Picard (this might end up with spoilers, but I'll try to keep them out for now)

Now that I'm back - possibly only temporarily, but we'll see - I thought I'd post about Star Trek: Picard, since no-one else seems to have done. And it'd be nice to talk about something non-virus-related.

I am, as many of you know, a very big fan of all things Star Trek, and I was very excited about this coming out. In fact it's why I got Amazon Prime.

So far...... It's OK. But it really isn't blowing me away like Discovery did.

On the plus side:

• I really like Soji. I've always thought that not- or not-quite-human characters with a bit of confusion about where they stand on the human spectrum - Spock, Data, Seven of Nine, The Doctor, etc - are among the most interesting characters on Star Trek, and that's definitely the case here. There's a lot for her to explore, and there are really good ideas there.
  
• I really like Narek. He's sinister, but (unfortunately unlike his sister) not one-dimensional. I've always enjoyed Romulan storylines anyway, and this is a good one.
  
• I do still have a thing for Deanna Troi. I know she has the crappest superpower of any alien - "What's going on Deanna? Use your powers!" [Meaningful stare.] "He seems a bit .... sad." - but she's still cool.

On the minus side:

• Bloody hell, it's slow. I'm up to Episode 8, and it started to speed up in the last ten minutes. I think Episode 9 comes out today.
  
• In each episode, something happens in the last five minutes, but nothing happens before that.
  
• Bloody hell, it's self-indulgent. All those sighs and nice cups of tea and reminiscences. They take a slow story and slow it down even more. The Riker and Deanna episode especially was self-indulgent nonsense. I don't think I have ever been less interested in the cooking of a pizza.
  
• I don't like the crew of the ship. They're self-consciously eccentric and not relatable. I really cannot be arsed with the comedy holograms.
  
• It's too dark. I can only watch it at night. I have a really good TV, and quite a dark living room, and even so, I can barely see it if I try to watch it during the day.
  
• I reiterate: bloody hell, it's slow.

It's still OK. There's an interesting storyline there somewhere that is worth following, but it could have been covered in half as many episodes. And some Star Trek - even substandard Star Trek - is better than no Star Trek. DS9 has of course shown this in the past.

I haven't heard anything like as much buzz about it as there was about Discovery. Maybe that's because there's no room in the news for anything not virusy. Or maybe it's because it's on Amazon, so it doesn't have the reach of CBS US and Netflix Worldwide that there was for Discovery. But I suspect it might be because it hasn't got people quite as excited, even though anticipation for this was possibly greater.

Has anyone else been watching it? What do you think?

 

I read in the Guardian that someone has developed a special apps (for Netflix, not Amazon) to enable this, so that you can all chat and comment while watching.

I am glad this app was not invented when my Gran was still alive, as it would mean that, from the other side of the world, I'd constantly hear, "So who's he?" "Why has he done that?" "What did she do before?" "What was this again?" "Isn't she just like Zsa Zsa Gabor? I loved her." "What's happening now?" "How does that work?" etc.

 

In Australia, it's free if you have Amazon Prime. So if you have it for express delivery of toilet roll or whatever, then you have free access to streaming Picard. I don't know whether it's the same deal in the US.

 

Yes, that's right.

 

I agree on both of those points. I'm all for swearing: I'm British and I live in Australia. Swearing is what we do to breathe. But you're right: it seems to be thrown in for no real benefit, and it's not consistent with the rest of the f---ing dialogue. It's like the old joke about the kids having Cheerios for breakfast.

On Patrick Stewart.... From watching and listening to recent BBC interviews, it seems to me that a lot of that old-man sighing and lip-smacking and talking like an old man is him acting, because he's not speaking like that in interviews at all. He sounds deceptively young in interviews. So I think he's decided to play the part of an old man. And I think that was a mistake. They should have taken full advantage of the fact that he's fitter, livelier and more youthful than he has any right to be, and should have made Picard the same as him.