lizbee | Star Trek: Picard 1.05 - "Stardust City Rag" (Reply)

I'm in this weird spot where I like this show, and I love nearly all the characters, but I also don't think it's actually ... good?

Which on the one hand is a shame, but on the other hand, well, I am a Voyager fan, so this feeling is familiar to me.

SO FIRST OF ALL, SOME HISTORY. Manu Intiraymi played the teenage ex-Borg drone Icheb in Voyager. Then he grew up, joined Twitter and became a troll. Not quite at Shatner levels, but he threw a lot of abuse at Anthony Rapp after Rapp accused Kevin Spacey of abuse. It was pretty gross, and needless to say he lost a lot of fans.

Then Picard was announced, and suddenly Intiraymi cleaned up his Twitter, apologised to Rapp and tried really, really hard to rehabilitate his image in the eyes of pros and fans, in hopes that he'd get to appear as Icheb. (He even followed Antimatter Pod!) Which was ridiculous -- why would a third-string character like Icheb appear?

So imagine my schadenfreude when Icheb turned up this week -- recast and also dead before the opening credits. IMAGINE.

Having said that, the teaser was maybe unnecessarily graphic? I don't have an Eyeball Squick, but at the same time there are things I don't want to see before breakfast, and certain elements felt a bit gratuitous. Not necessarily killing Icheb, or even The Eyeball Thing, but having Seven be the one to phaser him as an act of mercy was too much? I'm all about piling on the angst, but that was maybe a step too far? I'm still undecided.

In fact, I'm undecided about a lot of things in this episode! But here's what I know for sure:

Jeri Ryan is brilliant, and it's mainly her performance which makes Seven recognisable as the character last seen in Voyager. I don't think that's necessarily bad (see above re: undecided about many things), because decades have passed and she's now been human longer than she was a drone, but it's discombobulating to see Seven use slang and drink bourbon.The moments which reveal how much of this is an act are very subtle, but there are moments where Seven drops her mask and reverts to her more natural persona. I'd like to give the writers some credit for this, but Ryan herself has said it was Jonathan Del Arco's suggestion that she play it that way.
I definitely love: Seven having an ex-girlfriend.
I definitely hate: that it's 2020 and their relationship is still subtext???? Extremely blatant subtext, but again it's only Discovery with overtly queer characters.
I'm undecided: how I feel about Seven killing her ex, even in revenge for her murdering Icheb; I don't require every single queer relationship in fiction to be "healthy", but frankly Star Trek is not a franchise which has earned a lot of goodwill in terms of its depiction of queer people over the last fifty-four years.
I definitely have a lot of feelings: about Tuvok taking a sabbatical to spend time with the Fenris Rangers and Seven after Icheb dies.

Believe it or not, I also have feelings about people who aren't Seven of Nine:

Bruce Maddox is THE WORST, but I'm having a really hard time reconciling this dick with the dick he was in "Measure of a Man".
Anyway, don't fuck your grad students, Bruce.
I mean, I'm sure there's more to Agnes's trip down murder lane than realising her ex-boyfriend is THE WORST, but that's the message I took.
Okay, ALSO, in Una McCormack's The Last Best Hope, which she wrote in close consultation with Kirsten Beyer, it's Agnes who comes up with the actual principle behind the creation of Dahj and Soji, so there's another way in which Maddox is TERRIBLE.
(It's also there that we learn she was his doctoral candidate when they started sleeping together.)
Mostly I cannot believe this whole Maddox/Jurati thing is actual canon and not some horrifying and sexist theory on Reddit.
Rafaela Musiker is NOT THE WORST, she is DOING HER BEST AND I LOVE HER
On the other hand, I totally get why her son (why are there so many Gabriels and Gabrielles in this generation of Trek?) doesn't want a relationship, and there's a lot to be said for calling ahead
But Raffi's DOING HER BEST, LIKE I SAID
AND SHE'S A GRANDMOTHER
Last year, on a panel about mothers in spec fic, I said that what I wanted was more women who are parents to adult children, and maybe grandmothers as well, who are still having adventures
AND NOW WE HAVE RAFFI
Admittedly some of her adventures involve getting high and attempting to become a one-woman Lone Gunmen
SHE'S DOING HER BEST
I've become oddly fond of Rios and I'm not sure why, except that I enjoy how he's sort of the only person who takes himself seriously
ELNOR, MY PRECIOUS OBTUSE SON
I have to confess that there were moments in this episode where I found myself thinking, "I wonder what Laris and Zhaban are up to?"
Two ex-Tal Shiar agents would come in really handy if you were preparing to sneak into Romulan space and infiltrate their Borg cube, eh, Jean-Luc?
Like, how much tending did the grapes need?
Surely some nice French family could have dogsat.
Then there was the bit where Rios was like, "I charge extra for Borg cubes," and you can actually see Picard wondering if he takes payment in pinot.
Laris handles his cheque book, okay?

Meanwhile...

So I love that, in Seven and Raffi, we have women who have lost their children in different ways
And they even took a moment to pass the Bechdel test! Thanks, Kirsten Beyer!
But I'm a little concerned that we're going to learn that Agnes's contribution to Dahj and Soji was biological, rather than intellectual, which would complete the trifecta, but would also be gross and sexist
I try not to get angry over plot developments which haven't happened and which may only exist in my head! But I feel like we have more revelations to come about Agnes, and what she has to atone for
(I guess she's not brainwashed? Who knows?)

Anyway. As much as I enjoy this show, I don't think it's nearly as good as it should be -- it has great characters, interesting concepts, but in terms of structure, subtext and often dialogue, it feels like they've accidentally filmed a first draft. I think it was a huge mistake to give showrunning duties to a writer with as little TV experience as Chabon, and while I'm relieved that he's moving on at the end of the season, I'm mystified that he's been given another show to run. Failing upwards, eh?