Picard: Vox
Apr. 14th, 2023 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kathleen_daileyOnly one more ep is left in which to fix all the danglers and restore the Federation and Starfleet to what it used to be--and what it used to stand for. Spoilers follow.
- Most disappointingly for OG Trek fans, in this episode Jack gets to spew venom about how contemptible the current Trek universe is--corrupt, violent, filled with hate, with no hope or optimism or altruism anywhere in sight. Captain Kirk and Gene Roddenberry must be spinning in their respective eternities.
- And what are we to make of the throwaway lines about Keslovar, which Jack describes as a Vulcan "prison where they can mind-meld and lobotomize" him? Evidently things are so awful in the Federation that even the Vulcans are now situation ethicists who are willing to engage in mind rape as long as the end justifies the means. Fans were rightly horrified when Spock forced a mind meld on Valeris in ST: TUC, so let's hope there'll be similar outrage at the notion of Keslovar.
- How much time and effort would it have taken for the writers to include even one passing reference to the Federation Council and its response to what was happening? After all, Starfleet answers, supposedly, to the Council--and if it no longer does, then the Council could still have been shown to be reacting to an invasion/military coup. Couldn't one representative from one member planet have at least been quoted as drawing an analogy to the era of Colonel Green ("overwhelm and devastate")? IMO, that would have been a bit of truly meaningful fan service.
- I was sorry to see Shaw die: In the hands of good writers, Shaw might have been incorporated into the Trek universe in some creative and satisfying ways. And even if he never appeared again in canonical Trek, fan writers could have explored the character's nature and future. (Maybe they still will.)
- Editable (and inheritable) Borg DNA--meh, I dunno. That's a pretty big plot device to swallow, even for a Trek trufan. How are the writers going to repair the thousands and thousands of under-25 Starfleet personnel whose genes have been modified?
- Why wasn't Seven given a seat at that briefing table? I get that TPTB wanted to foreground the TNG cast, but good grief, for story purposes that's an inexplicable omission.
- And what about Jurati? Didn't we have a plot thread last season that made Agnes the CEO of a friendly-ish Borg branch office? Will she turn up next week to somehow undermine the bad-guy Borg? (Apparently Matalas says no, but that doesn't stop me from wishing.)
- I felt a semi-shiver of nostalgia when the Enterprise-D made its appearance. That was nice to see, although the characters seemed inappropriately lighthearted (especially Geordi, given that his children have been Borgified--he should have been shown to be distraught, or at least distracted).
I'm not going to miss this series--or its writers' version of the Trek universe--but I'm looking forward to new seasons of SNW and LD.
- Most disappointingly for OG Trek fans, in this episode Jack gets to spew venom about how contemptible the current Trek universe is--corrupt, violent, filled with hate, with no hope or optimism or altruism anywhere in sight. Captain Kirk and Gene Roddenberry must be spinning in their respective eternities.
- And what are we to make of the throwaway lines about Keslovar, which Jack describes as a Vulcan "prison where they can mind-meld and lobotomize" him? Evidently things are so awful in the Federation that even the Vulcans are now situation ethicists who are willing to engage in mind rape as long as the end justifies the means. Fans were rightly horrified when Spock forced a mind meld on Valeris in ST: TUC, so let's hope there'll be similar outrage at the notion of Keslovar.
- How much time and effort would it have taken for the writers to include even one passing reference to the Federation Council and its response to what was happening? After all, Starfleet answers, supposedly, to the Council--and if it no longer does, then the Council could still have been shown to be reacting to an invasion/military coup. Couldn't one representative from one member planet have at least been quoted as drawing an analogy to the era of Colonel Green ("overwhelm and devastate")? IMO, that would have been a bit of truly meaningful fan service.
- I was sorry to see Shaw die: In the hands of good writers, Shaw might have been incorporated into the Trek universe in some creative and satisfying ways. And even if he never appeared again in canonical Trek, fan writers could have explored the character's nature and future. (Maybe they still will.)
- Editable (and inheritable) Borg DNA--meh, I dunno. That's a pretty big plot device to swallow, even for a Trek trufan. How are the writers going to repair the thousands and thousands of under-25 Starfleet personnel whose genes have been modified?
- Why wasn't Seven given a seat at that briefing table? I get that TPTB wanted to foreground the TNG cast, but good grief, for story purposes that's an inexplicable omission.
- And what about Jurati? Didn't we have a plot thread last season that made Agnes the CEO of a friendly-ish Borg branch office? Will she turn up next week to somehow undermine the bad-guy Borg? (Apparently Matalas says no, but that doesn't stop me from wishing.)
- I felt a semi-shiver of nostalgia when the Enterprise-D made its appearance. That was nice to see, although the characters seemed inappropriately lighthearted (especially Geordi, given that his children have been Borgified--he should have been shown to be distraught, or at least distracted).
I'm not going to miss this series--or its writers' version of the Trek universe--but I'm looking forward to new seasons of SNW and LD.
