Troi’s usefulness was manufactured. He didn’t need Troi to tell him anything. His holographic doctor brought a dry and sardonic sense of wise-assery to Voyager. Obviously it was designed to get more audience on the side of anti-AI ban for those who may not be there yet.I admit 7 was similar to data in that both were trying to discover humanity. Ta daOr it’s going to go all dark and weird, and have something to do with Control from Discovery. So far it feels like this story could have been told in 7 or 8 episodes.FYI, I did a little linguistic sleuthing that may give us a glimpse of what’s going on. Troi was used better than she ever was in TNG here too – she is right to tell Picard to stop being so sarcastic to Soji. I just hope they have some good answers. ;)TIN MAN has awesome music, it was before the prods cut off the composer’s privates, metaphorically speaking.I liked the Armas cue from Skin of Evil. The reason Icheb hit much harder was because of how it affected 7. And I loved that the planet were they live is so awesome and had such a LOTR feeling that fits with Thad’s stories. He’s been roundly criticized directly by many, but really able to process that and adapt.Troi and Riker were able to call Picard on his inappropriate reactions and he was able to hear it from them and take it on board. We’re very happy people like it.Only fault in the episode was Sirtis did not get “Special Guest Star” credit at the beginning. But damn if that swelling “Next Generation” theme at the end of “Nepenthe” doesn’t feel earned.How amazing that we get to that point after the vision of apocalyptic destruction that opens the episode. Why is Picard collecting a crew for 5 freaking episodes that he doesn´t need? “Tea, Earl Grey, on fanfold paper…”I hope when Seven of Nine inevitably returns she does more than terminate things. There is one guy I used to work with at another job years ago who is a pretty good friend today but I haven’t brought him up to any of my current colleagues. and thank you for avoiding a close-up), she’s vomiting up everything: her betrayal and secrecy, her realization that she’s made the wrong choice and endangered others, and most of all, her murder of Bruce Maddox. Might be fun to watch him and Seven shooting spitballs at each other again now that she’s more Annika than Borg drone. Her scenes with Michelle Hurd and Santiago Cabrera just blew me away completely. When we are around them the show has life. They’ve already held the door open for Whoopi Goldberg to return; if there’s one character from the past I’d like to see become an integral part of Picard’s life, who would be Picard’s guide, muse, conscience, and devil on his shoulder, it would be Guinan. I actually want to read about Ardani. And so now Picard knows what we already all knew from the last episode. It’s highly unlikely they will knock off any of the new legacy characters this season.I found myself liking Picard (the character) a little less in this episode. In any case, the gang over there didn’t do himselves any favor of releasing only one episode per week.When Rios brought it up to Agnes I thought it a ploy to get her to confess. Soji and Dajh being “The Chosen One”, not knowing their super powers. : MacKellen seemed obvious. Thanks, guys. )As another evidence of groupthink in the Picard writers room, Chabon and Goldman have spoken about how great the chemistry between Peyton List and Harry Treadway was at the first table read, and how they expanded Narissa’s part to are advantage of this. But Chabon HAS hinted that Hugh’s story may not be completely over yet so we’ll see. The worst thing to ever happen to Troi was Wesley leaving. Data was trying to achieve something he really never could. Hugh survived questioning (because it would cause trouble with the Federation), he escaped, and then we lost him. Like how they are dealing with Raffi’s alcholism? We were JUST getting reintroduced to the character again and then done. Soji is mistrustful for obvious reasons but slowly her defense thaw. Unlike Riker and Troi, his retirement didn’t bring healing or contentment.That said, it would be good to see Worf, who resolved and experienced a lot of tragedy through TNG and DS9, be the one main character that has moved beyond his personal tragedies and is successfully commanding his own ship.Two points I’m trying to get across here (Well, one, plus another that I’m still trying to puzzle out): One, this is supposed to be a Picard-centric show. So they would need a side-door. To me, it was like she had been raised to have survival skills. Only faster.

Menu. If Picard sees engineered AI as better than organic life, why not the Borg (who may blame their failures on organic components now)?Haha good point…I think playing either card is more pallatable than just straight up admitting that, with just like Discovery, the writing staff has been chosen more for the sake of diversity than for quality.And the contrivance of Thad dying from some weird disease whose cure could ONLY have come from AI research. This episode really had “filler” written all over it. We’ll have to see. I do find Commodore Oh a pretty corny ‘villain,’ however.Thanks Danpaine! Today is just a day for one horrible revelation after another.It’s reunions all around after that. Not only do I predict that this will link up to Discovery Season 2’s story, I also predict that Discovery Season 3 will link up to Picard Season 1’s story.I would also go out on a limb and suggest the possibility that Discovery Season 3 ends with them back in the year 2399 (or nearabout). Jurati says to tell them to let them go. No doubt, the threat of incoming Tal Shiar is a daunting one. Also explains why in First Contact he seemed to know exactly where to target the Cube post loss of starships, was he being used to bring Data to the Queen??? This show is just spinning its wheels. It seems that Rios is on to Agnes’s deception—she’s certainly acting plenty suspicious at this point. And it took your statement for me to realize that. How good people and those around them accept and overcome these events is the key thing, and optimistic Trek can address that.As well, one of the challenges of late age, as Picard experiences, is that life can become too retrospective.