# Star Trek Picard Season 3 discussion (open spoilers)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, star-trek-paramount
**Created:** [February 16, 2023, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922 "2023-02-16T23:43:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2023, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/1 "2023-02-16T23:43:58Z")
[Thread for the previous 2 seasons](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458)
Final season, 10 episodes, begins streaming today on Paramount+
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2023, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/2 "2023-02-16T23:51:08Z")
> [@Star Trek Picard Review](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-review/917458/343):
>
> I saw S 1, was not overly impressed and heard bad reviews of S2. Still tempted now.
>
> Can I pick up skipping S2?
Moving my answer to this thread - yes, I think you can skip S2. At least, based on the first episode. I enjoyed it, and I’m hopeful that the season mystery will wrap up better than the last one.
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### Author:  [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/3 "2023-02-17T00:21:40Z")
In a couple hours we’ll know. Already the previews look better than the first two seasons of Picard. I just hope it’s not been Kurtzmanified too much. Don’t like where he’s been going with modern Trek.
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### Author:  [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/4 "2023-02-17T00:26:13Z")
“Shut it, Will.”
That made me laugh.
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### Author:  [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/5 "2023-02-17T01:42:47Z")
So now you have to cock a phaser like a shotgun to fire it? Also, if you used the beam setting, a fight in a hallway is going to be short and painful for anyone on the other end. I know, she’s a doctor not a tactical officer but she should still understand the idea. You don’t suture a wound with pulse blasts do you?
Also courteous of the phaser rifle to announce to the enemies that it is out of juice.
I sympathize with Captain Shaw. How often did someone come onto the Enterprise under false pretenses so they could hijack it and go help out an old friend? How would Picard and Riker react to what Picard and Riker are trying to do right now?
Apparently dead naming isn’t a thing in the 25th century anymore. Seven of Nine is Seven of Nine but Captain Shaw has decided he’s going to call her by a name she doesn’t use anymore. Maybe they’re waiting until they need to get Shaw out of the Captain’s chair and that’s when Seven will go to Starfleet HR about it.
There were a couple of dumb little “solve the mini-mystery” plots to take up time. Speak plainly people! We could have dropped the entire “Red Lady” plot by just saying the baddies were going to attack some Starfleet facility but no one knew which one. And it’s absurd to have Raffi arrive _just in time_ to watch the attack and one second too late to do anything about it. There was also a weird side plot to unlock Beverly’s message that involved referring back to some retcon about a computer virus the crew had to deal with while Picard was Locutus. Apparently when the Borg do computer viruses they only do them for the lulz because all it did was add a 3 to everything (and how helpful this turns out to be twenty years later when the exact coordinates needed all happen to end in 3s!) and this did not inconvenience the crew enough for anyone to even mention it at the time.
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### Author:  [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/6 "2023-02-17T01:53:50Z")
…ep 1 spoilers.
That was kind-of-a weird mix of things I loved and things I hated. And one of the things I haven’t liked about the last two seasons of Picard was this casual disregard for life. They just be casually killing everyone, snapping necks and lopping off heads.
So when Beverly Crusher, the former chief medical officer of the Enterprise, accomplished thespian, dancer, playwright and ethno-botanist, straight up murders someone in the opening minutes, that let me know that I’m going to have mixed feelings about how this all plays out.
I have high hopes for Captain Liam Shaw, because he is being played by Todd Stashwick, who starred as Deacon in the TV show Twelve Monkeys. Deacon started as a character I actively _loathed_. I _hated_ him. But by the end of the series he was easily my second favourite person on the show (Emily Hampshire’s version of Goine’s was simply unassailable) and with Matalas showrunning this, and me absolutely hating Shaw from the outset, I’m hoping they take his character on a similar journey.
But I loved all the slower paced moments. Hated Riker being rude to the bartender. Hated the ham-fisted-set-up to get them on the Titan. Most of the first episode was fine: but I though the same thing about the first episodes of Season 1 AND 2, and they both fell apart (for me) by the end.
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### Author:  [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/7 "2023-02-17T03:33:17Z")
You all already mentioned my usual long-running complaints and short ones…i’ll throw in, “Why is it so damn hard to get transportation??” You can’t just buy a shuttle??
And I loved Captain Shaw. Very refreshing.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/8 "2023-02-17T04:16:37Z")
> [@DWMarch](#):
>
> Seven of Nine is Seven of Nine but Captain Shaw has decided he’s going to call her by a name she doesn’t use anymore.
He seems to have a problem with Borg.
On that note, so Q _didn’t_ retcon all Borg history in season 2, I guess.
(About the numbers, I don’t think they added an extra digit to the figure but 3 to the amount–12345 becomes 12348, not 123453.)
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/9 "2023-02-17T04:18:21Z")
It appears that the terrorists stole Rick’s portal gun.
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### Author:  [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/10 "2023-02-17T05:09:26Z")
Beverly says no Starfleet and Picard immediately goes to Starfleet. I presume LaForges daughter is compromised.
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### Author:  [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/11 "2023-02-17T05:16:01Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#):
>
> That was kind-of-a weird mix of things I loved and things I hated. And one of the things I haven’t liked about the last two seasons of Picard was this casual disregard for life.
I’m telling you. Kurtzmanified. He’s done Star Trek no favours.
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### Author:  [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/12 "2023-02-17T05:17:44Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#):
>
> I have high hopes for Captain Liam Shaw, because he is being played by Todd Stashwick, who starred as Deacon in the TV show Twelve Monkeys.
Also cousin Dale on The Riches .
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/13 "2023-02-17T15:56:09Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> On that note, so Q _didn’t_ retcon all Borg history in season 2, I guess.
Yeah, that confused me, too. I just finished S.2, and I thought when the whole gang went back to the 21st century Dr. Jumanji, being merged with the Borg Queen, convinced the Queen to nurture a kindler, gentler Borg going forward. Togetherness and teamwork, rather than amoral assimilation. Then in S.3 Ep.1 it’s the same old Borg again?
Though, I confess I binged S.2 with one eye while doing other stuff, so toward the end of S.2 I wasn’t really sure _ **what** _ the heck was going on.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/14 "2023-02-17T16:43:49Z")
I think it was a different group of Borg, so the original Borg stuck around, but now there was also the newBorg. But I could be wrong.
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### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/15 "2023-02-17T17:55:27Z")
I saw the premiere earlier this week at an event where Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Gates MacFadden and Michael Dorn did a talk afterwards in an audience full of Trek fans (the guy two seats down from me was dressed in Q’s Judge outfit) so it was under the best possible circumstances and I was still underwhelmed. It wasn’t bad; just okay (the talk afterwards was great though).
I get the Titan captain is a prick (I am guessing he’s a Wolf 359 survivor) but they laid it on a little thick.
I haven’t liked the direction they took Seven since she was reintroduced in the earlier season. I get that people change and grow but she is a completely different person than the one from Voyager.
A lot of the dialogue was really ham handed and felt unnatural.
I _hated_ how Beverly was just straight up murdering people in the opening scene but the show made a point to mention it so maybe the out of character stuff is a plot point.
I love TNG so I am on board and everyone else with me at the event liked the episode much more in than I did so maybe it was just to me. Hoping I like next week better.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2023, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/16 "2023-02-18T01:27:32Z")
> [@Quimby](#):
>
> I get the Titan captain is a prick (I am guessing he’s a Wolf 359 survivor) but they laid it on a little thick.
> **[You May Hate Picard's New Titan Captain, But He's Right](https://screenrant.com/picard-season-3-captain-shaw-hate-right-why/)**
>
> Captain Liam Shaw is the victim in Picard season 3.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2023, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/17 "2023-02-18T01:52:52Z")
Captain Shaw is is just a modern version of Captain Jellico.
And opinion writers also made a good point for why Jellico was right to speak to @Darren_Garrison post
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### Author:  [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2023, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/18 "2023-02-18T04:23:22Z")
Goes a long ways to explain why Riker isn’t even a Commodore nevertheless admiral, but just a Captain without a ship
Note: I’m not sure but maybe in season one it was explained that he dropped out after the death of his child.
Oh and theory time:
The main baddies are the aliens from “Conspiracy” IMHO. And I feel the show is trying to fool us into thinking Shaw has been subverted. His love of order. His music sounds theatrical. He seems to be savoring some sort of blue worms. He detests Riker and Picard…and IMHO its all a ruse to make us the audience think he’s been ‘slugged’. I might think so, but his sheer annoyance at seeing that nebula was too human for me.
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### Author:  [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2023, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/19 "2023-02-18T04:30:09Z")
And while I’m theorizing…Junkie undercover agent’s handler is:
Sela
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2023, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-picard-season-3-discussion-open-spoilers/979922/20 "2023-02-18T04:41:46Z")
From the extreme quickness of all replies (not even a second’s pause in conciseration) and instantly putting graphics/text effects on the monitor, too. i assumed that the handler had to be a computer. For the reeal world, at least, that wasn’t a realistic response pattern.
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