Not a bad opener at all.
At first it felt like the direct TNG callbacks were a bit much, but it’s the opening episode — there’s an allowance for that kind of thing. Sets the tone. Builds a framework.
It definitely feels different. Better. Probably my favorite premiere out of all three seasons. But each of those were actually quite good before each of them fell off the rails pretty rapidly. It remains to be seen if Season 3 falls into that trap. But I get a good feeling from this. With how badly prior seasons have left me soured, I still feel something I didn’t expect: hopeful. 🤞
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Realtime Observations:
- In the 25th Century… (oh lord, laying it on thick out of the gate)
- No title sequence…?
- Rainy ambient background is great with headphones in the scene with Picard talking to Laris.
- Aaaand just like that Laris is off the series? Maybe she’s back at the end, too? 🤔
- An EAGLEMOSS on screen with stand and everything. Okay…
- Oh, wow, a whole Amazon store listing of Eaglemoss ships on display. Not sure how I feel about that. Breaks immersion a bit too much.
- “The fat ones”. Geesh.
- Both Picard and Riker giving speeches at Frontier Day.
- So Bev gives this dire message where she’s clearly heavily injured, but let’s fuck around real casually about it at the bar. Factoring in how long it took for them to get together, hatch a plan, take the Titan in one direction, then double back, etc. It had to be at least week if not more before they even got to her. (Trek’s been known to bend time and space, so this is not nearly as damning as it might ordinarily be, but it’s still irritating.)
- Fifteen minutes in and the number of obscure, statistically unlikely TNG callbacks in a row is already closing in on intolerable. (EDIT: it mellows out.)
- M’talas Prime… a bit on the nose, no? I mean, naming shit after the crew is common but what’s next? Kurtzman IV? (That actually has a good ring to it…)
- “Inspection face”
- Sexy Titan-A flyby. I’ve long said Trek has lost that grandiose majesty, and this brings some of that back.
- The score really is great, though it sometimes feels like a bit too direct of a copy/paste affair. From great source material, at least.
- “Crash” LaForge. She’s got chops. She didn’t feel like stunt casting.
- Picard/Riker banter is almost a bit much, but JUST on this side of fun.
- Shaw’s dinner ASMR with headphones is a bit disturbing.
- Yep, Shaw is a real dick. Hahah. Maybe a bit too much of one? I bet we come around on him, though, before he dies.
- On snap, he’s got Locutus beef with a general anti-Borg racist streak. (“Commander Hansen” for instance.)
- Picard and Janeway inspired her to “join Starfleet”? I thought she tried to get in post-Voyager but was denied. That was on THIS SHOW it was mentioned. They said even Janeway’s considerable sway at the time couldn’t do it… which is why she joined the Rangers. Bah.
- A red statue. Who the fuck has a red statue, except to use for someone’s cryptic clue? 😛
- Holy shit! Now we’re playing with portals. That was exceptionally different and genuinely horrifying. But I can’t imagine how someone can get to Earth, do THAT, and not immediately get stomped in orbit. We don’t know enough about it, though, so… we’ll see?
- Butt to butt shuttlecraft-on-ship action.
- Androids get an adrenaline rush? Oh right, we’re sweeping that whole “golem body” thing aside.
- Picard made Bev a classical mix tape!
- “Her son!” — no shit, Marcus.
- Opening credits are at the end. An interesting choice. Some fun clues in the end-credits LCARS.
- 53 minute episode but felt twice that long. In a good way.
