Another two episode day. I went with Discovery first per the Memory Alpha order. Spoilers.
Well, three if you count the one I’d missed when I was sick.
Since I wrote my reviews of Picard Season One it’s become clear that I am something of an outlier in how much I enjoyed the series. Partly I think that it’s in the sweet spot for me in terms of my interests. But I will be interested to see how this season goes for me and the wider fan community.
It’s a strong opening to the season, although I hope we don’t spend too much time playing mystery box games. Some of the Picard’s mother stuff is a little concerning, but I’m willing to give them a bit of runway. The other concern is going back to the Borg storyline again – I can forgive it on net as it is one of Picard’s defining traumas, but hopefully the story of the season is broader than that.
It’s interesting to compare the pacing to Discovery – there’s a lot of the same kind of character moments mixed between the developing action here. The difference I think is that it makes sense for the characters to be spending the time on it, as they aren’t aware of the big bad yet. In Discovery they frequently are talking about ’12 hours to go. Now about your childhood’.
But overall so far so good – nice to bring the characters back, everyone is introduced smoothly, and we’re into the season-spanning storyline quickly and cleanly. I’m already a lot more engaged about the next episode than I am with the season finale for Discovery.
Quick hits:
– That was a great ‘in media res’ opening – a lot of story and mystery set up in only 2 minutes.
– So many potential clues in the opening credits I don’t know where to start.
– I do hate ’48 hours earlier’ and related opening tropes. It’s cheap heat in terms of creating engagement. Even if the ‘flash forward’ is really cool.
– I will believe a lot of things in Science Fiction, but I refuse to believe that French wine growers will put up with transporting grapes rather than hand picking. I did like the quick vision of actual economic activity in the 25th century.
– I hope there isn’t too much of a long buried trauma here. Again, lazy story telling for such a long established character.
– Star Fleet Command is going to need a bit more than ‘detected a spatial anomaly’ if they’re going to advise.
– ‘Drunk Hailing incidents’. LOL.
– ‘Exhilaration enhances the absorption of knowledge’ – yep, Spock is very wise.
– OK, we’re 28 minutes in. Where’s Q already?
– It’s a very silly joke, but I love that Guinan’s bar is at 10 Forward St. It makes perfect sense that she’s the only person Picard would see about his love life.
– Nice to see that for once they aren’t the only ship in the quadrant.
– Another fail for Starflet Cyber Security – did no one think about this risk when adding Borg tech to ships?
– ‘Road not taken’ and ‘second chances’ – are we going to see something that builds on the TNG episode “Tapestry” I wonder?
842 down.This is the fourth season premiere this TV season (which I date 1 July to 30 June), and we still have a fifth to come.