• ST: Picard Questions (minor spoilers)

    From Faux Dameron@21:1/5 to All on Sun Feb 16 23:34:56 2020
    I've always wants to see a series with scenes of people in the Star Trek universe living real lives outside of Starfleet and now we have it, but it doesn't make sense.

    I'm not going to get into the economic questions. That's a huge issue, but
    I do want to point out something that seem to me missing.

    1. Where is Lore's body? If they needed a fully working android, they could have studied him to learn how to create a new body for Data's consciousness.

    2. What happened to Juliana Tainer? (aka Data's Mother). Surely her secret would have been known by Starfleet via official ship logs. Even if they
    decided not to tell her, when/if she "died" she could have been studied.

    3. Why beam attackers into Dahj's apartment when they could have just
    beamed her into a shielded cell? Even with her android Kung Fu, speed, and strength, she couldn't break through shields. They could have even just
    beamed out her head. Sure, that's nasty but it would have given them access
    to her brain without needed to worry if she would fight them.

    This group is probably dead but the #1 way to bring back usenet is to use
    it.

    x-posted to alt.startrek

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  • From J.B. Nicholson@21:1/5 to Faux Dameron on Tue Feb 18 02:01:01 2020
    Faux Dameron <fauxdameron@mailfence.com> wrote:
    3. Why beam attackers into Dahj's apartment when they could have
    just beamed her into a shielded cell? Even with her android Kung Fu,
    speed, and strength, she couldn't break through shields. They could
    have even just beamed out her head. Sure, that's nasty but it would
    have given them access to her brain without needed to worry if she
    would fight them.

    This question exposes a plot hole so great it undermines the major
    mystery of the series (or at least the major mystery of this
    season). The moment the Romulans do as you suggest there's virtually
    no mystery that would propel Picard to investigate and likely no
    show. That's a big problem for the writers.

    The only reason I can think of requires taking a production point of
    view which means the show messed up when they laid out the major plot
    points. Perhaps laying out mysterious characteristics over a few
    episodes and tying in information from other Soong-type androids into
    a larger picture would have helped make this make more sense. But I
    think that TNG knowledge and consideration are well beyond what Star
    Trek: Picard staff are willing to aim for. I don't think the writers
    really watched TNG. Picard's life was saved many times by many people
    (the heart surgeons who replaced his heart with an artificial heart
    after he recklessly got into a barfight with some Nausicaans,
    countless fellow Starfleeters including Riker his former
    second-in-command, Q since the de Lancie Q both introduced and saved
    Picard from the Borg early on and let Picard see what his life would
    be if he had made safer choices when he was young, etc.) so why the
    big interest in Data (whom Picard merely tolerated when they served
    together)? Why the years-long mourning?

    This group is probably dead but the #1 way to bring back usenet is
    to use it.

    I agree; widely-distributed netnews groups are much more censor
    resistant than any so-called "social media" website (which are each
    single points of censorship). At least here you know your posts are
    being propagated and hidden only for that reader.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Crane@21:1/5 to Faux Dameron on Mon Feb 17 19:37:23 2020
    On 02/16/2020 04:34 PM, Faux Dameron wrote:
    I've always wants to see a series with scenes of people in the Star Trek universe living real lives outside of Starfleet and now we have it, but it doesn't make sense.

    I'm not going to get into the economic questions. That's a huge issue, but
    I do want to point out something that seem to me missing.

    1. Where is Lore's body? If they needed a fully working android, they could have studied him to learn how to create a new body for Data's consciousness.

    2. What happened to Juliana Tainer? (aka Data's Mother). Surely her secret would have been known by Starfleet via official ship logs. Even if they decided not to tell her, when/if she "died" she could have been studied.

    3. Why beam attackers into Dahj's apartment when they could have just
    beamed her into a shielded cell? Even with her android Kung Fu, speed, and strength, she couldn't break through shields. They could have even just beamed out her head. Sure, that's nasty but it would have given them access to her brain without needed to worry if she would fight them.

    This group is probably dead but the #1 way to bring back usenet is to use
    it.

    x-posted to alt.startrek

    Damn good questions!

    Also, the Romulan Ninja Commandos seemed very unprepared.
    Assuming they were forced to beam-in for some unstated reason, they
    would have been better prepared. After all, they KNEW what she was.

    I guess, they call it 'dramatic license'?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Crane@21:1/5 to J.B. Nicholson on Wed Feb 19 09:00:59 2020
    On 02/17/2020 08:01 PM, J.B. Nicholson wrote:
    Faux Dameron <fauxdameron@mailfence.com> wrote:
    3. Why beam attackers into Dahj's apartment when they could have
    just beamed her into a shielded cell? Even with her android Kung Fu,
    speed, and strength, she couldn't break through shields. They could
    have even just beamed out her head. Sure, that's nasty but it would
    have given them access to her brain without needed to worry if she
    would fight them.

    This question exposes a plot hole so great it undermines the major
    mystery of the series (or at least the major mystery of this
    season). The moment the Romulans do as you suggest there's virtually
    no mystery that would propel Picard to investigate and likely no
    show. That's a big problem for the writers.

    The only reason I can think of requires taking a production point of
    view which means the show messed up when they laid out the major plot
    points. Perhaps laying out mysterious characteristics over a few
    episodes and tying in information from other Soong-type androids into
    a larger picture would have helped make this make more sense. But I
    think that TNG knowledge and consideration are well beyond what Star
    Trek: Picard staff are willing to aim for. I don't think the writers
    really watched TNG. Picard's life was saved many times by many people
    (the heart surgeons who replaced his heart with an artificial heart
    after he recklessly got into a barfight with some Nausicaans,
    countless fellow Starfleeters including Riker his former
    second-in-command, Q since the de Lancie Q both introduced and saved
    Picard from the Borg early on and let Picard see what his life would
    be if he had made safer choices when he was young, etc.) so why the
    big interest in Data (whom Picard merely tolerated when they served together)? Why the years-long mourning?

    This group is probably dead but the #1 way to bring back usenet is
    to use it.

    I agree; widely-distributed netnews groups are much more censor
    resistant than any so-called "social media" website (which are each
    single points of censorship). At least here you know your posts are
    being propagated and hidden only for that reader.

    As I stated in my earlier post, this major plot hole, could in fact be explained later. A similar thing happened when I was struck by the
    fact that enemy combatants (the Romulan Ninja Commandos) could just beam
    down so near SFHQ undetected (an unobserved by the presumably many video recording devices) I thought that was a gaping plot hole too. But
    later it was explained that they had help from an insider in SF. You
    even hear her complain later about the sloppy video editing job her
    accomplices did when they left reflection of a disruptor flash.

    On the years-long mourning... I think Data was only a part of it.
    Picard's life was defined by SF. And to have it turn into (in his eyes)
    the antithesis of what SF should be... was just too much for him to
    bear. He disconnected from everything.

    -John

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Faux Dameron@21:1/5 to All on Wed Feb 19 20:42:14 2020
    I guess, they call it 'dramatic license'?

    You know what would have been easier? A sniper. We know that sniper weapons existed in DS9.

    But, you're probably right. I remember a quote from Berman et al. that said that they never let continuity get in the way of a good story (or any story
    for that matter). The same goes for logic. :)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From J.B. Nicholson@21:1/5 to John Crane on Fri Feb 21 08:26:35 2020
    John Crane <john@localhost.net> wrote:
    On the years-long mourning... I think Data was only a part of it.
    Picard's life was defined by SF. And to have it turn into (in his
    eyes) the antithesis of what SF should be... was just too much for
    him to bear. He disconnected from everything.

    Capt. Picard got over big conspiracies before (like the 1st season
    creatures infesting Starfleet admiralty which included making a lot of
    small maneuvering over years, a plan so complex it required Data to
    see it all). The show needs to explain how he lost this ability but
    the new writers are incapable of delivering that because that requires
    doing the character research I doubt they've done. Then there are plot
    points that ruin episodes or fundamentals of the larger plot. No,
    there is too much bad writing on ST:Picard to ignore and the latest
    episode is confirmation of this.

    Gratuitous gore starts the show this week and it does nothing to get
    the viewer interested in the character or the episode's plot. I'm
    reminded of using gore as a distractive crutch for weak writing. Then
    there's an ongoing theme of doing away with ethical tales (which is
    what Star Trek was known for for decades). Then there is the meager
    character exploration punctuated with unengaging action scenes. The
    action is easy for me to dismiss because the show gives me no reason
    to be emotionally invested in the characters.

    Picard is a very different man post-TNG. In the movies he's hot-headed
    and not at all reflective like he was before (one reason TNG movies
    are bad; the last episode of TNG would have been a great movie). Now
    Picard is too old to believably do the action scenes he's in and the
    show won't give us the kinds of plots which older people can carry off
    well (character-driven drama, shows where a life change happens and we
    see someone dealing with the consequences, coming to grips with).

    I can see why people would see a few episodes of this and not want to
    pay to see another.

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  • From Ant@21:1/5 to All on Fri Feb 21 21:51:51 2020
    Yeah, I am having a hard time getting into it. I had that problem with Discovery too until S2 got better, but it is still not good as the old
    Star Trek. :( Both are just prettier with worsen story/plot. :(

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  • From Faux Dameron@21:1/5 to J.B. Nicholson on Sat Feb 22 19:00:28 2020
    J.B. Nicholson wrote:

    I can see why people would see a few episodes of this and not want to
    pay to see another.

    I literally signed up for Prime Video just for this show since I can't get Amazon Prime where I live.

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