finally watching it

finished - yeh I can see why some have problems with it as it kind of falls apart in the final 2 eps (directed by Akiva Goldsman) despite the rather excellent Picard/Data Zathura goodbye . Picard's death/rebirth is really a wtf jump the shark/nuke the fridge thing..(which I had obviously had spoiled way back last year about a hundred times over before I finally discovered the Mute option on Twitter.. and also recall everyone moaning about Riker on the USS Copy/Paste instead of being on the Enterprise as if that was a major plot hole! lol.. like why/how the hell would he be able to commandeer the flagship of the Federation to help Picard at a moments notice omg fans sometimes smh)

that being said...it was fun! just fun to see the Picard era back 20years later in a kind of 'TNG Awakens' .. yeh I know its not proper TNG but like PStew said that's been done a thousand times over and hed never have done that again (e.g something like Admiral Picard taking command of a new Enterprise F after some new threat to the Federation and enlists his old crew). having Picard encountering them in cameos on a belated 'Star Trek III' quest is entirely believable and we'll no doubt see the rest in s2. obviously 7of9 got a bigger supporting role as she was a very popular character, never interacted with TNG and more importantly the actress is still smoking hot! and able to compete with any younger hot ones like the Romulan villainess (as obviously she was only early 30s in the late 1990s on VOY unlike all the other Trek vets now well into their 60s and 70s)

it was also refreshing that it wasnt overly SJW/woke orientated (like Disco) ..just that silly forced bit at the end with 7 and Raffi (shades of the kiss at the end of TROS)

one thing I noticed is the previously 'canon' Trek 2009 Countdown comic written by Kurtzman/Orci has been 'un-canond' as in that Picard was the Vulcan Ambassador and Data/B4 was Captain of the Enterprise E (and no mention of synth attack) unless those elements could be incorporated into the Picard continuity somehow but dont see how, (however the romulans using Borg tech was retained)