Star Trek: Picard 1.05 - "Stardust City Rag"

[lizbee]

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?

Comments

[kore]

RAFFI! HOW FUCKING AWESOME IS RAFFI. HOW. AWESOME. I loved that actress WAY back when on the skeevy L&O SVU, and I'm just delighted to see her with a big chewy part now. She's so great.

Laris and Zhaban

T is SO BUMMED the Romulan murder housekeepers aren't toodling along. So bummed. I might even write him a little fic about it, lol.

Wait what there are tie-in novels already? Where?

[lizbee]

I loved that actress WAY back when on the skeevy L&O SVU, and I'm just delighted to see her with a big chewy part now. She's so great.

I mostly know her because my BFF has been in love with her husband for MANY years, and was always like, "I can't even hate his wife! She seems cool!" And BFF is completely right!

Wait what there are tie-in novels already? Where?

Just one so far, a prequel depicting the evacuation of the Romulan Empire -- it's by Una McCormack, and is available in Good Bookstores And Online.

(I thought it was extremely good, except for the Jurati/Maddox stuff, which makes my skin crawl. But it was great with Picard, and especially Raffi -- really made it clear that the fault lines in her personality didn't just appear suddenly when Mars was bombed.)

[kore]

OMG, I looked at Wiki and I also have seen her in Daredevil/Jessica Jones and ER! She's so great.

OH she's married to the guy who was John Henry on T:SCC. Nice!

That tie-in sounds really interesting....I do hate reading about older male teachers/young adoring female students, tho.

[nonelvis]

Okay, I agree with all of this, but also, it occurred to me this evening that because the information about Agnes having been Bruce's grad student is only in McCormack's book, many viewers will look at Agnes/Bruce and just assume it's a perfectly normal relationship. And leaving this kind of vital background info to tie-in work is absolutely not okay! I mean, clearly whatever drove Agnes to kill Bruce is very disturbing, but the history of their relationship looks entirely different if you don't have McCormack's background! ARGH.

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

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH and now this is exactly what's going to happen, THANKS, CHABON

[lizbee]

Okay, I agree with all of this, but also, it occurred to me this evening that because the information about Agnes having been Bruce's grad student is only in McCormack's book, many viewers will look at Agnes/Bruce and just assume it's a perfectly normal relationship.

I dunno, I think the age gap will throw up red flags for some!

(Drive-by: according to the book, which I'm taking as canon until proven otherwise, Agnes already had a medical degree by the time she became Bruce's student, so Alison Pill is honestly a few years too young for this role. Agnes should be closer to forty. On the other hand, Pill is A DELIGHT, so who knows?)

And leaving this kind of vital background info to tie-in work is absolutely not okay!

Right! There is so much exposition in this show, and yet really important things like this are left unexplained. It's a first draft!

I mean, clearly whatever drove Agnes to kill Bruce is very disturbing, but the history of their relationship looks entirely different if you don't have McCormack's background! ARGH.

I'm not saying that death is the appropriate recourse for a technically-legal affair between an academic and his adult student, but I'm not saying it's wrong!

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH and now this is exactly what's going to happen, THANKS, CHABON

LOOK, MAYBE HE'LL EXCEED OUR EXPECTATIONS! Maybe it'll be a fake-out! Or something wholly new that we didn't consider at all!

[lizbee]

do hate reading about older male teachers/young adoring female students, tho.

Yeah, we got it all from Maddox's POV -- which was a good choice, I think, because he's clearly unreliable. But it still made my skin crawl.

[kore]

Oh, B L E C H. I will be happy to see little cute blondie kill him, then! //is a bad person

[aristofranes]

I think you've put your finger on it. I'm enjoying the show, and I'm invested pretty heavily in (most of) the characters, but almost all of that is because of the work the actors are doing and not because of the words they've been given to deal with.

[tree_and_leaf]

I didn't know about Intiraymi, and now while I'm still sad they killed Icheb, I am also enjoying the 'screw you' aspect.

[starlady]

The longer this goes on the more I feel like this show is Star Trek does Babylon 5. Which, I love Babylon 5--it's perfectly imperfect. This show so far feels more imperfectly perfect.

I definitely like that the show is letting a lot of its characters be both wrong and right at the same time: Picard and Clancy, Raffi and her son (she's obviously not wrong about this conspiracy! he's obviously very not wrong about what it was like to grow up with a Lone Gunwoman addict for a mother!). Seven killing her ex-girlfriend for cause probably also fits in this box, though it needs more explicit textual confirmation, as you say. Jurati and Maddox may also fit under this column, though again, I am reluctant to speculate without data, as Spock would say.

I guess, you know, we'll see how it goes, in this season and in season 2. I do wonder whether things will get gayer and weirder in S2 when Chabon is no longer in charge. For now all I know is that I want more Seven and more Elnor.