I thought it was great for the most part. Bringing in Seven only to take her back out before the Borg cube was a dumb-ass decision and the play acting got a little silly for me. I suspected the doctor chick was a bad guy.
"Revenge is not justice". I always say Revenge is the purest form of justice.
[6.8/10] What the hell does this show want to be? Is it a gritty modern sci-fi show where people get tortured and characters glug bourbon and shoot up seedy nightclubs? Is it a zany heist type deal where our heroes go on light, quasi-comic adventures? Is it a frank reflection on addiction and loss? Who the hell knows? Definitely not the writers.
That said, this is still watchable and mostly fine. There's something almost Poochie-esque about the new badass loner version of Seven, but it's still nice to see the character back in action, and I particularly appreciate that the show has the two of them comment (however cheesily) about recovering from assimilation as the two most prominent characters who've done it. The heist element is fun until it devolves into pained exchanges about whether hope or mercy can exist. And while the show again spits out a heap of lore like there's no tomorrow, I'm at least intrigued by what Jurati's end game is, so that's something.
The one thing that genuinely frustrates me is killing off Icheb in three minutes. I know the Borg Babies weren't everybody's favorite part of Voyager, but still. He was a significant character with a major arc on the series. Dispensing with him when the episode barely out of the gate, all for a single-episode, bog standard revenge plot that wasn't even particularly good, is bothersome.
Overall, this show continues to be watchable enough, but far from a well-oiled machine that comes anywhere close to matching the heights or intrigue of its predecessor.
A hologram within a holodeck simulation of a chateau on a ship.
Popup ads that remind us the Tribbles are food and look like Pixar cartoons.
A man who isn't allowed to smoke on his own ship.
Seven of Nine without her catsuit being snarky to Picard for whatever reason she has.
Space techno and space pimps with a space pirate who overacts more than he should.
Apparently Quark has a bar on the BladeRunner planet as expected.
More space drugs.
Picard, the frenchman who can't speak french, tries to speak french again.
Elnor clearly is st0pid Data while the blondie with the eyes that almost touch eachother is not-so-smart Tilly.
A lot of back and forth editing that didn't make sense AND was annoying/confusing.
A lot of moving from here to there from there to here from nowhere to nowhere.
There's a lot more wrong with this episode, with this show and with Nu Trek. Goddammit
I begin to wonder if @startrekcbs has lost all knowledge about scripts and pacing.
Where Discovery breathlessly rushed through plots for complete seasons within few episodes, Picard just keeps stumbling forward providing little of value.
In this episode we learned minimally about the background of Agnes, Seven of Nine and Raffi. While the men Picard, Elnor and Rios behaved like clowns, providing exactly nothing.
The greater story arc? Nothing new, Maddox came and left. The crew is simply forwarded to their next destination. The end.
Well, judging from the comments, there is one thing we can always count on from "fans" of the Star Trek Universe, and that is nostalgically judgmental, pig-headed, fickleness.
According to the nattering nabobs, Next Generation O.G, Number One, Will Riker, the most excellent Jonathan Frakes, knows "nothing" about the Trek Universe, or pacing, or storytelling, and even less than all the basement dwelling fan fiction wannabe writers on the interwebs, who I guess would much prefer rehashed characters and storylines from their formative years, when they first got the "feels" for all that juicy federation Utopian goodness, and, like Brandon from "Galaxy Quest" are hoping that someday it will all prove to be real, and they can save the ship and the crew, if those dastardly devils at CBS would just let them write the scripts, or at least give them script approval.
Sidebar: A friend and myself were talking the other day about some of the cool cell phones we had in the past, that are now obsolete. Brick Phones, flip phones, (with pull out antenna's), phones with slide out keyboards, Blackberry's, the ubiquitous "IPhone" and all its clones, 3G, 4G, and now 5G. The thing is, as COOL as some of those phones were, technology moves ever forward, and, unfortunately, things become obsolete, unless of course you are a "hipster", Jethro Gibbs, Amish, or some other brand of Luddite. As nostalgic as it is to pine away for the high school sweet heart that got away, more often than not, when you finally see them at the 20 year reunion, they've put on 30 pounds and wouldn't recognize you save for your stick on name tag.
Star Trek TOS, The Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and yes even Enterprise, all got off to rocky starts, ALL had bad, OK, good and great episodes. And, while the original vision may have been created by Gene Roddenberry, dozens, if not hundreds of talented people have tried their hand at telling the stories THEY have wanted to tell, to move the franchise ever FORWARD., continuing the quest to BOLDLY go where no man (or woman, or non binary person of indeterminate color) has gone before.
Progress can sometimes be messy. Ford had the Mustang, and the Pinto. Chrysler made the Challenger, and the K Car. Pontiac made Burt Reynolds and the Trans Am, and neither are around anymore. The Star Trek Universe is just that....., a UNIVERSE. And I for one am willing to forgive a few missteps here and there, as long as they keep bringing us along.
As far as the episode. I think it was ALL about the characters motivations, losses, trying to recover from those losses, and then, finding a way to move forward, which sometimes means taking three steps backwards. Raffi reluctantly helped Picard because she decided to leave her drug addled pity party, and find the son she had all but abandoned. Her dedication to Jean-Luc and Star Fleets ideals, blinded her to the damage she was doing to her flesh and blood family until it was too late. Seven, realizing her nemesis was within her grasp, "assisted" Picard in his scheme to rescue Maddox, because she had unfinished business, whether or not that business met with star fleets code of conduct. Why? Because her hope and faith in humanity, which she has struggled with since her retrieval from the collective, was finally shattered, and she running on the rawest human emotion...., vengeance. I think her questions to Jean-Luc before she went full Pon Farr, were telling, as were his (2) replies.
And then there is Dr Jurati, I hoped it wasn't so, but, sadly it was. Made all the more poignant by the reveal of her past with Maddox, but more disturbingly, a motivation of the knowledge of something so horrible and appalling, that , she would take the drastic action she did.
We know that Soji is the so called "the destroyer", but, what if, like the Terminator, she can overcome her "programming" and self evolve? And if she cannot, and there are indeed more of her kind, what does this bode for Picard's mission to save her, and indeed Picard, when he must put his altruistic motivations to the ultimate test.
But then, maybe I'm over thinking this, and should have just fixated on the "bad accents" and "silly" costumes..., on second thought,..., nah, never mind.
Way too much conspiracy bullshit, treason and soap opera crap.
Not quite sure what to make of this. Felt a bit like a Bladerunner / Oceans 11 mix.
The relevant stuff for the general story happened in the last five minutes and even that came to no surprise, really. I don't know if Brian Brophy was even asked to again play Maddox but seeing how little time he would have gotten I could understand if he'd said: no. Other than that this was a short arc to re-introduce (?) Seven. Because I'm not sure we'll see a lot more of her. Personally I found their disguises a bit too flamboyant.
For sure they are throwing a lot of mythology into this to build bridges but it isn't always working like it should. Because either they are burning them immediately (Icheb) or they are not really walking over them (Picard and Seven talking about their assimilation).
As I mentioned before I don't mind this kind of episode in general but it seems to be taken up space that could be better served towards the main plot.
6/10
God what is going on with this show, this episode was just silly and predictable especially the men. It's just not that much fun everyone is really pissed off and everything is depressing and trauma as each episode grinds it's way to the end. And literally nothing really moves forward till the last 5 mins of each episode. They are killing long term characters off like they are nothing within minutes they have completely ruined 7 what the hella happened their, she was happy living her life with chakota and in love planing a life together well at least being in transporter rage of each other back on earth. Now 7's all Lesbian and pissed off kicking off at Picard whisky drinking vigilante...really...really.
Who by the way cared that little for Picard and the boy has just put a huge target on their backs all for a lovers revenge and betrayal that got her sorta kid killed. Fcuk Picard and crew and the mission that could save someone's life now and also uncover the biggest conspiracy to date.
One good thing this episode no brother and sister sick incest scenes so I guess something good came out of this mess and bull-crap that we have to grind through.
God can't wait to rap this all up so I can get back to proper exciting
Star Trek Discovery
A total Masterpiece and perfect in every single thrilling episode.
This was the most Star Wars thing I've ever seen in Star Trek and, as such, I am unable to rate this episode, since I can't quite figure out if the Star Wars flavour here is a good or a bad thing (I actually can, but I don't want to admit it).
Gutted that the Seven of Nine fanservice was nothing more than that. I mean, she's already gone...
Anyway, it was a fun, brainless episode.
Well, THAT was a surprise; NOT!
German sync of this episode is still asynchron
Seven isn't as cool as I thought/hoped. She's definitely still cool but not that awesome. Something about her character or acting just doesn't really convince me.
Agnes is still funny and lovely though. Well, until the end that is... :o Her reaction to that ad was funny, her panic (psychiatric emergency) that triggered the EMH. She felt so innocent. So that twist at the end was quite surprising to me. I didn't think she'd be capable of something like that. At least she really didn't seem to like it though! I really wonder now what they've shown her.
Elnor's "Are we still pretending?" was great xD
And Seven's "Hi." seemed fitting. Bjayzel should've better used that time while Seven was away :P
Picard and Raffi made a great team again for a brief time. I'm happy that Raffi (the stowaway :D) is still there but I also feel bad for her. She also didn't seem to really try to win her son back though. I mean, what did she expect would happen?!? Apparently she thought of a warm and happy welcome :o :D
Anyway, the team is still together but I guess Agnes won't be much fun now.
The last scene is completely pointless. Since they already found out everything they wanted from him, killing him didn't make any sense.
“I didn’t get one?” LOL.
I'm already noticing that the supporting cast is carrying a LOT more of the weight than it was at the beginning. I wonder if that was the plan all along or if they quickly realized that Stewart doesn't have the stamina to do as much as they had been originally planning...
The end intrigues me, even if they were warning
All Right! Now this is starting to feel like I'm watching a Star Trek.
Little bit of action finally starts happening.
The previous 4 episodes were basically all back story and setup. Now things are finally starting to happen.
Love the kick ass Number 5, she always makes the show much better.
If the show can keep up this momentum its going to have a good run.
I'm gonna die mad about Icheb, he's my favourite boy and I'm pissed
That was a kick in the gut not even four minutes in...
Planet "Forgotten" is a little bit fitting.
Decent episode, though I wish they hadn't recast Icheb and Maddox. I understand actors can't, or won't return but it's still a shame.
Shout by Reiko LJVIP 6BlockedParentSpoilers2020-02-22T21:07:15Z
Holy shit that was a lot to unpack!
Give me that dark, badass Seven though! Gutted what's driven her to this point mind you. Also yeah I shipped the hell out of Seven and Janeway back in the day but didn't think ST would ever actually do anything NEAR that direction with either of them. So imagine my surprise to see hella gay coding for Seven and this Borg scavenger woman. I didn't imagine that right??
In other news, Agnes! Woah! What's happening there! Wouldn't have pipped her for romance with Maddox. He looked more like her dad. Would have been even more impactful and end if he were!
Just what has she seen!