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Star Trek: Picard |OT| The Next, Next, Next Generation

ManaByte

Member
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Star Trek: Picard is a streaming series on CBA All Access set twenty years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. The Romulan Supernova that happened in Star Trek 2009 is canon and Picard was involved with the relocation of the Romulans before Starfleet stopped it. Just prior to the events of the series, rogue synthetics attacked and destroyed the settlements on Mars, including the Utopia Planitia shipyards where the Enterprise D was built.

The series picks up with a retired Admiral Picard who left Starfleet following the Romulan relocation incident who is driven back into action when a mysterious girl with a profound connection to his past seeks his help.

10 episodes. Every Thursday on CBS All Access in the US.
 

ManaByte

Member
Episode 1 thoughts (Spoilers):

Picard leaving Starfleet makes sense with the run of TNG where Picard was constantly at odds with assholes in command telling them how they're wrong. He finally got fed up with the idiots and left.

Loved the deep dive of mentioning Maddox as the one who made the synthetics and potentially the twins.

If the girl IS a "daughter" of Data and they don't mention Lal I'll be disappointed. Picard said "Data always wanted a daughter" but didn't mention Lal.

Obviously the Borg will be involved in some way.

Really liked the first episode. Felt like a continuation of TNG 20 years after Nemesis and MUCH better than Discovery. Using the Anaheim Convention Center as Starfleet didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.
 

wvnative

Member
Is this show blatant anti trump non-sense? Some of Patrick Stewart's comments were alarming.

Either way i am happy to see positive comments on all ends of the spectrum.

I don't care if it's anti trump or not, but recently it seems some shows are being brought back to give a political statement first, and entertain 2nd.
 

McCheese

Member
Really enjoyed the first episode.

There is a bit of an odd disconnect when Patrick Stewart is talking to other characters, almost like they filmed the two parts of the conversation separately; but other than that I had no complaints. Not too much fan service, and it feels like it's set in the TNG universe still, albeit 30 or so years after the last time we saw it.

And boy did they set a ton of things up already, Hope they actually deliver and explain where the girls came from, what happened to Maddox, why the Romulan's appear to be living/rebuilding some sort of borg cube.
 

ManaByte

Member
Is this show blatant anti trump non-sense? Some of Patrick Stewart's comments were alarming.

Either way i am happy to see positive comments on all ends of the spectrum.

I don't care if it's anti trump or not, but recently it seems some shows are being brought back to give a political statement first, and entertain 2nd.

It's 100% TNG Picard in retirement.

Look at episodes like "Measure of a Man", "The Offspring", "Journey's End" and the Insurrection movie. Picard was always the moral high ground butting heads with asshole Starfleet, and in the series timeline when Starfleet stops the Romulan relocation Picard negotiated he told them to fuck themselves because they weren't Starfleet anymore and retired. That's the same Picard we saw for seven years in the show.

Really enjoyed the first episode.

There is a bit of an odd disconnect when Patrick Stewart is talking to other characters, almost like they filmed the two parts of the conversation separately; but other than that I had no complaints. Not too much fan service, and it feels like it's set in the TNG universe still, albeit 30 or so years after the last time we saw it.

And boy did they set a ton of things up already, Hope they actually deliver and explain where the girls came from, what happened to Maddox, why the Romulan's appear to be living/rebuilding some sort of borg cube.

The fan service in Picard's archives was great though.

I'm hoping they actually bring Maddox in, the guy who played him is still alive.
 
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Zog

Banned
Look at episodes like "Measure of a Man", "The Offspring", "Journey's End" and the Insurrection movie. Picard was always the moral high ground butting heads with asshole Starfleet

3 episodes (and a movie) out of 178 episodes isn't 'always'.
 
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Shouta

Member
I really enjoyed the first episode. The vibe is a bit jarring since it's not really anything like the older Treks, not even the TNG movies, but the story and characterization seem to be what it should be.
 

ManaByte

Member
I really enjoyed the first episode. The vibe is a bit jarring since it's not really anything like the older Treks, not even the TNG movies, but the story and characterization seem to be what it should be.

All of the CBS All Access Star Trek is like that. It's Trek but filmed in modern locations instead of sets. You could see the exit signs on the doors at the Anaheim Convention Center LOL.
 

Shouta

Member
All of the CBS All Access Star Trek is like that. It's Trek but filmed in modern locations instead of sets. You could see the exit signs on the doors at the Anaheim Convention Center LOL.

It's not just the modern locations, it just feels like the pacing is a bit more movie-like, I guess? It didn't feel like the episode took a second to breath and talk about things, aside from like one or two spots. The dialogue and the muisc might play into this though.
 

ManaByte

Member
It's not just the modern locations, it just feels like the pacing is a bit more movie-like, I guess? It didn't feel like the episode took a second to breath and talk about things, aside from like one or two spots. The dialogue and the muisc might play into this though.

That's because they're doing a serialized story where old TV trek was episodic. Even DS9 was during the Dominion War.
 

Ma-Yuan

Member
Ohh boy I just watched star trek Picard after it came online in Germany and God does it suck. Within 5 minutes my hopes of a good show in memory of the 90s trek shows got destroyed. It's like bad fan fiction that rapes tng and voyager real hard... At least the cube from the trailer is now green 🤣 luckily we have the Orville...
 
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ManaByte

Member
Ohh boy I just watched star trek Picard after it came online in Germany and God does it suck. Within 5 minutes my hopes of a good show in memory of the 90s trek shows got destroyed. It's like bad fan fiction that rapes tng and voyager real hard... At least the cube from the trailer is now green 🤣 luckily we have the Orville...

I can't stand the Orville anymore. THAT is Star Trek fan fiction. It's not bad, it's just trying to be a 90s show in the 2020s.
 

Shouta

Member
That's because they're doing a serialized story where old TV trek was episodic. Even DS9 was during the Dominion War.

It being serialized really isn't an issue for me since since Enterprise had a lot of that. I'll have to sit on it a bit and think about it more in-depth. :pie_thinking:
 

ManaByte

Member
It being serialized really isn't an issue for me since since Enterprise had a lot of that. I'll have to sit on it a bit and think about it more in-depth. :pie_thinking:

They're been doing these streaming shows like they were HBO shows which feels weird for Trek. Especially the Klingon tits and F-bombs in DISCO S1. Picard feels the most Star Trek of anything they've done so far though, but it's closer to the movies than the series.
 

Fnord

Member
Enjoyed the first episode. I'm in for more. I was really afraid it was going to be more like Discovery, which I decidedly do not like. But so far, so good.
 

ManaByte

Member
Enjoyed the first episode. I'm in for more. I was really afraid it was going to be more like Discovery, which I decidedly do not like. But so far, so good.

S2 of DISCO isn't bad, Season 1 is garbage except for the last couple of episodes.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Lol S2 is trash of discovery.

Anyway watched the episode.

Honestly refreshing slow start, however dude feels old really old, and honestly i started to wonder if he maybe was to old really for the roll. But further down and when u see him walking it makes it a lot more believable. His voice and looks really feel like he's on his last legs.

Story wise could be interesting, middle area not much interesting to be honest but solid nothing special. Ending was great however.

Not sure if this series has the meat to push forwards. We will have to see after the first few episodes how things are going. CGI is questionable but not to bad i guess.

Not sure if this has much legs. I think the concept is interesting and great but i am afraid they simply are to old now and waiting to long with rebooting the series. Also budget seems a bit lowish.
 
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Hinedorf

Banned
Thought it was great, never expected this is the angle the show would go. That last screen flash of the big bad at the end just had me like .....

giphy.gif
 

xandaca

Member
This is what I posted on Reddit about the first episode:

Having watched it once, I liked it more than I was expecting to. That's not an especially high bar to clear, as I didn't have much hope of it even improving on Nemesis, but I appreciate that it was slower paced, more sensibly directed and edited, and didn't have the over-the-top visual 'sheen' of Discovery. It has the cadence of Star Trek, which is more than has been present since Beyond (which I didn't like as much as many fans, but it at least felt as though it respected what Trek was). Stewart gives a strong performance as an older, more wounded Picard who still has his ethics but lost his faith in his ability to make them count for anything, and the interview scene was a solid restatement of the nature of the character, even if very writerly and the staging clichéd (the interviewer lied and is unnecessarily confrontational!). My hope for the rest of the season remains extremely mixed because the plot is the weakest part by far. The 'protect a special girl' schtick is creaking and the backstory is strangely overwrought and lacking the connective tissue needed to hold the base narrative together.

(FULL SPOILERS FROM HERE) So Picard led the rescue mission to save refugees from Romulus. At the same time, a group of androids* used the opportunity, presumably of Federation resources being diverted, to blow up shipyard installations on Mars. This leads to the Romulan rescue effort being abandoned and all androids being declared illegal. None of those three developments follow particularly smoothly, or even logically, and while it's a bit more coherent than the gigantic black holes sucking up Discovery's storytelling, it's clunky and overburdened. Some would argue that we don't yet know the full story after just one episode - almost certainly true for the android attack on Mars - but right now, it's distracting and piecemeal. Couldn't the android rebellion have occurred as part of the rescue effort, for instance? The callbacks feel similarly untidy: so Dahj is not Data's daughter, but a new type of android by Maddox inspired by Data painting a woman and calling the work 'daughter', even though the woman didn't exist, let alone have any relationship to him (wouldn't he have painted Lal)? And Maddox created the Dahj androids in pairs because... Data made two paintings? And since she was created by Maddox, why would she apparently have secret programming to seek out Picard in a time of need? Again, maybe this will all be explained and the details filled in - also why Lore hasn't been acknowledged, even though his existence should completely derail one of the central plot points, that the Federation were unable to replicate Data's complexity because the closest surviving model they had was B4 (amusingly discarded). Maybe I'm misremembering the end of Descent, but I thought Lore was deactivated but not destroyed, and the whereabouts of his remains unstated but presumably in Federation hands.(SPOILERS END)

Anyway, I appreciate the slower tone, the hint of ethical consideration and Patrick Stewart's performance in this episode, but the clichéd and overstuffed plot make me question whether it's all going to rapidly go downhill once it starts having to get into the weeds and up the stakes of the story it wants to tell. This episode is better than I was expecting but without necessarily being all that reassuring.

*I'm not going to call the androids 'synths' or 'synthetics'. That kind of nicknaming belongs in far stupider series than Trek should be.
 
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Fnord

Member
This is what I posted on Reddit about the first episode:

I was thinking the interview was hackneyed, as well. But there were a couple of (possibly clever?) clues peppered into the script that may make it less so. It's possible that the interviewer didn't lie at all... it's possible the Romulan did.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Loved the first episode, can't wait to see more. I was worried it would be super "woke" (like Discovery) considering the press cycle it's been getting the last week. But in reality, it honestly just feels like subtle commentary on current sociopolitical issues. Like Star Trek always has been. So it feels like Star Trek.

Can't wait to see more.
 
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The pilot is good and feels "canon" as both the shit TNG films and ST 2009 were addressed fairly well. A bit too much happened though. 8/10

STD ain´t bad btw but very confused about what it wanted to be. I liked S01 more than S02 for example. The budget on these is crazy btw. I really like Mando but both lof these look better.
 

jdforge

Banned
Just watched it and I loved it. It has such charm and overflowing with nostalgia.

I just wish I could binge the entire season.

The end image was badass. Loved it.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
My crazy theory below:

The "synthetic" attack on Mars was carried out by a rebel army of Mark 1 Zimmerman holograms / EMHs. They were spurred to action at the end of the Voyager episode "Author, Author" when the Voyager Doctor made his Photons be Free holo-novel. At the episode closing, it shows a lot of Mark 1s working in a mine discussing their oppression by humans in hushed tones. It might make sense that they would attack Mars (of all places) because that's where Zimmerman created them, and it's where Starfleet ships were being built - and that was probably why they were mining ore in the first place.

This would kinda fit with Picard's overall narrative in that there is an entire class of "people" who were being quietly enslaved by Starfleet that likely nobody but the higher-ups knew about. Their justification at the time was probably that they needed to rebuild their fleet quickly after the Dominion War, but still didn't think they could sell the idea of using holographic slaves to the general public.

I hope I'm right about this, because if I am it means we'll probably see the great Robert Picardo return for an episode or two. If it's never discussed in the show at all, this is now my head cannon.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
This is what I posted on Reddit about the first episode:

That's pretty close to my own reaction.

I've been notably very negative in the run-up to this series and have essentially zero positive expectations... and against that backdrop, I found the pilot to be... serviceable overall, and considerably better than what I'd feared. While Picard does feel a bit tired and out of place at times, he is also convincing at other points, and the general theme around Data's legacy as an artificial being (and irreplaceable friend fo Picard) is compelling enough for now.

That said -- I anticipate that it will get considerably worse very soon, partly for the reasons you noted (some of this plot work with the paintings etc is a bit fast and gradually getting out of hand)... and mainly after having watched the trailer at the end of the episode, where they preview upcoming installments. These scenes of a new crew look utterly dull and irritating, and I can't imagine having the slightest fondness for the corny new characters shown; plus, I don't really need an action adventure of that kind to move this plot forward, having already more than reached my limit of groaning during the X-Men action sequences with the girl.

We'll see. At least the pilot wasn't horrible, and I'll brace myself for this annoying rag-tag team we'll soon have shoved upon us.
 

Fuz

Banned
Patrick Stewart is fucking amazing.

And seeing him again as Picard was TONS OF FEELS. Goddammit, I love that man.

The episode felt quite rushed in the second half. Explanations an realizations come way too quick, things happen too fast. Like they fast forwarded because they had less space than they thought. Not a huge deal, though. Also, the combat coreography is really cool and all, but kind of feels out of place in Star Trek. Something more realistic would have worked better.
Anyway, really, really liked it. It's got huge potential.

Narek's actor is awful.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
The episode felt quite rushed in the second half. Explanations an realizations come way too quick, things happen too fast. Like they fast forwarded because they had less space than they thought.

That tendency is what kills shows like Discovery for me, and I noticed it here as well. Every scene is immediately devoted to plot points, so that you have to quickly move onto the next piece of information... but what happened to scenes that just establish characters and let them breathe? All those breakfasts between Picard and Dr. Crusher, for instance, which decidedly did not rush headlong into the episode's main plot, and instead set up some personal themes that might return later. I don't really see any themes being shown in that way through natural interactions rather than quickly told to us. He could have spent half the episode interacting with the unusual girl who showed up, letting their conversations gradually reveal where Picard is now as a person, but instead he had one little talk with her about the essentials then off to bed.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
3 episodes (and a movie) out of 178 episodes isn't 'always'.
Those were just examples, always is absolutely right, let me name some more episodes:
- Who Watches the Watchers
- The Drumhead
- Galaxy's Child
- First Contact
- Reunion
- Suddenly Human

Just my quick opinion of the first Star Trek Picard episode: It was by far the best first Star Trek episode, it had a great pacing, not rushing through things like Discovery and taking time for Stewart to shine in his more thoughtful role. It is an intriguing story concept and the interview scene was outstanding.
 

ManaByte

Member
Those were just examples, always is absolutely right, let me name some more episodes:
- Who Watches the Watchers
- The Drumhead
- Galaxy's Child
- First Contact
- Reunion
- Suddenly Human

Just my quick opinion of the first Star Trek Picard episode: It was by far the best first Star Trek episode, it had a great pacing, not rushing through things like Discovery and taking time for Stewart to shine in his more thoughtful role. It is an intriguing story concept and the interview scene was outstanding.

Yup it's an on-going theme between Picard and Starfleet. Him telling them to fuck off is the natural ending to everything in TNG and the movies.
 
Is Star Trek The Next Gen the only thing to watch before Picard? I remember nothing from it, watched random episodes when I was younger and I don't remember the movies at all with Picard.
 

nikolino840

Member
My crazy theory below:

The "synthetic" attack on Mars was carried out by a rebel army of Mark 1 Zimmerman holograms / EMHs. They were spurred to action at the end of the Voyager episode "Author, Author" when the Voyager Doctor made his Photons be Free holo-novel. At the episode closing, it shows a lot of Mark 1s working in a mine discussing their oppression by humans in hushed tones. It might make sense that they would attack Mars (of all places) because that's where Zimmerman created them, and it's where Starfleet ships were being built - and that was probably why they were mining ore in the first place.

This would kinda fit with Picard's overall narrative in that there is an entire class of "people" who were being quietly enslaved by Starfleet that likely nobody but the higher-ups knew about. Their justification at the time was probably that they needed to rebuild their fleet quickly after the Dominion War, but still didn't think they could sell the idea of using holographic slaves to the general public.

I hope I'm right about this, because if I am it means we'll probably see the great Robert Picardo return for an episode or two. If it's never discussed in the show at all, this is now my head cannon.
Too complicated....Is hard seeing old facts in series of decades ago in this new series

Those facts that only nerds point the fingers in convenctions :D
 

Zog

Banned
Who Watches the Watchers

How is this Picard butting heads with Starfleet? The Enterprise is there to fix the duckblind, shit happens and the inhabitants see Picard as a God. He didn't butt heads with Starfleet unless I am forgetting something.
The Drumhead
When a Starfleet Admiral sat it on the trials and walked out it showed that Admiral Satie did not have the support of Starfleet. No butting heads with Starfleet here.

Galaxy's Child
Uh, Picard butted heads with Starfleet in this one?
First Contact

No butting heads in this one either.

Worf butted heads with Duras but...

Suddenly Human

I don't remember Picard butting heads with Starfleet here.

A rogue admiral is NOT Starfleet.
 
Mecha only made it 15 minutes in....



I wish I could watch to judge for myself but if it's true, it sounds like a disaster and that's excluding "taking on Trump and Brexit" bs.

I love TNG and the cast. Have we become so short sighted now that everything in-your-face divisiveness?
 

Zog

Banned
Mecha only made it 15 minutes in....



I wish I could watch to judge for myself but if it's true, it sounds like a disaster and that's excluding "taking on Trump and Brexit" bs.

I love TNG and the cast. Have we become so short sighted now that everything in-your-face divisiveness?


You know, if Patrick Stewart hadn't mouthed off with his anti-Trump and anti-Brexit views then no one would get that from the episode. It's like he was trying to create a controversy for the sake of publicity.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Mecha only made it 15 minutes in....



I wish I could watch to judge for myself but if it's true, it sounds like a disaster and that's excluding "taking on Trump and Brexit" bs.

I love TNG and the cast. Have we become so short sighted now that everything in-your-face divisiveness?

This review is total bullshit. Too political, too much talking about ethics... has she ever watched Next Generation? And yes, it does show that she has only watched a small part of the episode, because one character she criticises particularly strongly for being overpowered, well...
dies

This was such a low effort jab with no substance at all.
 

ManaByte

Member
This review is total bullshit. Too political, too much talking about ethics... has she ever watched Next Generation? And yes, it does show that she has only watched a small part of the episode, because one character she criticises particularly strongly for being overpowered, well...
dies

This was such a low effort jab with no substance at all.

These people have never watched Star Trek. They're pandering to angry idiots for YouTube views and it's all just an act.
 
These people have never watched Star Trek. They're pandering to angry idiots for YouTube views and it's all just an act.
She said a few times she's a big Star Trek fan.

Regarding her thoughts on this, I can't say either way since I haven't seen the show yet.

I do agree she should have at least watched the episode in full.

Edit: she was at the last ST convention in Vegas as well.
 
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ManaByte

Member
She said a few times she's a big Star Trek fan.

Regarding her thoughts on this, I can't say either way since I haven't seen the show yet.

Edit: she was at the last ST convention in Vegas as well.

She's a Star Trek fan who couldn't get through 15 minutes of a 45 min show because it was "too political". It's a BS act because Star Trek has been like that since the 60s.
 
She's a Star Trek fan who couldn't get through 15 minutes of a 45 min show because it was "too political". It's a BS act because Star Trek has been like that since the 60s.
I agree she should have watched it in full.

Politically speaking it how in-your-face it is and considering how divisive everything is. Stewart and the whole "Trump and Brexit" thing doesn't help.

I had to unfollow Ron Perlman after his childish and full blown nastiness on Twitter it was so bad. I'm not even a big fan of Trump either.
 

ManaByte

Member
Politically speaking it how in-your-face it is and considering how divisive everything is. Stewart and the whole "Trump and Brexit" thing doesn't help.

Except there's none of that at all in the show and if she claims that in the YouTube video she's just lying for outrage views.
 
Except there's none of that at all in the show and if she claims that in the YouTube video she's just lying for outrage views.
It's like what Yoshi Yoshi said regarding Stewart mouthing off. So for some that may be embedded into the show and I mean pretty much Stewart said the shows message is just that.
 

ManaByte

Member
It's like what Yoshi Yoshi said regarding Stewart mouthing off. So for some that may be embedded into the show and I mean pretty much Stewart said the shows message is just that.

How is it embedded in the show when the show doesn't have it? People are watching it now. You can't imagine things that aren't there. Unless you're a performance outrage YouTuber I guess.
 
How is it embedded in the show when the show doesn't have it? People are watching it now. You can't imagine things that aren't there. Unless you're a performance outrage YouTuber I guess.
But isn't that contradicting what Stewart said?


I mean he's saying the show is "taking on Trump and Brexit"
 
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