One star for Data's final scene, allthough it did not make any sense.
Nothing made sense. How was Picard sacrificing anything? He had space Alzheimer's, you don't die from Alzheimer's just so, first you get senile. He died like from a stroke or brain tumor. But a space battle where you do not get hit won't make your tumor grow faster. But Picard died from some kind of brain condition, not from phaser fire so basically he did not die from or for anything. He risked his life, yes, but he only happened to die shortly after a battle in which he was not injured unless you argue the stress of the battle furthered his condition. And in the end he is brought back to life, no, not by Khan's blood, but by memory transfer and an android body. But not really an android body, no mega strengh, no super hard drive, and only ten or so additional years of life for good measure. My point being, why introduce the brain condition if it had absolutely no consequences for the plot. Another captain in the J.J. Verse had a sickness-sublot that went nowhere; Kirk in Into Darkness. Bones examined him multible times in the movie, saying his life signs were off. That sublot went nowhere. I bet his condition was removed with Khan's blood and the rest of the dialogue referring to it was deleted. In both instances the subplot was just introduced to inject a little mystery or drama or excitment in early scenes without consequences later. Picard could have easily died from a phaser hit in the ship, would have made no difference. The would be sacrifice would not have had a different impact on the plot, namely none. Soji stopped the skybeam before Picard died, because of the speech not because of the sacrifice.
Also, the android body was built before anybody knew of Picard's condition. So who was it built for?
Rafi and Seven are together now. When did that happen? I mean Seven and Chakotay were also together out of the blue but they had 4 years to get to know each other. Rafi and Seven had like 4 Minutes?
So Alton Soong really is Alton Soong, not Lore, just another long lost relative. How disappointing. Completely useless character. He did do nothing Maddox could have done, had they not recast and killed him for also no reason. Where was he all the time? And if he is not Lore, where is Lore, why was he never mentioned on the show? Lazy writers perhaps? "If we mention him, we must explain where he is, why he was not used by Maddox. That is at least two lines of exposition. We could give that screen time to Picard when he is a Pirate with a French accent. Steward will love it."
Two big Armadas warp in, Picard says something and all 500 ships warp out again. Nobody stays behind to keep the peace, for negotiations, to say hi to Picard, to investigate new life? I guess it would have cost screentime to show that or thinking time on part of the writers to come up with plausible courses of action of all parties and characters involved. And why do all ships look the same? Lame!
Jurati needs the eye of a dead android to get by a retina scanner to break Picard out, so she lures away Soong with a ruse, the oldest trick in the book. And Soong falls for it. Okay, maybe he is stupid, he is only a cyberneticist. Then she breaks out Picard of his room and in the next scene, they are on their ship. How did they leave the android village? Are all the inhabitsnts stupid? And the walk to the ship was long, how did they make it in such a short period of time? It feels like a minute. Narek enters the cube, goes away, nobody stops him. Are all the exbs and Seven stupid? I mean Legolas is on his heels, like a second behind him but arrives an hour after Narek on La Sirena's crash site. Missing scenes? Or did nobody care?
On la Sirena Narek is trusted by everybody, no not by arguments he has to convince them, just because. And they hatch a plan: destroying the dish that creates the 100th skybeam in scifi history. At least Star Trek had the first one in a far far better movie namely Star Trek V. In order to get into the android village, they want to present Narek as a prisoner to the androids because he presumably had killed an Android by stabbing its eye. The "plan" works, they let Rios, Rafi and the rest back into the village. I don't know why a plan was necessary because you can get out without anybody giving a s#i+. Why would it be a problem to get in? Of course it isn't. Rios is even able to smuggle in a grenade in a soccer ball. But the the village is a spa anyway, nobody would mind a soccer ball, right. And then all hell breaks loose. Humans and Romulans kick Androids with mega strengh and win. And what do the rest of the 100 Androids do while their village is under attack. We do not know, because we are not shown. Sutra is disabled by Soong who had a quick change of heart, and he disables her behind a bush, two meters away from the rest of the androids. No reaction shots by the nearby synths. And they must have seen or heard that, they have augmented hearing and sight, right. Every human could have seen it. But we get nothing. I guess director Goldsman was not in directing mood that day and said: "Ah, let's only have a few close ups of kicks and punches, so I don't have to imagine what the rest of the villagers do during the attack."
By the way, imagination or the lack of it; They have a device now that does what the owner imagines, reparing a ship, creating hundreds of holograms outside a ship in space, etc.???? They pulled that trick in Voyager's Basics Part 1 but they had to install holo emitters first. Here nobody cared and by nobody I mean writers. I mean we had our share of wunder devices in the last decade in scifi cinema and tv for example the little healing balls in Black Panther or the metall in that movie that does what it needs to do. But a device that does what you imagine? Far out. But that is of course the laziness of the writers. Or was somebody too cheap to hire a technical consultant who translates "tech the tech" into technobabble that makes sense. Imagine a cop show without a technical consultant. Cop 1: "We need to arrest that guy, but we don't have a warrant" Cop 2: " So what, use the universal warrant in my clove box, you can even search the White House with it and arrest the President."
This review is not structured and at first it was only the first line about Data, but I just cannot stop writing. Wow, Data wants to die. They had him in a computer for the last ten years or so, they built 100 androids but not a body for him? Why, because de-aging is to expensive. Then why not put him in a female body, that would help his exploration of humanity and woke culture.
Maybe if I can think of more I write more. Come to think of it, this show is even stupider than discovery and that says a lot.
I thought of more: Picard , a few episodes ago, could not fly la Sirena, now he can, very well in fact, and before he does, says, "I hope I observed Rios well." Why, this is so stupid. As if somebody could learn how to fly a fighter jet by observing somebody for 10 days. And if he can do so, because he was a Captain and a pilot then that is the reason, he can do it, not because he observed Rios. There was a scene between him and Rios at the helm last episode or so. Why not use such a scene to teach Picard. Or end the scene with the line : " Now show me how this thing works." Also, why do we need a magic device that repairs the ship. Why not just have Rios repair the ship because he can do it because it is his ship. Then we would not need a conversation between him and Rafi about "imagination". Then it could just be a character scene while they talk.
Is there good stuff? As mentioned above, Data's second death is one of it. It felt a little like 2001. When Lore was deactivated in Decent Part 2 Lore's voice became deeper and deeper just like HAL's in 2001. Here Data's simulation was all chrome like the ending of 2001, where the astronaut lived out the rest of his life. Nice scene between Stewart and Spiner. But it all gets blemished by the contradictory setup. As mentioned before, why did nobody tell Picard, Data was alive. Why no new body for him. Yes, he wanted to die, but for ten years. Why not shut off Data ten years ago if that was his most fervent wish? Let's not speak of the fact that his memory was recreated by a single neuron. Really, why would I need a hard drive if everything fits on one bite.
What else was good. The beginning of the battle, Picard's line: "...lead by example..." Unfortunately the rest, the pay off was not well executed. If you kill him off, do it for good. Yes, Spock was brought back, but his resurrection took 2 and a half movies. His body was brought back in Star Trek 3 and his mind in Star Trek 4 and 5. Only at the end of the last movie Spock was his old self again. Here, Picard is out and about in 5 minutes. That is not earned.
Nothing made sense. How was Picard sacrificing anything? He had space Alzheimer's, you don't die from Alzheimer's just so, first you get senile. He died like from a stroke or brain tumor. But a space battle where you do not get hit won't make your tumor grow faster. But Picard died from some kind of brain condition, not from phaser fire so basically he did not die from or for anything. He risked his life, yes, but he only happened to die shortly after a battle in which he was not injured unless you argue the stress of the battle furthered his condition. And in the end he is brought back to life, no, not by Khan's blood, but by memory transfer and an android body. But not really an android body, no mega strengh, no super hard drive, and only ten or so additional years of life for good measure. My point being, why introduce the brain condition if it had absolutely no consequences for the plot. Another captain in the J.J. Verse had a sickness-sublot that went nowhere; Kirk in Into Darkness. Bones examined him multible times in the movie, saying his life signs were off. That sublot went nowhere. I bet his condition was removed with Khan's blood and the rest of the dialogue referring to it was deleted. In both instances the subplot was just introduced to inject a little mystery or drama or excitment in early scenes without consequences later. Picard could have easily died from a phaser hit in the ship, would have made no difference. The would be sacrifice would not have had a different impact on the plot, namely none. Soji stopped the skybeam before Picard died, because of the speech not because of the sacrifice.
Also, the android body was built before anybody knew of Picard's condition. So who was it built for?
Rafi and Seven are together now. When did that happen? I mean Seven and Chakotay were also together out of the blue but they had 4 years to get to know each other. Rafi and Seven had like 4 Minutes?
So Alton Soong really is Alton Soong, not Lore, just another long lost relative. How disappointing. Completely useless character. He did do nothing Maddox could have done, had they not recast and killed him for also no reason. Where was he all the time? And if he is not Lore, where is Lore, why was he never mentioned on the show? Lazy writers perhaps? "If we mention him, we must explain where he is, why he was not used by Maddox. That is at least two lines of exposition. We could give that screen time to Picard when he is a Pirate with a French accent. Steward will love it."
Two big Armadas warp in, Picard says something and all 500 ships warp out again. Nobody stays behind to keep the peace, for negotiations, to say hi to Picard, to investigate new life? I guess it would have cost screentime to show that or thinking time on part of the writers to come up with plausible courses of action of all parties and characters involved. And why do all ships look the same? Lame!
Jurati needs the eye of a dead android to get by a retina scanner to break Picard out, so she lures away Soong with a ruse, the oldest trick in the book. And Soong falls for it. Okay, maybe he is stupid, he is only a cyberneticist. Then she breaks out Picard of his room and in the next scene, they are on their ship. How did they leave the android village? Are all the inhabitsnts stupid? And the walk to the ship was long, how did they make it in such a short period of time? It feels like a minute. Narek enters the cube, goes away, nobody stops him. Are all the exbs and Seven stupid? I mean Legolas is on his heels, like a second behind him but arrives an hour after Narek on La Sirena's crash site. Missing scenes? Or did nobody care?
On la Sirena Narek is trusted by everybody, no not by arguments he has to convince them, just because. And they hatch a plan: destroying the dish that creates the 100th skybeam in scifi history. At least Star Trek had the first one in a far far better movie namely Star Trek V. In order to get into the android village, they want to present Narek as a prisoner to the androids because he presumably had killed an Android by stabbing its eye. The "plan" works, they let Rios, Rafi and the rest back into the village. I don't know why a plan was necessary because you can get out without anybody giving a s#i+. Why would it be a problem to get in? Of course it isn't. Rios is even able to smuggle in a grenade in a soccer ball. But the the village is a spa anyway, nobody would mind a soccer ball, right. And then all hell breaks loose. Humans and Romulans kick Androids with mega strengh and win. And what do the rest of the 100 Androids do while their village is under attack. We do not know, because we are not shown. Sutra is disabled by Soong who had a quick change of heart, and he disables her behind a bush, two meters away from the rest of the androids. No reaction shots by the nearby synths. And they must have seen or heard that, they have augmented hearing and sight, right. Every human could have seen it. But we get nothing. I guess director Goldsman was not in directing mood that day and said: "Ah, let's only have a few close ups of kicks and punches, so I don't have to imagine what the rest of the villagers do during the attack."
By the way, imagination or the lack of it; They have a device now that does what the owner imagines, reparing a ship, creating hundreds of holograms outside a ship in space, etc.???? They pulled that trick in Voyager's Basics Part 1 but they had to install holo emitters first. Here nobody cared and by nobody I mean writers. I mean we had our share of wunder devices in the last decade in scifi cinema and tv for example the little healing balls in Black Panther or the metall in that movie that does what it needs to do. But a device that does what you imagine? Far out. But that is of course the laziness of the writers. Or was somebody too cheap to hire a technical consultant who translates "tech the tech" into technobabble that makes sense. Imagine a cop show without a technical consultant. Cop 1: "We need to arrest that guy, but we don't have a warrant" Cop 2: " So what, use the universal warrant in my clove box, you can even search the White House with it and arrest the President."
This review is not structured and at first it was only the first line about Data, but I just cannot stop writing. Wow, Data wants to die. They had him in a computer for the last ten years or so, they built 100 androids but not a body for him? Why, because de-aging is to expensive. Then why not put him in a female body, that would help his exploration of humanity and woke culture.
Maybe if I can think of more I write more. Come to think of it, this show is even stupider than discovery and that says a lot.
I thought of more: Picard , a few episodes ago, could not fly la Sirena, now he can, very well in fact, and before he does, says, "I hope I observed Rios well." Why, this is so stupid. As if somebody could learn how to fly a fighter jet by observing somebody for 10 days. And if he can do so, because he was a Captain and a pilot then that is the reason, he can do it, not because he observed Rios. There was a scene between him and Rios at the helm last episode or so. Why not use such a scene to teach Picard. Or end the scene with the line : " Now show me how this thing works." Also, why do we need a magic device that repairs the ship. Why not just have Rios repair the ship because he can do it because it is his ship. Then we would not need a conversation between him and Rafi about "imagination". Then it could just be a character scene while they talk.
Is there good stuff? As mentioned above, Data's second death is one of it. It felt a little like 2001. When Lore was deactivated in Decent Part 2 Lore's voice became deeper and deeper just like HAL's in 2001. Here Data's simulation was all chrome like the ending of 2001, where the astronaut lived out the rest of his life. Nice scene between Stewart and Spiner. But it all gets blemished by the contradictory setup. As mentioned before, why did nobody tell Picard, Data was alive. Why no new body for him. Yes, he wanted to die, but for ten years. Why not shut off Data ten years ago if that was his most fervent wish? Let's not speak of the fact that his memory was recreated by a single neuron. Really, why would I need a hard drive if everything fits on one bite.
What else was good. The beginning of the battle, Picard's line: "...lead by example..." Unfortunately the rest, the pay off was not well executed. If you kill him off, do it for good. Yes, Spock was brought back, but his resurrection took 2 and a half movies. His body was brought back in Star Trek 3 and his mind in Star Trek 4 and 5. Only at the end of the last movie Spock was his old self again. Here, Picard is out and about in 5 minutes. That is not earned.