OffThePost.org

Yeah, my wife and I are watching this but don't have the background either.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Quick recap (but still kinda long, sorry):

Commander Data sacrificed himself to save Captain Picard and his crewmates of the Enterprise in Star Trek: Nemesis 20 years ago when he blew up a Romulan/Reman weapon. He had downloaded his entire neural net previously into B4, a prototype version of himself. This was obviously meant as a possible way to bring back Data in case they ended up making another movie, but it turns out B4, at some point, broke down and was disassembled, and all but a shred of Data's memories were lost. It looks like Bruce Maddox, a cyberneticist who once almost had Data impounded for research purposes, somehow took that last shred of Data's "essence" and created at least two new androids. At least...that's the story that we are led to believe, there could be a twist coming later.

In the events depicted in the 2009 Star Trek movie, the sun around which orbited Romulus and Remus was going supernova, we find out in the series that Picard, now an Admiral, put together a massive effort to move the entire population of Romulus (guess we don't give a shit about the Remans) to safety. But before the fleet could be built, the robots that were working the Utopia Planitia shipyards on Mars attacked their human masters and killed thousands. Since then there has been a ban on any form of android/robot/artificial life form. This is kinda interesting because during the whole run of TNG, it was implied that creating a fully sentient artificial life form was still damn near impossible. Even Data himself tried to create an android, Lal, and she ended up having a brain meltdown. I guess at some point the Federation was okay creating some generic data clones for slave labor purposes.

Rather than try and build a new fleet, Starfleet and the Federation decided not to help the Romulans, which prompted Picard to resign his commission in disgust. Apparently he did somehow put together some kind of effort and saved a few Romulans, two of which live on his vineyard in France. The vineyard, by the way, was once owned by his brother Robert, who died along with Picard's nephew, in a fire.

For all its utopian dreaminess, Star Trek sure can get hella dark at times.

Oh, and it was revealed in the final episode of TNG that there is an anomaly in Picard's brain that could allow the manifestation of "Irumodic Syndrome," which we're led to believe is like Alzheimer's but way worse. Sounds like this might get exacerbated when he's in space.

The villains appear to be a secret Romulan order even more secret than the Tal Shiar, which was the Romulan equivalent of the KGB. And for some reason they REALLY don't like androids. And apparently they have infiltrated the highest levels of Starfleet.

Lastly...somehow the Borg are involved, because at some point the show is gonna bring the whole "Recovering Borg Support Group" together again, featuring Picard, Seven of Nine, and Hugh. There's also a very mysterious abandoned Borg cube that the Romulans have taken over and are allowing Federation scientists to study. How they tie in with the androids is something we have yet to find out.

I also like the fact that Kurtzman and his team have actually given the Romulans personalities, which they kinda lacked all throughout the TNG/DS9 years with a few exceptions.

Also kinda funny, so the Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcans. In TNG they developed ridged foreheads in addition to the pointy ears. Those are gone now, but their pointy ears are different than Vulcan pointy ears. Hey, whatever floats yer boat.

Oh, and the most shocking revelation of all...

They still drop F-bombs in the 24th century!!!!!

Ohhhhhhh now I get it...the ones with the foreheads are NORTHERN Romulans. Cool.

I liked last night's episode, even though Picard's old Starfeet pal had a bit of a hambone. The ragtag crew has been assembled and off they go. Where's Seven of Nine? I was promised Seven. At least another ex-Borg made an appearance...

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Man, a lot of this would not have gone over well with Rodenberry. Romulan infiltrators within the highest ranks of Starfleet, and collaborators to boot? There are still drug addicts living in trailers out in the middle of nowhere in the 24th Century utopia of Earth? Damn son.

Picard's rise up the ranks of the admiralty must have been meteoric. At the time of his resignation he was a four-star. The time period between Nemesis and the Romulan supernova (and the Mars disaster that preceded it) is less than ten years. One assumes he still helmed the Enterprise for a few years during that time before moving on up. Anyway, it's just nitpicky stuff. Janeway became a four-star admiral in the time between the end of Voyager and Nemesis, but I suppose she kinda earned it.

Anyway, enough nitpicky stuff, this was a fun episode. Not sold on Raffi as a character but we'll see. Going to miss Zhaban and Laris, they were good characters but obviously you knew they were staying behind on the vineyard, even though they're both highly-trained Tal Shiar operatives and nonagenarian Picard would rather risk his life with a two very embittered and worn-down former Starfleet officers and a scientist who's obviously never been in a fight before. S'cool. I kid though--this show's got me hooked and I'm looking forward to the rest.

I do find it funny that the dog wasn't featured at all. As they said in a Ready Room segment, apparently not a good actor, so they cut him out of a lot of scenes.

And yes, HUGH OF BORG made his splashy return. Good stuff. I'm intrigued.

Also, Starfleet, MAKE UP YER DAMN MINDS when it comes to uniforms!

Yow...did not care for this episode at all. Well, it had Jeri Ryan reprising her role as Seven of Nine and there was a truly poignant moment she shared with Picard at the end there, so that was worth it.

Still, when Star Trek tries to do Star Wars-like camp the results are usually disastrous. This Mos Eisley imitation with outlandish costumes and obnoxious neon-and-holographic surroundings just had me cringing the whole damned time. It also featured something I did not think was honestly possible: A bad performance from Patrick Stewart. Am I SERIOUSLY supposed to believe that supposedly smart space gangsters weren't going to recognize one of the most famous Starfleet captains in history because he happened to be wearing an eye patch and sporting a really bad accent!?

I have no idea who wrote THIS episode but...what the hell were you thinking!?

Please never, EVER go to this "Freecloud" place ever again.

That said, I loved the little DS9 shoutout--it looks like Quark is doing okay for himself some 20 years later, his bar is now a franchise.

The twist at the end was something you kinda saw coming, but still...makes things very interesting.

Worst episode so far. RIP Icheb.

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ugh....I was also going to comment that the past 2 episodes were pretty bad.....I hope they clean it up because the cracks are forming.

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Also, I know she opened up towards the end of Voyager and that was her character ark, but turning Seven of Nine into a whiskey shooting, cursing vigilante is a bit of a stretch. Took her five seasons just to kiss Chakotay.

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Very interesting to me that they've gone with such conventional clothing. I guess looking at the funky space pajamas they used to have people wear on TNG back in the day made them rethink their approach to costuming.

Picard continues to be the best part of the show, which is to be expected, but I need more from this supporting cast. Rios and his various hologram assistants are interesting, I really have NO idea what to think of Elnor, and I'm still very much on the fence with Raffi. I guess it's just a requirement that at least one member of any Star Trek supporting cast have a cute nickname.

Agnes seemed like kind of a dullard but now there might be something there. At least now the two disparate storylines are coming together. Please make up for that horrid hour you just put us through.

Huh...didn't realize that "Freecloud" and "Stardust City" were both Bowie references. Well, shit, that makes me even more upset because they could've done something truly fun there, instead they just settled for a very standard cyberpunk glittery-neon dystopia. Coulda been WAY cooler.

So all caught up now.

I like the show but if Picard continues to be naive and stupid I'll get frustrated and quit this show.

1. Agnes show up at Picard's home, exactly in time to kill the last Tal Shiar (or however you spell that) no concern from Picard about the timing and her sudden desire to join him now.
2. Then he leaves her alone with Maddox to kill him I saw that coming so far away. If they don't clue into her being a spy next show I'll be very unimpressed.


And please don't bring Jeri Ryan for one friggin show, she was not necessary for the storyline, so she better be around a lot more in the future.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

IMDB has her down for more eps.

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I gotta agree with you here. Something about this just seems to be poorly written and forced cameos. I like Star Trek and I like Picard but this is becoming pretty weak in the story department.

Maybe I am spoiled by Doom Patrol, The Expanse and oh my even the Mandalorian compared to this.

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No AI has been used in the making of this post

Picard rebounds with one of their strongest episodes yet. The pieces are starting to come together.

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Yes, way to get back on track. The long-awaited merging of storylines finally takes place.

Sure looks like Hugh is in trouble--I hope he at least makes it long enough to meet with Seven of Nine so they can have a big ol' ex-Borg meetup.