Star Trek: Picard (1.01)
First impression: a promising start. Which takes its time to introduce us into the new era, instead of bombarding us with non stop action, which I'm all for, is beautifully filmed, and seems to use ST to make a comment on the present in a way I haven't seen since DS9 did its "Past Tense" two parter, and does that by doing something with the, cough, less than stellar writing in not one but two movies.
To wit: Nemesis, of course, specifically the Data plot, but also Nero's backstory in the first Star Trek reboot movie. Given that Spock Prime had done all he could to save the Romulans, Nero's feud, complete with blowing up Vulcan, did not make much sense, nor did the other Romulans following Nero on this, other than "um, villain gonna viilain?" But Star Trek: Picard now establishes that while Jean-Luc led an initial mass evacuation rescue effort (as indicated in the comics prequel for the first reboot movie, as I recall), Starfleet then because of the simultanous attack by Cylons synthetics on Mars abandoned said rescue effort and the Romulans, thereby betraying its core ideals, hence our hero's quitting the service.
Now, this making Nero's grudge against the Federation somewhat more plausible is the least of it. Because: a terrorist (or "terrorist", guess we'll find out more in the course of the season) attack causing the Federation to turn itself isolationist and cut down human aid efforts and instead starting with the xenophobia ("Romulan refugees!")? Gee, I wonder what could possibly have inspired that. (BTW, no, I don't mean just the US. The EU and pretty much all first world countries/power blocs are just as blameworthy.) You know, this is the kind of SF tackling the present which I love to have in my Star Trek.
Re: Nemesis: killing off Data while leaving itself a loophole via B4 just in case Brent Spiner should change his mind had been one of the many, many lame storytelling decisions of that movie, in that case, trying to have a tearjerker in the cheapest way possible while treating the character in question as replacable. Star Trek: Picard does what I hoped my imaginary show would and makes a silk purse out of a sow's ear, or so it seems right now, by not retconning or ignoring Nemesis but using it to make something actually interesting of what it has done. The B4 question being laid to rest in a scene that points out that no, B4 couldn't have been the new Data (what with seven seasons of TNG making the point that Data is an individual formed by his experiences just as an organic life form) is the least of it. Mind you, that sudden AI uprising leading to a shut down of all android, excuse me, synthetic programs sounds suspiciously like former ST alumnus' Ron Moore's version of BSG was one inspiration, but hey. Also, TNG itself, as well as Voyager via the Holograms in later seasons did tackle the question of just when AIs become sentient and if they are sentient, isn't using them without their consent slavery, repeatedly. (And of course the most recent Disco version went the Skynet evil AI route.) What with Measure of a Man being one of the earliest TNG episodes to be considered a classic now, it makes sense to develop this further. And Picard's ongoing grief for Data makes Data's death count in a way it did not in Nemesis; while the new character(s) hailing back to both Bruce Maddox and Data's experience with Lal is lovely continuity without making everything incomprehensible for new watchers.
Which brings me to my favourite Captain. Patrick Stewart is as good as ever, and while some of the trailers made me fear Picard would have quit Starfleet over some battle gone wrong or an accident or what not, which would have smacked of artificial angst, him having quit over a fundamental ethical issue really works. As does him living with two of the former Romulan refugees now - btw, these must be the first civilian Romulans (i.e. non military, non-secret service) we've seen since... I don't know, Unification on TNG? I hope we keep them once the series inevitably goes into space for its main plot line; both actors and characters come across as having good chemistry, being affectionate yet also quite capable of saying what's on their minds with him. His compassion and sympathy for Dahj even before he deduced who she could be were also lovely. Otoh, a saint, Jean-Luc was and is not, and thus you see him go into somewhat arrogant/condescending mode with the reporter once she inevitably asks the questions she had agreed not to. (This brought an unfortunate B5 memory to me afterwards, but while watching, it worked for me.)
The young mystery woman from the traiiler turns out to have been not some kind of crypto borg but in fact a kind of Data descendant, courtesy of Bruce Maddox (we think, so far), Dahj. She also turns out to be one of two (like Data/Lore?) and is killed by the end of the episode, which, well. Is straight forwardly "killing a female character to motivate a male character" , though Picard at that point was already engaged in the process of investigating the mystery and helping her. So I wasn't thrilled. Then again: am waiting to see further plot justification for this, and of course I'm intrigued what her counterpart Sohj is doing with the Romulans on the former Borg cube, and how all this will turn out to be connected, because of course it will be. When ST: Discovery killed off Philippa Georgiou in the pilot, it turned out to have been a truly earned plot decision, after all. (Michael's entire journey thereafter would not have happened otherwise. Also, Mirror Georgiou. Who wouldn't be as effective a character if we hadn't met Philippa Prime first.)
Now, I fully expect there to be some Romulan villainy involved along with everything else, btw. They won't suddenly consist of solely good guys, especially in a story that highlights Federation ethical failing in its premise. But that is okay, especially considering our present offers plenty of actual terrorism as well. One of the many reasons why the TNG episode The Drumhead works for me the way it does is that it starts with an actual sabotage act, and the later harrassed crew man Simon did, in fact, hide something (i.e. his part Romulan heritage) - all the paranoia that developed was triggered by some real events... which still are no justification for going the "to hell with civil rights, better safe than sorry" route. It still looks like we'll get Romulans in all ethical shades, and that hasn't happened in a looooong while.
Let''s see, what else: LOL at the brief French speaking. Look, creators, I've always assumed that Picard when talking to his family etc. in La Barrre does in fact speak French, we're just hearing it as English because Star Trek is an American franchise, and also the Universal Translator is an in-universe thing.
The dog: aw. But I doubt he really works as a harmful intent detector, Jean-Luc.
Lastly: since ST is at its core optimistic, I do expect that at the end of these developments there will be a reformation within the Federation. Doesn't need to happen overnight, but needs to happen in the long term. But in SF and RL.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1384789.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
To wit: Nemesis, of course, specifically the Data plot, but also Nero's backstory in the first Star Trek reboot movie. Given that Spock Prime had done all he could to save the Romulans, Nero's feud, complete with blowing up Vulcan, did not make much sense, nor did the other Romulans following Nero on this, other than "um, villain gonna viilain?" But Star Trek: Picard now establishes that while Jean-Luc led an initial mass evacuation rescue effort (as indicated in the comics prequel for the first reboot movie, as I recall), Starfleet then because of the simultanous attack by Cylons synthetics on Mars abandoned said rescue effort and the Romulans, thereby betraying its core ideals, hence our hero's quitting the service.
Now, this making Nero's grudge against the Federation somewhat more plausible is the least of it. Because: a terrorist (or "terrorist", guess we'll find out more in the course of the season) attack causing the Federation to turn itself isolationist and cut down human aid efforts and instead starting with the xenophobia ("Romulan refugees!")? Gee, I wonder what could possibly have inspired that. (BTW, no, I don't mean just the US. The EU and pretty much all first world countries/power blocs are just as blameworthy.) You know, this is the kind of SF tackling the present which I love to have in my Star Trek.
Re: Nemesis: killing off Data while leaving itself a loophole via B4 just in case Brent Spiner should change his mind had been one of the many, many lame storytelling decisions of that movie, in that case, trying to have a tearjerker in the cheapest way possible while treating the character in question as replacable. Star Trek: Picard does what I hoped my imaginary show would and makes a silk purse out of a sow's ear, or so it seems right now, by not retconning or ignoring Nemesis but using it to make something actually interesting of what it has done. The B4 question being laid to rest in a scene that points out that no, B4 couldn't have been the new Data (what with seven seasons of TNG making the point that Data is an individual formed by his experiences just as an organic life form) is the least of it. Mind you, that sudden AI uprising leading to a shut down of all android, excuse me, synthetic programs sounds suspiciously like former ST alumnus' Ron Moore's version of BSG was one inspiration, but hey. Also, TNG itself, as well as Voyager via the Holograms in later seasons did tackle the question of just when AIs become sentient and if they are sentient, isn't using them without their consent slavery, repeatedly. (And of course the most recent Disco version went the Skynet evil AI route.) What with Measure of a Man being one of the earliest TNG episodes to be considered a classic now, it makes sense to develop this further. And Picard's ongoing grief for Data makes Data's death count in a way it did not in Nemesis; while the new character(s) hailing back to both Bruce Maddox and Data's experience with Lal is lovely continuity without making everything incomprehensible for new watchers.
Which brings me to my favourite Captain. Patrick Stewart is as good as ever, and while some of the trailers made me fear Picard would have quit Starfleet over some battle gone wrong or an accident or what not, which would have smacked of artificial angst, him having quit over a fundamental ethical issue really works. As does him living with two of the former Romulan refugees now - btw, these must be the first civilian Romulans (i.e. non military, non-secret service) we've seen since... I don't know, Unification on TNG? I hope we keep them once the series inevitably goes into space for its main plot line; both actors and characters come across as having good chemistry, being affectionate yet also quite capable of saying what's on their minds with him. His compassion and sympathy for Dahj even before he deduced who she could be were also lovely. Otoh, a saint, Jean-Luc was and is not, and thus you see him go into somewhat arrogant/condescending mode with the reporter once she inevitably asks the questions she had agreed not to. (This brought an unfortunate B5 memory to me afterwards, but while watching, it worked for me.)
The young mystery woman from the traiiler turns out to have been not some kind of crypto borg but in fact a kind of Data descendant, courtesy of Bruce Maddox (we think, so far), Dahj. She also turns out to be one of two (like Data/Lore?) and is killed by the end of the episode, which, well. Is straight forwardly "killing a female character to motivate a male character" , though Picard at that point was already engaged in the process of investigating the mystery and helping her. So I wasn't thrilled. Then again: am waiting to see further plot justification for this, and of course I'm intrigued what her counterpart Sohj is doing with the Romulans on the former Borg cube, and how all this will turn out to be connected, because of course it will be. When ST: Discovery killed off Philippa Georgiou in the pilot, it turned out to have been a truly earned plot decision, after all. (Michael's entire journey thereafter would not have happened otherwise. Also, Mirror Georgiou. Who wouldn't be as effective a character if we hadn't met Philippa Prime first.)
Now, I fully expect there to be some Romulan villainy involved along with everything else, btw. They won't suddenly consist of solely good guys, especially in a story that highlights Federation ethical failing in its premise. But that is okay, especially considering our present offers plenty of actual terrorism as well. One of the many reasons why the TNG episode The Drumhead works for me the way it does is that it starts with an actual sabotage act, and the later harrassed crew man Simon did, in fact, hide something (i.e. his part Romulan heritage) - all the paranoia that developed was triggered by some real events... which still are no justification for going the "to hell with civil rights, better safe than sorry" route. It still looks like we'll get Romulans in all ethical shades, and that hasn't happened in a looooong while.
Let''s see, what else: LOL at the brief French speaking. Look, creators, I've always assumed that Picard when talking to his family etc. in La Barrre does in fact speak French, we're just hearing it as English because Star Trek is an American franchise, and also the Universal Translator is an in-universe thing.
The dog: aw. But I doubt he really works as a harmful intent detector, Jean-Luc.
Lastly: since ST is at its core optimistic, I do expect that at the end of these developments there will be a reformation within the Federation. Doesn't need to happen overnight, but needs to happen in the long term. But in SF and RL.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1384789.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.