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Picard finale.....how do you one up your rival of 46 years? You do it better! Great series.

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Spoiler alert!

YEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH ENTERPRISE DEATH STAR RUN BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ll have more, MUCH more to say about this, but this was an absolute blast from start to finish and the proper goodbye we did not get in the films.

I didn’t see the cameo I was expecting but we were treated to one I wasn’t aaaaand another (his voice at least) from the original series!

Okay, gonna talk Picard. A few mild spoilers but I'll try to avoid the big ones for those of you who haven't sat down and watched (and if you haven't you goddamn well should).

During the climax when the Earth is under siege, Walter Koenig's voice could be heard as Federation President Anton Chekhov, who mentions his late father in an audio transmission that is a direct homage to the President's message in Star Trek IV: The One With The Whales. No doubt "Anton" is in honor of the late Anton Yelchin, who of course portrayed a younger Mr. Chekhov in the Abrams films.

Much to my delight, we got a new Enterprise! And she got a good captain too, not quite the captain I was hoping for (Riker) but I suppose neither the character nor the actor who portrays him had any desire to boldly go these days. Very, very strong hints that we're getting a new show, especially evidenced by the cameo in the post-credits scene, but Terry Matalas says there have been no formal discussions about it.

Also, neither of the cameos I had read might be happening (Wesley Crusher or Tasha Yar) happened, but that's fine. Wesley made an appearance at the end of season two to whisk one of the characters away as one of "The Travelers" and of course, it'd be kinda hard to shoehorn in Denise Crosby since her character is done dead...I had a theory that the Big Bad we only saw as a misshapen floating head was Commander Sela, her half-Romulan daughter, but it was someone else entirely. Matalas said there were some pretty fanciful ideas they wanted to do for the finale but just plain ran outta time and money. Whatever the case, they spent the money in the right place.

All in all, this final season gave the cast the sendoff they (and us fans) deserved. And they somehow also managed to right the very serious wrongs done in the movies, which were all bad save for one. And THAT movie plays a pretty big role in this season, even serving as the theme music following every episode.

So now we have the final season of Discovery to look forward to, Michelle Yeoh's Section 31 film, the Starfleet Academy series, and Strange New Worlds...which so far as been the best Nu-Trek apart from what we just saw. Among the animated offerings, I haven't watched Prodigy at all, but Lower Decks season 1 was a'ight.

Spoilers aside, I'm about 6 episodes in on this 3rd Season of Picard, and I have to say, I am profoundly disappointed with, well, everything. This is NOT a very interesting or compelling series so far, and the cameos, while interesting, make all the actors look old and tired. I'll finish it, but I would not give this more than two pucks.

Blasphemy! Well, this is why we are all different and why all views are welcome!

I even tried to tell the hair cut lady and she told me she didn't like Star Trek! She liked Walking Dead....or something like that that I have never seen nor would initially bother with.

After realizing we were putting this series on individual pedestals, I tried to buffer the potential disappointment factor as the Professor and I geeked out.

It could also have been the pure excitement I had for this series only to have it be subpar in Seasons 1 and 2. The vindication/improvement in Season 3 sent me over the top.

In conjunction with this 3rd season of Picard I have also been watching TNG over again (midway through Season 2 now). The amount of brief homages to the TNG series is downright amazing.....and will go right by the casual viewer (and even some TNG fans, myself included). I was certainly satisfied with the finality for the TNG crew. Looking back I still think this is the best season since TNG stopped so I will continue to stand by that for now. I do like Strange New Worlds too.

I thought they cancelled discovery..so there is one more there?

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Yes, one more season for Discovery and then it's done. Again, a mixed bag, but IMO mostly enjoyable. I hope this time they find a way to make the show compelling without blowing up a planet or all but destroying the Federation because a little alien kid screamed. No more Trek disaster porn please (which also really, really marred Picard season one). That's why I like Strange New Worlds. It's not trying so hard with over-the-top stakes and forced melodrama, the writers and actors are just tryin' to have fun.

I suppose if you don't love the shoutouts and tie-ins with TNG and all of Trek lore, you might not love this season of Picard...but I'll say this, John, however harsh it may sound: If by the end of episode 9's big reveal you aren't moved, man, you got no Trekkie soul.

As for their advanced age, well, that actually plays a part in the overarching plot.

And I agree with Jay--part of my enthusiasm and praise for this season might stem from the fact that the first two seasons just did not click at all. To me, Picard seasons 1 and 2 failed mostly because there just wasn't any real plan in place. Season 1's showrunner, Michael Chabon, said in an interview that he wrote up a pitch to convince Patrick Stewart to come back, but that pitch was thrown away. Can't help but wonder if that particular idea was better than they eventually went with. It certainly could not have been worse. Season 2 just felt...pointless. If anything, some of the lines uttered by Crusher in this season make it sound like the writers were acting like big plot points from previous seasons never happened. Matalas himself said if there was going to be any follow-up to those plotlines, someone else would have to do it.

Still left up in the air: The final fate of the Enterprise-E. All we know is it's out of commission, a social media post says it's final mission is "classified" and apparently Worf played a big part in that.

Speaking of SNW, here's a trailer: https://youtu.be/JW_P3SRrExw

After coming out with wildly different Klingons in Discovery season 1 (and then steering them back in season 2) it looks like they're back to their roots. IMO it might have been fun to go with the Klingons as they appeared in the original series, missing the forehead bumps and all, but doesn't look like they're going there. If I'm not mistaken, Star Trek: Enterprise finally explained why there were "human" Klingons back then. I never watched that show past the first season so I wouldn't know.

I will just add this: The running joke they've had now with seemingly every Nu-Trek show regarding each captain's "catch phrase" is starting to wear thin. Enough already.

And here's the teaser for Discovery's final voyage...featuring the best part of the whole damned show, David Cronenberg's Kovich: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJwVNppatK0

One thing they promised in Discovery they never followed through on is a tighter cast, meaning some of the supporting players might not make it to subsequent seasons. But so far in four years, they killed off one doctor and literally brought him back to life using space fungus the very next season, and the only other cast member to suffer a sudden unscheduled disassembly was done away with because the actress could no longer wear the heavy prosthetics her character required, and they immediately recast her as a regular human. We'll see if they go for broke now since there won't be a season six.

Discovery has run its course with me (not as much as Mandalorian or anything disney outside of Andor, so I will watch)....but yes please on that SNW trailer!

I find your trek knowledge awe inspiring Professor! Keep it coming!

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Thank you. When I nerd out on something, I definitely go full throttle.

Went ahead and branched out the really nerdy stuff into its own thread so I don't keep polluting it with my spiels. The "normal" TV stuff can stay in the original TV thread, since Strange New Worlds and Discovery are coming on the air soon this seemed like an appropriate time.

Also finished The Mandalorian.

Honestly, if I were still 12 years old, this would probably be my favorite show of all time. I can see the obvious appeal to kids. As an adult though, it leaves me wanting.

The finale was rather vague, could have served as a series finale (with the one major dangling plotline in Coruscant that wasn't followed up on at all) but I think we can rest assured there will be more. I hope they try a little more complexity.

They just announced a new trilogy featuring Daisy Ridley as a Jedi Master, so given the vast amount of years between the time set for Mando and those films, we could conceivably see a grown-up Din Grogu flying onto the scene in full Mandalorian armor saying something like "The Way, This Is..."

I'm third show into Picard and struggling with it, finding too many characters saying and doing dumb things, not Walking Dead or Laura Ingram dumb, but pretty dumb. Then Worf shows up to bring my interest back, he kicks ass and with lines like, "would you like sugar with your chamomille tea" and "as you human's say, I'm working on myself" he has sparked an interest.

And why did they have to hire a 35 year old to play 20 year old Beverly Crusher's son? Are there no actors available with talent who look the part?

I'll keep trying, mostly because of how positive you all are about this show and the story arc is of interest even if the individual characters words and actions make me want to throw something at them.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

I count myself a fan of TNG but honestly, been watching Season 3 of ST: Picard and am finding it entirely unwatchable. We're on Ep. 7 and we're finding it tough to stay engaged... I'm just this side of hate-watching this. Count me among those whose expectations are not met so far.

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the homage to the characters, but for me, Riker and Crusher were among the least interesting parts of the original. I'm sure a middle-aged Will Wheaton cameo is just around the corner.

I'll finish the series but so far, I am not impressed.

To each their own, I thought Picard season three, though it definitely hit some major bumps, was a thrill ride from about episode three or so until the climactic end. It's funny because growing up I was a fan but not a HUGE fan of TNG--way too much technobabble and Data saving the day every week for my liking. I thought Deep Space Nine did a better job by making their characters bend moral boundaries rather than scientific ones. That said, The Next Generation has aged remarkably well and I'm more appreciative in hindsight of their use of non-violent solutions to their weekly crises.

Oh and uh, I'm not giving anything away by saying this, there will be no Wesley Crusher cameo at the end. I was quite surprised by that because Wesley's name keeps coming up, but I suppose Wil Wheaton made his last appearance at the end of season two (and frankly I like Wil Wheaton, he's been a great spokesperson and advocate in his later years, but I feel like his acting skills have kinda left him) but it looks like he's decided he's best served hosting the Ready Room post-shows now. There's a really good one where he goes behind the scenes with Michael Okuda (warning, do not watch it until you've seen episode nine at least), the guy responsible for all the fun touchscreens you see on Picard and TNG, and it's really cool. It's on YouTube somewhere.

The last big cameo is coming in ep 9, after that pretty much everyone and everything you've seen all you're going to see. But I suppose if you're not really into it by now you won't care a whole lot about it. Frankly if it ain't workin' for you it's probably not worth three more hours of your time. Just move on.

in S3.3 Beverly talks about the death of her son Wesley, or did I mishear that?

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

And if I may be allowed a bit of a rant that contains some spoilers, please don't highlight the below text if you haven't watched.

Man, these "evolved" Changelings kinda suck. We learned in Deep Space Nine that Odo and his brethren were not only able to shapeshift into different disguises, they were able to change their mass, fly, produce weapons T2-style, even become energy, vapor, and forms that could survive and even travel in the vacuum of space. THESE Changelings can't survive more than a couple seconds in open space. It's also strange how some get tripped up by one phaser blast and others can absorb several shots. Whatever "tradeoffs" these Changelings made in order to be harder to detect by scanners and the ol' reliable blood screening, it appears to have limited their abilities to a severe degree.

No, she never says Wesley dies. She merely says she "lost Wesley to the same stars" and what not. In Wil Wheaton's final TNG appearance he resigned from Starfleet and "The Traveler" showed up to take him on a journey across time and space. He shows up in a completely unexplained cameo without a single line at Riker and Troi's wedding in "Nemesis" dressed in a Starfleet uniform, but it's never followed up on. Wesley then shows up in the season two finale to recruit Kore, the genetically enhanced daughter of Brent Spiner's villainous character--sort of a precursor to her S1 character, long story--into the ranks of "The Travelers." You can look up the scene on YouTube. It's implied he's a Q-like being now who doesn't even really go by the name "Wesley Crusher" anymore. Take it for what you will but he doesn't show up in this season and that's probably fine, interesting that they keep bringing him up though. I suppose it's to emphasize the lonely and isolated life that Dr. Crusher has had the last 20 years, doesn't sound like she's seen Wesley at all since Riker and Troi's wedding. They're almost acting as if that scene in "Nemesis" didn't even take place. I'd be okay if that movie had never happened.

I couldn't take it anymore. Just frustrated that they are so slow and dumb and want to keep yakking about personal angst instead of getting the job done. End of E6 I decided to skip it and just read the wikipedia summaries.

Think I might watch E10, it sounds fun but glad to skip over Riker and Troi hashing it out, one of many more discussions I'm sure I'd find just as excruciating.

I wouldn't mind a dedicated series about Worf though.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Eh, you should at least watch the last ten minutes of ep 9 if nothing else. That moment right there is fantastic. I get the impression the actors are every bit as psyched about being on that set as we are watching them.

I have to say y’all are impatient motherfuckers. Again, the conflict between these characters felt forced at times, they tried a little too hard to break the cardinal rule Gene Roddenberry had for TNG, but they work through all of it pretty quickly and get right back to the action. I never felt this show dragged to be honest.