Star Trek: Picard - Amazon Prime [** POSSIBLE SPOILERS **]

Sonics2k

I do have one concern about the show, and it's not spoiler-y so it'll be fine here.

If there's one thing that put me off about Discovery (aside from the often god awful writing), was the singular focus on one great big story line. For me it took away from the story a bit. Star Trek was always more about the exploration, the new races and cultures and Riker/Kirk's attempts to bang as many of them as possible.

Discovery went total tunnel vision on the one plot. Any twist or deviation from the main plot turned out to be directly related to the plot. In a way for me, it was the shows biggest flaw.

I'm worried that Picard is going to go the same way, because quite often when a show does this they have a way of climbing right up their own asses.

GreeBo

expectationlost wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfQdf93e63I

redlettermedia had a nice run about how much Picard hated Data in the series

No matter how bad the new series is, nothing could be worse than watching those two smugtards and their circle jerk again.

GreeBo

GreeBo wrote: »

No matter how bad the new series is, nothing could be worse than watching those two smugtards and their circle jerk again.

I tried to give it a fair shake, just to see dissenting view, but lasted 2 minutes. God, they're obnoxious

mrcheez

Deleted User wrote: »

I tried to give it a fair shake, Just to see dissenting view but lasted 2 minutes.

That's what she said

pixelburp

expectationlost wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfQdf93e63I

redlettermedia had a nice run about how much Picard hated Data in the series

Said it in the episode thread, but I don't agree with them; IMO we're meeting a wistful, melancholic version of Picard, one more filled with regret of a lost friend than a contradiction of previous behaviour. Both can be true, and I see Jean Luc compensating with retrospective fondness for someone taken too soon.

His literal last words in the last episode of TNg was a regret he hadn't reached out to his senior crew sooner than he did. The series ended on that very regretful realisation.

Stark

Anyone willing to take one for the team and summarise the main points? (no way am I watching 45 mins of that)

Picard and Data seemed to develop more of a friendship in the movies from what I recall.

Picard in general started out with major people issues. Strained relationship with his own family, the Crushers, his younger self, children to name a few. We saw him resolve some of these issues over the course of the series. And like pixelburp said, the series ended with Q showing him the worst case future if he continued down road of not investing in his relationships with people and we see him resolve to make amends.

Burty330

Its stupid how you have to wait a week between episodes. You buy a streaming service you should have multiple episodes available. Especially for a show like this where scenes go on way longer than they should. Viewership is going to drop off as its not really that engaging , is it?

If Mick Chabomb knew what he was doing he would have dropped the Battle Angle Dodge story-line and focused the story on how the end of the world was imminent as Arbus spread across the universe like a virus.

That sounds a lot better to me than BallykissAlien.

Watched episode 2 again looking for what people are seeing in it but it’s not doing it for me just yet. Not a patch on Discovery for me, though plenty of time to recover.

H3llR4iser

EltonJohn69 wrote: »

Episode 2: Not a perfect episode.... but.... pretty pretty.... pretty good
The show really got a nice budget... it looks great...could have been released as a movie

That's my take as well...looks more like a long "episodic movie" than a series.

Which could be fine in its own, we had "miniseries" before, which really are only a "looooong movie broken into bits".

Then again, I guess it could be said about every damn series today, with this fixation about having one continuous overarching storyline. The difference is that Picard, probably due to the budget, also looks like a full fledged Hollywood production.

mrcheez wrote: »

Anyone else find Orla Brady's acting a little distracting for a Romulan character?

I know they normally have American/British accents but something a bit jarring about the "fiery oirish temper" on a Romulan.

Also the goddamn soft T's. Makes me cringe every time.

Well, it's an odd one - I do enjoy seeing the two Romulans having a very "Irish" style banter, including the Wife-Husband exchange trope, ending with "take this one with ye, I don't care if he dies!". It does however go a bit over the top at times, especially when some cultural elements are imbued in the "pre-Hobus" events - e.g. Laris getting plastered as a Tal Shiar operative.

Then again, we've had a main character who's a Frenchman with a posh Brit accent for 30+ years :P

pixelburp

I've liked the Romulan couple, they add a little domesticity and warmth usually absent in the non human species within Trek. Easy to fixate on the macro level of species' key aspects - particularly the espionage of the Romulan empire - it's nice to see the ground level, normal kind of people they must surely otherwise be.

TheValeyard

pixelburp wrote: »

I've liked the Romulan couple, they add a little domesticity and warmth usually absent in the non human species within Trek. Easy to fixate on the macro level of species' key aspects - particularly the espionage of the Romulan empire - it's nice to see the ground level, normal kind of people they must surely otherwise be.

Suppose now that the grip of the empire is gone from most Romulans, they can be free to express themselves and become more individualistic in nature.

silverharp

Are they making them too human though? A lot of interactions in Trek were special because it would be a Vulcan take or a 7 of 9 take etc. on a situation. If the Romulan woman just Mrs Doyle’s it through the series she will be forgettable? Wait does that make Pickard Fr. Jack?

silverharp

silverharp wrote: »

Are they making them too human though? A lot of interactions in Trek were special because it would be a Vulcan take or a 7 of 9 take etc. on a situation. If the Romulan woman just Mrs Doyle’s it through the series she will be forgettable? Wait does that make Pickard Fr. Jack?

Except that Aliens in Trek were always one dimensional versions of a human trait.

Vulcan's: Cold Logic
Andorians: Passionate
Klingons: Anger
Ferengi: Greed
Cardassions: Militaristic
Romulans: Deceit/Cunning

pixelburp

silverharp wrote: »

Are they making them too human though? A lot of interactions in Trek were special because it would be a Vulcan take or a 7 of 9 take etc. on a situation. If the Romulan woman just Mrs Doyle’s it through the series she will be forgettable? Wait does that make Pickard Fr. Jack?

Yeah, that might have made context in regards a starship, but among an explicitly domestic, rural setting, it was nice to see normal people (insofar as an ex-operative can be normal) behaving relatively normally. Reminded me of that excellent, early DS9 story when Kira had to visit an old man living alone who refused to relocate. It had an earthiness and authenticity that was rare enough.

If I had a grumble about Trek as a whole, is that it was often guilty of a certain intellectual coldness in its storytelling: caught up in the concept or idea behind the story without having much of a pulse beneath it. Aliens often more like walking ciphers to the Big Idea, then walking, feeling, sensual beings. Even human characters were guilty of this - it was only when it was pointed out elsewhere how inert and sexless Star Trek has often been.

EltonJohn69

Maybe all that earl grey has caused Picard’s brain rot ? Could be a good twist/reveal to end season one ?

Rawr

H3llR4iser wrote: »

Well, it's an odd one - I do enjoy seeing the two Romulans having a very "Irish" style banter, including the Wife-Husband exchange trope, ending with "take this one with ye, I don't care if he dies!". It does however go a bit over the top at times, especially when some cultural elements are imbued in the "pre-Hobus" events - e.g. Laris getting plastered as a Tal Shiar operative.

Then again, we've had a main character who's a Frenchman with a posh Brit accent for 30+ years :P

I do kind of enjoy this idea of "Irish" Romulans. It makes for wonderfully a absurd mix of fantastical Sci-fi ideas with a familiar dialect. I keep imagining how far you could take it, for example:

"There was then that time a Klingon eejit beamed onto my warbird and he was like: "Today is a good day to die!" and I told him "Would you ever feck off you Klingon eejit!" So he then started shooting and beamed away, but in the process he managed to banjax the singularity in our warp drive. So I was worried until Sub-Commander Johno called in and said "Don't worry, it'll be grand!" ...and it was grand in the end.

marcbrophy

Sounds like the writers found the Roddy Doyle's Star Trek Facebook page

silverharp

Deleted User wrote: »

Except that Aliens in Trek were always one dimensional versions of a human trait.

Vulcan's: Cold Logic
Andorians: Passionate
Klingons: Anger
Ferengi: Greed
Cardassions: Militaristic
Romulans: Deceit/Cunning

pixelburp wrote: »

Yeah, that might have made context in regards a starship, but among an explicitly domestic, rural setting, it was nice to see normal people (insofar as an ex-operative can be normal) behaving relatively normally. Reminded me of that excellent, early DS9 story when Kira had to visit an old man living alone who refused to relocate. It had an earthiness and authenticity that was rare enough.

If I had a grumble about Trek as a whole, is that it was often guilty of a certain intellectual coldness in its storytelling: caught up in the concept or idea behind the story without having much of a pulse beneath it. Aliens often more like walking ciphers to the Big Idea, then walking, feeling, sensual beings. Even human characters were guilty of this - it was only when it was pointed out elsewhere how inert and sexless Star Trek has often been.

On an individual level the characters were more layered. Tuvoc, Whorf etc were all layered complex characters.

Star Trek has its niche , it was a ideas show generally involving some new civilisation that you get a glimpse of, explore some idea and move on to the next, though I liked DS9 approach too with a smaller cast of civilisations. If there isn’t a market for that, kill the show and create new sifi unconnected to Trek. Trying to use the Star Trek name to get the “wine moms” or “Twilight fans” on board will go down the road of trying to please everyone and end up pleasing no one. I guess it would come down to the people involved, if they were genuinely huge fans of the show they would nudge it in new directions, if deep down they never liked Trek then Trek will end up just being generic sifi which may or may not be good based on its own merit.

Minime2.5

Is it in my own imagination or does picard seem more frail in this then stewert looks in real life ?

Minime2.5

Minime2.5 wrote: »

Is it in my own imagination or does picard seem more frail in this then stewert looks in real life ?

I think that this is intentional and meant to show a bit of sedentary based frailty.
He'll probably start to look stronger and more in command as it goes on

ilovesmybrick

Deleted User wrote: »

I think that this is intentional and meant to show a bit of sedentary based frailty.
He'll probably start to look stronger and more in command as it goes on

There was also an interview where he said that he wanted Picard to look his age, so I think they said that they eschewed some of the usual screen makeup to cover over the ageing process.

Skerries

that Irish accent was woeful

368100

Skerries wrote: »

that Irish accent was woeful

Woeful as it doesn't fit well on a Romulan or do you think it's a bad attempt?

Spear

368100 wrote: »

Woeful as it doesn't fit well on a Romulan or do you think it's a bad attempt?

I suspect he means the hologram, not Laris.

EltonJohn69

I’m not liking frail Picard... I’m hoping at some point he loads up on some space steroids or maybe some Romulan speed

marcbrophy

Skerries wrote: »

that Irish accent was woeful

368100 wrote: »

Woeful as it doesn't fit well on a Romulan or do you think it's a bad attempt?

Spear wrote: »

I suspect he means the hologram, not Laris.

I'm watching that scene right now!

It's Shay Cormac from AC Rogue shades of woeful

Spear

marcbrophy wrote: »

I'm watching that scene right now!

It's Shay Cormac from AC Rogue shades of woeful

I thought it was meant to be Cornish or Devon at first.

Xertz

That Irish accent has basically destroyed the whole series for me. Feels more like a leprechaunish mockery than a character. All he was short of saying was something about “me lucky charms”.

I’m wondering how much of this is going to be just nostalgia for Picard it actually being watchable. It’s feels so dragged out so far.

I think the hologram had a different accent the first time (when the shrapnel was in his shoulder), an English one, so maybe we’ll see a thing where it has a different accent each time it appears or something?

ilovesmybrick

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

I think the hologram had a different accent the first time (when the shrapnel was in his shoulder), an English one, so maybe we’ll see a thing where it has a different accent each time it appears or something?

He was a different hologram. The first was an EMH, the second an ENH (navigational hologram), so I'm guessing he's crewed the ship with either multiple holograms, or there's one that's reskinned for different tasks.