FloatOn

Yeah, Ro said it was only the transporters on certain starships and that it had been only for like three or four months that there had been issues. It was the changelings that were everywhere in Starfleet ranks, but they weren't the ones that started firing or taking over the ships in the fleet. They also said in the last episode that Earth wasn't assimilated or effected I guess since one of them says Spacedock and the defense shields were the only thing standing between Earth being attacked by the Borg. I think we're supposed to think Earth is fine, it's just getting fired at by the fleet but the shields are stopping the attacks. Matalas said they filmed or cut a scene about her being at the Academy (either on Earth or maybe on some satellite campus somewhere I guess). If it's just the fleet that's effected and not Earth, then I think we're supposed to assume the Academy and whatever Starfleet personnel is on Earth is safe or relatively safe. Obviously it doesn't super fit the tone of them acting like it's both an apocalyptic threat but also a small enough threat that most of them aren't worried about their loved ones and Starfleet and having time to wax poetic about the Enterprise. But that's just what I got.

About the Kestra thing- it's still ridiculous they didn't include or cut the scenes about where Kestra was once they took Deanna, but watching through the episodes with my boyfriend so he could watch the finale, she does get mentioned way more than I remembered. They bring her up by name at least twice in separate episodes and reference Riker and Deanna having a daughter a few others times as well in other episodes. Plus when they're kidnapped and are worrying about her being alone, Deanna says us a few times in regards to Riker pulling away from them and leaving them to be with Picard and she's obviously meaning her and Kestra. Still completely stupid she got blanked in the final two though, but watching the back to back, it doesn't come across as bad when everything is fresh in your mind. As for why Riker didn't mention her when he thought he was going to die, I'm of two minds at this point. On one hand, completely should have added in something about her there. However, he presumably knows she's fine and safe. He though thinks he's about to die. He thinks Deanna could die too if things don't turn around. His son is dead. He probably didn't want to think about his daughter dying too. I can go with that line of thinking and I've seen it pointed out in a lot of places. I think adding her in the "we'll be waiting" thing would have sounded odd tbh since again, he probably doesn't want to think about her dying anytime soon. It's the overall same issue though with why after like one minute of panic, Geordi didn't seem at all concerned that his two daughters were Borgs and on a ship that was basically left to just Seven, Raffi, and whoever they rounded up. They put everyone's kids in danger and then didn't really want to follow through with how parents would act in those situations and what they would be thinking. They put the whole crew in danger to save Jack but didn't really want to follow through with what any of them would be thinking or going through is they really thought this was the end. A better written show would have thought out ways to make all the work onscreen, but alas.

People said she posted on her official forum and I went over there and looked yesterday and she seemed happy and positive about it and Trek's future. She was definitely blunt about some other non-Trek stuff so I assume she'd be about Trek too if she was unhappy. I definitely was one of those who thought she was mad when the stuff about the Star Trek Cruise came out and when she wasn't doing a lot of promo. But seeing the Cruise stuff stuff in context and seeing her quotes away from the Cruise about the show and wanting to do more Trek make me think she was just disappointed and unhappy with the flashback episode with her as a nagging wife and just that she wasn't on the ship sooner. I think it was those specific things she was unhappy with, and not the season overall or the majority of her stuff. That's just my read on the situation now though. Anyway, let's be honest, outside of Patrick Stewart, I think all of them would happily appear on whatever spinoff they may or may not do and they probably will if the show ends up happening.

No, but someone elsewhere posted a clip of her on the cruise saying for everyone to watch the show so that Paramount would be encouraged to make more so they can come back and do some more Trek stuff with the TNG cast. I thought when the stuff came out from the cruise she was mad about the whole story. But seeing the clips in a better context once longer ones popped up, it was right after that stupid flashback episode aired and she was mad about that one. I'm not sure she was talking about the whole season since she apparently loved the Riker and Deanna stuff. There's also at least two articles that got posted which had her talking about how she would love to do more and to keep the heat on Paramount. So I think she'd be down for it it seems, even if she hasn't said anything about Legacy itself. Here's one of them, it's from between the NY press event and the premiere- https://screenrant.com/star-trek-deanna-troi-actor-more-tng-spinoffs/

Both of these still bother me as well. They even has Picard say he would have named Jack after the dead husband. Why? People on twitter and elsewhere have been pointing out that they mentioned Kestra, either by name or just as Riker and Deanna's daughter, more than I thought (I honestly thought it was just like twice). However, it's still just so ridiculous that they couldn't manage to throw in one line somewhere in the last episode about her or that her parents were thinking about her. Just bad writing. As for Legacy, since Levar Burton, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, and Marina Sirtis are the loudest ones hyping the spinoff and/or wanting to do more Trek, I assume the show will be Seven and Raffi along with Jack, Sidney, Kestra as the ensign, and then some newbies if/when it happens. That way it's the "new generation" and they can still shove their parents on the show for cameos.

Since half of this show takes place in tidbits given to us by Terry Matalas in interviews, apparently we now know Elnor was not on the Excelsior and is fine.

Oh I hear you and agree for the most. I don't have a deep desire to see them onscreen. I just thought a mention might have been nice but I'm not losing sleep over it. I do think the Laris thing sucks since she was one of the best parts of the first two seasons. Going back through, Kestra got mentioned way more than I thought, but still odd how they just forgot about her in the last two episodes and never bothered to clarify where she was at during all this this. Also I thought Riker and Deanna were moving off that planet? But then this episode made it sound like a vacation? Was it both?

I'll admit that I enjoyed this one a lot more than last week and more than a few others this season too (I thought the first few started out okay as well). The character work really saved a lot of these moments for me. I thought the scene at the end was incredibly cheesy but it did get me. I know others will disagree but I was hoping they'd just have Beverly and Picard as friends. Implying they're together or whatever that was just sits wrong for me after she ran off for 20 something years with their son. Also, I'm begging Star Trek realize not every Starfleet kid has to join up as well. When Deanna sat down at the conn, I really thought they were about to make a joke about her crashing the ship. I'm glad they avoided that. I get that she was mentioned a few times across the show, but I'd love to hear why the show just forgot Kestra in the last two episodes. Did anyone bother to mention to Data that he has a daughter now? And whatever happened to Laris? Or Elnor? Seven and Raffi were all about how he was their family last year, you'd think they'd bring him up or want him on the ship with them. Tuvok definitely felt like a replacement for Janeway. I don't want to ever hear about Jack Crusher or the Troi-Riker son (may he Rest In Peace) again. If we're getting a spinoff, just please let it be Seven, Raffi, and some unknowns. Count me out though if Matalas is in charge or involved. I don't think he can be trusted to write or oversee a show with women, POC, and queer characters and respect them.

People directly tweeting at Matalas about the Kestra thing and Riker & Deanna looking bad and him refusing to answer them while he answers every other question is....certainly a choice. Maybe there's something about it in the next episode and they don't want to spoil it (doubt it though), but oof.

Don't forget how the La Forge sisters' whole personality is following Geordi around and talking about him 90% of the time. Or how Matalas said that they made Jack a boy because it was important for Picard to have a son and a legacy and that Soji would just have to represent Picard having a daughter like relationship with someone. Or how that stupid flashback scene of Riker and Troi was important because we needed to have a scene of Riker when he was a father....despite having a whole episode about that very topic in the first season. Guess it doesn't count since that was a daughter and the son we never even saw was way more important. Guess seeing Troi as a mother didn't matter though, right along with Riker seemingly being unconcerned if she was going to die or not during child birth. Or when Riker thought they were going to die and didn't seem to have any concern about his daughter and instead spent the whole episode monologuing about his son and worrying over Jack. Also, just everything about Jack and Beverly which is too long to even get into. About Troi trying to heal his pain, didn't we spend the first five episodes of this season with Riker saying the issue was that he was feeling nothing after the son died and that effected Troi and that's why he left because he was hurting her? He even called and apologized to her. He said he was sorry, that it was his fault, and he was feeling things again. Then one she shows up, it's oh no actually Riker had just so many feelings and such a connection to the son that Troi tried to help him relieve the pain and it's actually all her fault cause I guess how dare she try to help and erase the son or whatever. So what was all that in the first part of the season about then?

More like he resented that they had an alive daughter they were shown to be living for and getting joy from in the first season and instead wanted us to think they'd been sitting out in the woods alone depressed, static, and hating their life and each other because their son died eight years ago. For a show obsessed with legacy, you'd think they'd want to show that Riker and Troi's legacy didn't die with the son, but I guess I forgot that only sons are important in Star Trek.

Geordi's reaction didn't make any sense either. I'm not saying he needed to storm the bridge but him just seeming....fine basically right after he learned both his kids got assimilated was bizarre. Yeah, for someone who according to Matalas "plays heavily" and "is the star" of the final three episodes, Deanna going missing for a good 20 minutes there was weird. Right after she ran out on Jack, too. I agree about her and Riker, especially after how they were all over each other last episode. Did they even speak this time? No it was there. They had no explanation on where Raffi and Deanna were for most of the episode, and then boom, they were just there waiting to board the shuttle with the other legacy cast. Seven and Raffi staying behind on the Titan was stupid. I guess we'll see them ride into to save the day with the Enterprise in the next one, but what are they going to do with all the Borg crew members? Kill all of them except for Geordi's kids?

So Terry Matalas spent the week yelling that Riker and Deanna's kid was now at the Academy or an Ensign but they had to cut the scenes from the episode because it was too long or didn't fit. Yet in this episode the two of them see every person under 25 in Starfleet get assimilated and they show zero concern for their own kid, not even a hint that she could be in danger being in Starfleet now and under 25, and instead we get Deanna talking about how Jack is now her family. Just wish Matalas would admit he had no interest in that character and was only interested in their dead son and just kept it moving lol. Everything else and the doubling down in the press just makes them seem like neglectful parents and it's a bad look for me. This show has been going down for me like a lead balloon since around 6. Everything with the TNG cast and the ship I loved to a point but everything else is a misfire. Are Raffi and Seven ever going to get a scene between the two of them? Weird how that's another thing people loved from the first two seasons that they threw out so we could have more of Star Trek: Jack.

I was confused about this too. Looking at the extended notes Michael Chabon wrote out for the first season that are posted are, he was 15 when he died and that he had been sick for 5 years when he died. Deanna says he would have just turned 18 when Picard is at the house in Nepenthe, so I guess it had been about 3 years. I think this season is 2-3 years after the first so it's been like 5/6 years even though the show is acting like it's been extremely recent. The notes also mention (and I think the show did too) how much their kids were supposed to love that planet and living there which makes the trashing even more blah, even if it did lead to some great moments between them.

I feel like it's definitely covering their asses, especially since I've seen other people say she's been at cons saying she was available for more than they used her and that she was bummed she didn't get to be in on the adventure like the others. But two months is still a long time to be there to film and we've barely seen her. I'll be interested to see how much she gets in the last two. I know she's apparently happy with her stuff in the last episodes, but we'll see. I've thought for a while that her complete absence from the promo for this season was interesting, especially since they had Brent Spiner zooming in from wherever he lives. She's been out on the circuit so it's not like she's unavailable. I do feel like them doing a changeling story and the Jack thing basically meant they had to keep her away for a good portion of the season. As we saw, she'd be able to figure it out right away. I think however that's bad writing on a base level because when they were writing the season, they should have realized that element would keep one of the main 7 out of commission for most of the story. If they were set on the changelings, then they should have come up with a better way to incorporate her throughout than a flashback of her yelling at Riker about being stuck at home with the kids. I didn't mind the break from Data for a bit, but did we ever get an explanation on why there was also no Geordi for like half of the season? At least with Sirtis, you can go with the excuse of her living in Europe and covid. What was LeVar Burton doing that kept him out of it for so long? I still maintain my feelings from a few weeks ago that they were only really interested in a Picard, Riker, Crusher, and to a point, Worf and had to half ass come up with something for Deanna, Data, and Geordi.