Hi, Ric here today with a Star Trek Picard follow up. It finished a while ago and left
us with some questions and yes, some seeming oversights from the story. Overall, I did
enjoy the show, seeing the Federation, Picard and the crew pull themselves together out
of a darker mood, despite its low moments and wavering. But undeniably there are some
things that need to be addressed or expanded upon lest they fall by the wayside. I’m
not entirely saying that every point here needs to be addressed, but these are seven
unanswered questions that still linger for me.
So, starting with number one, what one earth was with that piece of shrapnel in Rios’
shoulder when we first meet him? It was never explained and in the comments, someone mentioned
how weird it was and how if it wasn’t addressed it would be pretty dumb. Now here we are post
series one and it wasn’t answered. I’m guessing it serves to introduce the concept
that Captain Rios here operates outside of the law on occasion and is no stranger to
violent or dangerous missions. Being as that he is a freelance courier and smuggler it
makes sense that he’d encounter all sorts of shady types outside of the Federation.
But what caused this wound? It was relatively fresh, still being tended to by the EMH meaning
he either obtained it and set a course for Earth to rendezvous with Raffi’s job (which
was Picard), or he got it around the Sol system, the heart of the Federation. I originally
thought it was shrapnel from an exploded console or something, but I couldn’t see any damage
from around the La Sirena so maybe it’s from a scuffle. Does he owe people money?
Probably, but I doubt they’d attack him for it unless his time had run out. Maybe
it was a dispute with a client? Dunno, in hindsight it was never addressed and I doubt
it ever will be. Point two. What the smeg happened to Narek?
According to Michael Chabon Narek was captured by the Federation after the standoff over
Coppelius, but this was cut from the final show. So if it didn’t appear on screen,
not total cannon yet. This is a relatively easy fix, especially if Narek is to be in
the next season, we just have to see him in Starfleet custody, but I don’t see a reason
for him to come back unless we’re getting involved with Tal Shiar stuff all over again.
Basically for one of the series main antagonists, he sort of just gets forgotten about by the
end. Part C. It was a triumphant moment when the
Starfleet forces arrived over Coppelius but within seconds, everyone noticed that it was
the same ship, with some different nacelles. The real reason was because it was a quick
way to make a large armada. Now, I’d rather that than see a bunch of Discovery-era ships
flying around but I’d also rather have seen more variety in the ships we did get. I don’t
have a problem with this new Inquiry class starship, but none of them even had registries
and apparently they are supposed to be the most advanced ships as of 2399. Now there
is an easy solution to this that sort of makes lore sense, but it is again, completely head-canon.
Until we get more information, I’m going to assume that these are literally so new,
that they’ve not been officially pressed into service yet, hence the lack of finalisation
in their designs. With the removal of Utopia Planetia, the Federation’s prime shipyards,
it could be that they’re making up for lost time and just commissioning a bunch of ships
to replace those that have been missed in the 14 year downtime. After receiving the
distress call, they mobilised this semi-active wing of ships and set off as a show of force.
That’s the sort of in universe justification that makes sense to me and while I acknowledge
that the Zheng He looking like all the other vessels is boring, the damage is done, at
least you could tie it into the lore to smooth it over a bit.
Part Delta. This one is more of a personal gripe, but I want some expanded lore on the
current status of the Romulan Star Empire, or lack thereof if that’s the case. We know
for certain that there is now a power called the Romulan Free State which maintained control
of the Borg Artefact, however, the Tal Shiar got heavily involved and it wasn’t made
completely clear on the relation between this new agency and the insidious secret service.
The Free State seems willing to cooperate with other galactic powers, as seen by their
sharing of the Borg cube, but the Tal Shiar always operated beyond the scope of the Romulan
Government. The Star Empire at least liked to pretend it had sway over the organisation.
Maybe with the fall of Romulus, the Tal Shair has finally stopped pretending to answer to
anyone and is really in control? Or maybe they’re now rogue. Either way, the Tal Shiar
is doing fine, but the rise of movements like the Romulan Rebirth shows that nothing is
stable within the remnants of the Empire and honestly, I just love me some Romulans. I
want to about the political galactic makeup in general, but as this series focused on
the Romulans, I’ll try to content myself with what’s there for now.
The Quintuple gripe now, Will Jurati face trial? She did after all murderise Bruce Maddox
and is sort of dealing with the repercussions. I was glad that it wasn’t just brushed off
by the crew and she feels genuine regret for doing this now that the whole prophecy thing
was cleared up. The fact she feels remorse keeps her redeemable for me, but she still
needs to face some form of penance. Now, yes, it was alluded to that perhaps the vision
itself could be causing a lot of mental distress and Jurati was not in her right mind but if
that’s the case it still needs to be addressed. Ideally the Federation would get involved
but I guess I could settle for the La Sirena crew working out some form of their own justice,
like now she has to work off her debt by helping others or something. As long as it’s not
all just forgotten about I’m good and again, this is a rather easy one to fix. Just tie
it into her character development moving on. Six. What is going on with Seven and Raffi?
I’m all for the idea that Seven of Nine might be evolving her sexuality, after all,
her entire story arc in Voyager was about discovering herself and it was an idea that
was thrown around even back then. But honestly, I didn’t see any chemistry between the her
and Raffi, in fact, I don’t remember them even talking. It was a small thing at the
end of the series, as the camera panned across the crew, we saw them hold hands in a rather
flirty way, something that I actually missed first time around. But is it going anywhere?
Certainly both Raffi and Seven could use someone to confide in, someone who can overlook the
coach-size amount of baggage they each have, or is this just a fling in the moment? Either
way, it the writers want me to buy into this, it’s going to have to go somewhere otherwise
it’s just a random last minute idea thrown in at the end. Currently, that’s what it
feels like, so more story here please. On top of this, nothing gave any hint that
Raffi Musiker would develop an interest with Seven considering her history in the books
and her current estranged status with her family, I dunno. It felt very out of place
and unless they’re going somewhere with it, there was no point.
Speaking of relationships, the last point I have. When did Doctor Soong get jiggy-wit-it?
It was nice to see Spiner back playing a Soong again, the recurring Easter egg but that was
then overshadowed by the actual return of Lieutenant Commander Data in immaterial form.
I tried to take a look at Noonian Soong’s timeline to see where the birth of a natural
son could fit into the lifespan of Data’s inventor and could really only find one spot.
Altan Inigo Soong seemed to know of his father, stating that he constantly reminded him that
the artificial sons was the sort of preferred children, so it’s played as if Noonian was
aware of Altan’s existence. That added to the fact that this new Soong seems to have
followed in his father’s footsteps means that the two were at least aware of one another.
This makes Noonian’s creation of Data/Lore a little stranger as it was revealed that
a contributing factor was that he and his wife, Juliana could not have children. Now
admittedly, Juliana was an android too, so her memories are questionable, but considering
the lengths Soong went to, to save her by performing a copy, it seems unlikely that
he would modify her memories to erase a child and implant false ones.
This led me to conclude that Altan was from a pre-Juliana affair, before Noonian was even
laughed out of the scientific community and went on his self-imposed exile. The age would
match up nicely too, making Altan 71ish at the time of Picard, around the same age as
Brent Spiner so like I say, there’s room for him to fit in. However, it still does
not explain his absence in Soong’s life and the complete lack of interest Starfleet
cybernetics showed in tracking down the equally talented A.I. expert Altan is. I can only
assume that both Soongs kept a low profile so as to not let Noonian’s fame and infamy
contaminate his biological son’s life. But that’s all speculation as mentioned. To
be honest I’m just searching for some clarity around the sudden surprise Soong suddenly
showing up. I really don’t need to know the intimate details.
So yeah, seven things that Star Trek Picard still leaves unaddressed. Some are literally
minor gripes but some are issues that could shape entire future story arcs and characters.
As I said, on the whole, I enjoyed Picard’s adventure and would like to see where they’re
taking the character next as we actually advance the Star Trek timeline for the first time
in far too long, but would like to see more of Starfleet and the Federation overall, but
I’m not sure Picard is the right platform to delve into this as I think his Starfleet
days are probably behind him now. Can you think of any other plot elements or
questions that you’d want answered from a series two of the show? Hm, probably, actually.
Anyway, with the announcement of “Strange New Worlds” promising a more traditional
Trek style, I’m happy to let Star Trek Picard explore the galaxy in other ways.
Thanks for watching this video and I look forwards to further discussion in the comments
so I’ll see you there, until next vid, thanks again and goodbye!