Picard 2x07 - 'Monsters' ~~ { ** Spoilers Within ** }

This was a very interesting experience for me. When it began, i couldn't place the voice (similar to @ilovesmybrick ) - Then as it continued i came up with various theories in my head. Locutus, Picard's father is a wife-beater - etc etc etc - all of these seemed obvious, and a bit contrived. I had written the episode off in my head.

Penny in the air - penny drops

No that was actually superb. James Callis was excellent, great to see him. And the twist was excellent, and i didn't see it coming. And they kinda dripped it out.

• Picard and Mommy are running away from violent father
• Kid Picard gets his foot caught - first indication something is wrong here - mommy keeps running - My brain was twitching, and assuming wow, Picard's dad must be HORRID - but for sanity sake mom, look after your kid too!!!!
• Father appears, (almost turned away expecting to see him smack the kid) - but no. Tender, concerned, picks picard up and carries him to safety
• Then the reveal. The poor women is not well. Shes ill. And the father, seems (at least as far as we can see) to be dealing with it as best he can- and probably getting no thanks by the looks of it - i like to think that while JL blames his dad - but Robert, well. I have a nice thought that Robert loves his father deeply, empathizes with this awful situation - and that this explains Robert's life choices to emulate his dad - very emotional

That was an emotional roller-coaster - had you described that to me before watching i would have moaned and groaned about it being silly - a waste of time in a short season.

But that was excellent - no complaints here - well, one gripe - THE SEASON IS TOO SHORT

Im glad they included this, but wish we have 13 episodes - so much more to cover and 4 episodes left

OF COURSE we have Strange New worlds in a mere 3 weeks too! Much to look forward to! I still cant fathom how Picard can be awesome, SNW can look terrific - and Discovery can be as Dull as watching a video seminar entitled 'the future of plumbing'

Right red dress and now Baltar the BSG vibes can't get any stronger.

Overall not a bad episode moves the story along. How are they going to unbutterfly the visit to the ship. Had expected random Q to be summoned tbh.

I knew I recognised it straight away but couldnt think who. Thought it might have been Steven Merchant but as soon as I saw a hint of the side profile my brain was screaming so much that I had to rewind the scene just to listen to the dialogue

The Guinan bit was odd. It sounded like that was the only one but also that El Aurians are summoning Qs all the time. Also the whole genie in a bottle look was a bit stupid.

I initally thought Siddig had changed his screen-name again, but now I’m embarressed to find this to be one of the guys in BSG I liked the most. (God damn I’m not good with faces)

The uniform kind of threw me off a few times. Occasionally it looked like the First Contact uniform (I spotted a blue band on the arm), then it appeared to be the early DS9 / Voyager uniform with department colour. But the lighting was really odd, so I started to think that the shoulders were grey and this was a 3rd uniform varient that was half-way between Voyager and First Contact.

Does however look like the early DS9 / Voyager uniform, which I guess is the first reappearance of it since Voyager. I wonder why they / Picard’s mind went for that era? (We don’t know much about what happened to Picard between Generations & First Contact. Something happen there?)

Can't find the link but some post I read, referred to the uniform as been a confederate design?

Well that was very cool..

- Callbacks to various TNG episodes with the voices in the dungeon - BOBW ("I am Locutus.."), Tapestry ("I'd rather die as the man I was than live the life I just saw"), Chain of Command ("There are 4 lights!!")

- Two big guest stars who played great roles previously - Baltar (BSG) and Dutch (from the Shield - greatest cop drama ever imo. It would be funny if he was the same character.. Finally got his FBI job!)

- I seem to be in the minority, but I really like the Rios bits (nice nod to the Voyage Home with the "no, I'm from x, I only work in outer space" line). He and the doc have a nice chemistry

- Good twist with Picard's father too. Also I'm guessing that Talinn is somehow Laris before they met in the future

- The Queen plot moving along nicely too

Really enjoyed that one again.

Yea those scenes in the first episode this season left me wanting more alright. The show finally found itself - updated but still with the classic Trek feel underneath that was missing from season 1 and Discovery never found.

At the credits now. Yawn fest so far

The bottle thing was a bit much, but my least favourite part of this ep was Picard to his Da: "It's like I never really knew you" - 🙄

On the whole, not a bad ep, not as predictable as the last 2 or 3.

Well.......yes. It did come from Picard because Dad Baltar isn't real, he's in Picards head.

He was always in someone's head. Caprica 6 had a "head Baltar" through out the season.

Although it is still watachible (but it's slipping into the kind of tedium that put me off Discovery), I do agree that they seem to be waisting a lot of time, and a bit of momentum it feels. The last 3-odd episodes could have been pared down into 1 or 2 or maybe even one if you took some stuff away. If we were mid-season in an earlier Trek show, I'd have no issue. But we *know* that a modern season is barely 10 episodes, so throwing away time seems like a mistake.

I am concerned about how the season will end. Will we end up in the same situation as with Season 1, where the show was alright for the most past but was torpedoed by a rushed & piss-poor ending? I hope not.

Part of my concern is fueled by the Season 3 teaser. Until that point, I had assumed that Seasons 2 & 3 would form a single more fleshed-out story with a cliffhanger on season-break. But Season 3 feels like a separate story, meaning that they might try to finish the whole Season 2 plot in what few episodes they have left. These people are *not great* at finishing their plots in a rush.

I too would like to see a swift end to this trip the 2020s. The first 2-3 episodes of the Season were pretty enjoyable and with the exception of Lower Decks was the closest I had gotten to watching decent Trek in a while. They had finally nailed the feel of a Trek future, and I'd like them to get back to it.

Unless of course that is Ducane and not an FBI guy.

A cool twist on assimilating in this era might be to steal be inspired by Stargate's replicators. When the replicators had to use present day Earth materials to construct themselves they were much weaker and couldn't do some of their tricks and reproduced more slowly.