CONTAINS SPOILERS
There are a few episodes of Star Trek where nothing much happens. They aren't particularly memorable, and in fact, you'd be hard-pressed to think of them. They aren't "bad" episodes, but they're often under-rated psychological thrillers where the activity is secondary to the motivations of the characters. (One example I can think of is the one where Riker doesn't go crazy, Frame of Mind). The latest episode of Star Trek Picard is mostly one of those episodes, and at a time when the main story should be gathering pace, it's a little frustrating to see it go on a lengthy detour while the secondary storylines get more time (that's my opinion, other opinions are available). Still, I've got plenty to say about it.
In the previous episode, we saw Agnes/the Borg Queen heading towards downtown Los Angeles, full of intent and suspense. Does this episode move her story forwards? Only in one small scene, more than half-way through the episode. She enters a jazz club, where Patrick Stewart's wife plays the lead singer, singing, "I know what people see; and I know what they say; no-one's stopping me, and no-one's leaving today." That would be the jazz translation of "Resistance is futile," then. The Borg Queen is attempting to push Agnes's endorphin levels up so that she can complete her assimilation more quickly, and to be honest she seems to be winning. Seven and Raffi are about 8-10 hours behind, in a large city, and with very little clue of where she is heading next.
Seven and Raffi's contribution continues to be relegated to the comic subplot. Upon learning that Agnes kissed Rios at the gala, they go off on their own little dialogue about their own relationship - this is largely uncharted territory for Star Trek, and it comes off well ("We're the main event, and Agnes and Rios are the side story...." with an unseen wink to the audience). The humour turns serious as they realise that The Queen (via Agnes) has infiltrated the Sirena's computer and locked out all access - they can't track Agnes's com-badge or her location, and instead must rely on 21st century surveillance cameras and their tricorders (which seem to be little bundles of magic).
Well over half of the episode is spent inside Jean-Luc's coma. Tallinn the Supervisor has a neural interface device that enables her to mind-meld with Jean-Luc and actively participate in his dream. "They all woke up and it was all a dream" is a huge cliche to avoid here, and the story barely manages it. We see Picard's nightmare from two perspectives - his first as a child in the labyrinth of the cellars of Chateau Picard, where Tallinn is able to intervene, and the second in his current position as a Starfleet Captain, in a psych evaluation with a therapist. The episode starts here, and it was a moment of comedy to see that the therapist is played by James Callis, who was Doctor Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica (I can recommend it, but it's a long story). Baltar was an opportunistic fraudster who was always trying to covemr his own tracks, and he's perfect for this role. Is he real? Is this a dream? A memory? What's his motivation?
To cut a long, long story short: Picard's mother suffered fom depression, and these are manifest in Picard's dreams as monsters who were taking his mother away from him. Picard's father locked the mother, Yvette, in one of the cellars, where she would bang on the door and plead to be released. And in the key twist in this story, Picard's subconscious has placed his father in the role of the therapist. As Picard pieces all this together, with his adult experience and the assistance of Tallinn in the nightmarish cellar scenes, he realises that there was nothing he could do to help his mother when he was merely a child.
That's a very short version of a considerably more complex situation, but the takeaway that Picard gets is not only should he know himself (ancient Greek wisdom) but that he should also acknowledge that his greatest teacher is his enemy, and therefore he needs to learn more about Q. It's a stretch, but it also points back to Q who has recently lost all his powers - something has happened to Q, and it's something he's not in control of. Maybe the Q continuum has internal strife again (see the Voyager episode Death Wish for more on the Q continuum). Tallinn sums it up when she ask if Q really set all this up so that Picard would learn about him? The implied answer is yes, but how would Q set things in motion, then lose his own powers, have to counsel Renee, then get found by Picard, who would in turn have to meet Tallinn, then Picard would have to push Renee out of the path of a volatile and unpredictable Soong in his car, and end up in a coma... no. Q did not plan all this out.
Apart from Picard, the character who sees the most plot development in this episode is Rios. Raffi commented last week that he seemed to have a slightly goofy smile, as if he was in love; she also warned him not to get involved with anybody in this timeline. Is he paying attention? Nope. He's falling alarmingly quickly for Teresa, who runs the clinic - and he has to break the temporal prime directive to save Picard while he's in his coma. Rios shows Teresa some 24th century medical tech - he doesn't know how to use it (as if she would?) and she knows for certain that he's not exactly safe. He's locking doors in her clinic; he shows her Tallinn and Picard in their crazy alien mind meld; and that's before he beams in a medical device. Line of the episode goes to Rios: "I'm not from outer space. I'm from Chile; I only work in outer space." Kirk said the same in Star Trek IV (in his case it was Iowa, but the principle is identical and very funny). Yes, Kirk broke the temporal prime directive to get his hands on two whales and save humanity; I'm not sure what Rios's excuse is, but by the end of the episode he's beamed himself, and Theresa, and her son onto the Sirena.
And yes, Kirk beamed Gillian onto the spaceship in Star Trek IV, but that was not entirely his fault (she jumped into his transporter beam while he was transporting). This disregard for the temporal prime directive, butterflies and all that had better have some repercussions, or I will be annoyed. The rest of the crew are busting a gut to keep time on track, and Rios just flaunts the rules to impress his would-be girlfriend: not impressed. And how come Raffi can beam the medical device directly into Rios's hands, when two days ago, they couldn't even beam Rios safely onto the ground, and they missed by about three metres - vertically?
Picard needs to find Q, and in order to do that, he revisits Guinan in her bar at 10 Forward. There is an established uneasy relationship between Q's people and Guinan's (see Q Who) but it's not been unpacked in detail before - it was a nice touch to expand on this here. Anyway: Guinan attempts to contact a Q (any Q will do), but fails: our Q doesn't register as a Q because he's lost his powers. Something is definitely wrong.
So, the crew have completed their primary mission - to get Renee Picard into pre-flight. However, they've trampled on so many butterfliesand released so many more that they've still got their hands full.
Agnes is now wandering around LA with a head full of Borg, which is both a blessing and a curse: the Borg Queen is the only one who knows the way home.
Picard has a head full of 'must find Q'. His 'mission' seems the weakest and less relevant at the moment.
Rios has a head full of hormones, and he needs it examining, pronto.
Seven and Raffi need to find Agnes before the whole timeline goes to pieces. Their mission is the most critical, and surely must succeed: however, I can't see Agnes surviving - how do they save the ability to get home without fully saving Agnes? The answer will be a sci-fi fix, and it had better be a good one, or I will be annoyed (again).
Overall, this episode didn't do as much as the previous ones - there was a lot of movement in the tangential side stories, and not much actual forward movement - hopefully we'll see more next time.
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