Star Trek Picard: 2x10 (Farewell)
May. 11th, 2022 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
4thofelevenIn which not everyone makes it to the end.
Well, we've come to the end of another season, and, honestly, I think they mostly stuck the landing. There's a few stories that I wasn't fond of or didn't think resolved as well as they could have, but for the most part, I found this season very satisfactorily, and I'm a little disappointed that it seems like season three will be ditching most of the new cast and heading in a different direction again.
That's not to say it was perfect; the scenes with Q earlier this season implied there was something deeper and darker going on, but what we got in the end was essentially just a remix of “Tapestry” and “Time's Arrow” - a predestination paradox engineered by Q to teach Picard a lesson about his life. And that's perfectly fine, if a little anticlimactic. It does retroactively make some of what we've seen a little less weighty, if it was all foreordained, and some of Q's actions don't entirely make sense in retrospect.
One thing that did work very well for me was that most of the plot was resolved fairly early in the episode, giving us enough time for a proper denouement and wrap up. It was nice seeing everyone relax a little and give us something more than just action and plot development. I felt it was a real weakness of last season that once the plot got going, it never slowed down enough to let the characters breathe, so I was glad to see they corrected that error this time around, and we got the scenes of everyone in the chateau taking in their situation, and then at the end everyone at Guinan's bar.
The Soong plot in particular ends up feeling like a bit of a loose end. It honestly feels like a sequel hook more than an organic part of the story, and I wonder if this is actually setting something up that will be resolved in Strange New Worlds. Modern Trek hasn't done much in the way of crossovers between series; maybe they feel confident enough now to set up plot threads that will be picked up by other shows later.
I did appreciate seeing Wesley again in an unexpected cameo, even if it's a shame he didn't get to interact with Picard. Wesley's last appearance way back in “Journey's End” wasn't exactly a strong story to go out on, so it's good to see he's matured and found his place. Tying in the Travelers to “Assignment Earth” was an unexpected twist, but it makes sense, and rather than making the universe seem small, it gives some extra depth to both and reduces the number of powerful beings messing around on Earth to a more reasonable number.
Tallinn, it turned out, had no real connection to Laris – and honestly, I feel that was for the best. It let them keep the actor around while not undermining Laris's character with any sort of fated destiny tying her to Picard. It's a little odd, but it's hardly the first time Star Trek's reused actors without explanation – though, admittedly, generally not in the same storyline. We'll just chalk it up to Romulans having a very shallow gene pool – they are all descended from the same handful of Vulcan rebels, after all.
Rios's fate was also something I wasn't entirely sold on. I felt we really didn't get enough time with him and Teresa to ever really sell us on their relationship – and given that Rios had the worst time of it in the 21st century, it's really hard to believe he'd choose to stay. The writers were obviously referencing Kirk and Dr. Taylor in Star Trek IV, with several direct callbacks to dialogue, but somehow missed one key thing – that wasn't a romance! In general, it felt like a really awkward and unnecessary way to write the character out – given he'd been established as a starship captain at the start of the season, it would have been easy to establish him as unavailable if the actor wasn't returning next season.
But, of course, the key relationship was the one between Picard and Q – and I think this episode in particular did an excellent job of wrapping up their long, strange relationship with each other in a way that feels sufficient. Of course, Q's final fate is left ambiguous – which, I think, is always for the best – but as the ending to TNG's very first plot arc, I found it to be a flawed but satisfying story.
Well, we've come to the end of another season, and, honestly, I think they mostly stuck the landing. There's a few stories that I wasn't fond of or didn't think resolved as well as they could have, but for the most part, I found this season very satisfactorily, and I'm a little disappointed that it seems like season three will be ditching most of the new cast and heading in a different direction again.
That's not to say it was perfect; the scenes with Q earlier this season implied there was something deeper and darker going on, but what we got in the end was essentially just a remix of “Tapestry” and “Time's Arrow” - a predestination paradox engineered by Q to teach Picard a lesson about his life. And that's perfectly fine, if a little anticlimactic. It does retroactively make some of what we've seen a little less weighty, if it was all foreordained, and some of Q's actions don't entirely make sense in retrospect.
One thing that did work very well for me was that most of the plot was resolved fairly early in the episode, giving us enough time for a proper denouement and wrap up. It was nice seeing everyone relax a little and give us something more than just action and plot development. I felt it was a real weakness of last season that once the plot got going, it never slowed down enough to let the characters breathe, so I was glad to see they corrected that error this time around, and we got the scenes of everyone in the chateau taking in their situation, and then at the end everyone at Guinan's bar.
The Soong plot in particular ends up feeling like a bit of a loose end. It honestly feels like a sequel hook more than an organic part of the story, and I wonder if this is actually setting something up that will be resolved in Strange New Worlds. Modern Trek hasn't done much in the way of crossovers between series; maybe they feel confident enough now to set up plot threads that will be picked up by other shows later.
I did appreciate seeing Wesley again in an unexpected cameo, even if it's a shame he didn't get to interact with Picard. Wesley's last appearance way back in “Journey's End” wasn't exactly a strong story to go out on, so it's good to see he's matured and found his place. Tying in the Travelers to “Assignment Earth” was an unexpected twist, but it makes sense, and rather than making the universe seem small, it gives some extra depth to both and reduces the number of powerful beings messing around on Earth to a more reasonable number.
Tallinn, it turned out, had no real connection to Laris – and honestly, I feel that was for the best. It let them keep the actor around while not undermining Laris's character with any sort of fated destiny tying her to Picard. It's a little odd, but it's hardly the first time Star Trek's reused actors without explanation – though, admittedly, generally not in the same storyline. We'll just chalk it up to Romulans having a very shallow gene pool – they are all descended from the same handful of Vulcan rebels, after all.
Rios's fate was also something I wasn't entirely sold on. I felt we really didn't get enough time with him and Teresa to ever really sell us on their relationship – and given that Rios had the worst time of it in the 21st century, it's really hard to believe he'd choose to stay. The writers were obviously referencing Kirk and Dr. Taylor in Star Trek IV, with several direct callbacks to dialogue, but somehow missed one key thing – that wasn't a romance! In general, it felt like a really awkward and unnecessary way to write the character out – given he'd been established as a starship captain at the start of the season, it would have been easy to establish him as unavailable if the actor wasn't returning next season.
But, of course, the key relationship was the one between Picard and Q – and I think this episode in particular did an excellent job of wrapping up their long, strange relationship with each other in a way that feels sufficient. Of course, Q's final fate is left ambiguous – which, I think, is always for the best – but as the ending to TNG's very first plot arc, I found it to be a flawed but satisfying story.