I think she'd agree with my take.
posted by lalochezia at 1:07 PM on August 24 [3 favorites]

I'm so glad we now have a succinct answer to anyone wondering why Picard was so bad.
posted by GoblinHoney at 1:08 PM on August 24 [7 favorites]

Bookmarking this for later. Thank you for sharing.

The last season of Picard was entertaining but it was also full of so much fan-service and it just kind of muddled along. Also felt like it could have just been a 1 or 1.5 hour film to close it out, but it is what it is, a kind of Frankenstein monster of nostalgia.
posted by Fizz at 1:31 PM on August 24

those damned Star Trek fans, they ruined Star Trek!
posted by Jon_Evil at 1:31 PM on August 24 [4 favorites]

I like the Gary seven aspect, I think that was in the first season. I watched the second season and do not remember anything about it.

"saccharin"

-Gilda Radner
posted by clavdivs at 1:39 PM on August 24

"Dr Angela Collier, a Star Trek fan, eviscerates 'Star Trek: Picard'"
OK...

"over the course of nearly 4 hours"
blinks
goes back to work
posted by doctornemo at 1:49 PM on August 24 [15 favorites]

I'll probably watch this with more enthusiasm than I did Picard. Hopefully she covers my biggest gripe about the show.

I found the nostalgia and clunky fan service of the series off putting immediately, as well as the insistence on treating an obviously elderly Patrick Stewart as an action hero. Some friend cajoled me back into watching it, and I eventually made it through the whole thing, and there were actually some good parts!

But what I will never forgive the series, though, is its choice at the end of Season 1. Picard dies, then they reincarnate him back into an android body, which just do happens to be a perfect replica of his old body. Then they never speak of it again.

It was a total miss to get a fresh, clean start. Let that first season be swan song of Patrick Stewart. Then swap in a new actor and have the continuing adventures of Jean-Luc, which is what they did anyways, just now with a character whose life arc has, literally, ended.
posted by Panjandrum at 2:18 PM on August 24 [2 favorites]

I like the Gary seven aspect, I think that was in the first season.

With Action Hero Terri Garr!

What most annoyed me about all Star Treks but Next Generation most especially was how all space battles between city sized starships had to take place at a distance of a few miles to a few city city blocks. With sound effects even. Who needs proton torpedoes when muzzled loaded 18th century cannons would suffice?
posted by y2karl at 2:34 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]

"over the course of nearly 4 hours"
blinks
goes back to work

She just kept talking and talking in one long incredibly unbroken sentence moving from topic to topic...

Quite hypnotic.
posted by Johnny Lawn and Garden at 2:56 PM on August 24 [9 favorites]

I just watched that episode last week, I don't know who owns the rights to it but I still think it would make a fascinating series with Wil Wheaton on board for production and guest role. I can think of a few names to replace Robert Lansing, who I think was a better actor than most on Star Trek but he was stage and film primarily. interesting how a lot of stars and guest stars appeared in westerns from before the Star trek era, Leonard nimoy, DeForest Kelly. actually I think George takei would make a great addition to a Gary seven series.
I think Steven Straight or , ooh, Thomas Jane would be one of my top picks for the lead. Robert Lansing was so demure in that episode but it was kinda written that way. I think that's why they brought in the youthful Terry for a different perspective, well, the civilian perspective.
I think using some of the same set elements that they did on Picard from the original series was excellent. I love John delancey but I never want to see a Q again on screen. though I would probably pick Roxanne Dawson to direct, at least the pilot.
posted by clavdivs at 3:02 PM on August 24

This is a really great video and commentary and because I am broken inside the entire time I’m watching it I want to reach into the screen and prop up the Lego rocket which is slightly off kilter from vertical.
posted by FallibleHuman at 3:25 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]

Picard was a weird thing.
S1: Here's a new crew for Picard to have adventures with!
S2: You liked those people from S1? Too bad, we're getting rid of them!
S3: It's Fan Service! Remember Moriarty? Fake out! It's the Enterprise F! That blew up real good! Remember Shelby? Not only is her characterization bad, she gets gut shot! Ro? Blown up real good! Also Elnor, although we only hear about the ship he was on getting blown up, I'm assured that it was also real good. But we've got the OG cast, so fan service!
posted by Spike Glee at 3:48 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]

This was a good one. I also especially liked her videos on string theory and science communication, and dark matter (and followup).
posted by BungaDunga at 3:54 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]

This was a good video, although I watched the start and then skipped to the last half hour. Some of the points in the last half hour - excessive use of violence, thin plot lines - can be extended to a lot of streaming television. I’ve certainly found myself disengaging from other streaming shows because I find them boring, and then extremely uncomfortable for short periods. The specific Trek criticisms - section 31 is bad, sad future trek fundamentally misunderstands the genre, and who is the future audience of trek - are really good and presented in a way that I found thoughtful
posted by The River Ivel at 4:10 PM on August 24

Were "Capt. Liam Shaw" (Todd Stashwick) not dead in-universe, I'd watch the hell out of any ST series with him in it. The rest? (shrugs) Not so much.

My elevator pitch for a new ST series... "Muppet Borg!" With Piggy as the Queen.
posted by zaixfeep at 4:16 PM on August 24 [2 favorites]

Her videos definitely have a schtick, but they fit her deadpan delivery excellently. She repeatedly (repeating things excessively is part of her schtick) denies being a science communicator/educator, yet I find myself defiantly learning a lot from her while being entertained. Her AI video sums up my thoughts about AI much better than I was able to communicate, and hearing her talk about it felt like a bit of a weight lifted off my shoulders, as I realized I did, in fact, have a defensible position on the topic. Looking forward to digging into this new video when I have an evening to dedicate to it.
posted by WaylandSmith at 4:22 PM on August 24

man, Picard

I shared a lot of disappointed hot takes in the fanfare threads and I stand by all of them except the hopefully optimistic ones

I think a large part of what made the show so weird and bad was that so three seasons felt like the first season of three unrelated shows, like the endings of the movie Clue but with even less holding them together narratively. Oh nooo it’s the boooorg, again, who will be defeated, again, before oh nooo it’s the boooorg, again,
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:01 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]

I deal with the sorry state of the modern shows by simply not accepting them into my personal head-canon. They sit somewhere outside along with the rest of fanfic, ignored for the most part. They cannot ruin the original TNG era shows I love because they don't count. If some of the original actors want to fool around with this stuff that's fine too since it's obviously not the same characters. If other people enjoy the shows good for them!

Same approach works for Star Wars too.
posted by donio at 5:21 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]

I imagine Dr Collier meeting Jenny Nicholson and collaborating to produce a work of nerd criticism so vast and penetrating that it becomes the scripture of a new religion.
posted by adamrice at 5:32 PM on August 24

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