Today's episode had flashes of what made Star Trek great in the 'good old days'. It seemed much more character focused, contained an intriguing scientific riddle and a Picard speech navel-gazing about the nature of morality. It's not without its flaws, such as the fact that the Borg drones were killed by being jettisoned into space, whereas we know from First Contact that the Borg were quite happily walking around on the surface of the Enterprise without any protective gear, so simply being in space wouldn't have killed them. I also find enormous fault with the notion that Data's memories/personality/essence could be reconstructed from one 'neuron' (why do they keep calling any part of Data a neuron?). It's entirely unreasonable to assume that given the technology used to create Data that just one 'cell' of his positronic brain could store all of his higher functions and his memories. It doesn't make any sense and I imagine this is going to become a big problem for me down the line when they undoubtedly reveal more about this process (and my personal theory that they will find some version of Data on Soji's homeward). It's a fundamentally flawed concept.
On the whole, this episode wasn't too bad. There were some funny moments, some emotional ones and a sense that there is still some of the Jean Luc Picard we all remember in there (but he's still not being characterised as well as he could be - would Jean Luc Picard really be okay with someone who'd murdered Maddox just wandering in and sitting down for a chat?). I enjoyed the scene between Soji and Agnes; Agnes' reaction to meeting Soji seemed suitably layered and emotional. I thought it was very well acted. I also enjoyed the multiple holograms. I particularly liked the hospitality hologram getting too close to Raffi as he was speaking to her and her attempts to get away - my husband and I always chuckled at how close people stood to each other in conversations during the TNG and particularly Voyager era and it's an in-joke between us now. I liked to think that scene was making fun in the same way, but I doubt it was.
The part with Elnor and Seven was a little anticlimactic to me. I am hoping that they're going to appear with the Borg cube later on in the story to save the day in some capacity, otherwise, what was the point in showing Seven taking control of it? That has to serve a function later, or it was a pointless addition to this episode. Elnor in general is growing on me, though I can't seem to stop thinking of him as an Elf from Lord of the Rings - in fact the whole opening sequence, their way of dressing, the fantasy-esque nature of the whole thing, feels very out of place in the world of Trek.
I'm not too bothered by the swearing and the grunginess of this post TNG future. Look at our own societies. There is a sweeping movement throughout many Western societies to the right, to isolationism, patriotism, xenophobia. It isn't too difficult to imagine the Eutopia that had been created within the Star Trek universe from slipping backwards too. Fear (in that case of synthetic life) and massive upheaval (the destruction of a star system) can do terrible things to people, even in the future. They're still human, still have the same instinctual, gut reactions. I'm hoping we see more of the federation ideals creeping in to steer the ship back on course, which ultimately, feels like the endgame they are moving towards.
I'm curious to see where this is going and while I'm not 100% enjoying the ride and do miss the 'good old days', I'm trying to watch this series with an open mind. Discovery was a bitter disappointment; I'm hoping this won't leave the same unpleasant aftertaste in my mouth when it concludes its first series (and they had better not kill Picard!)
On the whole, this episode wasn't too bad. There were some funny moments, some emotional ones and a sense that there is still some of the Jean Luc Picard we all remember in there (but he's still not being characterised as well as he could be - would Jean Luc Picard really be okay with someone who'd murdered Maddox just wandering in and sitting down for a chat?). I enjoyed the scene between Soji and Agnes; Agnes' reaction to meeting Soji seemed suitably layered and emotional. I thought it was very well acted. I also enjoyed the multiple holograms. I particularly liked the hospitality hologram getting too close to Raffi as he was speaking to her and her attempts to get away - my husband and I always chuckled at how close people stood to each other in conversations during the TNG and particularly Voyager era and it's an in-joke between us now. I liked to think that scene was making fun in the same way, but I doubt it was.
The part with Elnor and Seven was a little anticlimactic to me. I am hoping that they're going to appear with the Borg cube later on in the story to save the day in some capacity, otherwise, what was the point in showing Seven taking control of it? That has to serve a function later, or it was a pointless addition to this episode. Elnor in general is growing on me, though I can't seem to stop thinking of him as an Elf from Lord of the Rings - in fact the whole opening sequence, their way of dressing, the fantasy-esque nature of the whole thing, feels very out of place in the world of Trek.
I'm not too bothered by the swearing and the grunginess of this post TNG future. Look at our own societies. There is a sweeping movement throughout many Western societies to the right, to isolationism, patriotism, xenophobia. It isn't too difficult to imagine the Eutopia that had been created within the Star Trek universe from slipping backwards too. Fear (in that case of synthetic life) and massive upheaval (the destruction of a star system) can do terrible things to people, even in the future. They're still human, still have the same instinctual, gut reactions. I'm hoping we see more of the federation ideals creeping in to steer the ship back on course, which ultimately, feels like the endgame they are moving towards.
I'm curious to see where this is going and while I'm not 100% enjoying the ride and do miss the 'good old days', I'm trying to watch this series with an open mind. Discovery was a bitter disappointment; I'm hoping this won't leave the same unpleasant aftertaste in my mouth when it concludes its first series (and they had better not kill Picard!)