Star Trek: Picard, season 2, eps 1-2

[lizbee]

I started keeping a running list of notes for Antimatter Pod -- we're holding off on discussing Picard in-depth until Discovery wraps up BECAUSE SOMEONE AT PARAMOUNT THOUGHT IT WOULD BE SMART TO OVERSHADOW THE SERIES LED BY A WOMAN OF COLOUR no, I'm not getting into that rant, I'm just gonna say again that this overlap of shows was wholly unnecessary--

ANYWAY, I don't have the time to do proper posts, either here or at my blog, but here are some vague thoughts.



2.01 - "The Star Gazer"

• has something been lost with everyone joining Starfleet? I liked the scrappy show about messy civilians and their eccentric grandpa
• I am TOTALLY INTO Picard/Laris while also feeling like killing off Zhaban was cheap and unnecessary (all Chabon's posts about three-party Romulan marriages are RIGHT THERE, just let the man make his fan fiction canon)
• and ALSO I do not need Picard and Beverly to ride off into the sunset together, I've been a multishipper for almost as long as I've been a Picard/Crusher shipper, BUT I do need them to acknowledge that there was a whole THING there and that it was always Beverly putting the brakes on a relationship
• the MUTUAL PINING of Picard/Laris though
• oh my gosh I love a second chance romance/older people in love
• congratulations to Orla Brady on getting to be a weirdly young love interest at the age of 60
• how many minutes do we think it took Admiral Janeway to adopt Raffi? Five? Ten if she's busy?
• I love Seven and Jeri Ryan's performance is always outstanding, but I wish they'd remember that Seven is a scientist
• Met Gala Kim Kardashian Borg Queen is a mouthful and also a cosplay goal
• why is tiny Jean-Luc a 1930s news boy?
• this series has the worst costuming of any new Trek, including the animated series
• Seven did a reverse Tuvix on the Rios holograms and I respect that

2.02 - "Penance"

• I'm not going to pretend I haven't spent some time considering the 2250s Confederation and, more to the point, wondering whose skull is decorating General Cornwell's study
• then I realised it's absolutely L'Rell's, and I got a bit sad
• ANYWAY
• at first I was like, "This is great, but I think I liked it better when it was season 1 of Discovery."
• but then I slept on it and decided that these two grimdark universes serve different purposes, and this is the brutalist counterpart to the Terran Empire's baroque nonsense
• RIP Gul Dukat
• and Sarek, but I'm mostly sad it wasn't General Michael decapitating him
• do we think Philippa Georgiou and Gabrielle Burnham were married in this timeline? Because I can see it
• OKAY FINE
• I resent how Q is a bit sexy now
• Seven of Nine knows the rules of waking up in another reality and Agnes absolutely does not, and this all makes perfect sense
• all the Starfleets were pretty on the ball, too, I have to assume there's a class on this
• General Janeway has the Diviner's head on a pike somewhere and is also fighting Picard for the title of Borgslayer
• I feel this in my heart
• I REALISE THAT IMPORTANT STUFF HAPPENED IN THIS EPISODE I JUST NEED TO ROLL AROUND IN THE AU A LITTLE LONGER
• also Annie Wersching is great as the Borg Queen but the design choice to have her breasting boobily was ... questionable
• I realise that she's the leader of a genocidal, xenophobic society, but President Annika Hansen has my support, slay queen, #girlboss, etc
• her husband, not so much

Comments

[kore]

LOL YES especially

General Janeway has the Diviner's head on a pike somewhere and is also fighting Picard for the title of Borgslayer
I feel this in my heart
I REALISE THAT IMPORTANT STUFF HAPPENED IN THIS EPISODE I JUST NEED TO ROLL AROUND IN THE AU A LITTLE LONGER
also Annie Wersching is great as the Borg Queen but the design choice to have her breasting boobily was ... questionable
I realise that she's the leader of a genocidal, xenophobic society, but President Annika Hansen has my support, slay queen, #girlboss, etc
her husband, not so much

VERY VERY YES

The tone REALLY is different from S1 (which I loved). That felt kind of more episodic and even experimental? and yeah, dark for Trek. This feels like they're deliberately going after the nostalgia audience (Borg! Janeway! Guinan! Q!) but also like it's a 180 twist on that, so it's interesting! We didn't do a rewatch before the new season so it was a bit of a shock to see they all went their separate ways. I guess in my head it was like Avengers Tower post-Avengers with them having adventures together, lol. But I'm a sucker for Getting The Band Back Together stories plus the Band suddenly being in an evil AU and having to fake being evil! Throw in "we have to go back to the past to save the future" time travel and I'm like, you baked this catnip brownie just FOR ME? (Oh please just a little canon Seven/Raffi. That would totally make it perfect.)

I fully and cynically expect if they ever get that Pike/Spock spinoff off the ground, that will be Discovery's death knell. Especially if they are trying to reunite the reboot universe actors for a new film, altho I don't know how accurate that is at all.

[lizbee]

I fully and cynically expect if they ever get that Pike/Spock spinoff off the ground, that will be Discovery's death knell.

Well, I can safely say you're wrong there! The Pike/Spock spinoff premieres in May and Discovery has already been renewed for a fifth season.

This feels like they're deliberately going after the nostalgia audience (Borg! Janeway! Guinan! Q!) but also like it's a 180 twist on that, so it's interesting!

Yeah, I love that they're fixing the things I disliked about season 1 (the messy pacing, the inept planning) but also sad that they're simultaneously losing some of what I loved (the scrappy civilianness.)

[kore]

Well, I can safely say you're wrong there! The Pike/Spock spinoff premieres in May and Discovery has already been renewed for a fifth season.

Oh, THANK GOD. I am very happy to be very wrong!

but also sad that they're simultaneously losing some of what I loved (the scrappy civilianness.)

Maybe we'll get some of that during the time travel hijinks! It looked like Seven had to figure out how to drive a car?

[garpu]

I need to actually finish Picard season 1, but it struck me as a retelling of Mass Effect...

[lizbee]

It's a MASSIVE knock-off of ME! Not intentionally, this is just what happens when you have a bunch of writers who have not consumed ANY SF published this century, so they don't know what the cliches are...

[garpu]

Allegedly we're getting a Mass Effect series, too. It would be cool if Shepard's gender kept switching, and nobody commented on it.

[tellitslant]

congratulations to Orla Brady on getting to be a weirdly young love interest at the age of 60

I lol'd.

I have no major thoughts about the show but I am very much enjoying it. Co-signed on the need to at least fucking mention Beverly - but I have to think they're going in that direction with making the Stargazer part of the plot...

[lizbee]

The giant Beverly-shaped hole in the dialogue definitely feels intentional. If I might be permitted to don a fetching tinfoil hat for a moment, I'd even suggest it's setting up for a surprise Gates McFadden appearance. But it's ALSO such a big gap that it feels artificial.

[tellitslant]

I'd even suggest it's setting up for a surprise Gates McFadden appearance

This continues to be my hope, for absolutely no reason other than: how do you tell a Picard's-history-with-romance story without Bev??

[lizbee]

EXACTLY. I'm aware that I have shipper bias, but this has been a major, intentional and canonical relationship since the earliest days of TNG. And I totally buy that the ship has sailed for these characters (I reckon Bev herself would be shipping Picard/Laris), but it would be downright gaslighty to try to tell this story without her.

[starlady]

I think Beverly is going to show up in S3, actually. The stuff people in the production have been dropping on Twitter reads to me like we're going to get a lot more of the old cast back, and there's actually only three of them eligible: Beverly, Geordi, and Worf.

It is wild to me how much better this season has been from the jump. I'm really enjoying it a lot so far.

[lizbee]

Oh nice! Although that also makes me worry that we HAVEN'T heard much from Orla Brady about season 2, and WHAT IF SHE DIES FOR PICARD/BEVERLY

THAT IS ALSO BAD

I HAVE TO GO AND BE ANXIOUS NOW