Maps and Legends

Episode 1 had unnecessary, ridiculous action, okay, I can live with it. Episode 2 is just a disaster, everything is bad. Awful dialogue, bland simpleton characters, meh pacing and writing.

Maybe it's the writing or maybe just bad acting. Whatever the case it's definitely putting a damper on the show and making it hard to watch. You can almost see the director telling the actors how and where to move. Stiff and very forced.

The first episode gave me such joy. I felt like Star Trek was entering my life again in a positive way. Then this turns up. If you told me an entirely different team stepped in, I'd believe you.

It's an exposition-laden mess. They want to explain so much it's like a hose of information. The first ten minutes is just tell, tell, tell.

Sadly, it didn't settle down. It then did another lazy writing trendy of mystery. Characters going around going "You know the thing, that thing.. yeah the thing. It's time to enact the thing. We talked about. The thing. Please speak to you know who about that thing." In no way does it make the viewer feel part of the journey, it's just fake mystery.

Picard feels sidelined almost. His Romulan friend went from quite interesting to shouting Irish woman. Irish Romulans I'm not sure I can get on board with. It just seems an odd choice. Make her an Irish human if that's what you want. But why this mish mash?

Swearing. Why? I got into TNG when I was 9. It was the most formative show of my life. My outlook of life, my career path... just so much. Why must Star Trek now be an adult-only affair? People should be watching this with their kids to give them a positive hope for the future. If you take that away, what do kids have? Where is the show that inspired the scientists of today that saw Trek as children?

Even the admirals are just nasty. Where has this positive vibe gone from Star Trek? I hated Discovery as it's now not proper TV unless you want to go away and self-harm from the experience, and I fear Picard will go the same way.

If the future is basically crap, with a pointless Starfleet and cynicism and even the cream of Starfleet via its top brass is corrupt and negative... well shall we just call it a day now with planet earth?

I think I may just fire up my TNG Blu-rays. The first episode of Picard I watched twice, I felt a flicker of hope. Episode two, I am close to giving up already.

P.S. yes writers you've mentioned Earl Grey now 17 times in 90 minutes. We get it. You watched Star Trek. But clearly you didn't understand it.

Not as strong as episode 1 and did not need *F* Bombs to make it better. Looking foreword to this series.

After what was as spotless and refreshing a first episode and foreteller of things to come as we could have hoped for, we are now in the segment of this very long movie (known as Episode #2) where the game pieces are gathered to be put in place. Decisions are being made and explained.

There are now two distinct story lines unfolding: Piccard's and the other one, the one taking place at the unknown location Piccard is trying to reach. We are at the stage of revealing the plot piece by piece as a jigsaw puzzle. An especially nice moment when old man Piccard enters Starfleet Command under the decorative interchangeable Holograms of Enterprise A and Enterprise D to the musican fuse of TOS and TNG themes. Then, at the desk, he is asked who he is and to spell his name.

Several things are happening in this new series. Other than the roadmap to unify Kelvin into Canon, debates are taking shape that promise to lead to the best of Next Generation quest for the nature and the condition of life.

Patric Stewart carries Picard effortlessly and with gravitas and with humanity.

Fourty four minutes felt like 20!