Picard s2 ending thoughts
Sep. 7th, 2022 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wembleyI was posting pretty steadily about Picard and then kinda just dropped off.
Spoilers: Basically, and I realize this is immature, I was just kinda bummed that there wasn't that much Q and that this may be the last time we ever see him? Which is a little silly of me... before this season, I thought the last we'd ever seen of Q had already happened, way back in a pretty embarrassing episode of Voyager. But, I mean, Picard, you're the one who did this! You told me I was getting more, which means you made me want even more than that, like the greedy fan I am!
If I'm judging this purely as a show: just like s1, I was gripped the whole way through, I was super excited for every episode, I enjoyed each episode as it happened, and then when it ended, I was kind of left with a feeling of... huh. That was it? But I'm not sure why.
The stuff I liked the best was all the Agnes/Borg Queen stuff. I liked the intense sapphic energy, I like how the plot ended up... I don't like how it completely defangs the Borg, but I guess Voyager essentially did that already. Also, it seems kind of weird that the Q Continuum would be cool with Q completely upending the entire universe by interfering with the Borg to this much of an extent just to give Picard therapy-via-temporal-escape-room as a goodbye gift, but then again, he essentially did the same thing in TNG's "Q Who?" -- introducing the Borg to a quadrant completely unprepared for them purely out of spite. And the Q Continuum seemed to care less about that than his much milder bouts of past fuckery.
Anyway! The Agnes/Borg Queen stuff was cool. I enjoyed the Soong stuff but it didn't end very satisfyingly for me? The stuff with Rios and his love interest fell pretty flat for me (although Rios is very, very pretty and I'm sad that he's been written out and I won't be able to gaze lovingly at him next season). The Seven/Raffi stuff was fine and nice. In retrospect, I don't know that the storyline about Picard's mother worked for me at all? I also wish we got more Guinan & Q interaction, and I wish the Guinan stuff had ended up being more... epic? Earth-shaking? Idk.
So basically: as a viewer who wants to be entertained and as a general fan of Star Trek, I was entertained and enjoyed myself but I'm not sure if it all hung together by the end for me.
But as a rabid Q fan -- that's how I got into fandom, way back when, in the mid-1990s, that's what pushed me to get onto Usenet and the AOL message boards (lol), got me into writing fanfic, all that jazz -- I mean, yeah, I was butthurt that the entire season was essentially an extended remix of TNG's "Tapestry" except with less actual Picard & Q interaction than we actually got in "Tapestry"? And then to top it off, he's perma-dead? As a writer and a viewer, I think it's a well-written death and a nice cap to him as a character, but as a fan, it's not fun!
Also, for some reason, I had misunderstood some stuff that John de Lancie reportedly leaked out via Cameo videos he'd done, where I thought he'd said he'd filmed episodes for Picard S3? So I spent s2 secure in the idea that even if we didn't get a lot of him in s2, that his story was actually spanning two seasons and we'd get more? But it turned out, no? So, whoops.
I will say, I think they wrote Q really well. His dialogue was good, his motivations basically made sense to me. I liked his, "Who?" when Raffi asked about Elnor, that was so cold and made so much sense.
There were some things that still confuse me, like when Q's all, "I am the suture in the wound!" The wound being... Picard's issues? He made it sound so epic! Was that just dementia?
And re: Q not getting many scenes: I get that Q is a strong spice, one that's easy to overdo or do poorly, given that while there have been some very good Q episodes, there have also been some very bad ones. I do think it's too bad he didn't really get to be funny, which to me is the draw of the character, but again, I think they were probably scared to go there and do it wrong, which is unfortunate.
That said, they did give Q the best outfit he's ever had, and Picard hugged him. It's not them making out and opening a bed and breakfast together, but I'll take it?
Spoilers: Basically, and I realize this is immature, I was just kinda bummed that there wasn't that much Q and that this may be the last time we ever see him? Which is a little silly of me... before this season, I thought the last we'd ever seen of Q had already happened, way back in a pretty embarrassing episode of Voyager. But, I mean, Picard, you're the one who did this! You told me I was getting more, which means you made me want even more than that, like the greedy fan I am!
If I'm judging this purely as a show: just like s1, I was gripped the whole way through, I was super excited for every episode, I enjoyed each episode as it happened, and then when it ended, I was kind of left with a feeling of... huh. That was it? But I'm not sure why.
The stuff I liked the best was all the Agnes/Borg Queen stuff. I liked the intense sapphic energy, I like how the plot ended up... I don't like how it completely defangs the Borg, but I guess Voyager essentially did that already. Also, it seems kind of weird that the Q Continuum would be cool with Q completely upending the entire universe by interfering with the Borg to this much of an extent just to give Picard therapy-via-temporal-escape-room as a goodbye gift, but then again, he essentially did the same thing in TNG's "Q Who?" -- introducing the Borg to a quadrant completely unprepared for them purely out of spite. And the Q Continuum seemed to care less about that than his much milder bouts of past fuckery.
Anyway! The Agnes/Borg Queen stuff was cool. I enjoyed the Soong stuff but it didn't end very satisfyingly for me? The stuff with Rios and his love interest fell pretty flat for me (although Rios is very, very pretty and I'm sad that he's been written out and I won't be able to gaze lovingly at him next season). The Seven/Raffi stuff was fine and nice. In retrospect, I don't know that the storyline about Picard's mother worked for me at all? I also wish we got more Guinan & Q interaction, and I wish the Guinan stuff had ended up being more... epic? Earth-shaking? Idk.
So basically: as a viewer who wants to be entertained and as a general fan of Star Trek, I was entertained and enjoyed myself but I'm not sure if it all hung together by the end for me.
But as a rabid Q fan -- that's how I got into fandom, way back when, in the mid-1990s, that's what pushed me to get onto Usenet and the AOL message boards (lol), got me into writing fanfic, all that jazz -- I mean, yeah, I was butthurt that the entire season was essentially an extended remix of TNG's "Tapestry" except with less actual Picard & Q interaction than we actually got in "Tapestry"? And then to top it off, he's perma-dead? As a writer and a viewer, I think it's a well-written death and a nice cap to him as a character, but as a fan, it's not fun!
Also, for some reason, I had misunderstood some stuff that John de Lancie reportedly leaked out via Cameo videos he'd done, where I thought he'd said he'd filmed episodes for Picard S3? So I spent s2 secure in the idea that even if we didn't get a lot of him in s2, that his story was actually spanning two seasons and we'd get more? But it turned out, no? So, whoops.
I will say, I think they wrote Q really well. His dialogue was good, his motivations basically made sense to me. I liked his, "Who?" when Raffi asked about Elnor, that was so cold and made so much sense.
There were some things that still confuse me, like when Q's all, "I am the suture in the wound!" The wound being... Picard's issues? He made it sound so epic! Was that just dementia?
And re: Q not getting many scenes: I get that Q is a strong spice, one that's easy to overdo or do poorly, given that while there have been some very good Q episodes, there have also been some very bad ones. I do think it's too bad he didn't really get to be funny, which to me is the draw of the character, but again, I think they were probably scared to go there and do it wrong, which is unfortunate.
That said, they did give Q the best outfit he's ever had, and Picard hugged him. It's not them making out and opening a bed and breakfast together, but I'll take it?
no subject
Date: 2022-09-07 07:09 pm (UTC)And the Q Continuum seemed to care less about that than his much milder bouts of past fuckery.
I guess maybe as he was dying there was little they could do?
To me the stuff with Guinan and Q (as well as final farewell with Picard) were the best things about his appearance, but I agree there wasn't a lot there.
And yes, too bad about Rios (whereas Jurati might well return).
no subject
Date: 2022-09-07 07:43 pm (UTC)+1 to everything else you said, I wish I had more to add!
no subject
Date: 2022-09-08 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-09-09 12:31 am (UTC)