Star Trek: Picard -- Season 1 Episode 10 (Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2)

It occurred to me while watching Star Trek: Picard how easy it would have been for it not to have happened.  The details vary, but it would seem that Patrick Stewart didn’t want to return for a fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  If he had left the show, Picard would have remained assimilated or would have been killed.  If this happened, I might be reviewing an episode of Star Trek: Riker right now.  Of course, I’m not sure how accurate the details are.  I suppose it would make for a great alternative history cameo or something.

Anyway, this review is about the final episode of the first season of Star Trek: Picard.  The androids are facing the threat of being annihilated by Romulans.  Rather than listen to Picard’s grand speech or hope that Starfleet will arrive in time, the androids are building an antenna to call the super AI interdimensional beings for help.  What’s scary is that this help will come in the form of killing all organic life in the galaxy.

There’s a lot of deception and trickery on both sides, but Picard is eventually able to stop the annihilators from crossing over into our universe.  Of course, it is at the last second.  (You know, I’m not really even sure what it would look like not to have it at the last second.)  But the universe is saved and we’ll get a second season.

This isn’t to say that the episode doesn’t pull at the heart strings.  Picard gets to meet Data one last time and Data has a rather emotional request for Picard.  You might be wondering how this is possible.  To be accurate, it’s the copy of Data’s memories that were copied from B4.  Either way, it’s a more appropriate sendoff for the character.

One thing I find curious is that the Romulans really did have a huge fleet.  This raises several points.  First, why send so many ships to wipe out one planet?  I guess they may have been expecting the galaxy-destroying AI to already be there.  Of course, had the AI already been there, it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

Also, where did all those ships come from?  If the Romulans had those ships before their sun went nova, couldn’t those ships have been used in the evacuation?  If not, it would mean that they were built after the evacuation.  It would be a testament to the Romulans that they could find the resources to make that many ships.  (For that matter, the Federation also has a lot of ships.)

This isn’t to say I dislike the episode.  There was some personal growth for many of the characters.  And there is going to be a second season.  I would hope the major characters will return.  My only question is if this will include Dr. Jurati.

She was supposed to turn herself in for the murder of Bruce Maddox.  That got sidetracked, but she still did it.  She still has to answer for that.  Maybe the second season will start with Jurati in an orange jump suit.  The entire season could be breaking her out of jail for a special mission.  I am looking forward to seeing what happens.

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Star Trek: Picard -- Season 1 Episode 8 (Broken Pieces)

Once again, we start with a flashback.  Commodore Oh is leading a group of Romulans in The Admonition.  They get to see exactly what happened to an unnamed ancient civilization that fell victim to artificial intelligence.  Most of the Romulans go crazy.  Not Narissa or Rhamda, though.  Rhamda is affected, but not to the point of killing herself.  Narissa seems to make it through unscathed.

As for the story’s present, Jurati has to face up to the fact that she killed Bruce Maddox.  Granted, it was on orders from Commodore Oh, but she still killed someone.  Oh’s involvement might not be enough to keep her out of prison.

We also learn why Rios’s captain killed himself.  It had to do with the fact that the captain was ordered to kill two synthetics, one of which happened to look like Soji.  It’s a bit of a coincidence that Rios was on the ship to make first contact, but it is an interesting one.

Meanwhile, all of Raffi’s conspiracy theories are proven correct.  There was a plot behind the Mars attacks.  For this reason, she contrasts really well with Picard.  Picard wants to see the best in everyone.  He’s come to expect it.  Meanwhile, Raffi tends to see the worst.  It doesn’t help that she’s proven correct, but it also doesn’t deter Picard from trying.

He’s the only one on the ship that doesn’t take a pessimistic view of the Federation, even though Starfleet let him down in a big way.  He’s coming to realize that that’s no excuse not to try.  In a way, he also gave up.  Instead of going out to make things better, he retreated in to a vineyard.  (He basically made alcohol rather than just drink it.)

I have to wonder if the ancient race mentioned in this episode is the Tkon Empire.  It’s said that they lived thousands of centuries ago.  (Picard says 200,000 years ago, but I’m not sure where he got this number.)  The Tkon Empire existed over 600,000 years ago and had the ability to move stars.  It’s said that a race would have had to have moved stars to have an eight-star system, as the most stars to occur naturally would seem to be seven.

Elnor is still on the Borg cube, but he now has Seven helping him.  It’s not clear if they’ll meet up with Picard and crew.  I guess I’ll be finding out soon enough.  As soon as I finish writing this, I’m off to watch the two-part finale.  It should be an interesting one.

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Star Trek: Picard -- Season 1 Episode 7 (Nepenthe)

One thing that bothered me about transporters in Star Trek was that the operator always knew who to beam up.  Riker would call to beam up three people out of a room full of people and they would always beam up the correct three people.  This was probably done for the sake of the narrative.  It would get tedious to have to name everyone that was leaving.

This is why I find it odd that when Picard and Soji visit Nepenthe, they’re put down in the back yard of the people they’re visiting.  They could easily have found themselves on the opposite side of the planet, given how far they were traveling.  It’s amazing that they weren’t transported to a spot a mile above the planet.  Still, I guess we need to consider the narrative.

Speaking of the narrative, who is it that Picard and Soji are visiting?  William Riker and Deanna Troi, of course, as promised in the series trailer.  I supposed Picard could have taken Soji anywhere, but it’s nice to see Riker and Troi again.  It’s especially nice to see that they’re still a happy couple, despite a tragedy.

Meanwhile, Hugh and Elnor fight the Romulans on the Borg cube.  Things don’t end well for Hugh, which is a shame.  Elnor is a great fighter and is an interesting character.  It has become increasingly obvious that he’s in over his head.  I’m assuming that he’s never been outside the sisterhood’s compound.  He would appear to be a fast learner, though.

On La Sirena, Jurati has to come to terms with the fact that she’s the mole.  In fact, we get to see the rest of her conversation with Commodore Oh.  It looks like there’s more than either character was letting on.  Her only option seems to be to inject herself with a compound.  It’s not clear if this is meant as suicide or not, but it does seem to disrupt the tracking capabilities of a homing device Jurati was made to swallow.  (At least it was chewable.)

Picard doesn’t seem to be the diplomat he once was.  Maybe it’s the irumodic syndrome talking.  I don’t know, but he answers Soji’s concerns with sarcasm and he’s rightfully rebuked.  Troi and Riker call him on it, but it’s not the first time he’s done something like this.

Soji is very suspicious of everyone now.  She’s been betrayed by the one person she trusted the most and wonders if all of this is another act.  It’s entirely reasonable of her.  (On a side note, Troi can’t sense Soji.  Troi could sense Data with his emotion chip, but Soji is different.  Exactly what those differences are remains to be seen.)

We get a few of the obligatory throwbacks, like a mention of Picard’s artificial heart.  There’s also a mention of a Tyken’s rift and Kestra, from Night Terrors and Dark Page, respectively.  I’m not sure if multiple references in each episode was intended, but it’s not unwelcome.  It doesn’t set this up as an eighth season of The Next Generation, but it does allow for some nice continuity.  I’m curious to see what the subsequent episodes bring.

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Star Trek: Picard -- Season 1 Episode 6 (The Impossible Box)

So, it’s time for Picard to finally meet Soji.  There’s just one problem standing in their way and it would seem to be a minor one.  Picard has to get permission to be on the Borg cube.  It technically belongs to the Romulans.  Fortunately, Raffi is still on the ship and she has a connection at Starfleet which gets them in.

The catch is that Picard has to go alone.  He’s not looking forward to it, as he was assimilated many years ago, but that’s the price of admission.  The Romulans are pretty strict about security, so they have him beam over to a remote location.  Maybe they’re paranoid about him being around sensitive information.  Maybe they just want to make him wait or feel isolated.  Either way, he has a panic attack before the director of the Reclamation Project shows up.

The director happens to be a former drone Picard helped many years ago: Hugh.  (Of course, we already knew this from previous episodes.)  Hugh is the first person in this new series who seems happy to see Picard.  He’s more than happy to help Picard find Soji.

Unfortunately, she’s not in her quarters nor is she showing up on scans.  Fortunately, she finds Picard.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to have the same instinct to trust Picard.  (Soji takes a little convincing.)  Fortunately, Hugh has a way for Picard and Soji to escape.

It’s not clear why they couldn’t transport off the cube directly.  I assume that was the plan, as Picard didn’t know about the Sikarian Trajector technology.  It does allow for a nice reference to Star Trek: Voyager.  (I am kind of wondering how Sikarians reacted do being assimilated.  It’s a good thing Voyager didn’t stick around.)

However, it took Picard only half the season to meet up with Soji, who is only starting to come to terms with what she is.  Narek was right to hold off, though.  Trying to kill Soji did activate her, which probably wouldn’t have ended well if he was still trying to get information out of her.

The series seems to be moving along pretty well.  I’ve come to use 24 as the show by which I judge other serialized shows.  24 could be a little jerky in that every episode ended with an overly dramatic cliffhanger.  Star Trek: Picard doesn’t do that.  There is a sense of a chapter being completed, but it seems more natural.  By this episode, we’re getting a much smoother experience.

There are a few questions, such as why Elnor didn’t go with Picard.  Elnor is sworn to protect Picard.  Separating serves no obvious purpose.  It’s also not clear in this episode exactly where Picard is going or why, but at least that will be revealed in the next episode.

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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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