There was barely any swearing in the Trek verse, even in the films.
And that grates.
They actually explained that this was the case in “Star Trek IV,” with dialogue noting how in the 23rd century, they don’t swear the way they do in the 20th.
“Picard” feels as if it was written by people who never watched Star Trek except for a few of the TNG movies. There’s a line where Rafi refers to Picard as someone governed by towering “ego and id.” I cannot think of a human character in any major TV show who is LESS defined by ego and id, and more defined by superego, than Jean-Luc Picard. His adherence to a strict sense of ethics, which he places above his own (very repressed) desires, is not just his defining character trait, it’s basically the reason his character exists. Saying Picard is all ego and id would be exactly the same as describing Homer Simpson as a refined intellectual, having someone note in passing that Jimmy “Saul Goodman” McGill is a strictly ethical clergyman, or calling Jessica Jones happy go lucky. It’s unbelievably stupid and torpedoes the entire point of the character.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with having a Star Trek series that goes darker than the original shows. That’s what DS9 was, to some extent. But in doing that you cannot just throw out central FACTS. Exploring what the Federation is like in its seedier underbelly, or out at the edge of a frontier with hostle powers and shifting alliances away from the utopia of its core worlds, is fine. Just using the name “Jean-Luc Picard” on a guy who acts in a manner totally contrary to Jean-Luc Picard, or making the Federation in totality a xenophobic, racist pack of asswipes, doesn’t make any sense.
Twenty years ago there was a Star WARS strategy game for the PC called Star wars Rebellion. I bought it eagerly, because I love strategy games and I love Star Wars, and the idea of playing either side sounded great. Now, what would a Star Wars strategy game during the rebellion be like? It should have a big, ponderous Empire trying to crush a smaller but nimble and elusive Rebel Alliance. If you play as the Rebellion, you should have a very small force but the ability to move your base of operations here and there, striking the Empire by having ships just in from hyperspace, fuck shit up, and hyperspace away. As you progress you add forces, and your military successes cause more worlds and factions to support the Alliance, bringing you more resources until you’re strong enough for a big confrontation. Conversely, as the Empire, you need to try to find the Alliance and play whack-a-mole as rebellion flares up around the galaxy, trying to suppress it without going too far. It would be such a cool game.
Regrettably, the game was NOTHING LIKE THAT. It was a standard 4X game where both sides started small and grew from there. That makes no sense at all. It is really clear that the game was not designed, originally, as Star Wars at all; it’s just a shitty Master of Orion ripoff that they slapped Star Wars images and branding onto so they’d sell 500,000 copies instead of 5.
ST:P is exactly like that. This is a shitty, violent, miserable action series they pasted Star Trek characters into so people would be fooled into watching it. And that’s not even getting into the story’s absolutely ridiculous logical problems, story holes, and abandoned plot points.
[Hijack]
Have you played the Star Wars: Rebellion board game? It’s exactly what you just described, and is awesome.
[/Hijack]
I will second, third, fourth, and fifth this. Amazing game. One of the best I’ve ever played in terms of capturing the feel of its source material, and also one of the best asymmetrical games of all time.
No, but if I had someone local you better believe I would. Next time I’m in (INSERT LOCATION MILLER IS AT) we’ll play and I’ll bring the beer.
I mean, this would be a PERFECT strategy video game - and really unlike any other - if they’d only make it.
Episode 1 of season 2 is out. Kind of slow and plodding, but the Least Suprising Twist Ever at the end did leave me wanting more, especially after Picard’s “Oh no, not this shit again!” reaction.
Looks like everybody is getting into the de-aging/deep faking.
I’m surprised this show doesn’t get as much purchase here as it does. I enjoyed last season except for the last ep. I wasn’t planning on watching this season because…time travel…Borg…come on guys. But I can enough to watch Screencrush reviews. Man the production values are through the roof. And they do mystery box better then DISCO.
I like a lot of what I see. man John DeLancie has aged WELL.
You’re not going to get me to say anything bad about Seven! I enjoyed the episode, though it was slow at times. Good to see Guinan and Q again.
Liked the way they dealt with the aging issue.
Q really said “Oh, you’re old now. Fine, I’ll make myself a thousand times sexier then.”
He really does much more…distinguished…with the grey hair, doesn’t he?
I agree with this, but I feel like the start of season 2 is trying to harmonize this (but I’m not sure whether successfully so). There’s a bit of ego in holding yourself up to a higher moral standard than everybody else, and there’s a bit of id in repressing your own desires, because that still means that you’re driven by them, if only in a negative way. At the start of season 2, we’re given hints that we’ll explore Picard’s repressed desires.
The only problem is that they seem to be going about that in a terrible way, some long-buried childhood trauma causing binding issues, with almost schoolboy-like waffling on in romantic matters. Plus, Guinan’s ‘the final frontier is in here…’ I mean, seriously? We’re turning Star Trek from an exploration of the boundaries of space and time into one of an old man’s emotional issues?
I’m also not too happy about the possibility for peace (or at least alliance) with the Borg that’s not so subtly teasered (and with Picard’s willingness to go along with it). I mean, yeah, it’s all noble Federation stuff to extend a helping hand to an old enemy (as long as other interests don’t contravene that), but the Borg were conceived of as the ultimate antithesis of the Federation’s ideals (granted, they seem to have become more like the Federation’s professed ideals at this point). The Federation is all about individual self-realization within a union, while the Borg obliterate all individuality in subservience to the collective. The only union of Federation and the Borg I can see is one where either of them ceases to exist—either the assimilation of the Federation or the dissolution of the collective, because certainly it would be anathema to the Federation to allow the Borg to continue subjugating individuals against their will. But if you take that away from the Borg, there’s basically nothing left. But of course, we’ll see how that will play out.
As for the rest of the episode, I have to say I overall enjoyed it, but I’m not quite sure I’m happy with where this seems to be going (I haven’t watched any trailers, so I’m just going of what I’ve seen in the first episode). I think that we’re meant to infer something is threatening the Borg, making the Borg basically a race of Worfs, badasses whose purpose is through their defeat to signal the seriousness of the threat. Q’s involved, somehow, and apparently some time travel/alternate history shenanigans—not sure about that yet. But all in all, it seems like we’re contending with yet another, nebulous, potentially universe-destroying threat that only our heroes, no doubt at great personal cost and sacrifice, can hope to avert.
Which, yawn. Feels like there’s been like three of those in the last couple of years in the Star Trek universe alone. Yes, I’m sure this one will be even bigger and badder than those. Not just threatening the galaxy or all life in the universe or the multiverse, but the very idea of the existence of the omni-hyper-megaverse, or something. And it’ll only be averted by Picard crossing the final frontier in his heart, and finding the power of love within, or whatever.
Anyway, enough preemptive griping. I’m really just getting myself into a position where I could hope to be either pleasantly surprised, or have the grim satisfaction of having been right about it all along, so this is going to be a win-win, I expect!
Good points to consider. You know it’s only a TV show, right? Lol
WHAT? I had no idea. Lol
Are you sure? The only threat possible to trump what we’ve seen, is one that endangers the viewers themselves!
“The Universe? The Multi-verse??”
“No…the meta-verse”
So, Galaxy Quest?
I wonder if, in touching on Picard’s emotional issues, they bring up the fact that he has a lifetime of memories of a wife, children, and grandchildren?
So the Borg Queen Picard’s mother, then?
It’s OBVIOUSLY Picard’s mother. Holy shit, what a horrible idea.
We aren’t “given hints,” it’s pounded into the viewer with a hammer. Picard visits Guinan basically for no other purpose than to have a scene were he sits and talks with a character about his feelings. The scene serves no narrative purpose at all. He had a similar conversation with Romulan Lady, then… like, it just goes on and on.
And that’s the problem with going huge in Season 1. Ya gotta go huger. You can’t just have a normal Star Trek show where every episode is a bunch of neat characters solving a new space problem.
I was unable to even continue with Discovery Season 4 because it was so unremittingly shitty. I may not make it to the end of Picard S2, especially when we start having droning conversation about Mrs. Picard the Borg Queen.