Star Trek: Picard (warning: possible spoilers!)

[danrjones]

In fact I rather like the symmetry of Picard sacrificing his life to bring back data....

[LeftieBiker]

In fact I rather like the symmetry of Picard sacrificing his life to bring back data....

I just got up, but I'm not following that. Didn't Data's little pocket universe predate any involvement by Picard? One thing that the Fringe people who are largely responsible for Picard do a LOT is mine fan favorites for plot lines. Every Star Trek movie after the first one sees the Enterprise getting destroyed, for example. In this case, though, it was the original NG writers who did the mining - from Spock's demise and resurrection in ST 2 & 3, with the plan apparently being to have Data at least partially inhabit B-4, but the Fringe crew who took a different, mirror-image direction, first partially resurrecting, and then killing Data. It wasn't so much what they did as how they did it: I assume that it took a LOT of makeup and prosthetics to get the rather plump Spiner to resemble his old self even that much, and the illusion would have been completely spoiled had Data been required to walk around, or even sit in bright lighting...

[danrjones]

I just meant that from a story perspective it would have been symmetrical to have Picard instead give up his life to save Data by giving data the android body. Data once saved picard so it would have been nice to return the favor. Pocket universe or whatnot im sure the story could have allowed Data to be downloaded. If remeber right data in the virtual world was extracted from B4. So just move him again.

While it would make a good story I think an old Data just wasn't what Brent or the writers had in mind.

[LeftieBiker]

Got it. I wonder if Data's "son" will be planning any revenge for Picard taking the body he built for himself...

[danrjones]

The other twist I was hoping for was that the Dr Soong (Jr) was actually Lore. We know from cannon that Data's mom (the android version) aged. So why not have Lore age too? Bringing about android revolution seems like something Lore would have done. And since getting old stinks, he was building a new body... that Picard stole.

That would have mostly worked.

[cwerdna]

So, anyone still want to talk about the series finale? Winged evil serpent machine gods, Data going to his grave, Picard going to his but doing a 180...? Actually the scenes with Data really disturbed me. Maybe that was intentional, maybe my own mortality has sensitized me to characters who look pre-embalmed while existing in a sterile environment...and then rot onscreen. And maybe most importantly, why no virtual Spot...?

I was surprised about Picard doing a 180 and becoming a synth. As for Data's death being disturbing, I think that was intentional. I actually cried watching that scene. I ended up rewatching that portion a few times and got emotional each time.

LOL re: virtual Spot. I totally forgot about that. Every time Brent Spiner makes an appearance and Spot is brought up, he talks about the cat being a terrible actor. I suspect it's quite a pain when shooting to have to involve a cat.

Also, if one didn't know, Isa Briones (Soji, Dahj, et al.) sang Blue Skies in the finale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC34tYpM5GE.

Some also complained about the copy-paste of all the ships in Riker's fleet. https://www.space.com/star-trek-picard- ... recap.html says

Is Starfleet really only building one class of starship now? Well, according to TrekCore, the visual effects work for the season only got completed last week and VFX supervisor Ante Dekovic said that a wider range of ship variation simply wasn't possible due to a lack of available production time. And that just sounds a bit odd.

Later on, apparently, this came about due to that episode:
US Naval Academy Professor Argues For Single Ship Design Seen In ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Battle Of Coppelius
https://trekmovie.com/2020/07/05/us-nav ... coppelius/

[LeftieBiker]

I was surprised about Picard doing a 180 and becoming a synth. As for Data's death being disturbing, I think that was intentional. I actually cried watching that scene. I ended up rewatching that portion a few times and got emotional each time.

I teared up a bit, too. I don't like having my buttons pushed, but sometimes it happens. As for the virtual Picard tending to him as the barely-disguised USB drives were pulled*: I'm not entirely sure where this lot got the idea that Data thought of Picard as Daddy. He had a "Father" and wasn't able to mourn his death. Maybe I just missed things. I saw the golem as Picard's next body as soon as I saw it - for the simple reason that more than one season of the show was expected, and Picard was starting to cough up various organs, metaphorically speaking...




* Shouldn't those things have had safety locks on them? Or at least a sign: "DO NOT REMOVE OR DATA DIES".

[cwerdna]

For anyone who wishes to watch Picard, Disco or Lower Decks, as I wrote at https://www.tivocommunity.com/community ... t-12104289, I received an email with a code MORE for a free month. It may only work for returning subscribers. Someone else posted PLAY for a free month (for new subs?).

[cwerdna]

It's weird, actually. The pacing is fine - not too slow. I've just about decided that it's the soundtrack. The show may have a score that puts old people to sleep.

On that note, I've finally got around to starting For All Mankind (Apple TV+ show: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772588/fu ... cl_sm#cast). I knew it was from Ron Moore (he worked on TNG and the RDM version of Battlestar). I noticed that Jeff Russo is also the composer for this show as he was for Disco, Picard and a bunch of other stuff: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0751642/filmo ... _=m_nmfm_1.

I also noticed that Naren Shankar got credit for 1 ep. He was EP on The Expanse and did some work on TNG.

[Stanton]

For anyone who wishes to watch Picard, Disco or Lower Decks, as I wrote at https://www.tivocommunity.com/community ... t-12104289, I received an email with a code MORE for a free month. It may only work for returning subscribers. Someone else posted PLAY for a free month (for new subs?).

Getting on high-horse.

If folks don't pay for access to the service (as opposed to repeatedly looking for free access)...there may not be any more of these series to watch.

Getting off high-horse.
Just sayin'