PICARD S3; well, finally.

I know you guys all love getting lightly buttered with all your idiot “fan service” at the expense of a tight narrative, but I think the issue I have with all this going back to the well nonsense is that the nuTrek guys didn’t internalize the core spirit of the show that half the older fans respond to. These guys are just writing that stupid Calvin on his Deathbed thing that goes around every once in a while. I don’t usually crap on that because it was obviously written by somebody who was not a professional writer. Completely missing the point of the strip, it is saccharine and treacly and wrong.

If this episode had been the first one, I would have loved this season. At least Geordi turned the lights on the bridge of the D so we could all see everything, and I’m glad Shaw learned his lesson as he died so we can all not worry about him muddying up our televisions any longer.

I’m glad everyone is creaming over all the “fan service” but they forgot to tell a compelling story that hadn’t been seen a million times before. And, since when was FAN SERVICE a good thing? How about AUDIENCE SERVICE first, and then throw a little something to the hardcore? When you do stuff like throw Shelby in, you have to have fifteen lines across three characters explaining why the viewer should give a shit if you don’t recognize the actress 30 years later.

There’s one episode left and all I can think of is this: “This could have been an email.” — James Macfadzean