Star Trek: Picard.

What makes you think that it meant that they tried making a relationship work 5 times before Nemesis, as opposed to, say 5 times after Nemesis, or 1 time before Nemesis, 4 times after?

I think what was said was that they tried making a relationship work five times before she left the Enterprise, that they had a farewell fuck two months before she left the Enterprise, and that they had ended their romantic relationship a total of five times. There's no real timeline there of when their romantic relationship started or when each of the other attempts were.

I think, as I may have said, TNG made clear that they hadn't acted on any romantic feelings up to S7's Attached. But afterwards, they could have tried to be lovers. Or they could have tried after All Good Things. Or really any time off screen during the movie time-frame.

Beverly was scheduled to leave the Enterprise after Nemesis, she was supposed to become the head of Starfleet medical again. So the five attempts would have to be before Nemesis, and she would have been in her first trimester during the events of the film.

Yeah. This is like the Mulder and Scully thing where you find up they’ve been hooking up for a while after Mulder disappeared.

From what I understand, Nemesis was in 2379, and Picard S3 is 2400-something.

It's possible that Beverly postponed her actual departure to be well after the events of Nemesis, and they had up to five attempts at a relationship between Nemesis and her actual departure. It's also possible that she left the Enterprise for Starfleet Medical, and came back to the Enterprise another time, and it was at that point the hook-ups began until she left the Enterprise for a final time.

That was..like half of a TNG movie. :o

Frakes has supposedly said that the final episodes of Picard are mindblowing. We'll see, I suppose.

so Jack's age gets established (sort of) as 23-24. His Daddy issues get poignantly explained.

Shaw gets to do something useful and works stuff out with Seven. A couple of good character moments there.

Solid but simple storycrafting with the memory becoming relevant to the solution.

Riker's revenge was sweet.

also kind of liking the subtle dig at Shaw calling her "Hansen" when her identity is "Seven"...

An enjoyable episode but somewhat marred by the fact that the saboteur is the worst Changeling to ever Changeling. Why pretend to be Crash, or really anybody, when they can just come in as a fly or some other hard-to-see thing and ambush both Shaw and Seven? There would also have to be a half-dozen ways a Changeling could stop Shaw and Seven without even physically entering Engineering. Or for that matter, if the objective is to get Jack back to the Shrike, a half-dozen ways that the Changeling could have accomplished that goal from early on -- especially given that Jack at one point wanted to give himself up.

That was an incredible episode. It was like watching one of the best episodes of TNG. So what is Jack seeing, it looks awfully close to the red forest from 12 Monkeys. Are they going to somehow tie in 12 Monkeys?

Ensign: "Captain, power is down to 9% and we have barely four hours of life support. The ship is dead in the water."

Capt. Riker: "Shut down all non-essential systems and have the crew congregate in common areas to save power."

*Picard fires up the holodeck to have a drink with his newfound son.

They did explain it away that the holodecks are apparently on their own power system.

One thing I do not understand, though, is why they do not all get in space suits when they have clear info about life support failing. Presumably the regular crew each has individualized suits or at the very least they could replicate some and then conserve energy.

1. This one was so very plodding.
2. What the fuck is going on? Are we heading into the Upside Down?
3. Did you know my father, Geordi LaForge, is the greatest engineer in all of Starfleet?

Oof.

A bit cheesy and on the nose at times, but I'd have to count that one as a proper Star Trek episode that my 10 year old self could still recognize.

I had that immediate reaction, but then laughed when Picard gave that explanation because it's absolutely in line with how the holodeck was used throughout Voyager.

Or shuttles. I fully expected them to have some mirror of the situation Shaw talked about where they start loading lower decks peeps onto shuttles so some of them survive, probably with a cheesy/heartwarming moment where they all refuse to leave because they're in this together to try and solve the situation until the final moment.

Yeah, they shouldn't have called them changelings if they're going to be this incompetent. We saw on DS9 that changelings can create handheld bladed weapons in the blink of an eye, there's no reason the two changelings we've seen so far couldn't have killed Worf and Raffi/Seven and Shaw without breaking a sweat.

Also, Seven knows everything the Borg knew before she was freed by Voyager.. The Borg never found about about Changelings before then? They never assimilated a Vorta or a Jem'Hadar, or even heard rumours? That seems like something the Borg would have found fascinating. And Seven knew about the events of First Contact, which happened after Starfleet knew about Changelings. So she should know about Changelings too.

I'm fine with the idea that holodecks needs to be on a separate power grid from everything else due to some incompatibility with standard Federation technology (ENT showed that as well), but in that case it seems like holodecks should also serve as emergency survival shelters for when life support fails everywhere else on the ship. If only they'd used the holodeck for that purpose here instead of showing crewmen cowering in the hallways.

Back in the time of Enterprise, holodecks were not Federation tech at first and then Enterprise got it from the aliens who impregnated Trip.

In this episode, Jack calls out the notion that the holodeck is running in the time of crisis, and Picard says holodecks are designed with a small independent power system for the very reason of being able to serve as sanctuary in times of distress. Why he gets to have dibs on it and to force it to be 10 Forward, who knows? Admiral's prerogative I guess.

Or, they could, you know, put life support on it's own fucking power system as well? It can't use that much power. Or, at the very least, some sort of backup system, even if it's just some space heaters and some of those candles they use to generate oxygen on submarines?

Of course, these are the same ships where consoles start exploding if so much as a speck of dust hits the shields, so...

@Amaris, I thought the same thing, we're going to see the Upside Down?

Did the Changeling really need the bucket or pot to be the same style as Odo's? Couldn't the Changeling regenerate in the toilet as long as no one flushed it while it was snoozing?

And damn! The more I see of Liam Shaw the more I like him. The dipshit from Chicago really has a reason to not like Picard.

And WTF? Is the Changeling part of Vadic, or she just carries the Changeling around aa hand? Maybe Vadic is similar to the Vorta, and that's why she was told "It is suicide to refuse" and "All else is expendable, your ship, your people, you". The Vorta saw the Changelings as gods and were willing to die for them.

Or have it where the shuttle craft can be plugged into the ship's EPS system and provide power to the ship. A warp capable shuttle's warp core should be able to prove enough power to keep life support and a few other systems running. Basically use the shuttles as auxiliary power units.

And poor Jack.

Thinking to himself "I want to be your son"

To Picard, "Did you have a life outside that, a real family?".

"Young man, Starfleet has been the only family I ever needed."



Jack on the inside...

Okay, from the beginning:

-It was pointed out elsewhere that Shaw's decision to protect Jack after learning he was Picard's son might have been because that confirmed Jack was a Federation citizen meaning Shaw was legally obligated to protect him. Jack had used several aliases before, so his citizenship might have been unclear before.

- "I told him who you were and where to find you" is such a fucking cop-out. Bev sucks.

-How long ago was season one of Picard? "Five years ago" Picard's going for lunch by himself where he's going to be mobbed by junior officers excited to hear his stories, but when the first season began he'd been hiding at the vineyard for a decade, and the guy working the reception desk at Starfleet HQ had to ask him his name because he didn't recognize Picard on sight. So this seems like it must have happened after the end of season one after Picard accepted a post at the Academy.

-How long ago did Thad Riker die? The rest of the Riker family seemed like they were doing more or less okay after his death, and Starfleet had no problem letting him back in command of a ship at the end of season 1. Now it's eating at Will and driving a wedge between him and his wife the trained counselor? Seems... convenient.

-The Hirogen thing is fine, it makes perfect sense Picard and the Enterprise crew would be having memorable adventures between movies.

- @Uncle Albert is right, it's ass that the Titan crew is so useless in this crisis yet again and they have to wait for Jack and Beverly to think of the solution.

-It's also ass that Picard and the Crushers come to Riker with a plan and his first response is "nah, let's just die."

- @We Are Borg must be pissed. The Titan-A was supposed to be a completely different ship from the Titan. Shaw mentioned a refit, but that was understood to be a refit of the Titan-A. But now the nacelles are two decades old and the ship was retrofit instead of refit? Dafuq is going on? Did they refit a completely different ship and rename it the Titan-A afterwards, or did they retrofit the previous Titan until it was completely unrecognizable and then slap an A on it for fun? The writers seem to be using the terms interchangabley at this point.

-Changelings don't need buckets, they can regenerate just fine as free flowing goo. Odo used a bucket when he was younger because he was insecure and self-conscious.

-Why wouldn't this dumb idiot changeling get rid of the body of his victim? You're posing as a transporter operator, you dumb idiot. You have the perfect evidence disposal machine at your fingertips.

-Riker telling Seven to keep the situation with the rogue changeling quiet is a pretty big hint that Riker is the changeling. At least that's what I'd suspect. C'mon Seven, cut him just a little to make sure.

-"You remaining in an unofficial capacity could work to our advantage" is stupid. So she's still relieved of duty but not confined to quarters? What if she needs to shout orders at someone in an emergency?

-How is Beverly is the only person that gives a shit about those energy pulses coming from the nebula? Does Titan not have a science department at all?

-Is replicated wine as good as real wine? Picard says the bottle in the holographic Ten Forward is a good year, but you'd think a fancy wine guy like Picard wouldn't consider replicated stuff as good as the real thing. Or maybe he's cooler about it since he's a robot now.

-Shaw giving Picard shit over Wolf 359 was ugly and brutal and frankly well deserved. I'm surprised Picard doesn't get blasted like that every other week. But at the same time I'm surprised Picard doesn't have a response ready to go for situations like that, something along the lines of "fuck you man, let the Borg assimilate your goofy ass and we'll how long you can stop them from accessing everything you know and using it against your friends, the galactic record is three milliseconds. Anyway, fuck you, I've still helped kill more Borg and saved more lives than you ever will. Fuck you."

-Heh, no wonder Shaw's a dick. Starfleet is supposed to have procedures in place to avoid excessively traumatizing it's officers, sticking Shaw with a former Borg XO that has still has visible implants and prefers using her assimilated designation has to be a violation of those procedures.

-Seven knows old-timey cannabis slang? Maybe that's what Tom Paris taught her about the 20th century instead of how to drive.

-Vadiq's changeling hand overseer or whatever the fuck that is was hella weird. Like her hand melts and turns into a holo-communicator? Weird.

-You'd think a Ten Forward holodeck program would come with servers, or even a holo-Guinan.

-Jack ambushing Picard with a question about family when Picard didn't even know he existed was sad and weird. It just hits home what a scumbag Beverly was for never telling Picard about Jack. Picard cried his eyes out in Generations over the thought of there being no more Picards. Even if she'd just told Picard that Jack existed but he didn't want to see him, that would have been better than this.

-That hallway fight scene between Seven and the changeling was terrible. The changeling runs directly at Seven like it doesn't want to live, then politely Seven stops firing long enough for it to change it's mind and escape. DS9 changelings had the sense to turn into goo and smack you hard enough to disarm/disorient you long enough for them to flee.

-Of course Blazin' Bev overmedicated Shaw.

-"He was on that Borg cube SETTING THE WORLD ON FIRE" Is that supposed to be a familiar in-universe expression in relation to Wolf 359? They used the Ink Blots song in the first episode. Is there some connection we're supposed to be making?


-"The real Borg are still out there" That's actually a relief to know, much appreciated Shaw. At least someone cares about providing some updates about what's happening in the universe at large after season 2.

- They missed an opportunity for Beverly to say "Jean Luc, there's something I've been meaning to tell you" one more time.

-Beverly figuring out the nebula was giving birth was kind of a female character being heroic, but it's undermined by Jack needing to be such a big part of the pitch to Riker, and the cheesiness of Beverly the mom realizing that the nebula is a mom too.

-Announcing the plan to the entire crew over the intercom is a dumb move when there's still a changeling infiltrator onboard. Also a waste of power.

-"Admiral, you have the conn." No, the Admiral had the captains chair, LaForge had the conn.

-I know all the engineers are busy, but are all the security officers busy? Why not have some of them guarding Shaw and Seven while they work?

-"My father is Geordie LaForge, decorated Starfleet engineer" I was hoping for a moment that Shaw would try to ask her a follow-up question, then realize that's the only thing anyone knows about her. Still, it's funny that the changeling knew about it after a couple days onboard, I bet he heard her mention it several dozen times even when no one else was around.

-Changelings don't hold their shape after getting killed, they disintegrate into powder. Why not just use a different race of shape shifters if you're not going to follow what DS9 established about changelings?

-Real convenient that the Shrike abandoned the portal tech before going after the Titan, and that it can't dodge or shoot down an asteroid. I get that it's a callback to the first time the Shrike confronted the Titan, but come on. You can't make Vadid look this incompetent this early in the season.

-Seriously, Riker saw some baby space squid and now he's on the path to emotional recovery? You could have just gone to the zoo, Will.

That was pretty decent.

Aside from some stellar performances by Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes (who knew?) and Todd Stashwick, there was a lot of clunky shit in this episode.

But anyone saying it's like watching the best of the TNG episodes is way off, IMO.

Yes, the holodecks were Xyrillian technology. When the Xyrillians hid in the plasma wake of the Enterprise and then later of a Klingon vessel, it caused ship-wide problems with power supplies and life support for both of them.

I always took that episode as an explanation for why holodecks run on their own separate power supply, with the basis of 24th century holodeck technology still being Xyrillian and still not quite compatible with Starfleet tech.

He got there first. No one assigned to the Titan seems to be the independent thinking type.

I don't dispute any of this but without sifting through my memory, I feel like a LOT of drama and particularly genre drama has this kind of thing which, if you stop and think it over for 3 minutes you say "Wait, hold it..."

I've just become blind to it as the show is progressing unless it already sucks in other ways.



Otherwise....

I don't know HOW anyone could not cheer the payback maneuver. Very fun.

I'll venture to say they may have speed-run one of the best character development arcs in Trek history in just four episodes with Shaw. And it only works if you have a magnificent acting performance - which they do.

Changelings don't hold their shape after getting killed, they disintegrate into powder. Why not just use a different race of shape shifters if you're not going to follow what DS9 established about changelings?

Hey, for all we know maybe everyone here has misread the situation and the shapeshifters are actually pissed off insurrectionist chameloids? Who collect Bajoran buckets for some reason...

I sure didn't think anyone was gonna beat out Carol Freeman for Shit Parenting Decision of the Year, but Crusher is definitely in podium position with this

As the kids say, this was an L decision.

The great link turned Odo into a real human.
Laas could turn into smoke, fire, and a mini starship.
It's not inconceivable a talented founder could be so well changed they would get stuck as a human after death.
I can roll with that one.

...and if that doesn't work for you, then the changeling ate lots and lots of General Tso's Chicken, and the Tso's sauce glued his powder together.

That was a great moment, especially because of the other tragic layer. In the moment Picard paused he was probably thinking about his brother and nephew, the last family he'd had, gone for decades now. He probably felt that pang of longing, the sadness that he has no heir to follow after him in the vineyard, responsible for bringing to an end the long and successful Picard family line.

He can't say any of that to the cadets though, so he says what they need to hear, the trite line that that group gathered in the bar are family now.