Picard Season 3

[billd91]

Presumably Starfleet is 100% aware of Shaw's "issues" (his starfleet psych profile was even referenced). Putting Seven as his first officer is an "interesting" choice.

Wil Wheaton hosts the actor, Todd Stashwick, on Ready Room and they provide some interesting analysis and context.

 

[Vael]

Presumably Starfleet is 100% aware of Shaw's "issues" (his starfleet psych profile was even referenced). Putting Seven as his first officer is an "interesting" choice.

Given that it was still a bit of a fight from Janeway and Picard to get Seven into uniform, no doubt there's probably an admiral or someone in personnel that might've done it out of spite. Or even just a "this might be good for both of them" naivete.

It's actually canonical, though still awkward. In Voyager they establish that the holodecks are on a separate power grid than the rest of the ship, and there's absolutely, positively no way that power can be transferred from them to anywhere else. Thus, regardless of how resource-starved Voyager gets in the Delta quadrant, they can still have holodeck episodes.

Which, given some of Voyager's holodeck episodes, wasn't a good thing, but I'll accept the rationale here. In general I've liked how Discovery and Picard have used the holodeck. Sure, it's a cost-saving mechanism out of universe, but the in-universe uses have been good, like Picard's vineyard in S1 on La Sirena's holodeck.

 

[Mallus]

I am ready for Star Trek: Shaw.

This season is taking the the best thing from the original films; mediations on mortality and the road not taken punctured by big screen space opera action. Not quite repeating the likes Khan so much as rhyming with it.

(loved the retcon-ish reason for powering a holodeck during crises)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Well that was a 10/10 episode of Star Trek, which it really didn't seem like it would be in the first few minutes.

It just hit basically every Star Trek TNG button systematically but in a very together way. I was also impressed by the characters actually acting like humans (you know what I mean), like people, not like, just characters. Especially the son - and the setup/payoff of Picard telling stories and stuff, absolutely genuinely well-executed. Picard saying Starfleet was the only family he needed was 100% believable in the situation, and his son leaving because of that was also felt like a thing that would happen.

I appreciated a lot of other little things too - the captain the spikey ship (sorry names are not my forte) being told off and told to go back in was fully what I expected because it seemed like she had an "Oh I naughty word up" vibe at the end of last episode. The whole changeling deal was decent and I liked that it was smart enough that it shot for its pot as soon as it had an angle. I feel like Sisko would have given them some ways to find it, but they were very low on power and I can't imagine every Starfleet ship has the phaser sweepers that they used to use sometimes in DS9, and the trap made sense. I went "What the hell?!" when the Holodeck was on, but Jack was usefully an outsider so they gave an explanation. Was it 100% believable? No. What it sufficiently plausible that I'll let them off. Absolutely.

I dunno what to say - that was just a good episode. I guess Picard took two seasons to warm up like TNG!

I guess like probably everyone I kind of love Shaw. I do feel like Starfleet may have messed up with its support Wolf-359 vets though! There are a lot of very scarred people out there!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Behind every incompetent Starfleet captain is an incompetent Starfleet admiral.

Have we ever seen a competent Starfleet admiral who wasn't either previously a lower-ranked character on a show, or up to no good?

 

[Horwath]

Have we ever seen a competent Starfleet admiral who wasn't either previously a lower-ranked character on a show, or up to no good?

Admiral Ross is probably the most capable of all, with only a touch of "non-official" methods.

 

[MarkB]

Have we ever seen a competent Starfleet admiral who wasn't either previously a lower-ranked character on a show, or up to no good?

I can't remember his name offhand, but the admiral Sisko served with after abandoning DS9, who basically spearheaded all of the Federation's efforts in the Dominion War, was both competent and honourable. I think we got a bit of dodginess in one Section 31 related episode, but we also had him standing up against Romulan strong-arm tactics, and refusing to toast the victory in the middle of the devastated Cardassia Prime.

Edith: Ninja'd by Horwath, who also got the name right.

 

[Ryujin]

Well Picard got to drop an F-Bomb. Odd way to go with the changelings. I wonder if that's a difference between the members of The Great Link and the rebel faction, or if they just wanted to make them look more.... gross?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Well Picard got to drop an F-Bomb. Odd way to go with the changelings. I wonder if that's a difference between the members of The Great Link and the rebel faction, or if they just wanted to make them look more.... gross?

I presume them looking really creepy is just 2023 SFX vs. 1990s SFX. I was interested that the one on the ship got shot dead but didn't collapse to gel (even though it seemed like it was about to). Also in an earlier episode when Worf shot to kill, he vaporized the changeling entirely which is what I was expecting. So I'm not sure if that was just an SFX oddity or means something.

 

[MarkB]

Well Picard got to drop an F-Bomb. Odd way to go with the changelings. I wonder if that's a difference between the members of The Great Link and the rebel faction, or if they just wanted to make them look more.... gross?

It's a reasonable upgrade to their appearance, given both improved CGI and a more mature rating. Makes it feel like they're still living beings, even in goo form.

The bucket was a little weird. A changeling could rest in pretty much any enclosed container, such as the various drawers Seven was rummaging through, or could just replicate a bucket as needed and then return it to the mass buffer afterwards.