Star Trek Picard – 3x05: Imposters
Jul. 19th, 2023 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsTechnically, this is a little shorter than I like to post for a single review, but I don't have a next project in mind (at least not one I've done anything with), so I'm going to drag this one out a bit more.
Star Trek Picard – 3x05: Imposters
Oddly enough, I think this is the first episode that has made me want to just roll over into the next ep. I don’t know that it’s that much better than the prior episodes, but hitting notes that are more interesting to me than the action focus of the first arc.
I actually think the writing might be a little tighter in this one too. There were a lot fewer times when I was taken out of the story by a dialog choice that sounded wrong to my ears. In fact, I think I’m willing to say that what problems I did have with this episode aren’t with the writing. A bit with the plotting, a bit with the long term fit, and those don’t cripple the story for me.
Look, one thing that did take me out of the story was wondering why it’s so easy for Changelings to die to phaser fire (also when phasers became bullet/burst weapons instead of beams). Now that they’re putting in more effort to replicate inner physical structures, are those actually vital organs for them? I’m not sure if that’s more developed or a stupid weakness to introduce. DS9 didn’t actually have that many times when the Changelings were a face-to-face threat, so they didn’t actually have that many opportunities to show what kills a Changeling in such a fight. But I think weapons that disintegrated were your best go-to against Changelings back in the day, now phasers don’t seem to disintegrate. (And they can make this kind of advancement to get past infiltration countermeasures, but they still have to regenerate in buckets?)
I do recall that things between Ro and Picard were left rather unfinished when she left to join the Maquis, but like with other things I’ve called out this season, I don’t know that I buy them acting this way 30 years later. Also the Maquis were all but wiped out within three years of Ro joining them, I want to know what Ro did during the rest of the Dominion War; or how the Voyager Maquis were treated when they returned to the alpha quadrant; I feel like there would be more Starfleet policy about how the surviving Maquis were treated. For that matter, Seven was immediately taken back by Starfleet after she had been running freelance (that I gather Starfleet hadn’t approved of) for however long. I just don’t know that I buy Picard would find it so shocking with Ro turning up as Starfleet.
I…think I lost track of what I was quasi complaining about there. It was sort of a catch-all point about how they’re acting like all of that went down 5-10 years ago rather than 30. And while I do know that what either of them is feeling certainly could fester over that time, if that’s the case I don’t think it goes far enough. Actually, it’s kind of the same main character problem as I was having with Picard the last couple episodes. Everyone is seeking their validation from Picard, who is the ultimate arbiter of moral certainty, and if they’re not seeking his approval they’re going to be painted as a problem. (I’d say the small exception of this is Beverly, she’s not all that interested in Picard approving of her choices, and while the show is not exactly on her side, it’s not condemning her either.)
…I’m definitely meandering around a point that my brain hasn’t quite landed on,
Anyway, I did fall for the suspicion that Ro might be a Changeling, and can recognize that it was cleverly done, having her do the old fashioned blood test at about the same time we learn that that’s not going to tell us anything. I kind of wonder how a blood screening would work with android-Picard (I toyed with calling him Pic-oid, but the show isn’t writing him any differently that I think it would regular Picard, and probably wants us to forget that plot point ever happened; I don’t know if that’s better or worse that the handling of Coulsoid, but it has been on my mind). I also sort of wonder what Riker was getting up to during all of that drama, but that’s a small niggle.
(Really, am I getting near a point, or does the fact that I mostly liked this episode just result in word vomit as a review?)
The weak part of this episode remains the Worf and Rafi part. This really isn’t endearing Rafi to me, assuming they’re even trying. Once they introduced the fight to the death element it was so obviously going to end in a twist that I just waiting to see what twist they were going for. Plus their very strange behavior at the start of the ep. And if there was a place in this ep where the writing seemed more awkward it was in that plot.
It makes me aware of the fact that the Rafi actress is at this point the only member of the cast to that cast to act in the first couple seasons of this show. Everyone else either has old Trek experience or was cast this season, but the Rafi actress was cast to work with modern Trek writing (as in both dialog and character behavior), and doesn’t seem to really fit with this season trying to be Star Trek instead of whatever those first couple seasons were. She’s not completely bad at it, but it’s noticeably out of step with the others; not helped by putting her in a setting that is already out of step with the Trek universe.
…wait, if Ro already knew about the Changeling infiltration, and she and Worf were working closely enough together that they knew who they were talking to, why didn’t she tell him about the Changelings?
Okay, time to stop rambling for now.
Star Trek Picard – 3x05: Imposters
Oddly enough, I think this is the first episode that has made me want to just roll over into the next ep. I don’t know that it’s that much better than the prior episodes, but hitting notes that are more interesting to me than the action focus of the first arc.
I actually think the writing might be a little tighter in this one too. There were a lot fewer times when I was taken out of the story by a dialog choice that sounded wrong to my ears. In fact, I think I’m willing to say that what problems I did have with this episode aren’t with the writing. A bit with the plotting, a bit with the long term fit, and those don’t cripple the story for me.
Look, one thing that did take me out of the story was wondering why it’s so easy for Changelings to die to phaser fire (also when phasers became bullet/burst weapons instead of beams). Now that they’re putting in more effort to replicate inner physical structures, are those actually vital organs for them? I’m not sure if that’s more developed or a stupid weakness to introduce. DS9 didn’t actually have that many times when the Changelings were a face-to-face threat, so they didn’t actually have that many opportunities to show what kills a Changeling in such a fight. But I think weapons that disintegrated were your best go-to against Changelings back in the day, now phasers don’t seem to disintegrate. (And they can make this kind of advancement to get past infiltration countermeasures, but they still have to regenerate in buckets?)
I do recall that things between Ro and Picard were left rather unfinished when she left to join the Maquis, but like with other things I’ve called out this season, I don’t know that I buy them acting this way 30 years later. Also the Maquis were all but wiped out within three years of Ro joining them, I want to know what Ro did during the rest of the Dominion War; or how the Voyager Maquis were treated when they returned to the alpha quadrant; I feel like there would be more Starfleet policy about how the surviving Maquis were treated. For that matter, Seven was immediately taken back by Starfleet after she had been running freelance (that I gather Starfleet hadn’t approved of) for however long. I just don’t know that I buy Picard would find it so shocking with Ro turning up as Starfleet.
I…think I lost track of what I was quasi complaining about there. It was sort of a catch-all point about how they’re acting like all of that went down 5-10 years ago rather than 30. And while I do know that what either of them is feeling certainly could fester over that time, if that’s the case I don’t think it goes far enough. Actually, it’s kind of the same main character problem as I was having with Picard the last couple episodes. Everyone is seeking their validation from Picard, who is the ultimate arbiter of moral certainty, and if they’re not seeking his approval they’re going to be painted as a problem. (I’d say the small exception of this is Beverly, she’s not all that interested in Picard approving of her choices, and while the show is not exactly on her side, it’s not condemning her either.)
…I’m definitely meandering around a point that my brain hasn’t quite landed on,
Anyway, I did fall for the suspicion that Ro might be a Changeling, and can recognize that it was cleverly done, having her do the old fashioned blood test at about the same time we learn that that’s not going to tell us anything. I kind of wonder how a blood screening would work with android-Picard (I toyed with calling him Pic-oid, but the show isn’t writing him any differently that I think it would regular Picard, and probably wants us to forget that plot point ever happened; I don’t know if that’s better or worse that the handling of Coulsoid, but it has been on my mind). I also sort of wonder what Riker was getting up to during all of that drama, but that’s a small niggle.
(Really, am I getting near a point, or does the fact that I mostly liked this episode just result in word vomit as a review?)
The weak part of this episode remains the Worf and Rafi part. This really isn’t endearing Rafi to me, assuming they’re even trying. Once they introduced the fight to the death element it was so obviously going to end in a twist that I just waiting to see what twist they were going for. Plus their very strange behavior at the start of the ep. And if there was a place in this ep where the writing seemed more awkward it was in that plot.
It makes me aware of the fact that the Rafi actress is at this point the only member of the cast to that cast to act in the first couple seasons of this show. Everyone else either has old Trek experience or was cast this season, but the Rafi actress was cast to work with modern Trek writing (as in both dialog and character behavior), and doesn’t seem to really fit with this season trying to be Star Trek instead of whatever those first couple seasons were. She’s not completely bad at it, but it’s noticeably out of step with the others; not helped by putting her in a setting that is already out of step with the Trek universe.
…wait, if Ro already knew about the Changeling infiltration, and she and Worf were working closely enough together that they knew who they were talking to, why didn’t she tell him about the Changelings?
Okay, time to stop rambling for now.
