Tag Archives: Picard

Star Trek: Picard – Season 2 (TVR00024) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
April 28 2024

Overview

The authoritarian regime of Altered Earth was interesting to visit, although the trajectory from Point A to Point B is left a bit weak. Where there is actually some action, with an Emergency Combat Hologram and playing hide and seek with newbie, low-end drones, the show is decent. But many of the episodes feel like a VERY long episode that should have been a two-parter like it was on Voyager. Season 1 was way better. And don’t get me started on Picard trying to be the “old wise man” imparting great pronouncements while having NO sense of connection or chemistry with just about anyone. Even Guinan feels very forced.

List of Episodes from Season 2

S02E01The Star GazerNone of our tomorrows are guaranteed. Particularly
when large-scale anomalies appear out of nowhere,
calling your name. However, it might be better
than Q calling you.		🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S02E02PenanceIn an alternate Q reality, a safe galaxy is a human
galaxy. President Hanson, Rios, the Borg Queen and
others are more confused than present for
Eradication Day.		🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪
S02E03AssimilationLA in 2024? Wasn’t that a Voyager episode? Any
29th century tech sitting around anywhere? No?
Oh, well.		🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S02E04WatcherGuinan may be a listener, but only when you say
something interesting, like your name. Oh, and
ICE grabs some of the time travellers.		🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S02E05Fly Me to the MoonPicard’s ancestor probably isn’t helped much with
Q as her therapist. And Data with his child in a
bubble is a bit creepy.		🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S02E06Two of OneJean-Luc meets his ancestor, gives her a pep talk,
and there’s a bunch of gala stuff going on.		🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪
S02E07MonstersA trip inside Jean-Luc’s head and past is not
particularly interesting.		🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪
S02E08MercyGuinan and Jean-Luc are arrested, everyone else
just wanders around accomplishing nothing.
Good line from Guinan that the boy who met
a Vulcan had to have that experience in order
to grow up to be the FBI agent to arrest them.		🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S02E09Hide and SeekOkay, an Emergency Combat Hologram is pretty
cool. As is playing hide and seek with newbie
Borg at Chateau Picard. Hippie love moments?
Meh.		🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪
S02E10FarewellIn the past, double the ancestor, half the risk,
a bit easy; but that project Khan file sounds
intriguing. In the future, Agnes is Guardian of
the Gate? That sounds intriguing too. A bit
shmaltzy in places though.		🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The Bottom Line

Not as enjoyable as Season 1, needed more action or a lot of editing.

Star Trek: Picard – Season 1 (TVR00013) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
September 27 2020

Overview

The new show takes place after the movies and the end of the Next Generation timeline. There has been what appeared to be an AI uprising and a catastrophic attack that led the Federation to ban all cybernetic organisms (like Data or more inferior copies) and to withdraw from helping the Romulans as their planetary system collapsed. Picard fought for both communities and lost, and he resigned from Starfleet. Now he sits in his vineyard estate and watches his body and mind slowly stagnate.

The first episode sets up the premise of the show with a bang. A young couple is hanging out, getting to know each other in an apartment, and suddenly shock troopers enter the room, kill the boy, and are targeting the girl. She goes into super combat mode, takes them out, escapes, and while she doesn’t know how she did any of it, she knows she has to find a man she has never met — Jean-Luc Picard. It doesn’t take long for them to figure out she’s actually an advanced android, a synthetic human, based on the neural pathways that Data had before he died. Making her basically Data’s daughter. One of two “twins”. She’s killed and Picard goes in search of the second daughter, Soji, before someone kills her.

Episodes That I Liked

Episodes 4 and 6 were pretty cool, with a warrior caste of nuns and some battles, plus Jean-Luc visiting a Borg cube to visit Hugh and the Romulan reclamation project. Can anyone say PTSD? I rated both episodes 5/5.

There are another 5 episodes that I gave a 4/5 rating to…Episode 2 where you learn about the reclamation project and Soji (with a great health and safety sign on the cube that says it has been 5843 days without an assimilation); EP 3 where they’re getting ready for the voyage and putting a team together; EP 5 where they meet up with Bruce Maddox again; EP 8 where they meet Noonian’s descendant; and the season finale, EP 10, with potential space battles, cubes, and androids galore.

Episodes That Were Watchable

EP 7 is a giant fan favourite because it introduces you to Riker and Troi and gives you some of their history after the movies. It has not been sunshine and roses, but they have found a way to make it work. And EP 9, the first part of the finale, shows you the life the synthetics have built, so highly watchable.

Episodes That I Didn’t Like

I described EP 1 in the Overview above, and it SHOULD have been awesome with the shock troops and the new synthetic. Instead, it was actually pretty slow. And the super genius who supposedly built her? Bruce Maddox. The same one who tried to have Data declared a toaster in Season 1 of ST:TNG and whose proposals Data found “intriguing”, yet he’s the God of Cybernetics who built the twin daughters? Yeah, right. I would have accepted his children or his protegé being the creator, but Maddox? He was fun in Season 1 but a bit of a joke.

List of Episodes from Season 1

S01E01RemembranceReally? Maddox is the new Noonian? Doubtful🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪
S01E02Maps and LegendsBest line was the sign: This facility has gone
5843 days without an assimilation		🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪
S01E03The End is the BeginningCan we go already? Yes, fine. Engage.🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪
S01E04Absolute CandorWarrior nuns are cool, but Picard owes
somebody a ship		🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸
S01E05Stardust City RagHey, Bruce, good to see you again🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪
S01E06The Impossible BoxIf you can’t go home again, you might
as well revisit your last trip to hell		🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸
S01E07NepentheWhen you need a refuge, find two old friends
and couch surf		🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S01E08Broken PiecesGood news, the cyberneticist won’t
kill anyone else		🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪
S01E09Et in Arcadia Ego Pt 1Well, as synths go, it’s better than
Lal and Lore		🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S01E10Et in Arcadia Ego Pt 2One impossible thing at a time,
plus an obvious one		🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The Bottom Line

This is not your father’s next-generation show.