There's almost no point in talking about this episode. Imagine a heist movie. Better yet, imagine Ariel or Trash, the heist movie episodes of Firefly. You now know almost everything you need to know about this week's episode of Picard. How it was written. How it was shot (mastermind explains the plan to her dimwitted colleagues at the same time that we, the audience, watch those colleagues execute said plan). Just replace "the crew of the Serenity breaks into a highly secure hospital to gain access to its very advanced maguffinatron, only to have their plan nearly go to pieces with Jayne betrays them" with "the crew of La Sirena breaks into a highly disreputable space casino to gain access to Doctor Bruce Maddux, only to have their plan nearly go to pieces when Seven-of-Nine lies to Picard" and you're all caught up. We do learn some VERY IMPORTANT FACTS along the way:
I remain begrudgingly interested in the show. This episode was almost unrecognizable as Star Trek, possibly because it was instantly recognizable as Firefly, or even Star Wars. If Patrick Stewart had looked out from the bridge of La Sirena and intoned "Freecloud... you will never find a more wretched hive of scum, villainy, and personalized holographic advertisements" I would not have been offended. I, however, am starting to realize that I am less interested in the whacky space adventure we are currently than I am in learning how we got to a place where said whacky space adventure even makes sense. Freecloud -- a semi-lawless, late capitalist afterscape run by racketeers and human traffickers -- did not feel like a place that belonged in the Star Trek universe, and yet, it is. How? Has it always been like this on the frontier (just as Mars was always an industrial wasteland), or have things really gotten that bad? What did Seven-of-Nine mean that, after the Romulan evacuation ended "the Neutral Zone collapsed and the law broke down"? What does literally anyone else think about the Federation's isolationism and the fact of a Romulan refugee state? I cannot believe that neither the Vulcans nor the Klingons had anything to say about the demise of the Romulan Star Empire, and yet, we have yet to see anyone with pointy ears who isn't a Romulan, and Irish Romulan's Husband's off-hand mention of Worf has been this show's only concession to date that Klingons even exist. Also: whose idea was it to write episodes that were not about Irish Romulan and Her Husband?
In my first post, I worried that this show was going to descend into the same morass of needless conspiracy and subterfuge that swallowed Discovery. Picard is clearly oriented towards unmasking a massive conspiracy but, for the most part, they do seem to have abandoned the notion that they can or should try to fool the audience for long. Unfortunately, I cannot definitively say that they have eschewed Discovery's roughly sketched shocks in favor of highly detailed explanation. How did Jean-Luc end up on his sofa after the attack at the Starfleet archives? How did Seven-of-Nine end up at Vashti just in time to save La Sirena's keister at the end of the last episode? The heist-threatening twist in the middle of this episode is that Seven-of-Nine is only along for the ride so that she can murder the woman currently holding Doctor Maddux hostage. Turns out, Maddux's captor once stripped one of Seven's ex-Borg friends down for parts. But Seven-of-Nine did not learn that Jean-Luc and company were even going to Freecloud until the second act of this episode. What was she doing at Vashti? Furthering the plot, of course.
I really was starting to like this show.
- Raffi has a son from whom she became estranged when she became more focused on unraveling the conspiracy than burned Mars than on living life with her family. Apparently "the Conclave of Eight" is a thing we are going to have to worry about.
- Seven-of-Nine is a member of the Fenris Rangers, a group of interstellar vigilantes trying to protect those in need in a post-Federation galaxy. You would think I would be more bullish on the idea that the lawless frontier is being guarded by a small band of Rangers. Unfortunately, the concept looks fair and feels foul.
- Doctor Jurati, who opened the episode watching very twee holovids in which she argues with Doctor Maddux about the virtues of replicated versus backed chocolate chip cookies (there may also be kissing), was so disturbed by whatever Commodore Oh told her that, shortly after helping the rest of the crew rescue Doctor Maddux from his space gangster captors, she murders him by turning off the "hemorrhagic reparative bibbledy-bonker" to which he is connected. She does this in full view of Captain Rios' Emergency Medical Holoself, so it is unclear how this is going to remain a mystery to the rest of the crew for more than fifteen minutes. Also EVIL.
- There is a booming black market economy in Borg implants, harvested from largely unwilling disassimilated persons and used for... reasons.
- Patrick Stewart absolutely does not have a French accent in him.
I remain begrudgingly interested in the show. This episode was almost unrecognizable as Star Trek, possibly because it was instantly recognizable as Firefly, or even Star Wars. If Patrick Stewart had looked out from the bridge of La Sirena and intoned "Freecloud... you will never find a more wretched hive of scum, villainy, and personalized holographic advertisements" I would not have been offended. I, however, am starting to realize that I am less interested in the whacky space adventure we are currently than I am in learning how we got to a place where said whacky space adventure even makes sense. Freecloud -- a semi-lawless, late capitalist afterscape run by racketeers and human traffickers -- did not feel like a place that belonged in the Star Trek universe, and yet, it is. How? Has it always been like this on the frontier (just as Mars was always an industrial wasteland), or have things really gotten that bad? What did Seven-of-Nine mean that, after the Romulan evacuation ended "the Neutral Zone collapsed and the law broke down"? What does literally anyone else think about the Federation's isolationism and the fact of a Romulan refugee state? I cannot believe that neither the Vulcans nor the Klingons had anything to say about the demise of the Romulan Star Empire, and yet, we have yet to see anyone with pointy ears who isn't a Romulan, and Irish Romulan's Husband's off-hand mention of Worf has been this show's only concession to date that Klingons even exist. Also: whose idea was it to write episodes that were not about Irish Romulan and Her Husband?
In my first post, I worried that this show was going to descend into the same morass of needless conspiracy and subterfuge that swallowed Discovery. Picard is clearly oriented towards unmasking a massive conspiracy but, for the most part, they do seem to have abandoned the notion that they can or should try to fool the audience for long. Unfortunately, I cannot definitively say that they have eschewed Discovery's roughly sketched shocks in favor of highly detailed explanation. How did Jean-Luc end up on his sofa after the attack at the Starfleet archives? How did Seven-of-Nine end up at Vashti just in time to save La Sirena's keister at the end of the last episode? The heist-threatening twist in the middle of this episode is that Seven-of-Nine is only along for the ride so that she can murder the woman currently holding Doctor Maddux hostage. Turns out, Maddux's captor once stripped one of Seven's ex-Borg friends down for parts. But Seven-of-Nine did not learn that Jean-Luc and company were even going to Freecloud until the second act of this episode. What was she doing at Vashti? Furthering the plot, of course.
I really was starting to like this show.
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