main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph "Engage!" - Star Trek: Picard Discussion Thread [Paramount+/CraveTV]

Discussion in 'Community' started by Darth_Voider, May 16, 2019.

  1. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2012
    The opening music theme is interesting, like it's has hints of the Trek theme but never quite takes off but it is involving

    so yah right after watching the Picard pilot I dived into "The Offspring" TNG episode for Data's daughter Lal which seems particularly relevant after episode 1. Lal's final lines seem almost eerie considering what happens here: "Flirting… laughter… painting familyfemaleHuman."

    Of note, Data uploaded Lal into his net so we may get something out of this, even though Data himself exploded as mentioned in the episode but he probably uploaded himself somewhere else. I honestly thought that she might be a nu-Borg Queen based on the trailers but the Data daughter is an interesting angle and, hey, they come in twins so we don't lose her after she exploded!

    speaking of Borg - WHY ARE THEY BUILDING A BORG CUBE?! THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA!!! It says "Romulan reclamation project" and two Borg cubes blew up above Earth so maybe the Rommies have been rebuilding a Borg cube because they're Rommies with nefarious agendas. Of note, the two Romulan housekeepers Picard has are introduced in the comic and one of them had forehead ridges and other Romulans don't so I think they're going for a some look like TNG Rommies some don't. Okay, fine, I can deal. Also apparently Romulans spit acid blood like Alien or something? I thought the Evil Suit Guys were a Black Ops Federation and Romulan co-oppertative but it seems they're just Rommies. who spit acid blood.

    I'm somewhat sure the date references line up properly, 10 years ago a Romulan Supernova is pretty clearly referring to the supernova that we see in Trek '09, although the dates may be off even though the movie was released 10 years ago. (Unless the Romulans had another star go nova on them, no wonder they're ticked!) this was in production before the CBS/Paramount remerge so movie references are dicey. notice in Picard's quantum vault - an amazing sci-fi concept - you can see an Ent-E model way out of focus in the background but not prominent like the TNG stuff. Over 20 years ago for Nemesis isn't quite there, it was like 18 years ago real time, etc. etc.

    I always love Allison Pill and her laughing when Picard showed up and then "oh! You're serious!" was great. And a reference to Maddox mysterious disappearing is begging for him to return for some reason.

    It's definitely slower than DISCO and heck maybe even slower than TNG (which tended to careen from plot point to plot point) a bit more on the contemplative, sad side, but great mystery hook and interesting plot developments. Looks good too.

    Anyone want to guess why B-4 is disassembled, did they do it after the synths went nuts or he just blew himself up cuz he's an idiot? Or maybe Maddox couldn't help himself and finally disassembled a Soong-type android.

    Picard in Measure of a Man makes a case that building androids would be slavery but I guess at some point they became commonplace so maybe they weren't slaves and that's okay to Picard cuz he seems very pro-synths now. Getting Blade Runner / Battlestar Galatica vibes from that plot point at least.

    "You probably don't even know what Dunkirk is!"
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2020
  2. Glitterstimm

    Glitterstimm Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 30, 2017
    Wow! What a lovely, beautiful episode of Star Trek! This is a wonderful premise for a new series, and I think that the focus on Picard will enable some really great storytelling. It seems that it won't be tackling science fiction ideas like a typical ST series, at least not in the condensed, stand-alone episode format the franchise perfected, but I'm fine with that. There are lots of relevant themes to be explored surrounding artificial intelligence, memory, regret, and whatever else they go with.

    A few things I loved, I'll put in spoilers:

    • The dog is beyond cute and wonderfully grounds "Earth culture".
    • I loved how they repurposed architecture to look like Star Fleet HQ. Seeing a cyberpunk-esque vision of Star Trek was awesome too.
    • It was the correct decision to make this a show about Picard's relationship with Data imo, because that was the foundation for some of TNG's best episodes ruminating on human nature. I'm excited to see where this goes.
    • The action was fun, maybe a little over-the-top for ST, but I like the espionage/conspiracy angle to it.
    • The cinematography and production design were excellent all around.
     
  3. Chancellor_Ewok

    Chancellor_Ewok Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2004
    Yeah.That was really, really good. The callbacks to Data and the hinting at the Borg were nice. I hope they find a way to do something with Q and the Klingons at some point. The best Picard-centric TNG episodes tended to hinge on either Data, the Klingons, the Collective or Q. But that was an excellent return to the TNG/DS9/Voyager timeline
     
    Jedi Ben, BigAl6ft6 and Glitterstimm like this.
  4. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Be interesting to see how they explain DeLancie aging if they bring Q back.
     
    Jedi Ben likes this.
  5. Chancellor_Ewok

    Chancellor_Ewok Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2004
    Probably by Q subtly mocking Picard for being old.
     
    TX-20, dp4m, Jeff_Ferguson and 5 others like this.
  6. Darth Downunder

    Darth Downunder Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 5, 2001
    Apart from the awkward poorly acted final scene on the cube this was excellent. Stewart hits the perfect tone as Picard at this age. I’m all in.
     
    TCF-1138 likes this.
  7. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2012
    This episode kind of reminded me of Logan wherein you take old ticked off Patrick Stewart who is angry about the way the world has turned out except take away the degenerative mental disease. Speaking of which, I wonder if they'll bring back Picard's Iromdoic Syndrome from All Good Things...

    Great character moment from Jean-Luc
    where the synth is saying that she has memories of being a kid and he says that it's a lovely memory and it is hers as opposed to being all but it's not real. It is real to her, even if it didn't happen.
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2020
    Jedi Ben, AhsokaSolo and Glitterstimm like this.
  8. Chancellor_Ewok

    Chancellor_Ewok Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2004
    Agreed. I looked forward to cramming more Picard into my eyeballs.
     
  9. Glitterstimm

    Glitterstimm Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 30, 2017
    I love how they decided to make 24th century Earth a blend of cyberpunk, retro-futurism, smart-home tech aesthetic, it all blends together very well. Looks great imo:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  10. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2005
    I've always thought of that as Q's stealth gift to Picard - he effectively told him that he would come down with a degenerative illness in the future that, I would imagine, is treatable if caught early enough.
     
  11. Darth Downunder

    Darth Downunder Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 5, 2001
    I don’t mind it at all but a nice option would’ve been a version of his flute theme from The Inner Light.
     
  12. Glitterstimm

    Glitterstimm Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 30, 2017
    That makes me remember the TNG flute episode where he experienced an entire lifetime living as a farmer. Those memories are certainly "real" to him even if it wasn't a "real" experience, and he still values the relationships he formed with his family there. That would inform his views on synthetic life and the "realness" of their own experiences.
     
    Jedi Ben and BigAl6ft6 like this.
  13. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2012
    I kinda want to know where the sythns came from, did Maddox finally succeeded in creating them but Starfleet ensured they weren't a slave race, (until the unpleasantness) what does the Voyager EMH think about all of this, if anything. (The EMH Mark 1s were basically turned into slave labour, sorta)
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2020
    AhsokaSolo and Glitterstimm like this.
  14. Darth Downunder

    Darth Downunder Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 5, 2001
    By the sounds of it via the scientist girl (who was wearing blue denim jeans!) the synths were far less sophisticated than Data. Which I guess could’ve worked against any claims of sentience. But yeah, I’ve only watched it once but I thought the implication was that Maddox & his team created them.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2020
    BigAl6ft6 and AhsokaSolo like this.
  15. Nobody145

    Nobody145 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Feb 9, 2007
    I've got to get around to watching that Children of Mars short, it sounds like that's a prequel to this series.

    I've seen speculation that the Queens in the first dream were a reference to Q, and I would almost be surprised if he didn't show up, considering how central he was to TNG and Picard. And they could throw in a line about De Lancie looking older to match Picard's look, that sounds in character for Q (or even have him show up with an exaggerated beard for the heck of it).

    I have no idea if the dreams are just Picard's subconscious giving him clues or something else. Between everything we saw in the first episode, its quite possible its not just old memories nagging at Picard's mind.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2020
    BigAl6ft6 and Juliet316 like this.
  16. Biel Ductavis

    Biel Ductavis Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 17, 2015
    It's the same with me. I was always really fascinated by 24th century Earth and it's great that we finally see so much of it. They did a really great job with it, in this show.

    You just forgot the skyline and street scene of Paris and the Daystrom Institute in Okinawa. Do you also have screenshots of these locations and of Dahj's appartment?
     
    Glitterstimm and AhsokaSolo like this.
  17. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    It was about what I expected. A story in the Kurtzman vein. I hope it gets less boring. The android's acting was pretty bad and the dialog was pretty dumb at times. Yeah, typical for Trek, but what was acceptable in an episodic syndicated show in the 1980s is different than what's acceptable in a serialized "prestige" drama today.

    I liked Patrick Stewart the most. I didn't see Picard until he got righteously angry during that interview. I liked that he spoke French for the first time since like season 1 of TNG.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2020
    Sarge likes this.
  18. AhsokaSolo

    AhsokaSolo Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Dec 23, 2015
    I was so nervous about this show that at this point I just feel relief that I loved it and Picard felt like Picard. Secondarily I’m interested in the premise they settled on. It fits with TNG, it’s emotional, it’s interesting. Even the background of Starfleet and Picard worked for me. I’m a bit tired of Star Trek blowing up planets like it’s Star Wars, but the movies established it and it played like a natural disaster anyway. I am going to nitpick, but when the
    reporter grilled Picard for wanting to save lives of the enemy, so badly I wanted him or someone to acknowledge that the Romulans were allies in the Dominion war. Not that big of a deal I guess because it was a strategic alliance, not a friendly one.

    One other nitpick - if the show doesn’t acknowledge Lahl’s existence on screen, I’m going to pull my hair out in frustration lol. Just a shoutout, and a comment that these twins were modeled after her, and I’ll be happy.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2020
  19. Biel Ductavis

    Biel Ductavis Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 17, 2015
    I have a hunch that Dahj's "mother" might actually be a reactivated Lal, in a new or changed body, and that might be the reason why she wanted her to search Picard's help...
     
    Glitterstimm and AhsokaSolo like this.
  20. AhsokaSolo

    AhsokaSolo Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Dec 23, 2015
    Okay, I’ve been thinking on this and I love the theory. It explains
    how the mom was tapped into her. There is so much to think about in this episode I forgot about that.
     
    Darth Caliban likes this.
  21. Bob Effette

    Bob Effette Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 20, 2015
    Aaah, I really enjoyed that. Got me in the feels a bit when he went to the archive. Beautifully shot.

    Some nice nods to old characters, seen and mentioned. The mentioned character features in one of the very best episodes of ST: TNG, so the premise is very good.

    I'm so pleased Sir Patrick agreed to do this. He was straight back into character, and it's like he has never been away. I'm a sucker for those stories about old characters who manage to re-discover a purpose to their lives. It's a very moving hook.

    Bravo

    [​IMG]
     
  22. AhsokaSolo

    AhsokaSolo Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Dec 23, 2015
    Oh one other thing I want to rave about. Picard’s line about the pyramids being an exercise in colossal vanity and Dunkirk is a better parallel was so awesome. That was pure Picard. I love the moments that make me feel like the writer actually watched TNG.
     
    Sarge, TCF-1138 , Jedi Daniel and 6 others like this.
  23. Chancellor_Ewok

    Chancellor_Ewok Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2004
    Well, it sure helps a hell of a lot when Captain Picard is the executive producer of Picard, as Patrick Stewart was basically the face of the franchise for seventeen years.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2020
  24. Glitterstimm

    Glitterstimm Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 30, 2017
    make it so!

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  25. Biel Ductavis

    Biel Ductavis Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 17, 2015
    Thank you very much!
     
    Glitterstimm likes this.