In for a penny. In for a pound. Itâs the obligatory death watch of Star Trek Picard, Alex Kurtzmanâs latest deposit in the Star Trek universe. Quite which one, I donât know. A more or less scene by scene review. Spoilers ahoy.
Pre-intro, we have a flash back to the incident on Mars which led to the ban on synthetics. If anything, it makes me feel even less like this is a continuation of TNG. Thereâs a whole crew of androids essentially being used as slave labour, something that doesnât feel like the universe depicted at the end of the series, or even the end of the films. People say âdudeâ, for fuckâs sake.
We then move onto some slower scenes set in the present day, in which the Irish Romulan retcons a whole new Romulan faction into existence that has been there all along, apparently. Theyâre just so secretive that they never merited a mention in any previous Star Trek continuity, making Section 31 look like a bunch of ostentatious show offs that mill around in San Francisco saying âhey kids, clandestine organisation here!â. They find out that the signal from Doshâs twin came from offworld.
The show goes there next, where we learn that Doshâs twin is now banging the Romulan from Exeter, and that there are certain things about his job he canât tell her. Theyâre still working on the Borg cube from the last episode, but this is soap opera, not space opera.
Picard gets a visit from his doctor in the next scene, where he is told he has terminal medical problems. Nevertheless, the doctor agrees to certify him for Starfleet service.
Jean-Luc treks (arf!) back to Starfleet HQ in San Francisco, where despite resigning his commission in protest years ago, asks to get back into Starfleet. This is actually a good scene, which does more than the previous episode to flesh out the shift in internal Federation politics. His request is denied.
Back on the Borg cube, we have see the induction of a bunch of new recruits for the Romulan salvage effort. We learn that the Romulans are repurposing Borg drones to assist in the salvage effort.
Back on Earth, Picard gets a visit from the scientist he was chatting to from last week, who has compiled all the information she could on the Maddox project. They continue to spout the ridiculous idea that his daughters were cloned from a positronic cell. We learn that Doshâs identity only surfaced three years ago.
We then see experiments being done on the Borg drones that have been held in stasis.
Picard is moping around the vineyard gutted that heâs not allowed to go out on a starship or allowed back into the Federation. He puts his old communicator on and asks for a ship. We then see a quick communication between the Starfleet CNC and the head of internal security. Picardâs information has not gone unheeded; she just didnât want the mad old Shakespearian involved.
This kinda backfires because the head of internal security is really on the side of the bad guys. She assigns one of her delegates to thwart Picardâs objectives.
Jean-Luc does the offs from the vineyard and catches up with the person he asked for a ship, who is quickly persuaded not to kill him with news of secret Romulan assassins and a bottle of vintage. This girl is sassy.
Finally, we learn that the Romulan from Exeter is part of the bad guysâ overall design. They know they have an android on the cube, and are using him to flush out any copies.
And thatâs it. Iâve still got major problems with this show, but I think this episode managed to expand on what seemed like some very flimsy exposition last week. I did genuinely enjoy the internal Starfleet stuff, especially the CNCâs explanation of just why the Federation narrowed its mission so much.
Itâs probably to the showâs advantage that Patrick Stewart is in his late 70s, by necessity it creates slower scenes with more dialogue. Even so, this is not handled well during the opening scene(s) with Picard and the Irish Romulan, which just seemed to be a jump cut of two different conversations, laden with exposition.
The show is breaking one of the biggest rules of drama, which is âshow, donât tellâ - which is perhaps why the Starfleet scenes stand out for me. There are genuine sparks between Picard and the CNC, both fiercely holding their own internally consistent viewpoints, both going at it.
That was show. Too much of this show is tell.
