Mike86

Synopsis:
Picard and the crew track Soji to the Borg cube in Romulan space, resurfacing haunting memories for Picard. Meanwhile, Narek believes he finally found a way to safely exploit Soji for information.

Deftones

Cool episode. Fun to see Hugh and Picard reunite. Loved that scene where they overlaid the picture of Locutus with Picard.

Count Dooku

A lot of us criticize the show because we feel that there is a lot of backstory that is going unexplained.

I might be late to the party on this info but they released a tie-in book earlier in February that provides that backstory.
The book addresses subjects like the planning and logistics for the evacuation of Romulus, Picard's involvement in those negotiations and his naivety about the politics involved, Picard's relationship with his Raffi and much more about this new Number One.

From an online review: As of this writing, with five episodes of Picard under our belts and five to go in the first season, it’s fair to say that while many fans have been delighted by Jean- Luc’s reappearance on our screens, there have also been a number of huge questions and concerns raised about the fictional world our characters now inhabit, about its moral character, and about its depiction of Jean-Luc Picard himself.
Fans who care about these types of questions would be well advised to pick up and read the brand-new tie-in novel by Una McCormack, Star Trek: Picard – The Last Best Hope. McCormack addresses them all, and in a way that feels like well-prepared back story rather than an author scrambling to fill plot holes.
This novel covers the period between the discovery of the impending Romulan supernova and the immediate aftermath of the “rogue synth” attacks on Mars, the four years from 2381-2385.

Why So Blu?

Good episode.

lisadoris

That moment was so well-done and so chilling. Seeing Picard's PTSD triggered by this mission was handled well.

brayzie

I had an argument with a friend about this. We were talking about a movie or TV show and I complained that they didn't explain enough, certain things seemed to come out of nowhere. He said that the tie-in comics explain it further. I argued the producers are doing a poor job if they can't tell a proper story within the confines of the TV show.
But maybe this is the new trend. To tell a single story across different formats. Definitely helps the comic book industry. What you can't do in the show for whatever reasons (budget, time, etc), take advantage of supplementary media.

Mike86

I have that book but haven’t read it yet. I’ll probably wait until the season finishes to start it.

Count Dooku

I agree. I shouldn't have to read a book to understand a TV show or movie. if my public library acquires this book, I would check it out for free.

Apart from that, this was the best episode so far to me. They just needed to get on with this story.

Tom Banjo

Needing tie-in stuff is lame. I haven’t really trashed the latest Star Wars movies like many have, but VII in particular was awful about this. As for this book, 1. I’ll reserve judgment until the end of the season, because they might still fill in a lot of blanks 2. Look at these motherfuckers ripping off Babylon 5 AGAIN with that title.

Dscarpad

I just find all the sojii / cube stuff so dull. The hugh stuff was the hi light but it can’t fix the terrible writing.
does no one check ship logs on this ship, Maddox is murdered , everyone just accepts that he died. The borg have a device that can transport 40000 light years so the queen can escape? Then why not transport borg to earth and instant takeover? The queens program can just be transferred to another cube that’s why they are a hive collective.

if Elnor can beam exactly to where Picard is why don’t they just beam Picard up? Why did he beam down to protect Picard and stay when more than likely the need to protect is greater where Picard is going? Because the story requires it not that it makes sense.

it seems as long as they drop Easter eggs and such in the show everyone overlooks all the stuff that makes no sense.

adamblast

Since 7of9's appearance I've been happy with the show's tempo & general direction. I just needed them to get out into space.

Hope Jerri is kept on as a regular, she does a great job of still bringing the action-beats and the gravitas & history. This show has made me consider checking out Voyager S04-S07 -- I was too much of a DS9 snob to tolerate Voyager's scripts at the time. . .bet I'd have a kinder view of them today. . . .

Mike86

Pretty enjoyable episode. Some flaws in the writing, but I still think the show has at least picked up in the last few episodes. Looks like next week will be good too.

Liked seeing Picard and Hugh interacting. Picard being haunted by his past on the Artifact was interesting to see.

Also liked Soji’s dream/revelation about what she is. I felt like Narek really was starting to care for her, but he was ready to just destroy her.

I feel like now that Soji and Picard are together things should really pick up and hopefully the last few episodes are strong to make the season wrap up in a way that’s satisfying and makes us want more from season two.

The big problem with this show has been that it’s taken way too long to get to the real meat of the story. While I haven’t minded the episodes a lot of them have felt like largely filler. It feels like if this could have been condensed down to maybe five or six episodes it would have been better.

Superman07

There was a TNG episode, have no idea the title, but I think it was early seasons where Picard was in some circle with a series of alien doors to different places in the galaxy. The Borg queen transport had a direct name reference. Was that in reference to that old TNG race and technology?

Shannon Nutt

Best episode yet, but that's not necessarily a rousing endorsement.

hdtv00

It was reference to Voyager alien race and their tech they wanted to use to transport home.

mphtrilogy

Really good ep, hope they finish strong

dhmac

Someone put these clips together about the advanced Sikarian transporter

brayzie

This was definitely a good episode. There's some nit picks here, but if this is Star Trek or TNG for today's audience, that's not a bad thing. When Soji came crashing through the ceiling in the white room, that just felt cool, like something out of a movie.
The interior of the Borg cube with the Tron-like music playing, and the mechanical pulsations of the walls was great to give it a weird and intimidating feeling.
Elnor seems like a total fantasy Elf-rip off, but the actor, his dialogue and delivery are great. A very likable character.

It was great seeing Hugh again and his reunion with Picard was nice. I think Picard came to his realization of the Borg being victims a little too quickly considering everything else up to this point seemed so decompressed but whatever.

I couldn't get too much into Soji's sad realization of her past being fake because I've seen it done before quite a bit. But Isa Briones is great and I like the result when she's activated.

I'm a bit disappointed at the visual and thematic inspirations being so obvious, which was my main criticism with the series, but it's also kind of interesting. There's character who's meant to evoke the look a Lord of the Rings character and Asian martial arts cinema. Soji/Dahj performing Jason Bourne-like feats, while her story, who evokes Rachel/Deckard. And to me, La Sirena and her crew kind of reminds me of GoTG. That one's maybe misplaced but that's the vibe I get with this quirky crew and look of the ship. And we even get a visual homage to the Lament Configuration. It's like you can see into the process of how they were trying to make this appealing to the masses by checking the boxes of what's popular and iconic in fantasy, but then trying to embed it within the existing Star Trek mythos in a natural way. This mish-mash of well-known sci-fi/fantasy/horror, combined with familiar faces and the Star Trek backdrop ends up being a pretty entertaining result, and I'd say successful at this point. The music ramping up and everyone closing in on Picard and Soji in the cube, it felt exciting. I'd go as far as to say this feels like the TNG film series we never got.

Two things of many that I liked:

"Please choose to live." The first time I heard it I thought it was cheesy. But now, it's like his signature line and already feels iconic, especially the way he said it after the doors closed and you hear all the Romulans storming in.

"Locutus?" So random but not out of place. It was just enough to get a small smile/laugh but the way it was delivered didn't detract from the seriousness of the scene.

brayzie

I didn't even notice that. Damn.

I did notice that. Who knows where Picard is going, you're pledged to protect him, but now you're going to let him go some random place by himself when you know he gets into trouble? But okay, you have to fend off the Romulans to give him a chance to escape so they can't follow him maybe? I guess they had to kill all those Romulans so the room would stay hidden.

I think they dropped the ball on how he was revealed. We barely see a figure in the shadows and Picard already yells, "HUGH!" Shouldn't we have seen his face first and THEN had Picard yell out his name to recognize him?

It was a good scene when he sentenced her to death, but I think it could have been played with may more emotion.

Meathead

Contagion - Season 2 Episode 11

DeFan

I never liked Voyager much either so I was lukewarm to 7 of 9 on that show. The character seems a lot more interesting on Picard.

dhmac

I like this channel called "Major Grin" that has been posting a lot of clips illustrating how Nu Trek contradicts old Star Trek.

Here's one on the inconsistent depiction of the Borg doing whatever it takes to retain members, even dead ones, of the collective (Old Trek) vs. just cutting off members from the collective and discarding them (Nu Trek)




Of course, it's plausible the Borg could've changed in that regard, so here's one where older Jean Luc Picard forgot that the Borg do sometimes change:

hdtv00

Yea the show is beyond it being inconsistent with trek. It's just plain bad writing all on it's own. I've honesty never been more disappointed in a show in my entire life.

brayzie

I forgot about that. That would explain why other civilizations didn't get Borg tech and why the Borg were so powerful. That's a pretty big one and something I don't think should be ignored. But there's still more mystery to unravel so maybe it will be explained.

There's a lot of inconsistencies in Star Trek, even in the TNG series. I think it depends on how egregious it is, and if it's a retcon or "mistake" that ends up serving the purposes for a successful story.

Then again, "the Borg don't change!" and yet he was there when Hugh changed, and even allowed the changed Hugh to go back to the collective and hopefully bring goodness and freedom to them. I suppose it's something you could ignore if Hugh wasn't brought back in this same episode.

Superman07

Well to be fair, there has been a running question amongst the character of what happened to the Romulan crew, and why was the artifact left?

Aren’t the Borg still kicking? Or were they defeated in the extended universe/STO?