User Reviews

First I want to say that when you alter the timeline, Picard didn't go back to meet Guinan in the 1800's. But why did she react to the name then?

The climate message, the immigration message, the unbelievable instant driving of 7en, the way Guinan was portrayed (in all her dignity, she would never become like that), the "wow Agnes you are so smart scenes", the unbelievable fact a spaceship crashes in and nobody comes looking (they have radar and million people with smartphones in 2024).

And next to that stretching a visit to cheap filler film location 2024 for 3 episodes.

What! Are scriptwriters on these days? Is there nobody left who can make a normal show? Is it so hard?

Fire them, fire them all, and make something that everyone will love, and will give 9's and 10's for here on imdb. It is in reach, think!

Episode four is taking back the speed of action and takes it's time to introduce to the young version of Guinan and her meeting Picard. This story arc is the more interesting one in comparison to the other by the crew members and their troubles with present earth etiquette.

At the end some twists spice up the story (The Watcher, Q) and keep the interest high on how the season will continue.

A good, surprising continuation of the story. Not each story arc is that interesting right now, but it's still an entertaining episode with some fan service, some funny scenes with Seven-of-Nine and Rafi and an interesting conclusion of this episode, that keeps me hooked.

Recommended.

I am sorry but these writers did a really bad job on this one. This episode has to be seen as it really is: shortcut writing á la paint by numbers with Star Trek only detectable in most superficial ways. Points about racism and social injustice are made with a sledgehammer. (See DS9's superior "Past Tense" for reference)

Just two episodes before, the crew went into the large walk-in wardrobe on the ship and dress for the era. But here, Jurati is feeling cold and Picard's solution is to break-in to his nearby chateau to light a warming fire. Not only risking detection and contaminating the timeline (very essential, gets mentioned several times) but they can't get some heat in the cockpit? There is energy spent everywhere - even the cloaking device can be activated! It's just another stupid shortcut to get Picard and Agnes in the chateau to have a scene there. It really is that dumb and by no means the only thing. And yes - we leave the dangerous Borg Queen unguarded on the ship.

One of the plot lines is two action women, while trying not to attract attention (butterfly effect, ya know?) destroy a police car window with a 25th century phaser in broad daylight at a police station. These two then steal the vehicle (!) and drive around at breakneck speeds in a low-budget car chase without anyone actually chasing them. You just have to roll your eyes in disgust, confronted with so much stupidity. This segments ends - by the way - with the two of them getting beamed out of the vehicle while being observed by the police.

The Rios segment where he is incarcerated by white male Immigration officers is not as preposterous but more heavy-handedly written. Apparently, the female doctor just had to give her personal information and gets to leave jail - why didn't she provide that information when she was arrested? Who knows. She had a building full of patients to attend to... The whole time is just bad cops in a cheap looking location being mean. There is no subtlety there and no finesse. It's even hinted that these thugs in uniform make illegal immigrants "disappear". Thanks Star Trek! 'All Police bad' is really a statement that was worth spending our time on. Rios is also back not being a Starfleet captain but season 1 Rios for some reason.

The stuff with Agnes and the Borg Queen still has some good things. I just wish the producers/writers didn't take short cuts and actually SHOW me that Agnes is such a genius and has a superior mind. Just saying it doesn't make it so.

We also meet young Guinan. A miserable, angry and hopeless, shotgun-wielding Alien. And she feels just about as wrong as Whoopie Goldberg felt a couple of weeks earlier. There is nothing alien about her, nothing ethereal. It seems like Picard is just talking to some human from 2024. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Guinan, ready to leave the planet, is so neat that she even packs plastic jars full of peanuts in a box. I guess they're very valuable. When she finally yields and gets Picard to the titular "Watcher", suddenly the episode feels more like I'm in "Matrix: Reloaded" or something. I expect all this mystery is hand-waved away next episode, though. Like always.

Oh, and Picards point to all the misery in LA is just that "change always comes later than we think it should." Thanks Mr Android.

I could mention even more stupid things like Picard's magic deductive skills coming up with the date of the temporal event or that nobody cared if everyone got transported safely and all are accounted for. Communication doesn't work, we are being told, but transporting works? Why?

Okay. We were being told several times that the crew wants to avoid attracting attention or contaminating the timeline in any way. But, hey, let's beam Picard in broad daylight to a street corner in front of a bar! Why not? Things don't have to make sense ALL the time, right?

This really has come down to switch-your-brain-off level. I'm actually a bit embarassed for everyone involved.

Tip: Easter eggs do nothing for me when the screenplay is that bad and makes little sense.

Question: Picard takes a few steps and is out of breath - did they also program this into his android body?

Loved the Kirk Thatcher cameo. Great callback to Star Trek 4. Think that's my favourite Easter egg they've dropped into the show yet. I actually really enjoyed this episode despite what a few other reviewers have written.

Is it just me thinking that in a timeline where the Federation doesn't exist that there would be no Times Arrow "meeting"?

A decent enough episode but the pace is slow.

Was hopeful for Season 2 of Picard, the first episode was actually enjoyable. But within 2 episodes we've gone from stomachable to outright deplorable.

I'm gonna qoute a BBC News Article discussing Discovery, in which they interview a proffesor of Pop Culture and Film.

""I find Discovery kind of insufferable," Hassler-Forest admits. "Because it sometimes feels more like a TED talk about social injustice."

And that's where we are at with Picard. In two episodes, we've had two segways about climate change, a story line about incarcinated immigrants in America, among other issues.

Yes, these are issues. Yes they should be explored creatively through mediums like Star Trek, But no this is not how you do it. But that's the problem, previous trek had modern, controversial issues. But made a good show out of exploring them through the lens of a devoloped humanity who have developed beyond the ignorance of our past.

But now Discovery, and Picards writers are insistent on using this TV show as a platform to push political agendas and remind us how bad as a people we can be. Its a show, under the IP of Star Trek; Star Trek, a show that inspired literal astronauts who went to the moon among other revolutionaries.

The Borg queen, is one of Treks worst inventions (That's an opinion but I honestly believe the Borg are far more facinating when they are a faceless decentralised species.).

Yet in this show, it's one of the only commendable aspects. I like the Queens writing I like the back and fourth, the statement about "species" and "trust" was absolutelty great. But that's it. They make her powerless later on in the episode, and she isn't scary, like the Queen should be.

I watch this show, and I have to wonder. Is this Star Trek, or a sitcom desperately trying to be politically correct.

And I'm not even going to comment on Guinan, or how people from the 24th century have 21st century terminology come naturally to them, or how they can drive. The watcher was also uninteresting. So many possibilities so many ways to write such a character, yet they chose this intro?

This whole episode was filler. No developments, nothing. Outright deplorable.

This episode was slow and low on action and that is ok. The biggest issue everyone has with this episode is that Guinan does not recognize Picard from the "Times Arrow" story arc. The "Times Arrow" story arc is from Picard being in the Federation timeline not the Confederation timeline. Once the change in the timeline occurred in 2024 "Times Arrow" never happened. Why does Guinan look different? She already mention she can change her appearance. But going back to TNG S2E16 "Q Who" Q refers to her as an "Imp". Which in Earth lore is a shapeshifter. Did any body notice the punk rock song on the bus "I Hate You" which is a throw back to the Star Trek IV bus scene. All I can say is I am enjoying what Picard is giving me in entertainment not what it is not. But to say that this show is "Unwatchable" is a bit extreme.

Dave, your friendly neighborhood Star Trek fan.

Wow, that was bad. The writing and also the direction was pretty bad and here is why: so in the writers room you break the story of the entire season, then for each episode and then staff writers get assigned episodes which move the story from point a to b (episode 1) or b to c (episode 2) and so on. Of course to kickstart a season or to end a season the showrunner might write the first or last episode because the main story may also be his or her story. And since the showrunner is mostly a little more experienced and better at his or her job than the other writers - he is the boss after all - those episodes might turn out better. So for episode 4 the two female writers got the job to move the story from point D to point D. Yes, correct, the story does not move hardly at all. At the end of episode 4 almost everybody is at the same point as they were at the end of episode 3. Rios is still in custody, Rafi and seven are looking for him, Jurati is seduced/ manipulated by the Borg Queen and Picard is looking for the watcher the entire episode. Rafi and Seven thought they knew the location of the watcher by the end of episode 3 and may be they were right but they abandoned their mission in order to look for Rios. So Picard has to start from scratch here and decides to visit Guinan, because he thinks she is the watcher. Of course if you only are allowd to move the story forward this tiny step, namely finding the watcher, there is not a lot to do for our two writers. So, the mission would have been to at least give us an entertaining hour, alas they did not. If you are given the weakest filler episode you are probably not the strongest writer of the bunch. The Guinan scenes were very repetitiv. Guinan not trusting Picard and pointing a Shotgun at him. I mean she has a Bar and greets her customers with a watchdog and a weapon? Really. Guinan had a weapon under her counter on the Enterprise but that was more for comic relief. Here she is foul mouthed, depressed and not very optimistic, a little like Luke Skywalker in TLJ. And it does not fit the Guinan character at all. It does not help that they recast Guinan with another younger actress. I did not think the actress was good, the stuff she was given did not help. She refuses to help Picard and Picard does not want to alter the future so he is not telling her his name and his mission. In the last scene they have, because the plot has to move, he is doing it anyway and she agrees to take him to the watcher in an instant. Why? Dont' know why. Then there is a little conflict between Guinan and the watcher for no reason and she leaves. Guinan here was not needed and they should have left her out. Rick Berman once said that the writers could only write Guinan into an episode and hire Goldberg if she was contributing to the plot in an interesting and important manor. Well they should have thought about that maxim before using the character. Was not interesting and not important.

Rafi and Seven look for Rios and Rafi talks to a police officer so she might tell them Riose's location. A random person then tells them were to look. That is not interesting and badly written. Totally uninspired. What follows is a car chase were the reason for driving fast is not given and allows other cars on the street move in the way of the hero car for no other reason but to be an obstacle. The chase ends by a beam out of the car to where the bus is in which rios is deported. "Rios is moving fast." Stupidest line ever. Of course he is, he is on a bus. Also the reveal of the beam out I guess was intended to mirror the beam out of the elevator in Star Trek IV, where we go into the point of view of the police officers for the last seconds and then see through their eyes, that the car was empty. Here, no tension at all, we see the beam out and then have a little tag with the persuing police officers as well. Did not work Mrs Thompson. Sorry.

The watcher has the ability to take over random humans just like the agents in Matrix. Directorially that was done really badly. One human out of a group of three is possessed by the watcher, leaves the group. The others in the group do not react at all just continue the stroll, not wondering were their friend is going. Next time do your homework Mrs Thompson. Then they go for ten meters and the watcher changes the human again. Why? Ten meters. So stupid. The identity of the watcher is stupid, Guinan is very stupid. Rafi shoots open a police car with a phaser she has to work the slide first. Once inside the car she hacks the computer to start it. Stupid. Seven can drive a car, stupid. Guinan has time sickness, stupid. Guinan does not know Picard. Who cares at this point? Q is depowered by a female Q, of course. The deportation officers act like bad guys for no reason, of course. La Serina is damaged, heating does not work but the cloaking device does. Oh, there is a cloaking device. Would have come in handy two episodes ago during the fight. Jurati does something with the number 15 and so they figure out the world ends on the 15th. Picard reacting with joy because he realizes Guinsn's bar is on forward avenue 10. Why now, he beamed to the same location in the first episode. I mean he has to give the computer an address when he beams somewhere, right. Just like the nav system in a car. And here he reacts. Bad direction. And oh my god you two writers, you are bad writers. I could go on and on.

After an auspicious beginning to Season 2, with the first three episodes, the Watcher really disappoints. It fails to advanced the plot in any meaningful way and is frankly tedious to watch. The dialog between the decoupled Borg Queen and Dr. Jurati is particularly insipid. It continues to be overly pedantic about U. S. immigration policy and climate change. And the callback to the outstanding boom box on the bus scene from Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home, really fell flat. A blaring boom box in 2024, really? And there's precious little of Q at the end, which is too bad, as he is easily the best character in the show.

Regarding the Time's Arrow plothole: Many claims that this episode clashes with what happened on Time's Arrow. The writers said that Picard never went to the past because the future changed. Therefore he never met Guinan.

However, this does not make sense in the Star Trek universe. If you watch ST: ENT. There is an episode in which the future is destroyed, and humans never develop time travel. However, Captain Archer still remembers Daniels, and Daniels doesn't cease to exist. That implies that changing the future cannot change the past.

It is essential to follow a single logic regarding time dilemmas in a tv series.

HOWEVER! The Borg queen said it was a different timeline in the same universe. The Borg queen could be lying, which could be an alternate reality. Or maybe they did not only change 2024. They might have changed 19th century when Picard went to the past. There are many possibilities. We have to wait until the end of the season for a better explanation.

Regarding ICE:

I do agree that the "all immigrants are good" and "all cops are bad" stereotypes were forced on this episode (I say that as an immigrant). Besides that, I can't entirely agree with comments about climate change and other issues mentioned in the episode as part of the leftist agenda. That is, as Picard would say, preposterous. Star Trek has always been about humanity reaching a utopia or trying to reach it. Many episodes deal with humanity's history, such as climate change, inequality, war, hunger, etc.

Reviewers speak as if there is no climate change and no global warming. There is. That is a fact. Why would you expect that a Star Trek tv show wouldn't focus on climate change when traveling to the 21st century? Unless you think there is no climate change.

...this ep continues the downward trend started with ep 3. We are definately back on Kurzman terrain. The most hurting points:

• the "social commentary" on Immigration and bad cops couldn't have benn handled more bluntly or amateurish. This was really bad
• where is the queen at the beginning??? Nobody keeping an eye on her, just to be able to go into the chateau?? Just hanging around, sure, she won't try to do anything
• Copying fron Deja Vu (Agnes seeing the 15 everywhere)
• copying a scene from ST IV - I start to see a pattern
• a young Guinan, although she was older in Time's Arrow, doesn't remember Picard? - ah whatever...
• so was the bar on the Enterprise placed on deck 10 facing forward just so that it could get a nick name that would reflect the adress of Guinans old bar? Wow....
• Guinan reflecting on all problems of the world out of a sudden now and then, without any reason for that - could you do that in an even worse way?

• Rafi continues to be extremely anoying
• using future technology everywhere without even checking the surrounding beforehand. This is really dumb
• why does Seven know how to drive? But hell, we always wanted a car chase (without being chased) in Trek, right?

• the manipulation of agnes by the queen is so obvious, and the queen doesn't work anymore for me, the batman voice doesn't help
• The watcher also shows his tech in plain sight
• not sure about the Q scene

Too much relying on copying, easter eggs and some nostalgia - that is not the same as actually doing Star Trek. And while the story stayed more or less logical in the previous episodes it is all over the place here. I was also so bored that I started to write this review while watching - not a good sign. The social commentary was among the worst I have seen in a lobg time. I really start to fear that they will also ruin Strange New Worlds.

There are two big problems in consistency with this episode, both involving Guinan.

First, others have mentioned that this episode operates as if Time's Arrow never happened. In Time's Arrow, Guinan remembers that she met Picard during the time travel into the 1800's. If we are to believe the writers, this event never happened because we are in a new timeline in which the Federation never happened. But this also goes against Canon. In Yesterday's Enterprise, an event in the past caused a new timeline, in which Tasha was still alive and sent back to the past. When the original timeline was restored, in theory that should have never happened, yet Tasha still lived in the past and was eventually captured by Romulans. Thus the argument doesn't hold water. Lazy writing and insulting to people who have grown up with TNG.

Second, I really don't like the change in personality of Guinan. In the 1800's, she was consistent with her personality of the future. She was an observer, participating in society and providing guidance to those she met. Her personality completely changes here, whining about people and how they are beyond saving. Really? That is not Guinan. She is supposed to have wisdom beyond the petty squabbles of humans.

This really made me less interested in the series if the writers are going to be this inconsiderate to Star Trek canon. They basically are giving a big middle finger to TNG fans. Which means they don't really know their audience.

Seven driving in such a reckless way didn't make sense. How she knows how to drive a car to begin with we don't know. Would have been funnier to have to learning to drive instead of backing out like a pro then driving crazy. I know they were in a hurry to find Rios and LA traffic is terrible but calling so much attention to themselves put the mission at risk. I understand that given Whoopies age it would have been difficult to cast her as young Guinan they way they did in Time's Arrow. Could they have used the de-aging tech that was used to make Q look younger? Would it have been too too costly or did Whoopie not want to come back for more than the one scene? She had met Picard in the late 1800's in the Next Gen episode Times Arrow. Expect in this timeline they there was no Enterprise crew to travel back in time so their meeting in the time of Mark Twain never took place.

Guinan's personality wasn't one of angry black woman in the 1800's in Times Arrow or in Next Gen. Had she faced discrimination and became bitter for a while. It's possible but the performance didn't the feel of Guinan. For the reviews complaining that their was a liberal agenda in talking about climate change, homelessness and immigration they need to know there Trek history. Just watch the DS9 Episodes Past Tense and Litter Green Men. Those episodes deal with many of those issues Last season also had it's ups and down. This was not as good as the 3 episodes but still entertaining. Hopefully they get back on track.