DJariya

Some pretty good space battles in this. Riker taking command of the Titan was pretty cool. Frakes just has that gravitas as a leader.

at Vadic just chilling in her ship, smoking and then saying...."Again" Sure she's a little over the top, but what space baddie isn't?

The flashback scene with Will and Jean-Luc looked a little odd. I couldn't tell if Stewart and Frakes were just made up to look a little younger or if it was an attempt to de-age them.

Worf definitely made the Raffi segments more interesting. Hopefully he gets reunited with Picard and Riker.

Raffi to Worf: "You look like you're dressed for a Tuesday beheading"

Worf: "Our beheadings are Wednesday"

movieguru

Beverly telling Picard she didn't want him to know about their son because he would always be in danger because of attempts on Picard's life, yet she takes her son along on high risk missions smuggling medicines to non Federation colonies on a ship ill-equipped to deal with any real danger.

devilshalo

It's a shame that Rene isn't here anymore to reprise his role as Odo.

bunkaroo

Yeah the de-aging scene was weird because Picard was still speaking slow like he’s 90. Reminded me of the de-aging in The Irishman - the process doesn’t hide the actor moving and talking like an old man.

dhmac

Yeah, I was thinking Beverly Crusher's logic made no sense, especially when factoring in that Jean-Luc has been living quietly and peacefully on the Picard family vineyard for maybe a decade or so. That's a completely safe place for their son, unlike her dangerous medical smuggling operations, including some outside federation space.

DJariya

If any of you have any interest in the behind the scenes aspect, watch this week’s The Ready Room, on the P+ app. They talk about the design of the new Titan and interview the production crew. Mike Okuda, who is a Star Trek historian and graphic designer is also interviewed.

Frakes who also directed the episode is interviewed by Wil Wheaton. But I know most of you think Wheaton is an annoying Star Trek shill

movieguru

I'm confused about the Titan. Is it the same ship that Riker had just majorly refitted or is it an entirely different ship. Rike seems to imply that it is the same ship and Captain Shaw saying that he had to go through the trouble of deleting Riker's jazz music also seems to suggest it's the same ship. When the refitted the original Enterprise, they didn't add the "A" to it. When they went with the Enterprise A, it was different ship.

Watching the credits from episode 3, it appears that the original Voyager is at the star base museum as well as the Enterprise A and the original Excelsior.

philo

Worf stuff was cool. Definitely injected life into the Raffi scenes. I liked seeing them bring in the Changelings and Worf's oblique reference to Odo.

I liked the scene between Picard and Crusher but like others have pointed out, smuggling not exactly the safest career path.

Did everyone forget how to be a Starfleet officer? From Shaw's line about getting weird shit thrown at him to the injured crewman blaming Jack. Also Riker at the end with "You've killed us all." After everything they've been through. I understand they're injecting conflict but seems way out of character.

movieguru

I found it funny that Picard questioned Beverly about their son having a British accent, but never once questioned why Counselor Troi had a British accent when she was from Betazed. He never wondered why so many aliens had British accents either.

hdtv00

Beverly says something like she thought she could handle that life style issues with people coming at/after them. But a Picard level bad guy she knew she couldn't handle. But yea either way the rationale for any of it is kinda lame. But no biggie I guess.

movieguru

That, and she was on a starship with Picard for fifteen years, some of them with her other son in tow. She wasn't concerned for her other son then even though just about any danger Picard got into on the ship would have dangerous for Wesley as well.

tanman

I absolutely love the First Contact theme. The only thing I don't like about it here is that it's transition between it and the Picard theme is rather jarring. It's like someone used Winamp to combine the two without any kind of transition.

planetaire

I agree certainly with the Riker bit. Feels like a swerve? Or just bad writing

Still. This is leagues better than anything in the first two seasons.

Boba Fett

I'm 99% convinced Riker is a Changeling; his treatment of Picard was way out of character.

Josh-da-man

Would explain why Deanna is nowhere to be seen. Having her husband replacecd by a Changeling is probably something she could easily pick up on.

alfredog1976

Well, to be fair to Will, it’s not really Jean-Luc Picard.

Xiroteus

They should be able to disable their own torpedos with a push of a button.

The Cow

My guess is that it's Beverly (unless there is more than 1). Picard and Riker were together when the changeling was beating up on Jack. I feel like the whole get off the bridge thing was an excuse to get Picard to go figure out who the changeling is.

dhmac

"Insubordination" is practically a nuTrek calling card. Immature snarky smartasses always know best in nuTrek.

DJariya

movieguru

The whole thing with the changeling doesn't really make sense, at least yet. How would the changeling know that Picard and Riker were going to go on the Titan and take it to that nebula for it to replace one of their crewmen? If they can take the shape of any human they so choose, why not just take over Shaw instead. Shaw could easily just not order shields up or make any defensive of offensive moves when the Shriek showed up. Vadic could have not acted hostile to begin with and worked with the changeling/Shaw to get what they wanted very easily. Unless of course she intentionally just wants to play games with them and not end everything very quickly.

The Cow

She's not after Picard/Riker, she's after the son. This is another reason I think it's Beverly. Plus it would be a lot harder to take the shape (would have to get rid of the real Shaw too), and have the same mannerisms of Shaw since a lot of the crew are probably used to him.

movieguru

That's the point. If she's after the son, she really wouldn't have any foreknowledge that Picard and Riker were going to try and trick Shaw into heading towards the nebula. She would have had to place the changeling on the Titan well before Picard and Riker boarded the ship. we can see the facial expression of the crewman the moment Picard got on board the ship, so the changeling was already there.

The crewman, whatever rank he was, would still have interacted with other members of his crew and they would have noticed that his mannerisms were off as well. They may not have noticed as easily as shaw, but the crewman's job would likely have been more technical than just giving out orders. He would have needed to know how to convincingly know how to do the job of whom they were impersonating or they wouldn't have lasted very long at all. Impersonating Shaw would have been easier since his job was less technical.

Xiroteus

Why don't they have scanners to detect changelings?

Why don't they have a feature to disable YOUR own torpedos?

Josh-da-man

A changeling replaced Dr. Bashir on Deep Space Nine for over a month, and nobody was the wiser until the real Bashir escaped from a Dominion prison. So they are very good at impersonating people and their skill sets.