v6/site/tv/star-trek-picard.md

```
title = "Star Trek: Picard"
```

<!-- episode "S01E01" 2020-01-23 -->
Holy shit, that was fantastic. I cannot wait for episode 2.

Patrick Stewart was great, Brent Spiner was great. Seeing them in their old uniforms was lovely.

Holy shit, the shot at the beginning of the Enterprise-D was stunning (best Enterprise don't @ me). The shot revealing the Borg cube at the end was also spectacular.

I like that Maddox got a mention, I hope he shows up at some point.

There was a reasonable amount of action, not too much.

The plot was good so far. I'm glad there is a moral dilemma element to it.

Star Trek is back and I am giddy.

<!-- episode "S01E02" 2020-02-03 -->
This episode was pretty good.

Picard's illness seems like it's a reference to his Irumodic Syndrome from All Good Things.

I don't think the addition of a Romulan cult was necessary (couldn't it just the Tal Shiar, and that ordinary Romulas have plain old prejudices?).

I like the new Starfleet uniforms. I also liked the holograms of the Enterprise and the Enterprise-D in the Starfleet Headquarters lobby.

I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation Picard had with the Starfleet CNC. As with the interview in the premiere, I enjoyed watching Picard take the moral high ground again.

I quite like Zhaban and Laris.

Commodore Oh (aside: since when has Commodore been a Starfleet rank?) is played by Tamlyn Tomita, who also played Kim Anderson on Eureka. Also, I can't tell if she's a Romulan or a Vulcan.

<!-- episode "S01E03" 2020-02-06 -->
I do not believe for a second that Picard is arrogant enough to believe that Starfleet Command would do whatever he wanted rather than accept his resignation. Same thing with believing Rafi would just help him. In TNG was not that egotistical.

Was the Space Juul really necessary?

Some of the dialog felt weirdly clunky ("pro tip") and not at all like it's 300 years in the future.

Yay, Hugh!

Commodore Oh is definitely a Romulan. No Vulcan would be that sneaky. (Also what the hell were those sunglasses)

Laris and Zhaban are great, and they're definitely former Tal Shiar.

Engage!

<!-- episode "S01E04" 2020-02-13 -->
This was a very good episode. Jonathan Frakes is a good director.

All of the different holograms on Rios’ ship are funny.

They were clearly trying to save money on VFX in the scene in the holodeck. The fire doesn’t freeze when the simulation is paused, and they don’t show the door appearing/disappearing.

When Soji and the Romulan were walking through the Borg cube, and he said something she didn’t understand, Soji did the head tilt exactly like Data and I love it.

Also, more unnecessarily long not-sex scenes between the two of them.

Hello, Space Legolas.

The sexual tension between the Romulan siblings was weird (is incest not taboo for Romulans?).

Picard admonishing the Romulan ninja whose name I’ve forgotten was nice and felt very much like Picard.

Goddamn, the updated TOS-era Romulan Bird of Prey looks fantastic.

Seven of Nine!! :D

<!-- episode "S01E05" 2020-02-20 -->
That was an unnecessarily gruesome opening scene.

I greatly enjoyed seeing Seven of Nine again. The conversation between Seven and Picard about being former Borg was nice.

Also, Seven is definitely bi but the writers are too chicken to say it.

They mentioned Quark!

I'm sad Maddox wasn't played by the same actor as in TNG and I wish we'd gotten a bit more interaction between him and Picard.

As some predicted, Jurati turned out to be a plant. That she knows something she doesn't want to makes me believe that the Vulcan(?) who's the Chief of Starfleet Security is part of the big conspiracy.

All in all, a pretty good episode. About as good as last week's.

<!-- episode "S01E06" 2020-02-29 -->
The shot of old Picard’s face lining up with Locutus was great. Also, the portrayal of Picard’s PTSD was well done.

When Picard was talking about how the Borg never change, it gave me real “The line must be drawn here! This far and no further!” vibes from First Contact.

I greatly enjoyed seeing Hugh and Picard together again.

The use of the TNG theme (and the VOY theme in the previous episode) was really nice.

The Borg managed to assimilate the [Sikarian](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Sikarian) spatial trajector from Voyager.

“Please my friends, choose to live.” I wonder if this is the end of Space Legolas.

This was a very good episode overall. I’m glad we’re finally getting to the actual plot of the series. I’m sad that there are only four episodes left, though.

<!-- episode "S01E07" 2020-03-05 -->
Shocker, Commodore Oh manipulated Agnes into killing Maddox. She's clearly part of the conspiracy. I'm curious if the Starfleet C-in-C is part of it or is entirely unaware.

I really like that Soji does Data's head tilt. It's such a nice little thing. And I'm really glad Riker recognized it.

Nooo, I really liked Hugh :(
His scene when the Tal Shiar agent was killing all the XBs was really good.

On the upside, Space Legolas isn't dead, and Seven's coming back!

The frosting to cake ratio of that piece of cake was too damn high.

I think Agnes was only trying to disable the tracker, not actually kill herself.

I quite enjoyed seeing Troi and Riker again. Their daughter was also pretty good.

This was a very good episode. I'm greatly looking forward to next week's and I can't believe that are only three episodes left

**Addendum:**
Oh, a thing I forgot:

"silicon-based illness" The fuck is that?
The cure can only be made inside an active positronic matrix? u wot m8

I'm not opposed to some technobabble, but that makes no sense whatsoever

Also, this [behind the scenes thing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFqUUOiyX2I) with Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner was great.

A couple things:

1. lmao, Spiner is good at doing Patrick Stewart's accent

2. holy fuck, Frakes just said Commodore Oh is a Romulan. I don't know whether he just misspoke or she actually is one

<!-- episode "S01E08" 2020-03-12 -->
Holy crap, this was an incredibly good episode. Hands down my favorite so far.

Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine was once again fantastic. Seven had to be really brave to voluntarily put herself back into a Borg collective and Jeri Ryan did a great job showing that.

The shot of the Borg cube regenerating was incredible.

Can’t believe I was rooting for the Borg.

The scene with Soji and Picard talking about Data was really nice. 

The scene with the five holographic Rios’ was hilarious and also actually served a purpose.

So Commodore Oh is both Vulcan and Romulan. Makes sense.

Picard mentioned a Captain Marta Batanides, who was one of Picard’s classmates from Tapestry.

Picard’s whole monologue at the end was great. The whole “the future is what we make of it” really felt like classic Star Trek and I loved it. Patrick Stewart is a very good actor.

This was a fantastic episode. There was a little bit of action, but not too much. There was a heck of a lot of plot, and there was a good deal of character development that made sense within the plot. Hands down my favorite episode so far.

<!-- episode "S01E09" 2020-03-19 -->
lol, Jurati hiding under the desk.

That shot of the Borg cube coming out of the transwarp conduit was fantastic.

The space flowers are weird.

That was a weirdly brief aside with Seven and ~~Elnor~~ Space Legolas.

The "Noonien Soong had a son who you've never heard about but totally always existed" thing was a bit weird, but I'm glad Brent Spiner's back.

Seeing the evolution of the Soong-type android was neat.

All the android wearing brightly-colored, somewhat skimpy outfits was very TOS/early TNG.

I'm not sure how I feel about the android Sutra being able to mind meld. It seems to imply that Vulcan-style telepathy is a learned ability?

After the mind meld, Sutra said "fascinating" with the exact same cadence and intonation as Data and I loved it.

I really liked that the synths or Soong/Maddox made an android version of Spot.

That synth was killed by a glass hummingbird to the eyeball? I'm 50/50 on whether Sutra did it.

It won't be how the season ends, but I quite want the Federation to be the good guys again.

Overall, this was a pretty good episode, but not quite as amazing as the last. I'm hopeful the next episode (I feel like I've said this every time, but I'm so sad there's only one left) manages to end on a high note.

<!-- episode "S01E10" 2020-03-26 -->
Goddamn, that was a fantastic episode.

The magic sonic screwdriver fixer gizmo was even more unbelievable magic than regular Trek.

How many planetary sterilization patterns does the Tal Shiar need?

Seven was right, but I sure enjoyed seeing Narissa fall to her death.

Yay, Riker and Starfleet showed up to save the day!

Wouldn’t it have made sense for ‘Acting Captain’ Riker to be at least an admiral if he was commanding a fleet of hundreds of starships?

It looked like there was exactly one class of Starfleet ship present in that massive fleet (same goes for the Romulans). It makes sense to send the ships that are good at fighting, but I enjoyed the TNG-era massive battles with a hodge-podge of different ship types.

Not culminating in a giant battle with Starfleet vs the Tal Shiar was definitely the right decision, but damn, it would have looked amazing.

I really liked Data’s send off. Infinitely better than more meaningful than Nemesis.

Speaking of Data, Brent Spiner can still do a fantastic job portraying him.

That said, Soong had Data just sitting in a box that whole time? Did the androids ever meet him?

I saw the whole ‘Picard’s mind gets dumped into a new body’ thing coming from a mile away, what with the second season having been confirmed already.

They finally confirmed that Seven is bi, which they chickened out of in one of the earlier episodes.

Narek seemed to just disappear without any mention.

There were some weird bits, but overall that was a very good episode.


<!-- episode "Season 1 Conclusion" 2020-03-26 -->
There were some aspects that weren’t perfect, but overall this was a very good season. And consistently so, not someone that comes easily to most Trek.

Patrick Stewart was very good, I greatly enjoyed seeing Picard again. He felt like the same person, but having grown over the years. Picard was the main character, but he wasn’t the only character. The other people (mostly) felt like they were real people.

It wasn’t overly action heavy, unlike every other modern Star Trek. It had compelling characters and plot to drive the story, not just big fights and the end of the universe. It felt like had a message, and felt meaningful. Something neither Disco nor JJ Trek have managed to do.

It truly felt like Star Trek and that makes me incredibly happy. I can’t wait for season 2.

<!-- episode "S02E01" 2022-03-05 -->
Picard's new self destruct code is the same as Kirk's in Search for Spock (also it's very insecure)

does Picard really need to have a mysterious backstory (re his mother)?

ok, i don't believe for a second _Spock_ would have written a memoir

Guinan!

I am reserving judgement on the Picard romance storyline until later in the season

the Borg! on the one hand, I'm skeptical of whether Picard needs to face off with the Borg yet again. on the other, it's been decades since we saw the Borg and I'm kinda excited

it looked like there were a solid three Excelsiors in that shot. also, how did they get so many ships to show up quickly? as with the last season, it feels like it's falling prey to "more ships == more better". I did, nonetheless, enjoy seeing all those different classes of ships (including, for a brief second, something that might have been a Galaxy class?)

Q! cgi'd younger John DeLancie aging himself into present John DeLancie was a cute trick. also, DeLancie still has the cadence of Q's voice down pat where as Stewart and Goldberg and Ryan all sound slightly different (perhaps deliberately)

<!-- episode "S02E02" 2022-03-11 -->
"How Yesterday's Enterprise of you" Q breaking the fourth wall is cute

John de Lancie is still very good

so this seems very much like the mirror universe, bu it remains unclear whether this is _the_ mirror universe

"I'll page General Sisko—No"
You've raised my hopes and dashed them quite expertly

Patton Oswalt as Spot 73... okay

Elnor's absolute candoring at Raffi's sarcasm is cute

Ah, so this is not, in fact, the mirror universe.

when they started taking about time travel tech, I started changing slingshot slingshot slingshot under my breath and cheered when they said it. it's my favorite stupid star trek technobabble thing (and Voyage Home is a great movie, and I will fight you if you disagree)

i would simply have scanned for transporter-interfering things before trying

"old Annika Seven-Shots"

That was a very good episode. It was a lot more action-heavy than the first couple of the first season, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

<!-- episode "S02E03" 2022-03-22 -->
since when was Raffi that attached to Elnor? am I just forgetting season 1? also, she's a starfleet captain, they usually have their emotions better in check

I this cover of California Dreamin'

Chief O'Brien would never have let that happen

rios is definitely his own great^n-grandfather Fry-style

a star trek show saying 'fuck ICE' was not on my bingo card, but I like it

i wonder if we're gonna see a sanctuary district/more connections to the bell riots

it remains very action-heavy, and not at all what I think of when I imagine Picard at his Picard-iest, but I'm nonetheless really enjoying this season

<!-- episode "S02E04" 2022-03-24 -->
ah, they've finally retconned how picard is french and yet has a british accent

I guess this Guinan doesn't know Picard because in the alternate future, Time's Arrow never happened? time travel never makes sense, I'm just not going to think about it too hard

AAAAAAAA the Voyage Home punk!

Star Trek: Picard says abolish ICE

Christopher Brynner (fights unionization, because of course) and a mention of the sanctuary districts. if there were a DS9 cameo I would die

the writers sure are drawing a lot of attention to the Europa mission, huh

wow, that episode felt quick. definitely a good one

<!-- episode "S02E05" 2022-03-31 -->
1202 alarm, cute Apollo 11 reference. am I a giant nerd for recognizing that immediately? yes, yes I am

damn it is a Gary 7 reference. that's a deep cut. maybe I should rewatch that episode

Brent Spiner!

oh god, tesla product placement

the Borg invading earth in 2024? is that what turned alternate earth super xenophobic?

the magic cure alters her genetic makeup instantly

i like how this gala has more advanced security than like all of 24th century starfleet

oh no, agnes

this was a good, if oddly paced (and short) episode. not quite as good as last week's, but still enjoyable

<!-- episode "S02E06" 2022-04-07 -->
this is the second time this season they've used that "x hours earlier"

oh no, more of the mysterious mother backstory

on the one hand, a tv show managed to have the lights go out without the ridiculous *thunk* sound. on the other hand... uh... that was not the distraction i expected

oh no, agnes

ooh, isn't that the ship from the Enterprise credits?

if i were agnes i wouldn't walk barefoot on the streets of la

this episode was not bad, but it felt like a filler episode that could be compressed into like 15 minutes at the beginning of an actual episode

<!-- episode "S02E07" 2022-04-14 -->
what's gaius baltar doing in a starfleet uniform

it makes me warm and fuzzy on the inside to see the old combadges on screen again. i'm a giant nerd

ok, this is better than the mysterious backstory i was expecting for picard.

rios too, does everyone on this show have daddy issues

rios is definitely going to do the nasty in the pasty.

guinan just keeps that bottle around on earth. that seems like a bad idea. it didn't work because guinan didn't do the finger claws

THE FINGER CLAWS

i'm generally pretty good at recognizing actors, but i have no idea how some people managed to catch that the FBI agent at the end was one of the time cops from that Voyager episode

that episode was... something

<!-- episode "S02E08" 2022-04-21 -->
the real reason they returned to the present-ish was so they could have microsoft product placement

with every passing episode i grow increasingly convinced that rios is his own great-great-...-great-grandafther

i'm a sucker for whenever they use the tng theme

i'm not sure what the point of that whole fbi-detour thing was. feels kinda like it was solely introduced so there'd be a cliffhanger at the end of the previous ep

this was... an episode. i like the idea that Q is dying, but not much else happened

<!-- episode "S02E09" 2022-04-28 -->
"the borg assimilate because they're lonely" ok, i'm now on the side of the people who think the borg were scarier pre-queen

why are they bothering to fight the hologram. he's a hologram, he could hide forever. why does not-elnor care if he gets shot, unless he's less advanced than the Doctor, he could make himself transparent to bullets

how do both raffi and seven (primarily seven) have such terrible reflexes

great work just standing there, picard and tallin

ah, there's the retcon of that episode of next gen. picard's backstory was not as bad as i expected—though i continue to think having one was unnecessary

so borg-jurati is now flying around the past borging it up. how are they getting back to the future now? when they eventually do, is that going to erase the borg-jurati timeline? or maybe back in the future it's jurati-borg that wants to join the federation goes aboard the stargazer

huh, we went this whole episode without any Q

<!-- episode "S02E10" 2022-05-05 -->
Wait, it's the finale already? They still have to, like, get back to the future and deal with the Borg.

I've gotta say, this space program seems very unprofessional.

Oh shit, they actually referenced the eugenics war

HOLY SHIT WIL WHEATON CAME BACK
since when do travelers have to beam places instead of, like, traveling

"must it always have galactic import?"
i would ask you the same, star trek showrunners

aww, Q's getting sappy in his (infinitely) old age

so rios is definitely his own grandfather

ayy, i was right about jurati

of course, they had to pull a massive threat out of their pocket right at the end. guess that line of Q's ten minutes ago passed the writers by

the only way the borg could save the sector was by commandeering 20 starfleet ships? not like, with their own

<!-- episode "Season 2 Conclusion" 2022-05-05 -->
This season was better than the first. Not perfect by a long shot, but definitely better.

I wish it hadn't spent quite so much time in the present day. That bit dragged on for an episode or two longer than it needed.

I was skeptical of the Q-dying thing, and the Picard's backstory thing, but they both turned out far better than I was expecting. That said, I stand by my belief that Picard didn't need a backstory (but this was a fine one). Q saying goodbye at the end was really touching, though—John de Lancie remains fantastic.

As with the first season, Picard hasn't really felt like himself. I know it's mostly that Sir Patrick is 30 years older, but throughout the season it felt like Picard (and the entire crew) was sort of bumbling through things, not like the cool and collected captain from TNG. Maybe it's expecting too much, maybe I should just go rewatch next gen (again). I dunno...

The constant long arcs does start to wear a bit thin; I look forward to the episodicness (episodicity?) of SNW. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this season of Picard.