Picard S03E02 Watch Notes

Well, I don’t absolutely hate this season yet.

Things are looking up.

Spoilers ahead…

It starts with a flashback to Jack Crusher (the son of Beverly, not her late-husband), on-board his mother’s private Federation ship, making a deal to give medical supplies to some suffering world. Only his mother, the doctor, isn’t there. And he has to bribe them to actually let the supplies through. He does this with Romulan Ale, which isn’t illegal. (insert footage from Deep Space Nine indicating the embargo was lifted). Oh, but they’re working with a double secret bad guy, for some reason.

This scene also establishes that Jack Crusher is an insufferable cunt who looks like someone who loves the smell of his own farts.

Captain Shaw may be my favorite character in nu-Trek. He’s intelligent, reasonable, and actually understands what his fucking job is. Seven of Nine insists they send the Titan back to rescue the elderly men. He, correctly, says that the Titan is a science vessel, sending it into a fight, and risking the lives of 500 crew, to save two old fools isn’t good policy.

The mysterious alien ship makes the same noise as the tripods from Spielberg’s War of the Worlds… which is the same sound the Reapers made in Mass Effect. Out of ideas, I guess.

And we get more Rafi, not sure why. She refers to the weapon that attacked the Starfleet facility as “portal tech”. That’s the same joke I made last week. Referencing pop culture is fine for a comedy, or something more tongue in cheek, but you’re Star Trek for Christ’s sake. Have some fucking dignity.

Back to Captain Shaw who is convinced to do the dumbest possible thing so the story can keep happening. He rushes in to rescue two morons. And while they wait for the survivors to slowly make their way to the bridge from the transporter room they just kind of hang out. Anyone wanna hail that mysterious ship… or… not?

Cut to more Rafi. Why? Who cares about this character? You’re expanding the cast of this show by including more TNG people, that means you need to excise the dead weight from the previous seasons. Get rid of Rafi.

Captain Shaw does the only thing I don’t like about him so far. He’s flippant when the wacky villain finally hails them. “You’ve interrupted my breakfast.” You’re a fucking officer. Show some goddamned restraint.

Geordi’s daughter is a smartass sassy bitch… exactly unlike her father.

Worf is back. And he’s part of Section 31, for some reason. Even though when we last left him, he was heading back to Q’onoS to be the ambassador. He must have gotten bored of that.

The jailor aboard the Titan tells Jack to test the force field by sticking his tongue out, like he’s some kind of fucking medieval brute, rather than an enlightened 25th century person.

Seven of Nine was stripped of her duties earlier for defying orders… because Shaw is a competent captain who disciplines morons. But then she’s on the search for Jack when he escapes the prison. Does Starfleet not shut off people’s access when they’re a threat? Like how is she still opening doors and getting weapons?

I did the math… Gates McFadden is 74 this year. It’s been at minimum 23 years since Picard and Crusher last saw each other. We don’t know what year Season 3 takes place, hence a bit of guess work. But humans like to speak in round numbers, so when he said “over 20 years” that typically means 20 – 24 years. Otherwise you say “it’s been over 25 years…” “30 years…” etc. That means Jack Crusher is 23, at the oldest, and that means he was born when Beverly was 51 years old, at the youngest. This is far from impossible, even in our day and age. And even more likely to be possible in the distant techno-future. But it is a little… odd.

Oh and SPOILERS!!! Jack is Picard’s son… exactly as I speculated last week.