Star Trek: Echoes of Lament

Firstly, this is an absolutely masterful edit. Taking ten episodes and turning them into two two-hour-long films would be impressive in any circumstances, especially done at this level of technical quality. But to do that with source material that is so utterly, completely, depressingly abhorrent is a work of skillful artistry that deserves the highest possible commendation.

I avoided watching Picard when it first came out because I hate streaming services, and because I was nervous. That nervousness increased to outright anxiety when spoilers began slipping into my sphere. When I finally bought it and watched it for myself, the emotional experience was something akin to watching a beloved friend beaten senseless, or having your dog drowned. Star Trek was a formative piece of my whole experience of life, and to see it degraded to such a degree (and lauded for that degradation by mindless hoards of critics) was literally and shatteringly depressing.

Coming from that standpoint, to say that I enjoyed even a moment of the material is pretty amazing. As it happens, this first part, Echoes of Lament, turned out to be... if not a *good story,* then at least not the worst. Utter trash was taken, molded, morphed, risen, baked, and turned into a crusty loaf that -- for all its flavorlessness -- was edible.

The story has been altered fundamentally, the cuts give the characters actually believable emotional states - I couldn't believe how different Picard and Raffi's relationship became. Instead of every interaction being a terrible cringe-fest, they felt merely somewhat dramatic. There were even moments where I found myself enjoying the tale - at least as much as any run-of-the-mill weekly episode.

It's difficult to rate a piece like this for enjoyment because of how deeply bad the original material is. If I were to rate on that alone, the "enjoyment" factor would have to be something sub-zero. It's important to illustrate, therefore, that my ultimate enjoyment rating is focused as neutrally as possible on this work alone, as if it really were a stand-alone film.

One major point that could have been addressed was the "brother/sister" incestuous relationship arc, which never served any purpose anyway, and certainly could have been cut out—making the relationship of the terrible twins seem like just a normal jealous relationship between two psychopaths. The choice to retain lines that could have been cut degraded my enjoyment of this piece directly.

On a technical level, this edit is excellent, but, unfortunately, it still feels like a more truncated version of a series that simply doesn't work. I was hoping that it might work better with the fat removed, but there are too many fundamental flaws to the way the whole season was constructed. The central problem remains that the new cast introduced aren't particularly compelling characters and spending less time with them, as we do in this edit, hasn't really changed that. I'll check out the second fan-edit covering the rest of the season but, honestly, the first part was a real slog to even finish. Despite the clear care and effort that went into crafting this edit, I think this series might be unsalvagable, despite some truly excellent action sequences.

These comments apply to both parts of this fan-edit.

The launch of season 2 of Picard seemed like the perfect time to check out Wraith’s Picard S1 fan edit, spilt into two parts: Echoes of Lament and Means of Redemption.

First of all, I should say, I didn’t hate the broadcast version. Like most people, I thought it was a mixed bag, some nice nostalgia that suffered from too many pointless or repetitive scenes with some unlikable characters. As well, solutions were often thanks to “magic” technology rather than more Trek-like problem solving. What should have been a pretty good full-length movie was stretched into 10 draggy parts. There were also accusations by many fans that the writers had an agenda that came at the expense of good storytelling.

I bring that up because improving the flow seems to have been Wraith’s first mission, and he mostly succeeded. Filler scenes and unneeded exposition have been excised, other scenes trimmed, and many scenes reordered, so the whole thing zips along much more swiftly (and logically). No more magic science. He’s also created a new opening (from a scene that originally aired toward the end) that now rationalizes the conspiracy as it unfolds. Speaking of mystery, Dage’s intro is vastly improved by presenting the attack as a flashback. A number of critical scenes have been improved with selective trims, the meeting with Adm. Clancy for example. She actually comes across as more serious albeit humorless instead of angry and resentful. Indeed, all of the characters are less pathetic and broken.

I had some issues with a few editing choices. For example, I didn’t think the original TNG music worked for the themes. The tone of this series is so different. I would have also lost the crying over Picard’s death and gone straight from his dying to the simulation (although I appreciate that these were good character-building moments.) But I felt those scenes seriously interrupted and undermined the most moving moment in the entire series: Picard's reunion with Data. btw, Data still looks off to me. I think it would be possible to use some of the Deep Fakes that have appeared online. But these are all minor quibbles.

Technically the edit is very good. I didn’t notice any harsh transitions or serious plotting problems because of missing scenes. I echo BionicBob's point about the source material, which couldn't be changed. Nevertheless, the plot is less convoluted now. I did hear some audio pops in a few places but that could be playback in VLC. I haven’t tried it in another player. In any event, the didn't detract from my enjoyment of the edit.

So overall, another great edit from Wraith.

I love Star Trek.
I have been watching it for over 45 years (yeah, I am THAT old!)
I have been there through the good times, the bad times, and now, the current, mediocre times.

While I still watch all current incarnations of Trek, I often ask myself, am I watching out of loyalty or because I actually like it?
I am not certain, it is probably a bit of both, as the resurrection of the Paramount Plus era of Trek has been a frustrating affair thus far.

The original 10 episode run of PICARD's first season certainly falls into this category. It is a show that seems to distain Roddenberry's vision of humanity. It takes pleasure in making every character broken. It seems to wants to be "other" sci-fi franchises rather than be true to what made Star Trek unique and special for nearly 50 years. But perhaps the greatest sin, it is just sloppily written and paced.
While it is a series with many good "moments", it's best parts do not make a good whole.

Which brings us to Wraith's two part movie epic -- ECHOES OF LAMENT and MEANS OF REDEMPTION.

I say immediately and upfront, this two movie fan edit is BETTER than the series.

While I own the series on Blu Ray, the truth is, I will probably never sit down to rewatch EVERY episode again as I find the entire series problematic. Thankfully, Wraith's fan edit offers a nice alternative solution if I ever want to revisit Picard's freshman season.

Gone are most of the more non-Trek moments and awful plotlines. I am most grateful for the excising of the whole Raffie as a drug addict and how Picard and crew treated/enabled her. It is so horrible, it actually makes to despise Jean-Luc. Which is probably not a good ideas since he is supposed to be the hero of the show.

Also, the removal of Seven being a cold blooded murderer -- THANK YOU!!! I mean as a parent, I totally get it. And I think there were other ways a similar resolution could have been reached. But the writer's purposely have a PURE Trek moment where Picard and Seven discuss their humanity, and then in the very next scene they flush it down the toilet.

Unfortunately, due to locked plot points, not all of the illogical elements could be removed in this new version, such as Androids can apparently do Mind Melds (who knew you program Telepathy?) and Noonien Soong had a human son (which NO ONE QUESTIONS).

There are many, many similar and welcomed cuts like this that try to keep the narrative on course and closer to the Trek universe and it's characters that we are familiar with. Also, aiding in the narrative, is the rearranging of many scenes, so the plot unfolds in a more linear style.

There is some AMAZING audio work done throughout both edits, which aid's Wraith in hiding many cuts and with scene transitions. Though there are many moments where one have tell a line of dialogue has been removed by a slight unnatural change in vocal cadence or a cut away reaction shot that does not quite fit the moment. Also, there are some moments where slo-mo is used for transitions, and it does not always work, as it looks a bit stuttery rather than smooth and natural.

While I liked the dark cliffhanger ending of Part One, I thought the sudden cut to Goldsmith's theme for the end credits was too loud and uplifting, completely breaking the tone and mood of that powerful final scene... a mood that should have ominously lingered longer. I think the end titles would have benefited from a darker, more somber closing piece... perhaps the theme from Nemesis or Undiscovered Country?

Also, I felt the entire Artifact storyline (episodes 6-8) was perhaps too truncated and frenetically cut, particularly the action sequences. One of the jarring aspects of the new cut, Seven seems to appear instantaneously when Elnor activates the Fernis transpoder.

Each movie plays over 2.5 hours, and even with all the positive cuts and changes made by Wraith, it still felt like a bit of slog for me, particularly Part One, since it is all set up and the action really does not kick in until Part Two. It makes me think this may have worked better as a trilogy rather than a duology, with three movies of about 100 minutes in length? As one of the issues with the series condensed into this format, it really hammers home some of the very weaker writing and plot elements. This is no fault of the editor, as you can only do so much with this source material.

Again, I do want to stress, I found this better than the original series and I was entertained.
An enjoyable fan edit!