Thoughts on Star Trek Picard S1E6 "The Impossible Box"

SreliopsspoilerS

This is the episode that kickstarts everything that we've been waiting for and that the previous 5 have been building up for, and it did not disappoint. Probably my favorite episode so far (hence all the words).

It starts with a scene where we get to see Soji as young. It's unclear if it's a flashback or a dream, but as the scene plays out it seems more and more like a nightmare. Soji sneaks into her father laboratory to try to see what he is doing but she can't make it out. Before she has any answers she wakes up. She tells Narek about her nightmare who immediately becomes very interested.

Their relationship actually plays out really well. It's clear neither of them is showing themselves invested while at the same time both are trying to figure out each others mysteries. There is both coolness and passion and the actors do a decent job conveying both simultaneously. Obviously at the best of times I would've wanted this to get even more depth before the things that unfold in this episode, but considering their time table I think they've done it well enough.

Jump to scene where Agnes explains to Picard what happened to Maddox in the previous episode. Picard doesn't seem to have any suspicions about it, if he does he is hiding it very well. Agnes, who up until now has been a bit like the Tully of this series - fun but at times unclear what purpose they serve - has obviously done a huge character development here and I find that the actress plays the role well. She probably really did love Maddox but something has happened that made her feel that she needed to act the way she did. I read many fan theories on the internet and won't jump into any at any length here, but one that hadn't even occurred to me is that Agnes wasn't actually converted until Commander Oh first sought her out. My idea was that Agnes had been an undercover agent from the start and the love affair with Maddox was just part of that.

Agnes went from dullest to possibly among the most interesting characters just by murdering someone.

But of course the whole thing would be a lot more interesting if it turns out Agnes had been on Maddox' side to begin with and some information that was given to her along the way made her change her mind hard enough to actually kill the man she loved. What could that information possibly be? You'd think if it's enough to convert one of the biggest experts and supposedly fans of synthetics on Earth into wanting them all dead as well, it's something that would convert pretty much anyone, even Picard. Yet this isn't information that has been readily spread, so what could be the reason for this? Of course, all that only matters if the latter fan theory turns out to be the correct one, but I really hope it is.

Agnes goes on to tell Picard that Maddox created Dahj and Soji to find out why the ban was put into effect, which sounds a lot like was actually intending on using them as baits for the Tal Shiar all along. I mean what else could it mean? Then why did he implant memories of Picard in them? Is whatever is happening now, with Picard being part of the effort to uncover the conspiracy part of Maddox' plan all along?

Meanwhile they're closing in on the Artifact, as the decommissioned Borg Cube is called and Picard is becoming visibly anxious at the prospect of having to get back on board on one. This angst will only escalate into a right out panic attack but we're not quite there yet.

I wouldn't trust it either.

Elnor, who is every bit the "innocent and naïve young man"-trope, comes and talks his "absolute candor" with them, revealing that he can tell that Agnes has conflicting emotions and "something she is trying to hide". He says it completely without any afterthought however, it is clear he also does not suspect Agnes of any foul play. Yet.

Picard goes into his quarters and starts looking at images of the Borg. It doesn't actually seem to be making him feel better, rather the opposite, until he gets to a picture of Hugh who as we know is now the General Director of the Artifact. Hugh is an ex-borg like Seven of Nine, but unlike Seven Picard has a history with Hugh. A good one. He spawns an idea for how to get on the Artifact that is only half as crazy as the previous idea he went through with.

Cut to a scene I don't quite get. Rios is standing half naked by the comms kicking some ball or other when Agnes comes. It's apparently in the middle of the night and neither of them can sleep. They kiss (I mean ok?). They talk. Rios is being incredibly understanding, almost to the point where I wonder if this is another one of those holograms he uses because it doesn't really feel like the "real" Rios at all (unless this is his way of sweet talking her, and I mean sure that can be a thing). Agnes says she feels "hollow, hopeless, lonely, afraid". Apparently this makes her want company because then they go bang.

I don't mind fraternizing but I want it to have a purpose in the story if they're going to dedicate a long scene to it. Like I don't need to see people use the bathroom or have showers or any of those things that humans do regularly unless it will actually further the story some way. Is this scene going to do that? Are they a thing now? Is it to show that Agnes just goes from one guy to the next so she is actually stone hearted (which she clearly is not). Is Agnes actually a synthetic too? Now that would be a revelation.

Over at the Artifact Narek's sister says she has finally had it enough with Narek's softcore approach and it is time to bring in the big guns. Narek tells her about Soji's dreams and tells her that the dreams must fill a function. "Why would he make them dream?". He tells her he wants to use the dream to get into Soji's subconscious, where the information they want probably lies. Namely where the planet of synthetics is hidden, because apparently that is a thing and that is the thing they are looking for.

Maybe the same planet the changelings are from, coincidentally?

They've mentioned a "them" before so we already knew there were going to be more synthetics than Soji. How many more though? Now that they are talking about a planet of synthetics, do they actually mean a whole planet inhabited of synthetic people, like thousands?

Picard realizes that the only way to get onto the Artifact is to have some sort of diplomatic envoy documents from the Federation. He realizes he can't ask for them himself so he asks Raffi to pull some contacts. She does and manages to find an admiral or similar who understands that if Picard shows up at the Artifact without the right documentation it could lead to a much larger political problem than just handing the documents to him will. Raffi puts it bluntly when she says "Picard -is- Federation, his face is probably still on the damn brochures". Said and done, Picard has his green card to get on board to meet the General Director (ie Hugh), the snag is that he must go alone.

On board the Artifact Soji tells Narek more about the dream. She tells him that she intended to speak to her mom about it but fell asleep during the conversation, which is something we have seen before. Narek asks her if she knows if this happens often, but Soji is unsure. Narek tells her that the computer has recorded that Soji's messages to her mom, which she does every evening, always takes exactly 70 seconds. No more and no less. Obviously this makes Soji both confused and concerned, and the next time she speaks to her mother she tries to stay awake but fails.

When she wakes up again and realizes what happened she decides to look through all her old stuff - pictures, diaries, drawings - that she has saved and scan them for age. The scanner (which she conveniently has, is this standard equipment or where did she find one?) keeps telling her the items are approximately 37 months old, so almost precisely 3 years and definitely way too new to be part of her childhood. Every item she has is the exact same age so I'll be honest, after a while I would want to test the machine on something else that I did know the age of just to make sure it wasn't malfunctioning into saying "37 months" about everything.

The Impossible Box is not just a toy Narek has but clearly a reference to Soji herself.

Picard gets on board the Artifact and gets completely overwhelmed by all the old memories he has of being part of the Borg Collective. He has a panic attack but is saved by Hugh who pulls his mind back to safety. Patrick Stewart plays the scene perfectly of course and you can really see the sheer stress and panic he is feeling.

Soji tells Narek that everything she thought she knew up until know doesn't seem to be true and he suggests that her memories might be implanted into her for some purpose. To uncover that purpose he wants to lead Soji through the ancient Romulan meditation ritual of Zhal Makh, which is essentially the Vulcan mindmeld but without all the touching of faces. Soji agrees.

Meanwhile Hugh is giving Picard a bit of a tour of the establishment and showing him how they de-Borg the Borgs. Though they swap between the scenes of Soji and Picard fairly quickly (and in a nice way, it's never confusing) I didn't find it clear whether they were taking place simultaneously. We will soon find out that they seem to be.

On board Picards space ship (technically Rios' but whatever) Rios and Raffi have a conversation. Raffi wonders why the Tal Shiar has decided to keep Soji alive when they killed Dahj as soon as possible. Since they had all the information about what Dahj looked like they should have been able to find Soji without any trouble, as we know they have. We viewers know why the Romulans have kept her alive though and suspect that they won't trouble themselves with that much longer.

Soji and Narek go through the Zhal Makh together while Narek's sister is unknown to Soji watching them from another room. Narek takes Soji through her recurring nightmare since he believes that is the key to her subconscious. Before they start though, Narek reveals his true name to Soji, the one you only tell your beloved. But I wonder how that works then - for the person receiving the true name, how do you know for sure it's actually their true name? How does the person handing out the name know that the person receiving it is the right one and not someone you're actually going to divorce and hate in five years? Do you get yourself another true name then? Maybe Romulans don't behave like humans in that regard, once you've gotten someone's true name you're locked in with them forever. Sounds kind of scary actually.

Basically the Romulan equivalent of this.

In another part of the Artifact Picard and Hugh go to visit Soji but find that her quarters are not just empty, but also every item has been thrown around (we know Soji did this herself but Picard and Hugh do not know what happened in there). They try to find her with the computers, but the meditation chamber is sealed off, nothing in there can be found.

As Soji talks herself through her nightmare she manages to get further than she ever has before. As she gets into her fathers work shop, and goes beyond the part where she normally wakes up, she sees herself lying in parts on an operating table looking a lot like a wooden doll being assembled. As she looks up throught he sky view in the ceiling she sees two red moons covered in lightning storms. Nareks assumes this must be the moons of the planet they are looking for and tells Soji she is now done. Soji doesn't understand anything but before she can react, Narek leaves the meditation chamber and leaves behind a radiation-excreting device intended to kill her. Soji panics, goes into the same overdrive mode her sister did and smashes the floor open. As she jumps into the hole down into some sort of maintentance shaft, while Narek is watching from the other side of the glass, she also becomes visible to the computer again. Now it's a chase between Picard/Hugh and the Romulan security to try to get to her first.

As Picard runs through the Borg Cube with Hugh to try to find Soji someone calls out "Locutus?!". Picard barely reacts and reacts with confusion, but there is already so much at stake that the whole scene is easily missed. I am very curious to see if anything comes from this, because in that case it was a neat little foreshadowing.

Picard manages to find Soji first and also manages to convince her to trust him enough to come with him. Doesn't seem like she has very much of a choice though of course Soji doesn't understand much of what is going on. Hugh leads them to a secret old chamber previously used by the Borg Queen. The chamber holds a Spatial Trajector the Borgs assimilated from the Sikarians that allows you to teleport up to 40.000 light years away. Picard sends a message to Raffi that they are going to a place called Nepenthe and asks her to rendevouz them there. Before they manage to charge up the Spatial Trajector though, the Romulan security force finds them though and are just about to apprehend them when Elnor beams in and makes quick work of them. He offers to stay behind to kill off any more security forces coming and after Picard has hesitated a respectable amount of time, he even offers to release Elnor from his oath which would have made him effectively pointless in the series, he and Soji teleport off.

I find it a bit mean towards Hugh that Picard seems to have no qualms or second thoughts about leaving his old friend behind in the same situation, I can't even remember if he says good bye to him. After everything he did for him, tut tut tut. Picard seems to have a knack for discarding old friends.

While we don't get to see the fight, the episode ends with the implication of a lot of violence and presumably Elnor will be ok.

I guess they really wanted to make sure that we'd feel the pay off was worth the wait because wow - it was.  This episode brought to a heel everything that we have been waiting to come together, essentially Soji and Picard on the Artifact and Narek's probing into Soji's mind to find the hidden information. They didn't hold anything back but let it unfold pretty much perfectly, except for the sort of odd scene with Rios and Agnes (which don't get me wrong I didn't hate, I just don't understand the purpose of yet) there wasn't a dull moment. If the series keeps the pace and writing like this for the upcoming episodes it could be pretty epic. I doubt they'll manage that, but at least they got this one together nicely and this was one of the ones that really counted.

Images from memory-alpha.fandom.com, startrek.com, knowyourmeme.com.

Thoughts on Star Trek Picard S1E5 "Stardust City Rag"

Spoilers.

We start with a flashback to 13 years ago and a planet called Vergessen (which means "forget" in German). A young ex-borg is being seemingly tortured by a person and we find out this ex-borg is named Icheb. It can only be the Icheb of course. Seven of Nine storms in but she is too late, the wounds are going to kill him so she mercy-shoots him tearfully. This scene is important to understand a lot about Seven of Nines motivations for the episode, as we will soon find out. Also, what a tragic way to end that character.

Icheb, before he meets his unfortunate demise.

Jump forward to "two weeks ago" on the planet Freecloud, and we finally get to see the infamous Bruce Maddox. My theory that Bruce Maddox is actually Data somehow unfortunately seems wrong, this Bruce Maddox looks nothing like Data and seems painfully human. Maddox seeks up a woman named Bjayzl (another name that really irks me for some reason) and asks her for protection. Bjayzl, who also has a Beta Annari in her employment, doesn't seem too happy about having someone who is the target of the Tal Shiar under her roof and orders Maddox killed. She changes her mind within two seconds though and instead decides to auction him out.

Seems like if the Tal Shiar are after him an auction could be more hassle than it is worth? Is she hoping that the Tal Shiar will try to buy him off her, when they don't really seem the type to haggle but rather just grab what they want? To be fair, Bjayzl is portraid as a woman with a lot of power and influence, so it is quite possible the Tal Shiar can't just take something from her. We will soon find out however that taking things from Bjayzl is actually not that difficult.

Raffi finds out that Bjayzl is auctioning out Maddox and tells Picard that there just is no way they're going to get him now. Seven of Nine has a plan however, since she knows that Bjayzl deals in off-the-market borg technology and Seven of Nine is sort of a prize within that community. The Seven of Nine of this series is quite different from the one we left in Voyager. She is now part of the Fenris Rangers, which were mentioned in the previous part (though I didn't mention them in my post as they didn't seem important) who police the local area. Think of them as a wild west vigilante group. Picard asks Seven how she can take the law into her own hands and Seven cleverly answers "the law?". It's an overall pretty good dialogue but we've gotten to see too little to explain how Seven could've ended up here. The short scene in the beginning of the episode, where it seems like ex-borgs are basically being hunted for their parts (a pretty likely scenario), isn't enough to fill in the gap between the Seven in Voyager and the Seven we are just watching. But the night is still young and we now know that this series likes to give you tidbits thrown in here and there. We'll see how many of them will be about Seven though.

Annika isn't who she used to be.

We also get to see a short scene where Agnes watches some clips of her and Maddox. Turns out that Agnes actually used to be Maddox' lover. Is that really why she wanted to tag along? Nope, we're soon going to find out that Agnes has been hiding more than this.

We also see why Raffi wanted to come along to Freecloud. Apparently her estranged son lives here and she is trying to patch things up with him. Estranged because of her substance abuse and prioritizing trying to prove the Tal Shiar conspiracy on Earth rather than spend time with her family. The son, who has a Romulan or maybe Vulcan wife who is expecting a child, isn't interested in her trying to make things good again and asks her to leave. But we knew that that was going to happen, because Raffi wasn't really going to leave the crew. This gives us some insight to who she is as a person though and especially all she has been struggling with since Picard left her. It's told with few words and pointers, a lot has to be surmised and I like that.

Seven and Raffi come up with a plan to retrieve Maddox. Seven knows that Bjayzl would want to get her hands on her technology, so she suggests they are going to use herself as payment, outbidding the Tal Shiar for Maddox. Everyone gets to play dress up. Rios goes as the "introducer" or "interfacer", a role that seems entirely superfluous in the end (except for throwing in a reference to Quark from DS9). Picard dresses up as some sort of crazy, French accent-having pirate-looking guy who wants to trade Seven for Maddox. Picard hams it up like he's in a comedy all of a sudden and it's pretty hilarious to see. Picard had some funny moments in TNG too but for the most time he is fairly stoic and serious. I like that they expand a lot on his personality in this series but I will get back to this in a bit.

Not the first time Stewart dons the funny-mantle. Hopefully not the last.

Bjayzl presumably understands why the Tal Shiar are after Maddox but seems to have no wonders about who this crazy pirate guy is and how he managed to capture Seven. As Seven is brought up to Bjayzl and they start talking it becomes increasingly clear that they share quite a past, so Bjayzl if anyone should know perfectly well not only that Seven wants to kill her for all the ex-borgs she has killed (including Icheb) but also that she possesses superhuman qualities. Yet Bjayzl goes up and stands right next to her, with full faith that the tiny constraints around Sevens hands are going to be enough. Well, of course they aren't. Seven puts her hand around Bjayzls throat and threatens to kill her right there.

Rather than just doing that though, they talk. A lot. And Bjayzl, or someone on her team, manages to convince Seven that if she kills Bjayzl the rest of the people with her (namely Picard, Rios and Elnor) will have bounty hunters after them. Seven agrees to let Bjayzl go as long as they get to take Maddox with them. Said and done.

Back on the ship though, she tells Picard she needs to leave, asks to bring two rifles with her, beams back down and kills Bjayzl anyway. At least they did that, which was a pretty cool way to end it. Before she does that though she has a very interesting conversation with Picard. She asks him if he thinks he has regained his humanity after he was in the collective and he answers "yes". "All of it?" she asks. Short pause and Picard answers "no".

Maybe it changed Picard more than we think?

Now we're with Maddox in the sickbay. Picard has a conversation with him about where Soji is and the camera cuts to Agnes, who is taking care of him but standing at a distance. The way the scene is played out made me scribble down "Agnes is actually the bad guy?". She just seems odd there somehow, and I guess it was well done because as soon as Agnes is left alone with Maddox in the sickbay again she goes on to murder him. So apparently Agnes was an undercover agent for the Tal Shiar all along (I am assuming that is who she is working for, she could also just be crazy).

I find the character revelation pretty good because to be honest, Agnes hasn't really added much to the series otherwise. Of course, the writers already pointed this out two episodes ago when Agnes asked to be taken along for the ride. When Picard agrees, Raffi rightfully questions the fact that he doesn't actually know anything about her. "So we're letting strangers onto the ship now?" she basically asks. Picard pretty much just shrugs it off. Yet again we see how his arrogance (or is it aloofness? His absolutely certainty that he is doing the right thing at all times?) is hurting people around him.

Which brings me to the point I was starting to make earlier in the post. I like that they are developing Picard. I can see how it can anger some people, and I can also understand that you just don't want people to tamper with your darlings. The best way to see it is that there is the old Picard and the new Picard. The same way a sequel to a game doesn't change anything about the original game, yet some people still are angry about the fact that a sequel is made at all (same thing about movies actually). Development needed to happen. There was almost no reason to have this series if Picard was going to be exactly the same as he is in TNG. Also, who doesn't change over the course of 30 some years? Some people don't, but Picard clearly has. If some of the hints about what has going on during those 30 years is anything to go by, he has a lot of reason to have changed his mindset about certain things, though his core ideals are clearly very much intact. And I find that to be the most important thing. When I see this Picard I still see the Picard from TNG, but aged. Definitely not wiser, but different. Water has flown under his bridge and he has seen things.

Overall the show still balances right between "oh, not so great" and "hah, that was cool!". I am very much enjoying it still though and I am interested to see where they are taking things. Oh and in case you were wondering, Soji had no scenes in this episode.

Images from memory-alpha.fandom.com, syfy.com

Thoughts on Star Trek Picard S1E4 "Absolute Candor"

Zpoilerz.

This entire episode was a long line of addressing some of my questions about the writing. It worked out pretty well in the end actually.

First we get another flashback to 14 years ago. We see Picard in some sort of Romulan settlement and while the scene doesn't explain to us yet why it is necessary, it will become quite clear later in the episode. One very interesting thing about this scene however is that Picard really comes off as younger. And I don't mean that they've tried to de-age him, if they did I didn't really notice. But Patrick Stewart really plays Picard more energetically and jovially. That makes it so much more clear that the weary, quite tired and frankly damn old Picard that he plays in the rest of the series is exactly that, a carefully crafted character act. It's in fact not just an old actor playing himself, there is thought behind it. Damn, this man is good.

Picard visits some sort of convent looking thing where everyone, except a young boy named Elnor, are women. It's not explained outright yet, but it is clear that the convent obeys some sort of "open book" policy in which they never lie about their feelings. When the young boy happily greets Picard, his teacher/caretaker tells him to leave Picard be because he doesn't like children. The boy gets saddened and asks Picard "but I thought you liked me?". "But I do!" Picard answers and he seems genuine about it. Elnor is going to turn out to be another person that Picard has quite frankly just turned his back on, like Raffi. At this moment in the flashback they're still planning the evacuation and Picard gets the information that the synthetics have killed people on Mars. At that point he is still reassuring everyone that the evacuation will continue as planned, but we all know that it's not going to. We also know that for some reason, Picard chooses to just leave everyone involved in this behind and go hide at his chateau out of disappointment, presumably.

Sadly Guinan wasn't part of the convent.

We move back to present time and get a very scripted feeling conversation between Rios the pilot and Agnes the synthetics expert professor. I'm not really sure what it is meant to accomplish except maybe the feeling of team building, like we as viewers need to start cheering for these guys as a group (and not just Picard) but it just comes off as stiff and weird frankly. I guess that makes sense too though since they don't really know each other yet.

Picard has decided to take a detour to a planet named Vashti before heading to Freecloud. Raffi is very much against this, but we find out that this is where the convent place was and Picard wants to enlist someone from the convent as his personal super-warrior. Apparently these nuns are some sort of close combat battle-nuns, because of course they are. My first thought was - what use is an expert in close combat going to be in a time where there is mostly space ships and laser guns?

Vashti is apparently in a bit of a lawless zone at the moment and the area is sort of owned by some person called Kar Kantar. Not only do they need to keep out of his hair, but the planet itself has some sort of dangerous planetary defence that is going to turn out to be barely any trouble at all, especially considering the amount of time they spend building up the tension around it.

Before Picard beams down to the surface however we get to meet another one of Rios' holograms modelled after himself. This one is the "Greeter Hologram" or something like that, later on we also get to meet the "Gunner Hologram". They're all pretty distinct and I actually love the idea of having an entire ship inhabited with loads of holograms of the same person, none of them actually being that person though and all having their own, annoying, personality. Rios seems to strongly dislike most of them, which is another fun aspect to it.

And definitely a hundred times more fun than these gits.

Down on the surface of Vashti, Picard notices that most things seem to have gone to pits. For one thing, the Romulans have started segregating, making certain areas "Romulan only". He goes to the convent and meets the same lady from the flashback whom I swear looks exactly the same. Not a wrinkle in her face has changed during the 14 years. Just as I was thinking about that fact though, Picard points it out himself when he tells her that "she hasn't aged a day". Do Romulans age slower than humans too, like Vulcans do? Makes sense I guess.

We learn that the warrior-nuns are called the Qowat Milad and they are the sworn enemies of the Tal Shiar. How convenient for Picard.

Elnor on the other hand has changed a lot. He is now a young man who looks a lot like Legolas, only with dark instead of blonde hair. Though he wasn't meant to grow up in the convent, the aftermath of the attack on Mars meant they couldn't find another place for him. This meant he too was trained in the supreme battle skills of the battle nuns and guess who Picard then goes on to enscript (a word I just made up reflecting conscripting and enlisting) into his group of oddballs?

Elnor isn't too keen on the idea though since he too has felt completely abandoned by Picard all these years. What kind of asshole has Picard been? I've got to say, if this series achieves anything, it's going to be the slander and ruination of Picard pretty much spotless legacy. But maybe that is part of the idea, to make him more human?

As Picard leaves he decides to go have a drink in one of the "Romulans only" bar, but not before he pulls down the sign and kicks it away. What a great way to make friends. A Romulan ex-politician confronts him, and ends up challenging him to a duel with actual swords. At first Picard refuses, but the bad guy is about to kill him when Elnor shows up and ends it with a cool looking but probably useless spin-sword-slash. The entire scene is so obviously set up for them to be able to show us Elnor's skills because why else would Picard decide to behave this way? But then someone shows up with a blaster rifle and says something along the lines of "your combat skills won't be good against my gun" which also reminds me of that scene in Indiana Jones. It'll definitely be interesting to see how they plan to make Elnor's combat skills useful later on and hopefully he knows more than just how to swirl through the air with his sword.

When Picard asks Elnor why he changed his mind he basically just answers "ehhh I just felt like it". The writing in this can be both so extremely lazy and down right bad some times and other times it is gracefully subtle and clever. It's like there are several different people writing different scenes and that is probably the way it is too.

Let's go to Soji for a little bit though. She is finally addressing the fact that Narek is acting weird as hell and he needs to turn up the charm-dial a few notches to ease her mind. Ramdha, the liberated ex-borg Romulan from the last episode who accused Soji of being "The Destroyer" came from a ship called the Shaenor. I mentioned briefly in a previous post that this made her special somehow, but it hasn't been explained why yet. Narek and Soji both agree they need to dig deeper into this. Narek then confronts Soji with the fact that there are no records of how she came onto the cube. Soji seems to think he is just toying with her but Narek is actually divulging some pretty sensitive information. He is basically telling her that he knows that she has been doing some trickery which she A) either already knows and then presumably isn't to happy about him knowing or B) doesn't have a clue about and then he's just made her really confused. What is Narek trying to achieve?

But not much happens with this information, Soji seems to think he is just making things up, as mentioned and they quickly move on to other things.

Nareks sister (?) makes another appearance to see how things are getting along. While they are referring to eachother as siblings, I am not so sure they are. They're pretty handsy for being siblings, but then I'm not well versed in Romulan customs. In their conversation they refer to "the rest of them", implying they know there are a lot more synthetics out there somewhere and the plan is to try to get Soji to tell them where they are, either she knows it consciously or not. He tells his "sister" that he is planting the seed of doubt in Soji, though what kind of doubt it is is not entirely clear yet.

Back on board the ship they've of course been attacked by Kar Kantar. A short battle ensues which is literally just an excuse to allow yet another character to make a grand entrance as she saves their behinds. Just as her ship is about to be destroyed (after she has dealt with Kar Kantars Bird of Prey) she is beamed over and it is - Seven of Nine!

Yay! Now if the rest of the Voyager crew could join as well...

I've been waiting for this moment and it's going to be very interesting to see how she fits in with Picard rag tag team of weirdo's but also how she will fit in with Picard himself. Seven of Nine is arguably one of the best characters of Voyager (though she was apparently intended mostly as eye-candy the writers managed to make so much more out of her).

To wrap up, though more might and probably still will join;
Picard - needs no introduction.
Raffi - Picard ex-colleague, unknown role. Angry with Picard and claims she is just hitching a ride and will leave them as soon as they get where she needs to but we all know that's not going to happen.
Rios - Picards laid back pilot.
Agnes - Picards somewhat strung up synthetics expert of unknown usefulness.
Elnor - PIcards close combat expert of unknown usefulness.
Seven of Nine - Ex-borg of extreme usefulness.

This episode doesn't move the plot forward much but rather stacks the deck a bit higher. I don't mind that at all as I find it's necessary to build a good story. All this needs now is for these different characters to blend together well with great chemistry and we might actually have a very tasty soup.

Images from dailytimes.com, wikipedia.com, gamesradar.com.

Thoughts on Star Trek Picard S1E3 "The End Is The Beginning"

Yes, spoilers.

This episode too started with a bit more backstory and I actually quite like that story structure which allows you to learn a bit more about the reasons for why and how Picard is where he is at the current moment in time.

For instance we learn that the angry woman he meets at the end of the previous episode is called Raffi and used to know Picard quite intimately. I don't mean non-platonically but in the way that she calls him "J.L". And I don't know why but it makes my skin creep every time I hear it. Like Picard would never allow anyone to call him J.L. It just rings so wrong. It might not even be that I can't picture Picard enjoying being called J.L, I mean overall he is actually pretty easy going. But the character Raffi doesn't really sell in that she would call him J.L. I think I am getting way more hung up on this than I need to be, but I'm not the only one.

Too cringe.

Raffi knows about the Tal Shiars undertakings on Earth and says she even has proof. At first it isn't entirely clear why she was so angry with Picard. But as the backstory unfolds we learn that Picard lost his job when he put up an ultimatum against Starfleet in the hope that they would still go through with the rescue plan regarding the Romulans. The ultimatum was that he would resign if they didn't and it ends up with him having to resign. Apparently it also means Raffi, as his co-worker/subordinate also has to resign. And because she had been backing his unpopular plan all along she is thrown into disfavour and basically has to live in a hovel in disgrace.

She's not angry at Picard for that happening though, at least that's not the main reason. The main reason is that when Picard resigned/was fired he retreated to his chateau and just left her behind. Apparently he didn't bother calling up on her even once in all the years that have passed (10? 20? Something along those lines). Now that is just a very d*ck thing to do. Even I would be pissed with Picard after all that. But what an uncharacteristic thing for Picard to do though. I'm not really buying it and we don't get any reason for it either. Picard simply says he is sorry which means we'll have to accept Raffi's account as the truth. Come on Picard, that's just mean.

He asks her for help to find a pilot and a ship. She's not keen about it and asks him to leave.
Over to our other synthetic, Soji gets to talk to an ex-borg in command named Hugh, who tells her she is going to be allowed to talk to another ex-borg named Ramdha, who is very special apparently. They give an explanation for why a bit later into the episode but the explanation makes no sense to me, I'll get to that later though.

Remember this guy?

The ex-borg commander Hugh is the same character (and is played by the same actor) who played a borg in an episode of TNG and I think it's a great idea to tie him into this story this way. It's the kind of fan service nod that requires a bit more thinking than just having someone cameo in the background (or playing the TNG tune in the background as they do in this episode twice) and I am happy for it. Hugh also tells us that ex-borgs are in fact referred to as "XBs", and what is it with shitty acronyms in this episode?

Soji is lead into a room full of Borgs that have been liberated but aren't working very well. We get to know that all (or most?) of these borgs are Romulan. She tries to speak with this Ramdha person who is sitting at a table doing some sort of Romulan looking tarot cards. At first Ramdha isn't very forthcoming but Soji knows a lot about Romulan mythology and mysticism and manages to get Ramdha to talk to her.

Meanwhile Raffi has pulled through and introduces Picard to a pilot named Rios. Rios seems to have his own fair share of issues, and he also has an EMH which looks exactly like him but speaks with a completely different accent. It's actually a pretty funny juxtaposition and I think it works in this episode.

As Picard is getting ready at the chateau him and his Romulan friends get attacked by our mystery enemy. Laris and Zhaban as the Romulans are called manage to kill off the attackers and even get a prisoner. They interrogate him, humanely, and he reveals that Soji might not  be who they think she is. I mean, she is probably a synthetic, but for some reason they all think that she is really dangerous. As the prisoner reveals this information they're also cutting to Soji's talk with Ramdha, who reveals the same information in her own way. "Which sister are you?!" she screams and pulls a gun from a nearby guard. They both (Ramdha and prisoner) end up calling Soji "the destroyer" or Seb-Cheneb in Romulan (there is your next D&D character name). I mean that can't be a good thing right?

Janeway is chaotic evil?!

It's a good thing story wise though as it thickens up the plot and makes it even more interesting.

And also, Alison Pills synthetics expert who may be called Agnes (man my notes are shit some times) gets a visit from the (now confirmed) Vulcan commodore (who is definitely named Oh) who wants to know everything she has been saying to Picard. Agnes goes to visit Picard after this and actually walks right into their gun fight with the presumably Tal Shiar or Zat Vash force. It's actually a pretty funny scene where she guns one of the enemy down and flustered she says "maybe it was on stun?", Laris responds with a "Romulan weapons don't have a stun setting".

Agnes tells Picard about the visit from Commodore Oh and that she told her everything because she is a bad liar anyway. Picard says it's ok. Agnes says she needs to come with him because she would never forgive herself if she didn't see a real synthetic which has been her life dream since forever. They decide to go seek out Bruce Maddox in a place called Freecloud. I'm not sure in what way the Agnes character will turn out to be interesting to this story, because so far she has only been used as an exposition-deliverer. She as a character is completely blank to me. If everything she said had been delivered through text on a screen instead it wouldn't have made any difference (except the funny shooting scene I just mentioned).

Turns out Raffi has business in Freecloud too, what a coincidence considering the massive vastness of space and all, though we don't get to know what kind of business and probably never will. It's really just a reason to get her on the space ship with Picard though she makes it very clear that she actually doesn't want anything to do with his little rescue mission. Picard looks at the main screen and says the magic words - "engage". Yeah, that actually felt pretty good.

I have this sneaking suspicion that Bruce Maddox is actually Data somehow? Just a thought, but we'll see. Can I anagram Bruce Maddox into Data in some way....

Anyway.

Pretty decent episode, I like the way this one didn't throw blatant exposition into the dialogue like the first two episodes (though I forgive them for it) but the story telling has become a lot more "wait and see and hopefully you'll understand". It's just more fun when at first you wonder where they are going with something and then it clicks.

This series still has me interested (delayed review post or not) and not even Raffi's constant "J.L" can ruin my fun.

Images from gamespot.com, screenrant.com, community.gophersvids.com

Thoughts on Star Trek Picard S1E2 "Maps & Legends"

Spoilers, of course.

I had been looking forward to episode 2 and overall it did not let me down.

But man does Alison Pill look just like Ellen Page to me. And she plays someone who has spent an unjustifiably large amount of time and resources on something that is supposed to be banned. But anyhow...

I mean maybe not side-by-side but in the show...

This episode starts with a welcome flashback (never thought I'd say that), namely to something that we haven't seen but that has only been mentioned - the incident which got synthetics banned. It's a pretty cool scene where we get to see the regular stuff of synthetics/androids/whaddyamacallits being used and abused until something seems to make them snap and they kill everyone. It seems like one of them in particular is the one to instigate it all, rather than them all snapping at once and if that isn't just a coincidence then that could potentially matter quite a lot. This synthetic also ends itself through suicide, which seems like overkill (pardon the pun) at the time since it is about to be blown up anyway.

Also noteworthy is the weapon it uses to kill off the humans with, nothing less than a plasma cutter that looks like it has been taken straight out of the hands of Isaac Clarke in Dead Space. Is this an actual tool that exists, or at least is somewhat established as a future-item through long time exposure in sci-fi? Or is this actually almost a homage to that video game series? I doubt the latter, though that might have been the source of inspiration.

Not quite this cool though.

Then it cuts (man, the puns are strong today) to the intro and I didn't really reflect on it in the previous episode but I quite like it. It has a nice, solemn tune and interesting visuals that probably metaphorically tell you a lot about the plot if you are into and understand symbolisms (hint: I don't).

Picard and his Romulan friends (sorry, forgot to write down their names this time around as well, but one might be named Laris or something?) go over what seemed to have happened to Dahj. Laris decides to tell Picard about an undercover super-extra-secret society in the Romulan empire called the Zhat Vash. No one knows much about them except they seem to really hate synthetics. It is also not known why they hate them. Laris (if that is her name) is certain they are behind the killing of Dahj and Picard quickly decides that he needs to go after the twin (whom we know to be Soji) to try to save her.

They don't have much in terms of leads of where she could be though. Through some CSI style tinkering of "lipids" and "molecules" and whathaveyous in Dahj's room where she was first attacked they only find out that someone was there and cleaned out all the evidence. When they go through her computer however they manage to find out that Soji is not on Earth. Well, great. Because the rest of the Universe isn't a big place to search or anything. Picard let's out a "there is the ghost in the machine", though I am not entirely sure what he means at that point or if it is just intended as a somewhat badly placed reference.

There is a great danger in referencing material that is probably better than yours.

We get some scenes with Soji as well. She seems to be working on a Borg Cube that has been cut off from the collective without self-destructing. In here they work to disassemble/help the drones that were left behind, among other things. The Borg Cube is owned by the Romulans and it's not well explained why they allow what at least superficially seems like scrub non-Romulans to come aboard to help them disassemble and do research on the cube. Clearly there is some treaty between the Romulans and the Federation that allows for this but we have to take it face value.

Soji befriends a Romulan named Narek, whom we already briefly met in the previous episode. They hit it up but he is being very secretive about himself. Soji doesn't seem to care and goes about her daily routines.

Back to Picard then. To get the things he needs, like a ship and crew, Picard initially turns to some higher up in the Federation with whom he seems to have a somewhat thorny history. They have a shout-out and she flatly refuses him ship and crew (and frankly I think she is right since he doesn't really give her good reason to allow it). She says some poignant things that look like they hit home, things like Picard simply making stuff up to try to stay relevant.

Afterwards we do get to see how she contacts some "Commodore" about the information that Picard provided her, the thing about there being covert Romulan operations happening on Earth. The Commodore, whose name also escapes me of course (I really should get better at writing these names down, but oftentimes I am too busy enjoying the show to remember to scribble) is maybe a Vulcan? It is a bit unclear, since you can't actually see any difference between Vulcans and Romulans and the only thing I go off is whether they show emotion or not. She in turn contacts a human called Rizzo who will turn out to be the show's first real dud. It also seems like these people know a lot more about these covert operations than they should.

In fact, this Rizzo is actually a Romulan in disguise (unclear if the Vulcan Commodore is aware of this) and she is also the big sister of Narek who is also undercover doing something or other. The two of them share a scene... well I'll get back to that shortly.

I forgot to mention that before Picard goes to the higher up, he has a conversation with an old doctor-acquaintance who, after some reminiscing, tells him that he is very healthy but he is also dying. This so that we know that Picard is physically capable of doing what he is about to do but then he will die. He has nothing to lose, in other words.

Back on Earth Picard decides to sort out ship and crew on his own instead. Somewhere in all this there is another reference when someone (the doctor? Maybe Laris?) is reading "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov and Picard says "I never really cared for science-fiction. I guess I just didn't get it". Fun. The Robot series by Isaac Asimov are great by the way, but that is a side-note.

The movie is aight.

In the final scene we see how Picard visits a person who seems to hate him but decides to join his crew under the motto that the enemy of my enemy is my friend (i.e she hates the Romulans even more than she hates Picard). We'll see what the other crew members are going to be like.

I am glad they didn't assemble any more people from the old crew, partly because I don't like most of them particularly much and partly because it allows this series to go a lot more freely and build its own identity. Otherwise it would've most likely just come off as another episode of TNG and right now it really doesn't.

I am also glad the Romulans seem to be the bad guy or "alien of significance" in this series because they are familiar without being overdone. My feelings towards the Romulans has always been "Vulcans but with the rage" and this series doesn't seem to change that much so far. Romulans are very similar to Cardassians that way actually, secretive and quick to temper.

Back to Rizzo and Narek though. They unfortunately share one of the final scenes of the episode and up until that point I had really been enjoying myself. The plot was thickening at a good pace (too slow? Definitely not) and seemed to be building up to something that was going to interest me. But then these two have one of the worst dialogues I have seen in a long time. I don't know if the acting ruined the dialogue or the dialogue ruined the acting, but it was cringe-worthy c-movie style of passive aggressiveness trying to be cool. It didn't work and it even soured the entire experience for me. Oh god, I really hope these people either get a lot better stuff to work with or simply don't show up that much. Unfortunately it definitely leans towards that they have big roles in the plot.

Picard/Stewart, as usual, carries this entire series. There is just a kilometer wide gulch in quality between the scenes he is in and the ones he isn't. Unfortunately it makes me think that what I am watching is only good because he makes it so (yep, I said it) and not because it intrinsically is. Does that matter if I am still enjoying myself? So far I am going to say no, and I hope that feeling stays with me throughout.

I am still very eager to see the next episode, and that is a good review if any.

Images from IGN.de, thefilmstage.com, wikipedia.com, thewrap.com.