CONTAINS SPOILERS
Last week's episode moved all the players into position:
Picard is under house arrest in Synth City, with Dahj free to move around, and Agnes helping Dr Soong with his work
Raffi and Rios are repairing the La Sirena, but I doubt it will fly anytime soon
Seven and Elnor were on the Borg cube, which is also stuck on the ground
Narek was making his escape to the Borg cube (expecting it to still be under Romulan control - I don't rate his chances of survival)
The synths were preparing for the Romulan attack - which is coming at maximum warp, Commodore Oh at the helm - and hoping to contact the extra-galactic synths who will save them from their evil organic overlords.
Also in play is the 'golem' - the android body without any consciousness - waiting to be used (probably) as a replacement body for one of the organics who suffers severe, catastrophic injuries during the upcoming battle. The question is: who?
Then there's the Federation fleet at Deep Space 12; presumably also too far away to be of any use (not withstanding that Picard has failed to make contact with Starfleet). It all looks bleak.
The episode opens with Narek returning to the Borg cube, as I had anticipated. Due to the first of many questionable plot developments, nobody on the cube notices his arrival, or that he steals twelve molecular solvent grenades. Nobody, that is, except his sister Narissa, who was last seen struggling beneath a pile of angry and violent xBs, and who we all assumed had died in the fight. What's more, the plot requires that all of the key characters (including Narissa) survived the fall from space to the planet without any real injuries. While watching this, I wondered if Narissa was just a projection or a hallucination from Narek, but no. The worst part of this scene is that Narek escapes with the grenades, very closely followed by Elnor (who later appears to be several minutes behind). I have to say that the writing in this episode was completely inconsistent with the general good-to-high quality we've had throughout the series - there are gaps you could pilot a starship through).
Soji and Picard have their usual number of philosophical discussions, the highlight of which is Picard's line: "To say you have no choice shows a lack of imagination."
Rios and Raffi decide to use the synth device to fix the intermix reactor (think of it as the combustion chamber in the cylinders of a car engine). Rios was given this device by Saga, who was the synth who was murdered last week - the naïve prison guard. Anyway, in order to use the device, Rios needs to use his imagination (there's that word again), and, as if by magic, the intermix chamber is repaired, and the whole ship miraculously goes from non-functional to flight-ready. At which point, Narek starts lobbing rocks at the hull of the ship. Where's Elnor? He was barely five or six seconds behind Narek when they left the cube, but suddenly Narek is able to have a discussion with Rios and Raffi while Elnor plays catch-up. Hmmm.
Anyway, Narek recounts Romulan mythical history about two sisters (not unlike Soji and Dahj) who are basically the harbingers of doom. Seb-Natan, the first sister, warns of impending doom, while the second sister, Seb-Cheneb will actually cause the evil "ch'kalagu" to come from a split in the sky. It's all very apocalyptic. Narek explains that this "Is history. But the fascinating thing about history is that it always repeats itself," and hence recruits Rios, Raffi and Elnor to his cause - to stop the synths from bringing the end of the world as we know it. He concocts the classic prisoner plan (Luke Skywalker tried the same trick with Chewbacca on the Death Star; Princess Leia tried the same trick - also with Chewbacca - on Jabba's palace on Tattoine), and we see the team make a successful start on their plan.
Agnes decides it's time to rescue Picard from house arrest, and steals poor Saga's eye in order to open the secured locks on the doors. The rescue actually proceeds without a hitch, even when Agnes delivers the fateful line, "I honestly thought I was the worst secret agent ever, but I'm honestly believing I have a gift." I truly expected Sutra, or another synth, to appear in the doorway at that moment! The two of them make it successfully to the La Sirena, where Picard delivers another brief speech: "Fear is an incompetent teacher," before piloting the ship up to meet the Romulan fleet.
Narissa, on board the remnants of the Borg cube, starts to track and target Picard's ship, until she is interrupted by Seven. The two of them have a brief fight, ending with Seven shoving Narissa off a precipice, which is a standard sci-fi device for 'really dead this time'.
Dr Soong, meanwhile, is able to access Saga's final memories and realises that she was killed by Sutra (I figured it was Narek) and goes to confront Sutra and the other synths. On his way, he meets up with the crew of the La Sirena, who are preparing to throw a grenade at the base of the beacon which Sutra is building. The beacon is a tall, metallic tower, also being grown by synth magic, and the grenade needs to be thrown at its base (according to Narek, who suddenly knows a lot about trans-dimensional beacons). Soong provides a distraction by confronting Sutra and either stunning or deactivating her, while Rios struggles to get a clear shot at the tower. He tries and fails to hit the target- Soji intercepts his throw - and the beacon is completed. This is all very reminiscent of the Marvel universe where Loki opened up a rift over the skies of New York - even the incoming aliens looked familiar.
The Romulans arrive in the space above the planet, met by Picard and the flying orchids. It's bright, it's colourful and it's all a delay tactic while Picard Hope's that Starfleet can make it. Picard is indeed a very rusty pilot and his antics at the helm are amusing. Agnes asks him about using "The Picard Manoeuvre" which is a real throwback. If you jump to warp and fly towards an enemy ship very, very briefly, you will arrive closer to the enemy ship before the light from your starting position, and hence appear to be in two places at once. As Picard explains, it was a long time ago, on his very first ship, the Stargazer (see The Next Generation episode "The Battle").
Instead, Agnes is able to use the synth magic wand to produce dozens of projections of the La Sirena, which buys Starfleet and the synths even more time. As I immediately thought, this kind of trick only works as long as the real ship isn't damaged: the Romulans get a lucky shot off and hit the La Sirena and the whole deception is off. Not to worry though, here comes Starfleet! With a suitable degree of fanfare and ceremony, we see the massed ranks of Starfleet arrive - big, grey with red and blue lights and unmistakably heroic. At the helm? Captain Riker, fresh out of retirement.
The standoff between the two fleets is handled well, even if it looks a little too much CGI'd. I suppose 400+ ships is a lot for any studio to render. It gives Picard the time he needs to plead his case with Soji, who agrees to close the portal - and just in time, too, as the transdimensional baddies were on their way. It's all last-minute cliff-hanger material but it all seems a bit obvious (I would have liked to see the joint fleets take on some of the evil synth fleet, but that would be difficult to show with 400+ ships plus the aliens. The writers backed themselves into a corner there).
All this stress and strain has caused Picard's brain disease - irumatic syndrome - to flare up and, as the Romulans stand down and fly off, Soji beams Picard and Agnes back down to the planet as a medical emergency. Since nobody has died, the rest of the episode goes through the steps of Picard dying, having his brain transferred to the synth blank, and being reborn as an android. The conversations between the crew lacked any emotional depth as we all know Picard isn't really dead, but there were some nice touches. I liked Rios and Seven's conversation - "Never again," - each with their own regrets, Seven winning as she had the power to change her actions and avoid what she now regrets. I wondered if these two might start a relationship, but I completely missed the mark.
There is an extended after-life scene between Picard and Data on the nature of mortality and life, concluding with Picard gaining consciousness in his new, not-improved, not-immortal, basically-the-same-as-before body. I was hoping for more than the status quo, and I sincerely hope that something is made of this new body.
Before his death in Star Trek Nemesis, Data transferred a full copy of his memories into a blank android called B4 (which we saw briefly, disassembled, in an earlier episode). Data has survived in this copied form - consciousness only - in the lab on the synths' planet, and Picard agrees to switch off this life-support system. From Data's perspective, we see him getting older and more of his surroundings disappear until he and the original Captain Picard disappear.
The epilogue sees Rios and Agnes pair up, and Seven pair up with Raffi (See? I was way off the mark). Soji rejoins the crew, along with Elnor, and Picard sets off for the great unknown (second star to the left?).
I'll wrap up with some questions that highlight some of the holes in the plot and demonstrate why I only rated this episode as average.
Will Agnes face charges for killing Maddox?
What happened to Narek, last seen on the planet?
Is Picard in any way different now??
Will Elnor get any depth? Seven and Rios had a conversation; Elnor just cried on Raffi - is there nothing more to him?
So, overall very positive. A lot of setup, which seems to be the new approach to televised sci-fi, instead of a starter episode and subsequent standalone episodes. I am certainly lookong forward to series 2.
Last week's episode moved all the players into position:
Picard is under house arrest in Synth City, with Dahj free to move around, and Agnes helping Dr Soong with his work
Raffi and Rios are repairing the La Sirena, but I doubt it will fly anytime soon
Seven and Elnor were on the Borg cube, which is also stuck on the ground
Narek was making his escape to the Borg cube (expecting it to still be under Romulan control - I don't rate his chances of survival)
The synths were preparing for the Romulan attack - which is coming at maximum warp, Commodore Oh at the helm - and hoping to contact the extra-galactic synths who will save them from their evil organic overlords.
Also in play is the 'golem' - the android body without any consciousness - waiting to be used (probably) as a replacement body for one of the organics who suffers severe, catastrophic injuries during the upcoming battle. The question is: who?
Then there's the Federation fleet at Deep Space 12; presumably also too far away to be of any use (not withstanding that Picard has failed to make contact with Starfleet). It all looks bleak.
The episode opens with Narek returning to the Borg cube, as I had anticipated. Due to the first of many questionable plot developments, nobody on the cube notices his arrival, or that he steals twelve molecular solvent grenades. Nobody, that is, except his sister Narissa, who was last seen struggling beneath a pile of angry and violent xBs, and who we all assumed had died in the fight. What's more, the plot requires that all of the key characters (including Narissa) survived the fall from space to the planet without any real injuries. While watching this, I wondered if Narissa was just a projection or a hallucination from Narek, but no. The worst part of this scene is that Narek escapes with the grenades, very closely followed by Elnor (who later appears to be several minutes behind). I have to say that the writing in this episode was completely inconsistent with the general good-to-high quality we've had throughout the series - there are gaps you could pilot a starship through).
Soji and Picard have their usual number of philosophical discussions, the highlight of which is Picard's line: "To say you have no choice shows a lack of imagination."
Rios and Raffi decide to use the synth device to fix the intermix reactor (think of it as the combustion chamber in the cylinders of a car engine). Rios was given this device by Saga, who was the synth who was murdered last week - the naïve prison guard. Anyway, in order to use the device, Rios needs to use his imagination (there's that word again), and, as if by magic, the intermix chamber is repaired, and the whole ship miraculously goes from non-functional to flight-ready. At which point, Narek starts lobbing rocks at the hull of the ship. Where's Elnor? He was barely five or six seconds behind Narek when they left the cube, but suddenly Narek is able to have a discussion with Rios and Raffi while Elnor plays catch-up. Hmmm.
Anyway, Narek recounts Romulan mythical history about two sisters (not unlike Soji and Dahj) who are basically the harbingers of doom. Seb-Natan, the first sister, warns of impending doom, while the second sister, Seb-Cheneb will actually cause the evil "ch'kalagu" to come from a split in the sky. It's all very apocalyptic. Narek explains that this "Is history. But the fascinating thing about history is that it always repeats itself," and hence recruits Rios, Raffi and Elnor to his cause - to stop the synths from bringing the end of the world as we know it. He concocts the classic prisoner plan (Luke Skywalker tried the same trick with Chewbacca on the Death Star; Princess Leia tried the same trick - also with Chewbacca - on Jabba's palace on Tattoine), and we see the team make a successful start on their plan.
Agnes decides it's time to rescue Picard from house arrest, and steals poor Saga's eye in order to open the secured locks on the doors. The rescue actually proceeds without a hitch, even when Agnes delivers the fateful line, "I honestly thought I was the worst secret agent ever, but I'm honestly believing I have a gift." I truly expected Sutra, or another synth, to appear in the doorway at that moment! The two of them make it successfully to the La Sirena, where Picard delivers another brief speech: "Fear is an incompetent teacher," before piloting the ship up to meet the Romulan fleet.
Narissa, on board the remnants of the Borg cube, starts to track and target Picard's ship, until she is interrupted by Seven. The two of them have a brief fight, ending with Seven shoving Narissa off a precipice, which is a standard sci-fi device for 'really dead this time'.
Dr Soong, meanwhile, is able to access Saga's final memories and realises that she was killed by Sutra (I figured it was Narek) and goes to confront Sutra and the other synths. On his way, he meets up with the crew of the La Sirena, who are preparing to throw a grenade at the base of the beacon which Sutra is building. The beacon is a tall, metallic tower, also being grown by synth magic, and the grenade needs to be thrown at its base (according to Narek, who suddenly knows a lot about trans-dimensional beacons). Soong provides a distraction by confronting Sutra and either stunning or deactivating her, while Rios struggles to get a clear shot at the tower. He tries and fails to hit the target- Soji intercepts his throw - and the beacon is completed. This is all very reminiscent of the Marvel universe where Loki opened up a rift over the skies of New York - even the incoming aliens looked familiar.
The Romulans arrive in the space above the planet, met by Picard and the flying orchids. It's bright, it's colourful and it's all a delay tactic while Picard Hope's that Starfleet can make it. Picard is indeed a very rusty pilot and his antics at the helm are amusing. Agnes asks him about using "The Picard Manoeuvre" which is a real throwback. If you jump to warp and fly towards an enemy ship very, very briefly, you will arrive closer to the enemy ship before the light from your starting position, and hence appear to be in two places at once. As Picard explains, it was a long time ago, on his very first ship, the Stargazer (see The Next Generation episode "The Battle").
Instead, Agnes is able to use the synth magic wand to produce dozens of projections of the La Sirena, which buys Starfleet and the synths even more time. As I immediately thought, this kind of trick only works as long as the real ship isn't damaged: the Romulans get a lucky shot off and hit the La Sirena and the whole deception is off. Not to worry though, here comes Starfleet! With a suitable degree of fanfare and ceremony, we see the massed ranks of Starfleet arrive - big, grey with red and blue lights and unmistakably heroic. At the helm? Captain Riker, fresh out of retirement.
The standoff between the two fleets is handled well, even if it looks a little too much CGI'd. I suppose 400+ ships is a lot for any studio to render. It gives Picard the time he needs to plead his case with Soji, who agrees to close the portal - and just in time, too, as the transdimensional baddies were on their way. It's all last-minute cliff-hanger material but it all seems a bit obvious (I would have liked to see the joint fleets take on some of the evil synth fleet, but that would be difficult to show with 400+ ships plus the aliens. The writers backed themselves into a corner there).
All this stress and strain has caused Picard's brain disease - irumatic syndrome - to flare up and, as the Romulans stand down and fly off, Soji beams Picard and Agnes back down to the planet as a medical emergency. Since nobody has died, the rest of the episode goes through the steps of Picard dying, having his brain transferred to the synth blank, and being reborn as an android. The conversations between the crew lacked any emotional depth as we all know Picard isn't really dead, but there were some nice touches. I liked Rios and Seven's conversation - "Never again," - each with their own regrets, Seven winning as she had the power to change her actions and avoid what she now regrets. I wondered if these two might start a relationship, but I completely missed the mark.
There is an extended after-life scene between Picard and Data on the nature of mortality and life, concluding with Picard gaining consciousness in his new, not-improved, not-immortal, basically-the-same-as-before body. I was hoping for more than the status quo, and I sincerely hope that something is made of this new body.
Before his death in Star Trek Nemesis, Data transferred a full copy of his memories into a blank android called B4 (which we saw briefly, disassembled, in an earlier episode). Data has survived in this copied form - consciousness only - in the lab on the synths' planet, and Picard agrees to switch off this life-support system. From Data's perspective, we see him getting older and more of his surroundings disappear until he and the original Captain Picard disappear.
The epilogue sees Rios and Agnes pair up, and Seven pair up with Raffi (See? I was way off the mark). Soji rejoins the crew, along with Elnor, and Picard sets off for the great unknown (second star to the left?).
I'll wrap up with some questions that highlight some of the holes in the plot and demonstrate why I only rated this episode as average.
Will Agnes face charges for killing Maddox?
What happened to Narek, last seen on the planet?
Is Picard in any way different now??
Will Elnor get any depth? Seven and Rios had a conversation; Elnor just cried on Raffi - is there nothing more to him?
So, overall very positive. A lot of setup, which seems to be the new approach to televised sci-fi, instead of a starter episode and subsequent standalone episodes. I am certainly lookong forward to series 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment