I think Zack’s criticisms are valid—I’m not going to sit here and say that killing Picard, mourning his death, and then immediately bringing him back with no lingering consequences made a whole lot of sense—but I think approaching reviews in the way that Zack has for the past few years (with this show and Discovery)…

I always thought that Trek’s goal was to showcased humanity and alienity at its best.

What if Alton Soong is Lore in a new body? He was deactivated and dismantled at the end of “Decent pt. II” in TNG, so his body would have presumably ended up with Agnes and Maddox as B-4's did. Lore being behind some of this would explain the evil vibes (and sort of TNG-era skin tone) from Sutra.

Have you ever objected to a straight kiss with no indication before that the characters were straight

These pieces are thrown in there at random and given no significance.

I don’t really want more adventures with the old crew, but if the show gets another season, I would love to see more reunions. I’m especially curious about Beverly and what happened with her and Picard’s relationship.

Also, “Cancel red alert!... it’s a burnt tomato.”

honestly, Frakes’ presence is almost as comforting as Stewart’s. Over TNG’s run, he evolved from smarmy womanizing upstart to a seasoned, grinning warmth that really upped his likability, and now in old age he’s basically completed the transformation into a giant walking teddy bear stuffed with hugs. it’s great.

Instead, everyone is racist and dumb and then not dumb, and addicted to drugs and then not, and then all of a sudden there’s a gay kiss in the hopes someone will tweet about it.

Everybody come quick! A straight man’s masculinity is threatened!

Troi gets as much character development in this episode as she did over the entire run of TNG. I’d definitely say this series is ahead of the TNG curve on that front. 

People with addiction and emotional issues often use competence in other areas as a coping tool (and is a reason a lot of people around them never notice there’s a problem). They thrive when there are problems put in front of them that don’t involve themselves. Raffi is an intentional depiction of that personality—noti…

i appreciate that you are grappling with your bias(es) against the show. two things might help:

I assume you prefer your cookies baked, not replicated.

Did you watch the episode?

The exchange between Picard and Seven happened a little differently than you remember, and I’m not sure if that’s because of the screener you got or what. But it went like this, more or less:

As someone who watched all of Voyager, that cold open with the tortured murder of Icheb was a proper shocker. 

I also wonder how used Picard is to failure (on that level), this is a man who in his prime saved whole worlds from certain doom, who changed the course of history with the force of his convictions.
It’s no surprise he retreated after experiencing such a profound failure.
Where the flaw is, I think, is in the writing.…

Tell that to all the grown men who are still crying actual tears about Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi.

I can’t help thinking there’s a gap between the way Picard is now, and the way he once was