Friday, March 27, 2020

Star Trek: Picard -- Season 1 Episode 4 (Absolute Candor)


So, we’ve got the main flow of the first season down.  Picard has to find Soji, who is Data’s daughter, so to speak.  To do this, he has to find Bruce Maddox, as Picard has no idea where she’d be.  Fortunately, Picard knows that Maddox is on Freecloud.  Before he can go there, he has to go to Vashti to hire a sword from a group of mercenary nuns.  No kidding.

The episode starts with a flashback.  Again.  This time, it’s to the aforementioned Vashti, where Picard is helping to relocate Romulans.  Before leaving, he stops in to visit Qowat Milat, a sisterhood who is taking care of a boy named Elnor.  As a sisterhood, they don’t admit males, but will take care of Elnor until better arrangements can be made.

Fast forward 14 years and the planet is run down, to say the least.  The sisterhood is still there, as is a grownup Elnor.  None of the sisters will help Picard, but they agree to let him talk to Elnor.  He can’t really stay there and he has nowhere else to go.  (The nuns trained Elnor, but couldn’t formally admit him to their order.)

Elnor initially rejects Picard, as he feels Picard abandoned him.  However, Elnor eventually has a change of heart when Picard puts himself in a dangerous situation.  So, Elnor is off with Picard and his crew to find Maddox.

As with other serialized shows, this comes off as one long episode.  It’s a little different because we’re going between two timeframes.  The events of 2385 are doled out in little pieces with the events of 2399 making up the bulk of each episode.

I suppose the series could have had a TV movie or something detailing the events on Mars.  That could have acted as a teaser pilot.  I probably would have liked that better.  I don’t know how it would have affected the season, though.

So, Picard’s ragtag crew now has two former Starfleet officers in Raffi and Rios as well as two civilians in Dr. Jurati and Elnor.  (This isn’t counting Rios’s holograms.)  We learn that Raffi was on Picard’s ship during the evacuations.  This might explain a little bit.  We also know that Raffi has used drugs before, so it’s possible that Picard was covering for her.

I’m assuming Raffi’s character and her relationship to Picard will be fleshed out in later episodes.  The series is shaping up to be more like Deep Space Nine rather than The Next Generation in that a lot of the main characters have had problems.  It’s not a perfect world anymore.  Even the ivory tower doesn’t look so nice anymore.  There’s plenty of disillusionment to go around.


 

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