Star Trek: Remembering

Last night, Star Trek: Picard boldly went where we'd had already gone before. And I do mean boldly. It's bold for Star Trek to be so blatantly, panderingly conservative. Though I think it should be remembered that it comes from Paramount, the same studio that produced the smash hit Top Gun Maverick, the movie which miraculously poked some Hollywood heads out of the cloud of self-congratulation to see the massive percentage of audience alienated by the deluge of progressive message cgi spectacles. So as Star Wars celebration concludes with announcements of series and films that I think everyone knows with continue the franchise's downward trajectory, Star Trek took aim at that not so silent majority.

I liked some of it. I liked the idea of the Borg rewriting Picard's DNA and infiltrating the Federation through the transporter buffers. I liked Picard and Crusher's son, Jack, struggling to understand how much of his personality was him, how much was the Borg, and if they can even be separated. But it was certainly odd when he wondered aloud if his lifelong fight against bigotry was a symptom of Borg influence. Maybe it would have been more interesting if that had actually been an established part of his character, but I think it still would have seemed cynically aimed at a certain part of the audience.

As does the fact that the Borg virus only affects young people. It's pretty transparent.

The episode culminates with something we all saw coming but I was still eager to see anyway--the return of the Enterprise-D.

They even resurrected Majel Barrett's voice for the computer. The wife of Gene Roddenberry passed away in 2008 but there's more than enough of her voice on file to deploy now, even more appropriately than James Earl Jones' voice was uploaded for Obi-Wan Kenobi. I can't object to a computer playing a computer.

They even turned on the lights. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy seeing the set again, despite Picard still not sounding much like Picard when he says the thing he missed most was the carpet. In addition to being out of character at any time, it's certainly odd in this moment when this is supposed to be a big desperate endeavour to save the entire fleet from the Borg. Oh, well. I guess I should just shut up and enjoy these morsels graciously delivered to me.

Star Trek: Picard is available on Paramount+.

Twitter Sonnet #1687

'Neath stacks of cans the metal eyes arrange.
A cheap and shiny copse condensed a meal.
It's served on pickled plates, it's passing strange.
It's crooked, lean, and sure a losing deal.
Beyond the swamp a choice hotel resides.
Selective veins enlarge the varied limbs.
Confused the ghosts in actors now confides.
The longer dressed all were heavy hems.
Perspective brought a cheese to normal brunch.
With mammal art we duped the birds to sell.
Again the script returned a healthy lunch.
The waitress rang the discontented bell.
The apron's traded last for sweets and fun.
And Easter night against the morning won.