Star Trek: Picard
Star Trek: Picard. Creators, story, and various scripts: Kirsten Beyer, Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman; see IMDb for complex details.[1] Patrick Stewart, star. USA: CBS Television Studios, Roddenberry Entertainment, Secret Hideout (production) / CBS All Access et al. (distribution), 2020 f.[2] 46-minute episodes.
Episode guides: IMDb;[3] Wikipedia, season 1.[4] Concerning season 2, Wikipedia;[5] Memory-Alpha Fandom, with links to all episodes, Seasons 1-3.[6]
SEASON 1: In addition to a cornucopia of Star Trekkian devices for human beings and other humanoid species to interact with and interface with, the over-arching plot centers on "Synthetics," in the line of Mr. Data, but on a spectrum of models from the largely robotic to indistinguishable from humans or post-humans. There is also a significant setting of a partial and at least partially disconnected Borg Cube, and organic species being disengaged from the Borg hive, including shots showing the mechanical/cybernetic in or being removed from intimate contact with flesh (including quick shots of somewhat gory surgical realism). Linguistic note: the Synthetics are spoken of as "Artificial Life," so consider this sense of the term for "AL" and for issues of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
In the episode "Nepenthe," note contrasts between and among a garden world, the decommissioned (?) Borg Cube (still something of a mechanical/electronic/cybernetic hive), and various spacecraft.
Final 2 episodes: "Et in Arcadia Ego," Parts 1 and 2:[7] See for twinning motifs, including the possibility of really evil "synthetics" balancing an Arcadian community of "synths," and synthetics in general and their claims balanced against those of explicitly labelled "organics," which may include more than the Trekkian group of humanoid species. Also note impressive shots of interfaces between cybernetic devices and humans, from fairly heavy cables on a reactivated Borg cube to a device using imagination, to the transfer of "engrams" — memories, personalities — uploaded to cybernetic storage and a kind of cyberspace and in one case downloaded into a "golem" for a kind of resurrection for a decade or so. (Not really a spoiler indicating that someone important will die; the title can't be rendered well into English, but roughly translates, "Even in Arcadia, I, Death, am there.") Lastly, note holograms of an unusually substantial sort as a kind of 5-clone from ship's captain Cristóbal Rios, each "clone" quite different in accent, (White, Anglophone — with one Spanish-speaker) ethnicity, personality, and deportment (in some bravura acting by Santiago Cabrera, who plays Rios).
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SEASON 2 (3 March 2022-5 May 2022): See season for time-travel motif, with alternative time-lines, and, very much the Borg and a featured Borg Queen.[8][9]
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SEASON 3 (Final; 16 Feb. 2023-20 April 2023)
From Wikipedia entry introduction: Picard "reunites with the former command crew of the USS Enterprise (Geordi La Forge, Worf, William Riker, Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi, and Data) while facing a mysterious new enemy who is hunting Picard's son. The season is produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout, Weed Road Pictures, and Roddenberry Entertainment, with Terry Matalas serving as showrunner."[10]
"The Next Generation" (Episode 3.1, 16 Feb. 2023): See for the former Borg drone Seven of Nine ignoring orders of a superior to help Picard, a friend; and for a stolen portal device that might be used in terrorism.
"Seventeen Seconds" (3.3, 2 March 2023): See for portal technology and its military possibility, here re-directing weapons fire back on those who fired.
"No Win Scenario" (3.4, 9 March 2023): Note image of "thousands of jellyfish-like creatures swim[ing] around the ship [the Titan]" in space, with a nebula breaking apart around them. "'To seek out new life,' Beverly [Crusher] whispers in wonder. Riker, glad to have survived, thinks they should 'boldly get the hell out of here', and orders La Forge to take them to warp."[11]
"Imposters" (3.5, 16 March 2023): Dr. Crusher performs an autopsy on an imposter, "discovering the Changelings evolved to evade body scanners": an interesting biological response to technology.[12]
"The Bounty" (3.6, 23 March 2023): "The away team is confronted by a version of Professor Moriarty, and discovers that a Soong-type android containing the memories of Data, B-4, Lal, Lore, and Altan Soong, is at the heart of Daystrom [space station] and also contains the projects database they are looking for."[13] Daystrom station's Soong-type android has an positronic brain but also AI security management with no Asimovian compunctions against using lethal force against humans and humanoids.[14][15]
RDE, finishing, 28Nov21, 6Dec21, 12Dec21 // 14May23
