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tori_reviewsStar Trek Picard – 3x10: The Last Generation
I’ve actually gone round and round with this episode a couple times, though admittedly pretty slowly. After watching ep 9 I took a fairly long break before watching this, though I had started writing up a review at the time; then I ran out of steam for that review so it sat idle until I had to rewatch the episode and try and remember what I wanted to say. And I don’t find myself that much closer to knowing how to talk about this episode than before. I have thoughts certainly, but they’re even more scattered than my usual confusion.
So let’s start with the end. I like most of what we get in it, but it’s terribly put together. Riker does a log as if it’s the day the world was saved, except it’s talking about things that would have had to take weeks or months to sort out. Crusher has been reinstated into Starfleet, made head of Starfleet Medical, developed the biotech to remove Borg implants and nano probes and correct genetic modification, as well as scanning for Changelings (something I guess no one had figured out how to do in the last 30 years). Time to find all the captured people who had been replaced and make sure they weren’t double bluff agents.
On the other hand, Riker’s log could be from the perspective of being a year on, but the ‘one year later’ mark doesn’t show up for several scenes. It would make more sense of he was recording from that later point, although I would have put Data’s development at maybe six months instead of a year (hopefully Data got some fuzz therapy in the rest of that time), but Troi is at that point planning the vacation ideas that she mentions in the bar scene, so maybe or maybe not.
Either way, the scene on the Enterprise should have been almost immediately after the final action pieces, not after the crew had already split up and several plot and character elements had been resolved. It should have been that goodbye to the Enterprise, then Riker’s log to tell us what people have been doing over the next year, leading up to the final bar scene where they come back together.
And some of those other resolutions don’t quite work for me either, on top of the odd placement everything gets. The Rafi and Worf scene mostly works…for Rafi, and I don’t have a lot of affection for Rafi. Maybe if a person has been watching this show they have some hold over affection from previous seasons, but she didn’t bring that much to the table this season. Although, thinking about it, I don’t know what would have been needed to resolve Worf’s story for the season, because he kind of didn’t have one either. But if we had focused more on why it was important to him to reconnect Rafi with her family I would be fine with it. Might have been a time to mention Alexander (but no, still nothing) or maybe even Jadzia at a stretch (also still nothing).
I’m also not sure if they’re supposed to be hugging or kissing at the end of that scene. I think they’re still just hugging, I’d prefer it if they were just hugging, but the camera angle is weird and hard to be sure if the hug morphed into a kiss.
Seven’s resolution almost works too, but misses for kind of the opposite reason. It’s the right resolution for her, but she has the wrong scene partner. Except that’s not quite right either, because the show did need to close out the Tuvok issue it introduced. But that’s two pretty restrained characters and not enough time to go into any of their history that might make him fit into this moment in her arc. I’m not sure if it should have been Janeway, or if Shaw needed to have more to say in his recording, or what, but the scene needed something more than it had.
I also wish Shaw had survived somehow. I mean that in general as I liked his character; but I also think it would have been really interesting to see how he dealt with Jack after everything that happened. Jack has probably as much blood on his hands as Picard ever did for Locutus (arguably more, as Jack at least partially chose to get himself into that situation), so I wonder what kind of dynamic he and Shaw would have had. I think it would have let the writers show that it was bothering Jack more than the current presentation allowed for, and show Shaw’s growth by having him say that ‘it wasn’t your fault, kid,’ plus nod at Picard to acknowledge that he gets it now.
(Also, it took me this long to realize that Jack is played by the guy who played Jimmy Kent on Downton Abbey. And I didn’t even realize it from anything he did, I happened to scroll past a DA fic with a summary that mentioned Jimmy, probably had a line quoted from him I think, so my brain had to remember what the character looked like and I realized it was Jack. This really explains why I’ve always found Jack’s age hard to nail down. I think he’s written to be in his early 20s, but the actor is only kind of selling it. One would think I could handle aged up casting with my history of teen dramas, but this one never quite worked for me looks-wise. The actor was mostly good though.)
It didn’t stand out to me as much on first watch, but Rafi really sticks out like a sore thumb in the closing bridge scene. I think her resolution should have been reuniting with her family, not a new position in Starfleet. Especially since the actress does not seem to know how to play Starfleet; which was one thing when she was doing spy work and the like, seeming a little un-Starfleet can work there, but it doesn’t suit that scene. That and the fact that she’s the only one who comes as a ‘Picard’ character, the other roles are pretty much all long term and legacy roles, and she doesn’t fit right.
To close out the discussion to the ending scenes on a positive note, I really like the bar/poker scene (although I wish they hadn’t said that Gianan was around but not let her be in the scene). It does a little bit highlight that this show took all the toys out of storage and found they had to put them back pretty much as they already were, but it does work. The vibe is quite different than when we closed out TNG, really cementing the move from work family to just family. So I can live with that.
Now, to rewind and talk about everything else.
It is pretty clear that my suggestions last time for a long term plot were not in the cards and weren’t especially reasonable given the situation. This episode makes very clear that a long term plot arc would have resulted in a lot of death and destruction; too much for this or likely any show to allow to stand. Meaning that if it had taken a few months to pull together a reasonable number of forces for a counter-attack, the story would likely have forced in some magical reset button instead of seeing it through to a logical conclusion.
That doesn’t make this resolution make that much more sense, it a Watsonian sense; but does make it clear that, on a Doylist level, this was the only solution. And within that narrative need, they did about as well as they could to make it make some Watsonian sense.
On the other hand, I don’t like that the characters don’t seem more frantic about the time crunch they have to work under. Yes, they’re professionals, and sure I wouldn’t expect this crew to be paralyzed with fear about the fate of Earth/everything resting on their ability to come up with a miracle solution in the new hour or so. But they’re still too nonchalant for my taste given that they have no plan, not even a loose one to work with. (Shit, this needed a conference room scene, didn’t it? Where they could lay out what they knew and what countermeasures they had time to implement, and lay out what their priorities are.)
Because that’s something that really bothered me on first watch, and probably would have if I’d been paying more that refresher attention on second. De-Borg-ing people has become so easy that it has become questionable to kill any Borg in my eyes. And that includes blowing up the Cube at the end without checking for survivors that could be rescued and deprogramed. But it definitely includes fighting against the New-Borg Starfleet members. The story did, thankfully, have Seven’s group using nonlethal measures on their own crew, but were they being as careful with other ships they attacked?
The flip side of that though comes back to what I was saying about the lack of reaction from Jack to having been used to kill so many. I’m not saying he needed to feel super guilty, but a little acknowledgement wouldn’t have hurt. And I think the same goes for the rest of the junior officers in Starfleet. Because the under-25 segment of the crew is probably no more that 20% of any crew; maybe a bit more if there are families on board (which we don’t see on the Titan certainly). And that means a lot of older officers were killed by those younger officers, and those younger officers might have some trauma to get over for being possessed like that. Sidney freaked out when Jack puppetted her around for a few seconds, wouldn’t she be a lot more upset after the Borg used her the way they did?
There could also have been a lot of drama to mine if they had put Beverly’s (and Picard’s I suppose) concern for Jack in conflict with Geordie’s concern for his kids. Or there could have been sympathy between them for the fact that all of their kids are in danger and even if they can solve it this in time to save the world, they may not be able to save their kids. I do like that the show doesn’t have Beverly be obstinate about protecting Jack; she wants to save him, but she can accept the choices that need to be made in their situation (although that too could have seen a bit more drama, because how does one feel when they’ve made the choice to sacrifice their child for the good of the galaxy, and then their child is saved?).
I will say that the number of people who no doubt died during the Borg possession (plus those who were probably freaked out enough that they quit), means it makes complete sense Jack was passed through the Academy so quickly (barring the fact that he should have needed serious counseling to process what happened before he was sent out again). Starfleet is probably rushing a lot of people into service, especially ones that have experience they can say meets requirements or seem like they can get by with on the job training. But my allowing the ending means I’m a little disappointed that it’s treated as such a happy ending instead of a struggle to revive life after so much loss.
I suppose the show has been consistent with Riker’s complete devotion to Picard, but that doesn’t mean I completely buy it. They love each other certainly (although I wish there had been more chances to show that the devotion was mutual and not just one sided obsession), but I don’t remember what would have created this life-debt vibe that we get here. And since I don’t quite buy that his devotion to Picard justifies the need to die beside him, I have to wonder if he really has come back from his disinterest in life that had been an issue for several years before this season it seemed. Strangely enough, I have little problem believing that Worf would decide to go along with the plan and die with the other two, but the show hasn’t really established anything that Worf would be interested in living for (he probably has grandchildren by now, if the show remembered that Alexander existed; quite possibly great-grandchildren given that Klingon kids age pretty quickly) and this would be a good way to die in his mind.
You know, while pretty unlikely, I think old Chekov could still be alive at this point in history. McCoy was alive at the beginning of TNG, and Chekov was quite a bit younger than Bones. And look, I expect an Anton Chekov to put a gun somewhere that goes off later in the story, but that just seemed there for fanservice (apparently people have decided it’s a reference to Anton Yelchin who played reboot-Chekov, but I think what I think when I hear of an Anton Chekov).
I couldn’t quite get a good enough view to tell details of the picture Jack put up at the end (you know what might help, lighting). I can get as far as being pretty sure it’s Picard and Beverly, but I can’t get any read on the situation. I gather it’s there to imply that they are in some way together at this point; and Laris has been swiftly forgotten.
Might do a wrap-up but don’t count on it (yep still true).
I’ve actually gone round and round with this episode a couple times, though admittedly pretty slowly. After watching ep 9 I took a fairly long break before watching this, though I had started writing up a review at the time; then I ran out of steam for that review so it sat idle until I had to rewatch the episode and try and remember what I wanted to say. And I don’t find myself that much closer to knowing how to talk about this episode than before. I have thoughts certainly, but they’re even more scattered than my usual confusion.
So let’s start with the end. I like most of what we get in it, but it’s terribly put together. Riker does a log as if it’s the day the world was saved, except it’s talking about things that would have had to take weeks or months to sort out. Crusher has been reinstated into Starfleet, made head of Starfleet Medical, developed the biotech to remove Borg implants and nano probes and correct genetic modification, as well as scanning for Changelings (something I guess no one had figured out how to do in the last 30 years). Time to find all the captured people who had been replaced and make sure they weren’t double bluff agents.
On the other hand, Riker’s log could be from the perspective of being a year on, but the ‘one year later’ mark doesn’t show up for several scenes. It would make more sense of he was recording from that later point, although I would have put Data’s development at maybe six months instead of a year (hopefully Data got some fuzz therapy in the rest of that time), but Troi is at that point planning the vacation ideas that she mentions in the bar scene, so maybe or maybe not.
Either way, the scene on the Enterprise should have been almost immediately after the final action pieces, not after the crew had already split up and several plot and character elements had been resolved. It should have been that goodbye to the Enterprise, then Riker’s log to tell us what people have been doing over the next year, leading up to the final bar scene where they come back together.
And some of those other resolutions don’t quite work for me either, on top of the odd placement everything gets. The Rafi and Worf scene mostly works…for Rafi, and I don’t have a lot of affection for Rafi. Maybe if a person has been watching this show they have some hold over affection from previous seasons, but she didn’t bring that much to the table this season. Although, thinking about it, I don’t know what would have been needed to resolve Worf’s story for the season, because he kind of didn’t have one either. But if we had focused more on why it was important to him to reconnect Rafi with her family I would be fine with it. Might have been a time to mention Alexander (but no, still nothing) or maybe even Jadzia at a stretch (also still nothing).
I’m also not sure if they’re supposed to be hugging or kissing at the end of that scene. I think they’re still just hugging, I’d prefer it if they were just hugging, but the camera angle is weird and hard to be sure if the hug morphed into a kiss.
Seven’s resolution almost works too, but misses for kind of the opposite reason. It’s the right resolution for her, but she has the wrong scene partner. Except that’s not quite right either, because the show did need to close out the Tuvok issue it introduced. But that’s two pretty restrained characters and not enough time to go into any of their history that might make him fit into this moment in her arc. I’m not sure if it should have been Janeway, or if Shaw needed to have more to say in his recording, or what, but the scene needed something more than it had.
I also wish Shaw had survived somehow. I mean that in general as I liked his character; but I also think it would have been really interesting to see how he dealt with Jack after everything that happened. Jack has probably as much blood on his hands as Picard ever did for Locutus (arguably more, as Jack at least partially chose to get himself into that situation), so I wonder what kind of dynamic he and Shaw would have had. I think it would have let the writers show that it was bothering Jack more than the current presentation allowed for, and show Shaw’s growth by having him say that ‘it wasn’t your fault, kid,’ plus nod at Picard to acknowledge that he gets it now.
(Also, it took me this long to realize that Jack is played by the guy who played Jimmy Kent on Downton Abbey. And I didn’t even realize it from anything he did, I happened to scroll past a DA fic with a summary that mentioned Jimmy, probably had a line quoted from him I think, so my brain had to remember what the character looked like and I realized it was Jack. This really explains why I’ve always found Jack’s age hard to nail down. I think he’s written to be in his early 20s, but the actor is only kind of selling it. One would think I could handle aged up casting with my history of teen dramas, but this one never quite worked for me looks-wise. The actor was mostly good though.)
It didn’t stand out to me as much on first watch, but Rafi really sticks out like a sore thumb in the closing bridge scene. I think her resolution should have been reuniting with her family, not a new position in Starfleet. Especially since the actress does not seem to know how to play Starfleet; which was one thing when she was doing spy work and the like, seeming a little un-Starfleet can work there, but it doesn’t suit that scene. That and the fact that she’s the only one who comes as a ‘Picard’ character, the other roles are pretty much all long term and legacy roles, and she doesn’t fit right.
To close out the discussion to the ending scenes on a positive note, I really like the bar/poker scene (although I wish they hadn’t said that Gianan was around but not let her be in the scene). It does a little bit highlight that this show took all the toys out of storage and found they had to put them back pretty much as they already were, but it does work. The vibe is quite different than when we closed out TNG, really cementing the move from work family to just family. So I can live with that.
Now, to rewind and talk about everything else.
It is pretty clear that my suggestions last time for a long term plot were not in the cards and weren’t especially reasonable given the situation. This episode makes very clear that a long term plot arc would have resulted in a lot of death and destruction; too much for this or likely any show to allow to stand. Meaning that if it had taken a few months to pull together a reasonable number of forces for a counter-attack, the story would likely have forced in some magical reset button instead of seeing it through to a logical conclusion.
That doesn’t make this resolution make that much more sense, it a Watsonian sense; but does make it clear that, on a Doylist level, this was the only solution. And within that narrative need, they did about as well as they could to make it make some Watsonian sense.
On the other hand, I don’t like that the characters don’t seem more frantic about the time crunch they have to work under. Yes, they’re professionals, and sure I wouldn’t expect this crew to be paralyzed with fear about the fate of Earth/everything resting on their ability to come up with a miracle solution in the new hour or so. But they’re still too nonchalant for my taste given that they have no plan, not even a loose one to work with. (Shit, this needed a conference room scene, didn’t it? Where they could lay out what they knew and what countermeasures they had time to implement, and lay out what their priorities are.)
Because that’s something that really bothered me on first watch, and probably would have if I’d been paying more that refresher attention on second. De-Borg-ing people has become so easy that it has become questionable to kill any Borg in my eyes. And that includes blowing up the Cube at the end without checking for survivors that could be rescued and deprogramed. But it definitely includes fighting against the New-Borg Starfleet members. The story did, thankfully, have Seven’s group using nonlethal measures on their own crew, but were they being as careful with other ships they attacked?
The flip side of that though comes back to what I was saying about the lack of reaction from Jack to having been used to kill so many. I’m not saying he needed to feel super guilty, but a little acknowledgement wouldn’t have hurt. And I think the same goes for the rest of the junior officers in Starfleet. Because the under-25 segment of the crew is probably no more that 20% of any crew; maybe a bit more if there are families on board (which we don’t see on the Titan certainly). And that means a lot of older officers were killed by those younger officers, and those younger officers might have some trauma to get over for being possessed like that. Sidney freaked out when Jack puppetted her around for a few seconds, wouldn’t she be a lot more upset after the Borg used her the way they did?
There could also have been a lot of drama to mine if they had put Beverly’s (and Picard’s I suppose) concern for Jack in conflict with Geordie’s concern for his kids. Or there could have been sympathy between them for the fact that all of their kids are in danger and even if they can solve it this in time to save the world, they may not be able to save their kids. I do like that the show doesn’t have Beverly be obstinate about protecting Jack; she wants to save him, but she can accept the choices that need to be made in their situation (although that too could have seen a bit more drama, because how does one feel when they’ve made the choice to sacrifice their child for the good of the galaxy, and then their child is saved?).
I will say that the number of people who no doubt died during the Borg possession (plus those who were probably freaked out enough that they quit), means it makes complete sense Jack was passed through the Academy so quickly (barring the fact that he should have needed serious counseling to process what happened before he was sent out again). Starfleet is probably rushing a lot of people into service, especially ones that have experience they can say meets requirements or seem like they can get by with on the job training. But my allowing the ending means I’m a little disappointed that it’s treated as such a happy ending instead of a struggle to revive life after so much loss.
I suppose the show has been consistent with Riker’s complete devotion to Picard, but that doesn’t mean I completely buy it. They love each other certainly (although I wish there had been more chances to show that the devotion was mutual and not just one sided obsession), but I don’t remember what would have created this life-debt vibe that we get here. And since I don’t quite buy that his devotion to Picard justifies the need to die beside him, I have to wonder if he really has come back from his disinterest in life that had been an issue for several years before this season it seemed. Strangely enough, I have little problem believing that Worf would decide to go along with the plan and die with the other two, but the show hasn’t really established anything that Worf would be interested in living for (he probably has grandchildren by now, if the show remembered that Alexander existed; quite possibly great-grandchildren given that Klingon kids age pretty quickly) and this would be a good way to die in his mind.
You know, while pretty unlikely, I think old Chekov could still be alive at this point in history. McCoy was alive at the beginning of TNG, and Chekov was quite a bit younger than Bones. And look, I expect an Anton Chekov to put a gun somewhere that goes off later in the story, but that just seemed there for fanservice (apparently people have decided it’s a reference to Anton Yelchin who played reboot-Chekov, but I think what I think when I hear of an Anton Chekov).
I couldn’t quite get a good enough view to tell details of the picture Jack put up at the end (you know what might help, lighting). I can get as far as being pretty sure it’s Picard and Beverly, but I can’t get any read on the situation. I gather it’s there to imply that they are in some way together at this point; and Laris has been swiftly forgotten.
Might do a wrap-up but don’t count on it (yep still true).
