For nearly 20 years, the community of people who like watching spaceships on television has been haunted by one unanswerable question: “when are they going to make more Firefly?” I like to think that, whenever cast members of Joss Whedon’s seemingly universally loved space western gather together, they compare notes on how long each has gone since last being asked that question. The figure can’t be high. At long last, we have our answer, and it is “now.” Nathan Fillion can finally meet Gina Torres for coffee without the geekosphere exploding with unjustified hope. Technically, the question was answered in November 2019 when Disney gave us The Mandalorian, which I highly encourage you to watch, especially if the last Star Wars you saw was inflicted upon you by J.J. Abrams; Mando will wash that taste right out of your mouth. However, whereas the strength of Firefly was always its ensemble, The Mandalorian relied a little to heavily on “a guy who looks like that guy you think is cool but can’t articulate why” and the physical manifestation of cuteness. Picard, it would seem, is going to recreate the special sauce with a little more fidelity. A ragtag starship crew composed of equal parts comic relief, philosophical gravitas, and distilled violence attempt to navigate their way through a universe in which all political authority is corrupt and shadowy conspiracies abound. Turns out you can’t take the sky from me.
In case you can’t tell, I really liked this episode.
This week’s story focused on Jean-Luc’s attempt to recruit the presumably final member of his highly specialized rescue team. The pre-credit flashback (told you so) takes place on the planet Vashti, a Romulan refugee camp, on the day of Mars’ burning. Admiral Picard is visiting Vashti to check in on an order of nuns, specifically Romulan assassin warrior nuns, who have been instrumental in aiding his and Raffi’s efforts. He doesn’t actually have much to say to the nuns. He does, however, have a great deal to say and do and share with Elnor, a ten-year-old boy left in the nuns’ keeping until they can find “a more suitable home.” They fence together. They read The Three Musketeers together. They do all kinds of things that one would never expect of Captain “I need to to stand between me and the children, Number One.” And then Raffi calls. Mars is burning. Jean-Luc has to leave. Now. Apparently, it is a long time before he will ever return.
Fourteen years, to be exact. When we return to 2399, Jean-Luc has ordered Captain Rios to make a brief stop-over at Vashti. Raffi thinks this is a bad idea. She is probably right. She is usually right. I am choosing to interpret her yellow uniform in last week’s flashback as an indication that she worked in security, at which she is unusually good. Jean-Luc wants to engage one of the warrior assassin nuns on his quest. Of course, it is not just a matter of payment. You do not choose the warrior assassin nuns. The warrior assassin nuns choose you. Ka like the wind.
Vashti is not the way Jean-Luc left it. Or, maybe, it is exactly the way Jean-Luc left it, only more so. After the slipshod nature of the Romulan evacuation, the Romulans are living in a world devoid of any governmental structure. Captain Rios informs us that a handful of warlords have decided to try setting up shop in the sector, but it’s not obvious that anyone is in charge. Vashti itself remains poor and extremely volatile. The bar near Jean-Luc’s beam down site prominently displays a sign reading “Romulans only” (we never actually see anyone who’s not a Romulan on Vashti, either in 2399 or in 2385, but Jean-Luc is not pleased and we may safely assume that the sign did not used to be there). For all that, the warrior assassin nuns are actually glad to see Jean-Luc. They seem to be the only ones who are. Space twitter lights up with posts when he is sighted and, as Raffi notes, “they are not love letters.” The head nun suggests Jean-Luc engage Elnor’s services. A “more suitable home” was never found and he has just completed his training. Jean-Luc tells Elnor his story. Elnor cares (“You told me about Data… he had an orange cat named Spot”). Jean-Luc does not. Jean-Luc wants a warrior assassin. Elnor wants Jean-Luc to say that he came back because he specifically needed Elnor. Unfortunately, Elnor doesn’t have the power to throw Jean-Luc’s ship halfway across the galaxy to drive the point home. This is the second time in as many weeks that we have been confronted with the callousness of nonagenarian Jean-Luc. Last week, Raffi told us that, after they were both drummed out of Starfleet, Jean-Luc completely lost touch with her. Apparently, a similar fate has befallen Elnor, one of the only five children Jean-Luc Picard has ever shown any affection for, hallucinatory children and grandchildren notwithstanding. This may be a part of a larger narrative questioning why we, as people, do the things we do, and if we ever actually do them for the right reasons. Raffi and Elnor were important to Jean-Luc when they were a part of a story Jean-Luc told about himself as the savior of Romulus. When that fell apart, they became reminders of his failure. It may also be part of a narrative about how, as we grow older, it becomes harder and harder to hold our lives together. In either case, I see this as a brutal, but welcome instance of reality intruding upon the Star Trek universe. Burn your idols. All of them.
Jean-Luc does a very stupid thing before leaving Vashti. Remember that bar with the “Romulans only” sign? He takes the sign down and tries to order a drink. This does not go well, and Jean-Luc is soon confronted by a gang of Romulans with swords (!) led by a former Romulan Senator. The Senator informs Jean-Luc that he wants neither his help nor his pity. He blames Jean-Luc for convincing the Romulans to doubt themselves, making them dependent on the Federation, and then yanking the rug out from under them at the last minute. To his credit, Jean-Luc denies the intent of which he is being accused of, but not the impact. Once more, reality brutally impinges upon the Star Trek universe. Charity is not an unalloyed good. It may not even be a good. It is, at best, a “better-than.” Charity is based upon a power dynamic, a model of savior and saved that reserves the ability to act almost exclusively for the former. In fifty years of replicating blankets, diverting killer asteroids, and stabilizing protonova suns, I cannot recall Star Trek ever acknowledging this reality. It is likely true that millions more Romulans would have died if Jean-Luc had not acted. It is also true that the way Jean-Luc acted deprived something vital from the Romulans who lived. This is not your parents’ Star Trek. This Star Trek has been paying attention.
The rest of the episode is fairly pro-forma. The Senator challenges Jean-Luc to a duel. Jean-Luc refuses to fight. The Senator is unimpressed. Elnor shows up to conveniently decapitate the Senator with a totally awesome mid-air twirl-and-attack. Apparently, the primary criterion for the warrior assassin nuns accepting a client is that the client’s cause be a lost cause. Commala come ko. A classic — I mean CLASSIC, as in Mark Lenard in The Balance of Terror classic — Romulan Bird of Prey (yes; that’s what they were called back then) shows up. There’s a firefight in which Captain Rios’ ship, the La Sirena, gets aid from a mysterious second ship. The pilot of said ship gets in trouble and has to beam aboard, and look! It’s Seven-of-Nine.
Our analogy is now complete. Seven-of-Nine and Elnor bring the highly competent violence of Zoe and Jayne. Jean-Luc brings the theological gravitas of Shepherd Book. Captain Rios is what Wash would have become if Wash had survived the experience of getting run through with a harpoon. Raffi embodies the space libertarianism of Mal. Doctor Jurati brings the scholastic professionalism and worldly naiveté of a Simon Tam and also she is definitely evil. Nothing concrete happened to further my case, but I am operating on a “guilty until proven innocent” model here. Burn the land and boil the sea. Engage.
Oh yeah: apparently “the Destroyer” is supposed to usher in Romulan Ragnarok, in which “all of the demons will break their bonds and answer the call of the Destroyer.” That was all fine and important, I guess. Everything in the Reclamation Center read like a romantic comedy if everyone involved in the romantic comedy were capable of acknowledging how creepy romantic comedies usually are.
In case you can’t tell, I really liked this episode.
This week’s story focused on Jean-Luc’s attempt to recruit the presumably final member of his highly specialized rescue team. The pre-credit flashback (told you so) takes place on the planet Vashti, a Romulan refugee camp, on the day of Mars’ burning. Admiral Picard is visiting Vashti to check in on an order of nuns, specifically Romulan assassin warrior nuns, who have been instrumental in aiding his and Raffi’s efforts. He doesn’t actually have much to say to the nuns. He does, however, have a great deal to say and do and share with Elnor, a ten-year-old boy left in the nuns’ keeping until they can find “a more suitable home.” They fence together. They read The Three Musketeers together. They do all kinds of things that one would never expect of Captain “I need to to stand between me and the children, Number One.” And then Raffi calls. Mars is burning. Jean-Luc has to leave. Now. Apparently, it is a long time before he will ever return.
Fourteen years, to be exact. When we return to 2399, Jean-Luc has ordered Captain Rios to make a brief stop-over at Vashti. Raffi thinks this is a bad idea. She is probably right. She is usually right. I am choosing to interpret her yellow uniform in last week’s flashback as an indication that she worked in security, at which she is unusually good. Jean-Luc wants to engage one of the warrior assassin nuns on his quest. Of course, it is not just a matter of payment. You do not choose the warrior assassin nuns. The warrior assassin nuns choose you. Ka like the wind.
Vashti is not the way Jean-Luc left it. Or, maybe, it is exactly the way Jean-Luc left it, only more so. After the slipshod nature of the Romulan evacuation, the Romulans are living in a world devoid of any governmental structure. Captain Rios informs us that a handful of warlords have decided to try setting up shop in the sector, but it’s not obvious that anyone is in charge. Vashti itself remains poor and extremely volatile. The bar near Jean-Luc’s beam down site prominently displays a sign reading “Romulans only” (we never actually see anyone who’s not a Romulan on Vashti, either in 2399 or in 2385, but Jean-Luc is not pleased and we may safely assume that the sign did not used to be there). For all that, the warrior assassin nuns are actually glad to see Jean-Luc. They seem to be the only ones who are. Space twitter lights up with posts when he is sighted and, as Raffi notes, “they are not love letters.” The head nun suggests Jean-Luc engage Elnor’s services. A “more suitable home” was never found and he has just completed his training. Jean-Luc tells Elnor his story. Elnor cares (“You told me about Data… he had an orange cat named Spot”). Jean-Luc does not. Jean-Luc wants a warrior assassin. Elnor wants Jean-Luc to say that he came back because he specifically needed Elnor. Unfortunately, Elnor doesn’t have the power to throw Jean-Luc’s ship halfway across the galaxy to drive the point home. This is the second time in as many weeks that we have been confronted with the callousness of nonagenarian Jean-Luc. Last week, Raffi told us that, after they were both drummed out of Starfleet, Jean-Luc completely lost touch with her. Apparently, a similar fate has befallen Elnor, one of the only five children Jean-Luc Picard has ever shown any affection for, hallucinatory children and grandchildren notwithstanding. This may be a part of a larger narrative questioning why we, as people, do the things we do, and if we ever actually do them for the right reasons. Raffi and Elnor were important to Jean-Luc when they were a part of a story Jean-Luc told about himself as the savior of Romulus. When that fell apart, they became reminders of his failure. It may also be part of a narrative about how, as we grow older, it becomes harder and harder to hold our lives together. In either case, I see this as a brutal, but welcome instance of reality intruding upon the Star Trek universe. Burn your idols. All of them.
Jean-Luc does a very stupid thing before leaving Vashti. Remember that bar with the “Romulans only” sign? He takes the sign down and tries to order a drink. This does not go well, and Jean-Luc is soon confronted by a gang of Romulans with swords (!) led by a former Romulan Senator. The Senator informs Jean-Luc that he wants neither his help nor his pity. He blames Jean-Luc for convincing the Romulans to doubt themselves, making them dependent on the Federation, and then yanking the rug out from under them at the last minute. To his credit, Jean-Luc denies the intent of which he is being accused of, but not the impact. Once more, reality brutally impinges upon the Star Trek universe. Charity is not an unalloyed good. It may not even be a good. It is, at best, a “better-than.” Charity is based upon a power dynamic, a model of savior and saved that reserves the ability to act almost exclusively for the former. In fifty years of replicating blankets, diverting killer asteroids, and stabilizing protonova suns, I cannot recall Star Trek ever acknowledging this reality. It is likely true that millions more Romulans would have died if Jean-Luc had not acted. It is also true that the way Jean-Luc acted deprived something vital from the Romulans who lived. This is not your parents’ Star Trek. This Star Trek has been paying attention.
The rest of the episode is fairly pro-forma. The Senator challenges Jean-Luc to a duel. Jean-Luc refuses to fight. The Senator is unimpressed. Elnor shows up to conveniently decapitate the Senator with a totally awesome mid-air twirl-and-attack. Apparently, the primary criterion for the warrior assassin nuns accepting a client is that the client’s cause be a lost cause. Commala come ko. A classic — I mean CLASSIC, as in Mark Lenard in The Balance of Terror classic — Romulan Bird of Prey (yes; that’s what they were called back then) shows up. There’s a firefight in which Captain Rios’ ship, the La Sirena, gets aid from a mysterious second ship. The pilot of said ship gets in trouble and has to beam aboard, and look! It’s Seven-of-Nine.
Our analogy is now complete. Seven-of-Nine and Elnor bring the highly competent violence of Zoe and Jayne. Jean-Luc brings the theological gravitas of Shepherd Book. Captain Rios is what Wash would have become if Wash had survived the experience of getting run through with a harpoon. Raffi embodies the space libertarianism of Mal. Doctor Jurati brings the scholastic professionalism and worldly naiveté of a Simon Tam and also she is definitely evil. Nothing concrete happened to further my case, but I am operating on a “guilty until proven innocent” model here. Burn the land and boil the sea. Engage.
Oh yeah: apparently “the Destroyer” is supposed to usher in Romulan Ragnarok, in which “all of the demons will break their bonds and answer the call of the Destroyer.” That was all fine and important, I guess. Everything in the Reclamation Center read like a romantic comedy if everyone involved in the romantic comedy were capable of acknowledging how creepy romantic comedies usually are.
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