Official Star Trek Thread

Agree, if they started him off somewhat broken and he got his mojo back, that would have been good. I think being on some kind of Starfleet ship (not the Enterprise) would have helped too. I had some real high hopes for this show .. but it has been a real disappointment when it could and should have been awesome
Yeah, that's pretty much it. I was into that for S1 and it turned into him just being...happy to be there in a lot of places. Put the man on the deck of a ship and let him make decisions. That's what he's best at, and that's what I want to see. It doesn't have to be the "same old same old", but you gotta give the people what they want.
 
Some thoughts on the last two episodes of Strange New Worlds:

Not sure exactly how I feel about turning Gorn hatchlings into the Star Trek equivalent of the chestbursters from the Alien movies, but I’m willing to roll with it. I was pretty surprised that they killed Hemmer after only 9 episodes(!), but now I’m guessing that their plan is to slowly replace the cast with familiar characters from the original series until Kirk takes over command of the Enterprise in the eventual series finale. That could actually be pretty fun.

Speaking of which, that season finale! I loved the glimpse into an alternate future where Pike is still captaining the Enterprise for the events of the original series’s “Balance Of Terror” episode, and his insistence upon diplomacy shows too much weakness and throws the Federation into a full-blown war with the Romulans. (I had to go back and watch “Balance Of Terror” again afterward to notice all the direct references in events and dialog.) It was also neat to see that Kirk must have brought Sulu, McCoy, and Yeoman Rand to the Enterprise when he took over as captain, since they weren’t present on Pike’s Enterprise in this alternate timeline. Cool stuff.

I was less sold on the casting of Captain Kirk. There’s an element of severity that fits the character, but he looks a little too different from Shatner and is completely missing the warm aspects of the original portrayal. He’s also missing some of the Shatner vocal cadence that seems mandatory for the character to actually ring true as Kirk. That said, he still has plenty of time to grow into the role.

I wonder if they’ll jump right to bringing in Scotty to replace Hemmer, since they already gave Scotty a voice-only cameo in the season finale. We’ll have to wait a while to find out.

If only this could have been the show that relaunched Star Trek on TV instead of Discovery. Oh well…
 
I recently saw Picard S02 and Picard S03.

There isn't much to say about Picard S02, they used the same formula as in first season and the place and the period where the "action" is happening didn't look like a Star Trek (or sci-fi) series at all.

Now, Picard S03!!!! OK, they really cashed in on nostalgia, but still - it was such an enjoyment to watch. A lot of things bug me there, and my wife said something that made me look at the whole season through a specific lens, but I must admit this: In a time where a lot of artist are trying to bring up the nostalgia act and fail miserably - Picard S03 hit the nail on the head. And with a style!

If there as a fan of Star Trek TNG (or Voyager for that matter) I highly recommend third season of Picard (you don't even have to watch first two and won't miss much)
 
Yes, that's pretty much how I feel about S3 of Picard. It was perfectly good nostalgia tripping. S2 was as bad as the first season.
 
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I think the difference for me was that S1 felt tepid, but S2 actively insulted the viewer with how poorly considered and poorly executed it was, especially during the second half.
 
Yeah, I dunno. Like I said, it's too much brainpower to try to really figure out, I'd have to rewatch them and that's *not* gonna happen, I just remember in S1 this constant feeling of "who the fuck wrote this" and S2 of "this is a bad S2 episode of TNG stretched out over a season", and I don't know which is worse.
 
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This is kind of interesting, a web portal with every version of the Enterprise from TV and the movies, including designs that never actually made it to a screen. Most of them have 360' views of the bridge, some are even more interactive than that.
 
I loved season 3 of Picard. Some of the best Trek ever, Wrath Of Kahn level. Season 1 had good build, but the ending was a real let down. Season 2 was just awful.
 
I've long been thinking about how one could approach ranking Star Trek, which has led me back to "what is good Star Trek", and I think it's something like this, in no particular order.

1) Analyzing the human condition.
2) Representing a possible human utopia in a galaxy of troubles.
3) Meaningful performances (not necessarily good acting).
4) Development of stories and arcs.
5) Connection to the episode.

A great episode of Star Trek has all of these things. I'll pick Chain of Command, Part II, as an example. It analyzes the human condition directly - not just with the torture of Captain Picard by Gul Macet, but also by examining how we handle new authority figures thrust upon us. We talk about the human utopia primarily with the Riker-Jellico storyline. They do not mesh, personally, but they put aside their issues to solve a common problem. Basically everyone hits the meaningful performance mark, right down to Marina Sirtis listening to the Captain at the end of the episode. We never really touch on Picard's particular incident again - so I might mark this down for that - but this episode helps establish the Cardassian people as an empire to be feared, one where, should they think they can get away with it, will do abominable things. It really plays up the themes established in the previous season's The Wounded. The episode respects the established Riker arcs, noting his delight in the trombone and his pilot skills. And finally, it's one of the episodes that forms the greatest connection with the audience. Not only do we have the "there are four lights!" meme, we get an unending legacy of moments, we become drawn in to Picard, especially, at a time of great physical challenge, and damn, we get to see the arrogance of David Warner's Gul Macet pierced by Picard's rapier wit. Who among us didn't, for a moment, feel for the pain that the Cardassian villain experienced as a child? And we compare to the utopian human experience of Star Trek - it's something Picard's people would never know.
 
And related to items #1 and #2, questioning the limits of those utopian ideals when faced with existential threats. This was a big recurring theme in later seasons of Deep Space Nine, and to a lesser extent in Voyager. Not an angle Roddenberry himself would have pursued, as he famously didn't want any discord between the members of the next-gen crew, but I think it was an angle that was valid and ripe for exploration in that story space.
 
Yeah, I would certainly involve the examination of the utopian, Roddenberry ideals as part of 1 and 2. I think it's fair to say that Roddenberry was mostly wrong with how he approached discord on the crew - the guiding light shouldn't be that they shouldn't fight, but that they should always come together in the end.
 
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I keep forgetting I have Paramount+ free for a year thru T Mobile. I want to watch Picard but from skimming through the posts trying to avoid any spoilers I should just watch S3? Guessing the Next Gen crew get a proper send off that they didn't get from Nemisis?
 
I keep forgetting I have Paramount+ free for a year thru T Mobile. I want to watch Picard but from skimming through the posts trying to avoid any spoilers I should just watch S3? Guessing the Next Gen crew get a proper send off that they didn't get from Nemisis?
It depends. S1 has some parts worth watching (and even S2 has a small handful of useful moments), and the seasons aren't that long. Maybe try watching all three seasons, and if you get to the point where you just can't take it anymore, skip ahead to S3.
 
I completely agree with what Loose said considering Picard as a character - both in Picard S01 and S02 and in TNG.

I loved the ending of "Chain of Command", one of the rare moments where you can see vulnerable Picard (other scenes that spring to mind are the one with his brother in the vineyard. The one where he falls apart confessing how much the Borg violated him and the most famous one "The Line is drawn here". Pure chills.)

Considering point 1 and 2, I like them vice versed - representing a possible trouble in a galaxy of utopia. Especially if they are somehow connected to the "Prime Directive" which always brings more and more ethical questions. Also, but this is only TNG based, I love the episodes where crew's camaraderie is brought at stake. For example, a couple of months ago I was watching "The Enemy" S03E07. Long story short, there is a dying Romulan on The Enterprise and the only one who can save him is Worf (donate blood or something like that). The dialogue and tension between Worf and Picard made me straighten up and almost stand up. Worf is all honor-ish and "If you order me, I'll do it. If you ask me, I won't" and Picard is trying to balance the wishes of his commandant with this Cold War situation - amazing stuff.

I'm currently rewatching TNG for n-th time, took a pause during seventh season to watch last two season of Picard.

Oh, and I got to mention this - I fu**ing hate Q.
Another reason that made me dislike Picard S02.
 
15th anniversary of JJ Abrams ST reboot!
I’m still of two minds on this one. On the one hand, making it both a sequel and an alternate timeline reboot was kind of brilliant, and the casting was really good. On the other hand, it’s J.J. Abrams, so it’s going to be shallow and poorly thought out in the end. But this initial reboot movie was pretty solid, and things didn’t really go in the shitter until the sequels.
 
Star Trek, the movie, is a perfectly fine little action romp that hyper-compresses the characters and runs so fast through its storyline that you don't notice how it doesn't make much sense within the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek Into Darkness is the worst Star Trek movie since V.

Star Trek Beyond had the best character moments but a big meh of an ending.
 
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