posted
A step down from last week; as I'm starting to see major inconsistencies pop up.
So let's cover Raffi first, since that's more straightforward. Raffi is unconvinced that the official story behind the attack is legit, so she goes hunting for the real culprits. We meet Raffi's ex, who feels the same way about her that her son does, but points her in the right direction. She meets with a Ferengi crime boss (in TNG-style make-up) who strongly suspects Raffi is Starfleet even after she takes a dose of some drug. Those of you who guessed Worf was her handler last week earned yourself a cookie, as he shows up to save Raffi. Gotta say, though, it doesn't look like he's a pacifist as he slices and dices the Ferengi and his goons.
Over on the Picard side of the plot:
Shaw is written very unevenly this episode. One moment he's absolutely refusing to go along with Picard's shenanigans, the next he is (albeit grudgingly).
"They threw a ship at us!" Best line of the week.
Getting definite Nero vibes from Vadic.
So does Picard have any authority as a retired admiral or not?
Jack (Beverly's son) seems to be quite the rogue. Oddly, Jack says Beverly encouraged this. Me thinks Beverly has some explaining to do.
Speaking of that, I really didn't care for the episode's ending. Beverly shows up on the bridge and doesn't say a word, which somehow confirms to Picard that Jack is his son. Picard then starts giving orders to defend the ship, which Shaw is incredulous about. Picard then says Jack is his son, at which point Shaw drops his objections.
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Vadic is such an over-the-top comic book villain I was eye-rolling all the time. I half-expected her to twirl an imaginary moustache but she did the next best thing and lit a cigarette instead.
It seems very cruel that Beverly would hide Picard's son for 20 years. Surely she must've noticed how important family and continuing the Picard line is to him after the events in GEN. I hope they have a very good explanation or it's plain character assassination in my book.
Small universe syndrome again. Of course Worf is Raffi's handler and how convenient that her ex (who's coincidentally on the same planet?) knows a suspect in her current case. A case which I'm sure will also be somehow connected to whatever goes on with Beverly/Jack/Vadic.
Shaw dismissed Picard's wishes last episode because he was a retired admiral. But now it seems Picard can decide to come out of retirement and order everyone around? Or did Shaw just go along because of the son reveal?
The severe hull damage of Titan was mysteriously gone in later scenes.
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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I just....I...
Jesus fuck, dude.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
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Worf entrance should have blood and guts. One needs a credit card and subscription to watch this show.
Nothing wrong with Shaws morality. But he’s in the shit and indecisive in the chair. I wonder what would Riker on the Titan-nil would do in similar situation?
-------------------- Blaze da finest weed in da shire... I shake my trekbbs at flare.solareclipse.net
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Yes, definite Nero feel to Vadic. Probably the immediate familiarity she feigns with them as soon as she begins speaking, it reminded me of Nero greeting Pike with his first name, over Vulcan.
The trailers for this season seemed to imply that Vadic was after Picard - deliberately? Or is that just an accidental implication, as part of attempts to minimise Jack’s part in the show (he only crops up in a couple of shots in the later trailers)? But it makes sense in a way, if Vadic were after Picard, he’d give himself up in a second to save the Titan and her crew - whatever Riker and Seven (and probably Shaw too) had to say about it.
Yes, I include Shaw in that. I’m not saying he’s being written consistently, but his calculus there is clear: give up a wanted criminal in a place where the UFP has no jurisdiction? OK, Picard or Kirk wouldn’t, but Starfleet captains ain’t what they were: the captain of the ibn Majid shows that quite well; it wouldn’t have been an issue. But give up the son of two Starfleet legends with a third as witness? He wouldn’t even land garbage scow duty.
There are a lot of intriguing bits of mystery being set up here, it’d be nice to be confident they’ll all come together nicely.
The Klingon theme as Worf slices and dices! I mean come on, chills right? It’s WORF.
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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posted
So far this feels like Matalas cut apart all his View-Master reels of all the existing Trek movies, then cherrypicked what he liked & rearranged them in some haphazard manner to make his own WOWEE!! NEATO!! homemade View-Master set.
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Yeah but the plot as it stands makes a sort of sense right now. Some parts are nonsensical, and may remain so - or who knows, they may all make sense in the end. Think how many of the thousand-odd Star Trek eps adhere to one of a certain number of standard storylines. Think how many of the films have a nasty villain with an uberpoweful weapon/ship and the hero ship is the only one in range? Basically if it’s startling originality at every turn you’re wanting, then Trek is not your friend, particularly in limited series that adhere more in scale to the films than they do episodes turned out by the couple dozen each year, year after year.
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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posted
I'm not looking for originality (although using Picard offered severe opportunity for it) but I would like more than "Rememebr this scene from TSFS?? Wasn't the music from the drydock scene in TMP awesome? Hey, remember how the first Abrams movie had a chatty baddie in a big spiky ship?"
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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I find it interesting that Picard & Bev's secret love child is played by a 34-year-old actor. If Jack is the same age, then that means he was born somewhere around the middle of TNG. Guess we now know why Bev wasn't aboard the Enterprise during season 2...
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Well that's ruined that fan-fiction about Bev going off in disgrace after getting pregnant during "The Naked Now", and Starfleet deliberately assigning a CMO who is more interested in casual racism towards androids than in sleeping with the captain and/or their grandma's haunted sex candle.
Registered: Jul 2006
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Well no actually. It makes a kind of sense…
First off, yes the actor says he’s playing a 23yo. While looking much older. And, remember “No, Shazad Latif is not Voq, he’s played by Javid Iqbal”? Or “No, he’s not playing Khan, his character is called John Harrison”? And remember, it was widely rumoured at the time that Spock would die in TWOK; they subverted that by having him “die” in the Kobayashi Maru sequence. By not leaving Jack’s parentage any sort of mystery, they’re obfuscating the TRUE circumstances of his birth…
So, yeah. Bev leaves the D either because she’s pregnant, or finds out she is after she leaves for the “official” - and actually therefore true - reason. Why keep it quiet? Well, potentially scandalous, I guess; or maybe she doesn’t want her other son to find out she’s shagging his dad’s best friend (and CO at the time of his death).
And then she gives the baby up for adoption and gets on with her life. And then, jump forward to after NEM and something happens, maybe to the foster parents, possibly further scandal, so she regains custody and cuts off all contact with her former crew mates, out of.., I don’t know, shame and remorse? And devotes herself to her son, determined he won’t swan off to be a Traveller like Wesley. Maybe she even blames JLP for that: they had a decent life before they transferred to the D, then things went pear-shaped.
It’s probably a better explanation than, “Oh sorry, that one time we shagged after Data died I got pregnant, and didn’t tell you or anyone else for… (insert convoluted Matalas reason that doesn’t make sense or stand up to serious scrutiny).”
There are problems though. You’d think it’d have come up when they were (literally, or rather, telepathically) “Attached.” Or maybe not - not everything was shared. And there was that “One thing she always wanted to tell him…”
[ February 28, 2023, 06:27 PM: Message edited by: Lee ]
posted
Umm, it's bad enough that she didn't tell Picard and now you want to make it worse by her abandoning the child?
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I didn’t say abandon, Spike. I was talking about him being adopted into a loving home - something which we can agree that Bev would absolutely do her utmost to ensure, in this hypothetical situation. And then when that arrangement is jeopardised somehow, years later, she seized her chance to reconnect.
None of this happened, of course (I presume ep 3 will make that quite clear - I’ll find out tomorrow). It’s just a fun thought experiment, riffing on zippy’s presumably only semi-serious fan theory. Or have we got to the point where the only real purpose of this forum is for everyone once a week to tabulate how much they hate the latest episode?
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