Star Trek Picard – Recapping the Last 4 Episodes

Hello and welcome to Future Imperfect. I'm your

host, Captain Phillips, and joining me on this

endeavor into the stars is Mike the Birdmandod

and Alex. That's right. We are here on the USS

Future Imperfect, though I was a lieutenant commander,

but I didn't pay my dues and I'm not going to!

You're a commander. You know, you kind of align

yourself a little more with the Mach -Key than

anything, so... Yeah, exactly. You're like a

Maki captain, I guess. Pirate captain. Renegades,

man. Yeah, I'm like Cisco. I'm there begrudgingly

as a thorn. And I'm going to co -opt an idea

that originally we talked about for an RPG, and

I'm going to be the captain of a garbage ship.

Like a sanitary, like a janitor's ship. Because

you know they've got to have ship cleaners or

something, right? Well, they did that in Voyager.

There was a ship that used to haul dangerous

radiation things and throw them in the stars.

Yep. It's Star Trek. Ship cleaners. That's what

I mean. Literally, we have all the soap. Scrubs.

It's a boutique ship because you can replicate

everything, but some people just really want

lavender scented soap. That's what I am. I'm

like a merchant peddler and cleaning service.

Portal ocean and the basket like a Molly made

only in space Interesting okay, so our topic

today is Star Trek Picard, and I believe in the

first episode or the previous episode We we covered

the the first three of the season so far Am I

correct I believe so yes, I believe so so we've

had three more episodes and we're on the cusp

of a another one to air yep so these ones um

these ones stuff actually happened the plot is

actually moving forward and boy have i got opinions

um so the so so the three episodes that aired

were absolute candor uh and uh stardust city

rag both directed by jonathan frakes and the

impossible box The ones that were directed by

Frick. So definitely the best absolute candor.

The best part of that was Romulan Samurai. Yep.

You know what it looks like? Well, first of all,

it's like Australian. It's like an Australian

Chinese Shaw Brothers, 1970s Kung Fu look is

what he's got going on. Like, yeah, you know,

yeah, you know, they used to have it's like,

I'm, you know, the general inspector of the police

force. And it would be a dude. in like 1800s

Chinese traditional garb with the hair like that

and the samurai sword. I feel like it should

have been dubbed like with the mouth flaps not

going with the vocals and then like Bruce Lee

type of thing like coming in and just like karate

chops the Romulans. It actually had a lot of

like a samurai space western feel to that episode.

I don't remember a lot about it. See, that's

the thing I'm finding with Picard and I'm going

to be the like Debbie Downer for this series.

I'm not finding a lot of things memorable with

the exception of a few key scenes, which we'll

talk about in presumably just a couple of moments.

Yeah, I kind of agree with you in that regard.

Absolute Kandor, while, you know, there is a

little bit of dialogue that goes back and forth

between people. It was a filler episode. It was

definitely a filler and you get Picard that beams

down and picks up this this Romulan kid Elnor

Who's now an adult and joins him on this quest,

you know More or less Because it was a doomed

a doomed mission from the start Which is the

only reason why those the the people from that

that group actually help anybody is because it's

like it's a suicide mission. You know, the best

thing I can do is describe that episode. It really

is the closest to a space western to like a firefly

type episode would be. It's it's literally old

sheriff rolls into a frontier western town that

used to be this great place. He remembers. And

now it's all run down to ship. And he finds,

you know, the little boy that used to hang out

of the mall shop. who now happens to be, you

know, the strapping young lad who basically recruits

him to be his deputy to try to clean up the old

west. But nobody wants him there anymore. It's

like walking tall. And it's yeah, and actually

a similar plot to like a lot of those classic

like, oh, magnificent seven sort of thing. Right.

Like it's a doom mission. But these people, these

recruiting people who, you know, would never

normally you know, recruit or go to do anything

for, you know, for the sake of good, unless there's

a, you know, one person that can rally them all

together sort of thing. That's what he's trying

to do. And only works for one person. Yep. And

then at the end, you finally get someone helping

destroy the classic Romulan warbird. And that's

Seven of Nine. Which felt a little bit weird

because they, they, they, they, they shoo in

a lot of dialogue. And my main problem with,

with her randomly showing up as much as I love

her, I love the seven of nine character. They

just kind of tell us what she's been up to in

the last like 15 plus years since voyagers ended

how she's helping defend like outposts in the

former neutral zone. It's basically like a new

Maquis sort of thing. Like, there's been so many

changes to the political landscape, and the Federation

stretched too thin. The Romulan Star Empire effectively

is screwed up. Someone's got to keep the peace.

And it just seems really out of character for

her. Like, the writers just wanted to put in

a classic Trek character. Like, people like her.

She's cool. That seems more like a Tuvok thing

to me. Yeah, I definitely agree with you there

or like a Chakotay thing. But it's kind of funny

that they have her there and then she's all of

a sudden, you know, she's totally normal for

the most part, you know, not not Borg like at

all. No. And which is a little strange. But,

you know, she's had a lot of time to adjust and

change over the years to like Picard has. Not

everybody goes to go back like Picard and instantly

is human again. But yeah, Picard's explanation

was obviously he wasn't he wasn't assimilated

for long, right? But when she was young, like

like a matter of days. Yeah. So like I get they're

doing it because she's bored. But the real reason

why they worked her into the plot is she still

looks good. So many other people from that show

have aged poorly. Well, all of actually all of

the the TNG DS nine and Voyager cast have pretty

much aged badly. I would say Ryker still looks

all right. Chakotay or Robert Beltran doesn't

look great. Garrett Wong still looks okay. Tim

Russ still looks okay. Kate Mulgrew looks fine,

but she's aged. She's just aged. Um, I don't

know. Robert Duncan McNeil, not so much. Um,

no, he's yeah. The doctor. Yeah. I'd say Picardo's

age pretty well. Yeah. Um, yeah, but yeah, like

aren't even if you guys age well. When, if you

look at, uh, at DS nine, well, some of them have

aged. Okay. But like the ones that have hate

were one of the ones that age the best, uh, like

Judzia Dax, uh, she dies in the show. So they

can't bring her back and there'd be no reason

to bring her. She didn't know these people. So

like, would it have made more sense for it to

have been like wharf? Yeah. Although they've,

although they've openly said Don't hold your

breath for a Michael Dorn cameo. There's rumors

there'll be a season two bit. Yeah, at least

not this season for sure. He I would be happy

if he came back for season two, like and he was

a prominent part of the cast, like as in Picard's

basically lost this entire cast or something,

you know, and and has to happen. And you know,

it's because it's giant. It's basically a giant

suicide run. And I could see Worf doing it out

of honor for Picard, much like all good things.

because again he's got a similar degenerative

disease in his brain so it's at some point he's

going to become a basically an invalid for whoever

ends up having to deal with him now they did

mention in the official novelization or some

kind of a tie -in comic where wharf commanded

the enterprise in between the ramen destruction

of the Planet or whatever up to Picard like he

was in charge because Picard wanted to trust

him To be in charge because Riker had the Titan

I think that was the name of his ship. Yep. It

was so so that's at least good They gave something

worth to do in cannon like hey you get the enterprise

now. That's cool Plus he'd be the first Klingon

commanding officer of the enterprise. Yeah, so

that's a big deal. Yeah You notice like and you

know, maybe before but there's not been any talk

of the enterprise at all Nope the show so and

it's not like they ever decommissioned the idea

is there's always there's always an enterprise

So which I'm kind of glad you know what they're

gonna save that for the season finale Just like

Star Trek discovery did in season one. I have

a feeling they're gonna have the enterprise with

wharf rescue Picard and his crew probably If

I had the guess. And if you do that, would you

end the show with he rescues Picard and his crew

and puts him under arrest? Maybe. That'd be a

hell of a cliffhanger. There would be a good

cliffhanger, but it would also be good in the

sense that maybe Worf is doing it because he

has to, not because he wants to. But he's also

going to get to the bottom of it at the same

time. Like using it, basically get him aboard

and then find a way to get him off a mutiny.

The whole thing like. Yes. Yeah. I could definitely

see it working out that way because Worf is very

loyal and he has honor whereas Starfleet does

not at this point. So basically you have him

follow the rules follow everything and then you

know basically have Picard have a conversation

with him and challenge him based on have you

ever known me to be a you know a disloyal person

or somebody who would do something dishonorable

and like if he's like no But he's like, why do

you think I'm doing this? And then have him basically

have Worf look into what's going on. Well, and

Worf, once he finds out that this is basically

Data's daughter would in, you know, for the camaraderie

aspect would probably side with Picard anyway.

So. But then we get to the Stardust City episode,

kind of circling back into that and. That one

is crazy because not only do they have different

actors for each and Maddox, but they isn't that

totally different actor. Yep. They didn't even

ask them back because they knew what they were

going to do with them. So that's so disrespectful.

They picked a guy that looks similar, but he's

definitely not the same guy. But I don't think

the original guy acts anymore. Well, he did.

Well, he did renegades a couple of years ago.

Yeah. So it's not that he's not busy. It's just,

they just didn't want to do it. Yeah. Well, or

they didn't ask him. Um, and the same thing could

have been said for each of knowing that they

were going to kill them off. And, um, it was

kind of, you know, a little bit gory and weird

to see, you know, the fact it was un fucking

necessary is what it was. And the reason I say

that is you took a fairly good secondary character

who had a good story arc throughout Voyager in

its later seasons. And you saw the relationship

develop between Ichab and Seven of Nine. You

saw the humanization of her come from being an

ex -borg to becoming more human, to learning

that compassion, that loving relationship, to

forming, for lack of a better description rather,

her own collective. And then she randomly executes

him out of mercy. That's not the seven of nine

I know. Well, and she did it only because he

was suffering and they'd already scavenged parts

off of them. It just it seemed so unnecessarily

brutal. And the part that I didn't like about

it, and I'm sure we'll get into it, is this isn't

Star Trek that I remember. And that's a problem.

This seemed like 24 with phaser rifles. And that's

OK. Yeah, I mean, it just it's. It's not what

I expected from the show. Is it a bold new direction?

Oh yes. And I said, when we first started doing

these recaps, you want to impress me, Picard?

Up the stakes. Make things happen. Yeah. Kill

a beloved character. Stick with it. And they

did. But at the same time, maybe don't go Quentin

Tarantino on us. And they totally did later in

the episode when they're all dressed in their,

you know, undercover disguises. Yeah. And and

seven more or less is, you know, I could I have

some of these phaser rifles? And then she like

in like, yeah, she like explodes the lady and

you just see like red powder go everywhere. And

then she just starts taking everybody out. So

I have a feeling that she'll come back towards

the end of the season, but I have, if, if at

all, um, they won't kill her off screen because

Jerry Ryan's too popular, or sorry, seven of

nine is too popular a character to do that to,

but they'll probably bring her back only because

she's in all the promotional materials. Exactly.

Yeah. Do you want to do something dramatic and,

and, and something that'll not only break your

heart, but make you, Oh no, you know what you

want? You want to kill her off, have her be Re

-assimilated and then and then request mercy

kills and then not have it happen She gets assimilated

into the board cube and then they have to blow

the cube up Yeah, that'd be pretty brutal and

I'd be it that would be an interesting Conclusion

to her story arc or she gets assimilated back

into the collective and becomes a queen Loses

her her I didn't that be something Well, what's

funny about that isn't Star Trek online. They

recently had and and episode where they had that

happen. Oh, they because they have Michael Burnham

and because there's some alien from the original

series that has them testing, you know, their

resolve in different scenarios. And so you have

to fight, you know, all these different aliens

that you've played throughout the entire game.

And they more or less have seven of nine and

Michael Burnham working with your crew. And it's

like the modern modern day Seven of nine from

Star Trek Picard and she inserts nanites in something

and it unfortunately alters part of the the Borg

or Control or something with the timeline? and

it recreates a clone of Seven but she becomes

the Borg queen and it's just it's insane how

it like plays out in the storyline for that but

But yeah, I could definitely see that going down

In the show. I think one of my biggest problems

with stardust city rag it's how they treated

seven like again they tell us she's done all

this things and how she's changed right but we're

just given a throwaway line of dialogue it's

less than 30 seconds oh yeah that should have

been a scene that should have been like five

minutes that should have been a let's cut the

commercial but here's a scene Show us what happened.

And, you know, so they didn't mention Chicote.

Nope. You know, you know, a lot of this, they

weren't sure how the show was going to do. And

it has a lower budget than Discovery does. Found

that out later, which is surprising because you

figure it's not when you look at the CG. There's

not a whole lot in space. They built a few sets.

The CG from when they go to the planet and that's

the second episode we're talking about here looks

pretty darn bad. It looks like a video game.

Yeah, now when you compare that to any CG that

was done in discovery season one, especially

season two It's night and day. Oh, yeah but I

almost prefer it in a sense because it's kind

of I'm almost kind of getting like this Like

the second trilogy of like Star Wars like the

main You know your Empire Strikes Back and you

know the the return of the Jedi where things

are just kind of run down and everything is kind

of just crap But I don't know, I like the holographic

when they're approaching the city and they have

the holographic ads and that if this had been

done in discovery, it would have looked better

because the holographic parts in that look better.

So, yeah, that's true. It's a little it's a little

I feel like they were testing the waters. They

just weren't sure if they should dump a ton of

money into this. And then they renew it for what

is it two seasons they've given it now? I think

I think it's renewed. I know they're shooting

season two now. I think they renewed it for the

third. They did. So yeah, oh and Discovery was

renewed through seasons 3, 4 and 5. Which is

insane because 3 has yet to air. So basically

this show has done well enough for them to renew

the other shows. My guess is this is CBS All

Access's attempt to solidify subscription numbers.

This is their must see event television because

they're using Star Trek as the catalyst. It's

the Star Trek universe now. And now they're actually

starting to pull their content from everywhere

else and kind of pull it all back under their

own hood. Although there's going to be some kind

of a change now that they're merged with like

CBS and Viacom are merged. because there's going

to be a new streaming platform because of like

all the Paramount content and all of the CBS

stuff. So I'm not really sure how that's going

down. But there's talks that they're going to

fold the CBS all access into something else.

It's too many damn streaming apps. It's a pain

in the ass. I agree with you. I mean, CBS All

Access, I wouldn't pay for it because thankfully

we get the stuff on broadcast. Plus we get the

plus we get blue rays for review anyway. We also

do not get Star Trek on CBS All Access in Canada.

That's why it's only $3 .99 a month. Yeah, we

get we get Star Trek through Crave and on Netflix.

Yeah. And see, we in the other place that they

do it is Amazon Prime and the rest of the world.

And the unfortunate part is is I the CBS all

access app overall sucks and It's got some lag

issues and there's some other problems with it.

Like it doesn't It doesn't well, yeah, it's in

stereo doesn't pick up where you left off. Like

if you have to You know go back. I mean and I

tried it when Picard came out initially Again,

like tried it during that time and it it was

still having issues. Quality is better Honestly,

if you're outside of Canada in the States Those

that get it on Prime get it in 4K HDR surround

sound. That's because Amazon doesn't spare expense.

Yeah. Which is funny because even here, the Crave

app doesn't have HDR support. Which is so strange

to me. It doesn't have anything above 1080p,

and I don't think it does surround either. No,

it doesn't. So the only way to do it is if you

catch it either live on broadcast TV with the

commercials here. and that will only do 1080i,

or live outside the North America and watch it

in 1080p or 4k with all the bells and whistles.

Yeah. To get back to the episode, I mean, this

episode, despite the problems I have with it,

I think is the most entertained I've been. Like

when Picard comes down, there's a bunch of Easter

eggs hidden in Free port or whatever the hell

it's called free cloud free cloud. There's Mott's

barbershop Evidently quark has licensed his bar.

So there's a franchise now. That's funny There's

just all these little hidden Easter eggs in there

that are kind of fun I'll have to go back and

watch that because I didn't catch any of that

Although I did like the fact that they brought

Maddox back. Yep, I'm a little disappointed wasn't

the same actor, but I like what they were able

to do with them. I just wish that they would

have let him stick around a little bit longer.

Yeah, I also don't know if I care for the twist

that Allison Pille just executes them. Yeah,

Gerardi. Yeah, where she she kind of murders

him and the the the EMH is like, what are you

doing? Your heart rate's up. And she's like,

turn off the image. And then she just like, it's

probably that she doesn't really have anything

like as far as like like they don't have anything

on her like oh you know we can kill the rest

of your family or anything it's probably that

they made up some lie showed her something that

uh she wasn't supposed to know about and freaked

her out and she's doing this because they're

they're like you got to save the universe by

doing this uh yeah that's a pretty good theory

which which it could be that or big problem i

have a i have a theory that she could also be

an android maybe um the the big problem yeah

maybe very possible The big problem I have, though,

with this whole thing, the second the second

the image ever reactivates again, it should immediately

be reporting the incident. Oh, yes, or whatever.

Yeah. And into Picard. Yeah. Plus ship's internal

sensors would have seen this. Well, and not only

that, he didn't purge the logs or anything. She

says, go away. Well, and then they did more or

less just Like it was just a passing thought

like oh Bruce died, you know, nothing else like

they don't even like really it la -dee -da Like

his heart stopped he just didn't have it in him

and then they just move on like nothing ever

happened like oh We're searching for Maddox for

the first five episodes. We get him He tells

us what we want and then that's just jettison

his body in space. Who are you? I plot convenience

time to die Cool if that wasn't Maddox and it

was actually an Android itself I mean, part of

my problem with this show is the writing is inconsistent.

The idea, I think the grand idea is cool. I really

do. The actors are great when they are given

something to do, but each episode has cool moments.

But most of the time, I'm just like, can something

fucking happen? The problem is also there's some

poor casting choices on, like Alison Pill does

not fit the show. No, whatsoever. She makes it

feel like a comedy with her being in it. Yeah,

because normally that's what she's in. She doesn't

have any gravitas. I think she would work if

you gave her a season to grow, but to drop her

into the role of an instant murderer, you're

right. It does kill her because you look at something

like Robert Picardo who has gravitas but can

act funny. Allison Peele can act serious when

she needs to, but you need to build her up to

that. She doesn't suit the surroundings or the

other actors. She looks too young and doesn't

really fit the aesthetic that they're going for,

which the rest of them are all grizzled and old

and disgruntled at Starfleet. There's really

not any real concern there as far as her character's

concerned even even the other guys I guess a

little bit younger is the captain who I always

forget his name. So I'm gonna Rios Rios. Okay,

so he basically I guess he's like Mexican or

Brazilian Han Solo is basically what he's going

for He's like discount captain mal, but not as

cool like he he's a younger but he suits the

atmosphere of the show, maybe not suit Starfleet,

but like the issue I have is with Alison Pill

and some of the other even supporting actors

that are showing up in it, it seems, I don't

know, something about the casting seems odd or

seems off. Like Elnor even seems weird to me.

He seems like somebody who would fit better in

Firefly. Yeah. And then he would fit. So would

Alison Pill. Exactly. Like they've... I don't

know, it's just something odd about even the

way that they're being directed. Maybe it's because

TNG and shows of that ilk generally used to cast

people that had traditional stage acting. I think

so too, but the other thing - Didn't do that

for this. I think this series, and correct me

if I'm wrong, but it feels like they're channeling

Star Trek Renegades before it got - crapped on

and told, oh, you can't call it Star Trek, but

it's it's renegades, but it almost feels like

renegades to me. Like, in a sense, because they're

they're fighting against, you know, Starfleet

and, you know, the tyranny and the the insurrection

going on. It feels like what they should have

done with this. Like the pacing, I think it's

the pacing that's weird. You know, people think,

oh, it's so slow and then we have these fast

bursts. I almost feel like this show shouldn't

have had 10 episodes. It maybe should have had

22 or 26 like you used to have. or at least 13.

Then basically every other episode you dive into

a backstory for one of the characters and then

plot in between. It needs time to simmer. It

needs time to cook. I mean, when you look at

a show like, say, Doctor Who, for example, there's

a season long arc. You can still have filler

episodes, but something always happens to move

something in the background. Pieces are always

moving. Here in Picard with 10 episodes, you're

dealing with a truncated episode time. So you're

having to cram a lot in. Not a lot happens despite

the fact that things should be moving at a pretty

pace. I think I noticed the most. They're maintaining

the episode length of a traditional TV show about

44 minutes When they're not they shouldn't have

to be constrained by that if you look at this

well, they are broadcasting Yeah, but so was

in Canada. Yeah in Canada discovery The episodes

were like 52 minutes. They had less commercials

on regular TV than normal So they had about five

or six minutes longer to dive into little things

that they needed to depending on the episode.

Yeah Some episodes were like 42, some episodes

were 50, some episodes were an hour. Like they

shouldn't be constrained but every episode here

has been basically the same length. Maybe they

did it to be safe on the season one and maybe

they'll flesh it out more in season two and kind

of take a gamble with it. Yeah because something

just seems off with the pacing like and it's

not a matter of the director's you know problems

because they've all been pretty good. I almost

feel like... I think it's a writer's room problem.

I think also we have too many we have too many

different subplots going at the same time as

well which i feel like is kind of hindering like

they wrote us in one day and they're like how

do we fill the rest yeah and i feel like that

that's how they hooked patrick stewart was like

all right this is our general idea and then they're

like crap, we got them on here now. Now we got

to figure out what to do with it. And so now

you have like the whole Borg disassembling, you

know, the XBs and then you have, you know, the

Romulans, you know, running the Borg ship. And

then you have, you know, the the organization

above the Tel Shear that's hiding in Starfleet

in plain sight. And then you have. You have the

whole Android plot and then you have Picard's

rescue mission concept and then all these broken

Starfleet officers or ex Starfleet officers.

And so you have so many different things going

on. It gets a little much. They also haven't

mentioned how Picard was sick since the second

episode. That should be addressed at some point.

I think they'll do that with Riker and Troy involved.

Maybe yeah, you're probably because Troy will

read, you know, what's wrong and and he'll be

like well, you know remember that that time back

and you know all good things were Like in the

six Episode the impossible box. I think that

had the most cohesive plot, but it clipped along

so fast But it also had some of the coolest moments,

although I did laugh hysterically with Borg magic

door. Oh, when they opened up the Stargate in

the middle of the Borg cube. Yeah, I just about

died laughing. I was like, Oh, convenient plot

device. How do we get out of the middle of a

Borg cube? Oh, the Queen has a hidden room here.

Oh, let's jump on the Stargate and take us, you

know, to where we need to go. Let's get this

has a theoretical maximum range of 40 ,000 light

years. You're telling me this thing. can transport

halfway across the fucking Delta Quadrant? Bite

my ass. It's like Star Trek into darkness. Like,

oh, we we went from Earth to Kronos. I was hoping

they were going to walk in and then we were going

to get like not to start. I was hoping we were

going to get like a sliders reference of them

going through the portal. It's like TV. I was

like, what? Wait, so. Okay, the board queen has

us. So what you're basically what they're telling

you is, oh, the Queen's probably still alive.

She's transported herself across the galaxy.

Although they probably have backup Queens because

the one was killed in first contact and the other

one was killed in end game. But they're like,

oh, so we just reconfigured this cube to get

to where we need to go to get to the Queen's

chamber. And by the way, she has a transporter

thing here, but there's no Queen in here. Well,

because she's probably gone through the portal

like yeah like you know what i mean like all

it if that's all it takes well why couldn't they

just beam right back in and did you notice did

you notice on the borg cube they had the one

uh borg that looked like a romulan slash like

quasi picard type thing down there at one point

that they kind of hinted over and then just kind

of left it alone one thing i will say about this

episode is i like how they're giving some of

the xb's some close kind of Shots you can see

where their Borg implants used to be and even

in an earlier episode Yeah, yeah, like Hugh and

you see where they're peeling off the implant.

You see the raw flesh underneath as someone who's

had significant medical trauma That's pretty

accurate. Um, it's also very clear like more

so than ever They're basically trying to compare

it to like Nazi Germany and German camps Like

these are these are the free Jews and look at

what they've gone through and mixing that with

some modern stuff. And then they had the reconstructive

technology, you know, that they were rebuilding

their faces and things. That's what I mean, like,

oh, they rebuild as best they can. It's like,

but you see a lot of them where they're not rebuilt

100%. And it's like, hmm, looks like having money

like Picard really paid off because he has no

remnants of anything. Yeah. Well, plus he was

only assimilated for a couple of days. So, but

still your point does still stand. I mean, One

of the things because you did hit on a very interesting

point there where you're comparing it to Nazi

Germany this show wants to be as intelligent

as the original series and and Tng the problem

is it's not this show wants to be groundbreaking,

but it's not in every thing with discovery Yeah,

same thing with discovery. I mean as much as

I want to love this show. I do. I love Captain

Picard. I love Seven of Nine. I love the world

they inhabit. This is the gritty Star Trek reboot

I've I've always asked for, but I don't think

I want it. If that makes any sense. I'm looking

at the writers and one of the head writers, uh,

or the guy who's directing actually, uh, this

next episode, uh, like they used to get people

that did specifically sci -fi. Or something of

that fair to do it, but it's like sleepy hollow

criminal minds limitless swats They're all just

like broadcast regular TV shows somebody who

doesn't necessarily have a vested interest You

notice that the first episode has It has five

writers Basically, they're saying that because

it was whoever sat in the writers room and brainstormed

the first episode Yeah, well and then and then

other episodes multiple episodes the second and

the third have have dual writers, and the one

with Riker and Troy have dual writers. Well,

and let's see here. Teleplay by Akiva Goldman.

So that's the showrunner. Let's see what this

person has done. I know the name. So. Well, wrote

Batman Forever. Great. Wrote Batman and Robin.

Great. Wrote the Lost in Space movie. Great.

Wrote Beautiful Mind, though. One Best Academy

Award for Best Screenplay. Yeah, but the rest

of it's garbage. Yeah, the iRobot movie's garbage,

Cinderella Man, DaVinci Code, I Am Legend, Angels

and Demons. DaVinci Code was all right. It was

for... Oh, give me a break. For unadapted screenplay.

The Divergent series, Insurgent. That's the movie

that tanked that series so bad they couldn't

get the final movie made. The Fifth Wave. Well.

Rings. I feel like the problem too. Transformers

Last Night. wrote Transformers last night. Okay,

I feel like part of the problem too is the writers

are all people our age or younger. Or this person

who's old. Yeah, or they're so old they're out

of touch. And so like I feel like had they, and

this is where I feel like the Orville kind of

succeeds, is the fact that most of their old

writers and producers jump ship over there cause

Seth MacFarlane got them. And then, so they've

had very strong, um, storylines, even though

they're one -offs like TNG, the overarching changes

in the personalities and the storyline do add

onto each other. They're just not as they're

just more subtle. So we basically got the B team.

Yeah. Basically the B teams on Star Trek and

the A team is on, on the Orville. Yeah, a hundred

percent. The other two writers, uh, there's Kirsten

Beyer. I'm looking who wrote a bunch of the novelizations

in the 90s. So, but the last two writers that

were on that first episode that are maybe written

one of their episodes since I believe Kristen

Byer and Michael Chabon, they seem to only be

there in the writer's room for like reference.

I don't think they're really writing much. Well,

Kristen Byer. Well, Kristen Byer. She's one of

the, you know, ones that's one of the staff writers

and executive story editors for Discovery, but

is also like a supervising producer, quote unquote,

creator, slash creator on the card. But all she's

done is the new Star Trek universe. She wrote

the Voyager novels, Fusion, Distant Shores, Full

Circle, Unworthy, Children of the Storm, Eternal

Tide, Protectors. Acts of Contrition, Atonement,

A Pocket Full of Lies, Architects of Infinity,

and To Lose the Earth, which has not been released

yet. And let's just reference these. These are

Voyager books, but they've all been published

since 2005. They weren't during the original

run. So she has the chops to write, but you have

to wonder what's making it to the screen. Yeah,

as far as actual writing, it's Short Trek, Discovery,

and Picard. That's it. No other television. Yeah,

that's all she's got. And Michael Chavin, I know

that name. Michael Chavin sounds very familiar.

He's he's actually writing. He's working on a

mask movie and visionaries movie. But he's also

he did a series called Unbelievable, which was

like he did like an episode of it. He did a screenplay

for John Carter. He did Spider -Man 2, the one

with Tobey Maguire. Yeah, okay, so that's not

terrible, but that's it like That's it until

now. He's written books, but like as far as writing

for television and movies maybe three properties

in 25 years Yeah, I'm and I keep a goldsmith.

He just rubs me wrong So like I I don't generally

like anything that that guy comes out with but

I mean I think part of the reason to card is

as quote -unquote is successful is the nostalgia

factor. And we watch it because of Patrick Stewart.

Yeah. And because now we're trying to bring in

the Borg and make them all cool and bad guys.

And they kind of pardon the phrasing. They blew

their load early by using Brent Spiner in the

first episode. Now we're bringing Riker and Troy

in. They They string you along just enough every

few episodes. Here's a classic character. It's

not a reunion show, though. Understand that it's

a cameo and that's important to keep you interested.

Just the show. Like I said, just a few moments

ago, I want to love it, but I don't. And every

week I get excited for a few moments, a few heartbeats

of, wow, that was really cool. And then I get

magic door or each up being tortured. to death

or seven of nine becoming a straight -up murderer

and you know it's still a better show than discovery

yeah yeah with all of us complaining you know

it's still a better show than discovery has been

the only thing that stopped me from completely

stopping watching season two was when they brought

in pike yeah yeah she was the only saving grace

for that show here's the thing i care more about

picard's characters but i like Actually, hold

on. Let me phrase that backwards. Okay. I like

Discovery's characters, but I like Picard's story

better. I like some of the characters on this.

I like Tilly. I like Stamets. I like Saru. I

don't like Burnham that much because I think

she's OP, but whatever. With Picard, I like Picard.

But for the story, other than the overarching

plot, We we said just 10 50 minutes ago. There's

so many different subplots. Well, what the hell

is going on? Well here just to compare quickly

before we go into more of the episode I'm looking

at the Orville and the writers Seth MacFarlane's

written about 50 % of the episodes himself But

he's also been known to be a next -generation

super fan forever. Well, and he also wrote his

own fan film Back in the day when he was going

through school and then he scripted it and did

all this, you know the stuff for it and It's

even for a fan thing. That was like a couple

minutes long. It was not bad at all And okay

one of the other writers slash producers of the

Orville is David A Goodman if you go through

his credits here Working on Family Guy obviously

working with him since but was the producer on

43 episodes of Enterprise Wrote five of the episodes

so as an executive producer on it Then you that's

that's one person working, you know in his stable

of writers Then let's go over to some other people

on that list But the thing is is Seth MacFarlane

also has a lot of friends in a lot of places

that want to work with him. He is powerful when

he wants to be. He's not stupid. When he's passionate,

he genuinely cares. And I think that's the difference.

Whereas the Picard showrunners and the writers

outside of a few small exceptions, it's just

another gig. And that and I and you can tell

he loves Star Trek. For one, he used to get all

the actors back for cameos on Family Guy. periodically

and then And then the fact that these Star Trek

actors want to be a part of the orville and It's

an intentionally funny Star Trek which I'd have

no basically it's what it's what the orville

is and I feel like parts of my card are being

unintentionally funny Yeah as evidenced by magic

door Yeah, well, and I feel like, what would

you be in favor if, say, they took the universe

away from Cartman and gave it to Seth MacFarlane?

Oh, Christ, yes, and a heartbeat. At this point,

I'd be happy if they gave it back to, like, Rick

Berman. Rick Berman? Yeah, honestly, yeah. Other

episodes that have been on the Orville have been

produced and written by Brandon Braga. you know

from Enterprise uh I think maybe was did some

did Braga do Voyager at all? I think so yes yeah

you did um so here are the other and we talked

last time about how there's a lot of directors

that have done episodes but here are the writers

and producers that are working on the overall

I already talked about one so there's also Andre

uh Bormanis uh wrote seven episodes of Voyager,

23 episodes of Enterprise uh and then what else

we hear is an executive producer and science

consultant on the Orville. And Joe Manosky, let's

see this person here, on the Orville is a co

-executive producer, produced one episode of

Discovery. Was the executive producer, or was

it a producer of 100 episodes of Voyager and

26 episodes of Next Gen? And also wrote 37 episodes

of Voyager. five episodes of Deep Space Nine

and 33 episodes of Next Gen. And that's the five

people or so in the writer's room at the Orville.

And Star Trek never has way too many cooks in

the kitchen. That's why there's nothing tonally

consistent. Like, and I think that's the problem.

Picard suffers from a massive identity problem.

It's got all the people you love. but not doing

the things you expect. They have literally nobody

there, even consulting, that has written for

them. Yes, their lore problem is out of this

world. Like, I'm friends, like I've mentioned

before, who's like a Star Trek person who's affiliated

with the IP, and they've expressed some frustration

to me, and I don't disagree with them. In the

second episode we're talking about here, or is

it absolute candor? when the Bird of Prey shows

up, the scale is all wrong. It's the wrong size

compared to the ships. Majorly, hugely wrong.

Even for somebody who's not like, I'm not a super

geek that has to know the exact scale or anything.

It just looks wrong. It is. Yeah. It's the wrong

size. Yeah. And that's something that, one thing

I will give the Abrams movies and even Discovery,

when they render their ships, they actually render

them to scale based on the drawings. So if the

ship is supposed to be 500 meters long, it's

500 meters long rendered in real time. So it's

scaled one to one in the universe. In this, it

seems like they're just putting them to scale

to the size that they're showing up on screen.

You know what I mean? Like, let's put a ship

that needs to be this big to look that good in

this frame. Not that it has to make sense. So

even discovery gets that right, but that's where

I was talking about the budget being kind of

off here. It doesn't feel like they have anybody

working from a technical side going, no, that

doesn't really work. Yeah, like there's just

like we've read on Picard pretty hard. I still

like it though. I still like it and I'll still

watch it. I'm watching it only because I want

to know what happens next. So it's got me engaged

on a curiosity level, but honestly, it's a part

of my Thursday mornings. And I don't say that

with any degree of enthusiasm. And that bothers

me because we've all, sorry, go ahead. After

you watch like this coming episode that comes

up, after you watch it, please, you know, I'll

send you the first couple episodes or watch them.

I think you might even have them. of the Orville.

Just give the first few episodes a watch and

see if you can compare and contrast the feeling

you get from it. Yeah, I will do that before

next future Imperfect Record. Yeah, and at this

point we have four episodes remaining of the

season before we're back to Discovery Zone. But

yeah, no joy 900 years in the future with you

know The only saving grace they're gonna have

for that if they get any kind of familiarity

is because they they talked about bringing the

Trillin is they're gonna have Dax probably come

back That'd be cool. No. No, you notice how we've

talked all this time now, right? You notice we

haven't talked anything about 50 % of the plot

We haven't even talked about like Soji at all

or anything happening with her because it's not

interesting. It doesn't matter It sounds cool

until you read into it. She's a plot device,

and they're chasing this plot device. I feel

like, oh, so why was she cast? Why was the youngest

-looking Romulan cast in the history of Romulans

being on screen? Because they wanted to have

people they could make look like they're having

sex for 15 -year -olds to watch? It feels like

they're just there to advertise in posters. Pretty

much. Like the entire idea of, oh, I'm going

to have sex with her to unlock her secrets. I'm

like, yeah, he's going to unlock her secrets.

Bounce, bounce. And like the the incestual relationship

with his sister being like, I'm giving you one

more week. Why doesn't she just extract it now?

Yeah, just hold the disruptor to her frigging

head and say, give me what I need to know or

you die. Oh, she's going to activate and we won't

know where the. Yeah. Yeah, you will. You'll

find like there's ways out of that. It just,

it felt like they're, they're writing themselves

in the corners. I mean, that's the problem. As

we've said with Picard multiple times during

this episode, it's a cool overarching idea, but

you don't care how you freaking get there. And

did you notice too, that they, they tried to,

once they got the information out of her, you

know, and she sees herself as a doll and, you

know, and all this other stuff, you know, being

created or whether it was her sister or whatever.

Um, and then, uh, Narek, uh, the, the male Romulan

decides to dump whatever that stuff is, which

kind of reminds me of nemesis where they, they

had to say the wrong thing. I was hoping it was

going to do that to her. Same here. I thought

that would have been cool. And then, yeah. Well,

and I thought, I thought they were going to go

that route and then like she got hit with the,

the red particles, but nothing happened, which

was kind of strange. Cause like, and she just

started like pounding the crap out of the floor

until she went through it because she has plot

armor. So hard. And I'm like, she should have

been damaged from that red dust, but nothing

happened. Their idea of fast motion is skipping

every two frames so that it's this jerky, fake

-looking punching the ground. See, I thought

that was just me. No, I saw it too. It was kind

of off to me. It would have made more sense for

her to do, instead of jackhammer, stupid -looking,

unrealistic punches, to just do what Data did

and just punch really hard once or twice. well

there were scenes where data just like you know

wharf is trying with all his might and the data

just goes whop once and then the door falls down

yeah like it didn't and the idea of it they're

kind of shots that don't work in sci -fi they

work in like kung fu movies you know what i mean

like it doesn't make sense the action direction

is kind of weird in this Yeah, I'm not a huge

fan of the writing she falls through the floor

hits nothing and falls like Directly in front

of where she's supposed to go And they're like,

oh convenience Picard can't run anymore. So we

need to have things magically appear in front

of them The one thing I will say we talked about

things we didn't like what I did like is you

Yeah, but what I did like also is the discovery

that Every time she talks to her mother, the

program puts her to sleep. Yeah, I thought that

was kind of clever, actually. How she discovers

that she's a robot is good. Everything else that

episode was like, hmm. Yeah. Like I said, there

are occasional moments of being clever, but they're

just enough to say, this series could be so much

cooler. Oh. Well, and I liked where Picard was

cycling through his computer system and saw the

pictures of Borg and, you know, what he looked

like now and his little cutest. And then they

kind of superimpose the image over himself. Yeah,

that was nice. And then one of the, sorry, one

of the one of the former Borg recognize him too.

Yeah. And they went look cutest. How the hell

do you know me? I was a submitter for like two

days. Yeah. Well, it's still be in the hive mind.

But but no, it was it was kind of funny, too,

because like Picard, like almost fell on the

XBs, like grabbed him. He was like, no, they're

trying to save you so you don't go overboard.

You know, and I guess he did the ad lib for the

or the improv of hugging Picard, which was going

around on Twitter the other day. That's cool

that that scene wasn't written in there or like

their little banter back and forth like he well

they both kind of naturally just threw that in

there the last time he saw him if i remember

correctly didn't he like disown the enterprise

and hate them and leave he did initially and

then picard after hugh took down lore um lore

was complaint or uh hugh was complaining to picard

about it and picard says you know i think that

they have a good leader here you know and referring

to Hugh and kind of empowered him and then left.

That's what it was. OK. OK. That's what like

season seven. Yeah. No, six, six. OK. No, that

was the very first episode of season seven. Are

you sure? I thought the set one and two was like,

yeah, two partner. OK. You're right. Right. I

just watched it because, yeah, it's like I was

like, I could have sworn like it because it's

been a long time since I've seen every episode.

But yeah, it just seems do you notice something

to this universe seems rather empty? Like there's

nobody else in it. There's no other Starfleet

ships. There's nothing there's literally they've

not encountered a single Starfleet vessel in

or any other one Yeah, anything else there. There's

been three ships total a off like off model sized

bird of prey a little shuttle ship that gets

destroyed and them and then the board cube and

then the board cube and Like a couple times you

see like the the Romulan ships landing on it

but like there's literally nothing for the entire

alpha quadrant but that there's there's no other

space stations there's no like they they don't

even take the chance to like have like a picture

on a view screen showing their map and showing

where all the star bases are like they don't

pull up anything like whenever they're like finding

a route or finding a place and they don't show

anything on screen like they used to yeah this

space is just well it would be remarkably empty

but the universe doesn't feel very lived in well

it's like sorry if The Federation's supposed

to be better than it's ever been. Why are there

no ships? Yeah, considering they've had 15 years

to rebuild since the Dominion and the Borg, they've

had time. Also, why do none of the ships have

the tech that was on Voyager? Wouldn't that have

been integrated? Yeah, you would think so. But

then again, they might. claim oh it violates

some temporal prime directive bullshit or something

it would be plot convenience that it doesn't

happen because if every ship had those quantum

torpedoes or whatever the hell they know transphasic

and ablative armor the borg of like dead well

like the the armor yeah like they also had didn't

they have even faster they had like trans warp

coils or something like that don't allow them

to go trans warp something to be go through wormholes

of shit that you could normally do Yeah, exactly.

So like there's nothing like there's not even

a star base Yeah, I mean it would have been nice

if Picard had walked onto I don't know deep space

12 or something and just Walked around for five

minutes and met somebody like like you're right.

Like show me a nebula class vessel Show me on

a cure class. What would it be cool? They don't

even get they didn't even give them quarters

on the ship They're just reusing the same set

of his office over and over and over again Yeah,

there's that too. They literally have two sets.

They have his office, and then they have the

bridge, and the rest is like little tiny shots

that they do on a green screen. I hate that bridge

so much. I hate it too. It has no personality.

Well, plus it's all hologram. Yeah, like that

bothers me. I mean like part of the appeal to

me of Star Trek or it... This is going to sound

weird. This comes from the set designer part

of my brain and the art department is Star Trek

is essentially a submarine television show. It

deals with a command section on a vessel. The

enterprise in the original series had personality.

Every Star Trek command center has had personality.

What do we have here? Four or five people sitting

in lawn chairs. Half the names you can't remember.

The only reason I remember any of the people's

Picard's names is because I hear them so often.

But I can't tell you anything really about them.

I laugh. Well, the one's called Elrond. So all

I can think of is Scientology. Elnor. Yeah, whatever.

Same thing. And then, and Rafi is the only one

that I care about. And Rios. Yeah, but but if

you look at the set and the idea is I guess they

wanted to have like ooh flashy touch button screens

No, because now it's just a black set with nothing

on it. Like there's no there's no there's no

Dedicated consoles. Yeah, because ultimately

if the power goes out on those ships You can't

do anything. There's no manual controls if it's

all touch screen and holograms You're in some

trouble, dude They also you notice like they've

been flying they don't have any weapons they

don't see they don't seem to have like everything's

controlled by the captain why do they need the

other seats yeah there's like a con station presumably

what science or sensors and whatever allison

hill does other thing what she doesn't uh she

just hangs out in the back she kills people she

like plays soccer and it's like it or basketball

or something stupid and then weirdly like does

like high fives with people for no reason like

that's the future man but you're telling me the

fist bump is died out the weirdest thing in the

entire ship though is how uncomfortable all the

seats look yeah these are supposed to be long

like rides you're flying for hours look how comfortable

every seat was they look more uncomfortable than

the seats in the original show basically dx racer

chairs in space Which are comfortable chairs

look at everything in every other show actually

if you want to see how like a good episode is

written Did you have you guys seen that what

we left behind documentary the DS 9? I've seen

about half of it so far Okay, you know how that's

part way through each they have the original

writers room sit down and they go How would they

brainstorm? How would we make an opening episode

for a season 8 20 years later? And they actually

show how they brainstorm. And over the course

of one day in the office, they have one of the

best ideas for a show I've ever seen. And they're

going to give Cisco a new Starship and bring

it back. Well, they literally like they write

it as they go. And so like you watch a few chapters

of each, like it's a two hour documentary. And

by the end of it, they've then jumped in and

showed you a storyboard and had it like animatron

or animated sort of like with storyboards, how

they would do it. And that single episode that

these veteran writers wrote, in one day is better

than anything that's happened so far. And you

wouldn't even need to do much other than fill

in the individual dialogues. But the actual story

plot is better. These guys did it when they weren't

even being paid for it. They sat down, ate a

bunch of pizzas, and wrote on the board to try

to show people how they used to write an episode

25 years ago. And it was better than anything

done now. So I was like, how can they just not

hire people like that? I mean, like Ron Moore

has gone on to make a whole bunch of successful

shows like Battlestar Galactica. And actually,

that's what this feels like. Hey, Battlestar

Galactica was really popular. Let's make that

show. And that's exactly what they did with Stargate.

And that's why they killed the Stargate franchise

when they went, let's make it younger and hipper

and make it brooding. And we'll make Stargate

Universe. And it lasts two seasons and gets canceled.

And this seems to be the exact same formula.

except with old people. Yeah. I swear to God,

if Kiefer Sutherland shows up as a Starfleet

Jack Bauer, I'm done. I'm turning it off right

now in there. What if Donald Sutherland shows

up as like a Borg? If he showed up as some grizzled

Starfleet Admiral, like now I am intrigued. Well,

then it would just be like Into Darkness with

the RoboCop thing. I laughed so hard in the theater

like Admiral RoboCop. Admiral Robocop? Don't

mess with me, son. I was really hoping that they

would shoot Admiral Robocop and then just start

screaming, does it hurt? Does it hurt? Yeah,

so I mean, we're not trying to be downplaying

the show because like we're excited for it. It's

still it's still a better sci -fi show than most.

But I feel like had the Orville not been out.

or even for that, uh, like the expanse even,

which I've watched a bit of, but if those two

shows weren't out, we would probably be giving

more praise to this than we are. It's just that

other shows are doing it better. I think part

of it is as we've gotten older, we've become

more disconcerting with our tastes and our expectations

are a lot higher because we have seen what network

and cable television networks and streaming services

are capable of producing quality shows. When

they want to the problem is because the people

involved with this particular with the Kurtzman

and all them They're like given a pass because

they've done all these big Hollywood movies They

just assume everything they touch turns in the

gold while they don't have everything Kurtzman

touches turns this shit though pretty much but

every studios like but it makes us money and

that's the assumption here look at look at transformers

look at star trek he's ruined all the movies

but Exactly. It's enough to put butts in seats,

but it's not enough to keep people clapping.

And that's the problem. No, because it just taints

the franchise. And if you look, it's shown that

you can have a good showrunner and have something

turn out really good. Look at the visual quality

of The Mandalorian. And one that a lot of people

forget about is the Lost in Space remake on Netflix.

Better special effects, better budgets. And like,

it doesn't make any sense to me why they wouldn't

be throwing everything at the card. Especially

considering you have people have wanted to prime.

prime timeline since Nemesis, since the reboot,

since 2009, we've wanted this. And what they're

giving us is what they're telling us we want.

They're not listening to us. And if they are

going to do this whole, uh, like Star Trek universe

thing, where it's like all these different offshoots

shows, like you've got the, wasn't the cartoon

one coming up, um, below decks and some other

stuff, lower decks, lower decks, whatever. Yeah.

You know how like Tarantino wasn't, was maybe

going to direct a movie. Give him a mini -series

in the Star Trek universe on there. Yeah. It

doesn't have to be the Prime show or anything,

but give him a side story. Let him do something

strange and weird. Have it pop up and turn out

that it's like, what's this one about? It's not

even about Starfleet. It's about an Andorian

space freighter that discovers something weird.

Yeah, because like like cuz if if anything Stuff

like the Mandalorian proofs you don't need to

have Jedi in Star Wars You can have a side character

as long as it's interesting and you need you

need visionary and powerful Directors to push

it forward. You need your John Favreau's your

Dave Filoni's to move things forward you give

it to a Tarantino or someone who cares enough

about the IP They'll give you gold, but you have

to let them Give it or let the dude I can't remember

his name the one that directed the was a Neil

Blomkamp the guy that did District 9 District

9. Yeah, give him one about Starfleet Academy

and have things get weird Yeah, go for it. I

Mean I'm surprised we never got that Starfleet

Academy series people wanted for years There

was actually quite a few different series. There

was one that was gonna be like Final Frontier

that took place at a certain time period as well

like Star Trek is so ripe for the use of its

IP, which is fantastic. But when you revisit

nostalgia and you don't use it properly, you

do a disservice to what's happened to it before.

I mean, the card story ended. Did it need the

movies? Probably not. But we're okay with how

it ended, right? Now seeing them just like I

said, I want people wanted one more movie after

nemesis where he could where it showed him stepping

down like yeah people wanted one where it was

going to end with his retirement but we never

got it so instead we skipped his retirement and

went right back to hey uh this is it's not really

star trek picard and star trek bucket list i

got one more thing i gotta do is what the show

is yeah basically before before i lose my mind

and i die which is which is leading me into the

I talked last time, like, do you think this could

all be in his head? I don't think so, because

you know what? The show runners are not that

clever. Or are they if, you know, are they going

to just go for the next season or something,

snap their fingers and it's it's Q that put him

in the scenario? No. because that would piss

people off that our legacy, it would force people

to go back and rewatch the first season. And

that's not a way to welcome new people into that

particular storytelling medium. Plus it has more

people to to cancel their service. Exactly. So

but you do bring up an interesting point if the

now because we have three seasons confirmed of

Picard. Yeah, we will bring up legacy characters

like Q because John Delancey will do it because

that guy loves doing anything fun and quirky.

He was discord on my little pony for like seven

seasons. So nine season story Why don't they

just really want to spend money? Just let's let's

make a hundred and fifty million dollar movie

put it on there Just like Netflix does with their

hundred million dollar movies I don't know cast

the rock so you can play the champion from from

Voyager where he's like he's a space MMA wrestler

and you could do an entire movie about that pay

in 150 million and you'd get like 20 million

subscribers for at least a month. Yeah, you'd

make your money back pretty quick. Netflix, like

they've... Or even Disney Plus has put money

in the series. CBS All Access is gonna have to

really immensely up the ante because Netflix

is putting out between six and 10, $150 million

movies a year. They're putting 50 to 100 million

per season of their shows. Yeah, and that's what

Disney is doing. That's what I don't think Peacock

is no wait Peacock is putting out the Battlestar

Galactica show and they're apparently putting

money into that and then HBO is putting a ton

of money into their shows to like friends I I

know they're doing other things like Westworld

That's thing Westworld Westworld it looks a hundred

times better than this show I think there's probably

not a better show on TV when it comes. Well,

the show is filmed. Certain scenes are filmed

completely on film, traditional, just like Game

of Thrones was. And then the rest of the stuff

is completely rendered in movie quality in 8K

and then down sampled for TV. So they're future

-proofing their shows. I don't see Picard doing

that. No. Especially if they're not getting the

scale of an old ship proper. there's problems

with this show. And I think maybe the later seasons

can adapt to it. And that's always been Star

Trek's problem. Star Trek has never had a good

first one or two seasons. It takes two seasons

to get its footing minimum. Like there never

has been a star checkers like man. You should

really go back and watch the first two seasons.

They're really good That has never happened season

3 of the originals pretty pretty good. Well,

that's because they ousted Gene Roddenberry Yeah,

that's true T &G season 2 was good. It was inconsistent

It's got about six good episodes and the rest

can be skipped and They blow up a guy's head

Which was great. Which is season one. That's

the only episode of season one. Watch the pilot,

watch conspiracy, and that's all that matters.

Well, anything from season one where it's got

Q. Yeah. OK, so again, like four or five episodes

total, including the two -part pilot. Second

season, Measure of a Man, specifically the extended

version on the Blu -ray only, because you get

an extra 10 seconds. Q -Who? Q -Who, the finale,

and that's it. And there's like between the first

two seasons, there's 52 episodes and maybe 10

worth watching. Uh, and then from season three

onward, it's all great. Pretty much. Yeah. They're

great one -off stories. Yeah. And then the same

goes for, I still want to do a full watch of

DS nine. Um, but DS nine probably it's rough

for the first two, but it's probably the one

that holds up the best. Yes. Once the dominion

war starts, it's very consistent. I actually

watched the one with with Cisco having the the

visions of the profits because he gets zapped

by the computer where it's basically like they're

supposed to enter Bajor into the Federation and

he's like Locus coming down destroys Bajor and

he's like he's like we have to wait you know

and then basically the Locus where the Jim Hadar

ships you know coming down and so because they

Stopped and this was in season 5 like before

the whole invasion and war I'll say this in watching

that documentary. They bring up the comparison

to Babylon 5 and they just ignore it simply because

DS 9 was a copy of Babylon 5 and they got sued

for it and lost So if you haven't Babylon 5 is

a good watch. It's actually in widescreen. It

is It was filmed in widescreen using 35mm cameras.

The CG has aged because that was done in standard

def and they lost the computer files, so they

can't re -render it to anything higher quality.

But other than that, it looks better than everything

until Enterprise. That's a show that had a five

-season story arc that was written from the beginning.

They had every season written before the show

even began to air. that's the kind of stuff that

they used to do when they made sci -fi shows.

They planned that way. I wish that Star Trek

would go back to that planning a few seasons

at a time. Yeah, there needs to be a series Bible

in place, not just bank everything on, well,

are we going to get picked up next season? Well,

I think that's what they're going to do now.

You've got, you know, my closing thoughts, I

think for this episode, because we've rambled,

is they got two seasons now where they can write

20 episodes, which isn't a lot. but they don't

have to write any filler. They now have 30 episodes

they can make for Discovery. So, you know, unless

they, or actually, Discovery is 14 episodes a

season, 14 to 15. So they got roughly almost

40 episodes. So they better have a plan for the

next three. And then on top of that, we've got

the section, whatever, show coming out. So...

Section 31. Yeah. So we've got what? a total

of maybe including the cartoons almost 100 episodes

being written over the next little bit so if

they're smart they'll have their bible in place

you know beforehand and isn't there rumors that

they're changing the head writers and then the

person who's in charge of uh star trek for paramount

that was a rumor about a year ago they're still

keeping last week or the week before yeah it

just keeps resurfacing They yeah, what is it

CBS changing head writer Yeah, I don't I'm not

seeing anything Yeah, I'm not seeing anything

as far as changing the head writer I know Michael

Chabon is not going to be sticking around for

season two of Picard. Good. And didn't they oust

the last... They've gone through two or is it...

No, it's three head writers and showrunners for

Discovery already. One for season one and they

replaced the season two person halfway through

and the second person that was hired on is now

left too. It's probably because people have to

deal with Kurtzman. That's what it sounds like,

and they said in the studio they're going over

budget on all their episodes. Well, that's on

the executive producer, not the director. The

director gets the scenes, the executive producer

puts the money together and gets the budget approved.

So that's on Kurtzman if he keeps going over

budget, but then they're blaming the head showrunner.

No, it's Kurtzman. I bet they're wishing that

they gave this stuff to JJ Abrams, you know,

back when he first did the 2009 movie. Except

that he's terrible at everything he does? He

is. And I don't get everybody's love for him,

to be honest. For who? Abrams? Yeah, he's bullshit.

He's a nostalgia leech that just basically plays

on people's nostalgia and re -does the same movie

tropes over and over again. Pretty much told

I can't think of much of his I I you know what

I will say this I do like his first Star Trek

movie I do like that and I liked some of his

TV stuff, but that's pretty much about it Anything

he's done super theatrical. I'm like, okay Mission

Impossible 3 was was tolerable. It was better

than the second one Force Awakens was okay, it

wasn't great. It was a rehash. Yeah, it was a

rehash. Everything he does is rehash. Even like

Super 8, it's just, oh, let's capture your nostalgia

for movies like this. Oh, his idea for Cloverfield,

did he direct that or did he produce that? I

can't remember. I don't remember. I think he

directed it. I think he directed it. But it's

like, oh, let's do Blair Witch but Godzilla.

Like he doesn't have any original ideas. even

for the stories he does get so he's just he's

he's the definition of a tv director who happened

to get a chance and somehow made it big he's

not good enough to be a theatrical director he

just i don't know and and you see him and and

like he was apologizing for issues with with

star wars yeah you know what you wouldn't have

had to apologize if you had enough clout to have

made it the way you wanted to make it Half of

the directors of these larger movies have enough

clout that they can get the movie done the way

they want So obviously there wasn't enough faith

in him to get it done by the higher -ups But

then they still try to praise him as being some

visionary genius Well, he's only get a five -year

deal with CBS To more or less expand the Star

Trek fan franchise and it was signed in June

of 2018 So we've only got three more years of

him every show that he produces for TV Generally

has a good pilot and then everything else is

garbage and they last a few years and fizzle

out. So I'm not trying to blame him, but if you

wanted to get somebody who is still working in

the industry and is successful, half of the Star

Trek people are dead. 90 % of the rest of the

people are now working for the Orville that were

either involved in producing or writing. The

only person that hasn't popped up is Ron Moore.

And that's because he's highly successful in

what he's doing. He's got... I think it's three

or four shows on TV right now. Uh, he makes the,

uh, uh, what's that called? Uh, Outlander, the

time travel women's show where the girl goes

back in time from the forties to like the 1700s.

Uh, that's on it's like fifth season. Uh, he

has that show on Apple TV that got renewed for

two, I think it's two or three seasons. The Mamoa

show? No, no. His show is the really good one.

The one about the moon landing. What if the Russians

landed on the moon first? Oh, okay. That's and

that has a super high budget. That's really good

He's the head writer and producer of that and

then he's got like two other ones. I think in

production He's also the guy that was one of

the head writers for DS 9 and showrunners there

He's the guy that reinvented Battlestar Galactica

made it probably the most popular sci -fi show

of the 2000s other than Stargate. Yep Here's

a question. Why not hire some of the Stargate

people? They're not worried Yeah, like you want

to have people that know how to run a franchise

for longer than Star Trek did, have them. They

had the same showrunners for... I think a lot

of them are working on the CBS All Access Twilight

Zone because I know a lot of them. I know some

Stargate people and X -Files people work on Twilight

Zone. It was the same producers and writers that

wrote a total of 17 seasons of TV. And they wrote

some of those seasons concurrently where they're

writing for two different shows at once. So these

are people that know what they're doing. And

yet they have nothing to do with them. It's all

Everything with these shows are all part of the

abrams verse of all of his people that he hires

for everything These producers that are producing

these shows These are people that were his junior

producers on his movies and they now he's like

here here You've been suckling up my teat long

enough. You can now have your own show. Yeah

What's what's even funnier rod roddenberry the

son of jean roddenberry, you know, he's just

riding this out anyway, but he's because he's

got Roddenberry Entertainment, but he he's an

executive producer on Discovery the short tracks

Picard and lower decks and He's had like he was

a production assistant on TMG for like a miniscule

amount and Really? That's pretty much all he's

done Yeah, like I'm just looking at Ron war he's

probably the best choice to do this He doesn't

seem to have any issues with them because he

came by to do that documentary on DS9. But like,

the shows he's made since he left, the dude was,

what did he do here? He produced 77 episodes

of Next Gen, 128 episodes of Deep Space Nine,

two episodes of Voyager. He created the show

Roswell, Carnival, Battlestar Galactica. It's

spinoffs, Caprica, Helix ran for two seasons.

Electric Dreams, which is like a Twilight Zone

show that ran for one season. Outlander's now

in its fifth season for all mankind. Why aren't

they getting people like that? It's almost like

they want to get people dirt cheap and have them

only work on the one show. When a lot of the

people that were working for Star Trek traditionally,

they're working for multiple shows. Yeah, I don't

get it but yeah, I think we've dragged this this

topic into the ground as far as we can take it

at this point Hopefully the last four episodes

when we recap those are better than what we've

been handed so far Indeed mm -hmm agreed for

sure so any other thoughts before we close this

out Um, I guess as a final closing thought for

me is do better because you are capable of it.

I just think you need to let go of nostalgia.

You need to get more cohesive and don't be afraid

to take a risk in the right direction. And what

do I mean by that? Very, very, very briefly.

Give me a reason to care. Don't just randomly

kill characters because it'll make you edgy and

make you gritty. Give me an emotional payoff.

Like Alex talked about killing Janeway. That

would be an emotional payoff if you did it correctly.

And it would give someone a graceful out of the

franchise. If you want that to build up season

two, cool. Do that. But you got to start now.

I totally agree. Same. And, you know, not just

saying do better, but think about your plot before

you write it. Don't just write, don't, they seem

to be looking at each episode individually. Oh,

here's the thing. Write, if you're going to do

a serial show, write it as a serial. But the

problem is they're changing writers for every

episode almost. So they're writing like they're

writing their episode only. When if you're going

to have a serialized show, you should have the

plot written out ahead of time. and then you

bring your writers into fill -in -the -blanks.

Totally. So, for this episode of Future Imperfect,

we have been Mike the Birdman Dodd, and Alex,

and Captain Phillips here, so until next time,

live long and prosper.