Picard

[Trippy]

Voyager returned a year before the events of Nemesis. It's very likely Picard did know who she was while he was still commanding the Enterprise.

[Reg]

I expect he's also had a lot of contact with "Admiral" Janeway over the years discussing the Borg. They're the two leading experts right? I figure he met Seven through that.

[eldaec]

I have no issue 7 of 9 being in this. It seems like a better idea than TNG character.

[Ruvaldt]

Considering Picard and 7's unique history with the Borg, both being part of the collective at one point, I'd think it actually stranger if they didn't know each by this time.

[Draegan]

7 of 9 was Voyager porn. There was nothing of TNG in her. Picard would never have known her. The only reason she would be there is FAAAAN SERVICE!!!

Star Trek: The Next Generation (2364-2370)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2369-2375)
Star Trek: Voyager (2371-2378)

Voyager returns to earth only 8 years after TNG ends or whatever that means. So is Picard like 20 years in the future from then so it's like 2390?

I'm not a huge trekkie but I just googled this.

[Riggswolfe]

7 of 9 was Voyager porn. There was nothing of TNG in her. Picard would never have known her. The only reason she would be there is FAAAAN SERVICE!!!

There were definite elements of fan service in the character but the actress was good and they gave her some good storylines eventually. They didn't turn the fan service to 11 until Enterprise with the Vulcan constantly getting rubbed down with oil or whatever.

That said, 7 of 9 could easily know Picard. They have a lot in common with the whole Borg thing. Honestly, it'd be weird if they hadn't worked together. They are probably the two that scream the loudest anytime the Borg poke their heads up. I could also see them giving speeches at Starfleet Academy about the Borg and meeting that way.

Not that any of this matters, I'm not getting CBS All Access. But this is a good time to ask, what is people's experience with using VPN to watch Netflix and/or Amazon Prime "in a different country." Do you just select, say, England then log in and and it goes "oh, you're in England now, here are the shows you can watch in England."

[Ironwood]

Finally caught the trailer.

It feels dirty and wrong that I'm interested in this.

[HaemishM]

Not that any of this matters, I'm not getting CBS All Access. But this is a good time to ask, what is people's experience with using VPN to watch Netflix and/or Amazon Prime "in a different country." Do you just select, say, England then log in and and it goes "oh, you're in England now, here are the shows you can watch in England."

That seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through to watch Star Trek The Old Generation.

[Trippy]

Not that any of this matters, I'm not getting CBS All Access. But this is a good time to ask, what is people's experience with using VPN to watch Netflix and/or Amazon Prime "in a different country." Do you just select, say, England then log in and and it goes "oh, you're in England now, here are the shows you can watch in England."

Yes that's how it works except that Netflix tries to detect VPNs so not all services will be able to connect properly and many don't have good enough bandwidth to handle that kind of streaming load so you'll need to do some research to figure out which ones work well with Netflix/Amazon Prime.

[Reg]

Yeah. I tried accessing PIA through the London server and Netflix just laughed at me and kept giving me the strictly Canadian shows.

[jgsugden]

Anyone watch this yet?  Reviews are not great so far.

[Trippy]

I don't know, the review I've seen so far have been positive. The main complaint is that it's a slow burn.

[Reg]

I enjoyed it. I think we've at least confirmed the identity of the girl now. Trippy's right though. Having to put up with a slow once a week reveal of a streaming series is very irritating.

[Khaldun]

Folks I know who like TNG and DS9 are reporting liking it a lot. Gonna watch tonight.

[Brolan]

I saw it and it’s kind of a mess.  Plot is all over the place and very rushed.  They went though about 3 episodes of plot in one show.  Having the action adventure hero being an old man hindered by age is just weird.

Sadly it reminds me of STD.

[Trippy]

Sadly it reminds me of STD.

That sounds bad, might want to see a doctor

But seriously it's the same group of people that did/do Discovery so that's not surprising.

[Surlyboi]

Discovery has been really good.

[Abagadro]

I saw it and it’s kind of a mess.  Plot is all over the place and very rushed.  They went though about 3 episodes of plot in one show.  Having the action adventure hero being an old man hindered by age is just weird.

Sadly it reminds me of STD.

Wut?

I don't agree with this at all.  They have to establish some stuff, but they didn't really move through much "plot".  It set up where things stand, created the stakes, and set the action in motion.

I really enjoyed it and my wife (a TNG and Jean-Luc super-fan) loved it.  As for "reviews" it has a 93 percent on RT.

[eldaec]

Saw the first one, looks good.

I'm not usually a massive fan of the 'jumping in with known characters after they've suffered trauma but barely tell us what it is' format. But it is well enough done I got over it. They gave me just about enough.

Stewart himself is very much holding it together, and 'Picard, but an old person' was good on its own.

[Draegan]

I only watched Discovery for the first half of the first season. I forgot to watch the rest. I should probably go back.

I'm looking forward to watching Picard when I get time. Glad to see it's decent at the least.

[Reg]

I hated the first 2 episodes of Discovery so much that I didn't watch for the rest of the season. I started hearing good things about it and tried it again just before season 2 started. I skipped the first 2 episodes and found that the show improved steadily after that.

[Khaldun]

Discovery's next season has a tough challenge in front of it, though. They are going to have to do what Voyager couldn't, which is imagine a setting that is still "Trek" but that works differently enough that it feels alien both to the characters and to us.

[Brolan]

Yeah, the recent manipulation of the audience scores for TROS tells you can’t believe anything from RT.

[eldaec]

I hated the first 2 episodes of Discovery so much that I didn't watch for the rest of the season. I started hearing good things about it and tried it again just before season 2 started. I skipped the first 2 episodes and found that the show improved steadily after that.

The first 2 episodes are really not even a little bit representative of the show for... reasons.

[Khaldun]

So far the absolute worst, almost unforgiveably bad, blunder for Discovery is all the stuff on the Klingons. If they'd stuck with the standard make-up and kept them a bit closer to canon, it would have been fine. But they made an ugly mess that made it impossible to figure out what the relationship between Discovery and *any* other Trek is. Season 2 showed they'd figured out how to slide into canon and be fun in their own way (mostly).

[eldaec]

If the worst thing in a show is make up, they were doing ok.

[Khaldun]

Eh, it wasn't *just* makeup.

[Riggswolfe]

The Klingons is why I did a hard pass on Discovery. I'm not a fan of prequels that come 40-50 years after the original show or movie. But to utterly redo an iconic alien race at the same time is just asinine.

[Abagadro]

Yeah, the recent manipulation of the audience scores for TROS tells you can’t believe anything from RT.

I was citing the profession reviewer's percentage not audience.

[schild]

Folks I know who like TNG and DS9 are reporting liking it a lot. Gonna watch tonight.

I have absolutely no dog in this race, but of course they do.

[Ruvaldt]

Yeah, as a person who grew up watching TNG/DS9, I'm shamelessly in the tank.

I thought this was good.  It's even better considering that Nemesis will no longer be the last depiction of Picard in television/film.  To that end, I'm glad we're getting a proper send off of the TNG crew, and even some others of the era.  Even if this show never reaches those heights, and I don't expect it to, it looks like we'll get a decent yarn and a final look at characters a lot of us grew up with.  This show also seems to be embracing the morals/message of Roddenberry's Trek more than other NuTrek shows/films, which could be fun.

[Abagadro]

Likely because there was a conspicuous lack of Rick Berman in the credits.

[Trippy]

First episode is up (temporarily apparently) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PPm5l3o2zw

[Khaldun]

I have liked it. It feels more like good TNG than the movies did (even though it's drawing on Nemesis and the JJA Trek, for pete's sake).

But you know, when you connect it with Discovery's 2nd season and all that stuff on Control, there's kind of an interesting and not terribly coherent history taking shape of how the Federation has related to AI and synthetic life. I almost want them to do some world-building to make it all make sense in some kind of grand unified theory. Like what if the Borg are sort of like Skynet--always putting pressure from some kind of "event horizon" of the possible future to push civilizations towards making AIs and androids and then getting those to turn towards the Borg. Maybe that's why Kirk was always blowing up sentient computers--he and Spock (who fought Control directly!) have a secret directive from Starfleet to always destroy sentient AIs if possible. Maybe that's why Daystrom was sent to the Enterprise to test M-5: so Spock could quietly sabotage M-5.

[jgsugden]

I saw the pilot.  It was enjoyable for what it was, but it was not Trek.  Star Trek and TNG were about the hope for the future.  Star Fleet was a success story.  These depictions are of a government that can't be trusted.  It is cynical and devisive. 

It would be great to see someone actually make a Star Trek show that features a Star Fleet that inspired people rather one that reinforced the  pessimism and pain we celebrate.  When TNG hit the airwaves, it was a counterpoint to the negative depictions of greed and fascism of the 80s.  I wish someone would have the guts to do it again today.