Breaking Down Picard Season 1

Hello out there, and welcome to Future Imperfect.

It is I, your Lieutenant Commander of this, I

think we're a Constitution class vessel. I am

Lieutenant Commander Mike the Birdman, duh, but

I am not alone as I - trick through the tattered

remains of Star Trek Picard. That's right, guys.

We are finally going to wrap up our thoughts

about the finale and the series as a whole here

on This Week in Geek and the GeekCast Radio Network.

Of course, I am. taking control of this because

it's what I do occasionally. Occasionally, they

put the emergency command hologram. That's right.

I'm a hologram today. The real Mike Dodd is not

available today, but we have Captain Steve Megatron

Phillips on deck as well. Hello and we have joining

us in our little flotilla kind of back in his

own little garbage scow ship. We also have a

special guest on the show, so if we can get this

into a Star Trek adventure book at some point,

it would make us tremendously happy. We are joined

with the man in Kitchener. Me Alex. Hello. That

was my introduction. What are you doing? Well,

the weird joke before I get our little guest

introduced here is Alex often jokes with us on

future imperfect where it were he to exist in

the Star Trek inverse He would be commanding

a garbage scow because you know what in the future

people still got trash So people still got to

dump stuff off in the future. Hell. Look at the

Malon in Voyager. They were the embodiment of

this. So you do have your own ship out. I believe

I said I would be basically Molly made in space.

So of course the entrepreneurial ship. of you.

I don't even know what we've called your vessel

yet, but that's a little side cannon. But the

big important thing to talk about this episode

is we have a guest for the first time in a little

while. We have a freelance writer on the show

who's written for such lines such as Battle Tech,

which is the 31st century warfare game from Catalyst

Game Labs and from Modiphius's very successful

Star Trek Adventures line. Most recently having

released the Star Trek Delta Quadrant book, we

have Aaron Paulier, who will be joining us for

this episode. So everybody welcome aboard. Oh,

there guys. It has been a fantastic time preparing

for this episode. The only joy I've gotten out

of these last 11 weeks of Captain Picard and

I know the show is only 10 episodes, but it's

been 11 weeks. I actually already did an episode

about this with nerves of the third power where

I reached out at Dr Gonzo. Let's see what happens

when I assemble this crew together for this mission

because, oh boy, have I got thoughts. But I wanted

to bring an expert onto the show because Aaron

and I have been bonding, which we actually got

introduced via a mutual friend, Justin, over

at terrible warriors .com, which he interviewed.

uh, which he interviewed Aaron about Star Trek

adventures. And I think RPGs in general a couple

of months ago and me and Aaron have just been

exchanging messages. And I found out Aaron was

a writer on battle tech, which is one of my favorite

lines. And, uh, then I found out he was doing

stuff for Star Trek adventures, writing mostly

the technology for the ships and whatnot. And

just, uh, just a really interesting friendship

has formed, which would always begin around eight.

And it would always begin with us kind of ranting

about the latest episode of Picard. And I'm glad

things have evolved and we've just began talking

back and forth. So having someone who knows the

canon, like the backside of their hand is a fantastic

addition to this show because Picard is a series

that it's a lot to unpack. Now the series has

received mixed from when I could see online.

Some people on my personal Facebook love the

show. Other people such as a former host from

space TV up here in Canada, which is now a CTV

sci fi are not pleased with it. In fact, they

tuned out after episode five. I want to say,

although I want to I do want to read one particular

quote that someone wrote about Star Trek Picard,

and that'll be my thoughts summed up, because

I'm going to let you guys go at it, because I've

spoken about this enough. But this comes from

Johan Vasquez, the guy that wrote the Invader

Zim comic and cartoon. He says, and I quote from

his Twitter, dated the 13th of March. Any hint

or charm or genuine thoughtfulness in Star Trek

Picard feels weird and out of place tonally,

like a party clown doing something actually funny

before Craig shits himself, blows his brains

out, collapses to the floor and explodes. This

is how I also feel about Star Trek Picard because

anything that seems like it was clever or smart

You then realize hey, that's weird and that's

out of place here because Star Trek Picard is

a mess I now leave the floor open to you my crew.

Let me know. Let's get started Um, I guess I

can start yes, please. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I

think that's a really good summation every time

that I found that there was something Star Trek

happening in the show, it felt extremely out

of place. Because overall, the show wasn't Star

Trek. As I was saying before the show to everybody,

I had gone through each one of these episodes

twice to write notes down. And it was a slog

through it. And I have no problems watching you

know, Voyager's Threshold, for example, or Spock's

Brain. Those episodes are terrible. We can probably

all agree on that, but I would much rather watch

those than this. Those are much more Star Trek

than anything that we see in Picard. Yeah, it's

shocking. Shocking. Yeah, I mean, I was... I

made the prediction with Steve and Alex, uh,

in our last episode, like we're gonna get a Picard's

brain moment in the finale. And wouldn't you

friggin know it, it happened. And Steve and Alex

thought there would be all these clever callbacks

to Canon because there might be. No, no, no.

I said it would be great if there was. I said

my trail, my prediction was I said they would

go one of two ways. Either they do the stupid

thing and do Picard's brain or they do the what

you would expect them to do which is data returns

in new body and then sacrifices himself a second

time uh and then what we ended up getting was

a mixture of both well what's funny is is the

the whole thing with data is i kind of guessed

from the beginning when we started hearing about

the show that they were going to bring data back

as a hologram and they did however the implementation

was crap No, after the second episode when they

specifically said, hey, Picard, you know, you're

dying, I thought, okay, that's it. That's how

they're gonna end it. Well, no, I actually thought

immediately since they've already been talking

about a season two of Picard, they have to save

him and since they brought it up right at the

beginning of this... Season that he's going to

have to die and get a new body So that means

they're gonna have to find a Sun type Android

and download them into it That's what's going

to happen to happen to to allow the series to

progress past this first season I mean, I wasn't

100 % convinced of it by episode 2 but by episode

Let's say nine. Like, yeah. When they finally

get to the Android planet, we see that Golem

body. Oh, yeah. Picard's going into that. There's

no doubt anymore. Well, and I think it's hilarious

how he goes from like whiny, crotchety, old Picard.

And then within seconds of being in the new Android

body, the Golem body, he's like back to classic

Picard. Like, he's got the energy, he's got the

pep in his step. Like, I think it's funny that

all of a sudden he's that way again. He doesn't

have the balls to call everybody out on their

crimes still. Like, hey, you know, you're a murderer,

you're a mass murderer, you know, you need to

go to jail and you just about killed every living

sentient being in the galaxy. Something needs

to happen here. But no, he can't, he doesn't

have the spine for that. The show had the classic

ending from like every cartoon or family movie

where everybody just laughs and freeze frames.

That's basically how it ended. Our high fives,

you know, I hated that ending. Yeah. Oh, the

ending was terrible. The ending was terrible.

I should actually like read to you guys my my

my ending. Yes, please. OK, I said, hey, look,

there's there's there's two epilogues. But the

thing that happens before that to finalize the

episode, if I had to rewrite it, I would have

said that the Borg cube is fixed. They are able

to fix the Borg cube. Seven plugs herself in

and with the assistance of the rest of the the

ex -Borg, they're the ones that actually go up

along with Picard to attack the Romulan warbirds

that are up there. Warbirds, and I put warbirds

in big quotes. They, the Borg actually are then

used unlike the being completely dropped like

they were in the actual episode. Anyway, the

cube puts up this big fight, but the large number

of Romulan vessels are just too much for it in

the end. It takes a huge amount of damage. They

don't have enough drones on it to continue to

fix it. The drones are a completely separate

thing, because remember, guys, drones survive

in vacuum. So when the Romulans blew them all

out into the vacuum, Seven could have just beamed

them immediately back on board because she had

control of the cube. Anyway, the cube puts up

this huge fight. The Romulans are too much for

it and it starts to reenter the atmosphere again.

That's when 40 to 50 Starfleet vessels of different

classes drop out of warp and a couple of them

immediately tractor beam the cube while opening

up on what's left of the Romulans. The communications

opens up on the bridge of the La Serena and it's

Admiral Janeway. She comes on screen and she

says, I never thought I'd be saving a board queue,

but I was told that people needed our help. The

card, hold on, will clear the orbital space.

Seven will catch up later over coffee. Janeway

out. So Admiral Janeway on board a sovereign

class USS Voyager NCC 74656 -A and her escorts

start plowing the field. great fan service right

that would have some really dramatic fist pumping

from every fan and it would make sense all right

so we have that happen but Picard dies and Janeway

is there to comfort those that are grieving talking

about how she had to handle all the deaths on

her ship she's the one that carries Picard's

body back to earth for burial, draped in the

federation flag. So I have two epilogues that

are after that. That's kind of like, hey, we

go to credits and then we have two epilogues.

On the Android planet, the first one, a new treaty

is being signed between the major powers undoing

the ban on synthetics and giving them full rights

of citizenship. Anywhere they may be. and they

can be citizens to the Federation, no matter

where they are. Commander O is arrested and the

surviving Romulan Zat Vash ships are being towed

out of orbit by Romulan Navy vessels. There probably

would be some Romulan executions by the Tal Shiar.

I would even have like some sort of Imperial

officer, Romulan Imperial officer, say if we

had these ships during the evacuation, my wife

could be alive today, you Zat Vash bastards.

a small speech by Soji about how the federation

had lost its way through fear, but confronting

fear has always been what has made people stand

taller and come out more into the light of unity.

The androids specifically delete the information

out of their brains about how to build that giant

beacon thing to bring back evil robots. Not that

the evil robots don't know where we are now,

that's just kind of dropped as well in the actual

episode. As that whole scene ends and the first

epilogue ends, the camera pans upwards to show

the Federation flag fluttering in the breeze

of a distant thunderstorm, hinting at troubles

on the horizon but showing peace and understanding

for now. And then the second epilogue would be

on earth at Chateau Picard. It's the aftermath

of the funeral for Picard. And dignitaries from

all over are slowly leaving. Riker, Troy, their

daughter, and Worf are standing together, clearly

having been crying except for Worf. Their kid

is rubbing her ears and trying to smile at Worf.

I thought it was great, she says. I thought it

was a great tension breaker when you screamed

like that. Worf shakes his head sadly. No, I

was telling the afterlife to prepare for a true

warrior to appear among them. Quick cameo, but

they walk off together. The camera pans away

from the group as they start to walk back to

the chateau. And we see Picard standing under

the tree, tears on his face as he sits down on

the ground. Data appears. just kind of out of

nowhere and puts his hand on his shoulder. Captain,

do not grieve for yourself or for me. The journey

is just beginning. Picard looks up into the face

of his loved friend and he stands up straightening

his tunic and they disappear in a puff of light

and noise that has a remarkable similarity for

the cue. Fade to black. That's my rewrite of

the ending of the last episode that I think would

have been far better and it took me 15 minutes

to think of. Sorry for babbling. It certainly

would have been more entertaining than the Reaper's

a mass effect show up for all of 30 seconds and

the same copy pasted ship And if you were gonna

have the copy paste thing is what got me, but

that's what got me to they all look identical

Even like on TNG and DS 9 they had the ability

to put like two or three ships on screen Well,

yeah, and they had like they had you could see

hundreds of ships there But they were variations

of ships that they had models for whether it

was the Excelsior reliant class or just a bunch

of old starships You know nebula Yeah, I see

the laziness if you want to have you know a cheap

fairly easy cameo to come back to help Picard

from let's say what is left of I guess whatever

government the Romulans have or had, you could

have had her come back from Nemesis as Commander

Denatra. Yeah, you could. And then you could

have had Scylla there too, for the tell she are.

There's a few things they could have done that

would have been easy, cheap, and simple. It would

have been much more satisfying. But that would

mean the writers would have to be clever, and

they are not. It would also mean the writers

would have to have, it seems to me, like they

have a general idea of what they're doing obviously

they have to have a little bit but it almost

feels like they didn't go back and watch anything

and it's like they were given a few pages or

a summary of the series and they're basing it

on their their thoughts and and like like well

wouldn't it be cool if this happened those aren't

the questions that you should be saying though

it shouldn't be you know wouldn't it be cool

if he did this it should be what would they do

Yeah, let's give them a situation on how would

these characters act. No, I agree. And the laziness

isn't just with the writers, it's with the special

effects team. Obviously, we already talked about

the duplicated ships. But I mean, there's the

really good example is, is how many times do

you see a discovery era shuttle? And how many

times do you see a shuttle from next gen, which

was only 20 years previous? I actually know I

took notes on this. All right. See discovery

shuttles six times and you see next -gen shuttles

none The best example is a very nitpicky example

of bad special effects But it shows the laziness

and I will point it's I think it's in the second

episode and it's when La Serena is an orbit of

Earth It's nighttime over Europe and they're

kind of over the Nile Delta and you see all the

city lights on earth. Well the thing is is it's

city lights that are modern city lights. I think

I pinned it down to 2018 because you can see

lit up oil rigs in the Persian Gulf, like in

the middle of the Persian Gulf. You can see the

effects of the Syrian civil war on the light

patterns in Syria and it's clear as day. And

I compare that to the time, if you've ever watched

The Expanse in this last season, they had a half

a second shot of Earth, you know, from orbit.

And there was so much thought put into that shot

because they had to figure out, well, Earth isn't

going to look the same as it is today because

of all the sea level rise and all that in that

show. And they must have spent a week or two

at least making that half a second special effects

shot, that my wife and I, we paused the TV right

there and said, my God, look at all the detail

in this. And you can look at that image and have

a story told just from this half a second. And

it was beautiful. The Orville does a better job

of showing what Earth would look like. The Orville

definitely puts a lot more thought into it than

any of the Kurtzman Star Trek era. Well, the

Orville also has writers from Voyager, DS9, and

TNG on it. That is true. There's passion and

there's care. They're not just there to make

a buck or save a buck. They're there to tell

a story. And yeah, it's upsetting. What I think

about Picard is makes it so bad is that it had

the most potential for something amazing, for

something glorious, but it fell so far from that.

Yeah, I would definitely be inclined to agree

because Picard is probably the most beloved captain

of the franchise. I think you could put a pretty

good argument even above Kirk. Oh yeah, totally.

because we got a chance to see a fully realized

character and their journey was a complete after

Nemesis. Again, you could make an argument, but

this should have been something glorious. It

should have been a return to form. This show

had money behind it, which means it could tell

a story that it wanted to. However, as Alex said,

this is something that wasn't had a lot of thought

put into it and it was very hastily written with

not a lot of care put into it. So that being

said, I'd like to open this up again to the floor.

Where did the season stumble? Because as we've

done our little examinations of individual episodes,

we've determined there are at least three or

four filler episodes out of a 10 episode series.

What were plot points that were that were hyped

up that were never used what plots could have

been dropped entirely and What ultimately happened

as we got to to the finale of Picard? I'll go

first just quickly. I would say It faltered right

in the writing stages of the first two episodes

because there's articles that have come out now

talking about how in the original draft they

already had their ship assembled and were in

space at the beginning of the second episode.

And we didn't get that till the end of the third.

And even then, the whole crew wasn't there yet.

It felt like they had initially intended this

to be the equivalent of a two -hour TV movie

or maybe a three -hour mini -series, which probably

would have fit this story better. If you had

been able to split this into two parts, let's

say you release part one now and then part two

in July. And they could have done, you know,

a one and a half hour, like two TV movies to

complete the story. And it would have been much

more concise. And I think people would have complained

less because there would have been less time

for them to make stupid mistakes. I'll agree

with that. I think they stumbled immediately

too. I think that as well that there is most

of the series you could completely take out and

not lose anything. As much as I enjoyed some

parts of it, the entire Borg subplot. Everything

that happens on the cube can literally be removed.

Because it could be literally anywhere else.

Yeah, it has no bearing at all on the end result

of the story. You could remove the entire fifth

episode space casino world. Anything with the

Fenris Rangers, it just doesn't make any difference.

with the Riker Troy episode, as good as it was

compared to the other episodes, that could be

removed as well. The entire Casino World episode

is what felt most like Syfy Channel's Killjoys.

It felt like really low budget. It looked low

budget like. If you can't make it look realistic,

don't bother at this point. Like the disintegration?

Pink mist. It should have been just a complete

vaporize, not a splatter. It was all the holograms

on the ship, like the ads. I'm sorry, they never

did anything that tactless. It looked and felt

like a cheap sci -fi channel, something the Asylum

would put together for the sci -fi channel. And

that episode, and some people will go, well,

I really love that they brought Seven of Nine

back and they did X, Y, and Z with her. They

assassinated her character. Well, first of all,

the death of Ichab was meaningless. There was

no point to it. He was clearly in a Starfleet

uniform, correct? Yes. Okay, so that means that

he was kidnapped and he was taken. There's probably

Starfleet vessels around looking for him, right?

They had been torturing him. right? There is

no reason Seven had to just kill him. She could

have beamed him back up to the ship, put him

in stasis, put him in a medically induced coma,

got on the subspace channels and said, Starfleet,

I have Ichab here. He's gonna die. You need to

get him help. But regardless, you could put him

in stasis. There was no reason to kill him. And

what's the reason for these people taking Borg

parts out of Borg, that doesn't make sense either.

If you can beam somebody with those implants,

you can replicate those implants. You don't need

to torture anyone or take them out of Borg. You

already have the pattern stored. So the whole

revenge thing from Seven is just complete BS.

And then she goes in and just starts slaughtering

people at the end. And I'm like, that's not Seven

of Nine. I'm done. She needs to go to jail. On

top of that, I don't know what it is. It might

just be me, but her acting has been subpar the

entire show. It seems like she phoned it in,

which is really unfortunate, because at least

during Voyager, it was the quest to humanity,

to understand individuality, to know what it's

like to feel, to be empathic. I feel like they

told her more or less, you know, you know how

you played Seven all those years ago? just don't

just play it totally different like a new character,

you know, and just kind of let her go with it

like space Ripley or something. The show has

a very weird tone. Sorry that it any scene the

scenes where they're, you know, on a clear soundstage

where there's not like a lot of CG around them.

It's very confidently shot. It doesn't have the

same look or feel obviously of TNG, but it does

have decent cinematography. But all of the acting

and all the CG and everything just feels very,

very low budget. It's like, it's like they spent

a lot of money to do nothing on the show. Yeah.

I mean, there's just so many things that feel

out of place, out of touch, um, tonally. And

obviously, as we've mentioned within the writing,

I don't know, just Something has felt off about

this trek. It's like somebody's wearing treks

skin. It's like It's like men in black where

the alien steals that farmers skin looks like

a person but you kind of know it's not It's like

the fifth die -hard movie it could have been

it could have been any other movie without just

renaming the characters Yeah, I think part of

the problem, at least for me, is that I was expecting

it to be Star Trek. And what I mean by that is

that Star Trek generally has an internal logic

and a consistency, not just across series or

episodes or whatever, but if a transporter works

one way, you know, that is stated, it's generally

going to work that way. in future episodes, right?

There's an internal logic and consistency, and

you can make the assumption watching Star Trek

that the world operates almost like our world,

right? Yeah, there's better technology, and people

generally don't worry about the same worries

that we have today, but... The world still operates

like the world. If you make those assumptions,

then that's how Star Trek is. But this broke

that in the first episode. Like immediately broke

that. That how is this world so wacky and just

operating illogically and inconsistently inside

its own framework? It really broke it. It really

broke it immediately in the first episode. Because

they had five writers. I mean, you could do something

great with five writers. You honestly could.

I shouldn't say that that's an immediate like

down vote, but you have to have the writers communicating

with each other. You need to be able to say,

this is what our coherent plot for each episode

and the whole season is. And it's clear that

they didn't do that because obviously they went

back and did extreme reshoots. So it is clear

that there are two separate sets of filming in

this season. and there's a big disconnect between

them. Where do you think most of the reshoots

happened? Everything with Riker and Troy was

reshoots. That's for sure. I think some of the

stuff with Space Casino was probably a reshoot.

I want to say that Chunks of the last episodes

the the two -parter are probably reshoots, but

not all of it But yeah that it really starts

breaking down I want to say a lot of the stuff

in the board cube is also reshoot Also Green

screen effects in the like that I've seen in

a show in ten years Like all the sets that were

green screened and they just it looks fakie for

lack of a better term And actually, if you want

to get somebody started, the set design is terrible.

Look at the bridge. Birdman go off. Yeah, it

looks... How would I describe it? It looks like

a college set with a couple of gamer chairs put

into it, which is really... It doesn't evoke

24th century to me. It looks... like a low rent

asylum sci -fi style movie. And yeah, you can

argue that there's different ship manufacturers,

civilian, commercial, and military, but there

would be a feeling like this belongs to an Earth

-like species, even the Bajorans, and the Beta

Zed, and any other Alpha Quadrospheres. There's

an aesthetic to their ship. This ship feels bland.

boring like dollar -rama would you ever buy a

ship in the future you know this is all theoretical

would you ever buy a ship that has no manual

override for controls and it's no holographic

and controls and how you do it so no that's insane

like if you even see ryker's ship it's it still

has manual controls that's because they reuse

the discovery bridge because that was on a reshoot

when um When Jonathan Franks was directing an

episode of discovery. That's what I've heard.

The more I hear about this show, the more it

disappoints me. And it's, it's, it's so insane

that, and as I mentioned, me and Aaron have been

bonding over this show, which is a rather weird

bond to have about just how insane the show drives

us. Yet people heap. praise on this show. So

let's talk about some of the net positives to

come out of this. And I'll start to kind of give

you an idea. So percolate your thoughts. I will

say Patrick Stewart, when he's given something

to do when he's actually given agency to do something,

he's good to talk to loop back to the Casino

Planet episode, which is a big point of contention

for people. He does a wonderful job in his eye

patch. And I kind of wonder how much of that

went off script. Like they're like, Patrick,

we trust you, just make something interesting

and it worked. The moment with him and Hugh,

very heartwarming, also spontaneous, and it worked.

Other moments, I think even Alison Pill, who

as Gerardi, had some wonderful comedic moments,

but they felt out of place tonally. It didn't

feel like it belonged in Star Trek. The guy that

plays Rios, the hologram bit that he did in episode

eight or nine. I love that. That's funny. And

it's needed to break up tension. Raffy, I don't

recall any standout moments for her, but she

was very consistent. That episode, she was pretty

good because she was interrogating all of the

holograms and they're like, no, I can't answer

it for you. Yeah. So she was like, that's not

even our language. I can't think of anything

positive to say about the Romulan incest twins.

Elnor felt weird. Elnor was a complete waste

of time. And you know, I feel bad because I think

the actor did as best as he could with the material

given. But there's no reason for that character

to be in the show. None at all. He served no

purpose. He was comedic Romulan samurai, which

makes no sense. He felt like a character that

should have been on Stargate, not on Star Trek.

Well, he felt like a fan fiction character because

who what if there's a Romulan samurai and someone

said cool make it happen Yeah, he doesn't do

anything. There's no resolution for him. Well

in the Romulan twins They they actually said

that the Nerissa character had a very short and

small part and then they Enlarged it based on

the fact that they liked how she acted. So they

made her part bigger She is a big bad sucked.

I think the actress did a good job, but I don't

think the part she had was good. No, no. It's

like I'm evil because I fuck my brother. It was

weird. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then there was the

brother who was just I'm Romulan secret agents

because reasons. That's what I do. I'm trying

to think of other positive things. I did like

seeing Riker and Troy came back as freaks. You

would never guess he stepped off the set back

in 2004 for Nemesis. It was great. It was wonderful.

Same with Syrtis as Troy. They both seamlessly

stepped back into those characters. That episode

was great. Or him making the pizza. It just made

me think of that not so good, but... I guess

satisfying compared to this show's ending to

Enterprise. He was interviewing everybody as

the, you know, he's the chef. Yeah. And he just,

he basically looked like that. He's gained a

baby with 30 pounds and he's great. Big deal.

Um, but he seemed to be having fun and he seemed

to be doing everything that he would do in character.

Well, yeah. And he, he guessed, he guessed Picard's,

you know, whole methodology and everything he's

trying to hide from him. Cause he's like, you

know, he served with him for 20 years. It's like,

Okay, I get everything that you're doing. I was

gonna say, did you hear the interview with Marina

Sirtis about that episode for her getting called

back that she I guess she asked if they had contacts

for when when she got there? Because you know,

beta zoids have, you know, black eyes, they don't

have they don't have the iris. And they looked

at her, I guess without any comprehension of

what she was talking about. And it turned out

that she had brought her old ones that she had

wore for Nemesis. Well, and she also brought

her wig. Yeah, and she had to use them because

they didn't even think about it. Wow, that I

had no idea about. Yeah, she was sewing characters.

She remembered to bring her own stuff that she

stole from the set of Nemesis. Well, she's a

professional. Yeah, well, and she liked playing

the character. And yeah, I will say everything

that was very good about Picard was when Picard

was dealing with somebody from Next Gen or other

older Star Trek. Those were the scenes that stood

out. Hugh, Seven, Troy, Riker. That's when the

show shines. Yep. One of the best exchanges and

then I'll open up to the floor is where Picard

and Data finally have their goodbye. And when

Picard says the data I love you and data says

that's a small but significant part of my memories

knowing that you love me. Now that I know that

please let me go. Don't I don't want to live

anymore. Let me complete this next journey that

I should not have. a completion to and watching

him age and rapidly die in Picard's sort of afterlife

limbo thing was rather was rather nice and them

playing blue skies over it was a nice bit. So

I think that the two parts of Picard that really

stand out to me is outstanding is that exchange

because Brent Spiner when he wants to bring his

a game be it quirky and funny as soon or data

he can do it. Um, and the other exchange is almost

anything with Riker, but more specifically when

they're out by the pizza oven, just exchanging

what's going on. And Riker says, let me guess

this, this, this, that, and the other thing is

happening. And he flashes those pearly whites

and he's got that Riker swap smile and swagger.

Yep. Those moments stood out to me. Um, and then

I guess, uh, let's hear from you guys. What are

some moments that really made this series something

special? of silence. Yeah. I mean, there are

good things in the show. I will fully admit there's

good things, but I don't think there's anything

that made this show something special, which

is kind of shocking for me to say what the Star

Trek show like I can say things that made the

animated series amazing. You know, I can say

something that even the worst episodes of Voyager

brought that made that episode amazing. But Picard,

I have a fan. Yeah, I I really enjoyed the Nepenthe

episode only for the fact that you had the the

return of Troy and Riker and it didn't seem out

of place and Riker was very much on point as

was Troy and Picard's like, you know, I'm out

of my depth I need need some help and they're

like basically telling him be you stop being

this crotchety old man like be Picard and I think

that it was it was kind of on point in mentioning

that and and he did kind of do that for the rest

of the episode but then he kind of went back

to cranky old man syndrome and then for me like

most of the parts that that really were something

were when Riker shows up and Troy where Hugh

shows up even though he got offed the way he

did Because I thought it was nice continuation

of his story, you know kind of leading in the

way that Picard kind of mentioned to him and

in the descent part two and then Yeah, I thought

it was kind of hokey how this happened but Ryker

leading the The fleet, you know coming out of

semi retirement to lead the fleet. I just like

seeing people on his bridge Yeah, I thought that

was pretty ridiculous, too. But I did like the

fact that he was back in uniform and he was sitting

on the command chair, more or less playing his

poker face against the Romulans like, come on,

give me a reason to shoot. That was a great scene.

I'll agree. That was a pretty good. That was

a great scene up until you realize that Riker

just let this giant war criminal just waltz away

free, free as a bird. She's the. person that

they now know fully was behind the Mars attack

and killed only 90 ,000 Federation citizens,

which is utterly shocking to me that that's a

whole terraformed world of Mars with stateside

cities on the surface. And then they mentioned

that it's still burning and everything else and

then also caused the destruction of the Romulan.

people because Picard was trying to preempt that

in the first place. And she was the head of Starfleet

Intelligence. You cannot let her go with what

she knows. No. You cannot. But they did. Yeah,

because, you know, he's Riker and he's got a

grin on his face. And I was like, man, the thing

that went through my mind in that scene was I

saw Riker and I went, OK, awesome. And then I

thought, oh, crap, Riker's got to die now because

the Romulans are actually in the right here.

Like. That was the thought that came in second

to me. Like the Romulans were right that the

synths were a danger. They just opened up the

freaking portal and Riker's gonna get in the

way of the Romulans actually stopping this universe

ending event, well galaxy ending event, and now

Riker's gonna die. Oh no. They opened the portal

to third space. I mean, wait, that's that's not

Star Trek. That's Battle on Five because this

whole show was basically scripts taken from Babylon

5. I agree. I agree that that scene was really

good. It's any time somebody from next -gen or

previous Star Trek series pop up and do something

like they should, like their characters would,

that brings a grin to your face. As far as new

stuff in this, I would say the music was good.

The sound editing was good. The sound effects

were bad. Yeah, they didn't you they seem like

they use any sound effects from the actual Star

Trek library and they tried to create new ones

Yep, they did and then it seemed like they didn't

try and use much of them at all. I Mean I heard

I heard old effects from like next -gen or even

believe it or not TOS I heard a TOS effect in

there which was kind of like I Think the tricorder

if I remember correctly the tricorder that she

was using the old -school tricorder actually

sounded like Yeah And so I was like that that

pleased me But but it didn't it didn't look like

a stage prop. It looked like a toy Yeah, it wasn't

it wasn't a high quality hero prop. Yeah Okay,

so now that we've talked about things that we

liked What were the most egregious errors this

series made and then we'll wrap up with our final

thought I'll go quickly just because I only have

one basic thought and it was I went into the

show thinking watching bit by bit going, oh,

they're basically trying to tell like the fall

of the Roman Empire. The Federation is stretched

so thin with a major enemy that they were in

a cold war with forever, the Romans gone. They

now have to basically police and control so much

more space than they can handle that they're

slowly falling apart. And I thought, okay, well,

Picard has basically been languishing over on

his own, not paying attention to what's happening

in the universe. So he has failed to see that

You know, their empire essentially has started

to hit the breaking point and they're falling

apart, but they're pretending that everything's

still okay. I'm like, okay, that's kind of a

cool story to tell. And then they didn't tell

that at all. So my biggest problem is every time

they set up a neat idea, they don't follow through.

For instance, the most egregious problem I have

with the entire show is how they find the planet,

how they find the scene. Yeah. Like I was like,

okay, so Riker's daughter, who I didn't care

for how she was written, but that little girl

was a pretty good actress, basically text messaged

somebody at dinner and goes, we found the place.

And this mysterious captain that's been everywhere

and is super old, even older than Picard, is

never shown, never mentioned, never verified.

They just magically know that's the place where

they have to go. So my thought was, well, is

that person going to turn out to be Q? or something

like. They figured out that a planet that has

lightning storms, right? Well, they say continuous

lightning storms, but let's be fair, the planet

had no lightning storms really when there were

characters there and has two moons. So how many

planets do you think that androids that don't

need a class M environment to live on, how many

planets are out there with two moons and have

the possibility of lightning storms? This includes

gas giants, by the way, because you could live

on a big platform orbiting inside the atmosphere

of a gas giant with anti -gravity, and it has

two moons. And yet the first one that they find

is the right one. And it's literally, it's a

text message. That's how they figured out where

to go. A child was able to transcribe what they

were asking, receive the message while they were

eating, and then they didn't even question it.

They didn't go to this captain and figure out

how or why he would know. They just... he's an

old crazy old coot that lives down by the river

there's a there's a borg uh there's a borg um

transwarp conduit that exits right in orbit too

so the only thing that's what made me think i'm

like okay is it going to be revealed that like

you know reicher didn't join the queue uh is

literally going to be that q has been watching

his family for 20 years and it's sort of like

a guardian angel to them is that how it's going

to be explained and then nothing not even remote

i would have been pissed if that was the case

but it's nothing. It's the worst case of magically

finding out how to get themselves out of a problem

I've ever seen in a show, ever. Yeah, I agree.

I mean, this happens quite often in the show.

There's lots of different... Well, every episode

they have to hit the same beats. Like, they literally

hit the same beats in every episode. There's

no... Like, even in the last episode, there's

no, like, longing or leaving it to, like... Technically

they could end it right there and it wouldn't

matter like oh the the journey continues whatever,

you know, whereas like discovery at least made

the attempt of You know in season one were oh,

we're being hailed by the enterprise, you know,

and then just kind of left to hang and like,

okay What do they need, you know? So my thoughts

I think my main gripe with the series is there

was so much wasted potential like like we've

discussed in this episode, the entire ex Borg

thing was put in for fan service. And that's

pretty much about it. They just wanted people

to be known that they were liberated Borg. And

that's pretty much it because they wanted to

appeal to that wide fan base that sees the Borg

is the ultimate Star Trek bad guy. And I'm upset

we didn't use that as some kind of a metaphor

for people who are oppressed and who have become

free to do their own thing. I'm really disappointed

they didn't take advantage to do a social commentary

on that because when Star Trek does something

wonderful like that expressing that political

or social commentary, it's at its best. That's

I think what disappointed me about Picard is

I didn't see a lot of that really intense writing

and considering television writing has evolved

since the show first came on the air back in

1987. I'm disappointed we didn't get that some

somewhat more uplifting message. I wanted something

that filled me with hope. I didn't want 24 with,

with like phasers and where it failed me the

most is seven of nine. I mean, it's no, It's

no secret on the show. I'm a huge Voyager fanboy.

And when they brought back Seven of Nine, I wanted

to hear a couple of throwaway lines about what

happened with Voyager, what happened with her

and Chikote, and stuff that was hinted at. And

they throw in that she's holding hands with Rafi

in the last episode. Yeah, what the hell was

that? That whole scene where everyone is just

miraculously like a couple and everything without

any chemistry being built beforehand. They're

like, well, you could insinuate it, but it's

not... They don't care about her sexuality. She

can be gay, she can be bi, she can be straight.

It does not matter. It's a relationship that

comes out of nowhere and isn't earned. But it

also feels like they just did. Hey, let's take

a Hallmark moment. Look, we have every type of

possible couple we could possibly have and every

every bond we've made. Look at this. It's like

they tried to wrap it up into like a Hallmark

movie. Yeah, that's my thing. Nothing feels earned

in the show other than maybe Picard. But just

I don't know. That's how I felt. So, Steve, your

thoughts. I don't know, I kind of agree that

nothing was really earned in the end there. It

would have been different if it was something

like the whole Dax thing where the Trill symbiotes,

you know, they were male and female at one point

and then they, you know, still had feelings for

each other kind of thing from DS9. But like they

have no history to even warrant that. And the

same thing with Jurati, like she's a crazy, like,

psycho murderer that, you know, killed her previous

ex -boyfriend and yet... Reels is like all over

her and you know, never mind that she was supposed

to go to jail and for murdering somebody from

the Federation and Then you have, you know raffian

in seven just holding hands It doesn't all of

it doesn't really make sense in that whole part

of the episode like it honestly was a lot of

throwaway just for the sake of saying hey look,

we're inclusive, but it's not It didn't add anything

to the story like it wasn't like something that

gradually built across the season it was just

tada and then then you're stunned where did that

come from well wait a second yeah the only thing

missing from this hallmark ending would have

been rafi magically having her son and grandchild

on the ship's a hug at the very end which her

family had no purpose i'll say that where the

series falls apart the most for me is generally

how they tried to piece together the overarching

story. It's clear that they had an idea, but

they had no ability to actually weave that idea

into points that made sense in each episode,

like multiple points in each episode, and then

connecting the episodes. Just constant contradictions

in in their plot points that they're trying to

make. Yeah, most of my negative points that I

have all revolve around the fact that the plot

is either contradictory there's a convenience

that has to happen because the characters are

suddenly stuck or You just characters suddenly

act out of character or the plot the universe

Doesn't fit the story is not fitting inside the

universe and it has to have something happen

That just doesn't fit. Does that make sense?

Yeah Yeah, it's almost like they didn't have

a series Bible written for it Well, yeah, I think

that's a very astute point. Yeah, I think so.

They probably didn't. So, I guess, ultimately,

as we come to the end of this show, would we

recommend this even as a once watch through?

Because this is... This is a fairly exciting

time for Star Trek. The fact that we finally

got this series and it's been greenlit for...

We just finished the first season. There are

two more seasons confirmed. We have Star Trek

Discovery starting its third season, presumably

this summer, though with the coronavirus, who

knows? Star Trek Below Decks, which is the Nickelodeon

animated series. We'll see what happens there.

And could there be a fourth movie? We don't know

yet. There's been talk about it for years. So

we'll wait and see, I guess. Um, what do you

guys think? I myself say, I think the series

is worth a watch through once, but do not expect

much simply because if you want to see what happens

to these characters, quote unquote in, again,

quote unquote cannon, it's, it's a story. It's

not a very good one. But it's not to say there

isn't some good moments here in there. And that's

the biggest problem with Picard is it has some

cool moments, but it's big consistency is that

it's inconsistent, which is, I think, the most

disappointing because this is a franchise which

has, I would say, a pretty good pedigree of telling

good stories when it wants to. And it's outshone

by its contemporaries. If you guys have told

me the Orville has told some wonderful stories.

um other contemporary sci -fi like Battlestar

Galactica even though you think about how old

that is 2004 there's a new one of that coming

out too yep expanse i swear by i love the expanse

and that's very far from what star trek should

be you know the utopian kind of hopeful stuff

the expanse is pretty dark and down but man that

show is really well written well let's let's

put it this way i And this kind of speaks to

this this whole season anyway, Kurtzman and Goldsman,

who worked on the first season of Discovery,

which was atrocious and I hated also worked on

the show in heavy amounts with Michael Chavon.

And the funny thing is, is I hated season one

of Discovery, but season two was great because

it lacked some of that influence and it had more

of an uplifting tone. And it made sense. Whereas

this doesn't really and when Kurtzman originally

announced the show with Stewart they more or

less said that it would be its own thing Kind

of elaborating that where discovery is a bullet

the Picard series is a very contemplative show

with its own rhythm Which I don't see it say

what You can't trust anything and you can't trust

anything Anybody that comes from JJ Abrams crew

says or does because they all lie and all they

do is reboot and remake and reuse ideas I I would

say that if I had to recommend to watch the show

or not. I would say no Not even a once through

there's no point to it. I mean if you want to

see characters that you loved do awful things

and go against what you thought and hoped for

them. And, you know, maybe you shouldn't put

your hopes on it, but it's still them doing awful

things and making really bad choices, so it's

not making you feel good. If you want to see

Starfleet be assholes, if you want to see the

Federation do the wrong thing, and if you want

to see the quote -unquote antagonists for the

show, the Romulans, actually be correct and right

and you feel like you need to root for the villains

in the end, I think the show fails on any kind

of storytelling that it's trying to do and therefore

it's just not worth watching. I honestly wish

I had never seen episode five with what what

seven ended up doing. I honestly wish I had never

seen it. Steve and Alex, what do you guys think?

Is it worth a watch through once? I would say

it's worth a watch through once. It was not worth

waiting day, like week by week. They should have

dropped the show out like a turd all at once

and had us be able to binge it in an afternoon.

Like really. My younger brother, he's turning

27. He's somebody who never really watched Trek.

He's very intelligent. He's a computer programmer

by trade. He wasn't a big fan of Trek, but he

did watch, I made him watch Encounter at Farpoint,

All Good Things, and I think about three or four

other episodes before he watched this. And then

he had seen, you know, sporadically through the

years, random episodes of different series. To

him, when he started watching this, this was

his favorite show. And I almost feel like this

is a Trek show for a younger generation that

weren't Trek fans, but knew of Trek or had maybe

heard of Trek. And they're like, they want to

be a part of it now. And then as we went through

it, he's like this writing is really inconsistent

and he's like he goes overall he enjoyed the

show But he said it was terrible ending to the

point where we were laughing at the end He goes

he said to me initially he goes Alex this could

be this could have been a two and a half hour

movie and He goes it could have been just about

the synthetics and he goes they could have made

another two -hour movie about the board And that

would have been fine. And he goes, also he asked

me, how long did they take to write this? I'm

like, I think at least a year. Like they announced

it almost two years ago, right? Yeah, something

like that. And it doesn't like the, they only

really had what, like five sets for the entire

show. And they kept repeating over and over again.

Pretty much. So redress for discovery. Yeah,

exactly. So like it couldn't have been that long

to film, shoot, edit, and get ready. So it almost

feels like, and half these people weren't working

on any other show. So it's not a matter of scheduling.

Like it doesn't make sense to me where all the

money went. So I would, I don't know, I would,

I would say if you're a super huge Trek fan,

avoid it, but it's also going to depend on what

they do with season two. Cause with, if the rumors

are true that they're basically at CBS doing

a clean sweep of all of the people in charge

of Trek. If that happens, it'll be interesting

to see who comes in. No, where did you necessarily

hear that? Jeez it's been a while now, but it

was popping up on a few different Like a few

different TV news sites and the talk was I know

that they changed head. Sorry. They changed showrunners.

I think was it three times now on discovery Yeah,

and they've changed it again for season three.

Yeah, and the talk was they were gonna do the

same for for Picard to handle seasons two and

three. Now it's all going to depend. Are they

going to film? If they film both seasons back

to back, it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Like if they film like basically a 20 or whatever

episode run. But I kind of get the feeling that

we're going to have a situation where every season

of each of these shows is going to have a very

different tone. Because there's no consistency

with any of the writers. There's no consistency

with any of the show runners. The only consistency

is they seem to get the same directors over and

over again. You know, the direction isn't that

bad. You know, the cinematography isn't that

bad. It's actually OK. And, you know, Jonathan

Franks as a director is actually pretty damn

good. So, I mean, that's not a problem. Yeah,

it's the writing and production in general of

it. Let me just call in, I don't know, some of

the other showrunners. Well, Ron Moore is too

busy. He's doing a lot of his own stuff. But

I mean, back up a truck of money to him. Or who's

the other guy from DS9? Guy with the goatee.

Is it Ira Bear? Yeah. If you look up some of

these people, they're not doing anything. I mean,

they're semi -retired maybe, but... Maybe higher

episodes for the role -playing game, you know,

hey Hotel room and food, you know Exactly, but

if they're looking like what they need is a strong

hand at the top they need to hire somebody Specifically

because it looks like their entire CBS all -access

network is hinging itself and hedging its bets

on basically running two to three Star Trek shows

a year and then everything else they put on there,

it doesn't get any views. So if they're really

thinking this is where they need to make their

network go, they should have somebody who's hired

and their entire job is to just oversee Star

Trek. And why not have somebody who had success

previously do it, or at least have a, you know,

have it be two people, maybe somebody new and

with fresh ideas and somebody who knows what

they're doing. Actually has a passion for the

universe. Yeah, yeah, they better do it now because

like if they wait another few more years some

of these these people are already in their 60s

and 70s You know get somebody that can still

work to do it before they run these because like

if Every single show they put out is gonna be

like this very frenetic and like crazy all over

the place They're gonna run their their entire

franchise into the ground I'd argue that they're

pretty close to have done it already between

Discovery and Picard. I mean, season two of Discovery

was quite a bit better than season one. But it

all hinged on having the Enterprise show up in

Captain Pike. It was all because of Anson Maud

as Captain Pike. Totally. The Tullos 4 episode

of season two. My god, that was great. Oh yeah,

that was awesome. Every time there's a new character

or something from the new series and they're

trying to put some... Weird idea into it. Like

the red angel stuff was just to me. It was nonsense

It just made no sense in the end, but that that's

probably switch showrunners again, and well the

the Klingon time crystals That that kind of that

was interesting seeing the moral dilemma that

pike had to go through that was a that was really

good It was really also you're honest. You're

on a starfleet. You're on a military vessel.

You're working. You're on duty. Stop swearing

That's not how professionals act if you're if

they're gonna do swearing because you know, you

can now obviously I don't care I'm not approved

but if they're gonna do swearing make it when

they're off hours in their own quarters Why is

it that they're swearing on the bridge? Why is

it they're swearing when they're like and it's

it and the swearing is contrived It's it's it's

not like if you're if you're gonna say fuck Say

it like it would naturally progress into the

speech. They just seem to have added a word here

there It's like emphasize this word or say this

because ooh we're gonna get all the people going

oh my god they swore whereas you mean like the

admiral yeah yeah the admiral the admiral in

the what second episode when picard goes and

sees her i think it's the second episode right

yep that when she's sheer effing gall you know

actually that felt okay because there was a reason

for her to be angry at picard at that point really

angry at him yeah he shot off his mouth in front

of the the media Yeah, I mean, he shot off his

mouth. He's basically a disgrace to Starfleet

for everything that he's done. I mean, not right.

I would say that it's wrongly that way, but she

has every right to be furious at this guy. But

the delivery, that wouldn't be the take that

I would have used. Oh, no, no. I would have had

her thrown out, though. I know Mike really likes

Tilly on Discovery, but the way she talks and

the way she acts, On any other vessel in the

history of the show, she would not have made

it to her position. Yeah. She shouldn't be like,

is she crewman or she an officer? No, she's an

officer. Yeah. And then she's Ensign now. Is

she an Ensign by the end of season two? Yeah.

I think so. Yeah. No, that is not flying. If

she was on my vessel. Yeah. No, you are not moving

beyond your current rank until you learn the

smart enough. Yeah. If they're going to swear

on like Rio special vessel, it's like. Okay,

they're basically a bunch of space bums, right?

Yeah, they're ex -Starfleet. It's like Starfleet,

Star Trek renegades. Okay, and that is how I

want to end this. The show feels like somebody,

some rich person said, hey, I'll put up $10 million

for you to make your Star Trek fan fiction show.

And that's what it feels like. Well, it feels

like that that's why Renegades got shut down

because there's it was a couple of the original

series, you know X basically a borderline X Starfleet,

you know sending a crew to Defeat this this Force

that had infiltrated the Federation and I honestly

love the premise of that much more than this

and they basically had to take the Star Trek

and all of those Star Trek names out of it for

the second and third episodes and It was still

infinitely more coherent than what we got here,

which was basically doing the same thing When

fan fan films are more coherent make more sense

and are more Star Trek feeling that's kind of

sad Especially on a shoestring budget Well, and

not only that, but I mean, it's the same thing

that happened with Discovery. There was the Star

Trek fan series that was trying to go on and

tell the same thing of the season one with the

Klingon War. And they had people that were from

the original and it still was going to be more

coherent, but it got shut down immediately because

then they went and stole the idea. Well, not

to mention, hey, let's just copy this video game's

plot that nobody will ever figure out we did,

and then we'll be embattled in a lawsuit because

our entire show is basically predicated on the

ideas of a foreign language video game that was

made by one person. Yep. And we're going to have

a prequel that involves the Klingon Empire invading

and controlling a third of the Federation, and

then it's never mentioned again. That's when

the Klingons invade in Discovery. That's far

worse than the Earth -Romulan War in the scale

of what happened. Far worse, and it's just never

mentioned again. That's why, to me, I almost

feel like Discovery is not in the Prime Universe.

I agree. I've said to my wife and a couple other

people when I've been discussing the show is

that Discovery and Picard are not in the original

timeline. They just can't be. I don't know. Discovery

is just so far outside of what should be there.

Like, it's almost like Discovery is in the Kelvin

universe and then this is... is this the splinter

in the Kelvin universe of what happens? I wouldn't

say it's in the Kelvin universe, but it's definitely

connected to Discovery because remember when

Picard goes into Starfleet Command, he looks

up and before he sees the galaxy class, he sees

a constitution, but not the constitution he should

recognize. He sees the Discovery constitution.

You would have thought it would have either been

the one from from Kirk or the one with the refit

Because he should have you know when I saw that

I thought boy Picard should actually say what

the hell is that? That's not the old enterprise

If you wanted to have made the show better, that's

how you could have started it it could have literally

been You know, this is a case of the entire universe

has changed around him and he didn't know it

because for whatever reason he was chilling out

on his you know he's been chilling out at home

or you know this whole show could have been entirely

a simulation by Q to test him and he was pulled

into a different scenario. One idea that I had

was right in the first episode when Dodge blows

up that this is all in your death experience

with Picard dying at this point because there's

no way he should have survived that first explosion

everything else from there on is a near death

experience as he's dying. So with all these thoughts

in mind, we hope you will write into the show.

So Steve, if the people want to reach us, how

would they do so? Well, they can reach out to

us at feedback at geekcastradio .com or feedback

at thisweekengeek .net. And if you want to and

if they want to find you on the social, Steve.

at SCP 21. Alright, cool. If you are looking

this hook. uh and communicate with me and Alex

you can find us on Twitter at this week and geek

Alex is maintaining that uh presence for us right

now however if you do reach out to my personal

Twitter I will always respond to you I'm just

kind of taking it easy posting more silly things

and cat things than I have been normally just

taking a mental break because lord knows we could

use it during this time uh Aaron I definitely

want to thank you for taking time out of your

exceptionally busy schedule uh writing for these

various properties and it's been an honor we've

We would love to have you back on the show to

talk about what it's like developing for pro

for developing for an IP such as Star Trek. I'd

love to be back. It's great to talk with people.

I don't know. I've been, I guess I've been quarantined

for far too long. Talk to people about Star Trek.

Even when I hate hate the Star Trek, it's good

to talk about it because it's still Star Trek

in some way. And I have a deep. passion for it.

Well, then I guess we will put a pin in that

and we'll try and get you on in the next couple

of weeks. So look forward for that on the Geekcast

Radio Network and of course here on This Week

in Geek. So for This Week in Geek's Future Imperfect,

we have been Steve Megatron Phillips. I guess

I'm just Alex right now because we don't have

a title. And I'm Aaron Paulier. And I've been

your Lieutenant Commander Mike the Birdman Dodd

saying live long and prosper. In any case, see

you.