I just wish Terry Matalis was a Star Wars fan because they need someone like him over there at Disney+ . Not one episode disappointed. It was brilliant. Classic Trek. They knew how to hit all the nostalgia feels without it feeling shoehorned. I tip my hat to all the creators of this season.
What a great season! Thank you for reviewing this series, fellas! Its been a pure joy to watch these and I hope you all will rejoin forces to review Strange New Worlds when Season Two starts up in June.
Q wrapping up the bonus scene couldn’t have been a more fitting ending to Picard season 3, as it neatly brings Q back full circle along with the rest of the crew. I also agree that Guinan should have come out from around the corner and shot off a blast from a phaser rifle to settle them back down when they were getting too rowdy just before they sat down to play poker.
If you watch the new trailer for "ST: Strange New Worlds" season 2, they put Spock in a similar situation when he is in the Captain's chair to come up with a signature phrase.
I haven't been feeling well, so I had to bale on the live chat, but I'm so glad someone brought up Laris, poor girl! This season was just a joy to watch from minute 1 to 600. I almost can't believe what I saw, so much that I'm looking forward to re-watching on my sis huge tv when they're out of town 😉 Thanks John & Michael for the fantastic recaps! Also thanks to your guests Steve Morris and Scott (nicest man in show business) Mantz for adding their takes on the series. Have a great weekend!
I'm not an ardent watcher of ST series but I really enjoyed this series of Picard. Fabulously entertaining review as always, and many thanks for explaining the Easter eggs and previous storylines throughout this series. I'd have been very confused about the Borg Queen return without it!
I’m halfway through this review and I’m bloody loving it. What a panel of greatness we have here. love every one of these guys so much and love your passion. I’m sharing in it. Thank you
This has to be my favorite Season of Star Trek ever. That maybe is unfair because of the usual structure of seasons of the show. But damn did this season do everything it needed to to highlight the TNG crew reunited, while also connecting to Voyager and DS9. Plus brilliant use of new characters and classic villains. The tension was high every episode and the nostalgia overwhelming
I actually did not mind the second season of Picard. I just finished all seasons the last three weeks. I am glad I had distance from people's opinions. I loved the first season,, thought the second had good moments and was not all bad, and loved the third season. I am glad someone mentioned poor Laris.
For me it's the small moments of comedy that are so good. And that for me are the two points with Worfe's sword. First in the cube and then later when he goes to sit it lightly on the table when he goes to see Raffi and there is the huge THUMP is it lands. Slight but oh so funny. 😃
Q interacting means Jack also means you have to re look at his intentions in season 2. He helped Picard let go of his demons about family maybe specifically so the Picard who then meets Jack is open to a relationship with a son. It wasn’t about Picard being open to a relationship with Laris. He had to be ready for a relationship with a son.
i believe Matalas said in the reddit AMA they wanted to have Janeway give the promotion to Seven but time/money played into it and that he was happy to be able to have Tuvok there for the scene. Sure, maybe there's still some stuff between them, but either way, would have neat to Janeway at least appear on video with the amount of times she was namedropped this season.
The thing that bothered me about the Q ending is that it felt like an odd foot to potentially start your spinoff series on. Matalas has stated that he didn't address it like he was assuming the spinoff was happening, but it's clear they are setting up an ongoing story regardless of if it makes it to screen or not. Why kick off that story with the similar setup to TNG? This was the closure to TNG. You don't need Q serving the same framework to Jack as he did to Jean-Luc. It was an odd choice.
I’ve have watched a single episode of The Next Generation(Kirk and Spock go back in time?) in high school and the first JJ movie but listening to this whole review I want to start watching it. Do I start at the beginning or somewhere else?
Picard walked away and let his crew save the galaxy so he could save his son. Beverley was scared he couldn’t do this and I think a younger Picard would have done the opposite.
@@valueofnothing2487 Well, he is an old man. He told Jack he was just living out in his vineyard waiting to die. So, he isn't afraid to die or desperate for more time. Giving up his life for someone and dying for a noble purpose seems very reasonable and very Picard. Add to that, the knowledge that this is his blood who can go on in life and continue his family line gives him even more reason to do it.
@@valueofnothing2487 He resigned, I assume because he felt like he was done with the job. But, like many people, when he no longer had work to give him purpose, he was bored and lonely. I can't speak for everyone, but if a grown child appeared on my doorstep who could be proven to be my flesh and blood, that fact alone would change my life! Picard is looking at something he never thought he would see again, actual live family. All of the people on the Enterprise D knew they could be on a suicide mission. Picard pointed that out to them. They all willingly went along because as Starfleet and former Starfleet sacrificing themselves for the greater good is what they do. Someone who would sacrifice himself for the good of man, would surely do so for one of his own family.
@@LB-gz3ke My Captain Picard is never bored and lonely. But he also did not become Captain of the Enterprise and seek out new life and bravely go where no man has gone before because he was escaping his family, or thinking that he killed his mother. He was running to, he was not running away from. Because The Federation in the future is an optimistic place to live. We are not driven by childhood traumas that we cannot get help for. There is no poverty, hunger, disease - not even mental disease. But certainly Picard in this show was not bored or lonely, because he was going to go off on a vacation with Laris. And of course it is completely ridiculous to think that someone would quit their job simply because they found a son they didn't know they had. Nor would it "change their life" to the degree to which that quote implies. In fact, Jack entered Starfleet anyway, so why couldn't Picard stay? And I'm not even sure if he left at the end of the last episode. Again, I think any Starfleet officer would sacrifice their life for a good cause and so that's never the dramatic issue here. But what is the issue here is why they trusted each other. This series did not show why they could trust each other. Instead it just had them tell us how they felt. Picard said he valued family. Jack said he felt alone and out of touch. And they kept talking and telling us exactly how they feel because this series was not written well enough to show us those things. And this is why it is so badly written.
I agree about leaving Q out of this ending. If the purpose is to set up a NEW series, why would they use the same old Q? I love the idea of a new series with the young crew, but they need to be their own thing in order to be a success. Jack needs his own enemies. Seven and Raffi need to battle more than their own demons and the Borg.
I never knew about Jeri Ryan bad times on Voyager being mistreated by Kate Mulgrew. I saw that on the web when the actor who played Harry Kim talked of it and Jeri who was sitting next to him nodded her head. What is wrong with someone to treat a coworker like trash. Simply because no fault of her own Seven was being treated as eye candy. Jeri still acted her butt off in her role I loved it when she came aboard. Shame on Kate for mistreating her no doubt that is why there was no Janeway the way I see it good riddance! I have read elsewhere people saying its woke that the command staff is all female. I asked so what is it when its all male then what message is that sending? This woke crap ugh I know what they mean but this was not that not even close! Seven has earned the Captains chair period end of sentence!
Maybe I'm totally biased, but isn't Rocha a great host? He's done this with other shows, too, with a panel of guests, but he'll set something up then let the others take turns giving their perspective or breakdown of a scene or show/movie (I know I'm describing the most basic function of being a host, but yeah). I think it's the smoothness of setting up the scene, then kinda playing traffic controller while still throwing out his own takes, too.
Dude. Thanks. This one was tough because there was so much to cover and I wanted everyone to have an opportunity to fully speak their POV, but keep us to just two hours. I was exhausted afterward. Haha
Regarding the Chekov moment, there is a funny Easter Egg that I don't think anyone anywhere is mentioning. At least I think it's an Easter Egg. Anton Chekov says his father always said "there are always possibilities". If you remember during TOS Chekov always told everyone that everything was done and said by Russians. The line "there are always possibilities" was said by Kirk in The Wrath Of Khan. I think this is Pavel Chekov continuing to steal quotes from others and in this case claiming it for another Russian, himself.
@@JohnRochaSays yea but the point was that Pavel Chekov always claimed Russians did everything and now his son is claiming his father said the quote. It's kind of a deep cut Easter Egg.
I've been seeing the praises heaped upon s3 and I had so much to say, but after I listened to the GB, EI and Dan's recent interview with Terry Matalas, I wanted to copy/paste the entirety of my thoughts about s3 and, to a lesser degree, the previous seasons: Season 3 is pretty brilliant and I even like season 2. I didn't dislike 1, but I feel like, if anything, it's the weakest. My issue with this 'new' Trek is something Dan touched upon when he did some of his reviews of s1 and I want to emphasize that I don't want to splash cold water on anyone who unabashedly loves the final season or any of the seasons of Picard at all. To me, Trek is aspirational (and I can see people arguing that it still is), but to me, the standard of Trek is TOS and TNG. A utopian or near utopian society humanity and the Federation has built for themselves. And you can and they did still explore many of the issues that plague us as a society to this day. They just did it under the guise of others species or with different characters. On a larger scale in episodes like, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" to the personal like "Brothers" and "Inner Light". I let it go with DS9 as sort of the exception and trying something a little different from the Federation we knew (though, they still did adhere to many of the tenets we love). The problem, for me, with turning Trek into a darker, grittier sci-fi show... basically makes it kind of a copy of any other show that's doing the dark and gritty thing. The reason why Trek stood out is b/c it was, for lack of a better description, above that. The recent trend seems to be reveling in deconstructing our 'heroes' and watching them dragged through the mud or brought low. I don't mind the occasional episode exploring it in some way, but when the entirety of the Federation seems more than a bit down and we see the entirety of our crew kinda broken (well Worf, amusingly, seemed the most well adjusted of the bunch though he is more than willing to go on pretty brutal homicidal rampages), it makes it almost feel like I'm watching TWD or GOT or whatever. And while I enjoy those shows (or at least many of the seasons), those shows are great for it b/c that's what they are. TOS and TNG have become the exceptions and anomalies in the recent Star Trek universe (with maybe the exception of SNW and, to a lesser degree, LD and Prod) and it remains a sticking point for me. That said, and accepting the framework they laid out, s3 was a great send off for our crew. I even enjoyed s2 a lot. Picard confronting the trauma that had caused him to put up the wall he held in place for the entirety of his life b/c he thought the mother he adored was the victim of an abusive father, then the turn that happens in which he and the audience realize that it was, in fact, about mental health. The twist of Jurati becoming the new Borg Queen and Picard, in a classic Trek moment of Kirk not giving into his instinct to crush the Gorn under the rock or one of my favorite speeches where he mentions to Anan 7, " We can admit that we're killers, but we're not going to kill today", reaching out to the Borg Queen and cooperating to avoid a galactic disaster was peak TOS/TNG to me, even as it's suffered the slings and arrows of (un)popular opinion. But, at the end of the day, it still sticks with me that recent Trek has gone to greater lengths to kinda deconstruct the Federation I first fell in love with Kirk and Picard, by turning the Vulcans, for example, into petty jerks (in Enterprise) and undoing what made Trek great for me in the first place ( a lot of the Trek since those early Trek). This has worked for a lot of people and I won't and don't want to take that away from those who enjoyed it, but when I consider Trek in its totality, it will always give me a pause.
Star Trek should be about ideas. About the last of a species. About giving the power to a teenager to explore the problems with growing up. With giving a man powers to illustrate that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Asking the question what is the definition of life. And are we condemning people to slavery? These are philosophical ideas. They are based on dramatic stories with full hour length plots full of dialogue and story. This series did not have any philosophical ideas. Nor did they have whole dramatic episodes, that have scenes that build on each other to show us the character development. Now, the one idea the series did have was to tell a story about a father trying to save his son from being lost or perhaps not fitting in to society. But instead of getting an episode where these things would be shown to us in a dramatic way, we get little scenes of exposition. But drama the plot have to do with a villain chasing the Titan for 8 episodes. Who cares? Further, the idea of using the Borg collective as a way to temp Jack away from humanity seems to be unbelievable. Who in the right mind would want to be in the collective? They cut up body parts. It's a horror show. And even so, what do you learn from this science fiction allegory? It is simply another room where Jack and Picard have a scene of character development by exposition. And instead of actually having a dramatic story full of drama and plot, we get these brief superficial scenes of exposition. We do not get an episode with Jack and Picard where they learn to trust each other or bond with each other. Instead they're at a bar and they talk about being bald. This is terrible writing. Watch Voyager's episode Child's Play. It's a complete dramatic episode full of scenes and dialogue that build on each other for 50 minutes. It's not two people coming together and simply telling each other that they are in a family. This is Fast and Furious type writing.
It was so great to hear Anton Checkov switch to a Russian accent when he was quoting his father.
Scott Mantz always bringing the trivia and behind the scenes details. 🖖
I just wish Terry Matalis was a Star Wars fan because they need someone like him over there at Disney+ . Not one episode disappointed. It was brilliant. Classic Trek. They knew how to hit all the nostalgia feels without it feeling shoehorned. I tip my hat to all the creators of this season.
On Star Wars they would never allow Terry to name a whole Planet after himself, but on Star Trek Picard Terry was allowed to "Make It So"
What a great season! Thank you for reviewing this series, fellas! Its been a pure joy to watch these and I hope you all will rejoin forces to review Strange New Worlds when Season Two starts up in June.
Q wrapping up the bonus scene couldn’t have been a more fitting ending to Picard season 3, as it neatly brings Q back full circle along with the rest of the crew.
I also agree that Guinan should have come out from around the corner and shot off a blast from a phaser rifle to settle them back down when they were getting too rowdy just before they sat down to play poker.
I got misty and goose bumps for the Jeri Ryan captaincy scene and the final scene with them ending on a poker game.
If you watch the new trailer for "ST: Strange New Worlds" season 2, they put Spock in a similar situation when he is in the Captain's chair to come up with a signature phrase.
House of the Dragon: "History doesnt remember blood, it remembers names!"
I haven't been feeling well, so I had to bale on the live chat, but I'm so glad someone brought up Laris, poor girl!
This season was just a joy to watch from minute 1 to 600. I almost can't believe what I saw, so much that I'm looking forward to re-watching on my sis huge tv when they're out of town 😉
Thanks John & Michael for the fantastic recaps! Also thanks to your guests Steve Morris and Scott (nicest man in show business) Mantz for adding their takes on the series.
Have a great weekend!
I'm not an ardent watcher of ST series but I really enjoyed this series of Picard. Fabulously entertaining review as always, and many thanks for explaining the Easter eggs and previous storylines throughout this series. I'd have been very confused about the Borg Queen return without it!
I’m halfway through this review and I’m bloody loving it. What a panel of greatness we have here. love every one of these guys so much and love your passion. I’m sharing in it. Thank you
This has to be my favorite Season of Star Trek ever. That maybe is unfair because of the usual structure of seasons of the show. But damn did this season do everything it needed to to highlight the TNG crew reunited, while also connecting to Voyager and DS9. Plus brilliant use of new characters and classic villains. The tension was high every episode and the nostalgia overwhelming
I actually did not mind the second season of Picard. I just finished all seasons the last three weeks. I am glad I had distance from people's opinions. I loved the first season,, thought the second had good moments and was not all bad, and loved the third season. I am glad someone mentioned poor Laris.
Some unique star trek magic this past few weeks
Thang you for a great Show and heartfelt comment on season 3 Picard with excellent guests.
Great discussion! I would be happy to see more stories with Seven, Jack and Raffi.
For me it's the small moments of comedy that are so good. And that for me are the two points with Worfe's sword. First in the cube and then later when he goes to sit it lightly on the table when he goes to see Raffi and there is the huge THUMP is it lands. Slight but oh so funny.
😃
Q interacting means Jack also means you have to re look at his intentions in season 2. He helped Picard let go of his demons about family maybe specifically so the Picard who then meets Jack is open to a relationship with a son. It wasn’t about Picard being open to a relationship with Laris. He had to be ready for a relationship with a son.
i believe Matalas said in the reddit AMA they wanted to have Janeway give the promotion to Seven but time/money played into it and that he was happy to be able to have Tuvok there for the scene. Sure, maybe there's still some stuff between them, but either way, would have neat to Janeway at least appear on video with the amount of times she was namedropped this season.
Love this last episode!
"Somebody - hit the red button!" -Captain EO
I think this season should have been subtitled "Beverly final gets her season"
I thought the ship was going to be changed to Picard or Jean Luc
Wow! Somewhat mature, very intelligent people discussing sci-fi. Glad I happened on this. I get so tired of millennial babbling on TH-cam. Thank you!!
The thing that bothered me about the Q ending is that it felt like an odd foot to potentially start your spinoff series on. Matalas has stated that he didn't address it like he was assuming the spinoff was happening, but it's clear they are setting up an ongoing story regardless of if it makes it to screen or not. Why kick off that story with the similar setup to TNG? This was the closure to TNG. You don't need Q serving the same framework to Jack as he did to Jean-Luc. It was an odd choice.
Maybe Terry has something planned in his mind for Jack and him potentially being the person Q has been waiting for all along.
Pretty fitting that Seven of Nine is Captain of the 7th Enterprise
Justice for Enterprise F
NX-01, TOS, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Hers is the 9th.
now they have set up a show with captain 7 and the crew of Enterprise G, I am going to be very upset if we don't get it.
Rocha: I can't go moment by moment, we're going to be here for four hours...
Me: And...?
🤣
I’ve have watched a single episode of The Next Generation(Kirk and Spock go back in time?) in high school and the first JJ movie but listening to this whole review I want to start watching it. Do I start at the beginning or somewhere else?
Danke!
Thank you for the kind donation!
Hope Starfleet had a "loooong" conversation with the head of Section 31 about their organization.
Picard walked away and let his crew save the galaxy so he could save his son. Beverley was scared he couldn’t do this and I think a younger Picard would have done the opposite.
Yeah, why did he do that? Picard only knew Jack for a few days.
@@valueofnothing2487 Well, he is an old man. He told Jack he was just living out in his vineyard waiting to die. So, he isn't afraid to die or desperate for more time. Giving up his life for someone and dying for a noble purpose seems very reasonable and very Picard. Add to that, the knowledge that this is his blood who can go on in life and continue his family line gives him even more reason to do it.
@@LB-gz3ke
Why did he resign from Starfleet? He claimed that Jack changed his life. But he only knew Jack for a few days.
@@valueofnothing2487 He resigned, I assume because he felt like he was done with the job. But, like many people, when he no longer had work to give him purpose, he was bored and lonely.
I can't speak for everyone, but if a grown child appeared on my doorstep who could be proven to be my flesh and blood, that fact alone would change my life! Picard is looking at something he never thought he would see again, actual live family.
All of the people on the Enterprise D knew they could be on a suicide mission. Picard pointed that out to them. They all willingly went along because as Starfleet and former Starfleet sacrificing themselves for the greater good is what they do. Someone who would sacrifice himself for the good of man, would surely do so for one of his own family.
@@LB-gz3ke
My Captain Picard is never bored and lonely. But he also did not become Captain of the Enterprise and seek out new life and bravely go where no man has gone before because he was escaping his family, or thinking that he killed his mother. He was running to, he was not running away from. Because The Federation in the future is an optimistic place to live. We are not driven by childhood traumas that we cannot get help for. There is no poverty, hunger, disease - not even mental disease.
But certainly Picard in this show was not bored or lonely, because he was going to go off on a vacation with Laris.
And of course it is completely ridiculous to think that someone would quit their job simply because they found a son they didn't know they had. Nor would it "change their life" to the degree to which that quote implies. In fact, Jack entered Starfleet anyway, so why couldn't Picard stay? And I'm not even sure if he left at the end of the last episode.
Again, I think any Starfleet officer would sacrifice their life for a good cause and so that's never the dramatic issue here.
But what is the issue here is why they trusted each other. This series did not show why they could trust each other. Instead it just had them tell us how they felt. Picard said he valued family. Jack said he felt alone and out of touch. And they kept talking and telling us exactly how they feel because this series was not written well enough to show us those things.
And this is why it is so badly written.
I would love to revisit DS9 in the same way they did TNG in Picard S3.
I wish Star Trek Legacy has Jeri Ryan in it as Captain Seven of nine as CO of the USS Enterprise - G. Hailing frequenzie´s out !
I agree about leaving Q out of this ending. If the purpose is to set up a NEW series, why would they use the same old Q? I love the idea of a new series with the young crew, but they need to be their own thing in order to be a success. Jack needs his own enemies. Seven and Raffi need to battle more than their own demons and the Borg.
I never knew about Jeri Ryan bad times on Voyager being mistreated by Kate Mulgrew. I saw that on the web when the actor who played Harry Kim talked of it and Jeri who was sitting next to him nodded her head. What is wrong with someone to treat a coworker like trash. Simply because no fault of her own Seven was being treated as eye candy. Jeri still acted her butt off in her role I loved it when she came aboard. Shame on Kate for mistreating her no doubt that is why there was no Janeway the way I see it good riddance!
I have read elsewhere people saying its woke that the command staff is all female. I asked so what is it when its all male then what message is that sending? This woke crap ugh I know what they mean but this was not that not even close! Seven has earned the Captains chair period end of sentence!
Maybe I'm totally biased, but isn't Rocha a great host? He's done this with other shows, too, with a panel of guests, but he'll set something up then let the others take turns giving their perspective or breakdown of a scene or show/movie (I know I'm describing the most basic function of being a host, but yeah). I think it's the smoothness of setting up the scene, then kinda playing traffic controller while still throwing out his own takes, too.
Dude. Thanks. This one was tough because there was so much to cover and I wanted everyone to have an opportunity to fully speak their POV, but keep us to just two hours. I was exhausted afterward. Haha
Regarding the Chekov moment, there is a funny Easter Egg that I don't think anyone anywhere is mentioning. At least I think it's an Easter Egg.
Anton Chekov says his father always said "there are always possibilities". If you remember during TOS Chekov always told everyone that everything was done and said by Russians. The line "there are always possibilities" was said by Kirk in The Wrath Of Khan.
I think this is Pavel Chekov continuing to steal quotes from others and in this case claiming it for another Russian, himself.
Yep! I said the quote from Wrath of Khan in the review near the end of our discussion on it at 14:22.
@@JohnRochaSays yea but the point was that Pavel Chekov always claimed Russians did everything and now his son is claiming his father said the quote. It's kind of a deep cut Easter Egg.
@@RizzoF21344 cool
I've been seeing the praises heaped upon s3 and I had so much to say, but after I listened to the GB, EI and Dan's recent interview with Terry Matalas, I wanted to copy/paste the entirety of my thoughts about s3 and, to a lesser degree, the previous seasons:
Season 3 is pretty brilliant and I even like season 2. I didn't dislike 1, but I feel like, if anything, it's the weakest. My issue with this 'new' Trek is something Dan touched upon when he did some of his reviews of s1 and I want to emphasize that I don't want to splash cold water on anyone who unabashedly loves the final season or any of the seasons of Picard at all.
To me, Trek is aspirational (and I can see people arguing that it still is), but to me, the standard of Trek is TOS and TNG. A utopian or near utopian society humanity and the Federation has built for themselves. And you can and they did still explore many of the issues that plague us as a society to this day. They just did it under the guise of others species or with different characters. On a larger scale in episodes like, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" to the personal like "Brothers" and "Inner Light". I let it go with DS9 as sort of the exception and trying something a little different from the Federation we knew (though, they still did adhere to many of the tenets we love).
The problem, for me, with turning Trek into a darker, grittier sci-fi show... basically makes it kind of a copy of any other show that's doing the dark and gritty thing. The reason why Trek stood out is b/c it was, for lack of a better description, above that. The recent trend seems to be reveling in deconstructing our 'heroes' and watching them dragged through the mud or brought low. I don't mind the occasional episode exploring it in some way, but when the entirety of the Federation seems more than a bit down and we see the entirety of our crew kinda broken (well Worf, amusingly, seemed the most well adjusted of the bunch though he is more than willing to go on pretty brutal homicidal rampages), it makes it almost feel like I'm watching TWD or GOT or whatever. And while I enjoy those shows (or at least many of the seasons), those shows are great for it b/c that's what they are. TOS and TNG have become the exceptions and anomalies in the recent Star Trek universe (with maybe the exception of SNW and, to a lesser degree, LD and Prod) and it remains a sticking point for me.
That said, and accepting the framework they laid out, s3 was a great send off for our crew. I even enjoyed s2 a lot. Picard confronting the trauma that had caused him to put up the wall he held in place for the entirety of his life b/c he thought the mother he adored was the victim of an abusive father, then the turn that happens in which he and the audience realize that it was, in fact, about mental health. The twist of Jurati becoming the new Borg Queen and Picard, in a classic Trek moment of Kirk not giving into his instinct to crush the Gorn under the rock or one of my favorite speeches where he mentions to Anan 7, " We can admit that we're killers, but we're not going to kill today", reaching out to the Borg Queen and cooperating to avoid a galactic disaster was peak TOS/TNG to me, even as it's suffered the slings and arrows of (un)popular opinion.
But, at the end of the day, it still sticks with me that recent Trek has gone to greater lengths to kinda deconstruct the Federation I first fell in love with Kirk and Picard, by turning the Vulcans, for example, into petty jerks (in Enterprise) and undoing what made Trek great for me in the first place ( a lot of the Trek since those early Trek). This has worked for a lot of people and I won't and don't want to take that away from those who enjoyed it, but when I consider Trek in its totality, it will always give me a pause.
Irony: The Gayest Geek Buddy may know more about the G-spot than many straight men. Great joke! Nailed it.
Star Trek should be about ideas. About the last of a species. About giving the power to a teenager to explore the problems with growing up. With giving a man powers to illustrate that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Asking the question what is the definition of life. And are we condemning people to slavery?
These are philosophical ideas. They are based on dramatic stories with full hour length plots full of dialogue and story.
This series did not have any philosophical ideas. Nor did they have whole dramatic episodes, that have scenes that build on each other to show us the character development.
Now, the one idea the series did have was to tell a story about a father trying to save his son from being lost or perhaps not fitting in to society. But instead of getting an episode where these things would be shown to us in a dramatic way, we get little scenes of exposition. But drama the plot have to do with a villain chasing the Titan for 8 episodes. Who cares?
Further, the idea of using the Borg collective as a way to temp Jack away from humanity seems to be unbelievable. Who in the right mind would want to be in the collective? They cut up body parts. It's a horror show.
And even so, what do you learn from this science fiction allegory? It is simply another room where Jack and Picard have a scene of character development by exposition.
And instead of actually having a dramatic story full of drama and plot, we get these brief superficial scenes of exposition. We do not get an episode with Jack and Picard where they learn to trust each other or bond with each other. Instead they're at a bar and they talk about being bald. This is terrible writing.
Watch Voyager's episode Child's Play. It's a complete dramatic episode full of scenes and dialogue that build on each other for 50 minutes. It's not two people coming together and simply telling each other that they are in a family. This is Fast and Furious type writing.