Picard 2x01 - 'The Star Gazer' ~~ { Spoilers Within }

04-03-2022 08:54PM

I only watched the trailer today and was seriously unimpressed. Looked Like Star Trek Picard: The Voyage Home - in serial form. Have downloaded it and will watch it tonight and post my thoughts on here.

pixelburp · 04-03-2022 09:44PM

That was ... all right actually. To the extent I'd call it enjoyable overall. Plenty of runway to foul everything up, not least with the central mystery, but as first episodes go - and Trek in general at the minute - it impressed. As others have said it also felt like an attempt to reset the bollix that was the back half of Season 1; characters adjusted enough to put them in a better place than when we saw them last.

I still suspect that episode was the showy pitch, and the bulk of subsequent episodes will be that Los Angeles 2020s material we saw in the trailer - so I'm staying sceptical.

Oh and Akiva Goldsmans dialogue was fúcking woeful in places. I like the idea of Picard exploring his life without life - but ye gods some of the lines spoken around were vomit inducing rubbish no sapient creature would ever utter in reality.

AMKC · 04-03-2022 10:16PM

I actually thought in the middle of it with the green anomoly that it was very like Star Trek 2009 and certainly felt like that especially when the Borg ship came true too. I like the episode but it definitely felt a wee bit JJ Trek with some prime Trek too like decent looking ships at least on the outside anyway.

I loved how everyone from Starfleet could just beam up to there ship like that no need for shuttles anymore.

Johnny Storm · 04-03-2022 10:29PM

My expectations were very low but I did enjoy this episode. Fingers crossed for the next one.

05-03-2022 12:32AM

Well, I really enjoyed that. Not really looking forward to the time travel aspect though.

05-03-2022 12:48AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728848#Comment_118728848

Different registry number or the same?

05-03-2022 12:56AM

I'm kinda shocked, I really enjoyed that.

So much so that I was pissed to remember that it's a weekly drop

breezy1985 · 05-03-2022 12:59AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118734885#Comment_118734885

Would have been nice to get 2 episodes to start

Slydice · 05-03-2022 04:26PM

Oh I like this! Was honestly saying something like F*** me dude, what do you want this time!?!?

Before that, I was thinking the whole thing was getting awful complicated and gonna be a huge mystery to unpack.

The Borg encounter was cool. I'm guessing that's some armour around the Queen. Maybe she's in some kind of a battle/assimilation suit.

Then at the end I was like.. that's definitely the Mirror Universe. It's all weapsons and dark.. and the slave androids and the planet needs a shield.

and I liked that Laris meant A New Day. Not sure if a show had explained that before. Laris seems awful familiar as a name.

.. watches preview of the season to come..

Oooohhh.. it's a time thing.. yeah also makes sense.

All those skulls! Reminds me of the Hirogen.

New Borg Queen is fine. Would love a cameo from Alice Krige!

pixelburp · 05-03-2022 04:37PM

Just so it's not me thinking it but ... the "borg queen" we met is absolutely Picard's mother, right?

The "look at the stars" line had Picard briefly in the shock of recognition, while it seems clear there's some kind of mystery behind Jean Luc's mother we'll visit over the episodes.

We know time travel plays a huge part; if it weren't obvious from the trailer the script made pains to reference TIME throughout. Maybe these Borg are some kind of alternative universe version, lead - somehow - by Mama Picard.

Slydice · 05-03-2022 04:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737058#Comment_118737058

Sounds like a possiblity and maybe because I'm just fresh from the episode, I'm all like.. Yes.. and more.. even more twists please! 😁

Slydice · 05-03-2022 04:47PM

Oh!

Almost forgot to check but .. Nice! A shout out to the Deltans!

I wasn't sure.. but I was all like.. those folks on Raritan IV remind me an awful lot of Ilia from Star Trek The Motion Picture

This wiki says they are Deltans! 🙂

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Raritan_IV

breezy1985 · 05-03-2022 04:48PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737021#Comment_118737021

It's not "the mirror universe" as in the one Trek keeps visiting but it is similar.

Slydice · 05-03-2022 04:49PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737105#Comment_118737105

Cool, thanks for reminding me of the second part of my post 😁😂🤣

eadrom · 05-03-2022 05:42PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737058#Comment_118737058

The Borg would know about his mother and his thoughts towards her from his time as Locutus too. Could be that.

Or could be Q.

TheValeyard · 05-03-2022 07:28PM

Once it's not time travel shenanigans and its Seven under that Borg Queen suit.

breezy1985 · 05-03-2022 07:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737683#Comment_118737683

It's gonna be Sarah Silverman under the suit

Slydice · 06-03-2022 01:52AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737111#Comment_118737111

Ah this was a bit unfair..

I'd agree. One big thought I had watching the season preview was how the red drapped banners in the big hall looking room reminded me of the post World War III (2026-2053 on wiki) courtroom. The one he brought Picard to for the trial. I was thinking there must be some changes made to the timeline to fit that feel of the planet into the future.. or he could just be bringing him back there again.

a_squirrelman · 06-03-2022 12:55PM

I really enjoyed that, it looked amazing, I loved the look into Picard's past and the Stargazer. I'm still not fond of Elnor or Agnes and while I like Rios I find it grating seeing a starship captain with a cigar on the bridge.

Looking forward to episode 2.

EDIT: Seeing Q was awesome and I loved the click of the fingers aging. It was pretty cool to see Guinan too and the few people here commenting on her weight should cop on. Not very Starfleet.

pixelburp · 06-03-2022 01:44PM

I appreciated they didn't try to re-engineer Q's little "bing" special effect when he changed himself. Was a nice touch towards the original, simple but effective, bit of FX. Even the de-aged effect wasn't too bad; shot in the distance and too brief for the uncanny valley to take hold.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118740244#Comment_118740244

It was a bit cheesy but I like the idea of a captain showing some affectation and uniqueness beyond a generic Starfleet captain

Greyjoy · 06-03-2022 06:05PM

That was a really good start to the season. I was wary after how bad S1 ended but for the most part this episode felt like a course correction.

There were some minor niggles for me - did Picard really need a tragic motivation to go out and explore the stars or avoid long term relationships? It feels a bit trite to give him this tragic backstory. Wasn't it enough to simply say his love of exploration and sense of duty kept him at his work? They seem to have quickly tied off some dangling plot threads from S1 - Seven & Rafi, Rios & Jurati etc but I would hope they'll revisit them later in the season. I wasn't a fan of how Agnes' murder of Maddox is played for a comedy beat and her acquittal on grounds of "alien induced insanity" seems an incredibly weak excuse.

liamtech · 06-03-2022 06:51PM

I thought it was fine - i enjoyed it - certainly better than this weeks discovery

Bring it on!

One question - how exactly were the borg 'hobbled' ???

Spear · 06-03-2022 06:54PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118741758#Comment_118741758

Voyager trashed their subspace corridor network.

liamtech · 06-03-2022 06:56PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118741773#Comment_118741773

REALLY? is that it? I dunno - i found that plot device finale pretty poor tbh - we know it contradicts the whole 'transwarp coil' - i viewed them losing that corridor as a a serious inconvenience - but thats all

06-03-2022 07:54PM

Destroyed Unicomplex

breezy1985 · 06-03-2022 08:10PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118741758#Comment_118741758

Because tiny little Voyager were stronger than the whole collective. 😡

Evade · 06-03-2022 08:14PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118728913#Comment_118728913

The fake USS Yamato from Where Silence Has Lease had NCC-1305-E as its registry.

Evade · 06-03-2022 08:24PM

I somehow missed this thread a few days ago. That episode was night and day compared to the last season, I'd honestly put is as a good episode of Star Trek in general which might sound like faint praise but the Mudd time loop episode of Discovery is the only other live action P+ episode I might put there. There's loads of room for them to completely mess up the season going forward and TV endings are usually unsatisfactory these days but I'm cautiously optimistic. Any good will goes right out the window if mother Picard turns out to be the Borg Queen though.

The ships, uniforms, and the way it's shot have all massively improved too.

pixelburp · 07-03-2022 09:30AM

Jesus I had completely forgotten Harry Mudd was on Discovery - and ironically remains the high point of the show. A brief little window into what Disco might have been. Before mutating into the clusterfúck it remains.

The next few episodes will tell us much. If the standard and energy remains the same the we're in a good place - but plenty of bad TV started with a killer pilot.

Rawr · 07-03-2022 09:44AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118742277#Comment_118742277

Very much agree. Picard's mother is an interesting angle to explore. We know *very little* about her, and since Picard Snr. was all about the vinyard, it makes sense that Yvette Picard would the source of Picard's desire to join Starfleet. Character development wise, this is gold, Starfleet has been a central pillar to Picard's personality and now at the end we could complete the loop of his character arc by referencing the beginning of that. This could be excellent...IF IT IS HANDED WELL...I thus I'm a little afraid of what will happen.

Upon seeing the mother I was instantly brought back to Season 1 of TNG.

She clearly had an impact on Picard, and seeing him react to seeing her out in the crazy galaxy gave an impression early on of a guy who really loved his mother, and missed her.

This could be a good thread to pull on, even if she somehow turns out be a Borg Queen, if it is handled well.

(Glares in Kurtzman's direction)

If it is handled WELL

Picard 2x01 - 'The Star Gazer' ~~ { ** Spoilers Within ** }

Comments

Picard 2x01 - 'The Star Gazer' ~~ { Spoilers Within }