#PicardPositivity

[startreklasirena]

Four Years to the Day

Today, 24th January 2024, marks the four year anniversary of Star Trek: Picard season 1 episode 1 "Remembrance" airing outisde the US. And because I happen to be outside the US, this is the date I'm choosing to mark this anniversary.

The first season of Star Trek: Picard (or, as I like to think of it, Star Trek: La Sirena) changed my life in a myriad of ways. I have memories, experiences, sideblogs, entire hobbies now that I wouldn't have without it. And, most importantly, it helped me find some of the most important friendships in my life to date.

So, to celebrate, I'm starting a new round of #PicardPositivity!

For those who weren't around for the first one: in the run-up to the premiere of season 2, I instigated 30 days of Picard Positivity to celebrate this little show that, at the time, had a lot of detractors and vociferous criticism heaped upon it.

Unfortunately, we are rapidly approaching exam season in these parts, so I won't have enough time or energy to make this A Big Thing (maybe we can do something proper for the 5th anniversary next year 🤔). But I would love for anyone who's interested to join the fun and take a little time together with me to remember Star Trek: La Sirena and the joy it has brought us over the years!

In true Procrastinatorproject fashion, I haven't actually come up with a good hasthag for this, so I'm open to suggestions 😅 I'm stickiing with "PicardPositivity" for now, but if anyone can make any suggestions, i'm gonna come back and edit this post with an update.

Here's to a few weeks of unadulrated admiration of our beloved Star Trek: La Sirena!

[procrastinatorproject]

I posted 1,878 times in 2022

48 posts created (3%)

1,830 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tehriz

@regionalpancake

@thelaithlyworm

@jazzfic

@stra-tek

I tagged 1,875 of my posts in 2022

#star trek picard - 443 posts

#funny stuff - 442 posts

#cristobal rios - 152 posts

#star trek picard season 2 - 115 posts

#star trek - 110 posts

#picardpositivity - 98 posts

#i have such talented friends! - 90 posts

#picard season 2 spoilers - 85 posts

#cats - 76 posts

#tumblr - 75 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#and how else are you going to share bits of stories that you won't post for months or years if ever because finishing things is hard 🙈😅

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I spent quite some time yesterday yelling about Star Trek with the wonderful @regionalpancake and @curator-on-ao3, and I need to share their comedic genius with the world!

We were talking about how, if the Zhat Vash are so extremely opposed to synthetic life and any form of AI, could they possibly manage to hack the androids on Mars and to cause them to go rogue? To which Curator commented:

“I’m an iPhone user and I couldn’t hack an android!”

This was followed some time later by a discussion about how in recent Trek, there has been an increasing distinction between People Who Matter and Those Who Don’t. And how its encumbent upon the people who are less significant for the fate of the world to sacrifice themselves for the Important People.

With regards to this, Pancakes observed of Rose (from Dr Who), a character who thinks she is unimportant and whom the Doctor tells that There Are No Unimportant People:

“If she were a Star Trek character, Rose would have been cannon fodder.”

Curator: “You mean... canon fodder? :D”

I don’t know if these are funny to anyone but me, but I laughed so hard I had to go find my asthma spray. So I needed to share XD

59 notes - Posted July 30, 2022

#4

Holo-Tech Database

Over the last seven or so months, I have watched through every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s the first time I’ve seen the entire series, there were quite a few episodes in the later seasons I’d never seen before. Quite an enjoyable experience on the whole.

But because I’m me, of course I didn’t just watch TNG. Instead, I took notes every single time the holodeck or any other piece of holo-technology played a part in the plot, were the setting for even the briefest of scenes, or so much as got mentioned. Essentially, I’m building towards a database of every little scrap of canonical information about holo-technology that I can get my hand on. And this was a start.

I haven’t had the time or energy to look through all of my notes in detail. There is a lot of information in there already. Of course, I’ll only be able to draw any real conclusions once I add in all the data from DS9, Voyager, and PIC, (since I’m interested in the state of technology at the time La Sirena is in operation, because of course that’s what this is about), but it’ll be quite a while before I get there.

So, in lieu of any detailed analysis, here are some quick impressions of my first foray into holo-episode-tracking!

[Image ID: a table showing the number of total holo-episodes for TNG is 58, and breaking that number down for each season. Season 1 has 10 episodes, season 2 has 8, season 3 has 6, season 4 has 9, season 5 and 6 both have 8, and season 7 has 9 episodes. /end ID]

See the full post

65 notes - Posted January 27, 2022

#3

30 Days of Picard Postivity

With just over 30 days to go, the premiere of Star Trek: Picard season 2 (3rd March in the US, 4th March internationally) is fast approaching, and I for one cannot wait to get back into the world I fell in love with two years ago. Thirty days is quite some time, however, and even though new trailers and promo pics seem to be dropping daily, I felt like we could use something to tide us over until March.

After the long hiatus, I think this is the perfect time to revisit all the things we enjoyed about season 1. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has forgotten a lot of the details of those episodes, and who would love to see some of the wonderful characters, locations, and stories back on my dash. So, without further ado:

ProcrastinatorProject Proudly Presents:

30 Days of Picard Positivity

See the full post

70 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

#2

Massive Picard Season 2 Spoilers Ahead

So the latest episode of The Ready Room, the Star Trek recap show hosted by Wil Wheaton, had a preview of Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. It's interviews with all of the main actors and they explain in some detail where they're characters are at at the beginning of season 2.

It puts a lot of shots from the trailers in perspective and I have a lot of thoughts that I want to share, but because this is a very, very explicit spoilery preview, I'm putting both the video and my initial reaction under the cut.

Anyone in the US (or with a decent VPN): You can find the full Ready Room episode on the Paramount+ youtube page, but I'm not going to link it here, because, youk know, tumblr 😋

See the full post

73 notes - Posted February 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I just had a realization about why Agnes Jurati’s story in Star Trek: Picard season 2 feels so wrong to me, and I am going to inflict it on all of you!

Spoilers for the entirety of season 2 ahead! CW: Mention of depression, PTSD, anxiety, and emotional manipulation

Also: CW long post

(NB: I’m going to completely disregard the discrepancy in Agnes’s character between seasons 1 and 2. I think when you take Agnes’s story and development from the first season into account, her “arc” in season 2 falls apart completely. But for the sake of this argument, I’m going to meet the season 2 writers on their terms. I’m going to ignore the character of season 1 Agnes, and instead will simply look at season 2′s Jurati to explain why I think the story the writers gave her falls flat.)

I was taking notes for a way-too-long essay about my problems with PIC season 2 (which I may or may not write eventually), and I was trying to put into words why it always irks me when people say merging with the Borg Queen was a satisfying end to Jurati’s arc.

What I was never able to put my finger on until now is that when the Borg Queen and Jurati merge at the end of episode 9, that’s not actually the culmination of Jurati’s arc. It’s the Queen’s.

See the full post

74 notes - Posted May 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[cristobalrios]

I posted 400 times in 2022

99 posts created (25%)

301 posts reblogged (75%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@ltfreckles

@princessfrogs

@procrastinatorproject

I tagged 368 of my posts in 2022

Only 8% of my posts had no tags

#s'vec rios lorian - 141 posts

#freckledliberty - 84 posts

#symbiotic - 66 posts

#cristobal rios - 63 posts

#picardpositivity - 62 posts

#emil (emh) - 46 posts

#star trek picard - 44 posts

#holo squad - 40 posts

#star trek spoilers - 37 posts

#star trek - 37 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#just a radio to contact the real world and not a lot of reason to do that. people don’t go on lighthouse jobs if they want to stay connect

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

PicardPositivity Day 19: Elnor!

First cute moment with Elnor involving Rios is this super confused expression he has when Emmet first activates.

I don't know if it's the rapid-fire Spanish convo they're having while fighting off an old Romulan Bird of Prey or the fact that Emmet looks like Rios with longer hair, more tattoos, and like he has a perpetual headache, or maybe both, but Elnor has this immediate "?????" expression going on and it's adorable.

See the full post

44 notes - Posted February 19, 2022

#4

Rios & Seven Brotp moments S2:

See the full post

45 notes - Posted March 19, 2022

#3

Star Trek: Picard spoilers

The USS Stargazer (NCC-82893), Sagan-class.

See the full post

47 notes - Posted March 4, 2022

#2

PicardPositivity Day 5: Raffi and Friendships

Raffi and Cris. Their friendship. These two. They are wonderful. Great moments from them include:

"I never argue with Raffi."

Raffi having a great time dressing Cris up.

"Rios, you seriously, really need to sell this. You can't do your broody, existentialist spaceman routine."

The way they care for each other when they're having their respective breakdowns.

See the full post

53 notes - Posted February 5, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

See the full post

70 notes - Posted January 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[enigma-the-mysterious]

“And then the question was what kind of dog? Well, I am obsessed with pitbulls. What a dog, and how ill used they have been, appalling used. In England they're a banned breed. I adopted my first pit bull and we already were excited about the thought of taking her back to England, and we couldn't do it. They won't be let in the country. I even talked to the British Embassy in Washington about it and they said, ‘There's nothing we can do.` I'm now part of a campaign working in the UK to get this legislation changed because they are the most sensitive, the most loving, the most giving, the most affectionate creatures that you could ever possibly hope to meet"

- Sir Patrick Stewart

[andoriantrekkie]

It’s really great that now with Kurzman at the head of Star Trek, we have a producer who actively supports putting LGBTQ+ characters and more POC into Star Trek. There is also a really great change that the sexism with how the women were dressed during the Berman era seems to be gone. Yes I know about how horrible Berman was.

That's all, I just wanted to put some New Trek positivity out there.

[highfunctioningflailgirl]

[ID: Raffi sitting down by a very hungover Rios and handing him a cup of coffee. /end ID]

I love everything about the friendship of these two:

I love that it’s a platonic friendship between a man and a woman

I love the sibling energy between them

I love that they’re both middle aged

I love the mirroring in the series of how they take turns at being there for each other

I love how Michelle Hurd and Santiago Cabrera play them (great chemistry!)

I love how they accept each other’s flaws without any patronizing

I love this friendship, and I hope we get to see much more of it in season two!

[boundswordasqalankhkai]

PicardPositivity Day 19: Elnor (Late)

I can't believe I never posted my Elnor memes, oops! Here's The Kid.

[jazzfic]

You're many things, Agnes P. Jurati. Forgettable is not one of them.

There are some wonderful relationships among the crew, but theirs I love the most.

I love how careful they are, how sweet. It’s getting to a better place from their individual troubles, and if they find each other along the way, a hand to hold and a heart to fill, that’s nice, that’s the thing to just help them be.

[curator-on-ao3]

#PicardPositivity: Elnor and Relationships

It’s both Elnor day and relationships day!

While Elnor has important canon relationships — his mutual support for and with Seven of Nine brings me special happiness … and the hope that Elnor and Naomi Wildman can have a lovely comm call about their love for Seven — I readily admit to instantly shipping Hughnor:

They’re so sweet together and, as a Hugh Lives headcanonner, I wrote them a tiny story (rated G) to give them togetherness:

Also in terms of Picard relationships, I actually had a hard time seeing the canon Agnes Jurati and Cris Rios relationship … until I got some help from the lovely Picard fandom, leading me to write this ficlet (rated T) for those characters:

Finally, I’ve written a few fics for the Raffi Musiker and Seven of Nine relationship, but this one I co-authored with two friends was a fun crackfic (rated M) for how Raffi and Seven’s newfound love could affect various other relationships on La Sirena … and the motley crew’s ability to get some peace and quiet:

[trashyunicorn]

🙌🏻Let's talk about Q & Picard, shall we?

This songs suits them really well 🤓🙏🏻

+ Watch for Troi's and Data's reaction 🥲

***Pardonne-moi, by Mireille Metheu***

"Pardonne-moi ce caprice d'enfant

Pardonne-moi, reviens moi comme avant

Je t'aime trop et je ne peux pas vivre sans toi"

***English Lyrics***

"Forgive me that childish vagary

Forgive me, come back just like before

I love you too much and I can't live without you"

[startreklasirena]

S1E01: Remembrance

Four years ago today, I saw the first episode of this new tv show which would become my new obsession and utterly change my life.

To celebrate, I thought we could take some time this week to remember some of the things we enjoyed about this episode, or that stood out to us.

I'll get us started with one of the things I truly loved about Ep 1x01:

Dahj! Just... Dahj!

We only got her for one episode, and she was suffering for most of it, but I latched onto her character straight away and real hard.

I love that even with her very limited screen time, I still got the feeling she was a distinct character from Soji. Maybe a little looser, more flowing... (And yes, this perception is reinforced by the different hairstyles, which is another detail I adore!)

(Look at these two! You can tell who's who at a glance from the body language, even before you look at the hair!)

Her little student apartment in Boston with it's Tragic Abundance Of Vanilla deserves to have a whole bunch of fics set in it! And even though it's just a cover story, I love her excitement at getting into the Daystrom! Just imagine the thrill, angst, and chaos if she had gone there and ended up working with Agnes - and the two of them discovering the truth about her that way.

Also, I love that Dahj is immediately adopted by Picards entire household, from the Romulan housekeepers/bodyguards...

... to the Number One Goodest Boy.

(No wonder the mom AI told Soji that Dahj was thinking about getting a puppy. It may have been a lie in the moment but clearly fit Dahj's character well enough to be believable.)

And of course there's so, so much more to love about her. Dahj's journey of self-dscovery, however chaotic and short it ended up being, was a great jumping-off point for the series, and by the end of episode 1, I was hooked!

I still have so many fond feelings for Dahj and I really hope I'll find the time and brain space to write about her some time.

How about you? What are some things you remember fondly from this episode?

[mappinglasirena]

Today is La Sirena day in the 30 Days of Picard Positivity. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do something more... involved over the next few days, but since it’s been A Bit Of A Couple Of Weeks, I’m going to stick with a little progress blog:

When I get too tired to do much of anything, I throw on Star Trek on my tv (I’ve reached DS9 season 3 in my rewatch. I have been tired A Lot 😅 Expect more holodeck-stats on the main blog soon). However, I’m notoriously unable to just... watch tv without keeping my hands busy with something. And I’ve found that the perfect way to keep myself busy is doing overly precise measuring and modeling in SketchUp.

So, for your delectation: My progress on the SketchUp model of La Sirena’s lower deck!

What I have so far (please ignore the mass of dotted lines. They’re guidelines, meant to help me figure out how those bloody beams in sickbay work 😅).

For context, the plan of the lower deck:

I’m finally adding the door to sickbay. Getting a door into the wall of a conical round room is a bit of a nightmare, but I think I’m finally getting there.

Still need to cut the workbench to size, but it’s slowly coming along.

Hopefully more soon ;)

[procrastinatorproject]

30 Days of Picard Postivity

With just over 30 days to go, the premiere of Star Trek: Picard season 2 (3rd March in the US, 4th March internationally) is fast approaching, and I for one cannot wait to get back into the world I fell in love with two years ago. Thirty days is quite some time, however, and even though new trailers and promo pics seem to be dropping daily, I felt like we could use something to tide us over until March.

After the long hiatus, I think this is the perfect time to revisit all the things we enjoyed about season 1. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has forgotten a lot of the details of those episodes, and who would love to see some of the wonderful characters, locations, and stories back on my dash. So, without further ado:

ProcrastinatorProject Proudly Presents:

30 Days of Picard Positivity

(Transcribed prompt list with explanations below the cut.)

As you can see, this calendar has two prompts for (almost) every day between now and the premiere of season 2. Each day will have one character prompt and one other prompt (Places, Groups, Technology, Production aspects, etc.). Pick one or both, and gush about them to your heart’s content.

Now, I know that we are all incredibly busy - this isn’t Early Pandemic Times after all - so I don’t intend this to be a call to Create All Of The Things. If a prompt inspires you, you could, for example, simply post a short quote or a screenshot that fits the theme. Maybe you have a gif lying around somewhere, or you remember this fanfic you read (or wrote) way back in the day and want to share a link. Perhaps there's some fitting art or meta you posted in the last two years that you think deserves a reblog.

The idea is to engage with this list in any way that gives you joy, however small or elaborate it may be.

And if you are a day (or a week) late or early with your posts, I don’t think anyone will mind. Between time-zone weirdness and tumblr shenanigans, things will get a little jumbled anyway. In the end, we will all have a little more Star Trek: Picard on our dashes, and that‘s what counts ;)

The official tag is #PicardPositivity (one word). I know two words would be more intuitive, but I’m putting this on twitter as well and the little blue bird doesn’t know how to deal with tags that aren’t a single word 😋

There’s no official account for this project, but I will pin this post on my blog for reference (and will probably link and reblog it periodically).

Caveat: Of course, there are always valid criticisms to be made of any piece of media, and there are many places all around the web where you can find fascinating discussions of all of these with regards to ST: PIC. However, here and now I simply want to celebrate this show, the rich world it created, and the caring, creative, incredible community it has given me, and without whom I wouldn’t have made it through the last two years.

Let us all have some fun together and enjoy 30 Days of Star Trek: Picard Positivity!

Prompt List

Day 1 (1st Feb) - Character: Soji Asha; Other Prompt: Music (in-universe or production side. e.g. Season 1 soundtrack, Blue Skies, Rios’s Records, Arroz Con Leche, etc.)

Day 2 - Character: Number One (Picard’s Dog); Group: Qowat Milat (Romulan Warrior Nuns) 

Day 3 - Character: Deanna Troi; Other Prompt: Insignia (We all love a Starfleet Delta. Or Rios’s mermaid. Or the Chateau Picard’s coat of arms.)

Day 4 - Character: Commodore Oh; Location: Mars

Day 5 - Character: Raffi Musiker; Other Prompt: Friendships

Day 6 - Character: Emil (La Sirena’s Emergency Medical Hologram); Location: La Sirena (Captain Rios’s freighter)

Day 7 - Character: Narissa (Sister of Narek); Other Prompt: Borg Technology

Day 8 - Character: Hugh (Third of Five, Director of the Borg Reclamation Project); Location: Coppelius (Planet of the Androids) 

Day 9 - Character: Mister Hospitality aka Steward (La Sirena’s Emergency Hospitality Hologram); Other Prompt: Concept Art (links welcome!) 

Day 10 - Character: Kestra Troi-Riker (Daughter of Will and Deanna); Other Prompt: Food & Drink

Day 11 - Character: Admiral Kirsten Clancy (Starfleet’s Commander in Chief); Group: the xBs (Former Borgs; the most hated people in the Galaxy)

Day 12 - Character: Cris Rios; Other Prompt: Family (Biological, adopted, found, fandom, ...)

Day 13 - Character: Seven of Nine; Location: Vashti (Elnor’s homeworld)

Day 14 - Character: Emmet (La Sirena’s Emergency Tactical Hologram); Group (and Technology): Androids (From F8 on Mars to the inhabitants of Coppelius to Picard’s resurrection)

Day 15 - Character: Altan Inigo Soong (Creator of androids on Coppelius; brother of Data); Group: Starfleet

Day 16 - INTERMISSION  (Halfway there. Let’s take a breath, post some random memes, and then get back to it!)

Day 17 - Character: Narek; Location: Earth (Starfleet Headquarters, Boston, The Daystrom Institute, etc.)

Day 18 - Character: Zhaban (Picard’s Romulan housekeeper, ex-Tal Shiar, absolute badass); Other Prompt: Props (Which objects have caught your imagination?) 

Day 19 - Character: Elnor; Other Prompt: Relationships (Romantic, Queerplatonic, tragically broken, just beginning, ...) 

Day 20 - Character: Bjayzl (Owner of the nightclub in Stardust City, Seven’s ex, trades in Borg Parts); Location: Nepenthe (Homeworld of the Troi-Rikers)

Day 21 - Character: Dahj (Soji’s twin sister); Other Prompt: Holo Tech (From flight controls to the holodeck to a whole set of Emergency Holograms) 

Day 22 - Character: Laris (Picard’s Romulan housekeeper; ex-Tal Shiar; absolute badass); RELEASE OF OFIFICIAL AUDIO-DRAMA “NO MAN’S LAND”!

Day 23 - Character: Sutra (Leader of Coppelius’s androids, Soji look-alike); Location: Chateau Picard (La Barre, France)

Day 24 - Character: Will Riker; Group: Zhat Vash (Secret Sect of the Romulan Secret Police) 

Day 25 - Character: Enoch (La Sirena’s Emergency Navigational Hologram); Other Prompts: Behind the Scenes (bring on the gifs and screenshots!) 

Day 26 - Character: Dr Agnes P. Jurati; Other Prompt: Crew

Day 27 - Character: Bruce Maddox (Creator of Coppelius Androids, Agnes Jurati’s professor and ex); Location: The Artifact (formerly known as Borg Cube) 

Day 28 - Character: Data (father of Soji and the other Soong-type androids); Other Prompt: Starships

Day 29 - Character: Ian (La Sirena’s Emergency Engineering Hologram); Location: Stardust City (Capital of Freecloud) 

Day 30 - Character: Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (retired); Other Prompt: Season 2 (Almost there! Remember to tag your spoilers!) 

Day 31/32: Season 2 Premiere!

[enigma-the-mysterious]

Elnor: *carries Spot II out of his room for being naughty*

Spot II: *purrs*

Elnor: You are being punished. Please do not purr. I love you

[andoriantrekkie]

I find it funny how the Star Trek fandom seems to be loosing its collective marbles about season 2 of Picard.

Are you a shipper? Then this season has plenty for you!

Do you want more, Q? Well, there you go!

Do you love the Soong storyline? Well, do I have good news for you!

Do you want a Queer relationship that is not sexualized and where the men are supportive and loving towards their Queer friends? Well This show is the thing for you

Do you want middle-aged as well as old people being portrayed as capable and badass? Watch this right now!

Are you are Simp? The Borg Queen and Q are right there!

Are you not a Simp? Well, you will be after watching this.

[highfunctioningflailgirl]

"Sirena is my goddamn ship, hija."

[ID: Rios, shaking his head and getting into Soji’s face with a strict, authoritative and somewhat paternal aura. /end ID]