how the Dr from Daystrum got her hands on a romulan disrupter to begin with as she was outside the room when she shot him.

Also disappointed Picard's romulan friends didn't accompany him - they're surely the most qualified/skilled to help him.

Also don't like the whole JL thing. Could you imagine Riker calling him anything like that in TNG? Or possibly Riker calling Admiral Nechayev Alynna! :pac: I was watching the Captain Picard Day clip on Youtube (still hilarious to this day) and it just shows that he's a close friend, but there's a limit!

Actually, given her rank, could you imagine Data referring to him as JL?

I presume, dare I say 'hope' that the payment this ship's captain is looking for is in the only known currency outside of the utopia of the Federation - Gold Pressed Latinum

Also - what was the reason for firing Riffi? I don't understand.

Otherwise I enjoyed the episode. Looking forward to where it takes us and hoping we'll see a cameo or two of a proper Starfleet Vessel.

Spear · 09-02-2020 1:45am

Kinda indirect spoiler about Raffi:

Michelle Hurd has kinda implied in an interview that there's more to Raffi's firing than revealed in the episode.

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/star-trek-picard-star-michelle-hurd-explains-how-raffi-is-a-star-trek-game-changer

muckwarrior · 09-02-2020 2:03am

First half of the episode was terrible. Second half was passable.

The actress playing Rafi is really bad. I've seen better acting in a school nativity than the flashback scene. The JL **** is annoying too, although obviously that's not her fault.

At first I thought the hologram was purposely cycling through different accents as some sort of joke, until it eventually seemed to settle on a terrible Irish accent.

pah · 09-02-2020 2:43am

Michelle Hurd plays a character in Hawaii 5-0 and her acting was always fine in that IMO

Calhoun · 09-02-2020 5:31am

I liked it, i know there is criticisms to it but im liking the overall story arch.

I didn't mind Rafi, she played her role in having Picard reflect on his past actions. The JL thing doesn't really annoy me, as in the wider universe he has always had a fairly strong bond with his XO and things are always a bit less formal.

Agree on the pacing, they definitely need to get him off planet. I had thought that because of his diagnosis in the last episode that he would see this mission as one last ditch effort and thats how he would end up meeting Will and Diana.

Will be interesting to see where they go with the Maddox arc and what other androids are undercover/what the connection between them and the borg is.

Be interesting to see how they end it all, whatever has been happening has been going on for over fourteen years, will the architects including those in starfleet get their comeupons.

5uspect · 10-02-2020 12:37am

I have to admit that I’m not really enjoying this. There are some interesting ideas there but the execution and world building are very poor.

Calhoun · 10-02-2020 1:26am

Might take until the next series for them to get it down, the whole 10 episode thing might be whats limiting them.

TomSweeney · 10-02-2020 8:57am

JL ???

F*ck off!!

TomSweeney · 10-02-2020 9:00am

Yester wrote: »

Engage!

About the only good part of the ep!!

Well that and the Borg stuff ...

TomSweeney · 10-02-2020 9:06am

https://youtu.be/QmtpdTZGV04

funny review here ...

Tired Gardener · 10-02-2020 9:18am

Worst things so far for me are the 'JL', and all the hologram interfaces. For some reason they just don't work for me.

Plot is also quite slow.

Rawr · 10-02-2020 11:54am

One thing that kind of gets to me is that Picard resigned dramatically....off screen....which smacks of missed a opportunity, possibly even a rushed re-write.

The scene in my head works out as follows:

Fleet CIC: We will suspend all aid convoys to Romulan space until the Synth threat is contained.

Picard: No! We can't! Millions will *die* if we don't continue the convoys.

Fleet CIC: We must consider our priorities here first.

Picard: Either we at least try, like the StarFleet *I* rememeber...or....you accept my resignation.

Fleet CIC: We cannot.

(Picard stands up, takes off Comm Badge and lays it on table)

Picard: Then neither shall I.... (Walks out)

After all of the resignations we have seen over the TNG years, I was surprised that when it came to Picard, he hadn't done the dramatic "take my badge off and put on table" maneuver. I understand that they wanted him to still have his Comm badge for some scenes to work...but still the whole resignation from Starfleet lacked a lot of punch.

ManOfMystery · 10-02-2020 12:08pm

The JL thing feels like a minor quibble, but at the same time, very annoying. I can't envisage any situation where Picard - in Starfleet at the time - responds positively to any subordinate calling him 'JL'.

I get that it's meant to infer they had a very close relationship of some sort, but he also had a close relationship with most of the TNG crew. If Riker called him JL he would have got a raised eyebrow at the very least, and maybe a professional smackdown at worst.

With that said, perhaps he's meant to have mellowed a bit with age.

Stark · 10-02-2020 12:17pm

Rawr wrote:

One thing that kind of gets to me is that Picard resigned dramatically....off screen....which smacks of missed a opportunity, possibly even a rushed re-write.

I actually really enjoyed that bit.

I think a lot of people have a fantasy in their heads that if they were to resign from a job, it would be a big dramatic affair where they get to shove papers in their boss's face, turn around and strut out the door with their head high and ass cheeks pinched firm. Reality is it's often an upsetting and messy affair to leave somewhere on bad terms.

Picard obviously walked in expecting a dramatic showdown with Starfleet capitulating to a "I'll resign if you don't give me what I want" tantrum and got a smack of realism for his troubles. Not unlike when he arrogantly walked in expecting Starfleet to just grant him a ship and a crew in exchange for him accepting the "lowly rank" of captain.

ManOfMystery wrote:

The JL thing feels like a minor quibble, but at the same time, very annoying. I can't envisage any situation where Picard - in Starfleet at the time - responds positively to any subordinate calling him 'JL'.

I get that it's meant to infer they had a very close relationship of some sort, but he also had a close relationship with most of the TNG crew. If Riker called him JL he would have got a raised eyebrow at the very least, and maybe a professional smackdown at worst.

With that said, perhaps he's meant to have mellowed a bit with age.

Beverly Crusher used to call him "Jean-Luc" quite a bit. Albeit there were romantic overtones there.

Not sure if Riker ever called him "Jean-Luc" instead of "Captain". Obviously not on duty, but I think there might have been some off-duty scenes where he called him by first name.

Evade · 10-02-2020 12:56pm

Stark wrote: »

Beverly Crusher used to call him "Jean-Luc" quite a bit. Albeit there were romantic overtones there.

It's also possible that he was close enough to Jack that he called him Jean-Luc in off duty situations and what happened to him made Picard keep a more professional distance with future senior officers. Just speculation, no real evidence one way or the other.

Goodshape · 10-02-2020 2:14pm

That’s kind of the problem though – Beverly calling him Jean-Luc, on occasion, said something of their long and detailed – and previously explained – relationship.

But it just doesn’t feel right that Raffi, or anyone really, would have gotten so close in such a short space of time that they felt comfortable referring to Captain – or Admiral – Picard as “JL”.

And perhaps even more importantly, it just sounds awful and unnatural. Like the writers wanted a quick and easy way to show these two have some sort of special bond, but never cared to think about how it actually sounds when spoken.

Dreadful start for that character anyway. Hope it improves.

TheIrishGrover · 10-02-2020 5:19pm

Overall I am enjoying this show but not as much as I hoped I would. But I'm still glad it's on and look forward to the next episodes.

So far:

The Good

Laris and the other Romulan. Great actors. Good to see them spring into action last week. No faffing about with "My God, what was that? They're here?" No, simply "They disabled alarm" proceed to kick arse
Interesting ideas: Reclaiming the Borg/harvesting tech; Android/synthetic hack (Not uprising); Aftermath of last TNG Trek movie.
Grown up use of grown up language (As opposed to it's silly use in Discovery)
Liked Hugh in last episode

The Bad

JL
Romulan sister is ridiculously OTT. Dial it back a few notches. Jesus!
Did I mention JL?

And The Meh

Laris just dial back the Irishness a touch. Just a touch. No more "Cheeky Feckers"
No problem really with the Oirish Emergency Holographic Navigator as long as we see it VERY rarely and as long as it's meant to be an ignorant caricature. (Maybe have O'Brien or Laris turn up: "What kind of accent is that?" "It's Irish" "Me hole it is" lol)
The captain on the ship better be more than the one-note stereotype he seems to be. All he was missing was his "This one last job" speech.

Calhoun · 10-02-2020 5:24pm

I really like his two Romulan companions, its disappointing they wont be going with him.

The thing with the Romulans i thought was odd was the exploding northerners lol.

muckwarrior · 10-02-2020 5:39pm

What's the story with some Romulans looking just like Vulcans and others have the funny bulge on their forehead? Is it the 'Northerners' that have the different forehead?

pixelburp · 10-02-2020 5:40pm

Again, similar to the use of Romulan hair in the background, I've liked the attempts to flatten the continuity; here it's as simple as merging the 2009 bevelled forehead appearance into Prime canon by that most Trek of excuses - oh it's from the "North". It also makes for more genetic variety in its species, something often lacking in Trek IMO.

muckwarrior wrote: »

What's the story with some Romulans looking just like Vulcans and others have the funny bulge on their forehead? Is it the 'Northerners' that have the different forehead?

The bulge was an addition in the 2009 JJ Abrams film, which Picard is trying to at least acknowledge by nodding towards it being an affectation of Northern ROmulans.

Calhoun · 10-02-2020 5:43pm

pixelburp wrote: »

Again, similar to the use of Romulan hair in the background, I've liked the attempts to flatten the continuity; here it's as simple as merging the 2009 bevelled forehead appearance into Prime canon by that most Trek of excuses - oh it's from the "North". It also makes for more genetic variety in its species, something often lacking in Trek IMO.

The bulge was an addition in the 2009 JJ Abrams film, which Picard is trying to at least acknowledge by nodding towards it being an affectation of Northern ROmulans.

If they could stop exploding it would be great :pac::pac::pac:( i am joking i realize its kinda like their version of cyanide).

Evade · 10-02-2020 5:44pm

Bumpy forehead Romulans have been around since TNG.

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Picard 1x03 - "The End is the Beginning" [** SPOILERS WITHIN **]

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Picard 1x03 - "The End is the Beginning" [ SPOILERS WITHIN ]