Star Trek Picard Season 2 Episode 1 Review The Star Gazer

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Star Trek Picard Season 2 kicks off with a huge cliff-hanger.  There's no preamble or prelude as we are launched into the interior of a Starfleet vessel under heavy attack, intruders on board and casualties mounting.  It's not immediately clear where or when this is, or if it's real.  While watching it, and observing the La Sirena crew on the bridge acting as bridge officers, I thought that this was a dream or flashback sequence.  But no.

The story settles down to "48 hours earlier" so the disaster scenario wasn't a dream sequence.  And, 48 hours earlier, Picard is in his vineyard, in the grounds of his chateau, while his gramophone plays, "Time is on my side, yes it is..."  I sure hope so.  It's harvest time, and he's checking his crop while his workers bring it in - by beaming it into the carriers.  It's 2401, and it's good to see Picard's Romulan housekeeper, Laris, is assisting with the harvest.  Harvest time is a key time on the calendar, and Picard's favourite; as Laris points out, "Sieze today, for we know nothing of tomorrow."  Laris decides to take her own advice and make a play for Picard; Romulans don't grieve in the same way as humans, and she hints that she would like to love him; he's spent his life in the stars and perhaps it's time to settle down.

But would that make for a good Star Trek TV series? The writers seem to think so, and add a layer of 'missed opportunity' to the plot.

Picard disappears into a flashback sequence in his castle, recalling his mother, and the arguments and domestic violence between his parents.  It seems his mother, Yvette, was responsible for setting young Jean-Luc on his path to the stars, as a way of escaping an unhappy home life. 

Oh, and out in the stars there's a luminescent green spatial anomaly out in space that has bashed the USS Avalon off its axis.  It's Borg green, but doesn't look Borg at first sight.

 Picard prepares to give his speech to the graduating class at Starfleet Academy, and before he sets off, he's trawling his library for a specific book - Loris finds it in seconds.  Clearly these two are good for each other, but clearly he's not not prepared to take the chance.  I wonder how many second opportunities he's going to need.  Picard, however, has apparently made his mind up and delivers his speech, with the theme of siezing the day and making the most of every opportunity - and highlights the first Romulan graduate from the academy, his friend Elnor (as seen in season 1).  After delivering the speech, Picard heads over to find out where Elnor has been assigned; the graduates are all getting ships with names that are well established in Trek history.  There's the USS Excelsior, which has featured in Star Trek III and Star Trek VI;  USS Grissom, which featured in Star Trek II, and the Stargazer, which was the name of Picard's first command - see The Battle, TNG Season 1 Episode 9.  

This whole episode plays on the pun of young Picard gazing at the stars, and the current vessel, the USS Stargazer. 

The USS Stargazer, Picard's first command.

After paraphrasing Spock's advice and encouraging Elnor to 'live a little', Picard finally takes his own advice and speaks to Guinan.  Guinan was the bartender on the Enterprise D as we saw throughout TNG, and as an El Aurian, she has the ability to detect shifts in the space-time continuum.  She's also a long-standing friend of Picard's and an inexhaustible supply of good advice.  Picard again skirts around the issue of not following his heart (he followed his head to the stars, and left his heart unexplored) but Guinan holds up an accurate mirror to his feelings.

Seven, meanwhile, is using the El Sirena to ship Federation medical supplies on behalf of the Fenris Rangers (we heard of them in series 1).  She's having to defend the ship from boarding pirates, which she does with the assistance of the holographic crew, all based on Rios.  His holographic personality enables him to dodge phaser fire, then rematerialise to strike the pirates over the back of the head when required.  She continues her run through interstellar space, and detects the same, green spatial anomaly as Starfleet - it's time to take a look, with the assistance of holographic Rios.

The real Rios is now captain of the current USS Stargazer, which has been sent to investigate the bright green spatial anomaly.  The special effects for this anomaly are light years ahead of anything I've seen in sci-fi, and are amazing.  After a few minutes probing the anomaly, the crew are interrupted by a full-spectrum blast of radiation, which turns out to be a signal - or a three-word message, repeated by thousands of voices, "Help us, Picard."  I'm calling this:  thousands of voices calling for Picard, by name... in unison?  Must be the Borg ;-)

What do you get if you cross the Enterprise with an X-Wing?  The Stargazer

Picard is back on Earth, where he is visited by a Starfleet Admiral - he has no hesitation in following her to the USS Stargazer and the anomaly.  Contrast Admiral Picard, who is ready to jump on a shuttlecraft with zero notice, and Jean-Luc, who is hopelessly unable to develop a relationship with Laris (or anybody else, for that matter).  I wonder if that's what Laris is thinking as she watches the shuttlecraft depart.

Agnes and Soji, meanwhile, are partying and dining on an obscure part of the Beta Quadrant - in Soji's case, enjoying not being hunted as a synth.  Agnes and Rios have had a relationship which has ended badly, and Agnes is still recovering, and, to add insult to injury, is attracting the attentions of a flirtatious synth.  She is invited aboard the Stargazer, and immediately accepts (the second of this week's character to seek an escape in space).  Picard comes aboard and is greeted by Seven, who explains that this new Stargazer is the first ship in Starfleet to have been constructed with technology adapated from the Borg artifact (see last series).  I wish I could remember which series it was where a ship was built with alien technology which suddenly activated and siezed control of the ship; it's a classic sci-fi cliche.

So, the crew of the La Sirena converge on the spatial anomaly, and are reunited on the Stargazer.  Picard responds to the mysterious message, and after a brief delay, receive an additional reply.  It is indeed the Borg, and they're asking to join Starfleet.

Picard on the bridge of a starship - where he's at his best.

Is this an opportunity to make peace with the Borg?  Is it a ruse to win the trust of the Federation and then assimilate them?  For all the talk of missed opportunities, this is probably one that should be missed - especially if you ask Seven.  But no, the Borg, now in a cruciform vessel, decide its time to act and there's no more time to wait.  They are going to beam an emissary over - here comes the Borg Queen.  There is still an opportunity for Starfleet to respond with force, while the Borg Queen's transporter signal slowly materialises on the bridge of the Stargazer, but Picard decides against.  And suddenly we're back where we were at the start of the episode:  it's the Borg Queen (looking like something out of Doctor Who, with a faceless, black armoured helmet) who is attacking the bridge, firing assimilation tubules at the bridge consoles and shooting stun blasts at the Starfleet security officers.  It's all going horribly wrong - terminally wrong, in fact, as Picard activates the auto-destruct sequence while the Borg Queen continues to gain control of the ship, using the Borg technology that was already installed in it - and then using that link to take control of the entire fleet which has assembled.  No more, "Resistance is futile," from the Borg - this is now, "You are out of time."

And the whole fleet goes up in a cloud of proverbial smoke, with a bright flash of light and a final message from the Borg Queen: "Look up."  Wasn't that what Picard's mother said to him?

Except this isn't the end, as Picard finds himself back at his chateau, where something's changed.  His comm badge is different - larger and pointier (changing a comm badge is a quick shorthand in Trek for a different or parallel universe).  His orangery/conservatory is mostly intact, instead of being wrecked with broken glass all over the floor.  The sky is now filled with the hexagonal grid of a planetary defence system - Earth is probably at war. Picard's house is now decorated with the spoils of war - the portrait on the wall is of him on a battlefield.  And Laris has gone, replaced by an inane android.  

There are so many details in the conversation between Picard and Harvey the android that I can't go over them here, but I hope they'll all be revisited in future episodes.

"What is happening here?" asks Picard.  And that's where it all kicks off.

Q, who has addressed Picard as "Mon capitaine" since they first met, appears and explains that this is a new timeline - an alternate reality, or 'the end of the path not taken'.  Q loves messing about with time, and with the Borg, and with a click of his fingers he's flung Picard and his crew into a new alternate reality.  As with Back to the Future II, the question will likely be "What historic event has been changed, and how do we fix it?"  Who knows?  This is the real cliff-hanger of this episode, and of the series.

I'm looking forward to it.