Picard- All Spoilers Thread!

[Mangochin]

Upgrades! New androids are harder to read. Either that or Soji is a sociopath and has no genuine emotions.

[KathyPartdeux]

It’s not an upgrade if you wish to remain undetected- or to become more human. Which certainly seems a continued goal.

Great for poker though.

[Mangochin]

[orenwolf]

@Mangochin

Picard probably didn’t think well of Riker’s winemaking skills, but was too polite to say anything

Haha, I totally had the same read.

@KathyPartdeux

When Data has emotions - Troi could read them.

Data and Troi

[Entity447B]

Picard is doing a good job lately of starting episodes with stuff I really hate lately. The forced surgical implant removal with bonus eye-scream was bad enough, but “I’m murdering these people because you wouldn’t do what I want so their deaths are your fault!” is my least favourite trope of all.

Tangentially, did anyone ever play the RPG Ashen Stars? It describes its theme as being “a gritty reboot of an optimistic TV series”…

[KathyPartdeux]

I think this is going to come back later in the plot somehow.

[d_r]

5. Tracking devices that can be traced accurately from interstellar distances – without triangulation! – but don’t show up on a ship’s internal sensors, even when the captain suspects the device exists.

[fnordius]

@Mangochin

On a side note, in the “bible” of the original series, Gene Roddenberry specifically stated in the future humanity would have evolved past smoking. He hated the habit. Never wanted to see it depicted on the show. ( See “These are the Voyages-Vol 1” by Mark Kushmann )

It was mentioned elsewhere that Rios does it to call back to his Cuban heritage, and in the talk of addiction that followed I posited that in the world of Star Trek, wonder drugs may have cured physical addiction, but mental addictions remain more tricky to solve. After all, you can be addicted to holodecks.

I also think that if future tech can make things like synthahol, it can make cigars that give the smell and the taste without needing tar or nicotine, or a simple pill to counteract it. Same for alcohol addiction: you may not have withdrawal symptoms, but the craving for a drink or for snakeweed will still be there. It will just be more like any other habit.

Which is kind of an unanswered question: if future miracle medicine can cure addictions, won’t recreational substance use actually rise if there is no more of a price to pay?

Oh, and I don’t think Will made the wine, I think Monsieur Picard was more amused at the label, and realised he should have brought a few bottles from La Barre with him. (EDIT: I think the real story is that Patrick Stewart saw the label was a Chateau Picard that the set dressers had placed there, and that’s why he found it funny.)

[Mangochin]

@fnordius

Oh, and I don’t think Will made the wine, I think Monsieur Picard was more amused at the label, and realised he should have brought a few bottles from La Barre with him. (EDIT: I think the real story is that Patrick Stewart saw the label was a Chateau Picard that the set dressers had placed there, and that’s why he found it funny.)

Or it was Chateau Picard and he was amused his former 1st Officer would pick up a bottle all the way out in the middle of bunnicorn country.

[fnordius]

One is the in-universe explanation, the other the behind the scenes explanation. I honestly suspect that the director made sure Sir Patrick didn’t see the bottle until the cameras were rolling, and caught just the reaction he wanted.

[KathyPartdeux]

That’s not acting, that’s reacting.

[fnordius]

Kinda, sorta. Acting is staying in character. Directors do this sort of thing all the time.

[KathyPartdeux]

They do it to people who can’t act. Not sure that applies here.

[d_r]

Rescanning the thread, I just want to second this; I don’t see how adding stuff that makes you cringe enhances the show. (I felt the same about Khan slipping the babelfish or whatever it was into Chekov’s ear in the second ST movie.) Are the directors afraid we won’t think dismembering beloved characters for their organs are evil unless you see the dismemberment in glorious close-up?

BTW, before the discussion of Episode 7 becomes obsolete, does anyone else feel that Rikey and Troi’s (and especially their daughter) need their own spinoff series? Not really sci fi, but something like Swiss Family Robinson?

[KathyPartdeux]

Just got a chance to see episode 8. And am again convinced of this as among the best of treks.

The powerful beings who move planets sound like someone we’ve seen before.

[BakaNeko]

Killing a beloved character like it was a Game of Thrones episode wasn’t cool too.

[d_r]

@KathyPartdeux

And am again convinced of this as among the best of treks.

There have been deeper story lines and better plots in other Treks, but the quality of the acting in this one is blowing me away. I think the core ensemble is possibly the best of all the series.

The multiple Rios scene in Episode 8 cracked me up.

The powerful beings who move planets sound like someone we’ve seen before.

Pierson’s Puppeteers?

[smulder]

@BakaNeko

Killing a beloved character like it was a Game of Thrones episode wasn’t cool too.

They killed Hugh too like it was no big deal

Looks like any returning character from the old days better watch out, especially the former Borgs

[Melizmatic]

@smulder

They killed Hugh too

Wait… what other ‘beloved character’ has died?

[smulder]

Icheb? A hugh-type guy from Voyager

I mean, I dunno which of them @BakaNeko was referring to but they offed them both