[Picard news (with episode 1 spoilers) starts at 12:07 / Review starts at 25:27]
Anthony and Laurie begin with updates on season premiere scheduling for Discovery and Prodigy, then talk about the upcoming release of Strange New Worlds on 4K Blu-ray, Star Trek’s inclusion in Paramount Plus’ big Super Bowl ad, comments from Matt Shakman on the status of the next Star Trek movie, a new Star Trek: The Motion Picture-themed comic miniseries from IDW, and how to watch the Star Trek shows internationally.
They dig into a round-up of all the latest hints, news, and interviews about Star Trek: Picard season 3, then launch into their review of the season premiere, “The Next Generation,” with enthusiasm. The podcast wraps up with info about Trek Against Pancreatic Cancer and Laurie’s upcoming appearance at Virtual Trek Con 4.
Links:
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 May Be Coming Soon, According To Wilson Cruz
‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 Debut Confirmed For 2023
Review: ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 1, Volume 1 Blu-ray Looks (And Sounds) Stunning
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 1 Is Coming To 4K Blu-ray
Director Matt Shakman Talks About Why He Walked Away From ‘Star Trek 4’ Project
Matt Shakman Says ‘Star Trek 4’ Still Going As Tentpole Project At Paramount
Nicolas Cage Doesn’t Want To Be In Star Wars, Says He’s A Trekkie
IDW Launching ‘Echoes’ Comic Miniseries Set Right After ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’
Terry Matalas Introduces Titan Crew And Drops More Clues From ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3
Watch ‘Star Trek: Picard – The Final Mission’ Sneak Peek + See Photos From Hollywood Premiere
New Official Star Trek Logs Offer Clues About Lore, The Titan And More Ahead Of ‘Picard’ Season 3
Interview: Michelle Hurd On Raffi/Seven In ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3, And Hopes For Spin-off
Interview: Gates McFadden On Dr. Crusher And Controversy In ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3
Interview: Jonathan Frakes On Riker Getting A New Kind Of Adventure In ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3
“Clever girl” scene in Jurassic Park
Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Allegiance”
Trekbits:
Tony: Jonathan Frakes, Armin Shimerman, And John Billingsley Team Up For Trek Against Pancreatic Cancer
Laurie: Virtual Trek Con 4 (full schedule) and the LLAPy Awards (Laurie’s on the pre-game hype show)
Let us know what you think of the episode in the comments, and should you be so inclined, please review us on Apple.
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Crusher was listening to Picard’s log to search for ways to hide from the hunters. “Concealed in the dust cloud”. Where does she warp to? A nebula… but she doesn’t get there.
They were already inside the edge of a nebula it seemed.
But they still were found.
But you notice she warps away to another nebula.
This was something I only realized on my second watch, when I had more bandwidth to think about little things. Crusher is a brilliant doctor, but she’s not a tactician. Under attack, she was reviewing Picard’s old logs for insight into how to evade a ruthless pursuer. Clever, organic way of including a fun callback.
I didn’t find it organic, it was one of the few times I felt it was a bit of a stretch. But yes, there was definitely a reason!
Agreed. I found the first 5-7 minutes a little sweaty from a storytelling perspective. Even up to Riker explaining what Hellbird means. BUT, it was all done well and the fact that Crusher and Riker sound like Crusher and Riker (due respect to Patrick Stewart, but his voice…) and the direction and editing didn’t engage in frenetic pacing to distract from the wonky plotting and character reasoning really made it easier to “just go with it,” something I’ve always been willing to do with the other shows — they just haven’t been as well made or confident in their story as this one seems to be.
The convoluted nature of the message was a bit much, i’ll agree… but Crusher listening to an old log for insight into tactical decision-making is perfectly organic and not at all a stretch. It’s in fact perfectly reasonable thing to do.
We’ve even seen characters do that with other captains logs in previous episodes. I believe Janeway did it when she first encountered the Borg. Heck, Picard did it in “Booby Trap.” This is par for the course.
I agree. My kneejerk reaction was to roll my eyes when I heard the log, but then I realized a bit later this was for in-story reasons and I liked it.
I suppose they could’ve picked a more obscure episode than BOBW, but I can’t think of many times when the Enterprise was hiding in a nebula.
I’m agreeing with Laurie’s point that it wasn’t organic. It makes sense that Beverly would consult the log(s) for all the reasons you mention, but at the literal point in the episode where it shows up it’s clearly there for the audience’s sake. She fell asleep listening to Picard’s old logs relating to certain tactics? She was *thinking* about hiding the ship in a nebula and wanted to see if that worked? Was the log on a loop? Because, again, she fell asleep with it on.
That’s okay, though. *Most* story setups are inorganic. They’re setups, after all. The key is to make it interesting if not compelling. I’m not sure it was compelling — because they have to hide the ball so much with these season-long arc shows — but it certainly was interesting.
Yeah, the weird part was that it was running while she was asleep… that the key part of the message was playing at that moment. It didn’t bother me a LOT… just a wee nitpick.
I´ve never been a Crusher/Picard shipper, I couldn´t care less about their romantic relationship but what if she was listening to his logs because she wanted to hear his voice? In the same vein, she was listening to the mixed tape he gave her.
This was the definition of “not a stretch,” considering that we’ve seen numerous characters in Trek doing this. Sounds quite nitpicky and personal if you ask me.
Because no one could have figured that out without looking through Picard’s logs. ;-). Perhaps Bev was trained by the same genius who taught Raffi how to do Google searches? Lol
ps: don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying the story, but let’s be real — there are several “JJ Abramish” plot/tech hard to believe shortcuts that if this were a Kelvin movie, or a DSC season, many fans would be having a lot of fake outrage over…but since it’s TNG, FREE PASS! :-)
I think we’ve simply gotten so used to garbage, cringy, eye-rolling storytelling that to get something even remotely competent is just a complete shock to the system. We’ve fallen so far that even a minor improvement feels like a miracle.
Bev knows a bit about tactics. She was in command when they went into a star’s corona to hide from the Borg, right? (Haven’t seen that episode since the year it first aired, but am pretty sure she was the only one left aboard the ship while everybody else was planetside in DESCENT pt2.) Apologies if somebody else suggested the strategy.
Was there a changeling on the bridge of the Titan or were they a generic alien? When Picard and Riker first step onto the bridge there is a background officer who looks very similar to the female changeling.
It didn´t look like a changeling to me. More cat-like features than the female changeling.
So, looks like ST 4 is getting delayed againg….which I’m ok with. I think for the moment ST is sitting comfortably on P+ with new shows so they’re chugging right along. At some point, I’d love to see some of the Kelvin crew cross over with the new shows.
It’s been delayed for 7 years now lol.
Matt Shakman did say it was still in development, so that’s good. Sadly it’ll exceed the 7 year gap b/w Nemesis and ST 09
It was in development in 2016. The deeper we get into 2023 with no news the likelihood is high it’ll be ten years between movies. Clearly, the film franchise isn’t a priority for Paramount.
On M’Talas Prime, right before Rafi bumps into the rude jerk, there’s a little scene of a woman spraying light into another woman’s eyes, followed by a quick euphoric high. Is that the same device as from the TNG episode “The Game”?
Holy Christ, but that was awful. Clunky expositional dialogue; a narrative that goes precisely nowhere; dull, unexceptional scoring; and desaturated cinematography that has everything look like you’re viewing it through a blue haze, making the car and Chick-Fill-A commercials on Paramount + a positive relief by comparison. If art reflects the time in which it was made, this is a Trek for ours: cynical, violent, and mean-spirited. It’s a truism that the conflict-free initial seasons of TNG were a dramatic dead end, but what made the show work at its best under Michael Piller was the tension between Roddenberry’s utopian impulses and the realities of human life as it is actually lived — our potential as a species that could send an idealistic spaceship crew to the stars on the one hand, and have them ostracize a misfit like Reginald Barclay on the the other. For all the gushing, Picard Season 3 is just a dead end of another sort.
Wow, I may not wait for the screeners, I have to see this for myself NOW!
That tension between GR utopia and how we live now is exactly the near-impossible tightrope that marks good TNG for me, but usually when it works, there’s a bit of cheat one way or the other.
Shelby in BOBW doesn’t come off like an evolved human in the slightest (unless the evolution is towards crafty self-interest), but except for a little grousing I’ve done, have never seen anbyody pick on BOBW part 1 for straying from principles.
You may well feel differently, and that’s fine. (I’m not exactly sure what’s meant by ‘cheat’ in this context, though, BOBW being a work of fiction, not a documentary about life in the 24th century. All stories are cheats by definition, because the author gets to direct your attention wherever they want, and fudge everything else, which is not how real life works.) But I’d bet good money at least that you’ll hate the cinematography and color grading as much as I did, it now being a perfect match for the murky style of nu-Trek’s visual effects. Ugh!
I’ve got another interview — with the guy who shot the first two shows — tomorrow, and still no screener, so I guess I’ll resubscribe in order to at least see the first one. Surprised Par hasn’t put it up for free on youtube as has been the case in past, only found about 7 min of clips thus far.
For the life of me can’t understand all the atmosphere overuse in the space stuff. ILM did a bit of that in SFS inside the dock, but this century it is just everywhere. Talk about ‘space pollution!’ Somebody needs to issue an environmental protection report about Trek visuals, it’s a crime against visual storytelling. Forget global warming, this is TransGlobalShaming!
Congratulations kmart.
Looking forward to your take, and hope you’ll link to your articles once they are posted.
Yeah, the volumetric haze in TSFS was pretty much confined to the spotlights but now it’s everywhere. I can only assume it’s supposed to be some kind of atmosphere, which I guess would also explain why the sound of the parting dock doors can be heard on the Titan’s bridge. 🤔
The look of the live-action is less dark/diffuse in eps 3 and 4, which were shot by returning s2 DP, not the guy who shot 1 and 2. (The screeners came in an hour after I signed up for Par+, of course)
Haven’t gotten to 5 & 6 yet, but might rewatch 3 & 4 first, because those episodes, esp 4, seemed much better — both as Trek and as drama. (for that matter I also liked 2 better than 1 … I think the first 4 eps could have constituted a mini-season on their own.)
I thought there were enough character moments, particularly between Riker and Picard, to make it at least watchable and even charming in places, but I can’t argue that strongly with your points. I mean, yeah, awkward exposition could be a drinking game.
And I definitely agree about the cinematography, which for whatever strange reason they decided a sequel to TNG means looking through a dirty screen door at midnight under the blue haze of a bug zapper.
I think the reason why a lot of us typical Trek skeptics here like it is because of how bad Picard season two was. The only direction to go was up, and for all it’s weaknesses that people are pointing out, it’s eminently watchable, has good acting and character moments, and nice callbacks to the TOS movies.., plus phenomenal music.
Pic S3 is fan comfort food that is like getting a burger and a milkshake at Denny’s at 2 AM – we can sleep late and our stomachs easily digest that, even though it’s not healthy and refined food; contrast that to an annoyingly loud episode of LDS, which is like doing a 2 AM pig out at Taco Bell, followed by a night of waking up every two hours to sit on the shitter, while dealing with a correspondingly massive headache.
That last sentence is Trek comedy latinum! I’ve made a lot of cracks along these lines, but yours shows the gift of a true wordsmith.
If there is any reality in which I work on a Trek show, it would have to be called TREK KODACHROME, because I’d use real color saturation, with blue skies and white clouds and high-contrast space scenes with no smoke up there in the vacuum.
Thanks. Yeah, I kept expecting them to reveal that the Titan is a Section 31 ship. The lighting and the jerk captain certainly suggests that.
Dude, I’m nominating you for the Buzz Kill Academy Award. I don’t agree with much of this (you are right on the cinematography), but that is the most awesome, cruelest tear down summary of a TV ep that I have ever seen.
I can only hope to reach this level of buzz kill awesomeness commentary on the upcoming Lower Decks – Strange New Worlds crossover, which I just know I’m going to freak out on as Trek breaks the fourth wall.
🤦🏽♂️🤦🏼
Practicing your textual version of the classic Picard sour look, are you?
Yeah, lol
“. . .contrast that to an annoyingly loud episode of LDS, which is like doing a 2 AM pig out at Taco Bell, followed by a night of waking up every two hours to sit on the shitter, while dealing with a correspondingly massive headache.”
Thanks, but after that awesomeness, I really must yield that “cruelest takedown buzzkill award” chair to none other than your ownself, as you equaled my own effort in all the ways that mattered, not to mention being a lot funnier. 😝
Lol, thanks!
Well, I saw it just now … sort of. That haze on the ship interiors, especially the bridge, was just unbelievable. Without even the slightest cue from me, my wife remarked unfavorably on the look even earlier than that, while the show was still at home with Picard.
The only comparison I could come up with in my mind is that the giant desktop images of the bridge LCARS I saw on this site look like HD but the actual show looks like an ancient kinescope made of the same.
But I was impressed with the dinner scene featuring Shaw with our folks. The guy had a very interesting presence and the writing seemed smarter than what we saw the rest of the time.
Though I kinda wished Shaw, instead of grousing while it happened, had ordered up a tractor beam after Picard took off in the shuttlecraft.
Only possible canonical explanation is that they were waiting for it to be installed next Tuesday.
I wonder how the costume designer, who presumably went to the trouble to carefully pick the fabrics and the colors on the uniforms felt about the decision to light and color grade the footage in such a way that you can barely make them out.
What was the point of Riker’s plan anyhow? Aside from Beverly’s explicit request that they NOT involve Starfleet, assuming that they managed to con or sweet talk or bludgeon Shaw into taking them to their destination, what did they think would happen once they got there — that he would just let them walk away with a shuttlecraft? Those things are expensive!
Expensive perhaps, but they’ll be long gone by the time the bill comes due … on Tuesday.
(wonder if Moore and Braga are pleases that the ‘tuesday’ bit from GEN is taking on a life outside trek almost like one of those classic SEINFELD bits. I use it all the time.)
I was thinking more of the Swamp Castle scene in HOLY GRAIL, where the King complains to Lancelot about all the guards he’s run-through with his sword (“they’re expensive!”).
Thanks as ever for the podcast. I found myself in agreement with ever word you both said and for me this was one of the best season debuts of any series in any genre, I’ve seen. The writing and acting was top notch and I’m with you Laurie in that I could have watched a whole episode of the dinner scene. I can’t recall a scene quite like it in any Star Trek series before and I was riveted from start to finish. I’m not familiar with Todd Stashwick’s previous work, but he made quite an impression and I can’t wait to see more.
As Tony pointed out, this was movie quality production values and they nailed the Matalas Prime sequence, something that historically Star Wars seems to do effortlessly but Trek has always struggled with (the Trek III bar scene being the obvious example).
You covered a lot of ground in an episode that was jam packed with talking points, but I wanted to give a big shout out for the score which IMO was wonderful throughout. In particular, the underscore which covered the launch of the Titan was outstanding and brilliantly evoked Horner’s work in Trek III.
Can’t wait for next weeks episode and your thoughts via the podcast.
A minor curiosity from a UK viewing perspective is that the “In the 25th Century” title card is not present on the UK Prime offering. I’ve watched the episode 3 times now, and right after the CBS Productions card (which is rendered in blue using the Trek II title card font), it immediately transitions to the nebula. Odd! Perhaps it’s present on the Paramount+ version.
It’s not on the version that BellMedia has for Canada either, whether streaming on crave or linear on the premium cable CTV Sci-fi Channel.
I’m waiting to see if that suddenly updates.
Those of us outside the US are wondering if there are any other small differences between the two versions.
Someone here said he was going to try to get a copy of the US version to compare for any other inconsistencies.
It’s on the Paramount+ version but not the Amazon Prime version for some strange reason.
Titan A was launched under Shaw in 2402 and if he has indeed been captain for 5 years it makes the year 2407. On the other hand Dave Blass has said it takes place in 2401 and Terry Matalas has said it takes place a little over a year after season 2 which took place in 2401. And Memory Alpha says season 3 takes place in 2411! Fun times.
I picked up on the line about the enemy having different faces the second time I watched and my mind also went straight to the changelings. I freeze framed several times on the man in the bar and the side-eying ensign and they don´t look like the same person. The man in the bar was credited on IMDB with the name “Dark haired man”. That´s not to say it´s not the same changeling…
I think you’re right and they’re not the same person.
I just saw a tweet from Matalas quoting the actor Chad Lindberg who plays the side-eying ensign who´s name apparently is Foster. Matalas said “I don’t like the way he looked at Riker. Hmm.” So there´s definitely something going on there.
If Riker’s jazz was still in his command chair when Shawn took command, then the answer could be that Shaw took command first of the Luna-class Titan when Riker retired and has remained captain through the rebuild.
That could match with the timeline of Thaddeus’ death.
There is a clear transition between the shots in the ship that open the episode. Beverly’s room lighting leaned blue. The living orchid. When we see see/hear Picard’s log, see the dismantled phaser, the dead plant, the lighting is different. Is that possibly the quarters of Beverly’s son? Likely he modified the phasers to deal with the immediate threat. Beverly is brilliant, but she’s not reconfiguring phasers. Watch the transitions in and out of that shot. Different rooms. And Picard’s voice trails off when we return to Beverly’s quarters before the alert. He’s studying the logs. He’s the tactician/security type.
Tony/Laurie,
It’s finally here. I’m not disappointed. It was awesome! I’ve watched it three times. Jonathan Frakes was fantastic. Star Trek Pic never got the humor right, but this felt natural for those characters. Terry has hit a home run here. I’ve never been the biggest TNG fan, but I might be after this season.
Love the Titan. I enjoyed the score as it left space dock. Stephen Barton did a great job honoring the film scores but also making it their own.
The season premiere was able to balance nostalgia but create something new, which has been a problem for the live action series. Like Prodigy, it honors what came before but is moving us forward with new characters and a new chapter for Picard and crew!
The dialogue was great. I felt that I heard Riker, Seven, and Picard in the dialogue, a natural evolution of their life twenty+ years later.
P+ give Terry Star Trek: Titan.
Great Podcast! It’s good to hear the treksperts again. You guys are part of my weekend routine and it’s just not the same without you.
LLAP!
I enjoyed the score as it left space dock. Stephen Barton did a great job honoring the film scores but also making it their own.
Well said. It’s now my favorite single ep Trek TV score of all time!
I really hope the Titan-A survives the season, A-10 Warthog vibe notwithstanding.
I’d like a Titan-based show, with legacy characters recurring. It seems however that there may be a push instead for a Star Trek: Legacy show instead.
I know older fans would love it. Not sure the kids would unless it’s a bit more upbeat or gives more space to the next, next generation. I rewatched 3.01 with one of our teens who seemed to find Picard himself quite a downer.
I definitely want the focus on the next next generation. And if Terry does the series, he’s the person to bring the optimism and fun of Star Trek to the new crew. I wouldn’t want a dark series either. And I would want it to be a family friendly show. We need to bring in new audiences. I want Star Trek to show the next generations that there is a better way.
Tony mentioned that Ed Speelers is way too old to play a twenty-year-old son of Beverly Crusher. However, Speelers is exactly the right age to play her thirty-four-year-old son, which would explain why she left the Enterprise to become head of Starfleet Medical. She left the ship to protect Picard’s reputation, had the baby, and gave it up for adoption, perhaps to the branch of Picard’s family that lived in Britain.
That’s interesting! I like it.
That sounds very unlikely. Why would she care about Picards reputation? And given how much she loved having Wesley with her on the ship her giving up a child for adoption for no good reason is doubtful.
She has definitely demonstrated, over the years, that she wants to protect Picard’s privacy and the distance he keeps himself from the crew.
Just because she loved having Wesley on board does not mean she wants a second child in her life. One is plenty for a lot of women. She has an important career, after all.
Someone over on another board proposed a multiverse explanation, where somehow her second son crossed over from another timeline.
That would mean that our Crusher would not have been in anyway a neglectful or abandoning parent. Quite the opposite in fact if she took responsibility 20 years ago for a teen genetic son who was stuck out of his timeline.
Thought it was worth throwing in the speculative mix over here.
Given that timeline shenanigans were a feature of Picard season two, why not?
More, for those of us who’ve watched 12 monkeys, given Matalas has admitted there will be references and Easter eggs to that show as well, the idea of a character out of his timeline is compelling.
The Federations love/hate relationship with a medium of exchange has always been clunky. Back in First Contact, Picard is delivering a speech to Lily about how they work to better themselves seemed very pretentious, coming from someone who enjoys the perks and privilege of rank. I always suspected that Ensign Second Class Skippy, who’s spent the last ten years of his life scrubbing plasma manifolds down in engineering would have delivered a little different answer.
Dropping a line here to flag that Wilson Cruz has clarified that he had no information on the scheduling of Discovery S5, and was just expressing his own assumption.
He went further to say that he’s heard talk since that Discovery might run in the summer, but that’s also unconfirmed.
Could it be that Paramount+ is waiting until it sees early demographic data on Picard S3 before making its final call on scheduling?
Additionally, the announcement of SNW co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman’s first look deal with WB Studios had to have been impacting any announcements or green light decision on S3 of SNW, which could in turn impact scheduling.
BUT…
TrekMovie’s dislike of rumours notwithstanding, I am going to note here that preproduction of what looks to be SNW S3 (based on the pseudonym) has suddenly shown up on the guild sheets in Toronto as of last Friday, the day after the premiere of Picard S3.
Yep! Tony added to the article about Disco season 5 to include Wilson’s update. We talked about that on the podcast, too, that he was likely just speculating and certainly wasn’t offering the official word.
I can think of a lot of reasons why Beverly wouldn’t tell Jean-Luc about their son. The Borg… Daemon Bok who tried to have Picard’s not-son killed in “Bloodlines”, the Romulans before the boom who cloned Picard, and so on. Not to protect Jean-Luc from the truth, but to protect the son from Picard’s enemies.