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michaeljimmcdonald
Reviews
Star Trek: Picard: Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2 (2020)
Star Trek at last
Don't listen to the naysayers, the finale is pure unadulterated Star Trek. Star Trek is entirely about philosophical questions and what it means to be "human" - this nails that. No spoilers, but it essentially boils down to the dangers of fear. And the characters are all great. Star Trek needs literally nothing else to be good; things like being consistent with the overall timeline or explaining every single detail are such insipid things to worry about (City on the Edge of Forever has plenty of inconsistencies; you bashing it for them?)
Some other notes: each character gets enough screen time to give them a satisfying conclusion to the season; there are no stupid never-would-have-seen-that-coming twists like pretty much every other streaming show; the tone/style of the episode really capture the atmosphere of TOS/TNG well
For those who say it violates the utopian vision of Trek: sure it dims humanity's prospects a bit, but something a lot of reviewers seem to gloss over is that this is the first Star Trek series where every race we see is working to accomplish a greater good (however misguided their understanding of what that means); literally no other Trek show to this point has done that
As for the so called unresolved details... why do you care? Star Trek is not a suspense-driven mystery thriller where every detail needs to be wrapped in a bow. Every plot-relevant point was addressed, the others are just world building and spending time on them would have taken away from more important parts. Some reviewers act like they won't be satisfied until they get Soong's detailed notes on how to construct an android from scratch.
I think there is some validity in wishing the new characters got more time to develop, but this is just season one and there's plenty of time for them to do so. In fact my complaint here is that we got a little too much backstory on some of them (think about it, we know more about Rios' history prior to this show than we really do of most major characters, like Geordi prior to Next Gen)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Second Skin (1994)
Duet Part II: Another fantastic episode
I don't understand why episodes like this get so much flak; they're what made DS9 a great show (and why it was so painful when the Dominion War arc took over in the later seasons). The core mystery and its resolution bring many classic Trek themes into play, such as how identity affects a person and how decisions reflect what truly matters to a person, but we also get the deep personal significance for Major Kira that's possible due to the ongoing development of her character and the Bajoran & Cardassian cultures throughout DS9's early seasons (TOS and TNG could almost never do an episode like this because the characters don't have the history and every week they'd move onto a new culture; the only comparable sequences I'd argue are from Worf's character arc in TNG).
Another reviewer criticized how this is similar to TNG's "Face of the Enemy"; that entirely misses the point of the episode. "Face of the Enemy" was an espionage suspense thriller - there were no personal stakes for Troi really, it was much more a "will they succeed or won't they?" type of story. This episode is entirely about the character - what would it mean for Major Kira if her entire life was a lie, if she really was part of the enemy that destroyed her culture, the enemy for which she'd given everything up to help defeat? And how do the events of the episode complicate her (and the viewer's) view of Cardassians? The central uncertainty of the plot perfectly mirrors the moral uncertainty of the DS9 universe, and really harkens back to the brilliant first season episode "Duet" (the central plot device in fact is practically the exact inverse of the central plot device from "Duet").
If you're looking for suspenseful action you'll find this episode dull; but then again if that's the case, why are you watching Star Trek at all?
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Indiscretion (1995)
Underrated episode
This is another episode focused on the aftermath of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, in this case the personal ramifications for Major Kira and Gul Dukat (mostly for Gul Dukat). In my opinion episodes in this vein were what made DS9 great; rather than moving on to new problems every week like the crew of a starship, the characters and their cultures actually had to live with consequences of the past. This episode in particular does a great job of complicating Gul Dukat (and helps makes it especially annoying for the viewer when they turn him into a cartoon villain in the 6th season); by the end any viewer's opinion of him will drastically have changed. The episode is entirely driven by character development; there's no action and only one moment of real suspense (another reviewer criticized how easily they infiltrate the compound, but I'd argue this is actually a strength of the episode - with only so much airtime to work with they decided to focus exclusively on the characters rather than show a pointless "gotta fool the bad guys" sequence). Not to mention this is another Major Kira-centric episode, which at this point in the series is always a good thing.
The B-plot has some minor character development for Sisko and is pleasant enough but doesn't really add much (but it doesn't get in the way of the A-plot either).