Star Trek

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Sparky Prime
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Re: Star Trek

Post by Sparky Prime »

Episode 3 - The End is the Beginning.

Spoiler
Flashback to 14 years ago - Picard and Raffi Musiker have just left Starfleet headquarters, trying to convince Starfleet to continue the plans to help the Romulans after the attack on Mars destroyed the evacuation fleet. Picard explains that he'd given Starfleet an ultimatum to either help, or accept his resignation. And to his surprise, they took his resignation. Meanwhile, Musiker is called in by the C-in-C, which she knows means she's getting "fired" from Starfleet. Back in the present - Musiker is pissed that Picard never bothered to call her to see how she was going in all these years, while he lives in a fine Chateau, and she lives in a trailer (goes against the whole idea that poverty, hopelessness and despair all disappeared from Earth hundreds of years ago... why is she living in a trailer?). She has become an alcoholic that smokes "snakeleaf", living in a trailer near the Vasquez Rocks. But never-the-less, she helps out Picard, telling him about a pilot, Cristóbal Rios, that owns his own ship. Meanwhile, Dr. Jurati is visited by Commodore Oh (wearing sunglasses, which... if she's an undercover Romulan posing as a Vulcan, shouldn't this blow her cover? It's established Vulcans have an inner eyelid that protects their eyes from the glare of the sun, which would be very sloppy for an undercover agent to forget, especially after she criticized "Lt. Rizzo" for doing a sloppy job attempting to capture Dahj...) wishing to talk about her recent talks with Picard.

On the Borg cube, Soji and Hugh (who is in-charge of the efforts restoring the Borg drones as individuals. It's not explained how/why he's ended up here from when we last saw him, which I'm hoping they will explain) go to talk to one of the Romulan "ex-B's" (what they call the Borg drones that they've removed the implants). Turns out, the Romulan drones were from the last ship the cube had assimilated, but something went wrong, causing the cube to be cut off from the Collective. Hugh says they are the only Romulans ever assimilated (he's wrong, not to mention, before the Borg were eventually introduced, it was established they were assimilating entire Federation and Romulan colonies along the Neutral Zone borders). It seems these "ex-B" Romulans have developed a shared mythology. Picard goes to talk to Rios and "hire" him and his ship. Picard notes that Rios is a former Starfleet officer himself, after noticing the impeccable condition of his ship. Rios confirms this, but claims the ship he served on was erased from all records by Starfleet (seems to be happening a lot in Star Trek these days), which has left him bitter towards Starfleet. The former Borg Romulan that Soji talks to flips out realizing who Soji is, saying that she knows her "from the future", that her sister is dead and calling her the "destroyer". After the incident, she calls her "mom", whom assures her Dahj is fine, and says a code phrase that puts Soji to sleep. At the same time, Picard, Laris and Zhaban (and are joined by Dr. Jurati) are attacked by Zhat Vash at his Chateau. They are defeated, and the last one alive also tells them Soji is the "destroyer", before doing the same acid spit thing as the Romulan in the first episode, killing himself.

Picard and Dr. Jurati (likely unwillingly working for Oh now) beam up to Rios' ship, where they've also been joined by Musiker. She explains she found a clue Maddox is on a gambling world known as Freecloud. Picard gives his famous "Engage" command as the TNG theme plays and Rio pilots the the ship to warp.

As as aside, I feel that Rios ship could look more... Star Trek. I mean, I think it's a fine enough design on its own, but it looks more like something from Star Wars to me, like a bigger version of the speeder Zam Wesell had in Episode II, than something we'd see in Star Trek. It has a dozen blue engines on the back rather than one or two impulse engines and no apparent warp nacelles, or really any Federation starship design cues at all. It's also odd that he has two seemingly sentient holograms onboard, an Emergency Medical Hologram as well as an Emergency Navigational Hologram (each looking like Rios himself, but each having a different accent), when synthetic lifeforms were supposedly banned in the Federation. Why do holograms seem to be an exception? And I'm not a fan of how the bridge connects directly to a... long hallway? cargo bay? I dunno what its even supposed to be. It's just odd to me the bridge isn't at least divided by a wall or something, making it this huge, mostly empty space.

They also give sort of an explanation as to why some Romulans have forehead ridges, and others don't. Apparently it is just northern Romulans that have the ridges. I guess this is actually a reference to something Gene Roddenberry once joked about being the reason Klingons suddenly got forehead ridges. I suppose this sort of works, although, I find it hard to believe it's just "northern" Romulans that have the ridges, like nobody ever moved around on Romulus.
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andersonh1
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Re: Star Trek

Post by andersonh1 »

Still haven't seen more than episode 1, though I've seen clips turn up here and there. I was delighted to see Seven of Nine turned up at the end of episode 4. Her return is no surprise since she's in the trailers, so I haven't spoiler tagged it. I'm almost more interested in catching up with her than I am with Captain Picard.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Star Trek

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I saw the fight with the TOS Romulan Bird of Prey (also in the trailers, so I'm not spoiler tagging), which was fun. Still not sure why the 100+ year old Bird of Prey was there though.
Spoiler
I mean, I get it's probably there to protect the colony, and they probably don't have access to the best resources.... But is a 100+ year old ship really all they could get? Where is the Romulan Fleet anyway? And, when one of the characters told Rios to get them out of there, I don't understand why he didn't just warp out of there. The fancy flying wasn't necessary.
And it's great to see Seven again.

Edit:
Spoiler
So I've found out the old Bird of Prey actually belongs a character named Kar Kantar, a "petty warlord" who isn't defending the planet, but rather is terrorizing the sector the Romulans were relocated to. I'm guessing he might be a Romulan himself, but the episode does not actually establish who he is beyond the name, or why he's using an ancient Bird of Prey of all things. You'd think even a "petty warlord" would have something a bit more modern.
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andersonh1
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Re: Star Trek

Post by andersonh1 »

In my house we just finished a year-long rewatch of DS9, and given that I'm still in a Trek-watching mood, I wanted to go back and re-watch Voyager from the beginning. I enjoy it much more now than I did when it first aired, and I'm particularly enjoying some of the season one episodes when the original "Starfleet vs. Maquis" concept is still in effect.

Case in point: "State of Flux", the 10th episode, uses both the Maquis crew members and the fact that Voyager is alone on the other side of the galaxy with no support to good effect by having one of the Maquis trade technology to the Kazon in an attempt to gain allies. In this first season the show has secondary characters that are developing alongside the main cast in the same way that DS9 did, so the writers are able to use them in ways that they can't use the main cast. I've often read complaints about Robert Beltran's acting, but he's been quite good in these early episodes, suggesting that a good plot and a good role for his character made a difference. It struck me that having Janeway, Tuvok and Chakotay as the trio in charge of the ship working out the problem worked well, but I don't think we see that particular character interaction much after this. And this episode really does put Chakotay in the role that I think he was intended to be, caught in the middle as a mediator between the two groups. I think this is an excellent example of Voyager living up to its premise and while we get more episodes like this, I think they abandoned this approach more quickly than perhaps they should.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Star Trek

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Some details from Picard episode 5....

Spoiler
After Voyager's return to Earth, Icheb (portrayed by a new actor) eventually became a Lieutenant in Starfleet, serving on the USS Coleman. He was lured into a trap by a woman after his Borg implants. Seven went to rescue him, but due to the injuries he suffered from the removal of his implants, he asked her to kill him. Seven joins the Fenris Rangers, and has a vendetta to avenge Icheb.

Raffi has a son who lives on Freecloud, and has married a Romulan. Raffi, becoming a conspiracy theorist that the Romulans were behind the Mars attacks after her dismissal from Starfleet, became estranged from her son as a result.

Picard finds Maddox (also portrayed by a new actor). And Jurati kills him, after he's able to tell them Soji is on the Borg Cube.
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andersonh1
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Re: Star Trek

Post by andersonh1 »

Okay, couldn't resist the spoilers. That's not the fate for that particular character that I was hoping for. I know the original actor expressed an interest in playing him again. At least we know what happened to him. Is that who Seven is shown crying over in one of the trailers? I thought it might be Chakotay and wasn't happy about that.

I'm not a fan of recasting. I"m always in favor of getting the original actor back if possible.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Star Trek

Post by Sparky Prime »

andersonh1 wrote:That's not the fate for that particular character that I was hoping for.
Yeah, it was a surprise to learn this is what became of the character. It's nice to learn he was a lieutenant, but this is not a good fate for the character, especially after what we learned what his own people wanted from him back in Voyager....
At least we know what happened to him. Is that who Seven is shown crying over in one of the trailers? I thought it might be Chakotay and wasn't happy about that.
Yeah that's who Seven was crying over, it wasn't Chakotay. As far as I've gathered, none of the Voyager crew was mentioned. Although Quark was. And he has apparently franchised his bar, he has a location on Freecloud.
I'm not a fan of recasting. I"m always in favor of getting the original actor back if possible.
I guess Brian Brophy has retired from acting, and is currently the director of Theater Arts at the California Institute of Technology. But I am a bit surprised they didn't have Manu Intiraymi reprise his role. Like you said, he has expressed interest to return, and even reprised the role in a Star Trek fan film, Star Trek Renegades.
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Re: Star Trek

Post by andersonh1 »

This is a nice little scene, and exactly the type of thing I've always wanted to see Picard and Seven have a conversation about. And I love the Voyager theme playing as it ends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmkRbsw_XiI
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Re: Star Trek

Post by andersonh1 »

Having seen various clips from Picard on YouTube, I ran across one where someone posted the scene where Icheb is, and there's no other way to put this, tortured nearly to death as his Borg parts and painfully removed. It's deeply unpleasant to watch, and in pretty poor taste if you ask me. Violent things happened on past Star Trek shows, but I've never seen such a graphic depiction, and I'm afraid they're using the fact that there are no broadcast standards on streaming to show some things just because they can. And it's a shame, because some of the other scenes are quite good, and the one with Picard and Seven seems very life-affirming... until Seven goes back to the planet and starts killing people in revenge for what happened to Icheb.

Is there a point to all of this? If the show is ultimately going to give us the message that the "utopia" of the future only exists when people fight to keep it, and this is showing us how easily things can go downhill when they don't, there might be some justification for some of the brutality we're seeing. But I'm not sure if if I have faith in the creators to deliver that type of messaging. Again, it seems like they're just indulging because now they can, unrestrained by broadcast standards.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Star Trek

Post by Sparky Prime »

Again, it seems like they're just indulging because now they can, unrestrained by broadcast standards.
I think that's exactly what is happening here....

According to Michael Chabon (when asked about the use of swearing and smoking in earlier episodes of this series):
The absence of swear words in Star Trek was never a matter of Federation principle, it was a matter of FCC rules.

Writers of previous eras had no choice. They were censored. Swearing is one of humanity’s most ancient, sensible, and reliable consolations. Personally, I would consider any society that discouraged, banned, or abandoned the use of curse works to be a fucking dystopia.
Which, for cable television, censorship was certainly was a factor. But the way Star Trek always portrayed it wasn't that it was discouraged or banned... There were occasions, particularly in the films, where characters would sparingly use curse words. But the idea behind it was more that humans had (more or less) evolved beyond feeling they needed to use that kind of language. So yeah, he basically confirmed they've stepped up the swearing simply because they can. Icheb's torture was certainly along the same lines. They showed it simply because they could, with out stopping to ask themselves if that was something they should do.

I really feel these writers do not understand the ideas behind what made Star Trek what it was in the first place...
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