Ups & Downs From Star Trek: Picard 2.6 - Two of One - video Dailymotion

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00:00Star Trek NFTs. Down.

00:14To start with an up this week, Orla Brady was just brilliant. I am obviously, okay

00:21okay get ready for a shock, I'm an Irishman and so I'm always delighted when

00:26I see the Irish represented in Star Trek, O'Brien must suffer so that the rest of

00:31us can enjoy it. Unfortunately and please don't take this personally to my lovely

00:35American friends out there but they've stripped her of her poor Irish accent but

00:41she shows this week that she is still well capable of delivering the goods even

00:47in an American accent. Throughout this whole episode I really like her

00:50interplay with Jean-Luc. Like Patrick Stewart on Orla Brady just seemed to have

00:55this ease with each other which has really really helped to engage with the

00:59characters. Now she's obviously played both Larys and Talon. Talon seems to be

01:04much more at ease than Larys was because well when we saw Larys she was dealing

01:11with her feelings for Picard and then her at least perceived rejection by Picard so

01:17understandable she was not having the best day of it. Whereas Talon doesn't have

01:22those kind of worries. She does pick up on the fact that Picard keeps calling her

01:26Larys so they do address the fact that perhaps she is an ancestor but then as he

01:32says well you know she's Romulan so probably not. The fact that they're saying

01:36she's probably not an ancestor itself is probably a red herring because I mean

01:41they're both all righty so you know. Well not to say that the same actor can't

01:46play two completely different roles. Diana Moldauer played three completely

01:51different roles in Star Trek but I do like that they at least addressed it. I

01:56just want to give it down to the flashback gimmick. 34 minutes earlier, 20 odd

02:02minutes earlier. So overdone and cliched I don't feel it was necessary. So as you know

02:08this is being recorded in the wake of the season 3 trailer announcement. You know all the

02:14cast is coming back, everyone's great and everything. JL's gonna be fine. He's

02:19gonna be fine. If anyone has plot armor in this season it's Picard. So that for me

02:26just felt like a completely unnecessary thing to add to the episode. Now I'm

02:30gonna continue my trend. Oh directed by Jonathan Frakes. Nice and simple. That's

02:35that's that I mean I'm sorry but when you set down the gauntlet like I have

02:40Jonathan Frakes directing gets it up. There we are. I don't make I don't make

02:44Ferex rules I merely enforce them. Once everyone is inside this event everyone

02:49sort of splits off a little bit but what I must give a wonderful up to this week is

02:57the double team. That is the Borg Queen and Agnes Jurati. They're just brilliant

03:04together. Annie Wershing and Alison Pill are just they have this this great comedy

03:10act even though there's not a lot of jokes going on. There is humor in it but

03:15it is a very much butting heads type of relationship and yet they're so great

03:21together. They're so engaging. They are easily easily my favorite part of this

03:25episode. Their interplay. The fact that they're just obviously not casually but yeah

03:31okay they're just casually at a black tie function together and you have the Borg

03:35Queen and all of her regalia and everyone else is covered in ball gowns

03:39and tuxedos and it just yeah like I just didn't think that seeing the Borg

03:48next to black tie would work so well and yet it does. There's the comment of the

03:53fact that everyone's paying attention to Jurati. Jurati says it's the dress. The

03:57Queen says no no it's us and the Queen is right because Jurati is carrying herself

04:03with so much more confidence than we've ever seen before because they're now two

04:09of one. Hello title of the episode. They very much are the centerpiece of this

04:15story. Now while there's other very important plot pieces happening around

04:19them this is an episode about Jurati and the Queen and I think it delivers very very

04:25well on that. Now I said that obviously the group sort of spreads out a little bit

04:29in the room. Unfortunately I do have a down for Rafi and Rios' conversation by the bar.

04:37Rios is completely at ease. Actually I love Santiago Cabrera in this episode is

04:41brilliant right and really really I mean that. I realize I'm speaking about a down

04:46right now. His ease, his comfort, his enjoyment of this era. He pulls out the

04:52cigar. He's you know he's just he's just enjoying himself. Rafi unfortunately she's

04:59been given the short straw of she has to be the you know the naysayer. She has to

05:04be the one who has to deal with the fallout from Elnor. We get a cameo from

05:08Evan Avogora this week and she's sort of the voice of doom and gloom and it's

05:15getting a little bit old but specifically in this scene I mean you know she's like

05:20you can't think of going back to that clinic. You absolutely can't think of

05:23going back and meeting Teresa again. Rios is talking about how wonderful Teresa is

05:27and also Rios is correct. Teresa is wonderful. But yes she's like you can't

05:31go back you can't go back. He has to. He left his con badge there. Like did they

05:34just forget about the fact that he left the con badge? Like they did a massive

05:37close-up of this con badge as he was being arrested and we just haven't

05:41addressed it ever since. It's possible that Seven and Rafi picked it up when they

05:46went to the clinic that time. Sure but that was not shown you know and Rios

05:52does seem to have a communicators and he approaches Jurati and says is your

05:55communicator not working? Picard's trying to contact you. So okay but that's

06:00leaving a lot up to assumption when you did such a close-up shot of the con badge

06:05sitting in the clinic like you did Star Trek. Yeah that for me was a bit like you

06:09know you can't possibly go back. Okay if you had added a scene of them

06:14retrieving the con badge. You haven't added that scene. This is a plot hole. I'm

06:19gonna put another down in here. So I love Orla Brady and Patrick Stewart

06:24together as I've said it's fantastic. But Talon asks a question that is

06:31nonsensical. Which is Renee is up by the bar and she's slamming shot after shot.

06:37Like I'm Irish. I know how to drink. That's impressive. Like the fact that she's

06:44able to form sentences after what she's drinking. Like well done. Well done. I

06:50couldn't do it. When Talon and Picard are speaking about Renee Talon asked the

06:54question what if Q is right? What if she's not ready? Talon the fact that people

06:59have come back from the future to ensure that Renee gets on that flight is your

07:04proof that Q is wrong? That was a down. That was a that was a silly question. It

07:10was a question that didn't need to be asked. You have this conversation between

07:14Jean-Luc and Renee coming up. That addresses any doubts or fears that anyone

07:19might have toward Renee being ready for the mission. Having Talon asked the

07:25question suggests that Talon completely missed the point of everyone coming back

07:29in time. And I think at this point it was a very redundant question and that

07:37yeah that for me it was a down because I went really? Really? Come on now. Now it's

07:42been all doom and gloom for a minute. Up and a massive up for Alison Pill who is

07:49I'm episode six of the season. Alison Pill is my MVP of Picard season two. Such a

07:54revelation this season. I have made no secret of the fact I did not care for

08:00Jurati in season one. I thought very weak characterization. It was very much she

08:07was kind of a means to an end character. It's like oh well you know kind of we

08:12need to get her on the ship. We need to kill Maddox. We need this to happen. There

08:15wasn't really much point. They've clearly gone away and thought right what can we do

08:19with this character? You know we have Alison Pill who is fantastic. You know what

08:26what do we do with this wonderful resource? And they came out swinging. She is just

08:33incredible. Particularly this episode because she's playing the dual role now

08:37of Jurati and the Queen. Because we have Annie Wershing playing the Borg Queen but we

08:42also have Alison Pill must play both in the one body. Yeah I will hold my hand up and

08:47say that if you'd asked me this after season one did I think that they would

08:51be able to pull this off. I would have been like based on what I've seen probably

08:55not. Well Sean shut your mouth and slap your face because oh my god. And also

09:00Alison Pill can sing. Although kudos to everyone in the room for just going with

09:05it. Like you know like oh my god the lights all shut off. Special guest singer. I

09:10I'm living for this. That's you know we had Issa Briana singing Blue Skies in season

09:16one. We had Alison Pill singing this in season two. Chris raised a very good

09:21question. Why not have her seen Blue Skies? Which is a good good question but it's

09:25nice to have a little bit of range as well. I'm also really tempted to oh go on

09:31another up for that lighting guy. All the lights in the room shut off but there was

09:36that one zealous guy operating a spotlight who was like no no this is my time to

09:40shine. Boom. Jurati it's your moment. Another up in this episode is Renée and

09:47Jean-Luc's conversation. I loved it. I loved it because Jean-Luc he can't reveal

09:53why he's there but he can be a supportive figure for her when she needs it which she

09:59clearly does right now. Wants to do this. She wants to be a part of history but her

10:05own demons are standing in her way. I think that this was a wonderful depiction of how

10:12one's own anxiety, one's depression, one's fears can overtake one's confidence.

10:19Because the confidence is there and all she needs is a hand just held out to her

10:25which she willingly takes because she just needs to be reminded of her own

10:29skills. I loved this entire scene. I loved the setting and actually there's a fair

10:34few bits now in this that will be coming back in cetacean observations because

10:38keep your eyes peeled in this scene but I really really enjoyed this this entire

10:44exchange. It also it didn't feel like well we have to say X to get to Y. It felt

10:51like an actual organic conversation between two fully fleshed-out characters

10:55which for for a show that's dealing with we know next to nothing about Renée.

11:00Penelope Mitchell has been great but you know we haven't had much room with her.

11:05And this felt like two old friends who'd known each other for years. It was

11:10wonderful. It was wonderful performance from both actors. It was wonderfully

11:13written and I have to say now I was seriously impressed with that entire

11:18exchange. Obviously we have the return of Brent Spiner as Adam Sung in this

11:22episode. We have the exchange on the floor between himself and Picard. You know at this

11:27point in time we think yep he's he's up against a rock and a hard place here.

11:31He's he's gotta do these things which culminates in him running Picard over

11:36with a car which is in a way that's interesting because there's no way he

11:42doesn't get caught for that. You know if in 2022 you'd identify him like that so in

11:462024 you're going to know who he is straight away. But all right so that's when

11:51we get our to start again the flashback thing which I'm not a fan of that's fine.

11:55Rios says something very very strange. You know they're all standing over

11:58Picard and you know we need to we need to look after him. Talon asks what about

12:02your ship? And Rios goes a biobed is not a doctor. Okay yet it was the only thing

12:07that could keep Eleanor alive. I think a biobed with 24th century technology is

12:15still gonna be better than a clinic in the 21st century. That's a down. And not

12:21just because of the logic gap but because we had that bit with Eleanor as

12:25well. So that was a down for me. However that down brings me to an up. Teresa's back.

12:32Up. I love Saul Rodriguez. She's brilliant. She's great in the other episodes. She's

12:37great in this episode. I know why they can't do this. You can't tell her the

12:41truth. You can't tell her that Jean-Luc is a synth. I mean that does feel like

12:46pretty critical need-to-know information but yeah no no you can't you can't tell

12:51her that. Timelines. Right now they're just a bunch of eccentrics walking into

12:54her clinic and she needs to help them. Fair. That's wrong. But anyway Saul Rodriguez is

12:58back. Teresa is great. Love that exchange. We're the good guys. Yeah the good guys

13:03don't need to say that. She's not wrong. I'm afraid I've got two downs in quick

13:08succession. The first down is Kore's scene of going through these files and

13:15discovering that you know Soong is obviously into eugenics which is

13:20obviously we knew this was coming and it's it's again it's more the gimmick of

13:26she's talking to herself asking these questions. Who am I? What does this mean?

13:29What is this? I talk to myself on the regularly. I actually find I sometimes

13:35have quite interesting things to say. Sure thing. Talking to yourself is not the

13:37problem. It's the fact that this is so obviously hanging a lampshade on this. Oh

13:41we need her to voice these questions otherwise the audience won't get it. We

13:45get it. We get it. That was a down. Cliche. The next down is that with this

13:52revelation I understand the paradox here. I just said oh we all saw this was

13:57coming but with this revelation you strip Soong of an awful lot of his

14:01sympathy because you've seen his exchange with Kore and you see that he

14:05appears to be loving father who's willing to go to the ends of the earth to

14:09protect his daughter. Here he is a scientist who wants a successful

14:15experiment. It robs him of so much sympathy as a character. Now he's just a

14:20villain. You know? And it's like oh okay. Right. Have we ever had a good song? Alton and

14:27I know very little about you. You know? So all right. We'll say jury's out on AI

14:33song for a minute. But Noonien was a prick. Like you know kind of yeah sure he

14:38built data but fine. He also built lore. You know? Yes all right. Lore killed him.

14:41Fine. He doesn't isn't a good guy. Arik Sung. Prick. And now Adam Sung. Prick. Maybe it's

14:48like we know Brent Spiner can play a villain and he can. Like Brent Spiner actually the he is not the

14:53problem in this episode. He's actually very very good in this episode. I have to say I

14:57really like him as Adam Sung. I feel like this was an annoying revelation that

15:04wasn't needed. Could she not have been for example himself and a partner. They

15:11conceived a child together and you know had this illness and his entire work has

15:16been about saving this one child. No. Now she's come off an assembly line and he's

15:22like oh well I just want to make sure that you know she makes it to adulthood.

15:26It's obvious. It's suggest or at least I got the suggestion that there is some sort

15:29of rapid aging going on as well. I might be totally wrong on that one. But yeah I

15:35got the suggestion that she doesn't actually. Bit like Soji to be honest. You know

15:39she's not quite as old as she looks. I feel this was not the best decision. If I

15:44must be honest. Because what they had last week was a very sympathetic character

15:50who's backed up against a wall. Now you have a villain who's been thrown you know kind

15:56of lifeline by another villain and down. What are Raffian 7 doing this season? Why are

16:05they here? Raffi is she seems to be here to do the opposite of what everyone feels

16:10that needs to be done. You know if Raffi had not left La Sirena the way she did originally

16:15and waited five or ten minutes they would have found out where the watcher was. What

16:21they needed to do God have found them. That storyline did give us Teresa so you know it

16:24can't completely down it. But there was no real point to Raffian 7's story there. Just

16:32like there's no real point to Raffian 7 in this episode. Now we're clearly building up

16:37there's something. Raffi is dealing with PTSD and she keeps seeing Elnor everywhere. You know

16:42Michelle Hurd it's again it's not the performance it's it's the what is the point of them. You know

16:49an excellent point Chris raised an excellent point that you know we have Picard on the bed

16:53you know Talon's talking about going into his mind and Raffi's like no absolutely not. Talon's like

16:59you know who knows anything else about this God who knows the only the only person knows anything

17:04about Q was in this coma. Seven standing over there going hello yeah I've met him several times

17:11yeah hello Seven met him several times. She's the only one outside of this group or the only ones

17:19who are awake who've actually met Q. Like could we talk to Seven? Give her something to do. Because

17:25right now I love the way Jerry Ryan has played the character this season. She's really engaging. She's

17:30really fun and you know she's literally having a ball playing human seven of nine. That's great

17:35I'm enjoying seeing this. What is the point? So that's it I know how harsh I'm coming across. I know

17:41how harsh I'm coming across. It's not that I'm not enjoying it I am but yeah we're looking for

17:46points to the episode and and that sort of to be to be very fair that sort of ties into as well of

17:51you know the the sort of the the what's Q up to slash why is Raffi just giving out to people

17:57slash why seven here. It's sort of all amalgamating at this point and it's getting a little bit like

18:02you know kind of we're on episode six now guys. Come on. Come on. What's what's going on? However

18:08however episode seven of season one gave us Nepenthe. So you never know. Oh

18:14imagery in this episode. Oh I have to say you know Frakes good directing. It looked fantastic. You have

18:22Jurati walking out into that spotlight. Fantastic. Jurati and the Queen all the reflections but

18:27particularly either side of the Europa starship in that column I just thought was it was really

18:34striking really really stunning imagery. Even some of Picard's flashbacks to what's going on with his

18:40mother again really really jarring but strong imagery. That was it was very much so that I was a few times

18:47I was like oh oh hello oh yes that's quite pretty. Oh I like that. So yeah well done everyone on that.

18:55Now if you would care to join me let's take an owl trip to Cetacean Observations.

19:08This week what I tried to do is look a little bit closer because last week I missed the fact

19:13that Rene Picard's birthday was the release date for Star Trek First Contact sake. When we see Rios'

19:21fake ID I did a little bit of a pause and we have Carl Leonard Kelly is the name. Leonard as in Leonard

19:31McCoy, Kelly as in DeForest Kelly and Carl as in Carl Urban and to which the security guard goes

19:37you don't look like a southern heart surgeon. Oh now his updated ID has the birthday the 5th of May

19:461978. Happy birthday Santiago Cabrera. It's his actual birthday in real life. There is a question

19:54that Picard asked Talon is who's watching The Watcher. So that to me was a reference to who

20:00watches The Watchers. The third season episode where Picard engages with the Mentakins. Raffi of course who

20:05is still recovering as an addict sees this bottle of bourbon from Fort Collins Colorado. This may be a reach

20:12but Aaron McDonald who is a technical consultant on Star Trek Lower Decks and Star Trek Discovery

20:17was born in Fort Collins Colorado. The music playing in the background one scene is The Way You Look

20:22Tonight which of course played over the final montage in Star Trek Deep Space Nine's episode

20:27What You Leave Behind. There is a model of the Nomad probe from the original series episode The Changeling

20:33which was billed by Jackson Roykirk which of course was where we first encountered Rene Picard

20:38this season. The first contact theme plays after Jurati finishes her song and the Borg Queen goes

20:45that was a nice little shot of endorphins and we get that wonderful Jerry Goldsmith music playing as

20:49well. I am loving the love that Star Trek Enterprise is getting these days because Rene and Jean-Luc talk

20:57about the OV-165 starship that's hanging above them as a model which of course we've only ever seen before

21:04in the opening credits of Star Trek Enterprise. I've got faith of the heart do you? When uh

21:10Corey what just happened there is like when Issa Brionis? No. When Soji? No. When Dash? No. When

21:17Corey? God pick a name. When Corey is reading about the experiments that Adam Sohn has gone through

21:23the two articles that she reads are written by Casey Felt and Noah Schloss. Now they are both

21:29graphic designers for Twisted Media who have done a lot of the production on Star Trek Picard. These

21:36failed experiments we cycle through names of the classics. We have Persephone which is the other

21:42name for Corey. We have Artemis. We have Despoina as well. So all of these from antiquity are being

21:47named out there. We have Talon uses them. I'm calling it a sonic screwdriver when she's looking into

21:52Picard's brain but really it's the same device that Gary Seven was using back in Assignment Earth

21:57and of course she talks about a jury-rigged mind meld.

22:07That is everything for our list today. What do you think of Picard's season two so far and

22:12particularly now that we've seen the reveal of Picard's season three coming up how do you feel

22:16it's stacking up? Let us know in the comments below. Please don't forget to like share and subscribe and

22:21remember that you can catch us over on Twitter at Trek Culture. You can catch myself at Sean Farrick on

22:25Twitter on Instagram and TikTok where I drop little daily tidbits about Star Trek. Whatever you're

22:30doing until I'm talking to you again look after yourself look after your friends and family stay

22:34safe stay well live long and prosper my friends in Ukraine please be well we are thinking of you

22:40let's look forward to a brighter future together. Thanks very much.

Ups & Downs From Star Trek: Picard 2.6 - Two of One

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