# Star Trek: Picard discussion thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 14, 2019, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529 "2019-06-14T22:58:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 22
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/421 "2020-03-27T19:15:51Z")
Sounds like I’m glad I missed it. I’ve been following along here. Much safer. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/422 "2020-03-27T19:26:21Z")
Sounds to me like the _Picard_ writers have been reading _Schlock Mercenary_. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/423 "2020-03-27T20:10:16Z")
I agree, I hated the ending. Over the whole season, there were a few things I liked and more things that I was whelmed by. I think what I liked best was Jeri Ryan’s portrayal of 7 of 9. I liked how she was a mature-but-still-gorgeous woman, attractive but no longer soft-core porno, kicking butt and taking names. I also liked, in terms of plot, how they were de-borging the borg in that cube and trying to make them an independent community of people. Oh, also: when 7 plugged herself into the Queen’s control system, risking that she’d not be able to get herself out of it again, but then did manage to get out of it… that was thrilling. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/424 "2020-03-27T20:18:56Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It was a lame, disappointing ending. I cannot argue there. Yep, same here. Telegraphed from the first moment of the reveal of the unformed body. I WANTED SO BADLY TO LOVE THIS SERIES! Hated this ending. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/425 "2020-03-27T20:40:25Z")
Well, since (most of, shut up McCoy) that culture is comfortable with personal identity in reference to the transporter problem, Picard shouldn’t have too much problem with what is essentially the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/426 "2020-03-27T20:41:13Z")
Jeesh, tough crowd. I loved the finale. Looking forward to season 2. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/427 "2020-03-27T20:58:33Z")
If they were trying to do something moderately believable with the ending, they failed pretty bad. The Romulans assembling a fleet to go after the synths was pretty believable, because we had known they were working on that mission for a while. How long had Picard’s team been gone from Riker’s place? A few days? And in that short time Riker managed to get command of the Federation’s flagship, and assemble a massive fleet to meet the Romulans? The rest of the Androids didn’t freak out when Lore-ji was simply deactivated with a push of a button? Or when Soji turned off the beacon she promised to use to save them? This was a rushed finale, and the long, drawn-out death scene and mourning for Picard when everyone knew they were just going to shunt him into the golem body was a huge waste of screen time. And they just left a Borg cube on the planet, with no mention of what was going to happen to it? I had really wanted to see it come to the defense of the planet, intimidate the Romulans a bit with the promise of its weapons system coming online. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/428 "2020-03-27T21:23:47Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Just what the hell was Raffi to Picard? Never seen in TNG or the films, yet she is someone from the past All covered in a tie in comic book apparently. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/429 "2020-03-27T21:46:19Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#): > > And they just left a Borg cube on the planet, with no mention of what was going to happen to it? I had really wanted to see it come to the defense of the planet, intimidate the Romulans a bit with the promise of its weapons system coming online. Speaking of that cube, they told that what originally crashed it out of the Collective was processing the extragalactic synths’ message. Now they _did_ establish that watching that message was a mental hazard which drove at least half the viewers insane, but I wonder that the Borg were susceptible to it. Not synthetic enough? The extragalactic death bots did retreat pretty quickly for no reason, even though they had already received the coordinates and even sent a couple of scouts through a portal. Maybe their hearts weren’t in it? Ex-ter-min-ate! ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/430 "2020-03-27T23:46:05Z")
I did not like the epilogue. I really hate the trope about immortality being a bad thing. What’s not to like about staying alive (and young and healthy) forever? And it really was kind of cheap and awkward to have a big emotional death scene and then undo it minutes later, followed by subbing in Data dying–again!–as a kind of replacement. But I thought the main part of the episode was well done in a middling classic Trek kind of way, and in fact all of it — good and bad — was very representative of basically median level of Trek over the years. Even if it didn’t approach the level of the best episodes or movies, it was also significantly better than the worst ones, and it just seemed much more recognizably \*of \*the franchise than virtually anything we have seen for the past decade or more. The penultimate episode was much better than the finale, though. And the one on Riker’s planet, with that awesome young actor playing his daughter, was excellent as well. Given TNG’s arc of improvement, something we see in a lot of TV shows to one extent or another, I look forward to next season–not quite eagerly, but amiably. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/431 "2020-03-28T00:27:43Z")
Well, Picard really _is_ dead. What good is it to him that a clone gets to take his place? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/432 "2020-03-28T01:03:56Z")
Did I miss what happened to Narek? He was pinned on the ground last I remember. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/433 "2020-03-28T01:24:48Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Did I miss what happened to Narek? He was pinned on the ground last I remember. I don’t remember seeing him after that. Presumably he slipped away during all the chaos and went back to his own ship later? We also didn’t see what happened to Nerissa; sure, she was kicked off a catwalk, but the show made it a point a couple of times that she was at all times equipped with a personal teleporter, to get out of such jams. Here is a question, though: Soji was, understandably, super pissed at Narek and warns Saga not to believe a word he says. But did he ever tell Soji a single lie? Even when he told her he was not Tal Shiar (and that he would answer the same if he were), that was technically true as he was in fact Zhat Vash. All of his dialogue with Soji was amusing: “Is there anything you can tell me about yourself?” - “I’m a very private person.” … “Is Narek your real name?” - “No.” ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/434 "2020-03-28T01:59:52Z")
Correction, that last bit was more like “Is your name actually Narek?” - “It’s one of them.” Because that way he did not lie when he first told her his name was Narek. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/435 "2020-03-28T02:35:56Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > We also didn’t see what happened to Nerissa; sure, she was kicked off a catwalk, but the show made it a point a couple of times that she was at all times equipped with a personal teleporter, to get out of such jams. Ohhh…true! I hadn’t thought of that. Seven/Annika should have used the disintegration method as she did earlier in the season. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/436 "2020-03-29T07:51:42Z")
When 80% of your ending is stolen from Howard the Duck, you’re doing it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/437 "2020-03-29T12:13:51Z")
The ending was not a surprise (of course it helped that I knew there would be a season 2). The one thing I expected that did NOT happen is I thought maybe the Borg cube would get into the battle (from the ground) I’m also wondering what’s going to stop the Zhat Vash from showing up a week later and nuking the synth planet from orbit? Yes there is a treaty and the Federation would get pissed, but the Zhat Vash seem to be a bunch of fanatics that might ignore that. Looks like most (if not all) synths are twins – no explanation. Overall pretty good with some awesome moments and some head scratchers. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/438 "2020-03-30T04:17:57Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Well, Picard really _is_ dead. What good is it to him that a clone gets to take his place? Thank you. See also my arguments on Westworld and the Hickman X-Men comics. Which is silly cause weve seen at least three times off the top of my head…now 4…where its consciousness transferred and not copied. In fact i could argue that it was a copy of Picard talking to a copy of Data. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/439 "2020-03-30T09:51:39Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > I agree, I hated the ending. Over the whole season, there were a few things I liked and more things that I was whelmed by. I think what I liked best was Jeri Ryan’s portrayal of 7 of 9. I liked how she was a mature-but-still-gorgeous woman, attractive but no longer soft-core porno, kicking butt and taking names. I also liked, in terms of plot, how they were de-borging the borg in that cube and trying to make them an independent community of people. Totally agree. I wish her character had previously been this interesting. > [@crazyjoe](#): > > How long had Picard’s team been gone from Riker’s place? A few days? And in that short time Riker managed to get command of the Federation’s flagship, and assemble a massive fleet to meet the Romulans? Yeah, the timing didn’t really work. > [@](#): > > This was a rushed finale, and the long, drawn-out death scene and mourning for Picard when everyone knew they were just going to shunt him into the golem body was a huge waste of screen time. Mixed feelings. I enjoyed it enough, but the whole “not really dead” thing (because we want at least two more series) definitely cheapened the death scene (and indeed his sacrifice). > [@](#): > > And they just left a Borg cube on the planet, with no mention of what was going to happen to it? I had really wanted to see it come to the defense of the planet, intimidate the Romulans a bit with the promise of its weapons system coming online. I was expecting something like that. But then it wouldn’t have been Picard saving the day. > [@Morbo](#): > > Did I miss what happened to Narek? He was pinned on the ground last I remember. > [@DPRK](#): > > I don’t remember seeing him after that. Presumably he slipped away during all the chaos and went back to his own ship later? We also didn’t see what happened to Nerissa; sure, she was kicked off a catwalk, but the show made it a point a couple of times that she was at all times equipped with a personal teleporter, to get out of such jams. I wondered the same thing about Narek. He seems to have been forgotten about. I did consider that Nerissa might have escape splattitude via her teleporter; the teleport block was still in force at the time but \ so who knows. The other dangling thread - are we now just shrugging off the murder of Bruce Maddox as just one of those things that happened and “Oops, my bad! Bygones!”? > [@zbuzz](#): > > When 80% of your ending is stolen from Howard the Duck, you’re doing it wrong. Or the Avengers or probably lots of other second-rate “we must close the portal” sci-fi or horror films. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529/440 "2020-03-30T15:02:11Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > The other dangling thread - are we now just shrugging off the murder of Bruce Maddox as just one of those things that happened and “Oops, my bad! Bygones!”? I wondered about that more than once! On one hand, they were consoling her with, “it was definitely Romulan mind control; you were coerced”, but ultimately conveniently ignored how they were already on the way to the starbase where the authorities were waiting to arrest her (and presumably she would stand trial) before they got diverted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529.md?page=21) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-discussion-thread/835529.md?page=23)