Star Trek: Picard.

I follow him on FB... I think his slow down in roles following TNG might be more about his issues with his parents than Berman as he generally talks fondly of his Trek experiences portraying the cast as being supportive).
Still, IMDB shows he's not gone a year without being in a couple of things.

Seems like a decent enough guy... good taste in music

I don't follow any celebrities on facebook, but the limited bits of gossip that does find my ears (or eyes), it seems the cast of TNG was and stayed very close and none were especially fond of Berman.

On the Ready Room show he seems more relaxed and natural as a host.

On Picard and TBBT he seems like he pretending to be new friendly and cordial, or like he's forcing himself to. It comes off as forced, and the moment you turn away he goes to an annoyed and stay the fuck away from me attitude.

I hated the Wesley Crusher character, at least the way the character was written in the early episodes.

The setting is Starfleet's flagship with a crew of thousands, all highly dedicated, experienced professionals, all top-tier graduates of Starfleet Academy, the engineers the best and the brightest, the officers proven veterans of deep space missions, and...

...if the fucking teenager doesn't intervene during a crisis, the whole shitload gets blown to kingdom come.

On several occasions.

You know what? Fuck Wesley Crusher.



He was okay when he was less a Mary Sue in later episodes, though.

missed this..

anyways, BR25/FF an example of having all the parts in the same place (or close enough-yeah, I knew there was a bit of a gap, but given Larson's one idea had been to have them run into the OG Galactica...) and making something with it. The more important point is that the Searcher was setting out to find lost human cultures from an exodus a few hundred years prior, and we all know what happened to Earth that was...

That's it for Mike and Jay - or so they say.

Anyway, I thank them for their efforts. Their takes on this season have been orders of magnitude more entertaining than the show itself.

Mike will make them watch Strange New Worlds. I like their reviews of Star Trek.

Also I like how they mentioned that the Europa mission launched from LA. and the reason NASA launches from Florida is because it’s a straight shot to the moon. The trajectory isn’t in their favor.

At least from the quick Googling I have done, there is no inherent problem with launching on the West Coast versus Florida, other than by launching off of Florida, the likely path of debris would fall in the Atlantic, whereas the likely path from a West Coast launch would be over land.

https://spacecoastlaunches.com/blog/why-did-nasa-choose-to-launch-rockets-from-cap-canaveral/

I'm not sure how trajectory from California to Europa would be any worse than trajectory from Florida to Europa.

Well, I look at Star Trek the same way I look at Blade Runner or Blade Runner 2049, it’s not our actual history. They do have some leeway because the technology depicted is not the same as ours so maybe rockets are different, but the rocket Rene boarded looked pretty similar to the ones we have today and LA. was pretty similar so it kind of makes the writers look stupid, but I don’t know.

So link to someone who can explain why there would be a drastic difference in the trajectory from California to Europa vs. Florida to Europa.

Or even California to the moon vs. Florida to the moon if you weren't concerned about debris

And by "someone" here, I mean a site that has some actual knowledge about actual space flight (or at least apparently talked to someone who did) that explains why it would be a poor idea based on "trajectory" to launch from L.A. versus Florida.

That trajectory idea is nonsense.

They considered launching space shuttles from Vandenberg AFB which is not far from LA. I imagined the launch happening there given it’s the west coast space launch faculty and has been since the 60s. STS was going to launch from there but was cancelled after challenger.

Vandenberg AFB
https://goo.gl/maps/wxctJq9QUZ8v2miK9

Russia and China are nowhere near the equator and they dont seem to have issues with launching stuff into space. That’s just a dumb nitpick.

But, yeah, overall this season of Picard was trash. I think Patrick Stewart is starting to have the same problem William Shatner had. Instead of acting like Kirk and Picard they are just playing as themselves.

I think with Shatner it started in ST5 and became really obvious in Generations. I know time has passed in the universe but this older Picard acts nothing like TNG Picard.

And literally zero mention of his brother the whole season? Why did their mother not come up in conversation when they reunited in ‘Family’?

Its like this is a Kelvin Universe Picard with a tragic backstory the original Picard never had. Like how Kelvin-verse Kirk had a different backstory from Prime-verse Kirk.

What they did with the Borg was awful and made no sense. This eons spanning civilization suddenly changes their core way of living after a 5 minute conversation with Jurati? They’ve annihilated thousands of species but now they are going to spread peace and love?

If thats the case then should that not have massively changed history on a galactic scale? Or are we to assume that Jurati Queen started her own collective separate from the actual Borg Collective which still exists out there in the Delta Quadrant? Or did she wait around for hundreds of years doing nothing and then take over the Collective in the post Voyager time period?

1. Everyone always resisted instead of have that talk.
2. There IS that "we're doing it for your own good" part of the Borg philosophy one can reach into.
3. Guinan predicted way back at "Q Who?" that the Borg and the Federation could be friends someday. That loop is connected now.
4. I wanna see Queen Jurati show up on Discovery now when the Borg re-join the Federation.

Is there going to be another season of Discovery? I got the impression that the last episode was the series finale.

Nope, they got renewed for season 5.
5 seasons was the planned destination, but they still had to earn it.
They made season 4 look like an ending just in case.

What are some concrete examples of things Older Picard did that Younger Picard would never do (factoring in that age limits him from being a physical fighter as he was in his 40s-50s, and that Older Picard is disillusioned with the Federation over synths/Romulus)?

My read is that the Original Recipe Borg still exist and in the 2020s are still in the Delta Quadrant as prior to the events of Picard S2. Jurati leads an offshoot of the Borg that for hundreds of years have done things Jurati's way -- adding only volunteers to the collective as a kindlier, friendlier version, and only emerging in the 2500s.

This is an interesting idea, but I think the first season makes it clear that this is Picard Prime. The Kelvin-verse started with the destruction of Romulus' star and Spock traveling back to TOS era. Clearly, Picard was dealing with the fallout of that in the prime universe.

I also thought it was odd that there was no mention of JL's older brother Robert.

Well, I don't think Picard would ever hug Q. Q has always professed his fondness of him as a mere human and Picard always seemed annoyed by that. Here, Q's dying and he basically runs Picard and crew through the ringer and basically calls him his favorite pet and Picard hugs him. Other than Jean Luc's advanced age, I don't see why that would change in this moment. I would go back and watch again to pull out a few more examples, but I really don't feel like it at the moment.

Maybe Picard saw Q differently after the events in Tapestry? I just don't see TNG Picard being moved to do that.

I think that is a fair take, but I disagree in part and would say it's his experiences through this season that had gotten him to the point where he could/would hug a dying Q.

I think Younger Picard tended to restrain his emotions and to remain detached from people. I think it possible, though, if Younger Picard encountered a Q he truly believed he was dying who had just reminded Picard he didn't have to be alone, that Picard might have shed his normal reserved nature and given a dying Q a hug.

But I also would say that it was in part his experiences in this season that allowed him to let go of the need to be so aloof and so distrusting of relationships with others. Having been forced to confront his mommy and daddy issues, having a big-picture vision of why Q had been tormenting/training/educating him all these years, it makes sense to me that this older, wiser Picard would give a hug to a Q who needed one more than a speech about Shakespeare or something.

ehhh... I don't know. Picard had difficulty expressing his fondness for people he genuinely liked... and he expressed regret about what I saw as professional distance he maintained and a lack of deeper connections with his friends. But for Q? I'll watch one of the old Q episodes and think to myself "one day, these guys are going to hug it out." I don't know if I'll buy it.

But you are correct in pointing out that the entire arc of this season was Picard doing the work to tear down barriers in his relationships. Maybe I will watch this again with that in mind.

They mention that Picard’s brother is at boarding school early on in the season. I don’t think he’s ever mentioned again.

You know, that would probably have made for a better season if they explored the idea of people voluntarily giving up their individuality to the collective and dealing with the implications of that. What if someone is depressed and wants to Jill themselves, but they don’t have the guts? It may not be as scary as OG Borg, but it’s still a scary thought. What drives someone to join the collective?

That’s another thing RLM said in their review, Picard is getting the same basic character arc we already saw in All Good Things. He learned to open up and sits down to play poker with the bridge crew. In this season, he learned to open up and hugs Q. The lessons the writers wanted Picard to learn, he had already learned them thirty years ago.

@Raoul the Red Shirt , I just thought of another one!

Picard has to appeal to his ancestor Renee Picard to get her to perform her duty on the Europa mission. Somehow, I believe young Picard's appeal is a bit different. A LOT differenet!

In that scene I was expecting a classic Picard speech since we really didn’t get one last season, but nope.

There are lots of reasons why someone might join Borg 2.0. Having all your physical, emotional and mental needs taken care of certainly has its plusses. Being part of something smarter and stronger than you, as well.

To change franchises, I'd bet a lot of people would voluntarily plug themselves in the Matrix if they could to enjoy a dream world where you get to do cool flips and warp VR, all your physical needs are taken care of rather than do the hard work of trying to slog through the real world.

In both fiction and real life, sometimes being taught a lesson once doesn't mean that you apply it every single time.

But I would say that there are slight differences between what he learned in AGT and what he learned in this arc. After serving seven years with his bridge crew, Picard learned that he could let them in enough to socialize with them. He basically did not do that outside of official functions except with Beverly and Guinan. That's different from him letting his guard down enough to actually give romantic or other personal feelings bloom in a longterm way.

I'd have to go back to see how Older Picard appealed to her, but nothing struck me at the time as "TNG Picard NEVER would have done that."

Cochrane launched the Phoenix from Montana using only a Titan 2, so..

Good point.