Picard Season 3

[Ryujin]

I think this part is bang on the money, its why they need Picard's corpse not his positronic body and also they need Jack, that syndrome is defintely key to something

I would say it's no coincidence that Jack's visions look like a Changeling oozing out of his surroundings. When I first saw them, I thought that we would find out that he's actually a Changeling, himself, and that was some sort of artifact of resisting the Great Link.

 

[MarkB]

I would say it's no coincidence that Jack's visions look like a Changeling oozing out of his surroundings. When I first saw them, I thought that we would find out that he's actually a Changeling, himself, and that was some sort of artifact of resisting the Great Link.

I've been thinking in a different direction, but still DS9-related. Pah Wraiths.

 

[Erekose]

But in-setting, it surely has as much of a place as the others shown, and it's as much "Picard's Enterprise" as the A is "Kirk's Enterprise" (we only actually see either used in the last few films of eithers career).

In a Starfleet museum, it makes sense that they’d have Kirk’s starship. While it would make more sense for it to be 1701 rather than 1701-A I think there’s an in-setting reason why that wouldn’t be possible

 

[Ryujin]

In a Starfleet museum, it makes sense that they’d have Kirk’s starship. While it would make more sense for it to be 1701 rather than 1701-A I think there’s an in-setting reason why that wouldn’t be possible

Given how they started running every ship into a planet, at some point, I'm surprised there was anything on display at all. Most are probably blow-up dolls.

The Practical Joker (episode)

After passing through a strange space energy cloud, the Enterprise's computer gains an artificial intelligence that is relentlessly bent on making practical jokes on the crew. "Captain's log, stardate 3183.3. Our present mission: a routine geological survey of type 4 asteroids is nearing...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The Changeling plan is to destroy the Federation, right? The fiendish plot is to get "all" of Starfleet there for Founders Day, then blow up the Sol system and all the ships. No ships equals no Starfleet equals no Federation.

No-one knows that except the viewers, and only as of last episode!

Your post is phrased as if we've always known, and the characters know. Which is not true. It's also not universe-ending stuff. And all the characters know is that the changelings are up to no good - I think they suspect a major strike against the fleet of the Federation.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

One thing I notice about Trek starships is that they seem to become more 'streamlined' over the decades, from the original TOS enterprise through the refit, the D, the E, etc. I definitely prefer the more tall 'naval' silhouette of the earlier ships; they have more presence to me. But that's just a me thing. That said, I'm not clear why they would become more streamlined, as they operate in space. It's not like the evolution of cars and planes, which have to worry about air resistance. And the Borg certainly prove that streamlining in space is completely unneccesary. I guess it's just starship fashion trends?

The Kirk refit (ST1-3, and I guess the A in 5-6) is still the best looking Enterprise to me, though I love whatt hey've done with the earlier TOS Constitution class in Strange New Worlds. I'm such a starship nerd!

While space is pretty much vacuum, it still contains some stuff - radiation, random particles, the occassional micro-asteroid. And while it's very, very little, starships in Star Trek really fly fast, and all that stuff adds up. I might be just enough that if you fly at warp, it's cooler if you can reduce your cross-section against that a bit. If you consider that the deflector dish's job is to protect ships from that stuff, it makes sense to reduce the amount of surface it needs to protect.

Also, from a tactical perspective, if you chase someone, someone is chasing you, or you are intercepting them so they don't get from A to B, the front and the rear are probably the most and longest exposed to enemy weapon fire. If they come at you from the sides, you better turn towards them to fly past as quickly or possible, or turn away from them to fly away as quickly as possible. So it might be nice to lower your front and rear profiles as well.

There might also be reasons in the fictional mechanics of the warp drive that might make it desirable to be more "streamlined" - or maybe it's actually technological advancement that allows better streamlining (because you can make your warp bubble more enongated and still have it tightly around the ship, keeping it efficient) for the benefit of the aforementioned factors.

Of course, on the out-of-universe reason is - streamlining is an easy visual tell for people to identify something as "faster" or "more advanced".

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Maybe. Personally I think it's more likely that their media obnoxiously obsessed over "our lost crew in the Delta quadrant" for a couple years, that Voyager was an obligatory thing for every Trivial Pursuit edition for the next half century or so to have a question about, and that referencing "the Voyager incident" became a standard part of any entertainment playing on 2370s nostalgia.

I feel like this is such a narrow vision of the Federation, basically trillions of people and all they care about is the navy? I don't believe it. They routinely lose ships with larger crew complements and often in equally bizarre or far more tragic situations. I feel like it'd briefly been huge news when it got back, but not generally, and I think the only people obsessed would have been the sort of cranks who sit on mystery reddits today, or people who actually work at Starfleet (and/or were related to crewmembers).

Sort of like how many people know the name of Shackleton's expeditionary vessel, even today, off the top of their heads.

Define "many".

I'm a huge nerd, and I don't know that. If 1 in 50 primary English speakers knows that, I'd be shocked (I'm sure it's higher you focus solely on, say, white males aged at least 40 - but even then I'd be surprised if it was particularly high).

Worldwide? I'd guess it'd be more like 1 in 1000 at this point.

I suspect it would have been higher when actually happened, but then news was much more focused and far fewer events were reported, in the pre-24-7 news cycle era. Stuff took much longer to fade from the public consciousness. In the 24th century, with hundreds of worlds with their own concerns, one ship isn't going to last long in the news.

 

[bloodtide]

If they're storing famous old ships, it kind of feels like the Enterprise E should be there. Which would then be the obvious candidate.

The Enterprise E might still be an active starship....with maybe captain Molly O'Brian or such. If you watch the end credits, a panel says "Enterprise E". The same way we saw the "fleet museum" there.....

I think this part is bang on the money, its why they need Picard's corpse not his positronic body and also they need Jack, that syndrome is defintely key to something

No-one knows that except the viewers, and only as of last episode!

Your post is phrased as if we've always known, and the characters know. Which is not true. It's also not universe-ending stuff. And all the characters know is that the changelings are up to no good - I think they suspect a major strike against the fleet of the Federation.

The "Every ship in Starfleet" will be there has been said Episodes ago. It's true the End of the Federation won't "end" the universe.....but it's still a over done, in every Picard and Disco season of "the World Ending", again.

So I think I know the plan:

Ok....sigh....The changelings will gather all of Starfleet for Founders Day.....then....sigh...use the nanoprobes from Picards corpse, and use Jack Picard as Locutus Two Point Zero, to establish a subspace "Great Link" with every Starfleet ship "as they are now all connected by a internet or something that LaForge was opposed too" to assimilate all the ships and crews into a new Greater Great Link and then spread that across the Alpha and Beta quardants....and then the galaxy to make the Great Linked Gaia Galaxy.

 

[delericho]

The Enterprise E might still be an active starship....with maybe captain Molly O'Brian or such. If you watch the end credits, a panel says "Enterprise E". The same way we saw the "fleet museum" there.....

I thought we know the Enterprise F is going to appear, having been in the trailers?

Ok....sigh....The changelings will gather all of Starfleet for Founders Day.....then....sigh...use the nanoprobes from Picards corpse, and use Jack Picard as Locutus Two Point Zero, to establish a subspace "Great Link" with every Starfleet ship "as they are now all connected by a internet or something that LaForge was opposed too" to assimilate all the ships and crews into a new Greater Great Link and then spread that across the Alpha and Beta quardants....and then the galaxy to make the Great Linked Gaia Galaxy.

That sounds disturbingly plausible.

Also, if I were going to the most fan-servicing finale possible, I'd suggest that Picard ends up having to go against them, and the only fleet that is available and isn't in their link is all those museum pieces. Of course, they don't have enough people to crew them, so they'd have to go for hologram crewmembers, opening the door to cameos by literally anyone (and if you don't see them, the actor needn't even be alive - Prodigy featured Odo and Uhura in a recent episode). So maybe we see Archer back in command of his Enterprise and Sulu in the Excelsior (both of which were briefly shown). Or even Kirk himself.

Of course, in that scenario Picard would need a suitable command ship. Luckily, we know that the museum had an empty space, and Geordi was working on some secret project. For maximum fan service, presumably that project was a perfect replica of the Enterprise D.

 

[bloodtide]

Also, if I were going to the most fan-servicing finale possible,

Wait, that might not be enough fan service.

Sure, The Doctor from Voyager and Regenold Barkley show up with a holo army to crew all the ships. But why stop there? why not go full Doctor Who and DISCO...

So all the Romulan Exiles come back lead by Lairs as crew, PLUS all the synthetic people lead by Soji, PLUS the new happy borg lead by Queen Agnus and well, anything they can remember from TNG, like the Space Jellyfish Farpoint Aliens, The Children of Tann("Picard and Dalen at Aradrill"), The space whale worm things, maybe even Nagilum.