I finished Picard. I more-or-less binged it this time, and tried to pay better attention than my first attempt, when I was doing chores and stuff while it was playing. I got four episodes in that time, and had no idea what was going on. So... for me, that's a little bit anti-Trek: there aren't many other OST, TNG, or VOY episodes where I can't just tune-in halfway and have a decent idea of what's happening. Picard uses nonsequential storytelling and more of an adventure/quest storyline than the semi-procedural pattern of previous series.
tl;dr: I liked Picard a bunch this time. It suffers from the same problem as the TNG movies, where Picard and Data are overwhelmingly the focus of the story. But it's not like the series own title and the very first shot in the show (Picard and Data playing poker) don't pretty much let you know that this will be the case. And in fairness, the new crew does get some reasonable amount of background and development over the course of this season's 10 episodes. I like it. I'm ready for more. And I say that as someone who probably won't ever go out of his way for more VOY or another season of DISCOVERY.
There are questions brought up which bear near-PKD levels of scrutinizing reality and the legitimacy of consciousness. There is a consistent presentation of the concept that life's preciousness is inherently tied to its limited nature. Death is what gives life meaning. That said, there are a couple of inherent missteps. Picard spoilers:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
The first synth, Dahj, is killed in front of Picard in the end of the first episode from whatever acidic spit-sac the Romulan assassins are using in place of cyanide capsules. She dies without ever mentioning her twin, Soji. It's likely that she never knew about Soji -- but Soji knew about Dahj. Sure, both of them were living lives that were couched in false memories, but why give one the memory, and not the other? And why is Dahj's life so casually tossed aside? And why is there a gold-skinned version of her which has no twin?
In the coda for Data, he requests that Picard turn off the quantum simulation in which Data remains conscious. This is the culmination of "life has meaning because it is finite." Data wants to benefit from that same awareness of limit, thus gaining further, final insight into the human condition. While it could be argued that, even with triple-redundancy on the quantum simulation, it is eventually going to fail. Nothing is forever, so this is less about awareness and finite-ness, and more about assisted suicide. I'm also OK with that.
What surprised me was pushing Picard's consciousness into an equally frail body, with a life expectancy of "more or less what you would've had if not for the brain tumor." Picard had his run, he lived a good life, has died of misadventure a couple of times -- but converting his consciousness into a new body seems to fly in the face of the series' main message. This is your one life. Use it as best you can because it is singular and precious. Unless you're Picard, in which case you'll be saved from a brain tumor, or a Nausicaan stabbing you through the heart, or whatever.
One more thing, when they're in the bar and
Vajazzle Bijayzl is first introduced, I thought she was Deanna Troi. I thought, "Holy hells, Marina Sirtis has held up well!" That was a hell of a bodysuit. Anyway, yeah, I'll be in my bunk.
http://twitter.com/Jwhitbrook/status/1230868218065104896
