The thought had never crystallized for me until now, but I completely agree!

It’s really hard to understand why they did this. The original actor had a very memorable and unique presence.  I sensed none of that character and performance here, and was immediately suspicious, but the hair and beard threw me off.

Unfortunately he and Beyer are being drowned out by the requirements of Kurtzman and Goldsman.

You definitely can’t conclude that about TV writers generally, look at the pure GENIUS of Better Call Saul, The Good Place, Watchmen (discounting the last episode), and The Sopranos, The Wire and Deadwood back in the day. TV is where you’ll find the best writing these days. But they have put two hacks on Trek, and I…

What they did to Icheb was callous, cruel writing designed to elicit immediate horror/sympathy and give 7 a cheap, stereotypical motivation. The writers/director didn’t even attempt to make 7 resemble her Voyager self in any way, not even a hint of the old stiff delivery or posture. They’re just trying to be new,…

God I hope none of this is true, but it seems like at least the false flag element is going to be confirmed.

That’s already superior to what we’re actually getting.

I too will keep watching because it’s Trek, but it’s almost a chore at this point, which makes me sad.  I have to tell myself it’s an alternate timeline, and is not what happened to the characters we watched.

There is absolutely no way. Episode 1 was the high point, with 4 at least being goofy fun. The rest is going to be a slog, and the best we can hope for is a well-executed actionroller coaster, which doesn’t seem likely ...

Yep, I had the same hopes, which have been completely dashed at this point.  I would say both excruciating and manipulative, except “manipulative” is too high praise, as that implies that they were actually able to successfully manipulate our emotions.

Normally I would dismiss this as an extreme reaction and/or trolling, but I wholeheartedly agree.  Last week I said this show is a step above Discovery, and I might have been wrong about that.  It may be worse in a way, in terms of the talent it’s wasting, and trying to be something that it’s very clearly not ...

ABSOLUTELY AGREED. The show is rote, and cruel, and shallow, and cliched. I don’t say this lightly, but after this episode, I can confidently conclude that Picard fucking sucks. And it breaks my heart, because I love, love Trek.

I get what you’re saying; whereas Disco was clumsy and not well-thought out, this one has an obvious paint-by-numbers component. I had the same reaction to season 1 episode 4 of Disco, where the chief of security got killed by the tardigrade (and I’ve ranted about that elsewhere). SO DUMB

I really like what the writers have said about the show so far; a ship that specializes in “Second Contact”, where after all the intense and risky work is done, the guys show up to set up communications and find the best places to eat! Brilliant!!

I wholeheartedly agree with your phrase “needlessly cruel”. We’re seeing a lot of this sort of “cruelty porn” or “break the hero down” sequels these days, some well-executed (like Logan) and some not. Even for Logan, I take comfort knowing that that is only one future, and unfortunately, I have to regard Picard (and…

Yep, pretty much my emotional state as well. I just re-watched about half of Insurrection tonight; while it has many, many flaws I still put it creatively (and philosophically, though I don’t actually agree with Picard’s position) above what we’re seeing here.

Zach is too soft on Trek generally, we saw the same with his Discovery reviews. He can’t turn his brain off so he clearly and accurately identifies the many weaknesses of the shows, but can’t bring himself to give them the mark they deserve and just say that the writing basically sucks, being filled as it is with lazy…

Totally agreed. The writers want to have their cake and eat it too. They want tension-filled antagonistic relationships and scenes, and everyone to pretty much hate Picard (the scene with the CNC was way over the top), but they can’t have Picard do anything that bad, i.e. he gave up and went home after trying pretty…

After episode 3 I concluded that this show is, at best, mediocre sci-fi that is only succeeding, and that I’m only watching, because it’s called Star Trek. It’s fun (at times, minus everything to do with Narek and Soji) but nothing more.

To be fair, while B5 was influenced by all sorts of past sci-fi, including Star Trek, DS9 (which I also love), took many, many cues from B5.