# Star Trek Picard Review **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [August 7, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458 "2020-08-07T00:47:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/141 "2022-03-14T10:15:49Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > For a character that has always been “talk first, shoot later”, that whole scene is just clumsily out of character and stupid. Having rewatched TNG during lockdown, its actually surprising that people believe this (I did as well). He is quite trigger happy. The Picard speeches we all roll our eyes over are almost always **after** the crises is concluded. The few times they aren’t, its when he want to avoid a fight he knows he will win regardless. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/142 "2022-03-14T15:23:01Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I find the mirror universe episodes of Star Trek nearly unwatchable. I think it’s just personal preference, but it just seems like the characters are driven by some requirement to _be nasty_ - without any particular reason why that’s useful or deeper motive to do it. It’s like ‘in this universe, our style choices are mostly black and red, and also, let’s do something evil, because we are the bad guys’ The Mirror Universe and the Confederation Universe here in Picard Season 2 are brutal because they are civilizations that reward brutality. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/143 "2022-03-14T15:30:19Z")
And yet somehow, amid all this brutality, the same people were born and survived to adulthood ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/144 "2022-03-14T16:00:03Z")
and are the same basic people - yet have KEY positions in all the right places. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/145 "2022-03-14T17:16:04Z")
I’m enjoying the season so far, but it feels a little like Star Trek going the way of The Force Awakens – the first season of Picard had some issues and wasn’t necessarily embraced by the fandom, so they’re course-correcting by bringing in Q and mashing up two of the most reliable Trek tropes, time travel and the mirror universe. I don’t mind a fun romp, but this show (seems to) have bigger ambitions than that, and it’ll be interesting to see if they can bring out bigger themes amid the fish-out-of-water plot. I’m not sure if all this newly hinted-at backstory for Picard is going to land successfully, but we’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/146 "2022-03-14T18:54:23Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > And yet somehow, amid all this brutality, the same people were born and survived to adulthood That’s why this kind of parallel universe story is inherently silly, and should not be taken seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/147 "2022-03-14T19:32:20Z")
Yeah, it just doesn’t work for me, I suppose. It might just be the flavour of the whole thing about fascists trying to one-up each other ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/148 "2022-03-14T19:33:43Z")
Well, because Q has engineered it that way. Otherwise, there’d be no way his little pet Jean-Luc could fix everything. I don’t think we’re supposed to regard Seven being president as just a big coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/149 "2022-03-14T19:36:19Z")
In show - Q changed ‘1 thing’ in 2024 that caused all this. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/150 "2022-03-14T19:44:07Z")
So far I think the first two episodes are a HUGE improvement from S1. Sure, the mirror stuff has been done before, but it seems clear that the bulk of the season is going to be time travel back to the 21st century, which has also been done before, but not so much that there’s not plenty of potentially good stories to mine (unlike the mirror stuff). Still not a great Star Trek show, IMO, but S1 was among the worst Star Trek ever, and so far this season is roughly middling, IMO – better than most ENT and VOY and almost as good as the “pretty good” episodes of TNG and DS9. I haven’t seen Discovery so I can’t compare those. ---
**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 15, 2022, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/151 "2022-03-15T09:41:14Z")
> [@simster](#): > > In show - Q changed ‘1 thing’ in 2024 that caused all this. Seriously hoping this doesn’t turn out to be about the election. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/152 "2022-03-15T14:20:47Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Have you not watched Q episodes in TNG and also later in Voyager? Thats exactly how Q operates. Not so much Voyager, but the Q in TNG wasn’t anywhere near this bad. > [@Gyrate](#): > > Seriously hoping this doesn’t turn out to be about the election. Oh God, no. That’s so stupid it just might be true. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/153 "2022-03-15T14:34:30Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Not so much Voyager, but the Q in TNG wasn’t anywhere near this bad. ? In _Encounter at Far-point_, the mystery that the crew had to solve was that the place was made out of a living creature who the locals had enslaved. Or be destroyed for being a “savage, child like race” In Q-Who: he sent them to face the Borg In The finale, he made Picard flow through three time periods to solve an anomaly. In none of the cases was the answer obvious or easy, and thats the point. Picard nearly had a fit in each episode trying to get an answer out of him. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/154 "2022-03-15T14:59:25Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > In Q-Who: he sent them to face the Borg I remember that episode very well and the situation was straightforward. Picard was arrogant, and Q said “Ha ha, I am going to send you to face something you can’t handle.” Then they faced a terrifying adversary they couldn’t handle, Picard admitted he was beaten, and Q saved them. It was pretty clear to me what was happening. In the cases of Encounter and Farpoint and All Good Things, the problems were more difficult to sort out, sure. But even then, the dialogue wasn’t this… well, it’s like “Lost” turned into words. Lines don’t necessarily even seem to MEAN anything, not in the sense that they’re cryptic, but in the sense that they are nothing at all. Mind you, it’s not just Q, this is a problem that pollutes the entire show, though Episode 2 thankfully had some actual events that people had to deal with like actual people. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/155 "2022-03-15T16:13:42Z")
Whats worse is here and the great one where Q lost his powers…the crew have this GOD at their disposal and they’re like “no thanks”. JFC. I know the Feds are all about arrogance and self-determination and 'figuring out the mystery themselves"…but… I have this image of the Ships Historian running up to the Bridge trailing a huge long piece of paper…"(pant pant)…Q…Q is here?? I have so many questions (pant pant)…where is he?" Picard: (pats officer on head) We sent him on its way. Its ok though. The myssssterrrry is still out there for us to discover and solve!" (Theoretical physicist runs onto bridge) ---
**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 15, 2022, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/156 "2022-03-15T23:58:12Z")
There was also an alternate timeline [Q episode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapestry_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)) where Picard is sent back to his college days to sleep with some old girlfriend. It involved him getting stabbed in the heart. Again. Thus far, that was better than this. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2022, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/157 "2022-03-16T01:53:08Z")
That was a really good episode, from what I remember. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2022, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/158 "2022-03-18T02:18:29Z")
Having alternate universes that have copies of people in the “real” universe is something sci Fi has done forever and Trek has done for 50 years. Either you are on board with it or you aren’t but thing mad about it, to me, makes as much sense as the fact that they handwaved away the realities of momentum in space travel with “inertial dampeners”. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2022, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/159 "2022-03-18T08:23:14Z")
Tapestry. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2022, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/160 "2022-03-18T13:52:36Z")
Was the Borg queen always an over-the-top, evil, what-I-imagine-Cruela-Deville-is-like wannabe? Pity she didn’t have a mustache to twirl. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458.md?page=9)