Star Trek: Thread Space 9

[Adami]

Found this, pretty funny but emphasizes my point why I thought it was dumb and a sign of the bad lazy writing that has become commonplace.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9wDASisvEc&feature=emb_logo

[Adami]

Also quick question.

I know there's some issues with who holds design rights? Which is the why the klingons look so dumb now?

I was wondering why, except for the establishing Enterprise D show in the first episode, we haven't seen a single Starfleet design ship? Is it that they can't?

Cause every ship design, minus the classic warbird, has been extremely generic and typical modern sci-fi. I miss the Star Trek designs. I wonder if they're even allowed to use them though?

[abydos]

Found this, pretty funny but emphasizes my point why I thought it was dumb and a sign of the bad lazy writing that has become commonplace.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9wDASisvEc&feature=emb_logo

This one is better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuGdT6VWUqs

[El Barto]

Also quick question.

I know there's some issues with who holds design rights? Which is the why the klingons look so dumb now?

I was wondering why, except for the establishing Enterprise D show in the first episode, we haven't seen a single Starfleet design ship? Is it that they can't?

Cause every ship design, minus the classic warbird, has been extremely generic and typical modern sci-fi. I miss the Star Trek designs. I wonder if they're even allowed to use them though?

I'm watching a video right now explainig all of the rights issues. Damn, they made a mess of things.

However, since STD and PIC are actually being produced for CBS, the changes aren't due to legal reasons. They own the original IP in question and could have chosen to incorporate the original elements. They just like new and shiny better, so they're having Bad Robot (or in this case, Kurtzman's  Secret Hideout production company.") produce the shows under the alternate licensing agreement that spawned the Transformers Trek movies.

Interestingly, what we've been led to believe is the prime universe is anything but. The prime universe doesn't refer to the original ST content, but rather the Bad Robot universe before the destruction of the Kelvin. That's why they call STD and PIC prime universe series, despite not having anything to do with all that came before. I don't know if they actually have a way of referring to the original, old school ST universe, as they're all but abandoned it.

[ZirconBlue]

Also, I don't watch those kinds of reviews since they are inherently bias toward positive reviews. I'd rather watch people who have no incentive to be extra kind and supportive.

Oh, yeah.  They're not reviews at all but just kind of an "after-show".  But they do have some interesting interview segments.

[Adami]

Also, I don't watch those kinds of reviews since they are inherently bias toward positive reviews. I'd rather watch people who have no incentive to be extra kind and supportive.

Oh, yeah.  They're not reviews at all but just kind of an "after-show".  But they do have some interesting interview segments.

Maybe if I liked the show more haha. But seeing people happily explain why they did something I thought was stupid is....well I get enough of that in the world.

[YtseJam]

Okay, so what the hell was it saying when she was scanning pictures and the other crap in her room? I am so annoyed watching this show, I have to turn the volume way up to hear what the hell they are saying and then all of a sudden it's so fucking loud it can wake the dead. So, of course, I turn it back down and then I'm back to going wtf did they say? 

[soupytwist]

Okay, so what the hell was it saying when she was scanning pictures and the other crap in her room? I am so annoyed watching this show, I have to turn the volume way up to hear what the hell they are saying and then all of a sudden it's so fucking loud it can wake the dead. So, of course, I turn it back down and then I'm back to going wtf did they say? 

She was basically finding out everything about her and she owned was only 3 years old.

The Borg have often been stupid (or poorly written).  In First Contact they nearly assimilate Earth with just one cube, you know why not go back with 10 next time (To be honest they could wipe the entire Alpha Quadrant with 10).....Oh and they also have Time Travel tech which they used really, really badly!  (Still an awesome film though!).

[Adami]

Soup, you’re still doing that thing. It doesn’t matter if the borg were written inconsistently at times in the past. That never justifies bad writing. The only thing you’re implying is that your standards are low, not that the writing isn’t dumb.

[soupytwist]

Soup, you’re still doing that thing. It doesn’t matter if the borg were written inconsistently at times in the past. That never justifies bad writing. The only thing you’re implying is that your standards are low, not that the writing isn’t dumb.

To be fair my standards are pretty low! 

I have no beef with you, neither do I wish any.  I'm at my desk at work, bored, and I was just offering a counterpoint.

[Adami]

We cool. I ain’t no soup nazi.

I think that’s a big difference though. Your standards are low. Mine aren’t. Star Trek is important to me, so I never go looking for mindless entertainment.

[soupytwist]

We cool. I ain’t no soup nazi.

I think that’s a big difference though. Your standards are low. Mine aren’t. Star Trek is important to me, so I never go looking for mindless entertainment.

Don't get me wrong I love Star Trek.  I grew up on repeats of ToS and watched TNG when it was first broadcast, and DS9 is one of my favorite shows.  But I've always put the dumb writing, silly episodes, science magic as part of Star Trek's charm.  As long as it's not boring me, I'm generally cool with it (that's why I'm not so keen on Voyager and Enterprise as much, because a found a lot of their episode boring)

Don't know whether or not your into Doctor Who Adami.  But now there is a show that I'm really, really struggling with right now.  Under Russel T Davis and Steven Moffat the show was glorious fun, but since Chris Chibnell came on aboard as the show writer it's so flat and lifeless.  I guess that's how you feel about Picard?

[Adami]

We cool. I ain’t no soup nazi.

I think that’s a big difference though. Your standards are low. Mine aren’t. Star Trek is important to me, so I never go looking for mindless entertainment.

Don't get me wrong I love Star Trek.  I grew up on repeats of ToS and watched TNG when it was first broadcast, and DS9 is one of my favorite shows.  But I've always put the dumb writing, silly episodes, science magic as part of Star Trek's charm.  As long as it's not boring me, I'm generally cool with it (that's why I'm not so keen on Voyager and Enterprise as much, because a found a lot of their episode boring)

Don't know whether or not your into Doctor Who Adami.  But now there is a show that I'm really, really struggling with right now.  Under Russel T Davis and Steven Moffat the show was glorious fun, but since Chris Chibnell came on aboard as the show writer it's so flat and lifeless.  I guess that's how you feel about Picard?

I actually refuse to watch Dr. Who. Not because it's bad, but because I'm a completionist and would need to watch from Ep 1. And lord knows that ain't gonna happen with Dr. Who.

I don't know if I'd call the writing on Picard flat and lifeless, as much as just dumb. I feel like the writers either don't care enough to try or ....wait....this is the same guy who wrote Transformers movies. So there you go haha. The creator has an abysmal record and this just kind of falls in line with his general way of thinking. He writes hoping that no one wants to think at all. Not that the people who like it are dumb, just that he'd prefer it that way.

[soupytwist]

I actually refuse to watch Dr. Who. Not because it's bad, but because I'm a completionist and would need to watch from Ep 1. And lord knows that ain't gonna happen with Dr. Who.

Ha!  That would be impossible anyway as some of the early episodes have been lost in the BBC vault!   However you could just start from the rebooted series that has run from 2005 till now.

I feel like the writers either don't care enough to try or ....wait....this is the same guy who wrote Transformers movies.

Akiva Goldsman?  Oh yeah that guys film credits are mostly awful (aside from A Beautiful Mind, which stands out as lump of gold in a massive shite).  But he did do some strong work on Fringe, which probably suggests he's more suited to TV.  But yeah he generally sucks!

[Adami]

Also Alex Kurtzman

Transformers
Star Trek 09 (which I maintain is only half good)
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (pure idiocy)
Cowboys & Aliens
Into Darkness
Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Mummy

The dude must have dirt on someone because that's mostly a crap resume but the dude keeps getting great jobs.

[Adami]

I think, if nothing else, those resumes give a good indication of how the studio sees the franchise.

They want it to be like Marvel, or Star Wars, or Transformers. But Star Trek is Star Trek and has a unique voice. The studio clearly has no idea what that voice is and is trying to match it to other voices it knows and it keeps failing.

[soupytwist]

I certainly would have preferred it if writers like Ira Stevens and Moore were involved.  But to be honest these new ones aren't any worse than Braga, Berman, Piller and Jeri Taylor - those peeps had just been recycling the same plot riffs with diminishing returns for years.

Oh and is that the Tom Cruise Mummy film?  Oh wow that was bad, like really bad.   Never watched a Transformers movie after the first one!

[El Barto]

I think, if nothing else, those resumes give a good indication of how the studio sees the franchise.

They want it to be like Marvel, or Star Wars, or Transformers. But Star Trek is Star Trek and has a unique voice. The studio clearly has no idea what that voice is and is trying to match it to other voices it knows and it keeps failing.

CBS view the ST catalog as nothing more than a merchandising stream. Putting butts in seats is all that matters. As awful as the resume is from an artistic standpoint, how much money do you think it made?

Also, I've come to realize that from a writing standpoint they view Picard as a completely different universe than TNG. They have no obligations to that and could just as easily have made him Juan Lucien de Picardo, had they wished.

[soupytwist]

I think, if nothing else, those resumes give a good indication of how the studio sees the franchise.

They want it to be like Marvel, or Star Wars, or Transformers. But Star Trek is Star Trek and has a unique voice. The studio clearly has no idea what that voice is and is trying to match it to other voices it knows and it keeps failing.

CBS view the ST catalog as nothing more than a merchandising stream. Putting butts in seats is all that matters. As awful as the resume is from an artistic standpoint, how much money do you think it made?

Also, I've come to realize that from a writing standpoint they view Picard as a completely different universe than TNG. They have no obligations to that and could just as easily have made him Juan Lucien de Picardo, had they wished.

Do you think they would have been better just rebooting the universe entirely - like they did with Battlestar?  Or setting the new shows in the JJ verse.  Rather than continuing along the old time line.

[El Barto]

I think, if nothing else, those resumes give a good indication of how the studio sees the franchise.

They want it to be like Marvel, or Star Wars, or Transformers. But Star Trek is Star Trek and has a unique voice. The studio clearly has no idea what that voice is and is trying to match it to other voices it knows and it keeps failing.

CBS view the ST catalog as nothing more than a merchandising stream. Putting butts in seats is all that matters. As awful as the resume is from an artistic standpoint, how much money do you think it made?

Also, I've come to realize that from a writing standpoint they view Picard as a completely different universe than TNG. They have no obligations to that and could just as easily have made him Juan Lucien de Picardo, had they wished.

Do you think they would have been better just rebooting the universe entirely - like they did with Battlestar?  Or setting the new shows in the JJ verse.  Rather than continuing along the old time line.

That's basically what they did. I didn't watch it, but my recollection is that you still had people named Adama, Starbuck, Boomer, etc. in largely the same roles they originally had. Paramount/Bad Robot did the same thing. They just didn't want to call it a reboot so they crafted a cover story[ies]. The obvious one about the new timeline created by, eh, some shit. Then the invented "prime" universe which is the original reboot before "some shit" happened. Internally Picard now is an alternate universe Picard, thus unaffected by all of that pointless TNG stuff. He's the Picard from Bad Robot's universe.

[Adami]

I think, if nothing else, those resumes give a good indication of how the studio sees the franchise.

They want it to be like Marvel, or Star Wars, or Transformers. But Star Trek is Star Trek and has a unique voice. The studio clearly has no idea what that voice is and is trying to match it to other voices it knows and it keeps failing.

CBS view the ST catalog as nothing more than a merchandising stream. Putting butts in seats is all that matters. As awful as the resume is from an artistic standpoint, how much money do you think it made?

Also, I've come to realize that from a writing standpoint they view Picard as a completely different universe than TNG. They have no obligations to that and could just as easily have made him Juan Lucien de Picardo, had they wished.

Do you think they would have been better just rebooting the universe entirely - like they did with Battlestar?  Or setting the new shows in the JJ verse.  Rather than continuing along the old time line.

Eh, I think the entire direction just sucks, reboot or not. BSG was a very cheesy thing that ran for 2-3 seasons tops in the late 70's/early 80's. Giving it the dark and gritty reboot worked because they took a small thing and made it big. Star Trek was a franchise that, despite some time off, ran from 1966 - 2005. It had a cultural impact. It had developed a voice, an identity and so forth. If all Star Trek was, was 1966-1969 and then nothing until the reboot, it might have worked. You wouldn't have had 45 years of world building to contend with. So for BSG they just took what they needed and built from scratch. For Star Trek they have to entirely tear down a giant cultural structure, figure out the recognizable parts, and ditch the rest. They decided the recognizable parts were the names and some of the tech, so they ditched the rest. But Star Trek was never just about the tech, and the names only mattered because of how much time we spent with them.

If you watch literally any Star Trek before 2009, very very little of it was about space battles or running and shooting. It was about talking, planning, discussing, exploring, etc. But since 2009, Star Trek has just been about space battles, running and shooting, and tense intrigue. That was just never Star Trek. So a full on reboot (which they already did and are continuing to do with discovery) would have been as much Star Trek as Picard is.

If they want to make a space action show for the modern audiences, then do it. But calling it Star Trek just is misleading. It's Star Wars meets Battlestar but much MUCH dumber.

If you take Picard, remove him and replace him with John Steve Piccolo or whatever, and change the names (hell, keep the tech they have) it'd be a typical syfy show or another sci-fi netflix show that no one cares about.


Edit: And I apologize for much I'm going off in this thread. I said I'd keep my thoughts to myself in Star Wars because it doesn't mean much to me, but I am letting loose here. Star Trek is important to me.

[Orbert]

For what it's worth (which probably isn't a whole lot, since I've never seen ST:Picard), I agree with Adami.

There's the Star Trek which is called Star Trek because it's produced by people who legally own the name and therefore get to say what is officially Star Trek, and then there's the concept of Star Trek that carries with it a gestalt that means something to people.  To those people, of whom I am one and clearly Adami is another, you can't just slap a product together and put it out there and call it Star Trek.  Even if it has someone named Jean-Luc Picard and even if he's played by the same guy who played him before.  Star Trek means something.  Like the reboot movies and a lot of ST:Enterprise (where I thought they were already starting to lose the plot), we expect more.  A certain something.  And to be honest, I don't know what it is, or what combination of things are required; but I somehow know when it isn't there.  And it's not there, not for some people anyway.

[soupytwist]

Edit: And I apologize for much I'm going off in this thread. I said I'd keep my thoughts to myself in Star Wars because it doesn't mean much to me, but I am letting loose here. Star Trek is important to me.

Do not apologize mate.  I love discussing ST with other passionate fans.

But I am going to offer a counterpoint

ToS was an action, adventure show lead by 3 brilliant characters Kirk, Spock and Bones.  When TNG started it wasn't Star Trek people who grew up on ToS recognised.  Children in the ship, a sodding counselor on the bridge, a Captain who wouldn't make a decision with quoting an annoying set of rules.   Kirk would not stand for any of this - Health and Safety gone mad!  Also throw in that most of these new characters started ill defined and woodenly acted.

Then there is the scripts.  As is the case with anything you've grown up with you remember the good ones, way more than the shite ones.  So growing up with ToS you think 'City on the Edge of Forever', 'Space Seed', 'Mirror, Mirror', 'Doomsday Machine', 'The Enterprise Incident',  'Devil in the Dark' etc....then TNG starts and your greeted with 'Code of Honour', 'The Naked Now', 'Justice', 'Haven, 'Angel One' all within the first 10 episodes....and it feels like dross.

TNG started badly, no doubt.  The documentory 'Chaos on the Bridge' shows us the issues behind the scenes.  Roddenberry ruled with a iron glove, he had his idea (no conflict) and enforced this with his awful showrunner bully Maurice Hurley, rewriting any script that didn't follow his rules.  When Roddenberry lost power and Hurley was removed in Season 3 the show took off, and as said on 'Chaos on the Bridge' it wasn't until 'The Best of Both Worlds' that the crew finally felt they were starting to win the fans over.

In a way I see Discovery following a similar pattern.  Singer left or removed during the first season production (which was messy) and it's been trying to turn the corner since, Season 2 was undoubtedly better then 1.  I do think that show will always be hampered by Burnham though, just not a good character.  'Picard' for me is maturing nicely, it's not perfect by any means - but I think it's started strongly, it feels far more cohesive than most ST shows start, a show where everyone is pulling in the same way, and feels closest in tone to DS9 where things weren't always shown as Utopian - DS9's crowning moment "In the Pale Moonlight" goes directly against Roddenberrys restrictive vision, and to be honest is much better for it.  As a desperate Sisko says "It's easy to be a saint in paradise".

It won't be for everyone, my Dad for example never grew to like TNG or any of the spin offs,  but he really liked the ST09 film.  And personally I struggle with Voyager, a show that completely wasted it potential.

Oh and the original Battlestar was great...another one I grew up on. 

[DoctorAction]

Oh I love Trek. Grew up on re-runs of ToS in the seventies and the motion picture was the 2nd film I ever saw in the cinema (Superman the first!) so I feel compelled to throw out some random opinions in random order about it. I try not to have strong opinions about stuff that matters as opinions are just shit humans say, but opinions about entertainment? Yes yes!

• PIC is boring me but I'll stick with it as I'm curious. Seven was the best thing so far
• DS9 was the best with the most imagination, philosophy and good characters
• VOY was a great idea but maddened me beyond belief and still makes me cross when i think about it
• i do not like Data
• the borg are boring me
• "bad" is a really bad descriptive term
• I've loved the reboot movies. Not because they're perfect but they have so much potential with that cast
• DISCO feels like Trek to me - a lot of really positive togetherness there and engaging characters and acting - but has had some really strange pacing/plot that I've somehow managed to get past
• it's easy to get upset about a franchise we care about but Trek has always been unbelievably varied and patchy imo
• i'm really glad they're making new Trek for tv again. I felt there would never be any more for a while - as long as they keep making it the more chance they'll hit a groove and make something cohesive and moving
• the enterprise D and all designed after it in that style language look crappy

That was fun! (For me)

[soupytwist]

Hey Adami.  Episode 7 is a real treat, I really hope you enjoy it - I think you will.

[Adami]

Hey Adami.  Episode 7 is a real treat, I really hope you enjoy it - I think you will.

I'll check it out before bed. I accidentally saw someone post a brief like 2 sentence thing about it on Twitter and it wasn't promising, but I'm always open minded about it.

[ProfessorPeart]

Freakin' news pop-up on my phone gave a headline with a major spoiler for today's episode. This is the second time I have had something ruined by a news blurb on my phone. What is wrong with people?

[soupytwist]

, but I'm always open minded about it.

I can see that, and respect it.  That's why I really hope you enjoy this one!  I look forward to your opinion whatever you feel.

[Adami]

, but I'm always open minded about it.

I can see that, and respect it.  That's why I really hope you enjoy this one!  I look forward to your opinion whatever you feel.

I mean, Riker and Troi are back in it. I love them. It'll have to work pretty hard to make me dislike it. Though....honestly? It has been working pretty hard to do that and succeeding.

[abydos]

Good to see them, for nostalgia. But other than that, not much going on. And again with the "gore"...

[Adami]

Alrighty. So....

It was a better episode, for the series. The nostalgia was great, but it was fail proof. As I said they would've had to TRY to mess up that reunion, and as long as they don't actively sabotage it, it'll work. And, thankfully, they didn't actively try to ruin it. So it was good. I had a huge smile on my face when Picard and Riker saw each other. The evil Romulan bad girl is just.......bad. A little too mustache twirly for me. At least for now. Those villains, whatever their purpose, who just LOVE being cruel to people without any actual motivation annoy me. I know....I know....Star Trek has done them before. Don't care.

One thing about this episode is that it basically directly confronted a lot of the show's problems. Picard had to be reminded that he's not the character he's been for the last however many episodes. Picard had to point out that the new crew is just so drama filled, unlike the TNG crew. You know? I mean...I get the urge to wink wink at the audience, but this was over the line of insulting. I didn't see who wrote this episode, but IF there was a situation where a new writing crew took over and did that wink at the audience as a way of saying they're on top of the situation, then that's cool. I doubt that's what is happening here. I still believe the bulk of the show is written VERY poorly. So either the writers have no idea it's dumb and think they're doing a good job, which I can dislike but not be angry about, or they know exactly what they're doing and choosing to do it anyway, which will infuriate me. The wink at the audience about it all hints that they are aware of how bad they are and how dumb they're being and think it'd be funny if they pointed it out.

DON'T POINT IT OUT! JUST STOP DOING IT AND WRITE BETTER STUFF YOU SCRUFFY LOOKING NERF HERDERS!

Anyway, it was mostly good, but FOR the show. The main plot is still dumb. The Allison Pill character is still dumb. The ninja Romulan is still dumb (though cooler in this episode despite still being 100% a plot device and not a character). The Romulan bad guys are dumb. T

Also...since when could Vulcans do nightmare mind melds? That seemed extremely cheap and stupid.


Lastly, and not about the episode, why is everyone talking about the gore? I kept reading about it, even here. I mean yea, they shot some Borg I guess and Hugh got his neck stabbed, but none of it was super gory at all. Reading the random thoughts ahead of time (by accident) had me FREAKING OUT that they were going to brutally murder the Riker kid. I would have immediately quit the show if they had, so luckily they did not. But still, it's not gory. It's dumb, but not gory, at least this episode. The dumb 7 of 9 episode was though.

Oh, speaking of which, apparently it's being speculated that one reason the Icheb character was so brutally tortured, and played by a different actor, is because the original actor went on some horrible rant against people who have been raped and molested and stuff. Crazy.

Edit: I know that was a lot of complaints, but for the most part I did actually like the episode. When it's character based, it's good because they've inherited good characters. When it's plot based, it's dumb. And while I don't like almost any of the non-inherited characters, they did do a good brief job with those two Romulan servants, and Juan Solo. Kudos to Juan Solo and that actor.

[abydos]

In terms of gore, I was referring to that blonde chick taking the pill with that extreme, stupid, close up on her annoying face. Another thing , as they keep pointing it out, it seems like they just don't want Picard to be Picard. Because of his condition, he's just a "plot device", not a character. He just walks around aimlessly and others fix his shit for him. I don't think he's done one meaningful thing in this show yet.

[soupytwist]

Lastly, and not about the episode, why is everyone talking about the gore? I kept reading about it, even here. I mean yea, they shot some Borg I guess and Hugh got his neck stabbed, but none of it was super gory at all. Reading the random thoughts ahead of time (by accident) had me FREAKING OUT that they were going to brutally murder the Riker kid. I would have immediately quit the show if they had, so luckily they did not. But still, it's not gory. It's dumb, but not gory, at least this episode. The dumb 7 of 9 episode was though.

It's 2020 and the internet, twitter is just mostly a cesspit of circle jerking negativity.  People just seem happy to hate.  I've seen people hating Picard because it's full of swearing and gore, and I've seen people hating Picard because it's 'woke' (like Star Trek was never woke...).  Most of these people aren't even watching the show, just repeating the bile the incels on youtube are spewing out.   Constructive criticism (like your feedback) is fine - but negativity for negativities sake...just sad.  It's even worse thesedays because everything has to now be viewed though a left or right wing political bias.

Anyway Troi was my MVP last night.   Which was a massive surprise, as it only really felt like the developed her character properly in 'First Contact' - and this felt like a continuation of that Troi.

The evil Romulan bad girl is just.......bad. A little too mustache twirly for me.

Agreed.  Not a great character anyway, but not helped by a hammy 'villiany' performance by the actress.  Worst thing in the show for me.

A site I love for all things Star Trek is Jammers site.  A pure Star Trek fan who has has been writting reviews for Star Trek for years - every episode of all the shows, and a few other shows similar in vein to Star Trek (Orville, BSG).  His reviews are purely from a Trek's fan point of view with no bullshit.  And he's built up a fanbase who can happy comment on the reviews/episodes.

https://www.jammersreviews.com/

Well worth a look.  He didn't like episode 5 of Picard at all (7 of 9 episode with Eyeball gore).

[Adami]

In terms of gore, I was referring to that blonde chick taking the pill with that extreme, stupid, close up on her annoying face. Another thing , as they keep pointing it out, it seems like they just don't want Picard to be Picard. Because of his condition, he's just a "plot device", not a character. He just walks around aimlessly and others fix his shit for him. I don't think he's done one meaningful thing in this show yet.

I'll disagree with your definition of Gore, but agree with the rest for the most part. This show doesn't really have many characters.  Just about everyone is a plot device. They're turning Picard into a bit more of one, but really that's kind of it. Will and Troi were good characters, but again, they, like Picard and Seven, were inherited. They can BE plot devices in Picard and still come off as characters because they already are to us and their natural charisma does the work for them.

[ReaperKK]

Lastly, and not about the episode, why is everyone talking about the gore? I kept reading about it, even here. I mean yea, they shot some Borg I guess and Hugh got his neck stabbed, but none of it was super gory at all. Reading the random thoughts ahead of time (by accident) had me FREAKING OUT that they were going to brutally murder the Riker kid. I would have immediately quit the show if they had, so luckily they did not. But still, it's not gory. It's dumb, but not gory, at least this episode. The dumb 7 of 9 episode was though.

It's 2020 and the internet, twitter is just mostly a cesspit of circle jerking negativity.  People just seem happy to hate.  I've seen people hating Picard because it's full of swearing and gore, and I've seen people hating Picard because it's 'woke' (like Star Trek was never woke...).  Most of these people aren't even watching the show, just repeating the bile the incels on youtube are spewing out.   Constructive criticism (like your feedback) is fine - but negativity for negativities sake...just sad.  It's even worse thesedays because everything has to now be viewed though a left or right wing political bias.

Anyway Troi was my MVP last night.   Which was a massive surprise, as it only really felt like the developed her character properly in 'First Contact' - and this felt like a continuation of that Troi.

The evil Romulan bad girl is just.......bad. A little too mustache twirly for me.

Agreed.  Not a great character anyway, but not helped by a hammy 'villiany' performance by the actress.  Worst thing in the show for me.

A site I love for all things Star Trek is Jammers site.  A pure Star Trek fan who has has been writting reviews for Star Trek for years - every episode of all the shows, and a few other shows similar in vein to Star Trek (Orville, BSG).  His reviews are purely from a Trek's fan point of view with no bullshit.  And he's built up a fanbase who can happy comment on the reviews/episodes.

https://www.jammersreviews.com/

Well worth a look.  He didn't like episode 5 of Picard at all (7 of 9 episode with Eyeball gore).

You should really check out the greatest discovery and greatest gen podcasts. It's two who love star trek who go through every episode and review it. There is a lot of comedy to it but they are sincere in their appreciation for ST. The Greatest Gen has reviewed all of TNG and is in season 6 of DS9 and The Grestest Discovefy has reviewed all of Disco, short treks and is now doing Picard.