Quote:
Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale
Having watched Picard twice through now I've come to the conclusion that Star Trek doesn't work as a ten-episode, ten-hour arc. DS9 worked because the serial continued from season to season and really took its time with both the plot and making sure all the different characters had a good share of screen time. In the 10-episode, 10-hour format nothing ever has to be resolved until the end and by then there is no way the payoff will be worth it because there is so much stuff that happened that makes no sense.
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My problem with
Picard is that it felt like less of a story and more just a series of barely-strung-together events. "First this happened, and then this, and then that, and this, and that," with no room for the story to just...
breathe. It was too hurried, too rushed, and the payoff was very anticlimactic.
To your point DS9 worked because, as you said, it was allowed to take its time whereas
Picard was not. Take, for example, Jurati (after murdering her lover, whom we spent half a season looking for in the first place and who anticlimactically dies within minutes of being rescued) and Rios hooking up within a few episodes of meeting each other. It just...
happens. There's not much narrative reason for it, other than just checking off a box on a list of plot points they wanted to introduce. Nothing comes of it, there's no rhyme or reason, no consequences. In fact Jurati doesn't seem to suffer any consequences for her actions whatsoever, which is pretty $#@%ed up considering she murdered a man.
Contrast that with Dax and Worf in DS9. They meet at the beginning of season 4, and right from the jump she shows
attraction to him, she
flirts with him, but they don't start a romantic relationship and get physical until
over a year later. It was
gradual, it happened
organically. It didn't just HAPPEN.
Same with Riker and Troi. They were former flames who were coincidentally assigned to the same ship at the beginning of TNG, and they show little flits of feelings for each other for YEARS on the show before anything further comes of it. Riker is demonstrably jealous when other men show/earn her affection, but is mature enough of a character to let it go.
One of the better dressings-down on the show was this little exchange from season 3:
There were feelings there that we the audience were made aware of through the plausible happenings in the narratives of other stories, so when they finally DO get together there's a PAYOFF! It wasn't just "some stuff happened, she killed her lover and felt sad about it, and Rios gave her some booze... AND THEN THEY &$@#ED!"
