User Reviews

Like many, I will note the fact that last year (and most of NuTrek) tends to start out great, then fizzle out...this one may be sustainable. I can honestly say I didnt see the Changeling thing coming, and I almost always see 'twists' (another captain's son thing included) coming. If the producers are willing to use up enough of the TNG/DS9 arcs that were left dangling, they will avoid the content crunch that leaves the middle of seasons vacant. The legacy of DS9 is horribly underserved in NuTrek, and short of a DS9-linked series, a wrapup in this season of STP would be welcome.

Overall, Im still cautiously optimistic that the producers wont try to slowplay the content like in other NuTrek and give us a great season.

I loved Deep Space 9, but as a TNG fan, I never liked where the character went in DS9. I actually grew to despise DS9 Worf. All the worst and most angsty attributes with almost none of the fun. I actually grew to love Martok on that show.

THIS Worf feels like TNG Worf again. He's not perfect and certainly has his issues, but he's not at all above cracking jokes.

And while I don't want to see a lot of gore added into Trek, it's nice to see that Worf's bat'leth does exactly what you would expect that sword to do.

Regarding Beverly and Picard... I think it's a bit out of character (and even hypocritical) the reasons Beverly didn't tell Picard about Jack....

But McFadden and Stewart act the heck out of it so it works. I don't expect the script to have some perfect depiction of these characters decades later.

Okay! Episode 3 and the season is still on the rails! I feel like this is a REAL season and not just a bunch of slapped together plot points to get through an episode. Nothing feels lost or misdirected. The characters have an organic interconnect that feels correct. Also none of the characters are just set dressing - they are all doing something necessary.

Worf and Raffi are a superb power couple for this season; superb story arc for them. On board the Titan, the activity and pacing are well choreographed, not telegraphed. The only demerit I have with this episode was when Riker ordered Picard off the bridge towards the end. That was totally out of character.

Good to see that ONE of the villains this season will be the changlings, too! All in all an excellent episode.

Who says something took "17 seconds"? No one. They narrow it down. 15 seconds. 20 seconds. Riker says it took exactly 17 seconds to get via the turbolift to his newborn son. What did he do, count, "One, one-thousand. Two, one-thousand, three..."? Did Picard do that too when he went to see Jack in sickbay?

Everything in these first 3 episodes of Picard have been done before. Picard has an unknown son. Like Kirk. The ships play tag in a nebula. Like Kirk and Khan in "Wrath". The big bad ship looks like a gigantic insect. Like the big bad ship in "Nemesis".

Speaking of the big bad ship. It's Captain. Is it just me? Anyone else see her as Frau Farbissina from the "Austin Powers" movies? I can't seperate the two. "It's a commercial. There's this leprechan. They're always after me Lucky Charms!"

I'm not clear on how old Jack Crusher is. Did Picard and Bev do the deed after "Nemesis"? Making Jack 20something? He looks 30something. Was it back just before season 2 of TNG, when Bev was gone for a year? If that's it, then Bev abandoned the kid for the next 5, 6, 7, 8 years? Cuz Jack didn't tag along with Bev on the Enterprise D. If Bev was impregnated after "Nemesis", how old was she? And she still was able to conceive? Maybe cuz it's the 24th century? And why did Bev associate Jack attending school in England to having "it in his DNA"? Picard is French. (Patrick Stewart is English.)

The Changlings? Really? They never worked for me in DS9. They're complaints about humans never made sense. All they ever had to do was disguise themselves as humans and then hang out with humans. Not Starfleet or Military minded humans or Section 31 humans. Real humans, back on Earth. On the supposedly enlightened 24th century Earth. The Changlings would have learned, as Odo did, that real humans weren't bad at all.

Picard has been an entirely different character than who he was during TNG. "Will, you've got to fight!" Old age has really changed Captain Diplomacy.

The Titan Captain would never have made Captain. 7 of 9 would have thrown the jerk out an airlock months ago. The Titan Doctor seems to practising 22nd century medicine. Titan Guards are entirely incompetent.

The action on the Titan seems to be taking place in a constant. Maybe 2 hours have gone by since contact was made with the Frau. But the Raffi "action" seems to be occuring over a period of days. Titan action and Raffi action are being presented on screen as happening at the same time. Did I miss something? Or just bad editing/story telling.

Picard season One was awful. I've only seen season Two in short clips. It looks awful. Picard season 3 so far, 3 episodes in, is better than awful. I hope it gets much better than awful.

Three episodes in star trek Picard season 3 is plenty strong, especially when compared to the other first two questionable seasons... The storytelling is clear, the pacing is just good, and the characters are in depth and offcource familiar faces. As stated in a previous review, this season of Star trek Picard feels like a really good "Next Generation" movie. Also has a feel of the TOS movies like the wrath of Khan etc.

So as I said the pace of this season has been everything but dull, with revelations coming steadily and logically. The character moments, likewise, have been explored with tact and the showrunners have allowed conversations to play out in full.

In my opinion having all the next generation cast joining this season is a brilliant move and one that we as fans have been hoping for for many years, yes they are older but they are still as good as we remember and even better, keep in mind that there has been more than 20 years that past since we last saw them, so their lives changed as well.

This episode kept me at the edge of my seat, and when it was revealed that the changelings are back my mouth fell open. I cannot wait what other surprises will be in store for us this season. THIS IS STAR TREK, THANK YOU TERRY!!!!

Let's hope after this season we can have more trek like this with more legendary characters.

It has some elements of the way Star Trek was, but the new age "lets put 2 episodes in a whole season, add over the top focus on emotions, shaky cam" is something I just don't like.

Worf is cool, but his lines feel a bit forced. Also the "We are warriors, lets team up!" and then "cool" scene makes it feel a bit childish to me.

There was on moment I did see the old Picard, a scene that did him justice. It is when he reacted on the fact he wasn't told about his kid. Strong, powerful expressions and voice. I hope they do that more, that is how you honor the Picard we all came to love.

As for the constantly smoking villain and her storm trooper crew: Picard face palm.

The last scene where Picard is dismissed, I hope he was replaced by the shape shifter who want him to fall for the Portal trap. And how Riker reacted, blaming a number 1 just for advice? Out of character. A captain has first responsibilty.

I wonder what entity lies in the clouds. The "organic by nature" had to be repeated a few times without anyone saying out loud what we all think (the crew of this new Star Trek seems not as sharp as we were used to).

By the way, this portal tech. Does it mean the end of transporters? No more breaking down into a particle wave but just portal step down to a planet?

Outside of Worf moments, this episode contained too many qualities that sunk Discovery.

Drama was forced through atypical emotional outbursts. Riker uncharacteristically lashed out at Picard after following his recommendation. Picard repeatedly lashed out at Crusher. Picard is ready to sacrifice the Titan crew for his son, then rudely dismisses and disowns his son, then in a 17 second turbolift ride flips and fully embraces him once again. Huh? What? These characters are riding the NuTrek emotional roller coaster at the expense of telling a good story. This immaturity does not fit the TNG crew.

Consistency is also a problem. Captain Shaw started out as a hard-nosed by-the-book leader ready to pounce on anyone who deviates from his tight ship. Now he's sniveling, fearful, and deferring every chance he can. Riker is the clever tactician who saves the day, until he stops proposing any new ideas, then takes bad advice, then blames another for it. Picard can't take over the Titan because he's a retired admiral, then takes over the Titan because he's an admiral, then is unable to take over the Titan because Riker is acting captain.

Between a glut of grimy dark scenes, uninspiring monologues, distracting shakycam, and the bazillionth NuTrek superweapon, this episode just doesn't have much...

...except for Worf. He made the episode worthwhile. His character is exactly what it was, except older and wiser. He moved the story along. He makes smart decisions, advances the team, and embraces those loyal to him. I'm rooting for the guy. When Picard ends at Season 3, they should pick up the story with Worf next.

From great drama to action scenes this episode stands out. The scene between Picard and Beverly is definitely the best of the entire series so far. Such a raw and emotional exchange. It was followed by another great with Ricker and Jack. The growing tension between Ricker and Picard showing such contrast to their relationship in the past. The scenes with Work and Raffi show a growing bond that I would anticipate to continue as the season progresses and maybe beyond. Amanda Plummer has proved to be an interesting villain with an uncertain motive as to why she wants Jack.

And it all ends with Picard being thrown off the bridge with the fate of the Titan in question.

Such a great episode!

The episode was well done- almost.

Worf and Rafi make a great team. Discovery that the enemy are the Founders of the Dominion was well done. Didn't see that coming. That part of the story was tight and I would have loved the entire episode built around them.

The story aboard the Titan was good- until a point. The Shrike stalking the Titan through the "nebula" - which seem to probably have some connection to the Great Link/Founders/Changelings will come out somehow.

My problem is when Riker assumes command when Shaw is injured- Riker starts budding heads with Picard like Picard is some deranged old fool. He ignores the fact that HE help put the Titan in its precarious position. Why the personality change? It just seemed out of character like two people wrote two different stories. This ep was direct by Frakes so why didn't he pick up on this? Is Riker a Changeling or is this just more lazy, bad writing, directing and acting like we saw in season 1& 2.

We'll see.

BTW- the herring theft from Daystrom was Lore of you haven't guessed yet.

Much better than last week, but not as good as the first one.

Good:

• changelings back
• story gets more interesting
• a bit more to do for Beverly
• Visuals are better then before
• there seems to be a SF topic in the nebula
• portal weapon usage is quite cool

Bad:

• Rafi as annoying as always
• jokes about decapitation
• Jack is annoying, simply doesn't work for me
• Not sure why it has to be Jack that has the important idea
• Medical procedures seem less advanced than in TNG & DS9
• not sure about the conflicts between Picard, Riker and Beverly, not fully convincing

Realy looking forward to how this progresses.

Great job. What great episode, the best since The Next Generation last seasons: gorgeous CGI, good dialogues, ship hunt and paternity themes well managed. Good the direction and a the script rich of events and evolutions in the relations between characters that comunicate with gazes, gestures and sinthetic phrases very related to the situations: just a good script, congratulations to authors. I waited episodes like that from the first season. Good racitation from almost all actors: perfect Picard and Beverly, good Number One, very good the captain and the son of Beverly, and all the others.

As ever, some little inconsistencies about the Federation technology: a photon torpedo has more effect on enemy ship when it explodes at half way than with a direct impact; the Federation Navy's diagnostic tools of the infirmery are less accurate than a diagnostic test done with hands by a psychological councillor. At last, aliens not humanoid: good choice. I hope the other episodes shall mantain this high quality level.

I'm still confused by the editing and lighting choices, but it's adequate. Boy was I ever pumped to see the Dominion show their faces again, or a break-off group of them anyway. I was hoping more in the ballpark of the Breen or something like that, since one of the actual humanoid races would make a lot more sense to go rogue. The changlings can all link up each other's minds in their lake, so rash decisions like the changlings in this episode made seem out of their parameters to me.

This was a pretty solid episode, but still it baffles me how many silly mistakes the characters make after decades of experience in Star Fleet. A ship that toys with Picard and Riker with a portal gun somehow bamboozled them by making them hit themselves with their own torpedoes? Wow, who would've thought? If they had no idea about the portals sure, that would be unexpected but whatever. The Picard and Crusher scene was well done, other scenes gave us some room to breather before dimly lit scenes bombarded us again.

I am truly happy that these writers are dipping their toes into past, meaningful elements from the TNG/DS9 Era. The execution of it could be better. It just doesn't feel like the writing team took enough time to really familiarize themselves with old trek episodes, but they're doing enough so that we're not rewatching the absolute trainwreck season 2 was. I realize the structure of my review is fairly sloppy, but so is this show. Pretty good, but dear lord do I miss the quality of writing prime of TNG and DS9 gave us. And even Enterprise and Voyager. This is better than Nemisis though.

I want to like Picard, I really do. But the writers have so completely changed his character that I don't know him anymore. Imagine, if you will, during the days of TNG, if a retired admiral had come onto the Enterprise and demanded to basically take over his ship. Neither he nor Riker would have put up with that nonsense for a moment, so what's their excuse for pulling insubordination on Shaw (sure, he's a douche, but still - he is the captain of the ship). Then, to make it worse, once Riker is sitting pretty in the captain's chair, Picard questions his leadership and then engages in mutiny when he doesn't get his way, in front of the whole bridge crew. The Picard I know would never resort to such antics.

And then there's Beverly. Not a single one of her excuses to taking off and leaving Picard in the dark about his son is at all what the Beverly Crusher from TNG would have done. She was skilled at crucial conversations and it is not in her character as she was once written to pull such a stunt - and then essentially blame Picard for her distorted thought process. She says she lost everyone "to the stars" when she herself has been a dedicated Star Fleet officer for decades. On top of that, she seems to have raised a career criminal. Wonder what Wesley the Wonder Boy thinks about his bro?

There is a little good - the captain of the Shrike is deliciously evil, cunning, and more than a little crazy, so she's at least entertaining for a minute or two. Worf was mostly solid.

I can only hope that as the episodes progress, the writers will bring back the Picard, Riker and Crusher we who watched TNG all grew to love.

I actually feel like this may be Star Trek. Season 2 was crap. Utter and total Crap. Painful excruciating bad crap. Not even sure why I tuned in for 3. I guess I had a long week and was just exhausted and knew the old crew was in this season.

But this was good...up until the last line...how did Picard "kill them all?!" Um, they had no warp and couldn't Go further in to the nebula so they had to fire, didnt they?!?! I mean, wouldn't Riker have fired anyway??? What were the other options prey tell? That was really dumb, so dumb I'm trying to figure out how a rift with Picard suits the writers plot. Does the writer need Picard off the bridge??

It was a truly dumb reaction of Rikers. And also, Riker is the captain so have we ever seen the acting captain throw a hissy fit over an order he gave after #1 advised him? "Look what you made me do!!!" Is pretty much what this writer wrote. "It's all your fault". Again, did these writers watch next gen??? And in any star trek series have we ever seen the captain say, "we're all gonna die!!!!" Ah....no. Every week they're in this much trouble, on every show! Not once have I seen any of them cry about it. Not sure how frakes delivered it.

Anyway, it's better than 2! (Not that that is a high bar) - it's good, just hoping that silly last line wasn't the dwindling spiral.