All of This Has Happened Before (Episode 1: Remembrance)
InterTREKtional Season 3: Picard! is here with your first dose of feminist analysis of Star Trek: Picard. Episode 1: Remembrance. *****SPOILERS ABOUND***** Data is pretty busy playing poker, painting, and teaching cryptic lessons about bluffing in Picard's dreams. While awake, Jean-Luc takes his tea sans caffeine (but continues to indulge in the real stuff where wine is concerned), shares his home with kindly Romulan refugees, and bombs a cable news interview. He meets a very special graduate student named Dahj and pledges his eternal assistance and protection to her for reasons we won't reveal in this summary. 9/11 is still on Michael Chabon's mind.
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Dahj’s boyfriend getting stabbed by ninjas is an example of the “Black Dude Dies First” trope. Black Dudes Die First via TV Tropes
Becca notes that this same character is an example of people of color being cast as alien characters. In Star Trek, Worf, Tuvok, and B’Elanna are examples of this phenomenon.
His death is an example of a dead lover being used as motivation for a hero. The Lost Lenore via TV Tropes
Dahj is an example of the trope where a hot girl who seems normal is actually ninja, like River from Firefly. Badass Adorable via TV Tropes
She is also a super talented killer unaware of her own origin story, like Jason Bourne, and a sleeper agent who doesn’t know she is an android, like Boomer from Battlestar Galactica.
Check out the Our Opinions are Correct episode, “It’s time to stop quoting Clarke’s third law”, advice I am pretty sure we violate by discussing this podcast in our own podcast.
Ryan is pretty sure the background premise for Picard is an allegory for America's military history in the aughts, specifically the fact that the Iraq War was a response to 9/11, and yet Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. via Vox.com
Growing distrust of institutions in America: Americans Distrust the Government via Pew Research
Emancipation does not automatically lead to violent revenge, via Stanford University.
Episodes & Movies referenced
TNG episode, "Measure of a Man," where we meet Bruce Maddox, who wanted to take Data apart and is mentioned in this Picard episode Memory Alpha: Measure of a Man,
TNG episode, "The Offspring," where we meet Data’s daughter, Lal Memory Alpha: The Offspring
1990: a time of bobbed hair, center parts, and zero eyebrow pencils
The episode where Picard is stranded in an elevator with some science fair children and teaches them to sing "Frere Jacques," Memory Alpha: Disaster, and the episode where Picard wrestles in the mud with his drunk brother Memory Alpha: Family
Star Trek Nemesis, where we meet Picard’s clone, played by mega-babe Tom Hardy, where Data dies, and where the Romulans are the big bad Memory Alpha: Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: 2009 Memory Alpha: Star Trek: 2009
Also referenced: Outlander, Dark Angel, and, most importantly, Battlestar Galactica.
