I hear Star Trek: Picard is now free if you have CBS All-Access, whatever that is. It's also included with Amazon Prime.

Firstly, SPOILER ALERT!!

Secondly, has anyone else watched it or would I be talking to myself?

Got it but not started yet.. fairly imminent though!

I am up through episode 5, and I love it.

I watched it all - and for someone who is not a Trekkie, I enjoyed it .

Spoiler alert - I watched it with a Trekkie sat beside me, who kept squealing with delight through many of the episodes.

Watched the last episode of the season Thursday. As Uncle George might say, "Oh my."

I was a bit confused at first as the one actor looks extremely similar to the Spock of Discovery.

And the season ending...phew...Logan levels of feelings.

Must admit, one the whole I thought it was rubbish, but one niggling question did stick with me.

What's the big deal about synthetic life? What does it even mean?

Frex, holograms in Star Trek have been shown to be sentient several times and are obviously synthetic but the Federation hasn't banned them. On the other hand we have Khan, the Augment, definitely sentient and synthetic, but the Federation has banned Augments.

The synths that attacked Mars weren't sentient, but were synthetic, so effectively sophisticated networked robots, and the Federation did ban them. Why would that ban apply to sentient synthetic life?

As for the Mass Effect-inspired overarcing plot, why would the Zhat Vash fear synthetic life so much when they're perfectly aware of Organians, Metrons, V'ger, the Whale Probe, the Q, Apollo himself, Tardigrades (OK, these were probably kept secret)?? Basically a Galaxy full of beings of immense, sometimes god-like power.

I think they were aiming for it being an irrational religion, which made sense, but it didn't make sense when their supposed secret cabal fielded a fleet of 218 Warbirds.

Seven of Nine though. Lovely as ever! Oh, and beautiful main theme by Jean Russo!

Think about what 'we' did/thought about people with different color skin years ago (well, yesterday for some <sigh>)

It is all about making 'yourself' better/more important that other people. 'We' will always find ways to make 'us' feel better/more important than some other group <sigh> I often wonder if that ... 'stupidity' would continue if 'aliens' invaded :-/

People suck!!! <sigh> Some =individuals= are my friends <wink>

Oh sure, I understand the story's an alegory about racial prejudice but I don't get the Federation's logic behind banning synthetic life since it's not even clear how they're defining it. For example, most ship holograms are far more intelligent and potentially more dangerous than the synth drones working on Mars, yet synths are banned, ship holograms commonplace.

To me it seemed more like a ban on dangerous synthentic life, which wouldn't really be a ban as much as a standard. So for example, in the real world we effectively have a ban on dangerous consumer products by way of product approvals.

But then no-one in their right mind would argue that product approvals are immoral.

I just don't get what the writers were driving at and they never address it in the show.

Yes, but ship holograms are not made of matter. They are projections and cannot exist outside the holodeck, so that could be one criteria.

They're made of some kind of hard light. Not sure how the lore explains it. But they need a holo-emitter, and I think it's been done before where a hologram has gone rogue, escaped from the holodeck by creating a portable holo-emitter and attempted to take over the ship.

Neil, there is a =great= movie that focuses on that 'bad news'. Lemme see if I can find the movie's title. I'll get back to you <g>

Neal - Yes, but those were anomalies and they are dependent on the emitter for survival. Additionally their entire "mind" is nothing more than a section of the ships computer memory. They're not "real" in the sense that they are independent beings made of matter. Androids and robots are real, OTOH.

It is a contradiction to the famous "I think therefore I am" philosophical tenet.

Well I have now watched 4 episodes.. and I love it! Tusk too. Yes I love Tusk too but I mean he loves Picard.

The differences between us Neil is that I have an accepting mind, rather than an analytical one. Picard was my favourite Captain whereas you liked Kirk.

And this series seems to be Star Trek with grit! Bring it on!