[HoodieDM]

Sir Patrick Steward is a big dog lover. That breed is banned in the U.K. and he personally requested Picard should have a dog and it should be that breed. Kind of interesting how he can influence the written story and change it with a little personal touch.

He's rescued 2 pits already recently that are his dogs. That's why it's a pit.


SPOILERS:

As for the show, it's great first episode! It's going to be like the movies. Some puzzle/problem solving, some action, some wonderful shots! But here's the thing, it's going to be a series, so that means CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! We had multiple seasons for these characters to develop by the time we got to the movies, but all the new movie plot characters always fell short (except for the Borg queen b/c they did so well linking it to TNG). Now we won't get that!

The people who want "classic" Trek aren't going to get that anytime soon. Discovery is trying that, I just don't care for the writing. To be honest, the best classic Trek feel series is The Orville. But people are just rubbed the wrong way b/c its #1 "not" Star Trek and #2 its from the creator of Family Guy. *shrug* I can't help you.

But if you honestly can't enjoy the fan service in this film for making you feel something, then maybe you're a basic synthetic? Anyone whose done the research prior to this episode, knew it wasn't going to be go to a distant world, meet a new alien race, and somehow the writers force in a modern moral story to it. This will be more like Firefly, meets Blade Runner, meets classic spaghetti western, all wrapped up in the Star Trek universe with some great fanservice splashes here and there!

~D

[Faithful Reader]

*checks to see where it's streaming*

US, CBS.. ok... UK and Aus, Amazon Prime - hey, I've got that...

Canada.. Crave. *headdesk*

Make sure you bang your head really hard.

Just as TNG spend a good hour building characters after the Best of Both Worlds two-parter instead of rushing right into the action, Remembrance is a great hour leading us into the main action. Picard has started his journey and still has to assemble (and meet) his crew. It would take a lot to pull him away from his life, and avenging Data's honor would do it. Glad Spiner came back even after famously asking to be killed off.

The supporting cast is strong. Allison Pill is solid in her one scene as Dr. Jurati. The vacant office is surprisingly ripped from the headlines, something Trek really has a hard time pulling off. She had a great scene holding her own and you can tell she was an expert in the field along with being dissatisfied with her status quo. Briones pulls double duty as Dahj and Asher. As the former, she had a lot of the action in this, though one scene conveniently had a bag obscuring her head. I imagine she isn't gone since we got so much about her background, including her mother, which just asks more questions. As the later, we got a brief scene at the close of the episode, including someone for whom she can exposit to the audience. Her partner, Narek, got a shorter end of the stick, but one supposes we'll learn more about them as the season progresses.

But the focus is Picard. You see him going all around to solve the problem and he is on screen for at least ninety percent of the time. He hasn't had a big dust up with Starfleet yet, but it's coming. He was subdued in his interview with the reporter, who not only crossed the line, but danced on it. It's not usual that the lead actor of a series is this strong right off the bat, but Stewart just slipped right back into his shoes.

The show looks amazing. We won't be at Chateau Picard all season, but we got some amazing landscapes, a rarity with Trek.

This is setting the stage. Screeners indicate that the prologue is the fifst three episodes, but they are doing great job thus far.

So your head banging will be worth it, Allen!

and not in the jj abrams / discovery kind of way.

You do realize that there is a decent overlap behind the camera between this and Discovery.

- the dog named Number One was a bit on the nose.

Not just that, but it will be hard for First Edition to portray him a card.

I feel that, in the case of Picard, it will end up being pew-pew a little more often than it needs to be.

There were only two major actions sequences in this episode, right? The one at the top of the episode in Dahj's apartment and her 'abduction' later (going to say that until I see a body!). Pretty good for an episode, especially since they were able to cheat the first one by obscuring the faces of the attackers and defender.

But here's the thing, it's going to be a series, so that means CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!

There's a lot of that going around today. Most of these series on streaming platforms (and for that matter, basic cable) are structured like a movie. A buddy watched the first hour of Paul Rudd's Living with Yourself and thought it was a good first act of a Movie. Let's face it, Ryan Murphy makes a living with that kind of concept. If we can get more character moments, what do we have to lose.

Discovery is trying that, I just don't care for the writing.

Again, many of the writers are the same. The show was pitched by Kirsten Beyer, one of the writers on Discovery. The only credited writer who doesn't have a tie to Discovery is James Duff, wrote for Enterprise.

[Takket]

Just saw the episode and liked it a lot! Picard is back in the Trek I've wanted since Voyager went off the air. I grew up watching the 2300s and Trek's frequent visits to the past pre-Kirk era just doesn't hold the same fascination for me.

Spoilers:

The episode was a lot of fun. I agree with what was said earlier that I don't care much for seeing women hit quite so violently as Dahj was at the beginning. and frankly, I've seen enough of hand to hand fight scenes where one person takes on 10 with a bunch of acrobatic moves and such. This isn't a complain about Picard, just a complaint about TV in general. Modern fighting on TV is almost comically absurd these days. This is the same problem i have with another serious that I LOVE, the Mandalorian. But I understand this is a byproduct of modern viewers. TV will produce what people want to watch.

Love the "quantum archives" and "index". I want a Ent-D that only holds 2 personnel from the beginning dream LOL I was making dream cards in my head! The story sucked my right in and I also didn't see a body when Dahj went up in flames either! The Romulan seemed to SPIT in her which made her start to dissolve. Did anyone else notice that???

The Romulans were always my favorite trek bad guys so good to see they are back following their homeworld going bye-bye in Trek 2009 (I hated that LOL)

Love the recall of Bruce Maddox. Wonder if he will show up??? Lots of mysteries to answer already. Dahj's sister KNOW that she has a twin? What are the Romulans doing in that cube, and does the Federation know about it? Is Dahj alive? Can Data really be "reconstituted" from one neuron? Why did the synths attack Mars? What is the deal with the servants living with Picard? Is there an Enterprise-F flying around in this time, and who is the Captain? I bet it is the next Dax host after Ezri!!!!!!

[monty42]

Now here's something you don't hear all day:

I thought it was ok.

[BCSWowbagger]

As someone who hated Discovery and still thinks it's a bad show that should probably just end:

This was good! I mean, fine, yeah, I like Jean-Luc Picard, nostalgia factor, etc etc, but the actual story was pretty interesting, and I like what I saw of the worldbuilding. Also some very intriguing ideas hinted at so far. My favorite character so far may be Picard's

male Romulan butler, actually.

I think it's kind of ridiculous / awesome that we are inevitably going to see Bruce Maddox, of all people, this season. Someone go find Brian Brophy!

[MidnightLich]

I think it's kind of ridiculous / awesome that we are inevitably going to see Bruce Maddox, of all people, this season. Someone go find Brian Brophy!

So, funny story about that spoiler tag, hidden under its own spoiler tag:

I met him! A few years ago, Rogue, JD, and I road tripped up to LA to see a Star Trek musical put on by one of the colleges. And guess who was the director? Brian Brophy! JD and Rogue knew that, apparently, but I didn't. JD even got some autographs. Wild!

-crp

[BCSWowbagger]

Ha ha, that's fantastic. (Does he get that a lot? He's not exactly Trek royalty, but certainly recognizable.)

And it means he's still active! So I guess we will definitely 100% be seeing him.

[lotjx2]

My review. Unedited, Spoilers of a Mad Fan who is back home with this TNG family.

https://comicbookspotlight.com/2020/01/ ... -1-review/

[Zef'No]

My thought on the first episode (contains spoilers):

Star Trek Picard

First episode was ok. Nothing amazing but nothing terrible. Certainly better than Discovery.
Fairly decent as an introduction to the series with some nice bits, but some things that didn’t work very well. Patrick Stewart was good and having them draw attention to his age and frailties rather than trying to cover them up was the best way of doing it.

My main issues are:

1) It still feels like it’s trying to tread old ground (again). It’s nice to nod back to old characters like Data, but having all that stuff featuring so prominently again seems unoriginal. Rights for artificial lifeforms is a trope as old as the sci-fi genre itself and has been done many times before. I’m not exactly thrilled to go over all that again. I am glad that Data remains dead though (and hopefully will continue to do so).

2) The pace was slow and a had a lot of exposition dump. This is not a terrible thing since it is certainly preferable than the alternative (eg. the Star-Wars-style explosions every twenty seconds and precious little of anything else). And I can largely forgive this for the first episode, but I do think quickening things slightly wouldn’t hurt. Part of the problem is that the episode essentially revolves around a character we handily know anything about and has not yet earned any special reason to care for. I would have liked to have been introduced to some of the other characters earlier, perhaps cutting between different story threads to maintain variety. I’m confident this will improve moving forward.

3) Pseudo-scientific technobabble. Creating an advanced android from just one tiny bit of programming? Doesn’t seem very plausible. If we must have all these androids, they need to be explained in a more logical way than this engram cloning nonsense.

4) The way the aliens speak and even they way they look doesn’t always feel as futuristic as it did in TNG. The Romulan with the Irish accent, the scene with Dahj and her boyfriend, and the way Narek was at the end - some of it draws me out of the story and feels almost more like a contemporary soap opera.

5) Story seems a bit convoluted and glosses over things which doesn’t make sense. Why would Maddox go to the effort of making an android that looks like a painting Data did decades earlier? How come Dahj is able to track Picard and get to his exact location so easily? What happened after the stair fight, how did Picard get back home and why did he not have to answer questions from the authorities? Why is everyone obsessed by a very unremarkable necklace of a type that can be found almost anywhere? I’m also sick of the lone super-ninja beats up an army with her kung fu moves thing too, and that superman-leap up the stairs was silly.

6) Probably my biggest issue: show don’t tell. - It’s an important rule of filmmaking but is patently ignored here. The Romulan supernova, the attack on Mars - these are things integral to the story and seem like interesting events we want to see, but all we really get are people talking about them. This approach will not appeal to the casual viewer. I’ve read the comics and seen the short treks and whatnot so I know where they’re coming from, but a lot of people will watch this and have very little idea what is going on.

7) There is a sense that certainly some Federation citizens suddenly feel very xenophobic and unjustly hostile towards Romulans (as demonstrated by the reporter). This doesn’t sit right with me; by this time the Federation are supposed to be enlightened, embracing of other cultures and so on. The kind of attitude demonstrated here seems unfounded and out of place. Why hate the Romulans? - They were allies during the Dominion war and Nemesis made it clear they were interested in peace. It’s almost reminiscent of Styles’ reaction in Balance of Terror, but his attitude is at least explicable in the aftermath of the Earth/Romulan war, but nothing like that exists here, there is simply no reason for the anti-Romulan attitude expressed by that reporter.

8 ) Has everyone forgotten Julianna Tainer? - To all intents and purposes (even if not literally) she was a “flesh and blood android”. We don’t know the exact technology involved, but clearly there is at least some precedent for Picard to readily accept the idea that androids can be indistinguishable from humans.

9) So in this future, androids and other synthetic lifeforms are illegal. Yet nobody seems to have a problem with holograms (as demonstrated by Index). How does that work? Aren’t holograms just another form of AI? At the end of Voyager we learn that holograms (with at least the potential for sentience) are being used a fair bit in the Federation, and it really didn’t take much to turn the Doctor evil (Darkling, Equinox etc.), not to mention Moriarty on TNG. Wouldn’t holograms be just as likely to turn rogue as androids? Also, effectively outcasting an entire species based on the actions of a minority doesn’t seem to fit with the established morality of the Federation.

[Nerdopolis Prime]

My thought on the first episode (contains spoilers):

I´m afraid you expect too many answers in just one single episode. Lets give the mysteries time to unfold or the series will be very short.

[Takket]

So.... now I'm confused.......... read the hidden spoiler text....

i thought during the interview that they said Picard's fleet rescued 900 million Romulans, but Federation stopped when the synths destroyed his fleet at Mars.

But the memory alpha article says:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Attack_on_Mars

"With the destruction of the Romulan rescue armada, Starfleet ultimately abandoned its promise to aid the Romulan evacuation, a decision that infuriated Admiral Picard"

Also under Romulan sun:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Romulan_sun

"The Romulan Star Empire asked the United Federation of Planets for help, and although many felt that there were better uses for the Federation's resources than aiding its oldest enemy, the Federation chose to support the rescue effort. Jean-Luc Picard helped persuade the Federation, and left the USS Enterprise-E to command a rescue armada of ten thousand warp-capable ferries on a mission to relocate 900 million Romulan citizens to worlds outside the blast of the supernova. "

So the attempt to rescue any Romulans never happened? I must have misunderstood the interview scene because I thought Picard helped rescue the 900 million but was cut short of rescuing anyone else by the attack, and that is why he was pissed at Starfleet. Also the number 900 million makes no sense. There is no way in hell the population of Romulus and Remus is only 900 million. That number should be in the billions.

[Tim]

So.... now I'm confused.......... read the hidden spoiler text..

I'm pretty sure the first Memory Alpha article is wrong. The timing is not clear yet but those seem like two separate events.

But the memory alpha article says: "With the destruction of the Romulan rescue armada, Starfleet ultimately abandoned its promise to aid the Romulan evacuation, a decision that infuriated Admiral Picard" https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Attack_on_Mars

This doesn't seem right.

The Destruction of Romulas, and rescue armada, happened 12 years earlier in 2387. Children of Mars Attack happened sometime after, hasn't been made clear when, but Picard was Admiral in Starfleet until then. I think they are mostly unrelated events, other then a larger trend of Starfleet/Federation being more racist against others and Picard disagreeing.

Also, the star is unexpectedly suddenly about to go supernova and you need a rescue armada to save them --- you don't go back to Utopia Planetia to build an armada from scratch. You re-purpose ships already out there. So that wouldn't make sense.

Problem: In Ep 1 Laris, in one of the awkward rushed expositions, says they've been there (the vineyard?) reminding Picard to wash his hands for 10 years. It's also clearly a big anniversary of the Destruction of Romulas, and the writing seems to imply its the 10th anniversary. Which doesn't add up. Maybe It's really 12th anniversary?

So best timeline I have as of now is:

2379 - Nemesis
2387 - Romulas Destroyed, Picard Armada saved a bunch but Federation in end turns back on refugees.
~2389 - Rogue Synths destroy Utopia Planetia for reasons I'm sure will be at least partially sympathetic. Leading to:
- Federation bans Synths/Androids.
- Picard leaves Starfleet and settles down in La Barre vineyard, with friends Laris and Zhaban.
2399 - Episode 1: 12th Anniv of Romulan Attack and ~10 years since Picard left Starfleet.

But it's also possible the attack is a little later. Laris' "10 years" could have been just since they were friends and he didn't retire until a few years later. But that would be really weird wording in the context of the exposition.

[SudenKapala]

I'll use Zef'No's comments as stepping stones for my own opinions, since I wanted to answer some of his questions anyway.

It still feels like it’s trying to tread old ground (again). It’s nice to nod back to old characters like Data, but having all that stuff featuring so prominently again seems unoriginal. Rights for artificial lifeforms is a trope as old as the sci-fi genre itself and has been done many times before. I’m not exactly thrilled to go over all that again.

Actually, I totally agree here; and been done to the max in S:AAB as well.

I am glad that Data remains dead though (and hopefully will continue to do so).

Objectively I'd agree, but I love Data so much that I don't agree.
What I find quite annoying is that they created the Countdown comic series as a canonical tie-in to The Future Begins (2009), which I had to get used to -- and now they throw it overboard!?

Why would Maddox go to the effort of making an android that looks like a painting Data did decades earlier?
Because she's his "daughter" and he already has a daughter once -- Lal -- and Maddox wanted to honour that heritage? Feels not unofficial to me.
How come Dahj is able to track Picard and get to his exact location so easily?
She hacks into the Security and sensor grids, forging clearance as she goes, displaying Data-like CompSkill? That felt really straightforward to me.
What happened after the stair fight, how did Picard get back home and why did he not have to answer questions from the authorities?
Having seen it only once, I do wonder about the first 2 of those questions. The 3rd: the authorities may have wanted to cover it up somehow, that's how I first interpreted those seeming inconsistencies. But as was said before: we can't expect all the answers in the 1st ep!

In all, I didn't like the plot so much yet as I did the pacing and atmosphere. It can go everywhere from here, still -- it can get more awesome, or can go sideways.
I was nervous about the comparisons between the writing teams -- still haven't seen DIS (I could explain why I did start to watch PIC anyway, even though it's not finished yet), but I trust some/many of the comments, and I sort of dread what they did with it. (I'll see it soon, I reckon -- and, well-prepped, I'll make up my own mind. Hurray for lowered expectations! I might even come to love DIS!)
OTOH, they may have learnt from all the comments, from Sir Patrick, and from Michael Chabon. Who knows. I'll be in the corner there, sulking -- another week to go, why did I let myself get talked into not binging this? -- and hoping for the best.

As beginnings go, this could've been far worse!

[jadziadax8]

My favorite character so far may be Picard's male Romulan butler, actually.

It took me a minute to figure out why all the Vulcans were showing emotions.

[Nerdopolis Prime]

My favorite character so far may be Picard's male Romulan butler, actually.

It took me a minute to figure out why all the Vulcans were showing emotions.

LOL