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PIC: "Absolute Candor" & "Stardust City Rag" & "The Impossible Box" (s1e4-6)
2 Plays6 minutes ago
BREAKING BAD ACCENTS. Jean-Luc Picard couldn't save all the Romulans so he opted to save none of them. Does the attempt to turn the character into a classic 21st century antihero succeed or are Bryan and Kristen too distracted by both the intentionally bad and the accidentally bad accent work throughout the series?
The grades begin at (24:27).
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Next on Trek, Mary, Kill. Elnor, Seven, hugh Engage.
00:00:08
Speaker
Will you come with me?
00:00:12
Speaker
Will you bind your sword to my quest? The idea a bad idea. It's bizarre. No one asked for your pity, Picard. Just as one asked for your help.
00:00:23
Speaker
One impossible thing a time. No!
00:00:30
Speaker
Where did that come from?
Bruce Maddox's Mission on Freecloud
00:00:37
Speaker
Who are you looking for? Bruce Maddox. I found him. We must extract him. Are you serious, sending us down there looking like this? You really need to sell this. You need to show a little.
00:00:50
Speaker
You're killing it.
00:00:54
Speaker
Something's not right.
00:00:57
Speaker
An ambush.
00:01:06
Speaker
In a few hours we'll be on a Borg cube without authorization. This cube is under Romulan control. I believe she's close to discovering who she really is.
Elnor and Picard's Challenges
00:01:16
Speaker
We have to get there as quickly as possible. um The journey always begins with the closing of the eyes.
00:01:23
Speaker
What's happening to me? You must take me to her now! They are in some serious trouble. Let go! Let go of me! They are not responding. i
00:01:39
Speaker
Mary Kill. Hi, I'm Brian. Hi, I'm Kristen. Welcome to Trek, Mary Kill, a podcast where we pass judgment on episodes of Star Trek by asking a series of questions to arrive at whether or not an episode is good, great, or terrible.
00:01:55
Speaker
This week, we're continuing to look at the first season of Star Trek Picard in time for its fifth anniversary. We've been doing two episodes a week, but this week we're doing three because one of them we've already killed. Mm hmm.
Episode Reviews and Character Developments
00:02:06
Speaker
first of the three absolute candor it's the fourth episode of star tre picard which premiered on parent plus february thirteenth twenty twenty written by michael shabon directed by jonathanrekes ah then there' stardust city rag it's the fifth episode that per beer the next week to february twentieth twenty twenty written by kirsten byer directed by jonathanrekes and then we end with the impossible box It's the sixth episode, premiered on February 27, 2020, written by Nick Zayas, directed by Maja Vervillo.
00:02:36
Speaker
Basically, the story is is that Picard needs to find Soji, and Raffi has figured out that Bruce Maddox Soji's creator is on the planet free cloud.
00:02:49
Speaker
So they decide to go to free cloud, but on the way, Picard has this pang of guilt and wants to stop at this planet Vashti to pick up this kid that he heard this boy. He befriended 14 years previously, Because he assumes he's matured into a man who can be his personal bodyguard, which is a big assumption.
Narek's Manipulation of Soji
00:03:10
Speaker
And then, meanwhile, on the Borg cube... The artifact, Brian. Thank you. The artifact. Narek is trying to... don't call it a concentration camp, okay? Okay.
00:03:22
Speaker
Narek is trying to plant the seed in Soji's mind that she is not who she thinks she is so that it will lead him to her spilling the beans about where she came from, which he believes is the Android home planet.
00:03:35
Speaker
They get to free cloud to find Bruce Maddox, who's in deep with this mod mob boss who named Bajazel. Jesus Christ. Listen, we're going to get into that one later. Even though we killed that episode already, I got so i got some thoughts on bejazzle, that's for sure.
Picard's Mission and Conflicts
00:03:53
Speaker
So the bedazzled vagina. It is 100% a vagina. So Bajazel is going to hand him over to the Tal Shiar, but then there's this whole silly plot of like posing as people who want to actually take him instead, and basically gets on board the La Serena, and because Dr. Jurati was ah you know met with by Commodore O back on Earth, previous to her joining on the ship, she kills him when she has the opportunity to kill Bruce Maddox because he has information that no one should find out about.
00:04:28
Speaker
And then finally, in absolute candor, They finally get to the artifact and ah Picard meets Hugh. ah And then Soji goes through this Romulan ritual where she goes through her dream and finds... think you put the wrong name of the episode. Oh, absolutely.
00:04:47
Speaker
Sorry. absolute can And the impossible box.
Picard and the Refugee Crisis
00:04:49
Speaker
The impossible box. Also, which you could also call the bejaisal. The bejaisal, yeah. The impossible, sorry, the impossible boxes where Soji has the dream where she, she goes through a memory or her dream and sees herself as an Android on the table. And she looks up she knows what planet she's from, blah, blah, blah.
00:05:05
Speaker
So those are the three episodes, just a big Picard has to get from earth to the artifact and, and picks up someone along the way. They get Bruce Maddox. Soji finds out who she is and then Picard and Soji connect.
00:05:18
Speaker
And then the impossible box ends with Hugh sending ah Soji and Picard to the planet Nepenthe while Elnor basically holds the line for them to make their escape.
00:05:31
Speaker
There we go. It's a lot. so It is a lot of setup. I mean, that's all that happens.
00:05:39
Speaker
There's a part of this that is what drew Patrick Stewart to the project. Captain Picard is back and he's going to fix the refugee crisis. Yeah. It's going to be a parable. So we've got that. We've got Romulan refugees in this.
00:05:55
Speaker
Uh, we've got, you know, it, because it's like anti-hero city that we're still in the tropes of that, of Picard's like burned a lot of bridges and people don't like him anymore.
Romulan Culture and Secrecy
00:06:05
Speaker
And he is an asshole.
00:06:07
Speaker
What? He just went to his vineyard and like severed all ties with everybody. got that going on. Um, and then you've got mystery box crap with, you know, this girl finding out some stuff.
00:06:18
Speaker
So that's kind of like a 21st century TV trope. This is like kind of like anti-hero, but like Picard is basically like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. You know, he's just, you know, I have not seen that movie.
00:06:32
Speaker
I mean, let's be real. But he's just, you know, he's a cranky old man who's cut himself far from the world. You're not fine on. Exactly. So then the first episode that, you know, that in this three. Well, I will. So this season, though, I will liken um Captain Picard a little bit like the Marquis de Lafayette when he returned to France and tried to be sort of the level headed person in the French Revolution and everyone's like ah no like he's he his name doesn't hold as much cachet or as it once did at Starfleet although there are still places around the universe where it probably would
00:07:17
Speaker
Also, you know, with the Borg and the XBs, Locutus, like, he's, you know, not a celebrity, but they know who he is because of the but collective. But I want to talk about this idea of absolute candor, which is the name of the fourth episode.
00:07:31
Speaker
hu And... one of my first TV jobs was working on Boston legal with David E. Kelly. I've said it many times before, but like I've noticed that there is a tick of middle-aged male writers in TV, especially of,
00:07:49
Speaker
Gussing up this idea of I'm writing TV.
Absolute Candor in Star Trek Picard
00:07:54
Speaker
It's very hard to convey nuance. There's not a lot of opportunity for it. It's basically just talking heads.
00:08:00
Speaker
We're usually just dealing with plot. What if I make a character just say everything that I think? that can say, create conflict by being weird and quirky.
00:08:11
Speaker
Sometimes it gets camouflaged and like he's autistic and they have like a tick where she's, you know, she's been brought in to be the hatchet man. And she's, you know, she's going to say the things that after four four or five seasons, the characters have gotten too comfortable and they're shaking up.
00:08:25
Speaker
It's always kind of camouflage. It's kind of like the writer's avatar for like, I'm kind of sick of this shit. Or just like, I don't want to spend the time building real drama. So what if I just drop a character in kind of soap style who just mixes it up?
00:08:40
Speaker
And to me, that is the principle behind absolute candor of like trying to dramatize. What if you just had character? We're dealing with Romulans and Romulans are always so secretive. Oh, fuck it. I'm just going to make a group of nuns who only tell the truth.
00:08:54
Speaker
It's the, yeah, it's the Bene Gesserit. Yeah. Who can only tell the truth. And so that's actually a great point because this is like not we're pre Denny Villeneuve Dune coming out.
00:09:08
Speaker
So but there is very out of but and being very much informed like Siobhan is channeling Dune in like the lore and Lord of the Rings. even like a dusty planet.
00:09:19
Speaker
Yes, but also Lord of the Rings where you've got binding your sword to the quests and all this crap. And it's just like there's there's a lot of other influences that are not Star Trek that are more... Are there other like...
00:09:33
Speaker
fantasy or sci-fi stuff where there's like women ah cabal of women are they don't allow boys yeah I think it's a trope I can't like think of it right now but I'm sure there is right I like the but I don't I don't read ah sci-fi or fantasy a whole lot yes so but the Bene Gesserit like every man my dad's age and like slightly younger has read Dune right so they know who the Bene Gesserit are And it was already made into a movie. I have not seen the, uh, David Lynch Dune, but I don't know. i assume it's at least mentioned there too.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yes. All of star Wars is like based on Dune. So sure yeah that's like it's not even like, gra yeah like George Lucas, just like, oh let's keep it on this track of this, like Gen X boomer line of sci-fi references.
00:10:28
Speaker
of or writing styles we get some real like night uh 20th century schmuck bait in absolute candor which i didn't mention is the episode that drops seven of nine into the series um and it's it's schmuck bait in that the last five minutes are basically the lost serena is in a pew pew pew like literally the sound actually okay i really like this though But they
Narrative Techniques Critique
00:10:57
Speaker
just basically say it like five or six times.
00:11:00
Speaker
He, him, they just assume pilot of the mystery ship. Well, the thing I don't like is because like, wow, what a pilot. Like it's like it's Han Solo from the the newer Star Trek or Star Wars movies.
00:11:13
Speaker
Right, but it's also that's what Rios is supposed to be. So it's weird. It's like every po every fighter is a Han Solo. Anyway, and then it just winds up being Seven of Nine. Oh, it's ah it's a she. It's like just to mask who it is, to just string it out a little bit more. You know i mean? It's like these are the like little ticks of like this feels like vamping, and it just doesn't feel like it's substantial.
00:11:35
Speaker
It seems very tricky. yeah very Very empty calories. So I just want to point out these are ticks that happen. We know the development process for Star Trek Picard is, to be generous, fraught.
00:11:46
Speaker
So there's maybe some episodes they were more rushed than others. And sometimes they jump, I think in the rewatch, that stuff jumps out. Structurally, the series is lacking juice.
00:11:58
Speaker
We know where Soji is. Like we are literally waiting since the first episode for the rest of the show to catch up. Yeah. What's the tension? We're just waiting for things to happen.
00:12:10
Speaker
It's a problem. And this is when when we're stuck in the streaming era where everything has to be heavily serialized. And then you're trying to get Dune, but also Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad and like whatever it is, but also start like Jean-Luc Picard and the Borg itself and Romulans, but also making it like a parable of today.
00:12:30
Speaker
there's a lot of elements here and it all comes to bear of like it's jumping tone. There's just a lot going on across these three episodes, especially like Stardust City Rag. That was them being like, we need a fun episode in here.
00:12:43
Speaker
Is that an acknowledgement that the previous four were boring or just them being like, we know the next after episode five, it's going to be a so a slog to get through the plot. Like,
Romulan Cultural Dynamics
00:12:54
Speaker
I don't know. It was, but it's all very obvious as I'm saying, even while watching initially versus rewatching it, you can kind of see the too many cooks in the kitchen stuff stitched together. One thing about this though, Michael Chabon did spend a lot of time on was devising the Romulan lore.
00:13:11
Speaker
um I put this in the notes, but like he, posted around the time of either this episode or after the series ended season one ended he posted his like all the the document all the lore he thought about for the romulans because we didn't know a lot about them and he i think a lot of stuff he developed is canonical and that it makes it it's of a kind with what we've seen of the romulans before And I think also, let's be honest, I don't have any real great affection for the Romulans.
00:13:40
Speaker
huh Nobody really does. So if you if you're like, oh yeah, they have KGB for the KGB. Everyone's like, I mean, yeah, I can see that. like It's not unbelievable. It's a little much of like the way they describe it.
00:13:57
Speaker
Like the last episode we talked about... Oh, like break your brain to even know about it. His big thing was the secrecy of the culture and how that manifests in other ways, like what it causes in terms of the truth.
00:14:12
Speaker
He wrote a very long medium post, which I will maybe, if I remember, link to in the comments or in the description, but he starts it off with, I won't read the whole thing for sure. He just says, to Romulans goes an old Romulan proverb, three conspiracies.
00:14:24
Speaker
As Vulcan culture is rooted in logic and Klingon and honor, the foundation of Romulan society is secrecy. Their culture is an endless series of variations on themes of concealment, the covert, the hidden, masks, pseudonyms, conspiracies, layers of deception, cover stories.
00:14:40
Speaker
And we get this when Narek reveals his real name to Soji in the impossible box. I kind of think it all works. It just feels like there's a lot of, we see like we see in the show, like a lot of more time was spent on just developing the background for certain rituals versus the larger story.
00:15:01
Speaker
And I just think that's an interesting thing that still jumps out at me five years later, rewatching the show. I have some production notes, Kristen. Yes. For all three episodes. Hit me with them. We see Picard practic practicing fencing with Elnor. Yeah, we do.
00:15:16
Speaker
Suggesting that Picard inspired Elnor's sword play, which is kind of bogus because we we are told that the Quat Malat... the the the warrior nun religious. Bene Gesserit. Bene Gesserit.
00:15:30
Speaker
That they are, they are like the best fighters Picard has ever seen, which feels like the Klingons taking stray. I feel like it's like literally fought alongside warp.
00:15:41
Speaker
So anyway,
Production Notes and Narrative Choices
00:15:42
Speaker
anyway. um So it's the first time that we've seen Picard engage in fencing since. Yep. Well, since we have seen We'll Always Have Paris, but it's the fourth such time we've seen Picard do it.
00:15:56
Speaker
We'll Always Have Paris, Iborg, and Lessons are the three times. I personally also recall that he fences or at least has a sword fight with Trelane in the Star Trek the Next Generation novel Q Squared, which that one was like Trelane from the original series was actually a member of the Q Continuum. And what if Q and what if Trelane were in a story together and Picard had to fight Trelane?
00:16:17
Speaker
So anyway, just I remember reading as a kid. ah The Romulan legislative building seen in Star Trek Nemesis and Star Trek Enterprise season four is named for the first time when the angry Romulan that Picard gets killed for no reason in the courtyard of the of the Vashti planet.
00:16:35
Speaker
um this He mentions that it's the Hall of State. So that was the name of their Senate building. This is the first full-length Star Trek episode. I'm talking about Absolute Candor.
00:16:46
Speaker
Not to feature any characters in stark Starfleet uniforms. I mentioned that. Thought it was interesting. All right. I got some notes for Stardust City Rag, the episode we have killed. Here we go. We have murdered it.
00:16:58
Speaker
But I still have things to say about it. Raffi's full name is revealed to be Raffaella. This will come into play later. Yes. This episode also marks the recurrence and death of Icheb.
00:17:09
Speaker
a borrk dry he my man I know who was severed from the hive mind, the Star Trek Voyager episode collective, who's a, then joined the show with a bunch of boring kids for the last couple seasons of the show.
00:17:20
Speaker
um And this is basically the way Jerry Ryan played it. And it's in the text is like, it's like her son dies. It's very, Look how they massacred my boy. Exactly. Now, I don't know if you know this, but the original actor who played Icheb in Star Trek Voyager is like an alt-right guy online. Oh.
00:17:42
Speaker
And so this was seen as, well, we're going to bring that character back to fucking murder his ass. We're going to torture him and kill him as harshly as we can because he pissed off, you know.
00:17:56
Speaker
people who make the show know like his, his politics. So there's that, um, as each of is harvested for board parts, the operator wonders, uh, where his cortical node was, which is a previously removed, uh, item in imperfection and episode of Voyager, uh, ironically, and it was given a seven of nine to save her life.
00:18:16
Speaker
Uh, she comes in to save his life and it doesn't work. Anyway, I'm going to skip that. Who cares? Uh, referring to the creation cares i'm because i'm talking about all the stuff that's not on free cloud which which i want to let you go here in a second and so the last thing is referring to the creation of dodge and the other flesh and blood synthetics maddox says i did it soong and i at the time of the broadcast viewers assumed this was a reference of the work of noonie and soong data's dead which Maddox had built on. However, and the season finales, spoiler alert, we're going to find out there's actually another land of living soon.
00:18:52
Speaker
So everyone remember that. the ah The Impossible Box. This episode marks the first time that Picard has set foot onto a Borg cube since the best Best of Both Worlds Part 2. I was like, wait, wasn't he on the Borg? No, there was no Borg cube on First Contact.
00:19:07
Speaker
Enterprise was being assimilated. A line spoken by Hugh reveals that two weeks have passed since Narek arrived on the artifact. So that tells us that between episodes one and six, two weeks have passed.
Criticism of Soji's Character
00:19:18
Speaker
Sigh. That's absolutely wild. I'm sorry. Yeah, it doesn't quite track, actually, because it's like, if you figure everything on Earth happens in a couple of days, and they do actually, kind of a nice bit that they do through these three episodes, is they do show the Lost Serena actually taking time to travel,
00:19:37
Speaker
to these places. Two weeks might be not enough, but it's better than instantaneous travel. Active images on the scene on the computer Picard uses to research the artifact includes. So this is when he's like, oh, shit, I've got to go to the artifact, the Borg cube. I don't want to go there.
00:19:53
Speaker
So he starts bringing up information on it and we get this hollow presentation. He's looking through a file that shows clips from previous Star Treks, the enterprising engaging the Borg cube at the Battle of Sector 001 in Star Trek First Contact.
00:20:06
Speaker
The Romulan Continuing Committee led by Praetor Neral in Star Trek Deep Sea Sign episode Inter Arma Inum Silent Ligas, a Borg drone from First Contact, Hugh in Picard's Ready Room in I, Borg, and aboard the artifact in The End is the Beginning, and Locutus of Borg as seen on the view screen of the USS Enterprise D in The Best of Both Worlds at the very end when Riker says fire.
00:20:29
Speaker
Two last things. The artifact is equipped with a spatial trajectory. That's the gateway that Soji and Picard used to get away at the very end. And we that was something that was introduced in Voyager.
00:20:41
Speaker
It's a Sicarian device. It's the episode Prime Factors. We find out the Borg assimilated to the Sicarians. That's how they gained the knowledge of this device. And the other thing is Soji keeps photographs and memorabilia from her childhood in a lunchbox that she brought with her on a fucking research project uh with the adventures of flotter which uh which was a hollow program that naomi wildman enjoyed and it turns out this is like basically like the sesame street of the 24th century is the implication
00:21:14
Speaker
Or like a... It's a Voyager callback. Like a Winnie the Pooh or something. Something like that, exactly. And she brings her Pooh Bear to work. To work, yes.
00:21:26
Speaker
She brings pictures like Polaroids in lunchbox. The picture's fine, but she brings like her crayon art. ah Perhaps we should talk about this later, but yeah her crayon art when when she was a kid. I don't know a single fucking person...
00:21:45
Speaker
on earth who's like, Hey, I'm going to go, uh, on this work long-term work trip. I better bring my crayon drawings. Yeah. Yep.
00:21:56
Speaker
Or I'm going to put my crayon drawings up on the wall at my dorm room. It's not cringe. It's like, this is an unwell person. It's well, what it reads. It's serial killer shit.
00:22:09
Speaker
Okay. It's like, If you had to try to make it look like a young girl's, like ah a young woman's room, but you didn't know, you've never met a young woman.
00:22:21
Speaker
Like, hello, fellow kids. Like you would put this stuff up. And that was what she's programmed to do because I guess Bruce Maddox still had never met a woman that age. It's like, well, would she have? Well, obviously her Winnie the Pooh bear and she's going to have every Polaroid of her family and also little pictures she drew when she was four years old. Because I see every woman as a little girl because I'm weird.
00:22:46
Speaker
But she has a functioning clitoris. Yeah. I mean, let's, okay. She's only 37 months old. Also, that is another thing.
00:22:57
Speaker
Jesus fucking Christ. She enjoys sex, apparently. I'm getting some poor things. That's Spill over here. Some foreshadowing.
00:23:08
Speaker
I mean, just to talk about the plot in this regard, we learn that Bruce Maddox cloned Data's neurons.
Dr. Jurati's Character Arc
00:23:18
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:23:19
Speaker
positronic cells to create these twins that he created specifically to investigate why synths were banned. What the fuck does that mean?
00:23:32
Speaker
What the fuck? He didn't just like ah send a kind ah competent real human. He investigated himself. who He's like the best person to investigate the ban.
00:23:45
Speaker
It's a bizarre... vomiting of plot elements because they didn't tighten it up before they went with it. They clearly ADR some stuff. like ah There's a shot where Soji like turns her head, totally turned away.
00:23:59
Speaker
And the the line they've looped over that is like clearly just a plot. like Oh, we got to put this in there to make sure it's clear. So they are constantly like plugging holes in a like leaks keep springing up.
00:24:11
Speaker
You see them run to one side of the room to plug it and then open up this plot. Doesn't make sense. Got to run over here do that. And just like it just they had to make a lot of silly choices, which we're going to talk about now in the grades.
00:24:23
Speaker
Yeah. Woo. all right. Let's start with great moments because we're doing two episodes, but we're going to start with great moments, not scenes. Maybe this should I should have put this in different grade, but um Picard is surprised that people of Vashti don't worship him anymore. One thing I'm confused about is there are other species living on this planet and the Romulans are gettoed off and they're yeah they're like self-gettoed off. You know what would have helped with that?
00:24:56
Speaker
Is if they had shown other species. Yes. and Brian, Brian. yourre You're getting too into the weeds here.
00:25:08
Speaker
and The hand-drawn sign that said Romulans only is clearly enough.
Picard's Confrontation on Vashti
00:25:14
Speaker
And then when Picard goes, tries to sit down, and he gets looked at weird, obviously.
00:25:19
Speaker
and then He tosses the sign, he's like disgusted by their coordinating off, how dare you segregate your... Segregation? Yeah, sacred yeah exactly.
00:25:31
Speaker
Um, and then I put the sword fight. You put it, you put the sword fight as a great moment. Yeah. The one, no, not the one with a kid, but when Eleanor has grown up, that's what i'm saying. You put the, wire you put,
00:25:46
Speaker
I thought it was cool. Okay, fair enough. We did say great moments. Listen, I'm trying to make things, look, I can't just say everything's horrible. i thought it was cool at the time.
00:25:56
Speaker
It was a cool little flip. Let's talk about the context of that. So Picard, like, offends all these Romulans. Yeah. And then they get really mad, and then they're like, but we're not going to just, like, beat the shit out of you right here.
00:26:07
Speaker
No, we're going to give you a weapon, we're going to force you into the square, and we're going to have, like, a a gentlemanly face-off in which I intend to kill you. Mm-hmm. This is, like, an honor. It's duel. It's a duel.
00:26:20
Speaker
but Does it make sense? You know what I mean? Like, ah if the Romulans are... so I don't know if if if the Romulans have a dueling culture. All I know is that, like, until, I want to say, like, the nineteen eighty s dueling was legal in certain countries in the on Earth.
00:26:37
Speaker
so Now, how could it like it doesn't make sense with the Romulans. It seems like they would try to poison the drink that he ordered. You know, I mean, like if there is such a secretive culture and they're like one thing we did. as similar these are this is But this is a refugee colony.
00:26:52
Speaker
I understand. So anyway, we got a sword fight going on where they they've they they have their own culture. OK, they're pissed at Picard for being like you said you would help us. And then you you peaced out.
00:27:04
Speaker
He left us. And he goes and he just like says, I tried.
Character Performances and Relationships
00:27:08
Speaker
and so then he gets this guy killed. This guy is very angry. Killed because Elnor, once the killed switch is activated, there's no stopping it. He asks you to choose to live. And if you don't stand down, you're dead. Yeah.
00:27:22
Speaker
ah Fine. Fair enough. Cool. Alright, so that's from Absolute Candor that you have. I have a yeah i have and then i have one more from Absolute Candor. Oh, great. let just Just, it's seven of nine. She showed up. and I was like, ah, there we are. That's that's actually wonderful. Yeah. It's great. Oh, what a pilot. it And it's yeah and's a lady.
00:27:43
Speaker
a Borg lady. Okay, so on the La Serena in this episode, we discover that to basically... but Help the old man and the old folks home while they transport him from a to B.
00:27:58
Speaker
that the hospitality hologram has recreated his chateau. Yeah. On the holodeck. So he won't be, you know, he'll be comfortable in the surroundings, which is not moment. That's what you have to if have like dementia patient. Exactly. So that's funny.
00:28:15
Speaker
ah We know for budget reasons. well At least, at least Picard's like, yeah, it's kind of weird that they did that. Like, that's true. It's, it's, it's mentioned in dialogue at least a couple of times.
00:28:25
Speaker
What I like, though, is there is a moment like once you just forget about that, let that fall away. There is a moment where Raffi goes to him to say that going to Vashti as like a detour isn't a good idea because there's there's already so many problems with what they're doing going to Freecloud.
00:28:45
Speaker
So look for Bruce Maddox. And... she realizes that this is about Elnor, this boy that Picard left behind many years ago. And I swear to you, Kristen, I'm like, this is Michelle Hurd's This is the proof that she can be in Star Trek and she's a good actor. And like the moment that she and Picard have in Picard says, I may never be in this sector. Come by here again. Yeah.
00:29:14
Speaker
It's like, that is an affecting moment. That is what the promise of the premise of Picard is. I think it really works. It's really, i was going to say powerful. was just like, it's really effective. He he might die someday. He's he's going to die someday and he knows it.
00:29:27
Speaker
he's knows He's got fewer days ahead of him. So I don't know. I thought that was very touching on Patrick Stewart's part, but also... I believe their friendship and I thought she was very present and connected. She wasn't doing all the Samuel O. Jackson. Have you lost your goddamn mind? You know what mean? there were, they're just like, go off sister. Like that's everything with Michelle heard. They don't know how to write Rafi. So they're just like, well, if we just give her something big, she'll, she'll rise to it. She's really good. And like the quiet moments. I think that's really important. So on that one, um, Dr. Jurati's line, anyone else think that the way of absolute candor sounds potentially annoying,
00:30:03
Speaker
I don't think that's a great line. What I like is it's the capstone of a sequence, like our first sequence aboard the Lost Arena. Now the beginning of episode four is like, the mission has started. This is what the show is.
00:30:15
Speaker
They're going on this quest. And it it starts with her being obnoxious to Rios, where she's just blah, blah, blah, and saying what's ever on her mind. So this is actually like the punchline to that whole sequence.
00:30:27
Speaker
And I thought, is that like the writer... Being like, I had to write all this and I just realized we kind of vamped a little bit. Maybe was little annoying and I'm going to save it by tying it into our idea of absolute candor here. But I just thought I liked it as a great moment. I'm like, I'm not sure if it's a show commenting on itself or not, or if it just works as like, good, we're all acknowledging Dr. Jurati's annoying.
00:30:48
Speaker
So that's very helpful. And then i kind of think Picard's pitch to Elnor is sort of perfect. Not in the story itself, not in the approach, but as, again, meta commentary on this whole endeavor.
00:31:01
Speaker
Picard couldn't save all the refugees, so he saved none of them. Like, that's in the text of the show. He abandoned his relationship with six-year-old Elnor and pouted on his vineyard, and now he returns in hopes of picking up the kid to be his personal security because he is trying to save the daughter of a dead friend.
00:31:18
Speaker
It's absurd. And a non-living daughter. Let's just be be real. it late It just like, it sounds ridiculous. And Elnor's reaction is 37 months old. yeah but Elnor, who he's known for 20 years or whatever, you know, 15 years or whatever it is.
00:31:38
Speaker
ah He knew him for a time 14 years ago. That is the more correct assessment. Yeah. But he obviously had an effect, like an influence on Elnor's life that he I guess hadn't thought about in 14 years. The, in the subtext is that this was like literally the only male role model he had in his yeah life.
00:31:59
Speaker
ever Ever. Crazy. i bomb Like all kinds of gifts and treats and stuff. Yeah. ah So those are so again, i guess I'm kind of being mean.
Self-awareness and Humor in Star Trek Picard
00:32:11
Speaker
The last two great moments were just like I kind of like these as like the show commenting on itself, re realizing like, yeah, we know it's bad. But if we just say it's bad, maybe you'll go with it more and we can just move on.
00:32:22
Speaker
So I kind of appreciate ah because, again, this is a 10 episode season that even Akiva Goldsman's like, we did not have 10 episodes of story. oh Any other great moments? I have two from the impossible box.
00:32:34
Speaker
Oh, no, from Stardust City Rag, i actually have one. Okay. Okay. One seven of nine has, she's two handing the phasers to go back to kill Bajazel.
00:32:48
Speaker
ah thought that was cool. Can we talk about Bajazel for two seconds? to Oh, I'm going to be talking about her and a couple other of the greats. All right. Impossible box.
00:32:58
Speaker
ah Rafi talking her way into getting the diplomatic credentials for Picard and then just being like, I'm just going to drink. Okay. Okay. And then again, that was like a so a long sequence that ends with the punchline.
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah. Like, and now she's, she's being shuffled off the stage. And then when Jean-Luc Picard is reunited with Hugh, Yeah, I don't know how I felt about the hug so much, but I i mean, yeah. Well, whatever.
00:33:23
Speaker
yeah it was nice. I'm with you on that. I also have to admit that the shot of Picard is Locutus superimposed over yeah old man face, and he's like horrified and touching it. I'm like, that's pretty fucking cool to be perfectly honest. Yeah. Even though I was so like, they're doing the Borg and...
00:33:41
Speaker
The trauma, I don't, you know I'm not, like, looking forward to this, but I'm like, fine. If they're going to try to do something different, I'm i'm for it. So that's fine. Best Trek tropes.
00:33:52
Speaker
I have one more. Sorry for the impossible box. The very ending of the episode when... Although I think it's stupid, plot-wise, but Elnor going into the...
00:34:03
Speaker
tunnel to fight all the dumb Romulans. i mean, he's, he's a Romulan too, but you know what i mean? It's unnecessary and stupid, but it's cool. It would have been helped by there being just simply more people there running at them or something.
00:34:19
Speaker
All right. Best Trek tropes. Uh, Picard never shows up empty handed. Oh, that's good. So he always brings a little gift. Whether it's booze for his alcoholic friend, Rafi, or chocolates for the that Bene Gesserit nun lady.
00:34:38
Speaker
oh i have science fiction accuracy, warp speed, space being so vast that great distances take time to traverse. Science, fake science, warp travel, taking time.
00:34:50
Speaker
And also said Picard loves fencing. Yeah. And we have a Klingon opera mentioned. And it's a little bit different this time because it's a visual reference. She's like, you only have like, that's, you know, like. Like Klingons at the Met. Yes, exactly.
00:35:07
Speaker
A fathom event of Klingon opera. It does kind of actually play into why Worf is able to listen to any opera on on The Lost Serena in Star Trek Picard Season 3.
00:35:21
Speaker
I'm going to say, but Jaisal's outfit looks very the original series. Well, we're missing the hip cutouts, but I think you're right. Yeah, I think you're right. that oh yeah. I'm going to get into it yeah a little later.
00:35:36
Speaker
but um You're right. I'm actually, that's why it sticks out because it's like modern shooting techniques and lighting, but that is clearly a 60s Star Trek costume. Yeah.
00:35:49
Speaker
um And then we have a cork reference. a corrk reference Yeah. That's how he he's got the franchises going. The, the, the franchise, the Corks bar franchise. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He, he, he was like, you know, it's the, uh, wait, who's got like a good restaurant franchise these days?
00:36:08
Speaker
don't know. It's hard to say. Filed for bankruptcy. lay now um I would you say? Like, okay Kind like the the Kenny Rogers roasters of the...
Romulan Lore and Culture
00:36:21
Speaker
Okay, that's fair. The beef and cheese restaurants with yeah the... The pizookie, yes. Or like ah the Margaritaville. Margaritaville. That's it. There we go.
00:36:35
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Well, like can I tell you that I went to a Margaritaville? This is the worst margarita I've ever had in my life. Just mostly. Absolutely. horrendous It was like, I think on the menu is it was billed as like, you know, the best margarita or whatever.
00:36:51
Speaker
premium It was a premium drink. I paid like $18 for it. Horrible. Anyway. Paper books is an affectation. Yeah. ah was certainly pick By the way, I'm almost i'm empty i'm anti-paper book now.
00:37:06
Speaker
Really? Because it's too much clutter. The clutter factor is important. especially And I just can't. we so many god We have so many goddamn books in the house. I'm just like, please.
00:37:20
Speaker
Raffi calling Picard jail. I'm putting it as a best trick joke. ok I support it. I defend it. i also put Elnor doesn't know what pretend or lies are.
00:37:32
Speaker
Yes. Because he didn't go to like school with children or anything. Well, absolute candor would seem to preclude possibility. Yes. Yeah. The lies thing. But yeah, the pretending and the lies thing. Well, even if he had gone to school with other Romulan kids, he would know what those are.
00:37:46
Speaker
or like at least be able to, you know. Fair. There's nothing in the order that says he can't go to school. It's kind of strange. He's homeschooled weirdo. Yeah, that's weird.
00:38:00
Speaker
ah Picard hates children. huh That's got to be a best trick show because it's like an the emotional crux of the story. i still think the show, the episode does a terrible job of showing us one that this is, you have to know that Picard and kids are a friction point to understand that this is like a new thing, that a side of him we've never seen.
00:38:24
Speaker
And it doesn't mention his nephew that he lost, Rene. So it's like there could have been, if this is about his life, you know what i mean? Like, then we're in the chateau.
00:38:35
Speaker
He could have just easily seen a picture of Rene and thought of Elnor. It's possible. Anyway, um just goes to show they didn't watch The Next Generation.
00:38:46
Speaker
All right. I have another one from the Impossible Box. Hugh... saw through narek's honeypot plan from the jump he says oh well i kind of figure she's in trouble because couple weeks ago this romulan spy showed up and took a big interest in her but pretended not to have an interest Can I just say as I mentioned last time, just seeing Hugh made me very happy.
00:39:17
Speaker
And as i are we agreed, their meeting, he and Picard meeting was great. I just want to say that at moment, all the other great moments in the episode involved Hugh. any yeah Anytime he was on board, i really liked Jonathan Del Argo being back. It's like the actors who have previous Star Trek experience...
00:39:39
Speaker
are great because they know what they're doing. They can do Star Trek. Also, i'm gonna I'm going to add Michelle Hurd in there too. like There's only a handful of people actually know what the fuck they're doing here or everyone else thinks they're on like a CW show.
00:39:52
Speaker
Rios says has moments too. it's just like I don't even think Michelle Hurd is great all the time. It's just like if they can give them something solid to play. yeah She's not like out of place for a Star Trek show. I think some of the other players are.
00:40:06
Speaker
But it's like, I feel like Hugh on the page is very bland. Yeah. And Jonathan Del Arco has a little juice. I think maybe people realize, I think a lot of people realize this listening. If you're like ever around actors, especially camera actors,
00:40:21
Speaker
the ones that are like doing it professionally, they all have a ah charisma about any degree of any number on the call sheet. It's like, if you made it that far, it's kind of like when you go to like professional sporting events, even the guys on the bench who aren't playing, they're like, this is a massive person.
00:40:38
Speaker
This is, this is a, look at this guy, look at this son of a bitch. Jesus. And it's kind of like that when you see an actor is when they're doing it, when they're on the job and it's like, oh, OK, there's I get it. Like, it makes sense to you. So he just comes in and it's like we don't know. He's not like a big star or something, but it's like he's got the juice. He's very comfortable. You know I mean? Like he's he's returning to a character and adapting him. And he elevated what was on the page, I thought. so mine for the impossible box was board trauma as best Trek trope.
Plot Inconsistencies and Critiques
00:41:11
Speaker
I think it was, a really good exploration because it was kind of like Hugh saying, thank you. yeah ah My experience in the enterprise is actually invaluable for me helping these people.
00:41:23
Speaker
And just the idea that it's kind of in conflict. The border the Romulans are not doing this altruistically, right? They're harvesting the Borg technology, but they are, you know, the veneer of we'll provide counseling and reintegration services.
00:41:38
Speaker
And it's kind of like this tension of capital and humanism, right? So... I still think it's like he's a really effective head of that, but also like it's a really good way of re-examining the Locutus days for Picard because it's like, how else can they explore this?
00:41:56
Speaker
You know what i mean? And it's like, this is another side of it. I thought it was pretty interesting. and the other one is Androids do dream. We saw a Data Dream in The Next Generation, and now Soji's dreams are very important.
00:42:08
Speaker
Worst Trek tropes.
00:42:10
Speaker
All kids love the three Musketeers.
00:42:16
Speaker
This is not an age appropriate novel to be reading to a child. Well, he is homeschooled. so So boring. Oh my God.
00:42:27
Speaker
um And why are people slipping and sliding all over the board cube for fun? There's a scene with Soji and Narek and they're slipping and sliding in a hallway.
00:42:40
Speaker
This is a it's like a fucking concentration camp. What are you doing? i understand you need like cut loose or whatever, but this is disrespectful. I put this as low budget workaround, but you're right. Yours has the emotional, like the reality of where they are is pretty ridiculous.
00:42:58
Speaker
Like this is essentially a cemetery. Yeah. And, and they're dancing on graves. but was you Yeah, but it's, you know Star Trek has always had budget limitations.
00:43:09
Speaker
And sometimes that could be a best trick trope. Here, I think it's a worse trick trope because they couldn't do what they really wanted to do, which is like they're floating through space. That would cost too much. So they just had to do one where their feet are kind of slightly off the ground and they're gliding in their socks on the floor. Really cheap looking.
00:43:26
Speaker
Yeah, like and or on a hardwood floor and socks like you do as a kid. Yeah, it does a risky business scene. Yeah, the cemetery is basically what's going on. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:43:39
Speaker
ah what ah And then I have, hold on. There is a very creepy age gap between Dr. Jurati and Bruce Maddox, right? Like, Yes.
00:43:49
Speaker
That's outrageous. at Because Dr. Girardi looks like well she could be in her 30s, but i she looks like she's in her 20s. and think she's in her late thirty Okay. But she looks way younger than this guy.
00:44:01
Speaker
And then also, Soji has had a device that could tell the age of any any object or being. She's never used it on anything until now.
00:44:13
Speaker
I'd be doing it on everything. Okay. It's just to know how old something You're the borg the Borg cemetery. Yeah.
00:44:26
Speaker
I'm like, oh how old's my foot?
00:44:29
Speaker
Okay, so Allison Pill, who plays Dr. Jurati, was 33 when the episode came out. And John Ailes, who played Bruce Maddox at the time.
00:44:43
Speaker
So she's the same age. Bruce Maddox in Measure of a Man is probably about that same age. And it's been, what, 30 years since... Like...
00:44:54
Speaker
Yeah, there's like a 30 year age gap. Yeah. Not acting wise, because it looks like that's 15 years or 14 years. But in the in universe, yeah, it's like 30 years.
00:45:05
Speaker
Well, what about like in real life? That's what said. It's like 15 years. It's like 14 or 15 years. Yeah. um still I put lens flares. that's ah That's now a Trek trope. Thanks, JJ Abrams.
00:45:18
Speaker
um We made a joke about there's like a visual effect in every shot. Like all three of these episodes are guilty of that. Like the reason why they didn't have money to put other species on Vashti is because they had to spend time adding in moths and butterflies and yeah Like every shot has a visual effect. Yeah. That's the future is now.
00:45:43
Speaker
So this is kind of like a most of its time, but i'm I'm putting in here because it's like this episode, was um Absolute Candor had no Starfleet uniforms. I get that Picard wants to be like, this is not Patrick Stewart back on the bridge of the Enterprise. We want to do something different.
00:45:56
Speaker
But just him holding the communicator up to his ear like he's got his Bluetooth on when he gets the call from Raffi that the synths have revolted on on Mars. And when he's play fighting with Elnor at the beginning of the episode is...
00:46:11
Speaker
ah I'm going to say it's a bad trick trope of trying to like today, but the future, like that was a bad matching there off screen threats.
Technical and Narrative Challenges
00:46:21
Speaker
So this is more like a bad writing trope, but I think the newer shows are more guilty of this. So as they're going to Vashti, uh, Rios warns Picard that there's a guy named car Contar, a crime boss.
00:46:34
Speaker
I guess. And he has an ancient bird of prey at his disposal, basically from the balance of terror, because that's what Michael Chabon saw when he was a kid. That's all he knows the Romulans to be.
00:46:46
Speaker
So it was like, wouldn't it be fun if we brought this a hundred year old ship back? And it's causing a ruckus in this sector ah by this guy. We, we hear his name multiple times, but never see him. Don't understand what the thing is.
00:47:03
Speaker
It's just, it's called packing the whack when it's like, you've got to have jeopardy and jeopardy and jeopardy. It's like, okay, it's too much. We're at this place. It's already hostile to us, but then there's this security system and then there's this crime boss.
00:47:15
Speaker
And it's just like, we don't see car Contar on free cloud. You know what I mean? like Like, any of his agents, it's just bizarre. ah I don't like the Rios holograms. I think it's a bad Trek trope yeah of using holograms for no purpose other than isn't it weird that they're holograms?
00:47:33
Speaker
And I already got at this. that Just the gilding the lily or gilding the danger is like, it's just it's bad technobabble. So i'm going to explain the security system around Vashti. well that's It was bought secondhand.
00:47:46
Speaker
It was bought secondhand. And the Fenris Rangers helped them install it. Who's them? The Romulan refugees or the the the inhabitants of the planet? It's primitive, but effective.
00:47:58
Speaker
a standard It's a standard Romulan planetary defense system. your basic impenetrable shield of orbital killer drones. Every 30 minutes, a transit zone opens up in a random spot in the network.
00:48:09
Speaker
If the system clears you, you have a minute to pass through. Try to come and go without clearance, and you're met with immediate kill fire. But then Picard just beams down. yeah I wasted your time, Kristen, because I'm like, why is the show wasting my time with this?
00:48:22
Speaker
Like all they had to say was Rios was like, you hired me to ferry you from point A to point B. Here's point B. Good luck to you, sir. I will be in orbit for X amount of minutes.
00:48:34
Speaker
If you want to hit, if we're going to free cloud, I have a schedule to keep, you know what mean? Like there's other ways to do it than tech on tech on tech. So bad check. All right. I have more. Great.
00:48:44
Speaker
Rios's pimp costume and the whole party city gang that couldn't shoot straight. Those costumes are absolutely horrible. I can't get over it. That's why we killed the whole episode. And then Picard pretending like this. oh and then in In the show, like he's wearing just an eyepatch and beret, and he moves the eyepatch over, and they're like, oh, it's it's Admiral Picard! It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing.
00:49:13
Speaker
It's embarrassing.
00:49:17
Speaker
And he's French doing a French accent? Like, what I don't know. Whatever. I can't. I can't. i can't it's ah It's not elder abuse, but it's ah everyone should feel very ashamed. This sounds to me like something that Patrick Stewart may have pitched. Like, oh, we shouldn't trust him. That is an excellent point that I will gladly ask. can you do a weird French accent? Can I?
00:49:41
Speaker
and ah two ah Watch this. You know, I taught the Royal Shakespeare companies. Yeah. And then my last one is, is the EMH not allowed to say, oh, hey, Dr. Girardi killed that guy.
00:49:55
Speaker
Right. Exactly. So the the EMH is witnessing Dr. Jurati murder Bruce. mu She turns him off and i and it's it seems like he can turn himself on if there's enough yeah ah there's enough tension in the room. and and us ah um Like if someone's heartbeat is elevated or something. There's no evidence that he doesn't remember the previous exchange.
00:50:20
Speaker
Like that's how he develops relationships. So it would make sense. So I think that is all. well So I put the, the MH or the holograms as a worst truck trope. It's like, yeah.
00:50:31
Speaker
Okay. It's like, Oh, is it HIPAA violation? mi ah She murder. Yeah.
Ethical Implications of Holograms
00:50:35
Speaker
But like, Some of the other holograms seem to remember stuff from previous conversations. They do. They have to.
00:50:42
Speaker
They're like, it wouldn't work if they were on that ship working for Rios. Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. So then. Oh yeah. She killed him boss. Oh really?
00:50:52
Speaker
What else she say? Well, this would know like, why didn't you activate when this event was happening? And he's like, I did. turn me off You know? Like, yeah. You just be like, Oh, deactivate.
00:51:06
Speaker
so I can continue my murders. I mean, they they want to spend time introducing like the dirtbag EMH that only speaks Spanish that pilots the ship in an emergency, even though Rios is supposed to be a great pilot. It's just like, it's nonsense.
00:51:20
Speaker
um Worst Trek trope that I'm putting here, because sometimes it can be a best Trek trope, Picard surrenders. i Remember, he tosses the sword down in the middle of the sword fight. Yeah. Oh, yeah. good Good luck to you there.
00:51:34
Speaker
um And then camp him down or help out. You know what Like suddenly they're in Picard somewhere. And for some reason, Rios and Rafi just have to sit on their hands. um Inertial dampeners. It's dampers.
00:51:47
Speaker
Shield percentages. We've got the computer telling us what emergency procedures are going on. That's just like wasted. yeah like do We need to fill the space with some dialogue to make it sound urgent because the shot isn't as exciting as we hoped it would be. And it's just like, okay, whatever.
00:52:02
Speaker
So anyway, those are all the worst trick jokes. All little tricks that Star Trek does to be exciting. And I had that for the impossible blocks too, where Picard's on the Borg ship and suddenly Rios and Raffi are not willing to go on board and help him out.
00:52:15
Speaker
But Elnor does. He sneaks away. you know what mean? it's just, it's whatever. Most cosplayable character or moment? Bajazel's outfit, like hands down. I'm looking at a picture of now, so...
00:52:29
Speaker
This is a sheer body suit from head to toe with some cage like apparatus for the shoulders.
00:52:41
Speaker
And the it's a sparkly body suit with opaque cutouts or not cutouts, but ah opaque sections for the breasts and vagina area. i cannot wear this.
00:52:53
Speaker
I've had a baby. But anyone who can deserve some kind of metal. And then later she puts like a little robe over it. So it's not as revealing. I can wear it with the robe, but not without the robe.
00:53:08
Speaker
Did you at any point while watching Bajazal go, wow, the counselor Troy vibes off of her? Well, yeah, obviously. Okay. So I make sure.
00:53:19
Speaker
so Yeah. It's astonishing how much she evokes that. Season 4. for Counselor Troy. It's intense.
00:53:30
Speaker
So um anyway. Great call on Bajazel's costume. And all that stuff. That's a good one. yeah they were like oh like It's not even that. i mean yes It's obvious obviously like a custom costume. That i'm looking at. it But like they all all the costume budget went to her. That episode apparently.
00:53:47
Speaker
Now it's time for the line. mrjo here Great lines. I used to live with a guy who liked paper books. I bothered him too. That's Dr. Jurati and she's talking about her dad how much she annoyed him.
00:54:00
Speaker
Papa. She fucking sucks, Brian. I hate her. i hate that character. i hate i hate that fucking hospitality hologram, says Rios. That's one of my great lines.
00:54:15
Speaker
Because I was like, well, yeah, no shit, asshole. Idiot. but Hospitality. What was the accent for the hospitality hall, Graham, in this episode? It's like he lost the eye the Irish accent. He couldn't find it.
00:54:27
Speaker
And they didn't have time to retake it. No. so Yeah. They're just like, you know what? It's not. When you're on your resume about what accents you can do.
00:54:39
Speaker
ah And they weren't going to give him a dialogue coach. but Like, oh yeah, you can do all these accents? Well, guess what? We got to put these butterflies at the shot. We had to have the dialogue coach.
00:54:52
Speaker
ra So the moment between Raffi and Picard that I said is a great moment. Raffi, but you remember what we used to say back then? Picard, one impossible thing at a time. Raffi, we have to stick to the plan.
00:55:02
Speaker
Free cloud. And then Picard, I may never pass this way again. There's a great line for the show. I had some more, but um one is actually from Stardust City Rag.
00:55:14
Speaker
Eleanor saying, was I inbudding ah so fighting in of budding in. I thought he said, oh, and then he says I'll butt out or I'll out butt. He brings that up again in the impossible box at the beginning. That's cute. Yeah.
00:55:29
Speaker
that's that's cute um no and does At the end of the impossible box, he says, please, my friends choose to live. Yeah. ah That's his line before he's about to fucking murder somebody.
00:55:42
Speaker
Yeah, that's great. ah if Dr. Girardi said that before she murdered yeah people. I would i'd like her more. See, when Alan murders people, I'm like fine with it. When she does, it I'm like, hey.
00:55:55
Speaker
In complete fairness to Elnor, is both issuing a warning to peep and defending someone he's pledged to protect. Or is Dr. Drogi just trying to get... get away with something.
00:56:10
Speaker
Yeah. Try to clean up loose ends. In a 12 hour span she murders the guy she had a sexual, physical, emotional relationship with and sleeps with the guy transporting them.
00:56:24
Speaker
Which I suspect is a honeypotting like It's part of the the ruse to throw him off the scent. Anyway, I did like when... ah The scent of what, though? Yeah, exactly.
00:56:35
Speaker
um you know When Rios shuffles off Raffi after her call with the Admiral, and she's drunk in bed, he and she's talking about her son. oh because we didn't mention this in Sardis City Rag.
00:56:48
Speaker
The reason why Raffi wanted to go to Freecloud is because her son is there with his Romulan wife, and they're having a kid. And he doesn't want to have anything to do with her because she's basically a conspiracy nut.
00:57:00
Speaker
She's on Facebook too much. Yeah. The fluoride in the drinking water is okay. Yeah. And i like and then it's like, Oh God, you're done with that. Like, no, that is real. and like oh Jesus.
00:57:13
Speaker
um But I liked Rios's kind of pep talk of no one gets all of it right, Raph. I appreciated that. And then I put this as great line because it's absurd because it happens like 12 times. 37 months. 37 months. 37 months.
00:57:27
Speaker
thirty seven months thirty seven months 37 months it just was too much like and not just like she brought all of her she brought her childhood bedroom with her to do this serious science mission but then you have this absurd sequence where she's like looking at everything from her childhood and yeah we get it 37 months it's all it's so fucking weird that she has all that childhood memorabilia and she's just fucking banging that guy like there's no tomorrow that's right
00:57:58
Speaker
she's like She's just a little girl, but also I've given her the ability of sexual pleasure. i'm not going I can't get over that one, but okay. Again, poor things. na Yeah, that's right. There we go.
00:58:09
Speaker
I hate that movie, by the way. i think we've talked about it, but yes I fucking hate that movie. I don't hate that movie, but I did hate Kinds of Kindness. which is the movie. I haven't seen that. mean I was like, I'm not seeing another one of those motherfuckers movies. Well then that's saying. That that movie came out in the wake of poor things. Everyone's like, Oh, the next movie.
00:58:29
Speaker
Oh, I heard that was just, and then you watch kind of kindness and it's kind of like Todd Phillips Joker two, where it's like, Hey, Why is it like, okay, I get it. You don't like people and you're telling us to go fuck ourselves.
00:58:44
Speaker
I understand now. So now I'm never going to, so I'm not going to watch any more movies from you because you've, your thesis statement on humanity is clear. Poor Emma Stone is now filming another Yorgos Lanthimos movie and she's shaved her head for it.
00:58:59
Speaker
now she's wearing a wig around town. I'm going to say this and you're going disagree. The problem is he's actually a good technical filmmaker. The stories are are, that's what people are reacting to, but it's like, it's like actually kind of rare that you'll see people frame shots and get performances and do the things like, like like if you had a like a story that people like, he would make a good movie with it because I disagree. I feel like the use of the fisheye lens that much gives it a very music video feel.
00:59:33
Speaker
He doesn't really do that with kinds of kindness. That's what Well, he does it with ah the favorite and, um, but he didn't do that with killing of a sacred deer. Like, so his style does sometimes adapt. Um,
00:59:46
Speaker
bend to the story but i'm not here to argue i'm i'm with you i mean lord slain the most i'm like okay i really do i don't i'm too ill right now to actually get into it but we could do a whole episode how much i hated poor things and also another movie that came out i think about last year or the year before the maryland monroe biopic blonde oh that i put those both in the same basket uh, was that Adrian line? Adrian? don't know. I don't know. It that was Anna DeArmas plays.
01:00:18
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Whoever made that movie it should be put in jail. Anyone involved with that, any above the line person involved with that film ought to be ashamed of themselves. Yes. I assume they were only given the script in small parts, like sections, like only their scenes, because there's lots there's lots of big name people in and There's no possible way they would have signed on if they had like seen the whole script or if the whole script is actually written that way. Do you remember the Cider House rules? Yeah.
01:00:51
Speaker
Yeah, but you see the differences. Well, hold on. One was pro-choice. One was anti-choice and misogynistic. Just what was funny about the Cider House rules that retain that i is retained in my memory besides like Tobey Maguire scoring Charlize Theron does not compute. This is ridiculous. No, yeah, that's fucking stupid.
01:01:11
Speaker
ah Is that every 10 minutes of that movie, it's like Michael Caine coming into a doorway and kind of with a twinkle in his eye and asking in a question way, abortion?
01:01:22
Speaker
like It's like every know every single hot button social issue at the time. And my recollection of, so, but okay, fine. whatever Abortion? Yeah, but mine was like, a bor what I remember was there were multiple abortions that movie, and I'm fine anything wrong with that.
01:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, he was, yeah, Michael Caine's character is the one doctor. But it's like every 10 minutes. In like a 50 mile radius, or like 300 mile radius that does abortions that won't kill you.
01:01:48
Speaker
What I'm saying is is that what I remember from that movie is like every 10 minutes we have to like abortion. And in blonde, it's like every seven minutes it's like, okay. And then the scene ends with her being raped.
01:01:59
Speaker
Like that's literally what blonde is. And there's, it's it's so it's offensive. It is offensive. It's anti choice and misogynistic. They, there are parts of the film where a fetus is,
01:02:15
Speaker
Like she, uh, there's one part where she has like an abortion at like, i don't know, six to nine weeks, whatever. And then she has a miscarriage later on around the same time. And they show a a fetus that's like clearly like 18 weeks gestation, 20 weeks gestation talking to her.
01:02:35
Speaker
like oh you didn't love me mommy so fucking stupid and also there's those there's scenes where like you have the point of view from inside her vagina who's whose idea was that that's insane it's disgusting it's because marilyn unro represents she is the the the woman that every man wanted to own and hate and like, then it's taking it to this extreme where it's just like, like the director fucking straight up hates her ass. It's, it's, we live in a sick society.
01:03:13
Speaker
And like it, it, it It's cruel to her for no reason. Like, it it makes up cruelty. That didn't ever happen. Like, there's... ah They also, like, basically slandered two real-life people.
01:03:28
Speaker
um Like, the two male... ah Like, her, like, polycule member. like yeah They're real people, but they actually never did any of that fucking bullshit that... the film goes into but anyway whatever ah that that was like the worst film i'd seen like there's very few films i'm like this should not have been made that film should not have been made and also um bones and all should not have been made well it's technically well made i i don't think it should have been made didn't see bones and all don't it's disgusting i think it's interesting that we're kind of tangentially talking marilyn monroe is actually leading us back to soji a little bit yeah sorry no she's just a sex object object really she's a child sex object yeah men's relationship to women
01:04:17
Speaker
in certain types i'm not trying to cast aspersions i'm just saying consciously or unconsciously the way things come out of like you see this with a lot of male filmmakers who have women characters of like this feels like a man playing with a doll in a dollhouse he's built for her And it's yeah kind of weird. Like, this is not a character. This is just like, I want to stare at you through my camera lens and make you do the things I want you to do.
01:04:42
Speaker
But we're making a movie and you're going to be a star. But you're going to go here and you're like, there is something there is a psychology going on there. And it's a little it's little creepy. um where this do like If you were a three-year-old a grown woman's body, obviously all you do all day have sex and then you need money. So obviously you become a prostitute for the pleasure of it.
01:05:07
Speaker
And you're a great scientist because you are good at listening to people. know what mean? All right. Would this be a fun holo novel to play on? I guess of any of the three episodes. I said sure. Okay. I guess.
01:05:23
Speaker
It might be fun to dress up like a pimp. Which, by the way, offensive in and of itself. Yes. ah It truly is. Rios is a pimp. And I understand it's like, we like this macho guy. We think he actually would work. But it's like, you can actually convey that by not just going to, ah what was the name of the pimp in Starsky and Hutch? Oh, shit. yeah I don't know. I mean, that's...
01:05:49
Speaker
like Michael Chabon's pop culture knowledge stopped at 1978. And it's just like, that's what, what the show is trapped in. And it's just like, there's so many other ways to play how cool. um is Yeah. So it's just like, I don't know. um Absolute candor. Absolutely not.
01:06:06
Speaker
No, no, I don't care about that. I don't think that would be a fun one to play. ah The impossible box. I said, maybe. Yeah. and then you're saying stardust city rag is a yes. Yeah. I mean, whatever just,
01:06:19
Speaker
try move your way
Star Trek Picard as a Holo-novel
01:06:21
Speaker
in. There's a, there's a alien, a big, a big bodyguard alien that can smell lies. And the makeup was kind of cool on that. That might be a fun cosplayable character. If someone could pull it off, it's like, not like the guy from Goonies a little bit, but they're like lying to his face. So it's like, okay, I guess you can't smell lies. Cause they're lying right to your face. Anyway. Oh, also I probably should put this a worst track trope, but like,
01:06:44
Speaker
Oh, I'll just give you some, draw I'll give you some Xanax and they won't be able to smell the lie on you. Just like when they had to get there, like, all right, Riker, we're going to give you a whole bunch of Adderall and you're going to get, you're going to sleep through the alien. You're not going to sleep through the alien abduction this time.
01:07:03
Speaker
One of our, well, I don't know when this is going to be released, but our more recent episodes that we've watched. I actually don't know that Sardis City Rag... It depends on who you're playing the holodeck adventure through, because if you're 7 of 9 in Sardis City Rag, at the end you have to just go and murder a bunch of people.
01:07:19
Speaker
Yeah, but they're bad people. I guess, but she's shooting up that whole room. know I mean? Yeah, whatever. okay like you you think if there's a bunch of, like, ah you know...
01:07:31
Speaker
good do good or nuns and like people who've okay judge i mean come on okay judge dread fine you made your point what part of this will lead to all right what about the the memoir it's after this what part of this will lead to the academy some of the board cubes have a secret special escape pod for the queen Maybe. Yeah, that's a good one, actually. i didn't think about that. And he was like, yeah, they didn't come on this part of the ship. They don't know about it.
01:08:01
Speaker
No, I just put it on my list. I did put it. I just put as the special director. yeah That seems pretty important. They're like, by the way, Borg assimilated this people who devised the gateway.
01:08:15
Speaker
Not the Iconian gateway. Yeah, well this is and also it was a good explanation. Oh, by the way, this happened after you were assimilated. Oh, for sure. Absolutely. So you would know about this. I like those little, guess what? Yeah. Where Picard's like, this is the queen's room. And then he was like, it's weird how we just knew that. Right.
01:08:32
Speaker
Yeah. I kind liked that was all worked for me. I don't know. I was also going to say the history of the relocation would be another thing that they would have taught. So like, maybe not that Vashti is this, you know, refugee slum now or whatever, but just like, what were, what was the timeline of events? What were the political pressures that spurred it but then ended it and the tensions that Federation is in post the explosion and the crisis really the imminence of the crisis I think they would teach that what part of this will Jean-Luc Picard omit or heighten in his memoirs he'll say that the disguises on Stardust City Rag were perfect and fooled everybody
01:09:24
Speaker
I think he's going to admit that he straight up abandoned Elnor for 14 years. Yeah. and think he's going to massage that a little bit. I think his co-writer is going to be like... His ghostwriter.
01:09:37
Speaker
Yeah, his ghostwriter is going to delve. No, this makes you seem like an asshole. Who would have Picard's ghostwriter be? or be Oh my goodness.
01:09:48
Speaker
I also think that he would completely delete the part that I did not fall on that catwalk when I did War Cube. I was certainly overwhelmed by emotions and the sense memories.
01:10:00
Speaker
And it was very hard to even take many steps forward. And then when I saw these drones, I kind of was like, what's going to happen here? And then Hugh appeared and he told me, they're here to help you across the catwalk.
01:10:12
Speaker
see you to the other side it's like great and i the threshold i crossed was like an emotional threshold like he would he would flower that shit up a lot not like i had a freak out and i almost fell into ah fell off the off the bridge here all right so trek marry or kill absolute candor the first of the three okay yeah no i think i'm killing that one too So Elnor, little boy, ah they're on Vashti.
01:10:40
Speaker
Picard gets that random senator who was mad at former senator who was mad at him, gets him beheaded. Yeah, I'm with you. That's a kill. We killed Sardis City Rag. Donezo.
01:10:51
Speaker
But I'm going to give the Impostle Box a soft track. I think I'm with you. We didn't even talk about the sequence where Narek takes... We didn't talk about it. We mentioned it.
01:11:03
Speaker
ah Takes Soji through that Romulan... yeah yeah Hypnosis, dream interpretation thing. Yeah. yeah i I liked it and I didn't. like i'm like a I get it and I kind of appreciate it.
01:11:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think the episode is a soft track. There's enough in there. I was like... That's not so bad. And I think. and and And it advances the plot. Unlike some things. It does. It merges. Picard finally finds Soji. Those connect. Then they go away.
01:11:29
Speaker
And Hugh's in it a lot. So that's good. Yeah. Mm hmm. ah But these, I think, were some episodes that made us kind of sick. I chipped my tooth, and I got filled this morning, and that was more pleasurable than me watching these.
01:11:45
Speaker
My back, second to last molar. Oh, molar. Okay, yeah, they got to fill that. I chipped ah one of my front teeth on a pork chop. Not too long ago. And they were like, listen, i could we could fill it we can do something or I can just like shave it to make it like less jagged. And you like probably won't notice.
01:12:07
Speaker
But if I put a filling or a bonding or whatever, you're not going to be able to eat apples ever again. i was like, you know what? Shave that baby down. like you cannot tell. like Yeah, you can't tell.
01:12:19
Speaker
That's great. No, their mine was actually been chipped for a long time. And you're like you should now as we're getting to the point where you should start to think about filling it back. So I'm right. Did I tell you how like pregnancy ruined my teeth?
01:12:31
Speaker
No. What happened? Okay. So like um my baby was so big and needed so much nutrients that so many nutrients that he was leaching it from my teeth. And I was going to the ft the dentist like every three months. Like, look, we can't do anything about it.
01:12:47
Speaker
But after you have the baby, as soon as you're done, like as soon as you're like done, don't even think they said like you to wait to be like to finish breastfeeding. Like you got to come in. We got to fill all these. And it was like four teeth, Brian.
Dental Health Issues Discussion
01:13:00
Speaker
It was bad. Yeah. And there's nothing you can do while it's happening? No. Just drink more milk. it' like just keep but No, I can't drink milk. I know i know you can't, but I mean like. No, they were like, look, you can't do fluoride. You can't do anything. You just keep brushing and flossing, brushing and flossing. Don't do any ah mouthwash.
01:13:17
Speaker
We're just going to keep an eye on it. Just like keep taking your vitamins. But no, there's nothing I can do about it. Holy cow. There's monitoring. I can't get any more like x-rays. Then when I finally did the x-rays, like, oh yeah, you got a bunch.
01:13:30
Speaker
And like, I'm still dealing with that. Like, uh, how it kind of weakened the enamel and sort might and certain teeth. I've had like two more fillings since then. They're putting an overlay of your teeth previously over your teeth now when you're like touching them in horror.
01:13:45
Speaker
Like Picard is. me see Oh no, no, no. It's just like little fillings here and there. It's not like actual. it hurt? Like, do you notice it? I didn't know. i didn't I luckily did not have any sensitivity for it.
01:13:56
Speaker
But, like, yeah, they were just like, ah yeah, you can't do anything about it. And by the way, that the ah used to the old saying used to be you lost ah tooth with every baby.
01:14:07
Speaker
never heard that. Before modern dentistry. Holy cow. Okay. That's an important note. huh But, yeah, the calcium doesn't really do anything. I mean... Yeah.
01:14:20
Speaker
They're like, just so know, I'm like, what I can't possibly eat anymore. Like, i'm already I'm already at my fill. Like, I cannot eat anymore. ah no and ice cream is the, it cancels out with the sugar.
01:14:32
Speaker
Well, like, but and honest no, it's not even the calcium because you just take supplements. It's just like, it's all the other minerals in your teeth. Jesus. Getting leached for your baby.
01:14:44
Speaker
but thing is, the baby's going to be fine. It's you that you've got to worry about. so they are You are giving life. Like me
Podcast Plans and Listener Engagement
01:14:52
Speaker
getting lightheaded after two hours without a snack. That's like... Yeah.
01:14:57
Speaker
Jeez. Yeah, anyway. Well, I can't believe we did three episodes in... Yeah, let's not do that again, Brian. We're not going to do that again, but we are going to do two more next week. We're going to... we're going to catch up with the Rikers or the Troy, Troy Rikers and Nepenthe.
01:15:13
Speaker
And then the episode broken pieces. And that will, and then the week after we will wrap up season one of star Trek Picard and star Trek Picard, the series. So but look out for that. Check Mary K pod on social media, check Mary kill pod.com on the web. Any questions, comments, ah disagreements, ah platitudes can also email us.
01:15:34
Speaker
and uh let us know when is this going to be released brian this will come out in march march uh 11th are we still a country by then who knows who knows we don't know we are still alive who knows we are in fact recording this the day after 2024 united states election yes so united
Post-Election and Dodgers' World Series
01:15:53
Speaker
states election yes so So we we didn't record last week because, number one, I was very sick. Still sick, but very sick then.
01:16:03
Speaker
And also the Dodgers won the World Series. And it took them way into the the evening to do so. Yeah. And for me, who despises the Dodgers, it's basically been a week of fascists winning. So it's been tough.
01:16:17
Speaker
So just imagine
Closing and Political Comment
01:16:19
Speaker
the ebb and flow of your favorite team winning a championship. Yeah. And then this fucking bullshit.
01:16:30
Speaker
It was ah almost three hours of bullshit, ah one might say. But thanks for sticking around to listen to all of it if you're this far in. If you voted for Donald Trump, just hit unsubscribe right now.
01:16:45
Speaker
We'll be back next week with episode. Until then, Bye.