Picard Season 3

[Ryujin]

Episode 5 continues the pattern of each episode being better than the last.

I do wonder though: they are making the Changelings so hard to detect that they seem unbeatable. Any victory without a solid (pardon the pun) rationale may seem like cheating or some deus ex machina.

Minor quibbles: So the Changeling's organs only revert to liquid form when dissected very finely, but their blood does not revert when separated from the body? That seems contradictory. Or are they producing a fake blood that is not part of them? And did Dr. Crusher say they had no DNA at all? Maybe that would be a way to detect them? Or is that only when they are dead?

And it was great to see Ro Laren again.

I vaguely recall that Changelings in DS9 started incorporating human blood, from.... sources, in order to get past the blood test thing. Someone who has watched more recently would likely know better.

 

[Stalker0]

Yeah man this show is getting good! I really enjoyed closing the loop on Ro, its nice to use this season as a vessel to tie up some emotional loose ends (Beverly, now Ro).

It also seems like this plot gives us a natural narrative vehicle for Picard to reach out to more Enterprise crew members, again he needs to find people he trusts, are competent, and he knows so well that he could trust they aren't changelings....so of course go to the old crew. That's a great way to go about it!

 

[MarkB]

So, in the UK Paramount+ has apparently got the rights back from Amazon. On the bright side, by signing back up with them through Amazon instead of directly I was able to get another 7-day free trial, and we're no longer getting episodes a day late.

I liked this one, though maybe not more than last week's. I was getting really tired of Jack's fake-out psychotic breaks by the end, hopefully we can move on from that now that he's actually talking about it.

I vaguely recall that Changelings in DS9 started incorporating human blood, from.... sources, in order to get past the blood test thing. Someone who has watched more recently would likely know better.

It was never confirmed that they actually did it, but after Sisko's dad refused blood screenings on principle, he pointed out that most likely the first thing a changeling infiltrator would do would be to find some poor soul and drain all his blood.

What was very much the case was that all those security procedures were never really much use. Changelings in fully humanoid form could fool tricorders and even detailed medical scans, and since they could change size and mass or even exist as vapour and could be perfectly comfortable in space, bypassing checkpoints would rarely be an issue for them. If anything, the changelings in this series aren't demonstrating nearly the full range of capabilities they did in DS9.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I slightly regret reading the description of episode 5, as it made me guess who was going to show up.

Spoiler

I wish Ro's stay wasn't quite so brief, but a multi-episode arc would have probably meant spoiling the surprise, and I wouldn't be surprised if getting killed off after one appearance was Michelle Forbes' condition for appearing, based on her being an actor who has a history of turning down work in the franchise and the fact that she didn't sit for an intervier or record any sort of behind-the-scenes bit for the Wil Wheaton aftershow (which made it kind of odd this week in barely acknowledging the most notable thing about the episode). Ah well, you take what you can get.

As irritating as the remarketing of nostalgia based properties can be these days, it's also nice to live in a world where a relatively minor unresolved plot thread from 30 years ago might still get resolution.

 

[bloodtide]

I see the strain of the super short streaming show. Epsiodes 1-4 are a nice slow burn, so slow they have a ton of time for people to sit around and talk in the same bar. But Episode 5 is just "oh, it's almost halfway over, we need to move the plot along."

It was nice seeing the classic named USS Intrepid. But it was SUPER odd that the episode just skips even the idea that the Intrepid even has a captain. Guess they could not even squeeze in a twenty second view screen call.

Spoiler: Starfleet Intelligence

It's.....sort of nice seeing Ro back. But it feels odd. Guess she gave up before the Jem'Harar slaughtered all the Mac'Qe...though I doubt the writers knew that, wink wink. I guess Starfleet Intelligence MIGHT have kept her rejoining Starfleet secret.......but it still seems like something Picard would hear in a 'top secret' breafing.

And it's a bit odd they don't reconnect for 30 years until they 'bump' into each other at random. She sure could have found Picard easy enough.

And how did Ro just "end up" on the Intreped with a changeling captain?

And her Fridge Death was sad.......

Spoiler: Aliens!

So, I'm thinking again the Changelings found the bug aliens from Conspricy and might be some sort of hybrids or something......I think it every time they show us the red root things....

 

[Hussar]

"Fridge death"? I suppose? Not really what I'd call a fridge death though. Characters do die. It happens. And, in this case, she gets a heroic death, not a meaningless one.

The show has gotten better and better. Cool story, decent acting, visually gorgeous. And evil Vulcan was very cool and an interesting twist, and, honestly, any time Kirk Acevedo is on screen, it's a good time.

I liked season 1 and 2, but, for a finale season for Picard, well, this is about as good as it is going to get.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I see the strain of the super short streaming show. Epsiodes 1-4 are a nice slow burn, so slow they have a ton of time for people to sit around and talk in the same bar. But Episode 5 is just "oh, it's almost halfway over, we need to move the plot along."

It was nice seeing the classic named USS Intrepid. But it was SUPER odd that the episode just skips even the idea that the Intrepid even has a captain. Guess they could not even squeeze in a twenty second view screen call.

Spoiler: Starfleet Intelligence

It's.....sort of nice seeing Ro back. But it feels odd. Guess she gave up before the Jem'Harar slaughtered all the Mac'Qe...

Well, she wouldn't be the first Maquis to have survived the Jem'Hadar. I mean, Eddington and Sisko also rescue a bunch of them, too. Wouldn't be that surprising if there were more.

---

I think the biggest difficulties with canon is really the whole Changling ability set isn't always consistent or at least clear. Sometimes Changlings in DS9 (or at least Odo, when he's accused of murdering someone he has investigated, and when he unwittingly turns into a monster) have DNA, sometimes they seemingly don't.
Ultimately, it seems weird that it's hard to detect a changling masquering as a glass if they have DNA, because glass doesn't have DNA (usually), so if you can detect DNA in your glass, it must be a changling. On the other hand, it might make sense if Changlings used DNA when replicating cells because that's kinda a proven way to "replicate" and "operate" organic bodies. But well, they don't in Picard.

 

[Ryujin]

Well, she wouldn't be the first Maquis to have survived the Jem'Hadar. I mean, Eddington and Sisko also rescue a bunch of them, too. Wouldn't be that surprising if there were more.

---

I think the biggest difficulties with canon is really the whole Changling ability set isn't always consistent or at least clear. Sometimes Changlings in DS9 (or at least Odo, when he's accused of murdering someone he has investigated, and when he unwittingly turns into a monster) have DNA, sometimes they seemingly don't.
Ultimately, it seems weird that it's hard to detect a changling masquering as a glass if they have DNA, because glass doesn't have DNA (usually), so if you can detect DNA in your glass, it must be a changling. On the other hand, it might make sense if Changlings used DNA when replicating cells because that's kinda a proven way to "replicate" and "operate" organic bodies. But well, they don't in Picard.

They may be sort of haphazardly incorporating some of the lore from the fluidic entities from "Voyager", who took on solid form well enough that they convinced themselves they were actually the crew of Voyager, and "going home."

 

[MarkB]

Well, she wouldn't be the first Maquis to have survived the Jem'Hadar. I mean, Eddington and Sisko also rescue a bunch of them, too. Wouldn't be that surprising if there were more.

---

I think the biggest difficulties with canon is really the whole Changling ability set isn't always consistent or at least clear. Sometimes Changlings in DS9 (or at least Odo, when he's accused of murdering someone he has investigated, and when he unwittingly turns into a monster) have DNA, sometimes they seemingly don't.
Ultimately, it seems weird that it's hard to detect a changling masquering as a glass if they have DNA, because glass doesn't have DNA (usually), so if you can detect DNA in your glass, it must be a changling. On the other hand, it might make sense if Changlings used DNA when replicating cells because that's kinda a proven way to "replicate" and "operate" organic bodies. But well, they don't in Picard.

Part of it is that Odo just isn't that good at shape changing, at least for purposes of infiltration. He's both young and poorly trained compared to the Founders.

So yeah, there are some inconsistencies, but a lot of that is that what's true for Odo's capabilities isn't necessarily true for other changelings.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So, in the UK Paramount+ has apparently got the rights back from Amazon. On the bright side, by signing back up with them through Amazon instead of directly I was able to get another 7-day free trial, and we're no longer getting episodes a day late.

Note that in the UK they are actually still on Amazon Prime as well, just a day late. That's where I'm watching them.

"Fridge death"? I suppose? Not really what I'd call a fridge death though. Characters do die. It happens. And, in this case, she gets a heroic death, not a meaningless one.

Yeah, @bloodtide is just using the term completely wrong, as a matter of cold fact. She died an absolutely classic macho heroic self-sacrifice death and resolved her emotional arc. It's a death any male character might equally have - indeed it's a death classically given to macho male military characters - "It's too late for me - I'll buy you some time!".

or even exist as vapour and could be perfectly comfortable in space

I'm 98% sure both those capabilities are non-canon (or not "alpha" canon rather), and come from the capabilities of changelings in books rather than in any on-screen Trek.

I do wonder though: they are making the Changelings so hard to detect that they seem unbeatable. Any victory without a solid (pardon the pun) rationale may seem like cheating or some deus ex machina.

So far they've been shockingly and bizarrely good at explaining things that raise questions like "Why is the Holodeck working?" "Why didn't that Changeling collapse into goo?" "Why can't they just beam her off?" and so on. It's a level of continuity and actual explanations that we've not really seen much since DS9 (in Trek). So I expect whatever explanation they have it'll be reasonable enough - it may just be a new scanner or a poison or a phaser set weirdly or something.

Personally I was delighted to see Ro Laren again, I always thought she was one of the best characters from TNG, particularly because she caused so many not-easily-resolved issues for Picard, and they closed her arc really well. Also who knew you "go John Wick" with a phaser? Even if the fact that I started thinking of that as "sicko mode" did undermine the gravity of Jack's horror somewhat!