Ta...so this illness is nothing to do with his time as the Borg? It seem implied the way he pointed to his head in the earlier episodes at the same place his borg impants were.
Star Trek: Picard
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Ta...so this illness is nothing to do with his time as the Borg? It seem implied the way he pointed to his head in the earlier episodes at the same place his borg impants were.
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Episode 6 - "The Impossible Box"
1) Title sounds like a Doctor Who episode
2) Skip forward through the recap, because I don't have the memory capacity of a particularly stupid goldfish.
3) Another flashback?
4) Soji as a young girl, presumably.
5) Not a flashback then, just a dream.
6) Lord, I hope the story separates these two soon. They've got less believable chemistry than...Worf and Troi when they got together later on in TNG.
7) Back to the La Sirena, and Jurati covering her tracks.
8) Elnor as Captain Social Skills™
9) Picard getting a haunted look at the thought of going on the Borg cube. Last time he was on a cube he was a Borg ("Best Of Both Worlds"). Last time, as far as we know, that he dealt with the Borg in-story ("First Contact") it nearly meant the end of everything. Yeah, I'd have a haunted look about it as well.
10) He's very much still not over it. As you'd expect.
11) Elnor may have minimal social skills, but he's at least perceptive enough to see Jurati is in turmoil.
12) Picard retreating to HoloFrance.
13) A spot of light reading.
14) Hooray for continuity though, with the LCARS graphics.
15) Hugh.
16) And a cool shot, looking through the holoscreen so the face of Locutus appears superimposed over Picard's. Nice that it was Locutus as he appeared in "Best Of Both Worlds", and not as he did in Picard's nightmare in "First Contact" with the later Borg aesthetic.
17) Long old start to the episode, that. Nearly nine minutes before the intro and theme music.
18) Rios playing keepy-uppy, presumably to show that he's not North American.
19) So, Jurati's slowly having a mental breakdown.
20) *hums Careless Whisper to himself*
21) "I have a superpower...I can sense mistakes while I'm making them." Eeennhhh...not on the evidence presented so far, you can't.
22) Oh dear, we're back to Rizzo and Narek.
23) Another little "hooray for continuity!" moment, regarding how and why Soji would be programmed to dream. Soong built Data with the ability to do just that - he built circuits in Data's positronic net for this purpose that were supposed to become active after Data reached a certain level of development, an accident involving an energy discharge during an experiment in "Birthright, Part I" 'awakened' the circuits in question.
24) Rizzo is still pretty under-baked as a character. Narek at least is getting a little development.
25) Treknobabble is alive and well
26) I'm quite fond of this new 'in-warp' effect.
27) Rios is certain that Picard has a plan.
28) And he does, for a given value of 'plan'.
29) Jurati not fond of the idea.
30) Raffi hitting the booze and weed reasonably hard.
31) Rolling with the 'seek forgiveness rather than ask permission' model I guess.
32) Absolute candor definitely working well. Though that's another bridge burned for Raffi - she's going to have to start making new friends, because she's running right out of old ones.
33) Cute little moment of applause for her, undercut rather by her stumbling away blind drunk/high as a kite/both and Rios having to help her off in the direction of her cabin
34) The soundtrack heads for the Courage fanfare to put the button on the scene.
35) Soji fell asleep talking to her 'mum' again. Safeties kicking in perhaps.
36) Raffi's hit the maudlin stage of drunk.
37) "No-one gets all of it right, Raf'." I hope we get more of Rios' story down the line.
38) Soji fighting it, but it's a losing battle.
39) Picard's going alone then. This has 'bad idea' written all over it...
40) Back to Soji, and she's investigating her personal stuff. Checking the age of photos with a futuristic scanner.
41) Everything she has - photos, drawings, the cuddly toy, her necklace - is 37 months old. Sort-of a shame that the writers didn't go with 47, given the frequency with which that number appears in Trek
42) Picard heading into nightmarish territory.
43) Quite nice to see someone being happy to see Picard in this show
44) "A new name can be the first step to a new identity...I learned that on the Enterprise all those years ago." D'awwAnd hooray for continuity!
45) Hugh knows the score - that the only reason Jean-Luc Picard, Admiral, Starfleet retired, would come out here looking for Soji is because she's in danger.
46) Actually, Hugh's got a lot of this figured out.
47) Soji, meanwhile, hasn't. And unfortunately for her, she's confiding in Narek.
48) Who is attempting to steer her in the direction he wants her to go.
49) Picard coming around to the idea that the people on the cube really are no longer Borg. Victims of the Borg, yes. But unquestionably no longer his mortal enemy.
50) Hugh is right. Wouldn't that be something, Picard offering a sympathetic voice in the Federation for the ex-Borg? Shades of the Vulcan proverb, 'only Nixon could go to China'.
51) Rios trying to get Raffi back in the game.
52) Romulan meditation ritual then.
53) Rizzo watching over things on the spy cameras.
54) This episode has a longer running time than the others this season. Which does at least mean that this meditation sequence didn't end up forcing other scenes to be shortened or dropped.
55) Hugh and Picard examining Soji's quarters. They might need to get a wiggle on.
56) Soji's conscious dream sequence/interrogation by Narek still going.
57) And a quick, grudging, word of praise for Narek from his sister. Pity they weren't together for him to hear it, it seems like the sort of thing that he's dying to hear.
58) Narek dropping the hammer on his investigation.
59) And either trying to kill Soji or trigger her 'awakening' as happened with Dahj.
60) Welp, 'awakening' it is. Whether he meant to or not. If he didn't mean to do that, then Rizzo is probably going to take back that "well done brother"...
61) Telling, isn't it, that the first time Picard is helped by anyone from the days on the Enterprise (Hugh in this case) he actually succeeds in something? He's found Soji. Now he's just got to get her out of there.
62) Assuming they get her off the cube, the first thing Soji is going to need is new boots.
63) Memories must be a weird thing when you're a former Borg.
64) Ooh, long range transporter. And not the stupid one from the JJTrek films, where you take a normal transporter and wave a Magic Wand Of Reprogramming™ over it.
65) Picard planning a rendez-vous. But looks like Elnor is pre-empting it by doing something stupid.
66) Never mind! Noble rather than stupid.
67) "Please, my friends. Choose to live." Somehow, I doubt that what is about to happen off-screen goes particularly well for the other Romulans!
68) "Next time..." Things turn to worms for Hugh, and the La Sirena crew. But Picard and Soji are with the Rikers!
69) Nice.
A longer episode than the others this season, and thanks to that the pacing issues are mostly resolved. And the story gets to move on this week as well!
Jonathan Del Arco shines as Hugh, getting to do a bit more in this episode than in "The End Is The Beginning". He knows full well that Picard wouldn't be out there if it wasn't bloody important, and he's already suspicious of Narek, so he rolls with it. Picard, meanwhile, is almost paralysed with fear on the cube at first. Stewart is brilliant there, playing Picard as a frightened old man as he moves around after beaming in, shrinking into himself. After meeting up with Hugh, being shown that there is nothing to fear and that he can move beyond the past, he stands taller again. It's subtle, but it really works.
Soji meanwhile gets to spend pretty much the whole episode afraid. Afraid because what she's finding out about her life doesn't tally at all with her memories - everything she owns is only 37 months old, she falls asleep every time she has her mother on the comm link, each time she calls it only lasts 70 seconds, and she keeps having the same dream where she can't see her dad's face. Isa Briones is great, playing her confusion and determination to get to the bottom of it all. Unfortunately for Soji, she confides in Narek and while it does get her somewhere it's also very nearly fatal. Instead, the fear triggers the awakening of her abilities, she escapes...and there's Picard. Our retired admiral succeeds in something for once, finding the girl that he swore to save. Again Stewart is brilliant - Picard imploring her to come with him, desperate to save her. And so they get gone, with Hugh taking them to the long range transporter to get off the cube and away.
The rest of the team have their moments. Evan Evagora's Elnor gets some amusing scenes, clattering into other conversations with that doctrine of absolute candor before beaming over to the cube to save Picard. Alison Pill's Jurati is still massively conflicted, with everyone else putting her very clear discomfort down to Maddox having passed away due to his injuries. No mention of the EMH, so she either memory-wiped him or no-one has had to activate him since then. Santiago Cabrera is excellent as Rios, who I hope we get to explore the background of a bit more sometime. That line to Raffi about how "[n]o-one gets all of it right" ought to go places. And talking of Raffi, Michelle Hurd's performance was decent this week. Better material than in the last episode helped, I guess. She gets her **** together long enough to convince someone at Starfleet to sign off on credentials for Picard and then slides back into being blind drunk, but with some help from Rios and a strong coffee she's back in action by the end of the show.
Peyton List's Rizzo is still irritatingly one-dimensional, but looking at the preview for next week she might finally be about to get to do something other than snark or creepy incest vibes. And at least Harry Treadaway gets to do a bit more with Narek this time out. Was he trying to kill Soji at the end or trigger her awakening? After all, there's easier ways to kill someone than with a magic box full of red, radioactive gas. I suspect that one is going to run a bit yet.
Wow,your posts are awesome....appreciate the time and effort you put into all of this.
Its hard to say as in TNG he had already been borgified by then,so I need to rewatch again to see if its implied back then to be due to his implants.
Thanks,it goes back also to some of her earlier issues with how her character was handled in Voyager,so at least she is happier now.
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Yeah well, get ready to go from appreciation to hatred when STD comes back and I revert to full-on snark
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I definately want a "hairs on the back of your neck standing up" cliff hanger type moment. Last scene new borg cube drops out of warp, Sojis eyes turn black as she connects telepathically with the collective, Enterprise E flys in, picard beams above, uniform on, sits in capitals chair, shields up red alert, USS Titan drops out of warp with Riker as captain, new klingon flagship out of warp with Worf as captain, Voyager drops out of warp, definant comes steam rolling in......fades to credits.
Well only 4 more weeks if you can be bothered,and then its back to Discovery,which should make Picard moaning probably look like faint praise.
Decided to go for unsalted popcorn this time - I think there won't be a shortage of salt this time either! It will be a good next few years,you see. Picard and Discovery are only the start.
There are also 3 more rumoured shows in the new Trek universe - a Pike spinoff,a section 31 spinoff and a Starfleet Academy spinoff(targetted at younger people):
https://boundingintocomics.com/2020...t-picard-season-2-and-new-info-on-section-31/
Apparently the Dominion will be in a Star Trek series next year....so another redesign I expect which will annoy people.
Then eventually they will eventually cancel all of it as they might as well go with less aggro and make some superhero show with less expensive sets,and then the fans will moan for another 10 year wishing there was more Trek.
I still remember for a long time,we had hardly any show set in space...might as well store up those now....I can see another drought happening!
Your problem seems to be that you are painting everyone who has an issue with the show, no matter what it is with the same brush. I have made it clear already that I will be watching both Picard and Discovery at least once. But it is not what I would have liked and there are many issues with the shows that make it cringe worthy. You keep replying back with the same thing about how people did not like TNG or DS9 back in the day yada yada, which does not apply to me, I really liked those shows from the first time I saw them. I feel it is very unfair to be constantly compared with people who had issues back in the day with those shows, like an example you said they had an issue with a black vulcan. I had no such issue and I thought Tim Russ did a great job of the role of Tuvoc.
Anyway, can we please agree to disagree and leave it at that?
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Yeah well, get ready to go from appreciation to hatred when STD comes back and I revert to full-on snark
So you prefer Picard to Discovery...I thought it was worse than Discovery reading from here. You are going to just love the new Starfleet Academy series...apparently its going to be targetted at young adults....just watch the100 and prepare yourself.
Your problem seems to be that you are painting everyone who has an issue with the show, no matter what it is with the same brush. I have made it clear already that I will be watching both Picard and Discovery at least once. But it is not what I would have liked and there are many issues with the shows that make it cringe worthy. You keep replying back with the same thing about how people did not like TNG or DS9 back in the day yada yada, which does not apply to me, I really liked those shows from the first time I saw them. I feel it is very unfair to be constantly compared with people who had issues back in the day with those shows, like an example you said they had an issue with a black vulcan. I had no such issue and I thought Tim Russ did a great job of the role of Tuvoc.
Anyway, can we please agree to disagree and leave it at that?
No,there is only one way to solve it....lets fight like Kirk bare chested...but we can use keyboards as they are less dangerous? Make it a best of 3!
Sounds like the plot for the next Star Trek film.
You can't do it can you, you can't acknowledge that criticisms of old Trek without referring to Picard all the time. You just post walls of text and repeat the same points over and over in slightly different fashion.
Thing is Cat, all you're doing it pointing to other shows and saying "they were bad too, so we should accept that Picard is bad as well". That's just not acceptable in this day and age when there is so much media trying to get our attention, when we've seen the mistakes made in previous shows, when there are other shows that are well made TV and don't make these bad mistakes, even taking into account the context of the times they are made.
There's no reason for Picard to have these problems, and it's a disappointment and disrespect to the people watching that it's showing itself to not even been very well made television, when it could be so much more and the fans want it to be so much more.
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It's he saying: "These shows that everyone remembers fondly, were criticised at the time for similar things"
A small minority did, but the majority did not. I remember enjoying all those previous Trek shows to a greater or lesser degree. In fact, looking back I'd say that a lot of the poor episodes do not stand the test of time and come off worse than when they first aired and we were a more naive and accepting audience. But at least those shows didn't treat the audience like idiots. They made an effort to be good, whereas on shows like STD and Picard seems the writers just handwave and say "oh, that doesn't matter, it'll look cool" more than anything else.
It's twenty years after TNG, we should expect better, and the showrunners should be able to deliver it.
Sometimes I wish I could beam you out of this thread
Round 1 to me
Yeah...but...CGI and shiny things and lens flare
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Weirdly I've never watched TOS, but I do think the TOS crew made the best movies.
Specifically 2-4 (trilogy) and 6.
In fact I think Star Trek VI: Undiscovered Country is the best of all the Trek movies and they were all quite old by then.
Specifically 2-4 (trilogy) and 6.
In fact I think Star Trek VI: Undiscovered Country is the best of all the Trek movies and they were all quite old by then.
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The opening will never be bettered. The font used for the text, soundtrack and the explosion. Perfection!
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Sometimes I wish I could beam you out of this thread
Round 1 to me
IDIC.Not going all Terran empire are we?
So, does this get better as the series goes on? I'm a couple of episodes behind as I literally can't stand watching a 45 minute episode then waiting a week for the next one.Even though TNG with Picard was my favourite ST I'm finding this series a bit meh currently.
Depends.
If you think ST: Discovery is genuinely a good show, you may not like this.
If you're expecting TNG Part II, you may not like this.
If you can't understand how and why an organisation of many planets and species might change some in ~20 years, you may not like this.
If you're willing to sit, watch and wait for the world to be built...you may like this. Just be prepared for pacing issues, poorly-written antagonists and the occasional sub-plot that will leave you utterly cold.
It's a slow burner. And it has some issues. But it's getting there.
