I couldn’t even be bothered to find an image for this episode
Episode Eight – Shrug
I mean, I did watch it but I’m not motivated to say a lot more than that, really. It was just a bunch of expoisition vomited on screen in the usual structureless way. The Grief World, though? Really? That’s the explanation for the Zhat Vash’s millenia-long problem with AI? And what happened on Mars? I mean, it’s an explanation but it’s really not an especially satisfying one. Though – and this is the real problem – there really wasn’t going to be a satisfying resolution to the “why the Zhat Vash hated AI for so long” question. Because, how can there be? It’s either going to be evilevilfromthedawnoftime, some bullshit Mystical Orbs thing that would be less well than the Orbs Of The Prophets, or Godlike aliens. Turns out it’s basically the first one. Shrug. There’s no sense of this even really functioning as a ta-da! reveal, it’s just another piece of information trotted out. And how many people did they let die just to stop the Federation’s AI development? Does this make even the slightest bit of fucking sense? No. Not it does not.
Seven’s back, great, that’s nice. Takes over a Cube for a bit, misjudges things, a bunch of Borg get blown out into space. That sure filled five minutes or so of time. Didn’t achieve an awful lot more than that though. Seven’s whole emotional arc over four seasons of Voyager is how she is essentially an analogy for an abuse survivor and how she recovers from that trauma (and what is essentially the trauma of cult deprogramming), and it’s incredibly powerful and successful, not least because of just what an amazing actor Jeri Ryan is. Here she reconnects to the Borg here like she’s plugging in a toaster, then it’s all done in about five minutes flat. Guess she really is better huh? Shouldn’t this be an absolutely horrifying existential nightmare for her, not a quick move-the-plot-forward bit? How did she even get on the Cube? Elfo calls for her, then magically she appears with no further explanation (she didn’t even have a ship the last time we saw her). Eh, the story doesn’t feel like explaining, so why should we care? Shrug.
Picard is still on this show right? Because – last week’s exception-that-proves-the-rule aside – there’s not much feel that this show is really about Picard. It seems to be about Borg, and former Borg, and Soji, and the Incest Twins Of Evil, and androids and very rarely about the guy who’s name is there in the title. Bit of an oversight really. Here Picard is mostly present for other people to exposit things at him, often Jurati who had a mind block to prevent her talking about her VISIONS OF DOOOOOM! but now doesn’t have a mind block because apparently foaming at the mouth a bit fixes mind blocks and now she can talk about VISIONS OF DOOOOOM! Oh and now they need Starfleet I guess? Which is great, because they can tell Picard to shut the fuck up! Shrug.
Two episodes left Picard. Please fix the basic ability to tell a story.
Any Other Business:
I guess there was some? I’m not motivated to find out what it was though.
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