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.

IMDb page

 

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.

IMDb page

 

Star Trek: Picard -- Season 1 Episode 3 (The End Is the Beginning)

It would appear that the third episode is a turning point in the series.  We’re still getting information about the past, such as Picard’s actual resignation from Starfleet.  At the same time, we’re seeing the pieces fall into place for Picard’s new crew.

Picard can’t get a ship and crew from Starfleet, so he’ll have to go through his old friend and colleague, Raffi.  She has an unregistered ship, which could prove useful.  Unfortunately, Picard seems to have burned a few bridges in the past 14 years.  Raffi isn’t willing to help at first.

However, she sets Picard up with Rios, a former XO on a ship that no longer officially exists.  Rios is a little hesitant, considering that Picard doesn’t actually have a game plan.  He’s looking for Soji and the only lead he has is Bruce Maddox.  Since Picard doesn’t know where either is, he’s all dressed up with nowhere to go.

The one person willing to help is Dr. Agnes Jurati of the Daystrom Institute.  She gathers that Picard might need help when she’s questioned by the head of Starfleet Security.  It’s not clear what she can do, but she might prove useful.  She is an expert in AI and she worked with Maddox.

The episode does answer a few questions, but does raise a few more.  Exactly why was Raffi fired from Starfleet after Picard quit?  Was Picard protecting her for some reason?  Was it retaliation?  It’s not clear what Raffi was to Picard at the time.

Also, Rios has at least two holograms.  It’s possible that holograms were spared the fate of androids.  However, it’s worth noting that Rios’s EMH isn’t that good and that both are modeled after Rios.  It’s possible that they’re bootleg holograms.  If Raffi has an unregistered ship, it would stand to reason that there are unregistered holograms.  We still don’t know what happened to Voyager’s EMH.

The stakes are pretty high, though.  Picard is attacked by a Romulan goon squad similar to the one in the first episode.  As they say, you’re not paranoid if they’re really out to get you.  The episode ends with Picard and crew on a ship leaving Earth.  I hope Picard knows where he’s going.

IMDb page