WILD BLOG; RANDOM REVIEW; STAR TREK PICARD EPISODE 1.
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Hey there
Earthlings, Alternatives and Trollers. Put down that mouse and lend
an ear. Welcome to The Bandersnatch blog where we talk weird, wacky
and wondrous. I'm Mama Ogre and I have no idea what I'm doing.
RANDOM
BLOG ALERT, RANDOM BLOG ALERT. You ALL know that random blogs hit
when ya girl's inspired. This blog is a TV review on Episode 1 of the
recently released Amazon Prime/CBS show PICARD which I am super dope
about. Please note that there will be reviews of all eight episodes
of Picard on this blog posted up to four days after the episode is
released hence they are under the Random blog segment.
Back in
June 2018 Alex Kurtzman began expanding the Star Trek universe and
because of this the rumours of a new series came about, by August
after several months of negotiations between Sir Patrick Steward
From
September 2019 when the writing happened to April 2019 where
Production on the show happened in Santa Clarita Studios, California
“under the title of Drawing room) instead of Toronto, Ontario
Canada where Star Trek Discovery was being recorded. The show is set
20 years after the events in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), Kurtzman
revealed that the show follows a Picard who is “Radically altered”
by the destruction of Romulus (as depicted in Star Trek 2009) and
that the mandate for the series was to make it “a more
psychological show a character study about this man in his emeritus
years” (Emeritus means a former holder of a title or office but
allowed to retain the title). The series doesn't just have the return
of Captain -now Admiral- Jean-Luc Picard, there is also the Return of
Brent Spiner as Data and B-4, Jonathon Frakes and Marina Sirtis as
married couple William Riker and Deanna Troi, Jonathon Del Arco as
Hugh- a Borg drone liberated by the Enterprise Crew (during episodes
“I, Borg” and “Descent part 2”) and Jeri Ryan as Seven of
Nine from Star Trek Voyager. Ahead of the series premiere CBS all
access renewed Picard for a ten episode second series of which
Stewart whilst on The View, invited Whoopi Goldberg to return as her
TNG character Guinan.
Picard was
released on CBS on Thursday 23rd January 2020 in the US
with an International release a day later on Friday 24th
January 2020 to generally favourable reviews and a 95% rating on the
review website Rotten tomatoes. It certainly has a 10/10 from me.
Lets go on
and talk about Episode one of Picard shall we. It is Titled
Remembrance and was directed by Hanelle Culpeper.
Following
the Romulan supernova, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard has resigned his
commission from Starfleet in protest of their failure to save the
lives of the Romulan citizens. This was, in part, caused by an attack
on the Confederated Martian Colonies, and the Utopia Planitia
Shipyards, by synthetics- and would lead to a ban on them. Picard
retires to his country estate in La Barre France. In greater Boston,
Dahj is enjoying an evening with her boyfriend, when Romulan
assassins transport into her apartment. They kill him, but before
they kill her, something activates in Dahj and she kills the
assassins, she experiences visions of Picard and seeks him out after
seeing him being interviewed on the federation news network. Dahj
finds sanctuary in La Barre, but soon runs away out of fear of
bringing harm to the Admiral. Picard calls on the Starfleet archives
and discovers a painting data made thirty years previously entitled
“Daughter”, baring a female figure resembling Dahj. Dahj tracks
Picard down and reunites with hi, but it proves to be a brief reunion
as she us killed by the same assassins form earlier. Picard travels
to the Daystrom Institute in Okinawa and meets with Dr,. Agnes
Jurati, who reveals Dahj may be Data's daughter through an
experimental procedure known as fractal neuronic cloning- meaning she
is an android with an organic body but a positronic brain. Jurati
reveals this process results in twins. The episode ends in a Romulan
reclamation site where a Romulan named Narek meets with Soji Asha,
Dahj's twin. A final view of the reclamation site reveals it to be a
Borg cube.
- Star Trek Picard Wiki
OK, So the
episode starts with the Song Blue skies playing as the Enterprise D
comes into view and passes over the screen. The song Blue skies is
perfect to start as it ties into Star Trek Nemesis as this is the
song Data sings at Riker and Troi's wedding and what B-4 tries to
sing at the end of the movie.
In
Picard's dream on the Enterprise-D which was destroyed in Generations
(), Data is in the uniform seen in Nemesis which shows Picard's
memory ties the two together since Data was his friend and the
Enterprise D had good memories.
By the
way, De Nero who plays Picard's Pitbull No 1 is so F^*£ing adorable
it hurts (I love Pitbull breeds they are adorable and cute).
The view
of Picard Dahj has could be a result of Memories from Data and around
the time of Nemesis, or could be from when the Synthetics attacked
the Dockyard where the Romulan relief ships were and are an inherited
memory from another syth. Plus that and her activated abilities after
her attempted kidnapping/assassination does correlate what Dr. Jurati
says later.
The
Romulan couple Laris and Zhaban who have been assisting Picard at the
Châteaux Picard show a strain of Loyalty Picard routinely inspires.
However another thought could be that they have become sleeper agents
for the remaining Romulan spy network the Tal Shiar since before all
this they were Romulan agents (Supported in the pre-Picard series
Comic books called Countdown) could tie in with later episodes of
Picard.
The
Paintings by Data titled “Daughter” definitely tie in Dahj (and
Soji) to the Daughter Lal, Data created in TNG S3 EP16. Both Dahj and
Soji at first glance could be mistaken for Lal. Well when I saw the
picture I definitely thought Lal first (but then I have religiously
watched TNG since I was twelve along with DS9 and Voyager).
The tie
between Dahj and Soji's necklaces and the symbol of the Fractal
Neuronic cloning is a big tell that both girls are cloned androids
thanks to Dr Brian Maddox's work. (Dr. Maddox was first seen on the
TNG episode 9 of season 2, where Data and Picard fought for Data's
rights as a 'sentient' being under federation law). To create any
Androids especially Dahj and Soji, Maddox and the lab he ran with
Jurati needed the Soong-type android's positronic brain or the
Neuronet, which they could have gotten from B-4 which they had in
storage (Data did download his Neuronet into B-4 before the ending of
Nemesis but it ultimately failed).
Basically
Fractal Neuronic Cloning is a hypothetical technique for creating an
android with a stable positronic matrix, developed by Dr Bruce Maddox
()
There is a
thought that the Romulans could be behind Maddox getting enough of
Data's Neuronics due to Data dying in Romulan space on the Scimitar
(again Nemesis....watching it will help) to create Dahj and Soji but
then again it could have been gotten from B-4. Screenrant.com's has a
segment on Picard's EP1 titled Star Trek: Picard's big TNG twist
ending dated Jan 23rd 2020 and written by John Orquiola
talks about the synthetic issue brought up in the show a bit better
than I can.
The
Romulans do seem to have had the Borg Cube for some time, could
definitely have had it in their control since before Nemesis
happened. Like with what happened with Shinzon in Nemesis, The
reclamation of the Borg cube could have happened in an earlier time
frame (with the extent the Romulans are with taking control of the
cube it could certainly have been around or just before Shinzon's
takeover attempt) and the Romulans making tests on Borg drones in all
the Picard trailers could have been a hidden plan to make the Romulan
star empire a MAJOR player in the universal politics.
The gidiness I've felt over the series has been imense. The new storyline is great and everyones acting is what I've come to expect of a Star trek series. I genuinely loved
the episode I've watched it three or so times by the posting of this
blog (very early morning UK time on 28/01/2020) and will have no
doubt that I will watch it several more times by the end of the
series/season. I highly recommend it to everyone and like I said
earlier I've given it a 10/10, but then again I'm a Trekkie.
I do
believe that the overall plot of the series is definitely based on
the creation of Dahj and Soji, what could happen to them and what
they ultimately represent. I do have a feeling that with Guinan's
possible inclusion in Season 2 and Picard having been a Borg in his
lifetime a long term plot either an A-plot or B-plot could be based
on the creation of the Borg and the consequences of Romulans having
Borg technology.
As a side
note I do have somewhat of a theory; about the Borg, the creation of
Synthetics and the Eugenics wars from Star Trek history.
So, In
star Trek history/lore, a series of conflicts fought on earth during
the 1990's happened due to an attempt to improve the human race this
would become to be known as the Eugenics Wars. This conflict would go
onto cause WW3 in 2026. The Conflicts were caused by the Augoments, a
group of people created by scientists in the 1950's in hopes to lead
humanity to peace (Star Trek: Into Darkness). The most famous person
to come out of the Eugenics war was Khan Noonien Singh who having
become an absolute ruler over a quarter of the planet was the last to
be overthrown of the “Tyrants”, The eugenics wars caused fear
that lasted well into the 24th century. (ENT:”cold
station 12”, TOS:”bread and circuses” and DS9; “Doctor
Bashir, I Presume”).
Now the
reason why The Eugenics wars is part of my theory is due to the
escape of Khan and 84 other Augments having escaped on a sleeper ship
the SS Botany Bay (Star Trek: Into darkness), The banning of Genetic
engineering and exiling of Dr Stavos Keniclius which resulted in him
leaving earth permanently (TAS: “The Infinite Vulcan”,
DS9:“Doctor Bashir, I Presume” & “Statistical
Probabilities”) and Arik Soong's ill-thought out raising of several
Augments he'd raised from embryos in 2130 (ENT: “Borderland”,”Cold
Station 12” & ”The Augments”).
I have two
options as to how the Borg came about and are loosely tied to
synthetics mentioned in this episode.
No1:
Any one of
the Augments or even a group of them could have survived the chaos
gotten together with other humans /other species and left the known
part of space and ended up in the Delta Quadrant without public
knowing and continued working on genetics, combining it with
Scientists know how on synthetics and cybernetics to eventually
create the Borg who spread across several galaxies (As a result of
TNG S2, EP16 onwards).
Or No. 2:
A Humanoid
race with similar conditions to earth in the Delta Quadrant had a
similar trip but a combo of Eugenics, cybernetics and synthetics
creating the original Borg which evolves into what we know in Star
Trek.
That's all
I have for this Blog, I hope you enjoyed it and please talk about it
amongst your friends and talk about it with me via any of The
Bandersnatch's social media (tagged down below in the Bibliography)
It would be nice to hear from you.
Episode
two of Picard named Maps and Legends will be released on the 30th
of January (US time) on CBS and on 31st of January 2020
(International time) on Amazon Prime.
THE
WEBSITE BIBLIOGRAPHY:
And there
you have it, we'll be leaving this here for today. Please be
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THIS IS
THE BANDERSNATCH, I'M MAMA OGRE AND REMEMBER STAY WEIRD, STAY WACKY,
STAY WONDEROUS AND I'LL SEE YOU SOON...
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