Picard - S3 Episode VOX
Apr. 14th, 2023 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWorking my way through Picard S3 - it's a mixed bag. Saw both Surrender and VOX tonight.
It has two problems, 1) a blatant Marty Stu (there's something about Beverly Crusher's kids that leads to Marty Stus...) 2) Annoying villain. Although that does switch, except it's confusing, if you watched the previous seasons.
However, the original cast coming together as the leads is well worth the ride. I'd missed them. And they are all old like the OST in the movies were, these, are thin with gray hair.
* Jack Crusher as someone stated on Twitter is a blatant Marty Stu, but the actor sells it and makes him likable. (He's a better actor than Will Wheaton.)
In this, we learn why the changelings wanted him so desperately and saw him as a weapon, also why they took Picard's biological body. The syndrom that Picard had, which Jack inherited - it turns out - was just a symptom of Borg DNA coding in Picard's body - put there by the Borg. Jack inherited that DNA code - and it has made him a transmitter of sorts for the BORG.
Picard's DNA coding was taken by the changelings and inserted in the transporter DNA sequencing of all of the Starfleet ships - and as a result, anyone under 25 or 35, not sure which, is automatically assimilated into the BORG, once Jack flips the switch.
* Good news? We got rid of Amanda Plummer's Viadic, who was annoying. Amanda Plummer irritates me as an actress. Always has. Doesn't matter the role, I find her annoying. Plus we also got rid of the changelings, which were villains that I was never found of. My difficulty with DS9 was that I only liked three of the characters on that series - Sisko, Kira, and I think the doctor, until the doctor got really dark. So it was really just Sisko, his son Ben, and Kira. That's not enough to keep watching. And they weren't on that often.
STNG - I liked everyone but Worf.
Voyager - I liked everyone but the two characters who left early on.
It's all about the characters for me. Well for the most part. Plotting on Star Trek, much like Star Wars and Doctor Who for that matter, has never been stellar. But I'm okay with that.
* Bad News? The Borg is back yet again. I'm not surprised. The two main through threads on Star Trek Next Generation were Data and the Borg. The other one was Q. They wrapped up the Q thread in S2. Leaving the Borg (which I stupidly thought was also wrapped up in S2).
The confusing bit about this season - is that in S2, the Borg were changed by Dr. Angus, who merged with the Borg Queen, and changed the Borg to be less nasty and more helpful. So, why are they evil again? Is this a separate cube? And how is it that this Queen is around, when she was killed previously?
See what I mean about bad plotting? They do try to build up to it - I guess, but instead we merely examine various sides of the Borg in each Season. In Season 1 - the Borg are shown as victims of the Romulans, who are torturing the poor Borg survivors or previous Borg. And studying them. (Similar to Viadiac wanting revenge for being treated in a similar manner by the humans - when the changelings were tortured during the Dominion War.) In Season 2 - the Borg Queen is going to be executed by Picard - the Borg Slayer, until they go back in time to fix their authoritarian future, and Dr. Agnes merges with the Borg Queen in order to fix the time line and get them all home. Also still Borg, she offers to watch the portal or fissure to ensure that nothing hazardous emerges from it.
Now, in S3, Picard's son by Beverly, turns out to include Borg DNA, which had been inserted into Picard, and killed Picard (Song in S1 - transferred Picard's consciousness and mind to a positronic body, so he was no longer infected by the Borg, but kept Picard's original body for analysis - which was stolen by the Changeling's who had formed an alliance with the Borg.
See? Bad plotting. And it all hinges on Beverly and Picard's kid? Ugh. This reminds me a little of the bad plotting in Rise of Skywalker.
* Good News? The Original Cast of STNG is back together, Data conquered the annoying Lore, Ryker & Deanna escaped the Changelings with Worf and Raffi's help. Together - they escaped the Titan, with Picard and Beverly. And are all now on the Enterprise D. (I think they crashed the Enterprise E in the distant past? No, I'm wrong. The Enterprise D was badly damaged at some point, Geordi repaired it. The Enterprise E took its place in First Contact, then Worf allegedly captained it - and something happened, and they can't use it any longer. But we don't know why. Go here for the run down.
These little off-hand jokes and Easter Eggs is why shows like Star Trek, Buffy, Star Wars, etc have sizable fandoms. The writers leave gaps to give people stuff to play around with. Someone could write a novel or do a spin-off series. There's so much world-building in there, and character back story that we don't know.
Why bringing the Enterprise D back is a big deal? It's the favorite ship of a lot of fans. Fans on Twitter cried when they saw it again. It was destroyed in Generations, but was supposed to meet its end at the very end of S6. Replaced by the Enterprise E in First Contact. (It's interesting that the writers decided to destroy the Enterprise E off screen and have the D repaired.)
It's foreshadowed that the D is coming - by the end credits. This season is kind of a reunion more than anything else. The old gang coming back together again to save Starfleet and Jack Crusher.
I'm not quite sure what happened to Seven of Nine and Raffi. If they made it on board the Enterprise D too, or were left behind on the Titan. I'm thinking left behind to fight off the assimilated crew members along with Shaw, who is killed. Leaving only the old STNG crew to board the Enterprise D - and all the new cast members ...have been jettisoned at this point. This does explain why only Raffi and Seven were on board for S3 from the new cast mates.
I'm not sure how many episodes are left - it tends to be between 10-13. So it shouldn't be much more. And this is the last season. They are cancelling Picard with S3 (wrapping it up) and Discovery, continuing with Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and a new series - Starfleet. I think they are right to cancel Picard - Patrick Stewart is getting a bit old, and they've pretty much explored all they need to explore with his character at this point - also this season wraps things up nicely. Discovery? I lost interest with it after S3...so there's that. I may go back and finish the first season of Strange New Worlds, and continue with that.
I've got Paramount Plus mainly for the Star Trek stuff. I've not made it to the dark Western content yet, or really anything else. A few movies here and there.
There's too many tv shows - I keep losing track of them.
It has two problems, 1) a blatant Marty Stu (there's something about Beverly Crusher's kids that leads to Marty Stus...) 2) Annoying villain. Although that does switch, except it's confusing, if you watched the previous seasons.
However, the original cast coming together as the leads is well worth the ride. I'd missed them. And they are all old like the OST in the movies were, these, are thin with gray hair.
* Jack Crusher as someone stated on Twitter is a blatant Marty Stu, but the actor sells it and makes him likable. (He's a better actor than Will Wheaton.)
In this, we learn why the changelings wanted him so desperately and saw him as a weapon, also why they took Picard's biological body. The syndrom that Picard had, which Jack inherited - it turns out - was just a symptom of Borg DNA coding in Picard's body - put there by the Borg. Jack inherited that DNA code - and it has made him a transmitter of sorts for the BORG.
Picard's DNA coding was taken by the changelings and inserted in the transporter DNA sequencing of all of the Starfleet ships - and as a result, anyone under 25 or 35, not sure which, is automatically assimilated into the BORG, once Jack flips the switch.
* Good news? We got rid of Amanda Plummer's Viadic, who was annoying. Amanda Plummer irritates me as an actress. Always has. Doesn't matter the role, I find her annoying. Plus we also got rid of the changelings, which were villains that I was never found of. My difficulty with DS9 was that I only liked three of the characters on that series - Sisko, Kira, and I think the doctor, until the doctor got really dark. So it was really just Sisko, his son Ben, and Kira. That's not enough to keep watching. And they weren't on that often.
STNG - I liked everyone but Worf.
Voyager - I liked everyone but the two characters who left early on.
It's all about the characters for me. Well for the most part. Plotting on Star Trek, much like Star Wars and Doctor Who for that matter, has never been stellar. But I'm okay with that.
* Bad News? The Borg is back yet again. I'm not surprised. The two main through threads on Star Trek Next Generation were Data and the Borg. The other one was Q. They wrapped up the Q thread in S2. Leaving the Borg (which I stupidly thought was also wrapped up in S2).
The confusing bit about this season - is that in S2, the Borg were changed by Dr. Angus, who merged with the Borg Queen, and changed the Borg to be less nasty and more helpful. So, why are they evil again? Is this a separate cube? And how is it that this Queen is around, when she was killed previously?
See what I mean about bad plotting? They do try to build up to it - I guess, but instead we merely examine various sides of the Borg in each Season. In Season 1 - the Borg are shown as victims of the Romulans, who are torturing the poor Borg survivors or previous Borg. And studying them. (Similar to Viadiac wanting revenge for being treated in a similar manner by the humans - when the changelings were tortured during the Dominion War.) In Season 2 - the Borg Queen is going to be executed by Picard - the Borg Slayer, until they go back in time to fix their authoritarian future, and Dr. Agnes merges with the Borg Queen in order to fix the time line and get them all home. Also still Borg, she offers to watch the portal or fissure to ensure that nothing hazardous emerges from it.
Now, in S3, Picard's son by Beverly, turns out to include Borg DNA, which had been inserted into Picard, and killed Picard (Song in S1 - transferred Picard's consciousness and mind to a positronic body, so he was no longer infected by the Borg, but kept Picard's original body for analysis - which was stolen by the Changeling's who had formed an alliance with the Borg.
See? Bad plotting. And it all hinges on Beverly and Picard's kid? Ugh. This reminds me a little of the bad plotting in Rise of Skywalker.
* Good News? The Original Cast of STNG is back together, Data conquered the annoying Lore, Ryker & Deanna escaped the Changelings with Worf and Raffi's help. Together - they escaped the Titan, with Picard and Beverly. And are all now on the Enterprise D. (I think they crashed the Enterprise E in the distant past? No, I'm wrong. The Enterprise D was badly damaged at some point, Geordi repaired it. The Enterprise E took its place in First Contact, then Worf allegedly captained it - and something happened, and they can't use it any longer. But we don't know why. Go here for the run down.
These little off-hand jokes and Easter Eggs is why shows like Star Trek, Buffy, Star Wars, etc have sizable fandoms. The writers leave gaps to give people stuff to play around with. Someone could write a novel or do a spin-off series. There's so much world-building in there, and character back story that we don't know.
Why bringing the Enterprise D back is a big deal? It's the favorite ship of a lot of fans. Fans on Twitter cried when they saw it again. It was destroyed in Generations, but was supposed to meet its end at the very end of S6. Replaced by the Enterprise E in First Contact. (It's interesting that the writers decided to destroy the Enterprise E off screen and have the D repaired.)
It's foreshadowed that the D is coming - by the end credits. This season is kind of a reunion more than anything else. The old gang coming back together again to save Starfleet and Jack Crusher.
I'm not quite sure what happened to Seven of Nine and Raffi. If they made it on board the Enterprise D too, or were left behind on the Titan. I'm thinking left behind to fight off the assimilated crew members along with Shaw, who is killed. Leaving only the old STNG crew to board the Enterprise D - and all the new cast members ...have been jettisoned at this point. This does explain why only Raffi and Seven were on board for S3 from the new cast mates.
I'm not sure how many episodes are left - it tends to be between 10-13. So it shouldn't be much more. And this is the last season. They are cancelling Picard with S3 (wrapping it up) and Discovery, continuing with Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and a new series - Starfleet. I think they are right to cancel Picard - Patrick Stewart is getting a bit old, and they've pretty much explored all they need to explore with his character at this point - also this season wraps things up nicely. Discovery? I lost interest with it after S3...so there's that. I may go back and finish the first season of Strange New Worlds, and continue with that.
I've got Paramount Plus mainly for the Star Trek stuff. I've not made it to the dark Western content yet, or really anything else. A few movies here and there.
There's too many tv shows - I keep losing track of them.