S03.E01: Part One - The Next Generation

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

After receiving a cryptic, urgent distress call from Dr. Beverly Crusher, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard enlists help from generations old and new to embark on one final adventure: a daring mission that will change Starfleet, and his old crew forever.

Dropping Thursday, February 16, 2023.

[starri]

I thought it was an excellent episode, but the thing that jumped out at me the most was the music.  They used so many queues from other scores, and then going out on the First Contact theme hit me directly in the feels.

[cambridgeguy]

I sincerely hope they're not doing the WoK thing of giving Picard an adult son he never met.  At least Kirk knew about David and agreed to stay away, even though he probably regretted that decision.

A captain "catching up on logs" must be the polite Starfleet way of saying screw you.  However, while he's an ass, he wasn't wrong to be suspicious.  A retired admiral and the Titan's old CO just show up out of the blue for a surprise inspection?  Yeah, I'd be expecting something too.

Edited February 16, 2023 by cambridgeguy

[paigow]

Did Starfleet run out of Bronze? That is the ugliest hero statue ever...

 

New Titan Captain should have been named Jellicoe...

[dwmarch]

So far so good but as with all Star Trek, it shall be nitpicked.

Okay, first and foremost, why does Beverly have to cock the phaser like it's a shotgun every time she fires it? Maybe that's so she can fire big energy pulses instead of a beam but when you're fighting in a hallway the beam would do more good than the pulses I would imagine.

The Enterprise-D comm badges were never shown to have video playback abilities before. I guess maybe that's why Picard took so long to figure it out. Also, will it just continue to beep every few seconds until you acknowledge the message? That is annoying although consistent with Discovery where something similar happened.

Captain Shaw says he runs a tight ship but he can hear a nebula through the hull? You've got to tighten some hull plates, dude. Shaw is a bit of dick so far but he's also played by one of my favorite Terminators so it will be interesting to see where we go with him. Or, as Myron Stark says, we'll see.

Seven is Cmdr. Hansen because that's how the Captain wants it? I guess this is supposed to be like Jellico telling Troi to put a uniform on but if Shaw did this in the 21st century, he'd be dead naming someone. Maybe he's just counting on Seven's lack of familiarity with Starfleet's HR regulations?

Weird timing on the Raffi plot. She's undercover as a strung-out junkie and she bribes a clue out of an Orion drug dealer who is sympathetic to Starfleet. Starfleet Intelligence doesn't bother helping her so she ends up figuring out on her own that the Red Lady is a Rachel Garrett statue in front of a distant Starfleet outpost. She hustles over there just in time for the bad guys to blow the place up. Did they wait until she arrived? And is there some reason she had to fly over first before trying to contact them?

Also, Raffi just dropped her space drugs on the ground. Shouldn't you either safely dispose of those or trade them to someone else for other favors?

Not one but two scenes in bars where people could have conversations at a normal volume despite the music and the crowd. It's been a while since I have been in such a watering hole but as I recall, they don't quite work like that. Discovery had a projected privacy field that could be used for these kinds of situations and that sure would have been helpful for Picard and Riker who were immediately outed by a spy (and I think he was on the Titan when they were doing the inspection).

Lots of Easter eggs in the end titles. I loved the "For Annie" card too. She was not a part of the Star Trek family for long but they loved her.

[ofmd]

It was an ok episode for me.

More like an old Trek movie than a tv show so if that's your thing, you're probably good.

The

Spoiler

possibly-very likely retconned Picard son

is a major turn off for me. Shark ready to jump.

Edited February 16, 2023 by ofmd

[MAVISMOON]

I'm in.

B CrushWick slo-mo through the mist to deliver the double tap? Yes, Chef. As one old enough to have watched TNG during it's original run, I'll confess that I completely co-sign a rewrite for Crusher from Sexless Mother/Professional Sexless Female/Sexless Widow tropes to something with a bit of meat on the character bone. It will be sadly disappointing if the character reverts to original form, but I'm sticking around regardless. One Q: So, it's just family time on the Elios...like no crew at all?

Liked the initial scan through the Elios, the memorabilia presented, and I'm postulating now that the rather alter-esque aspects to her past existence, loves, friends, music, etc. was B Crush's attempt to remain sane/connected after having ghosted everyone 20 years back. FanFic writers feel free to go to town. 

Love Riker/Picard, and the Titan's Captain is a most enjoyable asshole. Fuck malbec, you infant.

Why is the statue red? Like, menstrual commemorative statues are a thing in the 25th? Sorry, but what?

Raffi plot is meh for me in the way that all ex-addicts involved with the underworld of previous addictions storylines can be. Also, is she rolling on the S1&2 ship solo?   

But it was the choice of specific songs, the compilation collection created by Picard for B Crush, that got me in the feels. Totally hooked me, and now I'm just swimming around with a GD hook in my mouth waiting for TPTB to shit all over my happiness mojo.

I desperately want S3 it to be good, but...reasons, read S2Picard, so I choose cautious optimism for now. 

 

[tessaray]

I'm not a fan of previously unknown kids in my sf. They should really stop with the soap tropes - real soaps do them so much better. 

I did enjoy the ST computer theme being on full display. And it was nice seeing Laris again. 

Q: did I miss how long it's been since S2? Seven and Raffi aren't together and I'm assuming the little girl is Raffi's? Is she Seven's too? That kind of soapy relationship stuff I am interested in. 🙂 

[ofmd]

I assumed the girl was Raffi's granddaughter. (Even though her skin is much lighter than that of her parents, we saw them in season 1.) Which still means several years have passed between seasons 2 and 3. I'd really like to know what year we're in!

Edited February 16, 2023 by ofmd

[starri]

3 hours ago, dwmarch said:

Lots of Easter eggs in the end titles. I loved the "For Annie" card too. She was not a part of the Star Trek family for long but they loved her.

Actually, she had been.  One of her first professional jobs was an episode of Enterprise more than 20 year ago.  I also confess to having a lump in my throat when that came up.

I want someone to a breakdown of all the stuff that appeared in the end titles. I saw engine schematics for a Romulus ship, a reference to a 10 Forward holodeck program (with the safeties off) and what I can only assume was a schematic of Data’s positronic brain.

[Tachi Rocinante]

A good start, hope they don't ruin it.

The noise of the "Cylon" ship sounded like the machine planet from the original movie.

Todd Stashwick is underappreciated and a good choice for Shaw.

"For Annie" indeed.

[cambridgeguy]

37 minutes ago, starri said:

I want someone to a breakdown of all the stuff that appeared in the end titles. I saw engine schematics for a Romulus ship, a reference to a 10 Forward holodeck program (with the safeties off) and what I can only assume was a schematic of Data’s positronic brain.

You can watch it here.  Among other fun things Voyager, the Enterprise-A, and Excelsior are all in a museum.

 

[thuganomics85]

Picard is back and he's brought some familiar faces back!

Even though I thought Patrick Stewart worked well with a lot of the previous cast members on this particular series (I was thrilled that he and Jeri Ryan had great rapport), you can really see how powerful the chemistry is between him and Jonathan Frakes, and that they have a bond that is hard to duplicate.  It was just great seeing Picard and Riker fall back in sync and become the old co-workers/friends again that quickly.  What else I can I say?  I'm apparently easy and it brought back a smile to my face.

Also great seeing Gates McFadden again at long last and I'm looking forward to seeing what Crusher's deal was and she had to isolate herself from everyone else for so long.  While I'm glad they acknowledge that something was going on between her and Picard (at least on an emotional level), they hopefully won't just regulate her to Picard's love interest/old flame.  Not sure what to make of her son and if they're going to go the obvious route and make Picard the father as well.  Tried to figure out where I saw the actor before and he was totally Eragon in that long forgotten Eragon film back in 2006, heh.

Captain Shaw is an asshole and a half, but it's one of those cases where if you look at it from an outsider perspective, it makes sense that he wouldn't let Picard and Riker walk all over him, mistrust their true intentions, and even not really be impressed by all of the trouble they got into "back in the day" (although, I really wan't to know what he thought of Kirk and his crew, since they probably caused more chaos if we're comparing notes...)  But, I sadly suspect this show won't take a more Jellicoe-like approach to his character and he'll probably continue to be an antagonist: if not becoming a flat-out villain at the end.  Todd Stashwick was fun as always.

Raffi is working for Starfleet undercover to try and stop some kind of terrorist organization?  Who just blew up Starfleet Academy, I think?

Geordi's got a daughter in Starfleet?!  I wonder if they're still going to have Leah Brahms as his wife since that whole thing was problematic even back then.

Sounds like Riker and Troi are having some kind of spat?  I guess we'll find out once she comes onboard.

Solid opener, but I'm cautious due to how flawed both previous seasons were.  But I hope they at least end on a strong note.

[starri]

5 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

Geordi's got a daughter in Starfleet?!  I wonder if they're still going to have Leah Brahms as his wife since that whole thing was problematic even back then.

She has the same name as one of his "All Good Things..." daughters, so I'd say there's a non-zero chance.

2 hours ago, ofmd said:

I'd really like to know what year we're in!

It's 2402.  So about a year after the "contemporary" parts of Season 2.

[ofmd]

Ah, thank you.

Gods no, not Geordi & Leah Brahms, please!

[tessaray]

2 hours ago, ofmd said:

I assumed the girl was Raffi's granddaughter. (Even though her skin is much lighter than that of her parents, we saw them in season 1.) Which still means several years have passed between seasons 2 and 3. I'd really like to know what year we're in!

Thanks. I obviously remember zip about S1.

[Francie]

Wow, I thought I could do this -- watch the show. I honestly thought I might enjoy this. I couldn't help but feel that way. TNG is among my all-time top 5 shows. I didn't watch seasons 1 or 2 of Picard for a variety of reasons, although I did watch the Nepenthe episode recently to gear up for this season. I greatly enjoyed the scenes set on Nepenthe (the rest was meaningless to me). 

But having watched parts of this first episode, I'm gobsmacked at how amateurish the dialogue is. It's like reading a college freshman's first attempt at script writing. This passes for professional writing nowadays? Jokes about Enterprise-D models being unwanted because they're too fat ("You better leave the bottle"), and publicly shaming Geordi's daughter at work to make a crash joke (let me guess, there'll be payoff later on). It's all glib and superficial. It's all wink-wink. 

Overall, I hate, hate, hate, hate hate JJ Abrams' type "mystery box" writing -- dropping clues to whet the viewers' appetites, with no actual enjoyable plot. All set up and introduction and no realized arc from beginning to end of a single episode. There's no good reason to watch this episode, in and of itself. I compare these 45 minutes to, say, the 45-minute episode of Survivors from season 3 of TNG. That ending literally took my breath away, both when I first watched it as an adolescent and even on revisit. I walked away from that Survivors episode with something to contemplate, and it was the story that gave me feels.  

Meanwhile, with all this introduction signifying nothing, this first episode of Picard reminded me of season 8 of Game of Thrones. And the last thing I ever need to be reminded of is Season 8. 

Maybe I'll catch you all again around Episode 6. The only positive of this episode is that it killed my excitement and will no longer be a distraction. I got up extra early to watch this first episode. I couldn't help but be excited, even with some critics naysaying. My expectations are now tempered. 

The best bright side -- my love for TNG came flooding back these past few weeks, and going down that memory lane was thoroughly enjoyable. 

 

[Stardancer Supreme]

I'm easy, and I'm in!

I was fully prepared to be upset about Raffi backsliding, only to realize that she is undercover. That little girl has to be her granddaughter; her son's wife was pregnant in Season 1.   I wonder if she managed to reconcile with her son and meet her granddaughter in person? 

Poor Seven. Starfleet clipped her wings, and she is under a captain who clearly has a dislike for Borg, former or otherwise.  And insisting on using Anikka Hansen as her Starfleet designation? I don't like that after all Seven went through to finally accept herself as Seven of Nine.  I did like that Captain Shaw was immediately not with the shits, although he was lowkey disrespectful about it.  He's one of those captains who is clearly not comfortable with flying by the seat of his pants.

Was that Starfleet Academy that went down? Ugh. Let Elnor be on a ship somewhere and not there!

Laris knew the moment someone reached out for help that Picard would go.

I don't want Beverly's son to be Picard's son; but whose child must he be in order to get Picard to not immediately regret coming to her rescue? It wouldn't make sense to run off after discovering she is pregnant...

Edited February 17, 2023 by Stardancer Supreme

[paigow]

1 hour ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

I don't want Beverly's son to be Picard's son; but whose child must he be in order to get Picard to not immediately regret coming to her rescue? 

It was Q, shapeshifted into Picard???!!!!

[KeithJ]

Pretty good episode.  Some random thoughts:

Nice to see Picard seems to have a relationship with Laris.

I'm already tired of Rafi's storyline.  Did she and 7 really break up or was that just part of her cover?

Captain asshat was, well, an asshat. We'll see how he is in episode 2 when I'm sure he swoops in and saves Picard and group.

Speaking of captain asshat, I'm surprised he didn't immediately throw 7 in the brig.

The card for Annie was a nice touch at the end.

That better not be Picard's son.  I hope the "we tried" relation was just that, a try and it didn't go any further.

Edited February 17, 2023 by KeithJ

[paigow]

6 minutes ago, KeithJ said:

We'll see how he is in episode 2 when I'm sure he swoops in and saves Picard and group.

Speaking of captain asshat, I'm surprised he didn't immediately throw 7 in the brig.

He is not going to miss a parade....

She has to write a report / confession first, then get locked up

[greekmom]

And these are the days of the crew of TNG.
(cue DOOL music)
Jean-Luc and Laris are spring cleaning.  We see a painting of the Enterprise and the flute.  Guess the show wants us to easter egg hunt. 
How many times did we hear that Bev cut times with everyone? Like 100?  Did she mention Worf there for a split second? So I guess she never cut contact from everyone?
So Will Riker is having "troubles" with Deanna and she and Kestra need the "break"? Will and Deanna have been doing this song and dance for 40 freaking years. Grow up and get some freaking couples therapy.
Raffi's boss in this enterprise of catching the red lady makes me feel that we might get a surprise pop up from someone else - Admiral Janeway? Admiral Paris? The Emissary? Lt. Barkley? The Doctor? Anyone?  Why the mystery and the blow up of Federation headquarters.
Fuck Shaw. He's now Captain douche bag of the highest degree. She's fucking 7 of 9.  Only Aunt Irene can call her Annika. Guess that report might get lost now that there isn't a Federation building on Earth. 
Crash LaForge looking all hopeful.  Admiral look at me! I soooo know you!
So Bev has a son.  Guess we have jumped the shark. Whatever. It would be soapy if it turns out to be the seed of Picard's loins.  I would take either she wanted a child and had a child or she wanted a child as she missed Wesley and she had some of Jack's DNA and had been inseminated.  But even 25 years ago, wasn't she past the child bearing age? Guess in the future, you can have a child at any age.  BUT - I can't BUY that she had Picard's love child and kept it from him. Especially after how devastated she saw Picard when he found out his family died in a fire - even Rene.  The man has NO FAMILY LEFT and to keep a possible family member from him for whatever reason is cruel and Bev was never cruel. Plus she would be a shitty mother to do that to the child. 

Meh...I'm not at the point of hate watching but I am getting there depending on it goes.
 

Edited February 17, 2023 by greekmom

[MissLucas]

Yeah, I'm still not convinced this won't turn into a dumpster fire like season 1 and 2. I'll stay around for Seven. Man, Rafi sure as hell does not know how to perform a decent Google picture search. Plonk in 'red lady' - look at the results without preconceived notions what you're looking for. Seems to be a basic lesson for her line of work which both she and mystery handler skipped. But since the writers like to rain misery and trauma on her character of course she gets there minutes too late. I guess Elron should be safe since TPTB sure as hell don't want us to remember how they just wiped out half of the regular cast for this season.

Was shifty yellow-shirt the same dude who listened in to Riker and Picard at the bar? 

Edited February 17, 2023 by MissLucas

[paigow]

The Romulans infiltrated Starfleet easily... There are likely a hundred moles working for any number of enemies

[marinw]

How did Seven become a commander only a year or so after joining Starfleet?

Love how the Titan crew is wearing the Lower Decks uniforms!!! (Or at least a close approximation)

So many Easter Eggs in the Spring Cleaning scene, like the flute from “The Inner Light” and “Lessons”

Exciting episode. I’m in. 

“For Annie” 😥

Edited February 17, 2023 by marinw

[iMonrey]

Who is Annie?

I only very recently watched the first two seasons and I've already forgotten: Elnor joined Starfleet but what happened to Rios? Did he die? Wasn't that his ship that Rafi has? I know Agnes became the Borg Queen so I guess we won't be seeing her . . . maybe.

I liked it. I'm not so picky. Only made it through one season of Discovery but I liked the first two seasons of Picard, so sue me.

Hey, it's Jimmy James from Downton Abbey. He's all over the place lately, he's been getting a lot of work. 

[ofmd]

Rios stayed in the past because he liked smoking cigars and 21st century IRS, oh and the doctor. And to make room for the TNG cast of course.

Edited February 17, 2023 by ofmd

[tessaray]

3 hours ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

I don't want Beverly's son to be Picard's son; but whose child must he be in order to get Picard to not immediately regret coming to her rescue? It wouldn't make sense to run off after discovering she is pregnant.

Starfleet is a dangerous place to work. Maybe she and her husband had some frozen samples stashed just in case? (The son being a real Crusher is the only thing that might make this interesting to me.)

[marinw]

Wesley had a brother!!!

I think Shaw and Jellico before him are more typical Starfleet captains then Pike, Kirk, Picard or Janeway. Starfleet is a very stable organization if it has now existed for hundreds of years so it must have more rule followers than Mavericks. Shaw may be an asshat but any captain would take exception with his first officer disobeying orders while he sleeps.

I know the dark lighting is a aesthetic choice of current Treks but I miss the brightness of the original TNG,

9 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Who is Annie?

Annie Werschang was a well known working actor who was in many shows. She was the Borg Queen in season 2 of Picard. To me she will always be Renee Walker on 24. She recently died of cancer. 🥲

Edited February 17, 2023 by marinw

[paigow]

1 hour ago, marinw said:

How did Seven become a commander only a year or so after joining Starfleet?

Without any formal training, she was more competent than most officers on Voyager ... and she probably passed the Kobayashi Maru by telling the Klingons that their attack was futile...

[norcalgal]

16 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

I sincerely hope they're not doing the WoK thing of giving Picard an adult son he never met.  At least Kirk knew about David and agreed to stay away, even though he probably regretted that decision.

 

2 hours ago, greekmom said:

So Bev has a son.  Guess we have jumped the shark. Whatever. It would be soapy if it turns out to be the seed of Picard's loins.  I would take either she wanted a child and had a child or she wanted a child as she missed Wesley and she had some of Jack's DNA and had been inseminated.  But even 25 years ago, wasn't she past the child bearing age? Guess in the future, you can have a child at any age.  BUT - I can't BUY that she had Picard's love child and kept it from him. Especially after how devastated she saw Picard when he found out his family died in a fire - even Rene.  The man has NO FAMILY LEFT and to keep a possible family member from him for whatever reason is cruel and Bev was never cruel. Plus she would be a shitty mother to do that to the child. 

I’m not sure he’s either Picard’s son or Crusher’s biological son.  Picard said it’s been about 20 years since he last saw Crusher and the guy looks older than 20, so presumably, Crusher still kept in contact with TNG folks until about 20 years ago. Surely her having another child would have come up before Crusher broke all contact if the guy is older than 20.  And as @greekmom posted, unless scientific/medical advances were used, Crusher probably couldn’t get pregnant the usual way about 20 years ago. 
My guess is Crusher adopted him (formally or not) and she’s the only mom he remembers. 

42 minutes ago, marinw said:

Annie Werschang was a well known working actor who was in many shows. She was the Borg Queen in season 2 of Picard. To me she will always be Renee Walker on 24. She recently died of cancer. 🥲

To me, she will always be Mama Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries.

[Egg McMuffin]

I liked this episode a lot (and I bailed out of the series early in the first season). Loved the banter and humor (and affection) between Picard and Riker. I always felt that the TNG characters needed more humor, so nice to see it.

[Glade]

Raffi's googling the Red Lady reminds me of the memeposts about who the Red Angel from S2 Discovery might be (Kira!) which was an amusing meta moment. Overall I thought this was really good, interesting, though I expected 7 to beam herself aboard the shuttle at the last minute or something (I'm sure she will show back up next week...) And I did like the reference to 7 still being in touch with Janeway.   And, there is (from twitter) a precedent from TNG where Beverly repeatedly tried to tell Jean Luc something she had been hiding...

Edited February 17, 2023 by Glade

[dwmarch]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Who is Annie?

https://trekmovie.com/2023/01/29/annie-wersching-dies-star-trek-picard-borg-queen-actress-was-45/

[cambridgeguy]

6 hours ago, marinw said:

How did Seven become a commander only a year or so after joining Starfleet?

She’s a slacker?  After all, it only took Pine’s Kirk one mission to get promoted from cadet to captain.  

[greekmom]

8 hours ago, marinw said:

How did Seven become a commander only a year or so after joining Starfleet?

She has friends in high places? (Admiral Janeway, Admiral Picard)

[Mr. Sparkle]

After reading some really bad reviews, I'm surprised and pleased to say I liked this episode. All the stuff with Picard/Riker/Seven was good, the Raffi stuff not so much. I'll assume it's meant to tie into the universe-saving story line. 

[jcin617]

I'm not sure whether that's supposed to be Picard's son or someone else's.   Or whether he's some genetic experiment/clone type situation.   Bevery cut everyone out of her life 20 years ago, per Picard - but the actor playing her "son" is 35 years old.   So, either she's been hiding him almost as far back as her time on the Enterprise, or he's supposed to be younger than he appears, or he could have been adopted as a younger child/teen.

That said, in TNG season 2 Beverly was away from the Enterprise serving at Starfleet Medical, so that actually aligns with the actor's age... although no idea why she would keep him a secret from everyone.

Edited February 17, 2023 by jcin617

[Sandman]

On 2/16/2023 at 6:55 AM, cambridgeguy said:

A captain "catching up on logs" must be the polite Starfleet way of saying screw you.  However, while he's an ass, he wasn't wrong to be suspicious.  A retired admiral and the Titan's old CO just show up out of the blue for a surprise inspection?  Yeah, I'd be expecting something too.

Or not so subtle, really. His suspicions may have been understandable, but good ol’ Starfleet must be a whole lot less functional than I ever realized if this kind of passive-aggressive douchebaggery is allowed to stand. “Yeah, unless you’re in my direct chain of command, I’m going to shit all over you like I’m a hormone-addled teenager and you’re my mom’s new biker boyfriend” doesn’t really say good things about overall cohesion and discipline in a hierarchical organization. 

Edited February 18, 2023 by Sandman

[Zaffy]

I absolutely loved it.
The chemistry between the TNG actors is amazing. Probably cause they are like family in real life as well.

I like Picard is still with Loris, I like 7 in a uniform, I even enjoy that a** a of captain she has.
I have a suspicion about Rafi's boss... that "this is a war and you are a warrior" line... hmmm... Qapla'? 😉

The end credits with the First Contact theme was amazing.
The "for Annie" card broke me a bit..

p.s.
I did not know Rafi comes from Raffaella and now everytime she is on screen I hum Raffaella Carra's songs...

Edited February 17, 2023 by Zaffy

[Chaos Theory]

Beverly Crusher was kinda hot doing the whole shoot first don’t bother with the questions.   Plus she got to send a “Jean Luc, you are my only hope” message.

It’s good to know that even the ideal future had a bad part of town.    

Beverly Crusher’s son sounds awfully British to me.   Is that a clue?  🤔

 Picard and Riker would make a fun buddy comedy/adventure series.

[marinw]

So the San Francsico Campus of Starfleet Academy is no more! That was a very Marvel Cinematic Universe level of destruction there.

The closeing credits were great, and probably conatained all sorts of details I didn't get. Nice to hear the First Conatct music.

Unpopular opinion: I would be happy with a whole season of Picard and Laris hanging out in LaBarre growing grapes.

As for the age of Not Wesley, I think it's been established that human women of the 24th and 25th Centuries can have children later in life, as menopause happens much later due to medical advances and longer life spans and such. Also, FWIW in TNG Gates McFadden was pregant IRL and wore her doctor's coat to cover it up. So maybe Crusher was pregnant then and everyone was polite to ask or something? The apparent age of Not Wesley would match up.

Edited February 17, 2023 by marinw

[Chaos Theory]

I don’t care how the show explains it as long as Not Wesley is smart snarky and British I am all for him Being Picard’s son.

 

edited to add

Riker went from suave “hot guy who gets the ladies and occasionally the cis questionable aliens” on TNG to peak space dad telling embarrassing stories about his buddy’s daughter on Picard 

Now that is character development!!!!!

Edited February 17, 2023 by Chaos Theory

[Affogato]

2 hours ago, jcin617 said:

I'm not sure whether that's supposed to be Picard's son or someone else's.   Or whether he's some genetic experiment/clone type situation.   Bevery cut everyone out of her life 20 years ago, per Picard - but the actor playing her "son" is 35 years old.   So, either she's been hiding him almost as far back as her time on the Enterprise, or he's supposed to be younger than he appears, or he could have been adopted as a younger child/teen.

That said, in TNG season 2 Beverly was away from the Enterprise serving at Starfleet Medical, so that actually aligns with the actor's age... although no idea why she would keep him a secret from everyone.

Yes, Picard goes there when the actor identifies himself as 'her son', but that doesn't mean that is the solution.  We don't know of any reason she couldn't have a family on the Enterprise, in fact, she did have Wesley on the Enterprise. I hope it isn't the genetically enhanced thing, although that might make sense.

this was always going to be just a few seasons, if I remember correctly. It seems to me they should have started with this in the first season and picked up others as the show progressed. I loved Picard and Riker. A little confused about the red lady plotline, but I think they haven't given us all the information yet.

[marinw]

We need to keep reminding ourselves that Picard is French and not British. Accents aren’t a genetic trait, so whatever his parentage Not Wesley would have had to grow up somewhere where people spoke Universal Standard with a British accent.

[RobertDeSneero]

1 hour ago, marinw said:

So the San Francsico Campus of Starfleet Academy is no more! That was a very Marvel Cinematic Universe level of destruction there.

That was a recruitment center in "District Seven", not San Francisco.  It is presumably near the District Six on M'Talus Prime where Rafi was doing her undercover work.

[marinw]

9 minutes ago, RobertDeSneero said:

That was a recruitment center in "District Seven", not San Francisco.  It is presumably near the District Six on M'Talus Prime where Rafi was doing her undercover work.

I stand corrected! Thank you. I need to do a re-watch. The whole "District" things reminds me of The Hunger Games.

[paigow]

38 minutes ago, marinw said:

We need to keep reminding ourselves that Picard is French and not British. Accents aren’t a genetic trait, so whatever his parentage Not Wesley would have had to grow up somewhere where people spoke Universal Standard with a British accent.

Real!Wesley must know if he has a younger brother... He is a Time Lord FFS!!!

[ch1]

26 minutes ago, RobertDeSneero said:

That was a recruitment center in "District Seven", not San Francisco.  It is presumably near the District Six on M'Talus Prime where Rafi was doing her undercover work.

Can someone explain to me what I watched there?  It collapsed and then fell through the sky??? I had no idea what I was watching.

[cdnalor]

12 minutes ago, ch1 said:

Can someone explain to me what I watched there?  It collapsed and then fell through the sky??? I had no idea what I was watching.

I assume it's some sort of portal gun weapon that opened a hole under the building which exits above the same site.