CONTAINS SPOILERS
After a short detour last week, Picard and his ever-growing crew are now on their way to Freecloud, to search for Bruce Maddox.
Bruce Maddox previously featured in The Next Generation episode, "The Measure Of A Man". He claimed, on behalf of Starfleet, that the android Data was actually Starfleet's possession and should be returned to Starfleet HQ for experimentation, with a view to understanding what made him function, so that this could be replicated and more sentient androids could be built. The episode featured a tense courtroom style drama, where the concept was excellent and the execution was a little wobbly: Riker had to argue that Data was merely an object (and was very convincing) due to a lack of anybody else available with legal expertise. My memory of the episode is that Bruce Maddox (scientist, robot specialist) came across as a bit of an idiot, despite Data wishing him well with his research.
So I'm struggling with the need to go and find Bruce Maddox, since he was such an idiot last time we met him (many, many years ago). But the plot says we have to find him since he can help track down Dahj's android twin sister, Soji, so off we go to Freecloud. Bruce Maddox believes it's possible to recreate Data's entire synaptic system from any one part of his brain (the equivalent of recreating a human being from one cell with its DNA). Will this episode answer this question?
The episode begins, as all Picard episodes have, in flashback, as we see Seven of Nine escaping from some form of Borg Reclamation Lab. Humans (possibly) are experimenting on former Borg and attempting to salvage them for parts - whatever it is, it's inhumane, unpleasant and painful. Seven sneaks into the lab and kills one of the unfortunate Borg, who she calls, "My child" as she pulls the trigger to her phaser. It appears that Seven has newly-developed history with Borg experimenters.
We are quickly introduced to Bruce Maddox, who appears to be drinking to kill his conscience, or to settle his nerves. Freecloud is a shiny, clean bar (as we see it), filled with less-than-perfect characters. Although there were only a few characters shown - a thug; waitresses in sequin costumes and so on on - Freecloud looks clean, but is less than salubrious. Indeed, the welcome to Freecloud offers maximum security, financial services, and a liberal approach to personal freedoms. A wretched hive of scum and villainy, if you ask me.
Seven, recovered from last week's battle, discusses Picard's plan with him. Of all the characters we've met, Seven has changed the most. She's still as stern as she used to be, but she's softened around the edges. She drinks bourbon, and wears her hair down. Now a member of the Fenris Rangers (new to Star Trek), she agrees to help Picard on his quest. This raises questions among the rest of the queue; Raffi reminds us that Seven used to be Borg, "like him," (I'd forgotten that, useful reminder), and she's from the Delta quadrant.
While we're filling in back-story, we learn that Jurati and Maddox had a personal relationship. So, maybe she isn't just out here looking for him for the good of science. There has been speculation online that Jurati has been planted in the crew by evil Romulan Commodore Oh - this remains to be seen.
After a few hologrammatic pop-ups, the crew track down Maddox (that was thankfully quick - information security on Freecloud isn't everything it's cracked up to be), and realise that he's being offered for sale to the highest bidder - namely the Tal Shiar. His captor (who spiked his drink), is named Bjayzl and she butchers ex-Borg for parts. Since the crew can't buy him, or break him out, Seven decides to offer herself as trade. And if you thought that this would be a permanent trade, you've not been concentrating :-)
Freecloud is like Las Vegas in the distant future - holograms, lights, all turned up to eleven. The team beam down in what can only be described as fancy dress. Picard with an eyepatch made me laugh out loud. Rios has to find his cheerful extrovert and make the deal - to trade Seven for Maddox. "Mr Quark of Ferenginar has provided references of your transaction with the Breen." The Quark? The Ferengi barkeeper from Deep Space Nine? That got me laughing out loud again.
There then follows the tense negotiation - this is honestly played for comedy, and I was smiling and smirking all the way through the setup, the plan, the French Pirate Picard; Elnor realising that this is a con, and then being told to keep his mouth shut.
Raffi, you may recall, is not here for Maddox. She made it clear that she's along for the ride and has business of her own to attend to - a Gabriel Hwang, who is in the medical district of Freecloud. Have we seen the last of her? She immediately beams down to meet Gabriel and has an awkward conversation. I must say that I appreciate the speed of this story - we meet Maddox, we start trading for him; Raffi searches for Gabriel; finds him, and immediately beams down into the difficult situation. And it quickly transpires that Gabriel is her son, and wants nothing more to do with her after she abandoned her family to go and chase down her conspiracies. That ended as quickly as it started.
Picard, meanwhile, is virtually chewing the scenery as his French Pirate. Bjayzl recognises Seven as Annika, and all comedy is immediately dissolved into tension as things appear to be going very wrong, very quickly. There was a close personal relationship was between Seven and "Jay", and Seven is now clearly very angry at Jay, seeing this as her opportunity for revenge for all the ex Borg that Jay butchered her way through. In simple terms: it's complicated. Picard drops the disguise and the accent almost immediately, realising he's been played and Elnor blows any shred of cover that they had. During the tense stand-off that follows, Seven explains that Jay and her kind were responsible for the capture and dissection of ex-Borg, including the one we saw at the start of the episode. This particular ex-Borg was Icheb, who was a recurring character in the Voyager series - a young former Borg who was separated from the Collective as a child, and who Seven came to see as family. Since Jay was overseeing the dissection of Icheb (while he was still conscious), Seven was forced firstly to shoot him to save him any further suffering, and also to come looking for Jay for revenge. This is very, very, well written and delivered.
The rescue proceeds, and the emotion and tension of Seven's scene are abruptly replaced with the reunion of Bruce Maddox and Agnes Jurati. This episode is a real rollercoaster, as we go straight into Seven's goodbye to Picard. We have never seen Picard and Seven discuss their shared experience of being assimilated and separated from the Borg, and it's fantastic to see that the writers take their opportunity to do this, even if it is briefly. And this isn't goodbye. Seven beams straight back to Freecloud, two phaser rifles in hand, and starts shooting. Is she going to shoot Jay, or not? Is Seven going to survive the security guards, or is she going to go out in a blaze of glory?
Bruce and Picard discuss Dahj and the way her Mom AI caused her to activate; Dr Jurati is eavesdropping on this conversation in a way that is deliberately filmed to look sinister. Maddox has a number of revelations, including knowing where Soji is. Is Maddox going to survive his injuries? Is Jurati going to kill him? You may not believe me, but I honestly thought she was going to inject him with something lethal to stop him talking, and from the moment she dismissed Picard. She delivers a typical tragic-heroine monologue about knowing too much; wishing he knew what he'd done - apparently, creating the synths has caused multiple unseen issues across the galaxy - and so on. My view? I don't understand why she killed him, despite her cryptic monologue, when it would surely have been possible to keep him alive a little longer.
This episode was outstanding. The pace of the story was remarkable - after the slow build-up of previous episodes, we are now moving at warp speed, assimilating and then discarding seemingly critical characters at will. This was exciting, tragic and emotional at all times. And - maybe not coincidentally - we saw nothing of the Borg cube or the weird Romulan siblings. This was an episode of Picard that kept the focus on him and his crew (and on Seven, who could always carry an episode), and was all the better for it.
After a short detour last week, Picard and his ever-growing crew are now on their way to Freecloud, to search for Bruce Maddox.
Bruce Maddox previously featured in The Next Generation episode, "The Measure Of A Man". He claimed, on behalf of Starfleet, that the android Data was actually Starfleet's possession and should be returned to Starfleet HQ for experimentation, with a view to understanding what made him function, so that this could be replicated and more sentient androids could be built. The episode featured a tense courtroom style drama, where the concept was excellent and the execution was a little wobbly: Riker had to argue that Data was merely an object (and was very convincing) due to a lack of anybody else available with legal expertise. My memory of the episode is that Bruce Maddox (scientist, robot specialist) came across as a bit of an idiot, despite Data wishing him well with his research.
So I'm struggling with the need to go and find Bruce Maddox, since he was such an idiot last time we met him (many, many years ago). But the plot says we have to find him since he can help track down Dahj's android twin sister, Soji, so off we go to Freecloud. Bruce Maddox believes it's possible to recreate Data's entire synaptic system from any one part of his brain (the equivalent of recreating a human being from one cell with its DNA). Will this episode answer this question?
The episode begins, as all Picard episodes have, in flashback, as we see Seven of Nine escaping from some form of Borg Reclamation Lab. Humans (possibly) are experimenting on former Borg and attempting to salvage them for parts - whatever it is, it's inhumane, unpleasant and painful. Seven sneaks into the lab and kills one of the unfortunate Borg, who she calls, "My child" as she pulls the trigger to her phaser. It appears that Seven has newly-developed history with Borg experimenters.
We are quickly introduced to Bruce Maddox, who appears to be drinking to kill his conscience, or to settle his nerves. Freecloud is a shiny, clean bar (as we see it), filled with less-than-perfect characters. Although there were only a few characters shown - a thug; waitresses in sequin costumes and so on on - Freecloud looks clean, but is less than salubrious. Indeed, the welcome to Freecloud offers maximum security, financial services, and a liberal approach to personal freedoms. A wretched hive of scum and villainy, if you ask me.
Seven, recovered from last week's battle, discusses Picard's plan with him. Of all the characters we've met, Seven has changed the most. She's still as stern as she used to be, but she's softened around the edges. She drinks bourbon, and wears her hair down. Now a member of the Fenris Rangers (new to Star Trek), she agrees to help Picard on his quest. This raises questions among the rest of the queue; Raffi reminds us that Seven used to be Borg, "like him," (I'd forgotten that, useful reminder), and she's from the Delta quadrant.
While we're filling in back-story, we learn that Jurati and Maddox had a personal relationship. So, maybe she isn't just out here looking for him for the good of science. There has been speculation online that Jurati has been planted in the crew by evil Romulan Commodore Oh - this remains to be seen.
After a few hologrammatic pop-ups, the crew track down Maddox (that was thankfully quick - information security on Freecloud isn't everything it's cracked up to be), and realise that he's being offered for sale to the highest bidder - namely the Tal Shiar. His captor (who spiked his drink), is named Bjayzl and she butchers ex-Borg for parts. Since the crew can't buy him, or break him out, Seven decides to offer herself as trade. And if you thought that this would be a permanent trade, you've not been concentrating :-)
Freecloud is like Las Vegas in the distant future - holograms, lights, all turned up to eleven. The team beam down in what can only be described as fancy dress. Picard with an eyepatch made me laugh out loud. Rios has to find his cheerful extrovert and make the deal - to trade Seven for Maddox. "Mr Quark of Ferenginar has provided references of your transaction with the Breen." The Quark? The Ferengi barkeeper from Deep Space Nine? That got me laughing out loud again.
There then follows the tense negotiation - this is honestly played for comedy, and I was smiling and smirking all the way through the setup, the plan, the French Pirate Picard; Elnor realising that this is a con, and then being told to keep his mouth shut.
The rescue proceeds, and the emotion and tension of Seven's scene are abruptly replaced with the reunion of Bruce Maddox and Agnes Jurati. This episode is a real rollercoaster, as we go straight into Seven's goodbye to Picard. We have never seen Picard and Seven discuss their shared experience of being assimilated and separated from the Borg, and it's fantastic to see that the writers take their opportunity to do this, even if it is briefly. And this isn't goodbye. Seven beams straight back to Freecloud, two phaser rifles in hand, and starts shooting. Is she going to shoot Jay, or not? Is Seven going to survive the security guards, or is she going to go out in a blaze of glory?
Bruce and Picard discuss Dahj and the way her Mom AI caused her to activate; Dr Jurati is eavesdropping on this conversation in a way that is deliberately filmed to look sinister. Maddox has a number of revelations, including knowing where Soji is. Is Maddox going to survive his injuries? Is Jurati going to kill him? You may not believe me, but I honestly thought she was going to inject him with something lethal to stop him talking, and from the moment she dismissed Picard. She delivers a typical tragic-heroine monologue about knowing too much; wishing he knew what he'd done - apparently, creating the synths has caused multiple unseen issues across the galaxy - and so on. My view? I don't understand why she killed him, despite her cryptic monologue, when it would surely have been possible to keep him alive a little longer.
This episode was outstanding. The pace of the story was remarkable - after the slow build-up of previous episodes, we are now moving at warp speed, assimilating and then discarding seemingly critical characters at will. This was exciting, tragic and emotional at all times. And - maybe not coincidentally - we saw nothing of the Borg cube or the weird Romulan siblings. This was an episode of Picard that kept the focus on him and his crew (and on Seven, who could always carry an episode), and was all the better for it.
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