[Doc HM]

So all 10 episodes over now. Trying to stay spoiler free.

I must say I absolutely loved it. (well until the last 15 mins of e10 anyway). It's been a proper update to Trek and also a lovely paen (yes spellcheck that IS a word) to the TNG and other characters. Adult without being "adult". Stewart was really allowed to flesh out his portrayal of Picard (well he was an exec producer).

A whole raft of TNG characters got to round out their stories, especially Troy/Riker although Word didn't seem to do so well, and Seven.

Will happy sit down and rewatch in order to soak up any bits I missed.

Shame the ending really didn't live up to the originality of the rest of the series.
Thoughts?

[OreoCookie]

I’ll try to be vague to keep spoilers to a minimum.
I really liked the premise, but it did not live up to its potential. The old characters were great, they slipped right back in.

My main criticisms are two-fold: the story unfolded too quickly and some characters were just way too short-lived. The pace accelerated over the last few episodes, and was so quick at the end that I didn’t even get parts of the story. The last two episodes in particular felt so rushed that I couldn’t keep up. I really like the story involving a retired Riker family. Right now, the universe feels completely unexplored. Why are the XBs where they are? What happened to them? Why don’t some of them go back to their home worlds? How did the Rangers come about? How are they organized? I would have liked if they took twice as many episodes to tell this story.

The second point is just the ending: either you are serious about making this bold move, but then you should do it. Or don’t touch it.

Oh, and what is up with pseudo-tech? Discovery had its stupid spore drive, what’s up with space orchids. That’s just dumb, Star Trek is supposed to be a scifi show where technology plays a major role.

If they had asked me to make a story here that starts with the same idea, I would have made bits less extreme (not every character needs to have had a severely traumatizing event) and explored the universe more. It would have helped to get one’s bearing, and understand how the Federation evolved from where it was when DS9 and Voyager ended to where it is now. I would have dialed back the super drama a bit, and added more nuance.

[Thorzdad]

I’d love to see it, but I’m not real keen on subscribing to yet another damned streaming service. It’s getting kind of ridiculous.
(Picard was only available in the US via CBS' own streaming service. Outside the US, it was on Prime.)

[subego]

CBS is the killer.

[OreoCookie]

Here in Japan it is on Amazon Prime. Weirdly enough, Discovery is on Netflix.

[subego]

Oh, you mean on services people actually want.

[Waragainstsleep]

This will spoil the whole thing.

 

There were aspects that made me think "This is proper Trek again" and aspects that made me thing, "OK this bit not so much."
I always hate when Trek uses poorly conceived tech as a plot driver. If you can rebuild a human with a transporter (and have been able to for decades) you can fix a "brain abnormality". Assuming the Borg didn't fix it years ago, which they would have.
Chopping up XBs for parts? Not having it, sorry. They can go through transporters, the parts can be replicated.
Retired Captain pulling 200 top of the line starships out of his arse for a mission the brass were dead set against ten minutes ago? Bit thin.
Wasn't a big fan of the alternate dimension of AI demons either tbh. Felt like a really feeble plot device. And the beacon somehow turned into a portal somewhere along the line.
Nice to see the old faces again, I thought they worked Data/Spiner in well but given what she was up to generally, it felt like Seven was shoehorned in a bit/still married to the exec producer/included for nostalgic sex appeal? As much as I love her, I'm not sure she was needed. Would have been more fun to have her and Picard and Hugh and Echip in some kind of XB support group or something.
Wasn't a huge fan of killing off returning minor characters either. Felt a bit like "this'll make it edgy like Game of Thrones but we obviously can't kill off the original crew".

I wasn't massively convinced by Data's re-death either. Would an android who craved humanity crave mortality? Doubt it. If you can recreate him from a single neutron, no-one could retrieve any remains from when he died first time and rebuild him? Its all very conveniently unrealistic. (I know a lot of Trek shot itself in the foot conceptually by having overpowered tech in the first place but it still bothers me somehow).

I noticed Picard seemed to let the Doc off her murder charge at the end too.

Finally, at one point I thought they had destroyed the Federation (or nearly) but it seems like it wasn't so bad when they turned up in Ep10. What with the synth ban (massively out of character reactionism) and the reasons Picard retired in the first place. I hate when temporary custodians dismantle years of world building to drive a story that isn't as epic as they hope it is anyway. Its a huge mistake for any franchise.

[andi*pandi]

I am hoping to watch soon; there is the free preview but I wanted the kids to see TNG first. They are more star wars kids and aren't that keen. Perhaps TOS was a mistake... we never even got as far as The Trouble with Tribbles.