1x10 Et in Arcadia Ego (2)

Still processing what I've just watched. Satisfied ? Can't say I am.

It would have been better had Picard really died. And I mean that with all the respect and love I have for the character and the actor. What sense does it make to have an emotional last scene and even showing how they all deal with his death and then, è voila, he's back. Then come up with a bunch of explanations why he's still old and why he will die because, that's clearly what he wants. I know he wasn't about to die with a second season already confirmed (althought right now I think it will be a long time before that happens) or that someone else would play a younger version of him (Tom Hardy, anyone ?).

The battle between the Romulans and the flowers really looked awesome but the stand-off with the Federation was a bit of an overkill. To many ships for a TV screen, they were literally just dots. A little bit too much of a wow-factor. And, like the cavalry always does, they arrived in the nick of time. The whole solution of all the problems presented at this point was to easy as everything just conveniently falls into place. They get into the compound, Soong sees the memory and has a little thingy to just shut Sutra down. I expected a little bit more creativity.

All bad then ? No. The scenes between Picard and Data were really great for an old time TNG fan. And even the conversion Picard had with Jurati (who ultimately redeemed herself) about what it means to live - I liked that very much and would have loved to see more of that in general.

The whole story itself would have been great for a 2 1/2 hour (final) TNG movie. Because that is what it felt like in the end. It tries to appeal to a larger audience while using the lore but ignoring the Vision of Star Trek.