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

mewso

My big fear with 2 episodes left is Q gets his powers back, snaps his fingers and resolves the whole thing (just as all seems lost). Wouldn't put it past them.

Flinty997

Never liked Q episodes for that reason. I realize some people find them funny though.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118973244#Comment_118973244

I’d say that’s pretty inevitable. How else would all the damage to the timeline get unfooked

Evade

The timeline so far is probably no more damaged than it was in Time's Arrow, Future's End, Past Tense, Little Green Men, or The Voyage Home assuming none of this will turn out to have been a predestination paradox all along.

Flinty997

Its damaged my timeline.

De Bhál

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974858#Comment_118974858

mine too, I was wondering would it be just better for TV producers leave Star Trek all together now. Friday night, I was thinking this as it was going down hill before my eyes. Season 01 was the same, good enough start that descended into a right mess.

Discovery is unwatchable.

corkie

From The Star Trek Experience in Vegas (long gone).

Someone Already Targeted Picard's Ancestor Before Star Trek Picard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqCqx4Au4wk

Major plot hole aside, going by comments that was an interesting and positive experience for most.

pixelburp

I know RLM isn't for everyone, and sometimes it's hard to know where their skits & bits stop ... but watching their latest on Picard, and specifically the end where Mike seems genuinely beaten and resigned that his love for Trek might be irredeemably corrupted, is actually kinda sad. He and Rich always seemed very genuine, honest Trekkies for whom the series was a foundational part of their formative years - no more than myself, I'm the person I am because I grew up watching Sci-Fi of all shapes and sizes. It speaks to just how bad this series has been that it has now retroactively stained TNG for someone.

They obviously don't seem that bothered about Lower Decks and never mention it - though they had Jack Quaid as a guess on a recent video so there's obviously some kind of link with the show. Also sounds like they're also done with Picard as a whole and won't be touching Season 3. I get that; if TNG is already feeling brittle why further ruin the memories watching Michael Dorn play some "wrong" version of Worf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3RBuVpwsFQ

eadrom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119018160#Comment_119018160

They had Jack Quaid on Best of the Worst alright. Decent episode but they didn't mention Star Trek of any kind. Seemed a bit strange, considering.

Flinty997

Picard has gone down the Discovery route. I've lost faith with it.

breezy1985

Meh. Trek has been getting "irredeemably corrupted" for people since The Motion Picture.

Trek is like soccer. Everyone looks back that what they remember as a child as being how it's "supposed to be done"

This season of Picard is poor but it doesn't taint or stain or any other hyperbole. If you don't like it just forget it exists. That's what I've done with Discovery and Spock's "sister"

Flinty997

Bad writing is bad writing. I take your point that someone is always unhappy. But there has been a lot of Star Trek that has well received since the The Motion Picture.

Most critical viewer of Picard in our house has no baggage. We've been slowly catching up, but maybe I shouldn't have started them with DS9. Thus far we've gone 2 of the new movies, DS9, Voyager, a good bit through TNG. In fairness though the ending of DS9 built up enough mental scars to allow them endure most bad episodes since then. We've only skipped a few TNG episodes now and then.

Evade

You can't un-watch something so bad sequels or bad endings can absolutely taint the good bits.

Flinty997

...

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119018337#Comment_119018337

I don't know. I don't like TNG that much but I can understand the idea of something foundational to your cultural identity being corrupted, your existing sense of the thing twisted; and can be a little depressing to find yourself dwelling on where it all went wrong rather than the good stuff. I get the impression TNG was the formative part of Mike's youth, if you watch RLM long enough the guy seems to be a bit of a giddy fanboy, despite the grumpy cynical facade he does for the videos.

To Picard, I think the standard of writing and production is below Season 1 TNG, or Season 3 of TOS. Discovery can at least be dismissed as its own self-contained entity, bring shíte over there where nobody's looking. Picard is a continuation of Jean Luc's life and exists as part of the TNG continuity. It's a harder one to ignore; a coda making all the wrong swings

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119018521#Comment_119018521

Maybe it's just me.

Highlander II never ruined the original and that's the worst sequel ever.

A bad ending to a TV show (GOT for example) is very different to a tacked on epilogue 20 years later. To me when I watch TNG Picard's mother will have died a happy old woman with a French accent.

Stark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119018337#Comment_119018337

I guess one thing about the likes of TNG and the TOS cast films is they got off to a rocky start but subsequently redeemed themselves. Looking back on TNG season 1, I can see why fans of the original hated it. It was trying to be a poor facsimile of the original. Then Season 3 came along and it became its own wonderful thing, surpassing its predecessor. Similarly the movies redeemed themselves with "The Wrath of Khan" and "The Voyage Home". Maybe there's still time for Nu-Trek to redeem itself but it's not there yet.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119018844#Comment_119018844

Redemption arguably already came through Lower Decks, while there's a small, small chance Strange New Worlds might recapture the simple pleasures of episodic space adventures. Neither though have been headline shows though, the former presumably dismissed by many as a mere silly cartoon.

The RLM video said it and I'd agree: this is a "vanity" project for Patrick Stewart. Maybe somewhere along the line the actor and character merged, the former assuming primacy over the latter... cos while I took Season 1's Picard as a man stuck in a malaise, the majority has been someone almost alien to the Picard we know from TNG. Again to quote the video, Picard doesn't even speak like the captain. It's like the Nemesis Dune Buggy scene writ large; sometimes it just isn't the man who captained the Enterprise.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119018844#Comment_119018844

I've come to realize these new shows are just not written for me. I lived in hope that "if only Discovery does this or that next season everything will be ok" but these shows seem to be connecting with people who's idea of TV bears no relation to mine.

I still do it with "if only Rios had his own show" but it would just be Discovery with a paint job.

Stewart, Ryan and memberberries were able to paper over season 1 but that only goes so far.

Lower Decks is a different entity and will probably remain so. We won't get a live action equivalent.

Brian?

Drama queens. It’s not that bad. It’s just not that good.

I’ll watch anything with Patrick Stewart in it. I’ll watch anything called “Star Trek”. So I’ll definitely continue to watch Picard.

Star Trek will take twists and turns, but it’s still great. Disco was the worst so far, but I watched it all.

Flinty997

I think Patrick Stewart is a fantastic actor. But his character is not working for me in Picard.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119019007#Comment_119019007

And normally I'd be the same but when there's so much good TV out there, "not that good" is a crying shame for something that, on paper, could have been a knock out. Picard has 20+ producers and it shows; and while I was grateful just to have any Trek on TV for a time, there's a point where dissatisfaction should be expressed through taking my eyeballs away from Prime (and Paramount, by extension).

Patrick Stewart is a legend, and a top class human being. His friendship with Ian McKellen warms the cockles of my heart and when Stewart passes I'll be genuinely disconsolate. Same with Tom Baker, who is still working away age 88, if we're talking legends of Sci-Fi (though a somewhat more prickly individual than Genuine Nice Guy Stewart). But I don't believe this show is doing the legacy of this most famous(?) character any good, instead leaving a bit of an aftertaste.

It's the frustration of loving something, seeing where with just a few tweaks, we could have had a good 'un.

Greyjoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119018704#Comment_119018704

RLM are usually so cynical about stuff that it was always refreshing to hear Mike & Rich talk with affection for TNG. I was genuinely saddened to see Mike admit that his love for TNG had now been corrupted by his disappointment in Picard. This show is essentially a swan song for a beloved tv character so while I wouldn't share Mike's reaction (I'll be back for S3 to see the crew reunion if nothing else) I could absolutely understand how it has now cast TNG in a different light for him. It's definitely frustrating that perhaps if we'd gotten this series 10 years earlier (to let PStew have a more active role in the story) and a better set of writers it would have given Jean-luc the send off he deserved.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119018815#Comment_119018815

You're lucky then. It's not that it's ruined more like sometimes when I throw on an episode of TNG I'm reminded that ST:Picard exists and is a massive disappointment.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119019902#Comment_119019902

It seems the only dropped their usual cynicism to talk with affection about something because they want to use that affection to tear something to shreds with bag loads of cynicism.

faceman

Well I’m definitely out. No season 3 for me. After episode 2 things took a nose dive each week and I found myself saying each episode “well at least next week’s episode can’t be this bad”. And it was.

The writing is gutter terrible. Stewart isn’t acting, he’s like Sean Connery at this stage.

LLMMLL

It's not that its just "not that good" in an age of good to great TV. It's just plain bad. There are many bad things about it but the ones that annoy me the most:

1. The writers seem to be focused on "wouldn't it be cool if..." Moments which are just silly and ridiculous. Like wouldn't it be cool if the new Borg soldiers had green laser sights on their guns without any reason for those sights to be green. That would be a minor niggle on its own but there's one every 10 minutes. Wouldn't it be cool if guinan summoned queue with a magic bottle? No. Wouldn't it be cool if Q slapped Picard? No. Wouldn't it be cool if this random watcher looked exactly like Picards romantic interest? No.
2. Everything has to be tied to a human emotion. And usually in the most trite, superficial way. The Borg queen is just a lonely old cat lady. It's my major gripe with discovery as well. The burn happened because a child was upset. We communicate with season 4 aliens through love. Etc.

The show is trash. But like someone said earlier I can just erase it from my mind. As far as I'm concerned it's just some bad fanfiction. Though they are doing their best to ruin the Borg for me.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119018455#Comment_119018455

In fairness though the ending of DS9 built up enough mental scars to allow them endure most bad episodes since then.

DS9 has one of the best endings of any Star Trek far better than what we got for Voyager and Enterprise and just as good as "All Good Things" for TNG.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119030403#Comment_119030403

Fire wraiths and religion didn't do it for me.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029212#Comment_119029212

Like wouldn't it be cool if the new Borg soldiers had green laser sights on their guns without any reason for those sights to be green

To be fair to the series those sights are either red or green so it's not much of a stretch.