Category: Blog Entries

SERIOUSLY, EPISODE-RUINING SPOILERS AHEAD! JUST FRICKIN’ WATCH IT FIRST!!!

Perfection! The fourth episode of PICARD‘s second season, “Watcher,” was sheer, brilliant, fun, edge-of-your-seat Star Trek perfection! The Borg Queen would be envious!!!

Actually, there was one teensy oopsie. Picard visits 10 Forward Street, the address of Guinan’s bar in Los Angeles, and younger Guinan does NOT recognize him! I mean, it has been 128 years since their first meeting in San Francisco with Samuel Clemens (“Mark Twain”) and Data getting his head blown off. But Jean-Luc Picard is pretty unforgettable…as are time travelers who know your future. On the other hand, Guinan’s whole apathetic attitude did a U-turn when Picard finally revealed his name. So maybe she did remember him…just not by appearance (and he is MUCH older now).

(Oh, and I read the theory that Guinan didn’t remember meeting Picard a century ago because, in the altered timeline, Starfleet never existed, and Picard never went back in time to the 19th century. If so, then how does the punk rocker remember Spock’s Vulcan neck pinch? Hmmmm…)

But I’m willing to overlook the oopsie because there were so many things about this episode that I loved! The scenes between Agnes and the Borg Queen continue to be an unexpected highlight thanks to the amazing performances of both ALISON PILL and ANNE WERSCHING. The two characters couldn’t be more different, and yet they’ve begun to mirror aspects of each other, like their loneliness, as the attempted assimilation might be affecting both of them. It was also intriguing at the end when Agnes breaks her promise to the Borg Queen (to stay and “chat”), proving that she (Agnes) might not be completely trustworthy either.

The car chase was also amazing, punctuated by some of the best “old married couple” bickering I’ve seen on any TV show (Trek or otherwise). The writers are trying a “do-over” with Seven and Raffi, helping us to not only accept their relationship but to actually root for it to happen. The on-screen chemistry between JERI RYAN and MICHELLE HURD is simply magic. I don’t think any other Star Trek couple has clicked to comfortably.

(And for anyone asking, “Hey, how is it that a person born in the 24th century, raised by the Borg, and currently a Fenris Ranger can drive a 21st century SUV like she’s in a Fast and Furious movie?” I’ve got an answer. Seven was on Voyager for four years with Tom Paris. Voyager has a holodeck. Tom Paris loved hot-rods from the 20th century. Just because we didn’t see him teaching Seven to drive and to race doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Granted, it’s not official canon, but I’m placing it firmly in my personal “head canon.”)

And speaking of chemistry, the sparks between Captain Rios and Dr. Teresa Rodriguez are flying as fast and furious as Seven’s driving. Two more actors giving very engaging performances.

But let me tell you what I loved the most. Let’s talk easter eggs…!

TIME FOR SPOILERS!

“It’s just a ripoff of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home!”

I’ve read versions of that complaint in the comments from multiple STAR TREK: PICARD detractors on Facebook this week. And believe it or not, they’re not entirely wrong…but not for the reason they think!

Y’see, nearly ALL Star Trek time-travel episodes and movies where someone goes back to old Earth of the 19th, 20th, or 21st century tell almost the EXACT SAME story! Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at the following list…

• “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” (TOS)
• “The City on the Edge of Forever” (TOS)
• “Assignment: Earth” (TOS)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• “Time’s Arrow, Part II” (TNG)
• Star Trek: First Contact
• “Past Tense” (DS9)
• “Little Green Men” (DS9)
• “Future’s End” (Voyager)
• “Carpenter Street” (Enterprise)

Now think back to all of those stories and tell me if they each share most if not all of the following plot elements…

• Something gets “broken” in the past and needs to be fixed before the time traveler(s) can come home.
• The method of time-travel is explained and often (but not always) shown…usually in a dramatic fashion.
• The time-travelers will split up into smaller teams, each with its own mission. This allows for cutting between an A-story and a B-story and possibly a C-story.
• Often, one of those teams remains back on the ship (assuming there is a ship), either in the past or still in the future.
• There’s at least some comedy relief where our heroes from the future don’t quite understand something from the past (but we do, and it’s funny).
• There’s usually a scene involving technology from the future that is either observed being used, or else it is lost and/or stolen. Often, this piece of equipment needs to be retrieved and/or destroyed lest it change the past in some way.
• At least one person gets separated from their team. Frequently, this person is either injured and/or is captured and must be rescued.
• The time-traveler(s) connect(s) with at least one special person from the past who can help them in some way. This character(s) becomes very well developed in the story, ultimately becoming someone we care about and can relate to/root for.

Not every time-travel story will contain every trope, but you’ll be amazed when you think about it just how many of these beloved episodes and movies share most of the same plot elements. And indeed, think about other sci-fi like the Back to the Future trilogy and see how many of those tropes you remember seeing there, too.

And speaking of Back to the Future, this third episode of the season, “Assimilation,” along with next week’s fourth episode, were both directed by LEA THOMPSON, the actress (and Trekkie!) who played Marty McFly’s mother in the first two Back to the Future movies and his great-great grandmother in the third. So she’s no stranger to time-travel stories!

Let’s take a look at how this latest episode of Picard follows the tropes of these Star Trek “back to Earth’s past” episodes and movies…

SPOILERS ARE YOUR PENANCE, JEAN-LUC

This week, I’ve decided to separate my STAR TREK: PICARD and DISCOVERY reviews back into two separate blogs. It’s really not fair to combine them, as they are such totally different shows. Some have gone so far as to say that it’s not fair to call Picard a better show because it has characters with literally hundreds of Star Trek episodes between them (Picard and Seven-of Nine) plus guest stars playing characters equally familiar to fans…like Riker, Troi, Data, Hugh, Guinan, and Q.

Frankly, I don’t believe it’s fair to call that “unfair,” as Discovery has now been on the air for four years. And even though Michael Burnham, Saru, Stamets, and the others haven’t appeared in the 180 TNG episodes that Picard was in (or the 100 episodes of Voyager for Seven), there have still been well over 50 episodes of Discovery (54 as I write this).

No, the reason it’s unfair is simply that Picard is a vastly better show than Discovery…at least for these first two episodes of Picard‘s second season. At this point, there’s been so much positive being said about Picard these past couple of weeks that if you’re one of those people still clinging to the “They all suck!” rhetoric, you really need to let go of your anger and hatred because you really are missing out on something amazing.

One of the reasons I believe Picard to be the significantly better of the two shows is the characters who are featured. Both Discovery and Picard employ excellent actors and actresses. And while I wouldn’t put the leads of the two shows in the same class, most of the rest of their casts do a lot with their characters. It’s simply that the Picard writers are allowing their actors more opportunities to do so.

Case in point, let’s look at how things were handled in this second episode, “Penance”…