Star Trek: Picard, S3
Mar. 26th, 2023 01:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sprocketSo we're about halfway through Picard S3 and I have some strong thoughts.
Specifically, Jack.
"Apocalyptic visions worked so well for S1, let's do it again!" No, it wasn't all that great then, and it was being sold by Agnes Jurati's snub-nosed face and Soji being a giant ball of interesting tropes in S1.
"OMG Picard has dad angst." Picard could've had dad angst about Elnor! That was fun the first time around, I would love to see that explored. Also, mentor relationships contrasted with parental relationships, for example Raffi and Picard against Raffi and Elnor, and also Elnor and Picard. Or Worf and Alexander! Come on, writers, step up the lore game!
Far more interesting to me is that Beverly Crusher, a medical doctor who practices in Starfleet and the utopian Federation, got knocked up by chance (really? Unreliable birth control in the Federation? No morning-after pills?) or chose getting knocked up as an outcome of sex. Either way, she chose to keep that pregnancy.
I find the idea that Beverly Crusher, MD, decided to be a single parent for a second time much more interesting than the writers' heavy-handed biological connection drama between Picard and Jack.
And that's where 3x06 made me really mad! "I get these behavioral traits from my father, who I never knew before this week." No! This is not how loyalty, bravery, or wisdom work! These are also arguably Beverly traits anyway, in this context! The loyalty to her ideal of parenting, the bravery to remake a family after losing her husband and having Jack's older brother fuck off to Traveler limbo, the wisdom to know what she wants and go for it! Augh!
Picard is really not ready to handle adult parent-child relationships, is what I'm saying. Since it's pivotal to the season, I am poking at the rest of the arc and getting annoyed. Bring back Raffi and Seven! I am 110% here for lesbians! Use the La Forge kids and the Riker-Troi family and Elnor and Data resurrected (again, my goodness) to really go for the "next generation" feels!
On the plus side: Raffi and Worf are good foils. The writers aren't too interested in Seven this season, and that's letting Jeri Ryan entertain us with minimal angst. Captain Shaw is terrible, and I have been enjoying characters telegraphed as terrible since Stargate: Atlantis, or possibly since Walter Koenig rolled onto the Babylon 5 soundstages. Picard's dad angst is dumb, but Riker and La Forge dad angst makes a lot more sense. The only thing missing is La Forge figuring out how to handle a son who wants to do art or history or something liberal arts instead of anything remotely STEM.
Specifically, Jack.
"Apocalyptic visions worked so well for S1, let's do it again!" No, it wasn't all that great then, and it was being sold by Agnes Jurati's snub-nosed face and Soji being a giant ball of interesting tropes in S1.
"OMG Picard has dad angst." Picard could've had dad angst about Elnor! That was fun the first time around, I would love to see that explored. Also, mentor relationships contrasted with parental relationships, for example Raffi and Picard against Raffi and Elnor, and also Elnor and Picard. Or Worf and Alexander! Come on, writers, step up the lore game!
Far more interesting to me is that Beverly Crusher, a medical doctor who practices in Starfleet and the utopian Federation, got knocked up by chance (really? Unreliable birth control in the Federation? No morning-after pills?) or chose getting knocked up as an outcome of sex. Either way, she chose to keep that pregnancy.
I find the idea that Beverly Crusher, MD, decided to be a single parent for a second time much more interesting than the writers' heavy-handed biological connection drama between Picard and Jack.
And that's where 3x06 made me really mad! "I get these behavioral traits from my father, who I never knew before this week." No! This is not how loyalty, bravery, or wisdom work! These are also arguably Beverly traits anyway, in this context! The loyalty to her ideal of parenting, the bravery to remake a family after losing her husband and having Jack's older brother fuck off to Traveler limbo, the wisdom to know what she wants and go for it! Augh!
Picard is really not ready to handle adult parent-child relationships, is what I'm saying. Since it's pivotal to the season, I am poking at the rest of the arc and getting annoyed. Bring back Raffi and Seven! I am 110% here for lesbians! Use the La Forge kids and the Riker-Troi family and Elnor and Data resurrected (again, my goodness) to really go for the "next generation" feels!
On the plus side: Raffi and Worf are good foils. The writers aren't too interested in Seven this season, and that's letting Jeri Ryan entertain us with minimal angst. Captain Shaw is terrible, and I have been enjoying characters telegraphed as terrible since Stargate: Atlantis, or possibly since Walter Koenig rolled onto the Babylon 5 soundstages. Picard's dad angst is dumb, but Riker and La Forge dad angst makes a lot more sense. The only thing missing is La Forge figuring out how to handle a son who wants to do art or history or something liberal arts instead of anything remotely STEM.