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[ResurrectedContrarian]

Seasons 1 & 2 of Picard are fucking garbage. Season 3 so far has been great. You can either cling to your understandable hate of the first two seasons, or let it go and enjoy what it shaping up to be a much, much better one - probably the best since Ds9 ended. The holodeck bar is based on the one Guinan opened after TNG, as far as I’m concerned. I never watched season 2, so I don’t have a problem with it.

It's certainly the best thing from the entire Kurtzman era of Trek, with zero competition... but I'm by no means happy with it or willing to accept this as canon.

Things I like:
- Riker feels like himself most of the time, as it's great to see him take charge as captain, feels natural;
- Worf feels mostly like himself, about as well as we could hope in this darker universe;
- the LCARS interfaces of the panels look great, as do the shots of ships in space; all around the special effects design is good
- music is also great
- relatively little trendy chasing after mind-numbingly obvious current-day political fads this time, refreshing after previous seasons

Thing I despise:
- childish use of profanity, with Picard uttering lines he would never speak as the actual character. You can call this minor, but it's extremely offputting. Some of the writers are obviously from the generation that thinks having the F-bomb dropped is just a natural cool thing Picard might do when relaxing and older, but no, it irreconcilably clashes with the original character in every possible way, and it repulses me that such puerile writers are in charge of this character now
- childish use of violence, as if they watched too much GOT or something. It's not nearly as bad as previous seasons, but Worf decapitating the Ferengi was almost the exact same shot and timing as the Elnor decapitation in season 1, so someone on the staff just can't let this nonsense go; and they still glorify violence as being badass in a way that TNG never did, like the camera and general style trying to convince us that Seven and Crusher are empowered women since we see them pulverize multiple people with disrupters
- idiotic forced character drama which doesn't understand the original characters at all. Crusher's whole drama of "I had to keep our son secret since you have a target on your back" was bizarre, irrational, and completely ruins the character. They wanted to bring in a Wrath of Khan story here but failed by assigning it to characters where it doesn't fit. Or take Picard's bizarrely out of character "we must fight, Will!" moment when he insisted on an idiotic tactical move against a more powerful foe; they obviously wrote that out of desire for a conflict between the two fo them, but gave Picard motivations that are completely out of character for him in every possible way.
- really the entire subplot of Picard's son is a mess, I find it implausible and cheap, and even the young actor is giving us nothing of interest here;
- overall, the desire to bring us a TOS-movie production with TNG characters is a mistake, as is their entire orientation towards cheap drama and character conflict which TNG very distinctly avoided
- there are still many hallmarks of Kurtzman-Trek and seasons 1&2 here. Examples include the need for fated mysteries (seek the "red lady" etc) and the whole Raffi underworld subplot, when clearly she has no business being on this season

 

[FunkMiller]

It's certainly the best thing from the entire Kurtzman era of Trek, with zero competition... but I'm by no means happy with it or willing to accept this as canon.

Things I like:
- Riker feels like himself most of the time, as it's great to see him take charge as captain, feels natural;
- Worf feels mostly like himself, about as well as we could hope in this darker universe;
- the LCARS interfaces of the panels look great, as do the shots of ships in space; all around the special effects design is good
- music is also great
- relatively little trendy chasing after mind-numbingly obvious current-day political fads this time, refreshing after previous seasons

Thing I despise:
- childish use of profanity, with Picard uttering lines he would never speak as the actual character. You can call this minor, but it's extremely offputting. Some of the writers are obviously from the generation that thinks having the F-bomb dropped is just a natural cool thing Picard might do when relaxing and older, but no, it irreconcilably clashes with the original character in every possible way, and it repulses me that such puerile writers are in charge of this character now
- childish use of violence, as if they watched too much GOT or something. It's not nearly as bad as previous seasons, but Worf decapitating the Ferengi was almost the exact same shot and timing as the Elnor decapitation in season 1, so someone on the staff just can't let this nonsense go; and they still glorify violence as being badass in a way that TNG never did, like the camera and general style trying to convince us that Seven and Crusher are empowered women since we see them pulverize multiple people with disrupters
- idiotic forced character drama which doesn't understand the original characters at all. Crusher's whole drama of "I had to keep our son secret since you have a target on your back" was bizarre, irrational, and completely ruins the character. They wanted to bring in a Wrath of Khan story here but failed by assigning it to characters where it doesn't fit. Or take Picard's bizarrely out of character "we must fight, Will!" moment when he insisted on an idiotic tactical move against a more powerful foe; they obviously wrote that out of desire for a conflict between the two fo them, but gave Picard motivations that are completely out of character for him in every possible way.
- really the entire subplot of Picard's son is a mess, I find it implausible and cheap, and even the young actor is giving us nothing of interest here;
- overall, the desire to bring us a TOS-movie production with TNG characters is a mistake, as is their entire orientation towards cheap drama and character conflict which TNG very distinctly avoided
- there are still many hallmarks of Kurtzman-Trek and seasons 1&2 here. Examples include the need for fated mysteries (seek the "red lady" etc) and the whole Raffi underworld subplot, when clearly she has no business being on this season

Maybe stop watching?

You're overly angry about stuff that you shouldn't be. Yes, it's not perfect, but then nothing ever is. You seem way too hung up on the issues with the show, and you're ignoring the fantastic stuff they're doing this season.
The Jack Crusher subplot, for instance, is pretty good actually. It's entirely plausible that Picard and Crusher could have conceived a child together, and equally plausible that Beverly would have kept the fact from Picard, for the reasons she outlined very clearly. And Crusher then not wanting anything to do with his father is equally well outlined.

You sound like you're just not going to like any modern star trek, no matter what it does, because of the damage all the other shit has done. Watch something else.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

The Jack Crusher subplot, for instance, is pretty good actually. It's entirely plausible that Picard and Crusher could have conceived a child together, and equally plausible that Beverly would have kept the fact from Picard, for the reasons she outlined very clearly. And Crusher then not wanting anything to do with his father is equally well outlined.

Completely disagree; in fact I would put this particular subplot as the worst part of Season 3 and on equal footing with the writing of the previous 2 seasons. For Crusher to suddenly keep their child a secret (after all that time with Picard being a father figure to Wesley) on the premise of safety and then spend the son's life as a doctor-without-borders going into warzones and high risk... it makes zero sense. Categorically it is clear that Crusher led the most dangerous life of any of the TNG characters over the past 2 decades and yet she's also trying to use the excuse that safety was her concern. She's either delusional or simply an awful person, and there really is no other way to read it. (Oh and despite all that running and keeping him secret, she put him in school on Earth, in London, for enough years that he has a thoroughly English accent).

This writing is as bad as the "Picard can't get close to others because his mother had mental illness and killed herself" plot from S2. They know what emotional beats they want, and let consistency in the characters be damned.

You sound like you're just not going to like any modern star trek, no matter what it does, because of the damage all the other shit has done. Watch something else.

I'm actually having a great deal of fun watching it with my wife. We pause about every 3 minutes and laugh at something. She knows TNG like the back of her hand after all these years of marriage. It's a pretty fun hate-watch, and then there just a handful of actually good scenes once a while, even if they're sandwiched by awfulness.

 

[xandaca]

Episode 4 is the best of Nu Trek.

Still fucking shit compared to old trek.

If we exclude Lower Decks for being an animated show, off the top of my head I'd put eps 1 and 2 from Picard's second season comfortably ahead of this one (S2 E1 is the best episode of Picard so far by a mile), plus the Discovery episode ripping off Arrival, and the Strange New Worlds episode where a severely damaged Enterprise has to take on several Gorn ships. This was the best episode of the season, a welcome upturn after the mess of episode 3 and made Shaw's backstory slightly more nuanced than expected (suffering from survivor's guilt rather than just being angry at losing people), but still more competent (mostly) than actually good.

 

[Dr. Claus]

If we exclude Lower Decks for being an animated show, off the top of my head I'd put eps 1 and 2 from Picard's second season comfortably ahead of this one (S2 E1 is the best episode of Picard so far by a mile), plus the Discovery episode ripping off Arrival, and the Strange New Worlds episode where a severely damaged Enterprise has to take on several Gorn ships. This was the best episode of the season, a welcome upturn after the mess of episode 3 and made Shaw's backstory slightly more nuanced than expected (suffering from survivor's guilt rather than just being angry at losing people), but still more competent (mostly) than actually good.

The point being that it's still crap. Just being the top of the pile doesn't make it any less than what it is: it's still shit.

 

[FunkMiller]

Completely disagree; in fact I would put this particular subplot as the worst part of Season 3 and on equal footing with the writing of the previous 2 seasons. For Crusher to suddenly keep their child a secret (after all that time with Picard being a father figure to Wesley) on the premise of safety and then spend the son's life as a doctor-without-borders going into warzones and high risk... it makes zero sense. Categorically it is clear that Crusher led the most dangerous life of any of the TNG characters over the past 2 decades and yet she's also trying to use the excuse that safety was her concern. She's either delusional or simply an awful person, and there really is no other way to read it. (Oh and despite all that running and keeping him secret, she put him in school on Earth, in London, for enough years that he has a thoroughly English accent).

Go back and watch TNG again.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Go back and watch TNG again.

I watched all seven seasons (for the 50th time) again within the past 2 years. Picard may have been a reluctant father figure, even a (necessarily, appropriately) stern one when Wesley lied, but his relationship to Wesley is not something Crusher would take lightly. Watch Wesley's first "departure" episode for instance, Final Mission.

Heck, in that episode, Wesley says very directly that even dying young would be better than not knowing Picard and seeing the world he opened up to Wesley: "Sir, in the past three years I've lived more than most people do in a lifetime. I think I'm very lucky. no matter what happens. How many people get to serve with Jean-Luc Picard?... All of the things I've worked for, school, my science projects, getting into the Academy, I've done it all because I want you to be proud of me."

Followed by Picard's final (or so he thought) words to Wesley: "Wesley. You remember I was always proud of you"

 

[FunkMiller]

I watched all seven seasons (for the 50th time) just within the past 2 years. Picard may have been a reluctant father figure, even a (necessarily, appropriately) stern one when Wesley lied, but his relationship to Wesley is not something Crusher would take lightly. Watch Wesley's first "departure" episode for instance, Final Mission.

Heck, in that episode, Wesley says very directly that even dying young would be better than not knowing Picard and seeing the world he opened up to Wesley: "Sir, in the past three years I've lived more than most people do in a lifetime. I think I'm very lucky. no matter what happens. How many people get to serve with Jean-Luc Picard?... All of the things I've worked for, school, my science projects, getting into the Academy, I've done it all because I want you to be proud of me."

Followed by Picard's final (or so he thought) words to Wesley: "Wesley. You remember I was always proud of you"

You've watched all of TNG (and presumably the movies) ...and yet, you seem completely unwilling to accept the concept that Crusher would have wanted to keep her second son away from Picard, given how often Picard is in life or death situations that get many people around him killed. Seems like a reasonable - if admittedly harsh - way of thinking to me.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

You've watched all of TNG (and presumably the movies) ...and yet, you seem completely unwilling to accept the concept that Crusher would have wanted to keep her second son away from Picard, given how often Picard is in life or death situations that get many people around him killed. Seems like a reasonable - if admittedly harsh - way of thinking to me.

That's exactly what I'm saying.

In Generations, Picard's anguish over not having a family and a furtherance of his line was the central theme:


And Crusher was never worried about Starfleet's danger... she served in it herself, encouraged Wesley in it, and according to ST-Picard she even took the second son into warzones regularly. It makes zero sense, exactly like the scene where Picard suddenly urges Riker to make an idiotic attack move, where only drama mattered and not the consistent logic of the characters.

 

[FunkMiller]

And Crusher was never worried about Starfleet's danger... she served in it herself, encouraged Wesley in it, and according to ST-Picard she even took the second son into warzones regularly. It makes zero sense, exactly like the scene where Picard suddenly urges Riker to make an idiotic attack move, where only drama mattered and not the consistent logic of the characters.

Maybe her experiences of being in Starfleet changed her mind? That all that death around Picard made her not want to expose her newborn son to him?

And your point about taking him into warzones isn't really valid, because she told Jack who his father was prior to that, and it was Jack's decision not to go and find him (or rather he did, and we saw what happened. Picard's smug words about Starfleet being the only family he ever needed had an effect). Beverly rightly gave him the choice to do what he wanted.

Picard's bridge argument with Riker was born out of Picard's irrational desire to keep his newly discovered son safe. It made sense in that moment for him to be making bad command decisions. Riker was right to dismiss him.

Seems to me like you're dismissing the work season 3 goes into justifying its character beats and interactions, because you still have an axe to grind over how absolutely fucking terrible seasons 1 & 2 were. Matalas is clearly a much better writer. He is doing things that some might find controversial, but he's doing a good job of explaining why they are happening, in a logical and consistent manner.

 

[ManaByte]

If it’s better than last week’s…oh boy

 

[FunkMiller]

If it’s better than last week’s…oh boy

Both 5 & 6 are apparently incredible. Pretty much every Star Trek TNG fan online who's had access to them seems to say so.

 

[Dr. Claus]

If it’s better than last week’s…oh boy

If it is better than last week's then we may be getting up to the point of being as equal as the worst of the original trek runs! Boy, I can't wait to see them finally reach Spock's Brain levels of writing.

 

[Power Pro]

That's exactly what I'm saying.

In Generations, Picard's anguish over not having a family and a furtherance of his line was the central theme:


And Crusher was never worried about Starfleet's danger... she served in it herself, encouraged Wesley in it, and according to ST-Picard she even took the second son into warzones regularly. It makes zero sense, exactly like the scene where Picard suddenly urges Riker to make an idiotic attack move, where only drama mattered and not the consistent logic of the characters.

As much as I've liked a fair amount of these episodes, I can't disagree. Crusher's reasoning is complete bull shit, and makes no sense. I don't know if it's bad writing, or just them turning her into a horrible person/character that I hate. It's hard to say if it's a fault of the show, or the character yet. At the very least, they didn't play it off as the "right decision", which is something I appreciate. Makes me lean more to them just fucking her up as a character. It feels a lot like character assassination because it just makes her so unlikeable. It's like she justifies it because he was too good of a person? Because he might have a target on his back? what kind of BS is that? Do cops leave their spouses all the time because they might have a target on their back? every day people might not come home alive. Every politician's children are potentially in danger because of enemies they might make...that doesn't mean you don't tell them about their kids. Crusher's justification is such horse shit, and it just makes me hate her...especially with the bang up job she did raising him. Her crying about "losing Wesley to the stars" sounds like she wanted to be a very controlling mother...like, Wesley basically became a god, and that's not good enough for her?

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Oh good, Twitter people think I should like Ep 5 and 6. I can't wait till they tell me what to think about 7 and 8 though.

 

[DeafTourette]

Episode 5 was pretty daggone good!

And

Ro Freaking Laren!

 

[IDKFA]

Honestly I wasn't sure if they could top the last two seasons, but Piccard season 3 is Trek at its finest. Trek hasn't been this good in decades. This is peak TNG or DS9 levels or spectacular.

I have no idea how you can call yourself a Trek fan and not be throbbing over season 3 of Piccard.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

We are in some alternate universe where Picard is better than Mandolorian

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Has new Mando been terrible? Can't say I found the first two seasons thrilling but I will say that they at least were getting the look and feel of the classic Star Wars universe more or less right. Which made it watchable in a way that NuTrek hasn't been. Hearing the terrible reviews of Book of Boba on the heels of the very mediocre Obi-wan kinda murdered that attempt at a nostalgia train for me... but supposedly Andor is decent so maybe I'll take a Star Wars weekend sometime.

3x05 of Picard was probably the 'best' one yet... the stuff with our cameo-of-the-week character trying to be overly 'emotionally charged' fell kind of flat. Missed opportunity to have Tom Riker show up?

Jack-luc Picrusher getting 'activated' like S1 robot lady was weird. Or uhh. Firefly River... or whatever. I don't know. I didn't like any of that.

Raffi is dreadful. I guess the Worf "sacrifice" was yet-another-homage to TWoK "if weeks were days and days were hours and seriously how are you not figuring this one out Khan?" Spock-talk...? Matalas giving Kirk Acevedo that casting welfare check was also a misstep. I like the concept of the Vulcan gangster just fine. Kirk's execution was beyond dreadful.

Bev trying to figure out how shapeshifters can look so human while she herself is running around looking like season one Odo is unintentionally hilarious. I'd pay real money to see her discount-Terminator-2 CGI into a puddle.

Shaw grew on me a little. It almost felt like I was watching an episode of Star Trek but I'm still not convinced.

 

[xandaca]

3x05 of Picard was probably the 'best' one yet... the stuff with our cameo-of-the-week character trying to be overly 'emotionally charged' fell kind of flat. Missed opportunity to have Tom Riker show up?

Jack-luc Picrusher getting 'activated' like S1 robot lady was weird. Or uhh. Firefly River... or whatever. I don't know. I didn't like any of that.

Raffi is dreadful. I guess the Worf "sacrifice" was yet-another-homage to TWoK "if weeks were days and days were hours and seriously how are you not figuring this one out Khan?" Spock-talk...? Matalas giving Kirk Acevedo that casting welfare check was also a misstep. I like the concept of the Vulcan gangster just fine. Kirk's execution was beyond dreadful.

Bev trying to figure out how shapeshifters can look so human while she herself is running around looking like season one Odo is unintentionally hilarious. I'd pay real money to see her discount-Terminator-2 CGI into a puddle.

Shaw grew on me a little. It almost felt like I was watching an episode of Star Trek but I'm still not convinced.

Surprised you thought it was the best one yet, I thought it was the worst. The entire purpose of the episode was to deliver two pieces of information, that the Changelings had infiltrated Starfleet and imitate humans on a deep enough level to pass all the normal tests. While important, that's not justification for an entire episode with nothing else to offer bar a pointless Ro Laren appearance that served only as Memberberries to disguise dragging out the running time with a completely contrived conflict. Raffi and Worf did the exact same thing for a third time running, going after a gangster on Nightclub planet, and it was entirely uninteresting the first time. Shaw was a lot of fun but absent for most of the episode. The same three sets are being dredged up over and over and over again: how many times are we going to get dragged back to that bar? I like the actor playing Jack Crusher, but the half of his storyline about his parentage isn't about him at all, and, as you said, the other half bears the stink of Soji and the Mad Romulan Lady Visions from S1.

After E4 was a small uptick in quality following the previous low of E3, this felt like pure time-wasting, offering nothing of value in its own right (Picard and Ro was just two people whining at each other, not exactly dramatically compelling; Raffi and Worf seem to be trapped in a time loop, doing the same thing over and over again) and delivering about five minutes' worth of plot arc information. Half the season gone and this is just following the same trajectory as Discovery: all-round terrible first season; second season which gets worse and worse as it goes; third season which (so far) doesn't sink to the same depths as the previous two but is pure mediocrity at best.

 

[Slicker than your average]

Every Time a new season of Picard gets announced there's hype. then you watch the product and it's shit.

We're 5 episodes in and it's still this cat and mouse shit . Literally half way through a Season and it's the same scenario, like move on with the plot. Instead nothing is happening, just people arguing constantly.

 

[Dr. Claus]

We are in some alternate universe where Picard is better than Mandolorian

 

[Thaedolus]

Every Time a new season of Picard gets announced there's hype. then you watch the product and it's shit.

We're 5 episodes in and it's still this cat and mouse shit . Literally half way through a Season and it's the same scenario, like move on with the plot. Instead nothing is happening, just people arguing constantly.

I admit I was a bit high watching this episode but you’ve gotta have some next level stuff

 

[ManaByte]

Picard and Ro was just two people whining at each other

A lot of people really didn’t see the last few episodes of TNG.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

I actually enjoyed this one and wasn’t just hate watching. I’d call it the best of the season; Ro’s acting was accurate, Picard felt much more like himself in some of the charged arguments (the “broke my heart” bit was too much but otherwise their interaction was good), and Captain Shaw is excellent, by far the best character created for this series.

There were just a few eye rolling bits but very minor, like the toggle switch for the holodeck safety controls hidden behind the bar.

 

[Power Pro]

I think I'm gonna wait to watch episode 5 until at least episode 6 is out. I just hate watching 1 episode a week, that's too slow for me. Rather group em up in this serialized format.

 

[Revolutionary]

Another good episode, but every second Raffi is on screen is like a vacuum sucking out my entertainment.

I know it would have been completely against Worf's character but I was really hoping he would just murder her for the Vulcan gangster lol

 

[Pilgrimzero]

I’m sorry I can’t hear you over how boring most of the last episode of Mando was.

 

[FunkMiller]

Excellent again on the Titan. Ro's return was unexpected but great - she should have been doing the stuff Raffi is though. Raffi is the only turd on this otherwise rather fabulous cake.

It's hilarious how many people are determined to continue to think this is bad Star Trek, just because of how bad the last two seasons were. It's a completely different series altogether, and I'm pretty sure anyone still calling it trash isn't actually a TNG fan at all, and is just trying to keep the woke bullshit arguments going.

 

[ManaByte]

Excellent again on the Titan. Ro's return was unexpected but great - she should have been doing the stuff Raffi is though. Raffi is the only turd on this otherwise rather fabulous cake.

It's hilarious how many people are determined to continue to think this is bad Star Trek, just because of how bad the last two seasons were. It's a completely different series altogether, and I'm pretty sure anyone still calling it trash isn't actually a TNG fan at all, and is just trying to keep the woke bullshit arguments going.

I loved how they gave Ro redemption and closure with Picard and how her sacrifice opens the door to the rest of the story. I also love how they managed to make the Changelings a scary threat and become what those Conspiracy bugs would’ve been.

 

[Thaedolus]

One thing I’m really sick of is the “dude keeps having intense flashbacks/visions of crazy shit in red” trope that was also in season 1 and Mass Effect and…oh yeah Season 2 was full of those stupid quick flashes with Picard’s crazy mom. Just stop doing that shit

When they started that shit with Jack I started rolling my eyes, but it’s a minor knock on an otherwise good season so far. Ro coming back was a nice surprise, and so was the fake out which got me good. Michelle Forbes still lookin good too

 

[Ulysses 31]

I loved how they gave Ro redemption and closure with Picard and how her sacrifice opens the door to the rest of the story. I also love how they managed to make the Changelings a scary threat and become what those Conspiracy bugs would’ve been.

Didn't DS9 already do that with an episode(Paradise Lost) about locking down earth and framing changelings for things in order to through authoritarian policies? The changelings themselves comment on it how there was only a handful of them on earth and see what damage the paranoia alone could do.

 

[Thaedolus]

Didn't DS9 already do that with an episode(Paradise Lost) about locking down earth and framing changelings for things in order to through authoritarian policies? The changelings themselves comment on it how there was only a handful of them on earth and see what damage the paranoia alone could do.

Yes, and it didn't really ever make sense to me that they didn't keep the infiltration stuff up once the Dominion War got hot. But now it seems like they've managed to upgrade their capabilities in the decades since and are trying a new approach, which is cool, because it never really made sense that the changelings would just go away forever after the war.

Now all we need is for Sisko to show up and punch Q again.

 

[Ulysses 31]

Yes, and it didn't really ever make sense to me that they didn't keep the infiltration stuff up once the Dominion War got hot. But now it seems like they've managed to upgrade their capabilities in the decades since and are trying a new approach, which is cool, because it never really made sense that the changelings would just go away forever after the war.

Now all we need is for Sisko to show up and punch Q again.

Indeed but I think they did (try to) cover that with the changeling disease that section 31 passed to Odo and he passed it on to The Great Link.

 

[Thaedolus]

Indeed but I think they did (try to) cover that with the changeling disease that section 31 passed to Odo and he passed it on to The Great Link.

I forgot about that…probably haven’t watched DS9 all the way through in 15+ years

 

[MMaRsu]

Maybe stop watching?

You're overly angry about stuff that you shouldn't be. Yes, it's not perfect, but then nothing ever is. You seem way too hung up on the issues with the show, and you're ignoring the fantastic stuff they're doing this season.
The Jack Crusher subplot, for instance, is pretty good actually. It's entirely plausible that Picard and Crusher could have conceived a child together, and equally plausible that Beverly would have kept the fact from Picard, for the reasons she outlined very clearly. And Crusher then not wanting anything to do with his father is equally well outlined.

You sound like you're just not going to like any modern star trek, no matter what it does, because of the damage all the other shit has done. Watch something else.

What a bunch of horse shit dude.

Man laid out fair criticisms and all you have to say is

"Dont like it dont watch it hurt durr"

While not even attempting to discuss the criticisms. Picard saying fuck is just stupid as hell.

 

[6502]

It took long enough but it looks like somebody suddently gets it and we are getting good quality episodes. Late era tng good imo.

Only barrier to enjoyment now is having to save up to purchase night vision goggles so I can see more than 2% of what is going on.

Also I think Frakes outshines Stewart in this, it's partly how expressive his face is, but also he has a much more interesting character now and the dynamic changes between Riker and Picard are much more interesting than just being "no.1". I bet Frakes would have been superb if he was permanently on DS9.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Also I think Frakes outshines Stewart in this, it's partly how expressive his face is, but also he has a much more interesting character now and the dynamic changes between Riker and Picard are much more interesting than just being "no.1". I bet Frakes would have been superb if he was permanently on DS9.

While watching this season we paused and said more than once, "should have been called Star Trek: Riker." He's so much better at recapturing his character, perfectly believable.

Stewart on the other hand swings wildly between sometimes terrible delivery of lines and seeming nothing at all like Picard most of the time, but then occasionally has a great moment. His conversations with Ro were probably the most convincing Picard scenes yet, felt like he was back for a bit there. Well, until the "broke my heart" bit which felt too much like S1/S2 levels of emotionalism.

 

[Laptop1991]

I'm enjoying the 3rd season more and more as it progresses, episodes 4 and 5 were good, very like the old days of TNG, better than i thought it would be anyway.

 

[FunkMiller]

What a bunch of horse shit dude.

Man laid out fair criticisms and all you have to say is

"Dont like it dont watch it hurt durr"

While not even attempting to discuss the criticisms. Picard saying fuck is just stupid as hell.

What’s horseshit is people continuing to scream that this show is trash, when it has clearly made massive improvements, due to the change in show runner. No issues with someone having criticisms, but the attempt to still frame Picard in general as the same poorly written, woke driven garbage it was before is as transparent as it is incorrect.

 

[Power Pro]

What’s horseshit is people continuing to scream that this show is trash, when it has clearly made massive improvements, due to the change in show runner. No issues with someone having criticisms, but the attempt to still frame Picard in general as the same poorly written, woke driven garbage it was before is as transparent as it is incorrect.

Some people are just not as forgiving as others. I can't blame them, I thought I would never give nutrek another chance, but I have the humility to admit when I'm wrong too. Some people just aren't like that, and maybe they don't think the improvements justify the praise. They might be right, and are welcome to their opinion. Just wish we were all more respectful in expressing them.

 

[MMaRsu]

What’s horseshit is people continuing to scream that this show is trash, when it has clearly made massive improvements, due to the change in show runner. No issues with someone having criticisms, but the attempt to still frame Picard in general as the same poorly written, woke driven garbage it was before is as transparent as it is incorrect.

Lol massive improvements.

Sets are dark as fuck
Storyline is grimdark mystery box bullshit with the red door and red woman red vines, lots of killing and explosions
Raffi stays trash
Picard dialogue still is not great, bar the one time he interacted with Jack in the brig. Him cursing is ridiculous
Riker is carrying the show rn

Massive improvement is a low bar considering the previous two seasons

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Sets are dark as fuck
Storyline is grimdark mystery box bullshit with the red door and red woman red vines, lots of killing and explosions
Raffi stays trash
Picard dialogue still is not great, bar the one time he interacted with Jack in the brig. Him cursing is ridiculous
Riker is carrying the show rn

I do agree with all of those points.

I'm still enjoying it a bit more with each episode, though. I thought the Ro Laren interactions were all pretty good, for instance. She fell right back into the character well, and Stewart was a bit stronger in that one too.

 

[MMaRsu]

I do agree with all of those points.

I'm still enjoying it a bit more with each episode, though. I thought the Ro Laren interactions were all pretty good, for instance. She fell right back into the character well, and Stewart was a bit stronger in that one too.

Agreed!

 

[Dr. Claus]

I’m sorry I can’t hear you over how boring most of the last episode of Mando was.

Yep, it was. At least it wasn't poorly written tripe like Picard.

 

[Facism]

Isn't the whole thing about changelings reverting to a liquid state when dead wrong? I remember the 2 you see die in ds9 dried up into crumbling black dust

 

[FunkMiller]

Lol massive improvements.

Sets are dark as fuck
Storyline is grimdark mystery box bullshit with the red door and red woman red vines, lots of killing and explosions
Raffi stays trash
Picard dialogue still is not great, bar the one time he interacted with Jack in the brig. Him cursing is ridiculous
Riker is carrying the show rn

Massive improvement is a low bar considering the previous two seasons

Picard acts like Picard again. He's just an old version, as opposed to some weak willed little old fool.
Resolution to Ro and Picard's relationship.
Conflict between central characters that makes sense.
To seek out new life.
Tense, submarine style combat between starships.
Intelligently thought out solutions to problems.
Lots of lovely technobabble.
Many callbacks to TNG that make sense.
Excellent cinematography.
FX universally great.
Costumes and ship designs look very good (if a little dark).
The choice of musical cues is spot on.
Riker is very good.
How well they framed the Intrepid as a threat.
Everything about Shaw.

Is it perfect? Of course not. The whole thing with Jack Crusher could end up being disappointing, but I'm not going to make assumptions before I've actually seen it play out.

I swear to god some of you just want to keep bitching, just because you can't let go of an admittedly understandable hate of nu-Trek in general.

 

[MMaRsu]

I dont care about FX lmao
And shaw is boring

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Surprised you thought it was the best one yet, I thought it was the worst. The entire purpose of the episode was to deliver two pieces of information, that the Changelings had infiltrated Starfleet and imitate humans on a deep enough level to pass all the normal tests. While important, that's not justification for an entire episode with nothing else to offer bar a pointless Ro Laren appearance that served only as Memberberries to disguise dragging out the running time with a completely contrived conflict. Raffi and Worf did the exact same thing for a third time running, going after a gangster on Nightclub planet, and it was entirely uninteresting the first time. Shaw was a lot of fun but absent for most of the episode. The same three sets are being dredged up over and over and over again: how many times are we going to get dragged back to that bar? I like the actor playing Jack Crusher, but the half of his storyline about his parentage isn't about him at all, and, as you said, the other half bears the stink of Soji and the Mad Romulan Lady Visions from S1.

After E4 was a small uptick in quality following the previous low of E3, this felt like pure time-wasting, offering nothing of value in its own right (Picard and Ro was just two people whining at each other, not exactly dramatically compelling; Raffi and Worf seem to be trapped in a time loop, doing the same thing over and over again) and delivering about five minutes' worth of plot arc information. Half the season gone and this is just following the same trajectory as Discovery: all-round terrible first season; second season which gets worse and worse as it goes; third season which (so far) doesn't sink to the same depths as the previous two but is pure mediocrity at best.

Well I did put "best" in quotes. I could have just been in a better overall mood going into it than normal.

I kind of liked Ro's appearance even though she just kinda got killed off and like I said they leaned into more emotion than was really there... especially after 30 years. I chuckled at them referring to her "Bajoran Earring". That feels like a stupid name fans had for it, but it's been a while so I've got to wonder, did TNG or DS9 actually use that phrase?

As for the plot points... I don't know how much I care. Yeah cool Starfleet is infiltrated by changelings. That's fine. At least it's coherent. And maybe they can dig into what Picard and the E were up to during the Dominion War aside from the mediocre movies that more or less ignored it. It didn't actively offend me like most of Picard, and I thought the character moments were better. Of course, the stakes of Starfleet being infiltrated don't feel particularly high, because Starfleet has been dogshit and far from the utopia of TNG for all of Picard's run. The fucking hubris.

Raffi/Worf time loop, lmao, yeah very much so. But... they were sequestered from the rest of the show thanks to that epic text message op-sec. Of course now they're talking on actual viewscreen so I guess the sequestration is at an end. Too bad Raffi couldn't have exploded in a shuttle while Worf and Ro roughed up the procedurally generated Mos Eisley Cantina rejects.

Also, I really hated Riker getting command of the Titan for no sensible reason, so I was just happy that was finally reverted in this episode. Shaw was around just enough to be kind of fun rather than annoying to me as he has been in all the previous episodes. And Vadic, her Changeling floating hand satanic emperor or whatthefuckever is supposed to be happening there, and The Shrike were nowhere to be seen. Addition by subtraction. But surely that shit will be coming back, so now I'm sad again.

 

[ManaByte]

First photo of Season 4 from someone using Midjourney.