Gus Grissom, Chaffee, and White were murdered by NASA for calling them out as a fraud. Ronald Thomas Baron and family was also murdered by a NASA train for calling out their fraud with a complete investigation submitted to Congress.
I love how Q appeared and aged, a subtle touch but totally the sort of thing he would do to mock Picard. Great start to season 2, already headed in a good direction.
Agreed - and even on the most generous television budget there's only so much of the FX budget and post time you'd want to spend on digitally botoxing actors. It also makes sense dramatically - Q loved messing with people's heads, and Guinan is many things but vain enough to delude herself that she can hold back time indefinitely? Nope - she's more centered and aware of her place in the universe.
If you think digital Botox is cool, in the Star Wars universe they've digitally resurrected two dead actors, not to mention the late Paul Walker of The Fast and Furious franchise. There are copyright holders for CGI likenesses of people like Maya Angelou, Malcolm X, Burt Reynolds, Chuck Berry, and Neil Armstrong.
i was incredibly surprised by this episode, it seems like they did a 180 from the last season in tone and especially with starfleet, felt like watching real star trek for the first time in a while
It's down to the fact that Star Trek is no longer split between two different companies, so they no longer have to make a percentage of the show different to comply with copyright, as they now own all the copyrights.
@@4TheRecord quite certain John eaves said that by mistake and it was a creative decision for discovery as opposed to legal, since you can’t measure art by percentages, not to mention it was specifically abt the enterprise model in discovery s2. I think it felt like Trek because of the tone. No more depressed Picard, no more dystopian galaxy, no more hate for starfleet from the main cast etc
@@4TheRecord Please just stop with that 25%-different-nonsense. Thats another rumor spread by the idiots of the fandom menace. When adapting the NCC-1701 für Discovery there was a design-instruction like "Make it like 25% different". That only related to the ship. And it was a design decission to update the 60 years old ship a little. They didnt need to. It had nothing to do with copyright or the split of the rights back then. On why Picard S1 was such a train wreck I can only speculate. But one aspect is, that it was incredibly rushed -especially in the later half since for whatever bizarre reason they didnt think they needed to have the script of this "10 hour movie" somewhat finished finished before they start filming, obviously thinking they would just come up with conclusions on they fly which naturally backfired when they needed to rework the bigger part of the second half in way too little time. In theory the should have had way more time for season 2 because of covid. And the first episode shows, they at least actually learned from many of their mistakes, among other things now hiring experienced people like the Okudas and Doug Drexler.
@@dunningkruger6075 He means Patrick Stewart's father in real life, not in trek. Those flashbacks probably are memories of the messed up timeline already, before actually happening the timeline mess up. So Stewart's real life experiences will go well for the part, now that will see this.
That the Picard character has almost never talked about his parents at all was an opportunity that I never expected. We hear about his father from Robert in Family, and we see a vision of his elderly mother in Where No One Has Gone Before, but that is all I can really recall.
Hey Ryan... Why haven't you broken down the rest of the Picard episodes? The second season is so much better than the first and I look forward to your breakdowns... Please don't leave us hanging 🤓❤️
The Grissom was also a reference to the ship Commander Kruge destroyed in The Search for Spock that was studying the Genesis planet. Also, Soji was conversing with Deltans; the same race Lt. Ilia belonged to in The Motion Picture, the movie to feature V'ger... possible Borg connection, easter egg or teaser right there. Also, for months now I was floating a suggestion to my kids that Q would age himself in the exact way that he did in the show... except in my version he was more playful and less malevolent.
@@SamuelPearlman lol, no. Grissom died in the fire that consumed the Apollo 1 capsule, one of three that were the first NASA astronauts to perish in the line of duty.
In German the Borg Queen says: "Ich brauche Energie." Power can have two meaning in English. But in German it's very clear, she meant energy. She would have said "Ich brauche Macht.", if she meant to take over the ship.
That means absolutely nothing and without express context - which translators rarely get - that might as well be just a guess on part of the translators which one she meant. Case in point: they already messed up the translation by using ich instead of wir. +1: I have a significantly impaired German vocabulary due to the fact that I've rarely spoken it the last 15 years, but even I could come up with something just as ambiguous that has the same double meaning. Remember, her face is not shown, there needs to be no effort made to roughly match the syllables so the lip movement wouldn't look off, the translation can diverge in the use of syllables as much as it needs to, to convey the double meaning. All in all, what you have there, is poorly executed translation.
Ich hab es auf Englisch geschaut und da sagt sie auch, dass sie Energie braucht, also energy ;) Kein Wort von Elektrizität^^ Hat Ryan hier falsch wiedergegeben
@@dominic.h.3363 I was gonna say the same thing, but without the Germanic knowledge. If there's two meanings, it could easily have been a mistranslation; or rather written ESPRESSIVELY AS dual-meaning (in English), which could not be translated into German.
Q is always trying to teach Picard, and Humanity by proxy, a lesson that needs to be learned. Even when he lost his powers, Q was still teaching Picard. This will be no different and we as the audience might learn something as well. Great start to the season, hoping it keeps the momentum.
Q "teaches" by making the problem seem humanity's (ie-Picard) fault, created by their shortcoming. But while quick to assign blame, it takes Q a maddeningly long time to give context or actually just explain the problem. Bad teaching. Expecting your student to understand everything from incomplete knowledge.
@@johncorvo5520 No doubt that Q is taking the long road. But humanities "sheer fucking hubris" displayed by Picard on many occasions, needed to be dulled down. Picard had a narrow point of view thinking that they would be ready for anything. While introducing them to the Borg earlier than they should have may have caused many casualties, it inevitably made the human race and the Federation stronger because of it. Q keeps them on their toes every time he shows up, sometimes you need that in order to not be stagnant.
@@johncorvo5520 Sometimes the best route to teach people is to point them in the right direction (or throw them in the deep end) and let them discover the answers for themselves. Even if it takes them a while to get it.
It may also be the first sign that The Borg have changed a lot over the last thirty years in-universe. Species 8472 are still out there - and perhaps Voyager's did more lasting damage to The Collective than anyone suspected...
I wonder if another being took over Borg parts, like they did with the "Artifact." Just more advanced. Or, maybe the Borg was never even there, maybe it was just Q. Screw waiting, i need to binge it!
While you caught that Picard had a painting of the Enterprise-D in his home, you missed that it's the same painting that hung in his Ready Room on ST:TNG.
I liked how the self destruct code Picard used was “zero zero zero destruct zero”, which is the same one Kirk used on the Enterprise - both in ST3 and the corbomite maneuver.
A couple of things I picked up on - I think it's interesting that Picard has a throwaway line about wanting to retake the Kobayashi Maru as it's likely this season will be one big real-life version of that - a test that continually repeats until he finds the right outcome. Also, the fact that Seven is flying around with only a hologram is probably a nod to the fact that her first proper relationship post-Borg was with the EMH from Voyager - she's clearly more comfortable around holograms.
The structure in Picard's shelf looked like a finished Kal-toh game. The ship in the bottle is a reference to Picard building ships in a bottle as a kid. In the scene where the cadets are assigned, one cadet is named 'Nagata', which could be a reference to 'The Expanse'. The painting of the Enterprise D is from Picard's room in TNG. I was really amazed by this episode. Seems like, they got Trek back on track.
TNG season 5 episode 25, The Inner Light. To forget this episode in Picards storyline would be a tragedy. It’s where he lives in entire lifetime in 20 minutes and he has his own family. Heart wrenching episode. Oh, and don’t forget… He learned to play the flute.
I don't think it'll be the mirror universe. It's been done. DS9 wrapped its story up very nicely. I think this is an alternate reality created by an action that Picard (or someone else) has yet to do, much like in all good things.
more of a "see just this one little thing and you're just as ruthless as the terran empire. Now that I think about it, maybe that's where Capt. Georgiou ends up from the Portal of time. They mention there's an infinite number of universes and the Terran Empire universe just happened to be the neighboring one to the prime universe. Just like how the Kelvin universe is divergent from the prime universe as well.
We always think of the terran empire universe.. yet forget the next gen episode where worf went between multiple verses.. 10,000 or so enterprises blipped in and they had to figure out his particular signature to which verse.. there could be millions of mirrorverses..
That was PIcard's Grandmother in S1 TNG not his mother. That image is not the original Stargazer - it's the new one. The Grissom was also in Star Trek III. The planet Sogi & Agnes are on is Delta - the character from ST: TMP
10:05 - One of my favorite bits is Picard's speech and the flags behind him, I've seen different theories, but mine is very simple. If you go to Mitchell Hall at the U.S. Air Force Academy, you will find a wall with several flags. These are not flags for every US state and territory. They are state flags and foreign country flags. To be exact at the beginning of each school year, the flags are taken down and put back up, they represent the states/countries of the cadets at the Academy and stay up while they are they are. So when I see a Bajoran Flag and a Ferengi Flag, it could be that they have joined the Federation, or it could be that somewhere at Starfleet Academy there is at least one Bajoran and Ferengi. This actually explains the Klingon flag as I can imagine another Klingon joining Starfleet before the Klingon empire joining the Federation.
I don't think anyone was surprised to see Borg show up, they had been teasing it since the first season. But I do think that Seven who says she's stirring up Borg mistrust on the Stargazer fell victim to her own presence when they showed up and started saying "kill them before they kill us!" Because maybe they're not the villain after all... And then Q shows up who;s probably the one being the Borg could actually fear. Though Picard is probably the closest thing Q has to a friend so it's likely he's doing all this to teach him a lesson about not having regrets.
You pointed out that Rios kind of mocked Picard's "make it so" but before he said make it so, hey says "dale", which is think is fantastic as rios's signature engage command. It can mean many different things in spanish in different situations, but it basically means, " go ahead" or "make it so".
All I’m saying is having a wormhole that turns into an hourglass makes me think of the Prophets. Aliens who live in a wormhole that don’t experience linear time. I also noticed a Bajoran on the Stargazer, a Bajoran flag at the Academy during Picard’s speech, and the broken Bajoran tablet from The Reckoning in Picard’s house. So Picard seasons 2&3 were shot back to back and then will end, and with Janeway playing such a prominent role in Prodigy it this all makes me think that we might see what is effectively a backdoors pilot for “Star Trek: Sisko” this season. It would make sense to move on to Sisko as a way of continuing this series past season 3, even though it would technically be a different show.
I agree in part that there are too many references to DS9 in the trailers and in this episode too to be a coincidence, plus not forgetting most of this season is set in 2024, the same year as the episodes "Past Tense" from DS9
I also noticed another one rewatching the episode with my wife. Although this one is stretching to Marvel Hexagon levels of crazy. But when the aliens beam over to the Stargazer, they could have called that individual anything: ambassador, spokesperson, representative, etc. But they went with “Emissary”.
@@Jayk129 there is also a replica or something of the old bajoran tablet sisko destroyed on a table of chateau Picard. You could see it in the trailers and in the episode
I think the sword on display in the final scene looks like Elnor’s. Also traditionally, with Japanese swords at least, they are displayed with the handle at the right during times of conflict and war so they can be readily taken up to fight. It could be that they just displayed it that way because of the way the shot tracks left and the sword points left, but it might have been intentional.
A good friend whose family owns a French vineyard pointed out the pickiest of all nits to be picked... The Picard family is canonically from Le Barre, France which is in the Burgundy region. The wine shown in the episode from Chateau Picard when Jean-Luc and Laris are drinking is a Bordeaux (both on the label and by the bottle shape) - which is a very regional thing. In the States it would be akin to a New York winery claiming to be from Napa Valley.
Two other references: The cadet assigned to the Grissom is Nagata, a reference to the Engineer that caught Bashir and Obrien in “Trial and Tribulations” And the Bartender in 10 had a similar outfit to the 10 Forward waiters and bartenders (checkered sleeves)
We do have to remember that it was Q who first introduced the Borg in TNG, giving Picard a preview of them as a warning of what was to come. This to me was always one of the clearest indications Q has only ever had good - if somewhat twisted - intentions towards the human race. Maybe this “Mirror-verse” is the one created from a reality where Q didn’t introduce the Borg - perhaps the ‘road not taken’ he mentions? If so, this Borg has never known Locutus or encountered Earth. We haven’t yet seen what the nature of this Borg is, and there has to be a reason why the Queen is covered up and wearing a cape. I hugely enjoyed S2 Ep1, so it’ll be fun finding out.
I dont think that was THE Queen. I think it was just a mechanical representation, that was linked, to the Queen. And if what you said is true about the Mirror Universe Borg not having any experiences with Locutus, then that means they have no knowledge of Picard's Mother, so the Mirror Universe will have to go on without any of that story Arc included, or it won't make sense. Which makes me ask the question, "why did they bother with "Mamon" at all? They have to drop it now. Unless my logic is flawed. Whatchu think?
Yes season 1 was a train wreck. I think it is almost a case of they should have left things alone and not even made this show in the first place because Picard is way too old. I would rather remember him in his prime when he was a strong charismatic energetic leader instead of an old frail man. Hopefully with Q in the mix we will have a better season and maybe we will be able to enjoy it.
I think the crazy explanation (that the Borg literally kidnapped his mother) is the most likely for a lot of reasons. The idea that they have all his memories would be true ... if this is the Borg that assimilated him. That’s just not the case. That Borg call him Locutus, heck he even INDENTIFIED HIMSELF to them as “I am Locutus of Borg” once in the series and a number of times in novels. This happened last season where several rescued Borg addressed him by that name. They made Locutus to negotiate with the federation, if they needed someone to assist them in applying for membership, they would absolutely call to Locutus and not Picard. There is also a connection with Q. In "Q who", he teleports the Enterprise to encounter the Borg. It’s going to be super easy to ret-con that to involve Q being aware of this alternate timeline and using that encounter to prepare him for this day. This Borg having encountered his mother explains not only why the message isn’t calling out for Locutus but it's not even asking for Jean-Luc … they are looking for ANY surviving Picard. The DNA strands and his call out as being the last of his line both point to this as almost a “Voyage Home” type scenario where they have gone back in time to find a Picard as none survived to their "future", and time jumped to the point where the line dies out ... just like how TOS crew went back to rescue the last humpbacks.. Ironically, Jean-Luc no longer qualifies after the events of the last season as he is no longer biologically a Picard. That’s why things went less the smoothly. As for the question "Is some higher threat hunting the Borg" ... well, yes. We already know that is the case, as Species 8472 continues all out war with them. But I doubt that's the treat we'll be dealing with. I think it's going to be something much higher order, like a reality where they are never created.
The threat could be the Synthetic life forms from the first season! They may have taken offence at the Synthetic and biological being merged! Robot nationalists/Nazis lol
Borg civil war was also my theory. I think whatever version of the Borg that showed up are sincere about wanting help, but they're so desperate and used to taking what they want forcefully that they come on too strong when Dr. Octoborg "attacks" the Stargazer.
I know in one of the books the Borg do not assimilate Spock as they think he is already one of them because of his mind meld with V-GER as they were the race that found it and repaired it.
I think initiating a self-destruct through a voice command is little more than pulling up a login screen. The confirmation code the person is giving is what gets checked against codes on file which confirm if the person has authority, and there could even be several codes, like one for such emergencies with a 10 second countdown (like using a different password with your login name that is associated with your person, and being able to access different functions through that different password). Frame of reference is important.
I'm going to put this theory out there - the reference to the Kobayashi Maru test is more than just a call-back. Q is basically running a Kobayashi Maru test on Picard
Self Destruct scene reminds me of Tapestry where Q gave Picard a second Chance as a Science Officer.. And then there's the TNG Finalle at the end with the 3 enterprises exploding one after another.. Boomb Explosion (Picard appears in a new reality) Q mentioned Picard talking about second Chances... Tapestry was that too
When we see the Federation fleet, we see the Stargazer, two Sovereign classes, an Akira, Luna class (USS Titan type), Excelsior, Inquiry class (USS Zheng He type) and four others. These others are making their live action debut. They are Gagarin, Sutherland, Ross, and Reliant. These classes come from the popular video game Star Trek Online.
I don't think he has taken over the academy. The implication of a role like "commandant" is one of day to day leadership. In this episode he is referred to as "Chancellor". That is both a level above what he was previously offered but also something very different. Chancellors play a mostly symbolic role at Universities, setting the tone and giving oversight rather than being involved in operational command. It is generally a ceremonial role.
@Screencrush: Rios never lights the cigar. He plays with it, lights his lighter, and even acts like he might light it, but never does. Technically, he isn't breaking Roddenberry's rule. As far as where the series is going, Q spelled it out quite clearly, "This is the end of the road not taken." Obviously we are going to see the road that was taken instead.
Yeah it's like him and everybody else needs a little kitschy quirk that if everybody actually were this way on a quasi military vessel nobody could ever get anything done
@@midniteoyl8913 "...Flaunts Gene Roddenberry's rule of no smoking" is actually what was said, and technically, he smoked on his own ship during the series in season 1 of Picard. Roddenberry was a long time smoker and believed that in the future he imagined, mankind would have moved past this dangerous habit. The rule was broken long ago during The Next Generation in numerous Holodeck episodes.
The one EE that screamed out to me was the mention of a 'Nagata' over one of the tannoys (at SFA I think). Now I know that Nagata is a relatively common name and that it could be a deep cut to a minor character from DS9's "Trial and Tribulations" - however - considering that it seems to have been added via ADR over the scene I cannot imagine it been anything other than a response to the 'Riker' name drop in the finale of 'The Expanse' with the 2 shows now paying a meta - tribute to each other. 'The Expanse' is now, IMO, just as big a part of pop sci - fi culture as anything else and as such should be as valid a reference as any other non ST property from Shakespere (a big touch point in SWIITWOK) onwards.
I am too. He made the Marvel series interesting. Otherwise, they were a little slow for me. He has some good insights. Tends to point out things that I should have noticed but got distracted by all the blinking lights. And he has some theories that... sometimes are better than the actual show. But, I agree with you. I am glad too.
After only seeing episodes 1 and 3, i have the following 2 predictions: 1. The Borg Queen that tried to assimialte the Stargazer in episode 1 is somehow Picard's mother. Think about it. 2. The queue are dying, Q is all that's left, and he will sacrifice himself near the end of the seaon to save humanity. You heard it here first. I have watched episodes 1 and 2 at least 8 times each, and this is what my brain came up with.
I really loved this episode. Strongest start to a season in a while in my opinion. But, I'm also a sucker for Borg and time travel so this is right up my alley
Did no one else notice that distance doesn’t seem to exist in this season. The title card says that Suji is on a planet by he Beta Quadrant. Picard is on Earth, which is the literal center of the Alpha Quandrant. Yet they both meet up on the Stargazer which was close enough to Earth to receive cadets from the Academy. At least two of the characters somehow made a journey of many years in moments.
Also, at the end of Picard's dream it is the identical path taken by the original TNG opening, starting with Earth, passing planets and the ort cloud, just with added stars and objects
I think Q is saving him while keeping to the rules of the Q continuum. Q has always been on Picard’s side he just can’t ack like it. That’s how it seems to me anyway.
It just occurred to me that the Borg queen quoting Picard's mother may be an indicator of how the Borg have changed since we last encountered them. I'm not sure they would have had the tact or empathy to pick such a salient quote out of his past otherwise. Either that or perhaps this Borg Queen is from a reality where Picard is still a part of the Borg?
As someone who has only seen the most important episodes of next gen (I’m not a Trekkie and I’m of the age that when people say Star Trek I automatically think of shatner)…but what I like about this Picard series is it explains itself and fills in the gaps without me having to google or go back and watch old various episodes of the star trek franchise..really enjoyed the first season and this has got off to a flyer !
Borg queen requiring power, was being misunderstood. She was also sharing all their knowledge. But Picard and Seven saw this as an attack. They were not being assimilated. All the security teams were Stunned, meaning she came in peace. We already know that the borg have powerful enemies in the anti-verse. Perhaps these are the bigger threat.
One of the most simple explanition I came up with is that the Terran Empire was reformed in the Mirror Universe and Mirror Picard played a vital role in that. The Terran Empire probably also hunted the Borg down and they saw there last chance in fleeing to the prime universe. Probably nothing of this is right but I like the idea.
The Terran Empire regained power and are a threat to the Federation in Star Trek Online. Now that original ships from STO have found their way into canon, it's possible that storylines from the game will also become canon.
LET'S SEE WHAT'S OUT THERE! This was a callback to Encounter at Farpoint, where Picard utters that phrase before saying "Engage" at the very end. I always thought it was hokey, but now that it's a quote from his mother, it works! That was my favorite Easter egg by far.
I'm thinking the Q continuem where they'd like to pause and reflect time all they want as a chess table game to say "Are you sure this is the move you really want to make?"
Did anybody else pick up Q’s 4th wall break??? He specifically told Picard “This isn’t ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’” when Picard kept asking him about The Stargazer.
I personally don't think its the mirror universe, rather an altered timeline due to something Q prevented or caused to happen in 2024. Remember in DS9's Past Tense the world was heading in a totalitarian direction with the Sanctuary Districts and so on. It was only the Bell Riots that prevented this, and when Sisko accidentally caused Bell's death, he had to assume his identity to make sure the timeline wasn't disrupted, although he didn't know it at the time, back in the present the timeline had been changed, and the Federation didn't exist. But it was all put right in the end. What if somehow Q mucked all this up and prevented Sisko from setting in motion the Bell Riots, or somehow Picard going back to 2024 prevented history from playing out. Don't forget the story line in "All Good Things...", it was Picard that destroyed humanity, not Q, and its heavily hinted at in the Sneak Peek for episode 2 that Picard is indeed the cause of the change in the timeline, not Q.
My first thought when the Borg showed up was mirror dimension . Makes sense that in a dimension that is hyper aggressive, the Borg haven't had it so easy in the assimilation department and are getting desperate.
When Picard and co go back to 2024, I hope Picard has a brief introduction to a little girl named Lily Sloane. This is the engineer Picard meets in 2063 during First Contact. She would be a small child in 2024. Deep cut reference of how Picard actually time travels and meets Lily twice!
